Comms Dealer

Exponential-e's expansion campaign is gathering momentum fuelled by double-digit revenue growth, topping £60.6m, with total revenue increasing 22% for the year ending 31st January 2015.

The cloud and connectivity provider also reported EBITDA up 39% to £10.2m and pre-tax profits up by 89% to £4.5m.

Now in its 12th year the company plans to invest 10% of earnings into research and development and international expansion.

This development follows three key hires: The appointment of Jonathan Bridges as Head of Enterprise Cloud, Maria Cappella as COO, and most recently the onboarding of Michala Hart as Head of Channel Strategy.

She boasts 20 years experience in channel building for telecoms companies including Teleglobe, PCCW and NTT Communications.

Part of her remit is to drive the adoption of cloud services by channel partners while growing Exponential-e's channel business.

Hart will also oversee the relaunch of Exponential-e's new channel partner portal designed to help partners better engage with the company.

Lee Wade, CEO, said: "Our financial strength and success over the past year is a great reflection on the people in our business.

"As we aim to grow our workforce by 29% over 2015, we will be looking to foster talent among our new recruits by hosting our eighth training academy."

Underlining Exponential-e's people-first approach, Cappella added: "We have joined the Institute of Customer Service (ICS) and put employees through customer service training, offering them a chance to gain ICS accreditation so that we can achieve our objective of being a truly customer-centric organisation."

Exponential-e services over 1,900 companies across the UK and was included in Investec's listing of 2014's Mid-Market 100 Companies.

HighNet's incoming Sales and Marketing Director Paul Gibbs quickly got to grips with plans to almost double revenues in four years, from £11 million to £20 million.

"My remit is to over-achieve on this figure through deeper partner engagement, strategic partner recruitment, growing our brand and social media presence and broadening our UK footprint," stated Gibbs.

He was attracted to HighNet by its 'boutique’ sales and service offering whereby channel managers engage directly with partners on particular opportunities.

"This is underpinned by HighNet being a family run business with strong values, which I share," added Gibbs, who joined the firm in May, moving from Gamma where he was Head of Channel for five years.

"I join HighNet in its 20th year and intend to use my experience to help nurture the business even further and help the board realise its ambitions for growth," added Gibbs.

Resellers can spend more of their valuable time selling solutions to end users and building their businesses following the launch of a liberating back office support service by Nine Wholesale.

Called Virtual Office, the service is offered at various levels with full white labelled back office support, including access to trained billing and provisioning administrators, professional customer service with call answering and message taking, the resolution of complex customer billing enquiries and end-to-end fault management.

Virtual Office is powered by a team of customer service agents based at Nine Wholesale's Gloucestershire HQ and headed-up by Vicki Cowperthwaite.

Nine Wholesale MD Nick Webster said: "We're excited about launching Virtual Office to the channel. The service releases time for resellers to get out of the office and make those all-important sales.

"Feedback from our trial-run resellers has been positive and demonstrated both time and clear reductions in staffing costs."

A knowledge gap about the benefits of Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) represents a big opportunity for resellers according to Darren Hilton, Director of Partner Services at Timico.

His call to action follows a survey by the firm that found a barrier to adoption is the perception that DRaaS is prohibitively costly, which is not the case.

Over a quarter of those asked said that the biggest barrier to sign off on disaster recovery plans was a perception that it would be too expensive, with a similar amount believing that the financial return was minimal.

"This lack of knowledge presents the perfect opportunity for the channel as it allows resellers to tap into a market which may believe disaster recovery just isn’t an option for them," he said.

"Successful reselling is all about staying ahead of the curve, so it pays to keep pace with industry developments and relay these to the end users.\"

The survey also found that over 60% of SMEs had not yet rolled out any form of cloud-based back up within their business.

"Ever since IT environments have been virtualised, disaster recovery has become an essential part of the IT manager’s remit," added Hilton.

"However, there’s still a perception that disaster recovery solutions are cumbersome and expensive, when in fact the cloud has allowed solutions which are cost-effective and easy to implement as well as safe and secure."

