Comms Dealer

Synnex has pocketed Westcon-Comstor's North and Latin American businesses in a deal that also sees the California-based distributor acquire a 10% stake in its international operations.

"Our customers gain access to complementary technology solutions and business services that open up new opportunities to accelerate growth," said Dolph Westerbos, CEO of Westcon-Comstor.

"This transaction not only brings together two complementary businesses, but also two similar cultures around employee and customer success." 

Both entities expect to benefit from Westcon-Comstor's recent completion of its global business transformation - a SAP implementation and business process outsourcing across five continents, intended to deliver consistent and improved customer services while generating efficiencies.  

The transaction is expected to close in the third calendar quarter of 2017. Until the transaction is completed, the companies will continue to operate independently. 

Reseller directors looking for guidance on boosting profits by adding new technologies and services to their business portfolio and processes will get the help they need at Comms Dealer's Margin in Voice & Data symposium. 

The event returns to the Forest of Arden Hotel and conference centre in the West Midlands on June 22nd and is designed for resellers addressing SME markets, giving director delegates the best of both worlds - an inspiring educational programme and the chance to meet new partners in an informal business environment.

As a bonus, the entire event is absolutely FREE for qualified reseller delegates including overnight accommodation, as Comms Dealer Editorial Director Nigel Sergent explained: "We understand how difficult it is for reseller directors to take a day out of their busy schedule to attend events,  but MiVaD is a special event and well worth the effort and time because they can achieve so much in 24 hours.

"They say the best things in life are free and MiVaD certainly falls into that category. The educational seminar in the morning always provides a wealth of ideas and information, the managed meetings session in the afternoon represents a superb partner development opportunity and the famous MiVaD evening dinner is the perfect chance to relax and network with industry friends old and new before enjoying the comforts of an overnight stay in a top quality hotel."

Claire Maddox, Commercial Director at Gloucestershire-based Eurolink Connect attended last year and will be returning on June 22nd.

"The MiVaD speakers are always excellent and it's great to make old and new connections. We always come away with new energies and ideas, so once again we are really looking forward to this year's event."

To see the full line of speakers and channel sponsors and to REGISTER to attend go to www.margin-in-voice-data.com

IT industry body CompTIA has launched its manifesto outlining recommendations on what can be done to secure the UK's digital future.

The manifesto outlines key proposals for the UK government to guarantee that the nation's digital economy continues to thrive.

CompTIA has called for cross party endorsement for key parts of the UK Digital Strategy to give certainty to the UK's digital future; it argues that digital skills (benchmarked to industry standards) must be a core component of all apprenticeships, and believes that the the UK must avoid a 'one size fits all' approach to digital skill qualifications.

According to CompTIA, political parties must seek a more flexible approach to T-levels; and the UK needs collaborative local careers advice that promotes digital careers and local digital job opportunities.

CompTIA also urges cross party scrutiny on how local SMEs can be involved productively in this careers advice process, as well as measures to tackle outdated stereotypes will be important if such a forum is to be successful.

The industry body says that next government should put SMEs at the heart of the digital agenda. Two areas in particular need this SME centric focus - regional tech ecosystems and specialist skill pipelines.

Graham Hunter, Vice President, EMEA at CompTIA, said: "The digital market has become of vital importance to the UK's economy, highlighted in a recent report from Tech Nation, which revealed that there are 1.64 million digital jobs in the UK, and new jobs are created at over twice the rate of the non-digital sector.

"As such, it is important that whichever political party comes into power on 8th June ensures they have a plan in place to guarantee that the technology sector continues to grow and thrive. With monumental political negotiations slated to take place as the UK leaves the EU, it is vital that the government takes into account what potential impacts these will have on the digital economy and have the tools and information available to make the best decision for the sector and nation as a whole.

"CompTIA has launched this manifesto, on behalf of the UK technology industry, to help all political parties understand what needs to be addressed to ensure that the UK continues to thrive as a digital hub. From digital strategy through to developing a world class technology workforce, whichever party is in power must look to work with organisations and bodies within the sector to secure a prosperous technology industry, and sustained job creation for a healthy UK economy in the future."

Azure is migrating its comms to the cloud following a deal with 8x8 that enables the vacation ownership company to transform its customer service operations in its Malta-based head office where the UK and Scandinavian membership is supported.
 
Azure specialises in offering luxury holiday properties at the Golden Sands Resort and Spa in Malta. With plans to expand its member base in Europe to include Germany, Norway and Italy, Azure called on 8x8 provide a platform that will grow alongside the business.
 
8x8 will also be upgrading Azure's customer service offering with its 8x8 Virtual Contact Centre solution.
 
The new system will support all 250 of Azure's staff in its Malta and UK offices and is estimated to deliver cost savings of 35% on telephony.

Marthese Vella, Chief Information Officer, Azure, said: "We're looking forward to working in a more unified and coherent way as an organisation and give our customer service agents the tools they need."
 
Kevin Scott-Cowell, UK MD of 8x8, added: "A truly unified communications platform that can offer everything from mobility, flexibility and scalability through to presence management, advanced call forwarding, ring groups and analytics is vital to Azure's continued success."

A bikeathon and company car wash event staged by Bamboo Technology Group at its Cheltenham offices has raised over £500 for local charity Deaf Direct which supports the deaf and hard-of-hearing in Herefordshire, Oxfordshire and Worcestershire.
 
During the bikeathon, which took place on Cheltenham's hottest day of the year, 32 staff members did nine minute stints each on a fitness bike clocking up 107 miles between them. Other staff cleaned their colleagues' cars for a £10 donation.

