Comms Dealer

Commsworld has advanced its growth plan in the north east of Scotland with the appointment of Bob Baxter as Senior Sales Executive.

He brings 22 years experience in the oil and gas industry and a track record of delivering results having previously worked in senior business development roles at Schlumberger Information Solutions, Harris Caprock and Vodafone.

He joins from CGI where he was tasked with bringing in new accounts within Oil and Gas upstream (petroleum industry). He said: "I was attracted by the huge appetite for growth and the self-belief that is apparent at Commsworld.

"I grew up with IT & Telecoms in the Oil & Gas sector and my experience working for the big firms like T-Mobile and Vodafone makes me appreciate the flexibility and personal approach provided by Commsworld, which is something that more and more businesses are looking for in a network provider."

Commsworld has seen strong interest from some large Aberdeen based businesses in recent years, working on several projects with Bright Solid, Stewart Milne and Sub Sea 7 among others.

Commsworld CEO, Ricky Nicol, said: "Bob's background servicing the Oil and Gas industry has allowed him to build a network of highly influential business people in some of the largest and most notable firms in the industry."

In 2014 Commsworld celebrated turning 20 by expanding its network services across Scotland and generating record revenues surpassing the £9 million turnover from the previous year.

The proportion of IT suppliers waiting more than 100 days for payment has more than doubled in the last five years, rising from 5.6% to 12%, according to research by BNP Paribas Leasing Solutions.

In the last year alone the number of companies reporting payment days of 100 and over rose by 30%.

BNP Paribas Leasing Solutions adds the average number of 'debtor days' for companies selling IT software and equipment to business customers is now 54, far longer than the 30 day payment term promoted as standard by the Government's Prompt Payment Code.

Many IT suppliers are reluctant to put pressure on customers to pay outstanding invoices because they are concerned that it may sour the business relationship and result in the loss of potential repeat business, noted BNP Paribas.

The research shows that one IT supplier this year reported waiting a year on average before receiving payment.

BNP Paribas Leasing Solutions says that with levels of capital investment by businesses still relatively subdued, businesses may be offering extended payment terms to customers as a sales strategy.

Others may be reluctant to pursue outstanding debts in case of damaging future sales opportunities.

Offering leasing to customers frees IT suppliers from the impact that delayed payments have on their cash flow, as the lender usually pays the supplier as soon as the customer receives the goods, and bears the risk and cost of following up on payments.

Tristan Watkins, Country Manager, BNP Paribas Leasing Solutions, said: "Right now IT suppliers should be seeing plenty of sales opportunities. We have record employment with 31 million in work at end of March, and business capital investment growth is starting to pick up.

"However, IT businesses that want to take advantage of these opportunities need to have the cash to invest in marketing, new hires, training, even M&A if they want to expand quickly into new markets.

"Using leasing as part of their package helps IT suppliers to secure sales without forcing them to choose between potentially weak cash flow because of late payment or reduced profit because they have had to expand their credit control activities or turn customers away."

Avnet Technology Solutions has launched a converged infrastructure practice in the UK to support channel partners delivering pre-architected and vendor validated IT infrastructure solutions to customers.

Converged infrastructure solutions enable business partners to speed up delivery of core services while reducing costs and sales cycles and increasing profitability.

Miriam Murphy, senior vice president, Avnet Technology Solutions, North region, EMEA, said: "The UK market for converged infrastructure is an important growth area for the channel and a priority for Avnet.

"We have invested in both our technical and business expertise, established a converged infrastructure centre of excellence and have a portfolio of suppliers for converged and hyper-converged infrastructure solutions to support business partners in this market."

The new converged infrastructure practice includes a partner enablement programme, starting with an Avnet hosted channel briefing at the InterContinental Hotel, Park Lane, London on 4th June 2015.

The briefing involves Cisco, EMC, HP, IBM, NetApp, Oracle and VCE, and will provide an insight into how to deliver and benefit from the expanding converged and hyper-converged market.

Andrew Buss, IDC consulting manager, will present the latest research on data centre consolidation, virtualisation and converged infrastructure trends.

Business insights will be provided on how channel partners can deliver low risk, converged deployments to their end user customers. Supplier-led breakout sessions in the afternoon will provide attendees with information to help them understand more about the technology, the challenges customers face and the associated opportunities.

