Comms Dealer

IT infrastructure provider Softcat has secured a bid for all 11 Lots within the new Technology Services Framework (RM1058) allowing it to provide a range of IT services - including network management, content security, desktop support and disaster recovery - for its growing public sector customer base over the next four years.

Softcat's tally of successful lots now totals 21 across four major Crown Commercial Service (CCS) Frameworks. This follows successful bids for three other recently awarded contracts - Technology Products (RM1054), Corporate Software Solutions (RM1042) and ICT Services for Education (RM1050) obtained during the last 12 months.

UK public sector bodies such as central government departments, the NHS and local authorities will use the Pan-Government Collaborative Framework Agreement, implemented by CCS to buy stand-alone IT services at competitive rates. The frameworks also allow customers to take advantage of cost-effective procurement efficiencies associated with pre-tendered frameworks.

"This latest success represents several months of intense work from Softcat's bid team having written responses for eleven separate lots covering a wide range of technology services," said Mark Brazington, Partner Alliance Manager.

"This award continues our 100% success rate with CCS frameworks and complements the products and services we are currently supplying via the Corporate Software Solutions and Technology Products Frameworks."

The investment climate and financial operations of the infrastructure as a service (IaaS) industry in Europe have been subdued in comparison to firms in the United States.

Nevertheless, as enterprises gain confidence in these solutions and mega trends such as smart cities, big data and the Internet of Things (IoT) gather pace, the IaaS industry will evolve into a worthwhile investment domain.

New analysis from Frost & Sullivan reveals that pure-play financial companies account for a major portion of investments. Strategic investments by corporate arms in early stage firms are negligible.

"The promise of stable recurring revenues lures investments into the IaaS industry in Europe," said Frost & Sullivan Industry Analyst Renganathan Krishnamurthy.

"High switching costs ensure that clients do not change their vendors frequently, resulting in predictable cash flows. This enables existing participants to strengthen profits."

While growth in big data, social media and the IoT is increasing the strategic importance of data centres, macro-economic conditions are still too weak to drive large-scale revenues in this industry.

Additionally, the data centre industry and some segments in the value chain involve relatively bigger investments, unlike new age industries such as social media and mobile applications startups.

Given the opportunity for smaller investments in other industries (and thus lower risk), the capital available for data centres is limited.

Further, the steep capital required makes it unviable for a single venture capitalist (VC) to support a start-up. To overcome this challenge, VCs in Europe are tying up with each other to boost funds.

"Start-ups must design innovative positioning strategies to counter the advantage existing participants will gain from economies of scale," urged Krishnamurthy.

"Apart from technology, firms looking to improve their returns must also acquire certifications and prove compliant in order to attract customers from regulation-intensive industries such as finance and healthcare in Europe."

Integrating multi-channel customer acquisitions has been voted a top challenge by over two thirds of organisations across EMEA, according to Experian, which has outlined new rules of customer engagement designed to enable financial services and comms firms across the region to meet greater customer expectations over the next five years.

Tom Blacksell, MD of Experian's Decision Analytics & Marketing Services, UK&I, said: "Across the financial services and telecoms industries, customer expectations are growing and vastly changing.

"They are seeking more from their providers than ever before, particularly when it comes to engaging across multiple channels.

"Access to price comparison sites, social media and customer reviews will continue to create a more empowered, informed and self-directed customer.

"This new type of customer will want to make contact through the channel of their choice, at a time and place that suits them. And they will want to be served quickly, with efficient application processes, pre-qualification for relevant products and services and instant credit decisions."

The research warns that in order for EMEA organisations to achieve the ultimate customer experience, they must refocus their priorities on five key areas:

Attain multiple and new sources of data
The survey revealed that 68 per cent of financial services and telecoms organisations in EMEA recognised the need to attain more data sources and planned to do so in the next five years. Organisations will need to ensure depth, breadth and quality of data, whilst respecting privacy, data policies and regulation on data security. This will require both structured and unstructured data, as well as the integration of internal and new external sources.

Achieve a holistic customer view
The research found that most organisations (90 per cent) were aware of the importance of a 360-degree view of customers and admitted they could be more customer centric. Internal silos were recognised as a barrier to achieving this by 42 per cent of organisations who plan to focus on eliminating data silos over the next five years, in order to bring together multiple data sources for a holistic view of customers and their circumstances.