A Higher UC Apprentice Scheme introduced by Freedom Communications one year ago has won the Excellence in People Development award at the Herts Chamber of Commerce's Inspiring Hertfordshire 2015 gala dinner.

The scheme provides a bespoke Higher Apprentice framework and qualification and offers Freedom's existing workforce the opportunity to future-proof career prospects through the development of new technological skills.

The is part-funded by Government and backed by local Members of Parliament.

Designed to be scalable for UK-wide adoption, Freedom will now enter the Apprentice Scheme into the National Inspiration Awards.

Freedom's Operations Director, Lisa Clark, said: "Having invested heavily in our Apprentice Scheme, not just financially but also in terms of energy, passion and time, we are delighted to receive the Excellence in People Development award.

"We believe that this truly does recognise that we're cultivating a unique technical workforce, helping to drive both business and economic growth."

Pat Botting, Freedom's MD, added: "Throughout our 26 year history, communications technology has evolved from traditional telephony to the new world of Unified Communications.

"Having seen that during this transition new skills within the market did not also develop, we made the strategic decision to address this with the launch of our own UC Apprentice Scheme.

"We are thrilled that both our approach and commitment to our people has been acknowledged with this award win."

4G is rapidly gaining share surpassing 50 percent of the global handset market generating a new Q1 record of $96bn in sales according to data from Gfk.

In the first quarter of 2015, global smartphone unit demand increased +7 percent, compared to the same period last year. Sales reached 310m units, with growth down from +19 percent year-on-year in Q4 2014. This slowdown was caused by a year-on-year decline in demand for smartphones in China and Developed Asia, down -14 percent and -5 percent, respectively.

Smartphone sales value in Western Europe declined on a year-on-year basis for the first time in Q1 2015, dragged down by Spain and France. As smartphone penetration nears saturation point, both countries are expected to see a slowdown in smartphone unit growth this year compared to 2014.

In Central Europe, the macroeconomic situation in Russia has significantly impacted sales. As a result, GfK forecasts that 2015 smartphone demand in the region will grow more slowly than Western Europe for the first time since 2010.

Kevin Walsh, director of trends and forecasting at GfK comments, "The weakness in China was caused by a significant slowdown in 3G demand, which was not offset by 4G growth. We forecast China to return to growth in the second half of the year, driven by a continued 4G ramp-up. In Developed Asia, the year-on-year decline was caused by tough comparisons with Q1 2014, when demand was pulled forward in Japan due to an upcoming VAT increase in April. We forecast unit demand in Developed Asia to grow by +3 percent year-on-year in 2015, driven by Japan and South Korea, which are expected to return to growth in 2Q15"

The 4G ramp-up
In Q1 2015, 4G unit share surpassed 50 percent of global smartphone demand for the first time. China saw the greatest 4G share increase in the quarter - up 16 percentage points to 73 percent, from 57 percent last quarter. Growth has been buoyed by the continued price erosion of 4G smartphones. GfK forecasts global 4G share to increase further in 2015, reaching 59 percent in Q4 2015.
Smartphone growth in India and Indonesia is also expected to be helped by an expanding 4G network. In Q1 2015, 4G share in both countries was well below the global average, at 4 percent and 7 percent, respectively. GfK forecasts 4G unit share within smartphones to reach 7 percent in India and 10 percent in Indonesia in 2015.
 
Supersize smartphone screens
Q1 2015 saw a continued shift towards larger screen sizes (5"+), where sales of 166m units equated to 47 percent of the global smartphone market, up from 32 percent in Q1 2014. Share of large screen devices in N. America hit 70 percent in the quarter, up from 59 percent in the same period last year, driven by strong demand for high-end models. By comparison, in China, where the trend is particularly pronounced, the growth in share to 57 percent - from 32 percent in Q1 2014 - was driven by cheaper large screen models flooding into the market. GfK forecasts this screen size migration to continue in 2015, with global demand for large screen devices increasing by +30 percent year-on-year to account for 69 percent of total smartphone unit demand this year.
Price Band dynamics in Q1 2015

Low-end smartphones - those priced in the region of $0-250 - increased share to 56 percent, up from 52 percent in Q4 2014, at the expense of the high-end models ($500+), whilst mid-range ($250-500) share remained stable. GfK forecasts low-end smartphones to gain further share in 2015, helped by continued price erosion in emerging markets.