The Gamma management team has won Management Team of the Year at the Thames Valley Deals Awards.

These annual awards recognise best practice in business transactions and attract entries from businesses across various sectors located in the Thames Valley region, with each nomination independently adjudicated by a panel of selected experts.

Gamma's entry was based on the successful transition from private company to listed company, despite a difficult market. Judges were not just looking at the size of deal, they took into account deal complexity, who led the deal, the mix of advisers, whether it was completed to tight timeframes and a number of other criteria.

Bestselling author and comedian Tony Hawks presented the award to the management team at the ceremony hosted by The Business Magazine at the Royal Berkshire Conference Centre on 23rd April.

Andrew Belshaw, Finance Director at Gamma, said: "Investors don't just look at what businesses do, they look at the people who are driving the business forward. It's called 'Management Team' but a flotation is a complicated transaction and it was achieved only with the hard work from everyone within Gamma."

Mo Merali, Partner at Grant Thornton UK LLP, an advisor to Gamma through the IPO process, added: "As well as delivering growth to the business, the Gamma management team has dealt seamlessly with a number of complications and challenges within the flotation process, which underlines the quality and depth of the team and their collective resilience, knowledge of the business, and flexibility."

Cerillion Technologies has become an authorised channel partner for GE Digital Energy.

As an authorised partner Cerillion will provide the GE Smallworld platform as an integrated component of the Cerillion Network Inventory solution, enabling the complete management of both physical and logical network assets for any kind of communications, utilities and energy networks.

GE Digital Energy's Software Solutions business includes geospatial information systems, mobile workforce applications and communications management, and plays a key role in constructing, operating, maintaining and managing critical network assets.

GE's suite of integrated tools enables customers to lower their cost of ownership, simplify critical network infrastructures and deliver the flexibility required to meet dynamic network requirements.

"Following our recent acquisition of netSolutions from Ubisense Group, we are delighted to formalise a relationship with GE to enable us to provide their industry leading Smallworld platform as part of our suite of Network Inventory solutions," commented Louis Hall, CEO, Cerillion Technologies.

"By working with GE, we gain access to the latest innovations in geospatial technology and we are excited to be delivering this to our growing customer base."

Brian Boutte, General Manager, Global Channels and Strategic Partners, GE Digital Energy, added. "Through this agreement with Cerillion we are expanding our ecosystem of solutions providers and enabling customers to benefit from a pre-integrated approach to BSS/OSS solutions."

The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) is working with NG Bailey's IT Services division to install a site wide structured cabling solution at its London office at Savoy Place, WC2.

The IT upgrade is a key component of a two year £30 million refurbishment project that is already underway and is set to be completed in October 2015.

The IET's headquarters is a global engineering and technology hub, providing a central London work and meeting space for the Institute's members, together with a heritage library, knowledge centre, and conference facilities.

NG Bailey has been contracted to install a high performance structured cabling solution that will future proof the IT infrastructure at the property, enabling the IET to benefit from increases in prevailing connectivity speeds of up to 40Gbits/s.

This will ensure the technically demanding future requirements of its members can continue to be met without needing to disrupt Savoy Place with further structural and cabling works.

The work is the first major structural upgrade of facilities and services in 30 years and brings with it considerable pressure to preserve the building's heritage and original aesthetics.

Ann Rees, Savoy Place refurbishment programme manager, IET, commented: "Our members wanted to see the capabilities of Savoy Place upgraded so they could work in a physical and digital environment that delivers the efficiency and resources needed to support today's engineering and technology community. A key part of this is the provision of a cutting edge network environment, now and in the future."

The structured cabling infrastructure will underpin a number of building systems enhancements designed to modernise the property, including an electronic swipe card solution that will provide secure access to and from the building and authorise member access to the IET's 13,000+ educational resources.

"The IET has commissioned a number of partners to upgrade this prestigious building, which means we need to operate flexibly and collaboratively if we are to manage fluctuations across multiple building delivery schedules," added Scott Baker, head of new business, NG Bailey's IT Services division.

Capita has partnered with Ark Data Centres to supply data centre space for the new Capita Private Cloud platform.

The move allows Capita IT Enterprise Services to develop standard infrastructures, processes and services that it can offer customers rather than creating bespoke solutions in every case.