Provide real-time, consistent and pre-qualified decisions
Delivering real-time, reliable decisions that meet increasing customer expectations was recognised by 82 per cent of organisations as a factor in improving the overall customer experience. Yet, just over half of those (43 per cent) rated their ability to provide real-time decisions as poor/significant room for improvement. The systems used for such decisioning will need to be easy to integrate into existing IT infrastructure. This will make decisions easy to push out to all channels and customer touch points.

Use multi-channel automation across all customer touch points
Integrating multi-channel applications was recognised as a top challenge by 69 per cent of organisations. Automated decisions should be applied across all channels and throughout the customer life cycle to enable positive customer experiences. These can be easily integrated with existing infrastructure and deployed across new and emerging technologies.

Embrace advanced analytics across the entire organisation
Advanced analytics provides a real opportunity for competitive advantage as recognised by 35 per cent of organisations who plan to outsource advanced analytics to a trusted partner in the next five years. Advanced analytics should be used across organisations and the customer life cycle to improve profitability, understand lifetime value and open up big data to drive good decision making.

Tom Blacksell, MD of Experian's Decision Analytics & Marketing Services, UK&I, added: "Our findings present a clear vision for data, analytics and decisioning in the next five years. We believe that organisations that focus their efforts on these five key areas will equip themselves to remain competitive and keep pace with the digital revolution and expanding data universe, while optimising the customer experience."

SpliceCom has introduced its new Intelligent Gateway Module family for connecting legacy devices and services to S716 and S8000 soft/virtual voice platforms and expansion for 5108 and 5100 hard IP PBXs.

Developed in-house, the three variants provide connectivity to legacy PBXs, Basic Rate ISDN, Primary Rate ISDN and DPNSS services, analogue phones, door entry systems, PDQs, fax machines and modems.

A low-profile design combined with LAN connectivity allows these modules to be placed where they're needed, reducing cabling requirements.

And Power over Ethernet (PoE) allows individual Intelligent Gateway Modules to be driven through PoE enabled LAN switches or mid-span/in-line PSUs.

Where higher densities are required, the Intelligent Gateway Module Rack for 19 inch cabinets is just 1u high and can be used to mount up to four modules and the optional Intelligent Gateway Module PSU.

"Because our new Intelligent Gateway Modules have been developed as a core system component, they can be deployed with SpliceCom Select cloud and hybrid services, in addition to providing legacy connectivity for our on-premise voice platforms," said Robin Hayman, Director of Marketing & Product Management at SpliceCom.

"It's this intelligent approach to system design that allows SpliceCom customers' to continue to maximise their existing investments in the products and services that traditionally get overlooked or cast aside in the transition to cloud based infrastructures.

"Analogue Phones, legacy PBXs with no IP capability, PDQ machines, door entry systems, fax machines - all can access the advantages of SIP trunks and cloud or hybrid solutions via our Intelligent Gateway Modules. This enables migration to new voice architectures in a totally controlled manner, as and when business needs and budgets allow."

Designed-in resilience also offers DR and business continuity.

Mitel's acquisition of hospitality specialist TigerTMS enables the Canadian vendor to provide a mobile-first and connected guest experience to the fast evolving hotel sector. "For hospitality brands, customer experience and loyalty are key differentiators," said UC industry analyst Phil Edholm.

"Creating a home-away-from home and repeatable in-room and mobile experience at any property anywhere in the world is core to delivering real-time and memorable guest services.

"With TigerTMS, Mitel has made a smart technology buy, bringing in-house a specialised suite of solutions to deliver the connected guest experience on a cloud platform that complements its own voice offering."

Based in the UK with offices throughout Europe and in the US, APAC and the Middle East, TigerTMS is a global hospitality technology specialist providing Hospitality Interface Aggregation, Call Accounting, voicemail and wake up solutions, and IP technologies for smartphones and tablets. Their customer base includes more than 20 of the largest hotel brands in the world, including Hyatt, Marriot and IHG.

"Technology is rapidly changing the hotel guest experience and creating new and differentiated services that can deliver information and services directly to the personal mobile devices of hotel guests," said Rich McBee, President and CEO of Mitel.

"With TigerTMS now part of the Mitel family, we have made a strategic investment which further strengthens our commitment to be the vendor of choice for the hotel industry with a suite of innovative solutions that powers the connection between the hotel guest experience and the hotel."

The TigerTMS organisation will continue to be led by its CEO Simon Udell who joins Mitel as General Manager of the company's Hospitality business unit.

"The pervasive nature of personal devices, wi-fi and mobile access in hotel rooms and the availability of new software and cloud-based IT solutions have created a real opportunity for our hospitality customers to truly enhance their guest experience and drive customer loyalty," said Udell.