Walsh continues: "GfK forecasts global smartphone unit demand to grow +10 percent year-on-year in 2015, a slowdown from the +23 percent growth experienced last year. Emerging Asia is forecast to be the fastest growing region, driven by India and Indonesia, where low smartphone penetration leaves plenty of room for growth.

US-based provider of flash-driven storage arrays Tegile Systems has announced a European expansion in Europe driven by increased customer demand.

Currently it sells exclusively through its channel partners in the UK, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and across the Benelux region however, with a growing demand, it plans further expansion into the Nordics. Tegile will also continue to grow its channel reseller base in Europe.

The company has also reported a 600% revenue growth in Europe since last year, it says. Tegile first came to Europe in 2012 and since then it has managed to expand its team on top of its increasing customer base which achieved more than 1,400 installations across the education, healthcare and government sectors, it says. In terms of the product and solution portfolio, Tegile stayed focused on virtualisation and high performance.

"We have seen such fantastic results all fostered from our own organic growth. With customers around the world such as Saudi Petroleum, Aer Lingus, Rahr Corporation and Mizuno USA, we are demonstrating exactly how much the company has grown since its inception.

"Moving further into the European market was the next logical step, and we are excited to continue building relationships with key channel partners in the region to ensure we are providing the best customer experience possible," said Paul Silver, VP EMEA, Tegile.

In Europe, Tegile distributes its product portfolio through its partner network, including the Exclusive Group's company Big Technology.

Barrie Desmond, COO of Exclusive Group, said: "Tegile is one of the most disruptive start-ups championing data centre transformation."

The storage market is expected to grow rapidly, with all-flash market to expand at a 50% CAGR by 2018 and account for around 15% of Europe's total flash market, says ICT consultancy IDC. \\

In a response, Tegile has formed three main product categories. This includes the entry level flash system, the mid-tier workhouse for larger scale VDI, server virtualisation and database environments, and the high performance array for I/O workloads.

The apparent battle between IT departments and service providers has been highlighted in a study by LogicNow of over 1,300 IT departments and almost 700 IT Service Providers across eight geographies.

It claims to have found a misunderstanding of relationships and a substantial disconnect between IT Service Providers and IT departments in how their relationships should evolve.

Some 64% of IT Service Providers were keen for their customer relationships to move towards greater strategic consultancy - keen to offer wider, more diverse knowledge-based services.

But only 13% of IT departments felt the same, with the remainder split evenly between wanting no change at all, and actually wanting more focus on tactical, technical IT support instead.

It seems to be about the vision and access to point solutions: Asked where managed security offerings should improve, IT departments are most keen to see better email security; better web protection; and better anti-virus.

IT Service Providers on the other hand are planning on prioritising security consultancy and offering more proactive system updates and patching - both indicative of the misalignment in the relationship mentioned above. Indeed, IT departments ranked both of these 'improvements' to the managed security offering towards the bottom of their priorities.

Then there are unfriendly pricing structures: 76% of IT departments globally want to pay for Managed Security Services with a single invoice on either a monthly, quarterly or annual basis that encompass all the charges for all their IT security needs - technology licences and associated services combined.

Concerningly, 49% of IT Service Providers globally are invoicing in exactly the wrong way (invoicing for every technology individually, or on an ad hoc basis) - and even worse, many are deliberately not planning to change their invoicing processes in the next 12 months.

"At LogicNow, we champion the Managed Service Provider model. IT departments benefit most from proactive support rather than Service Providers simply reacting when things go wrong. And at the same time, it's a more profitable business model for Service Providers," said Dr Alistair Forbes (above), General Manager, LogicNow.