MD Lorrin White said: "With one-in-six people in the UK being unable to hear this was a worthy cause which affects us all in some way."
 
Deaf Direct CEO Philip Gerrard added: This year is Deaf Direct's 90th anniversary and we are pleased that local businesses are supporting our work.

"Hearing loss is invisible, but we make sure the person isn't and are thankful that Bamboo has helped to change the lives of deaf and hard of hearing people."
 
If you would like to make a donation please visit -
www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Bamboo-Bikeathon.

SOS Communications has added Cisco's new IP phones to its hosted telephony solution Premier-Cloud.

According to SOS MD Colin Hepher the move brings 'greater differentiation' to his proposition as Cisco bids to claw back market share in the competitive IP phone space.

"Hosted telephony is no longer in its infancy even though penetration has only reached a small percentage of the potential market, yet most resellers are offering very much the same platform base and features," stated Hepher.

"Not so long ago Cisco had over 50% of the market share and intends to regain this space as soon as possible."

Hepher says SOS Communications will play a key role in helping Cisco advance its strategy believing that the infrastructure and methodology that supports Premier-Cloud along with attractive commercials will tip the balance.

"What really counts is resilience," added Hepher. "Most adopt a model where 'identical' servers are located in two separate data centres. One is designated as active and carries all the live traffic. The other is either a hot or warm standby and is normally inactive.

"Failover between the two at network level is relatively straightforward. But there are a number of serious weaknesses to this approach leading to customers suffering long delays, sometimes days, in the event of failover."

Following the Cisco distribution deal Hepher has grasped the megaphone and is amplifying his 'alternative' message to the channel.

"There is another way," he stated. "Our telephony service (phones, portal, SIP trunks and APIs) is supported by two resilient data centres that are fully operational, always carry live traffic and have capacity to scale.

"Our customers are evenly distributed between them and each facility uses the native IP ranges of the data centre provider.

"Since all data centres are active in the event of a data centre failure the only thing that changes is the amount of traffic they carry."

It is not always possible to protect all calls in play during a data centre failover, but Hepher emphasised that IP phones such as Cisco's and resilient SIP trunks can failover significantly faster than BGP.

In what Hepher described as 'another attention grabber', SOS is offering free SIP trunks to channel partners.

Resellers can find out more about SOS's channel propositions during three roadshows next month - 4th July in Manchester, 11th July in Horsham and 18th July in Leeds. 

MSP Streamwire has followed up its 2015 acquisition of Event Computer Services with the purchase of EACS, boosting revenues to almost £20m.

Kevin Timms, who co-founded Streamwire with Anne Stokes, will become CEO of the combined company which will trade as EACS.

Stokes will remain on the board and lead the transition, but will also continue the development of wider business interests already underway.

Timms said: "Our acquisition of EACS provides the platform to take our business to the next level, expand into the cloud and cyber security spaces and take on the established IT suppliers."

Never be stumped for a response to the needs of a customer, urges Number Supermarket Director Darren Hughes, who made sure all bases were covered when he established the company in 2014 having secured access to over a million numbers across every different UK range from the outset.

"The aim was to ensure that all clients always had their needs met," he stated. "I've been in telecoms for over 20 years and in that time seen the shift towards more automation, but we insist on making service all-encompassing, personal and around the clock. It's what partners expect."

Number Supermarket has kicked off a reseller recruitment campaign and turned up the volume on what it believes to be key differentiating factors that will catch the attention of potential partners, including its customer-first strategy, white label web portal and management systems, rebate generating numbers and live cloud-based reporting.

Jola has added O2 SIMs to its JolaMobile portfolio, meaning that partners can now order voice and data SIMs for devices from either Vodafone or O2 and control them via a single management portal.

Lee Broxson, Sales Director, commented: "At Griffin we launched 'ISP in a box,' a white label provisioning system for resellers to manage their own Internet connectivity from multiple carriers.

"With Jola we have developed a similar system to manage mobile SIMs. With the increasing demand for 3G and 4G connectivity and 5G in the future, resellers need something to manage burgeoning mobile estates.

"Our white label portal communicates in real-time for adds, moves and changes and can be used by resellers and their end users.

"And the overage protection feature allows resellers to bar SIMs when they reach their data limit to avoid the risk of bill shock from higher, out-of-bundle tariffs."

BNP Paribas rising star Jean-Michel Boyer has taken over the UK operation as CEO following former chief exec Tristan Watkins' appointment to Programme Manager of the BNP Paribas North America Growth Plan, a joint initiative with Bank of the West to expand the Group's equipment finance business in the US and Canada over the next three years.

Boyer will be responsible for providing leadership and management for the 450-strong team and overseeing key customer relationships.

He has worked with the BNP Paribas group for over 30 years, starting in 1986 at UFB Locabail, the equipment leasing arm of Paribas subsidiary Compagnie Bancaire.

Boyer has held several senior managerial, sales, and business development positions within the Agriculture, Technology Solutions, and International Business Lines Equipment & Logistics Solutions (IBL ELS) divisions.

Boyer joined the French division of BNP Paribas Leasing Solution in 2009 as Head of Equipment and Leasing Solutions before becoming General Manager of BNP Paribas Rental Solutions Trucks in 2013. In December 2015, he was appointed Business Development Director of the IBL ELS and President of CLAAS Financial Services SAS.

Boyer said: "There has never been a dull moment in my long career within the BNP Paribas Group, and I'm very much looking forward to the next chapter in this journey.

"Last year, BNP Paribas Leasing Solutions UK advanced in excess of £1.25 billion to over 100,000 British businesses. In my role as CEO, I hope to play a key role in exceeding our ambitious growth targets year-on-year and strengthening our reputation."