By using Ark's data centres, Capita IT Enterprise Services will outlay one tenth of the capital cost compared to that of maintaining its existing facilities, and will at the same time reduce its environmental footprint.

The Kirby Group, an Irish multi-disciplinary engineering services contractor, is saving upwards of 15,000 euro a year thanks to a ShoreTel UC solution delivered by Phone Pulse, a telephony solutions specialist.

The installation was completed in just one and half weeks with zero downtime or disruption to operations and no interruption to call flow.

The ShoreTel solution has equipped The Kirby Group with its own telephony system which has enhanced productivity and reduced costs on outsourcing and line rental for the company.

It has provided organisation with its own scalable call conferencing facility, which was previously outsourced, meaning third party costs for call conferencing have been eradicated. The unified messaging feature means important calls are not missed as all voice mails automatically get routed to the user's email account.

Adrian Harte, IT manager, The Kirby Group, said, "We've rolled out a full ShoreTel VoIP solution to enhance our inter-branch communications and increase staff productivity. It was absolutely critical for us to reduce our legacy line rental expenditure and above all, to future-proof our business.

"Coupled with productivity savings which are harder to quantify, this has been a great investment for the company. The ShoreTel solution is a new way of communicating and has enabled us to extend the range in which we carry out business."

The Kirby Group employs 650 people in Ireland, the UK and in Brussels and works with high profile, well known, multi-national clients including Siemens, Google, Pfizer and Intel.

The Cloud Industry Forum's (CIF) Code of Practice for Cloud Service Providers has been formally recognised by ENISA (the European Union Agency for Network and Information Security), having been added to its Cloud Certification Schemes List (CCSL).

The CCSL, which has been compiled and assessed by ENISA in collaboration with the European Commission and the Cloud Select Industry Group (C-SIG) on Certification, has been designed to help end users and CSPs determine which Cloud certification schemes fulfil their requirements and can offer the correct level of reassurance.

Alex Hilton, CEO of the Cloud Industry Forum, said: "This is a major milestone for the Cloud Industry Forum and the broader cloud community. There are no dedicated cloud standards in the market, making it difficult for small business customers to identify trusted advisors.

"We hope this recognition will encourage more users of cloud services to actively seek providers that are CIF-certified, and likewise more CSPs to seek certification. We have taken important steps in providing a foundation in what is a fast changing and, to many, a new technology sector."

Distributor Exclusive Group could hit its billion euro target a year early as it looks to make further acquisitions, particularly in the leasing area.

A record quarter for the privately funded business saw sales reach 173m euro - an increase of 56% on Q1 2014 (40% like-for-like).

"A big change across our business is more services - global services capabilities that enable our vendor and reseller partners to close larger deals, assure more recurring revenue streams and gain stronger strategic ties with customers," CEO Olivier Breittmayer told IT Europa.

He thinks the company could hit its 1bn euro target by the planned year of 2017 without making any more acquisitions.

The growth is not so much taking share from other distributors, as signing vendors who are themselves growing, he says.

Security is the main pull, with firewalls and VPN as big areas.

Its key strategic vendors FireEye and Palo Alto seem to have had particularly good sales recently. The only limiting factor on growth is the speed - it takes two/three years to introduce a new vendor and build it.

New market segments are emerging such as cloud app analytics and policy management, where it has fast-growing Netskope, and its data centre focused business Big Tec, which it will roll out further in Europe this year.

It is trading in six European territories and continues to expand rapidly, reporting growth of more than 100%

The leasing business Exclusive Capital is now fully operational in France following the acquisition of Fibail System in January, and is already delivering substantial opportunities, he says, being both very profitable and opening up new business.

Geographic expansion is planned for the second half of 2015; and it looks like the UK could be one area where he is looking for a leasing business acquisition.

This is part of the Group's evolution toward a services-led business. Margins were in line with expectations, demonstrating growth and sustainability, while market and currency volatility was further mitigated by a balancing of Exclusive Group's global revenue share, supported by strong growth outside the Eurozone area where Exclusive Networks businesses in APAC (+35% growth), Middle East (+45%) and the UK (+60%) were top performers.

ITEC, the global logistics and services business acquired in December, has had an impact, building pipeline and confirmed orders from cross selling within the Group.