"However, our Global IT Service Providers Harmony Report clearly shows that IT Service Providers need to be patient in their pursuit of this model and choose their timing carefully.

"Pushing strategic consultancy too early in the relationship gives an impression of under-valuing the immediate concern weighing heaviest on the customer's mind. IT departments engage with Service Providers because they have a particular problem that needs solving. This must be addressed first to earn the opportunity of a strategic engagement later on."

Global data centre and Internet exchange provider Equinix has officially launched its Partner Programme in EMEA.

The scheme is designed to help the company engage with European managed service providers (MSPs), network service providers (NSPs), system integrators (SIs) and solution providers (SPs), capable of helping enterprise customers with their IT and cloud solutions.

The new programme mirrors that outlined in Equinix's global announcement earlier this year and allows partners to resell or refer Equinix services.

It is aimed at encouraging adoption of the Equinix Cloud Exchange in delivering IT consultancy and services to satisfy the increasing enterprise demand for hybrid cloud solutions.

Refreshingly, none of the strong line-up of executives at the launch, which included Chris Rajiah (Vice President of Worldwide Channel Partners and Alliances), Michael Winterson (EMEA Managing Director), Pete Hayes (Chief Sales Officer), and Eric Saillard (EMEA Channel Sales Director), claimed they had all the answers in adapting the global programme to the challenges of the European market.

Rather, they stressed their willingness to engage with and listen to enterprise channel organisations in the development of appropriate solutions.

This approach was endorsed by a number of service providers that have recently joined the EMEA Channel Partner Programme including VMWare and Datapipe who were present at the launch.

According to Mark Underwood, VP EMEA Sales, Datapipe, the new partnership had already opened up significant opportunities for the company within its enterprise customer base.

Security emerged as Dell's current major focus area as the vendor opened its annual channel event, dubbed Peak Performance, in Berlin.

The company said it expects to more than double security solution sales in 2015, as well as highlighting continued channel growth as one of its strategic goals for the year.

Stressing the importance of strong partnerships, Dell EMEA President Aongus Hegarty told the 300-delegate audience: "Over the last few years, our focus has been working with key partners to expand our portfolio and we're setting even higher target for our partner network this year."

Dell's quest for stronger footing in the channel came more apparent earlier this month as the firm struck a new distribution agreement with Tech Data in the UK&I. At the event the vendor said it expects distribution revenue to grow by more than 50% during the current year.

Overall channel growth was outlined as one of Dell's 'crucial goals for 2015' with a target 30% year-on-year increase in this area, the same as the firm achieved last year. According to Ronnie Wilson, VP Dell Software EMEA, over 60% of the vendor's software is already shifted through the channel.

The vendor claims its software division has grown from about $100m to $2bn in the last three years, and Wilson was keen to emphasise its importance for the overall business.

"Software is key to Dell, it's a game-changer," he said. "Building end-to-end capability is the future. Software is critical to building capabilities in the cloud, in mobility, big data and in security. It's the glue that makes everything work and holds it all together."

Dell sees security as a central focus point for its own strategy but also in the wider space. "From talking to partners and customers all across the EMEA region, I know security is on top of everyone's agenda," Hegarty said.

Curtis Hutcheson, VP Dell Security, echoed the thought, saying companies across the board have started to realise security breaches are not going to go away. This, according to Dell, is leading to more and more encrypted data traffic.

"People are realising that security breaches will happen, and they are now aggressively encrypting more data to prevent a breach from happening," Hutcheson said.

But as encryption makes it difficult to inspect network traffic, this is creating another security concern. This, as Dell's Executive Director of Network Security Patrick Sweeney put it, affects everyone's business and could be detrimental to solution providers' service capabilities unless tackled with the right technical abilities.

It is clear that security is central to Dell's strategy. It could play a key role in the vendor's pursuit of the SMB segment, which it has traditionally served on the hardware side but remains fairly untapped in terms of software.