"By bringing together Mitel's hospitality voice solutions and cloud capabilities with value added hospitality applications from TigerTMS, we can now offer hotel operators worldwide a complete suite of capabilities."

Softcat staff, friends, family and business partners converged on London's Grosvenor House Hotel for the IT company's annual charity May Ball.

The sell out event raised £300,000 surpassing last year's total of £236,000.

The main benefactor of the event will be Dreams Come True, Softcat's charity of the year for the third year in succession.

Over 900 guests enjoyed a champagne reception, dining experience, alongside entertainment, an auction and raffle.

Compere for the evening, X-Factor's Peter Dickson, treated event goers to an array of talent, including last year's Britain's Got Talent finalist Darcy Oake, and the FISH percussion.

Supported by Softcat's Tom Hayhoe and Tal Gandhum, Kiss FM's Charlie Hedges rounded off the night with a DJ set.

Auctioneer Jonny Gould took to the stage to auction off various prizes, including a Top Gear driving experience, African safari, and signed One Direction dolls.

Account director, Charlie Harman, who co-organised the event with Michael Walker for the fifth year running, said: "The acts were incredible, the support from our staff and partners has been out of this world, and everyone had a great time."

Colin Brown, MD, said: "This is our third consecutive year supporting Dreams Come True. Our staff selected the charity, because of all the amazing work they continue to deliver. We believe the charity has a similar work ethic to Softcat - they're hardworking and looking to grow further to make a positive difference."

The role of the channel in Content Guru's expansion strategy has been evidenced by the appointment of Shub Naha as Business Development Director.

Tasked with delivering profitable growth of storm cloud communications and contact centre services working alongside the company's strategic partners, Naha said: "The company is entering into its next phase of growth and our channel partners will have a vital role to play in this expansion."

Naha joined Content Guru from Airwave (formerly O2) where he worked in the UK/International market and business development roles for seven years.

Prior to this he was a member of the senior leadership team of two fast expanding technology companies where he played a key role in their successful stock market floatation/acquisitions.

He has also worked for Cable&Wireless within its Professional Services business unit.

Shub is also qualified as an Electronics Engineer from Kings College London and a member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing.

Exclusive Networks UK has formed a distribution partnership with Elastica, a specialist in Data Science Powered cloud application security.

Exclusive has already recruited new Elastica reseller partners and has kicked off a campaign of marketing events and lead generation activity to generate momentum.

"The widespread adoption of cloud services by UK enterprises has raised big questions about how threats can be detected - and data protected - which in turn presents major revenue potential for resellers that understand how to jump on this opportunity," said Graham Jones, Country Manager at Exclusive Networks UK.

"Resellers have helped customers deploy SOCs (Security Operations Centres) but these urgently need augmenting for cloud app security.

"All the experts are predicting significant growth in the cloud app security market and we're seeing a big appetite out there from enterprises."

The Cloud Access Security Broker space, according to Gartner, is is the top security technology in 2014/2015. Gartner expects that in the coming year 27% of all enterprises will have over half of their IT in cloud applications. By 2017, 33% of enterprises will be adopting cloud applications, says the analyst firm.

TeleWare has launched its Intelligent Communications solution, a new offering that integrates the company's existing Intelligent Connect and Intelligent Office products, and provides extended functionality.

The enhancements include Mobile Assistant, an application that provides desktop communications features on a mobile device; Visual Voicemail, offering the visual management of voicemail; enhanced Reporting Services; improved IVR; and Data Bridge, a function that links the inbound communication and back office management systems to recognise inbound caller information and react accordingly.

Steve Haworth, CEO , said "An increase in the influx of customer communications, from phone calls to text messages, emails and tweets has necessitated a shift towards integrated communications and customer management.

"The real value of intelligent communications lies in its ability to bridge the gaps between traditional services, mobile communications and emerging collaboration applications. This in turn can then support business growth through analysing the captured data."

A briefing event organised by Azlan (18th June, London's Blue Fin Building) aims to bring delegates up to speed with developments in the growing service provider market.

As well Azlan's own experts, there will be speakers and demonstrations from vendors including VMware, EMC, HP and IBM.

Interactive presentations and smaller breakouts will give MSPs and resellers the chance to explore services and offerings more deeply and meet with vendors one-to-one.

Nick Janus, MSP Business Manager at Azlan, said: "For resellers who are starting to find their way into, or explore the market, these events provide a panorama of what's going on right now."