Comms Dealer

UC software vendor Swyx has witnessed a 126% hike in the number of cloud-users in 2014 compared to the previous year.

Swyx CEO Dr. Ralf Ebbinghaus said: "Our 2014 sales show that SMEs are embracing the cloud more and more by taking advantage of UC solutions hosted in a data centre. Compared to last year, the growth in the number of our cloud-users has more than doubled."

Gartner predicts that the cloud market will be worth $350bn by 2017; and IDC says that in 2015, 24% of IT budgets will be allocated to cloud solutions, with the highest percentage being allocated to SaaS models.

"Well placed for the tremendous growth potential represented by the SME market," added Ebbinghaus. "This applies not only to Germany, but to our international business where we are also successful.

"Companies that have started to adopt other applications in the cloud, and already have an affinity for hosted solutions, will also look to move their telephone system to the cloud."

IT service provider EMC has joined forces with Azlan in a move that ramps up its campaign to onboard more partners to resell its cloud-based solutions.

The full EMC technology portfolio will be available to Azlan's MSP partners, including EMC's Backup as a Service (BaaS), messaging and collaboration, multi-tenant file storage, converged infrastructure and DR as a Service (DRaaS) offerings.

As well as training and technical support to MSPs working towards their accreditation as EMC Powered Cloud Service Providers, Azlan will provide lead generation for partners through its dedicated MSP portal.

Service providers will also be able to manage their EMC accreditation through the website and keep their business profile up to date.

Azlan will also offer EMC partners assigned sales and marketing support and executive sponsorship, working with them to create tailored EMC Growth Plans.

Joel Chimoindes, European Cloud Services Director at Azlan, stated: "EMC is providing a range of solutions that enable MSPs to embrace important opportunities and continue the transformation of their business to a services-based model.

"This is a strategically important business relationship for Azlan. One that significantly strengthens and extends our value proposition to MSPs and provides our partners with an opportunity to differentiate their business."

Philippe Fosse, Vice President Europe Channels at EMC, added: "This business relationship combines EMC's best of breed cloud service offerings with Azlan's experience to deliver a quick and powerful route-to-market for managed service providers across Europe."

Alastair Edwards, Principal Analyst at Canalys, observed: "This is a critical time for the channel, as resellers adapt their business models in response to growing customer demand for hybrid IT.

"At the same time, new types of MSP partner are starting to emerge. Distributors have always played a central role between vendors and channel partners, and that will remain true for new IT consumption models.

"Azlan's ability to help partners develop a portfolio of IT-as-a-service offerings, expand their managed services capabilities, as well as provide training, lead generation and sales support, aligns closely with the direction we see the channel taking."

UC software vendor ipcortex is set to launch the latest version of its platform with keevio, the web interface that enables easy access to video, screen and file sharing, IM and voice (one-to-one or multiway) with no specific requirement for software.

Using WebRTC, businesses can experience rich multi-media collaboration and conferencing with customers and colleagues, wherever they are and whatever device they're using.

ipcortex CEO and founder Rob Pickering said: "This technology will change the baseline of what people expect from UC and, indeed, customer service.

"It's not just about replicating what we can already do with collaboration and conferencing software in a more web-centric way, it's about delivering that in a far more accessible way with the same universal reach you'd expect from a phone system.

"Customer can join a multi-media chat session with the click of a link, with no software or plugins needed.

"The real world impact of that is that every business can make customer service a defining element of their brand. It becomes a human, memorable experience - not just an efficient process. It's the sort of thing that turns customers into loyal fans."

Keevio was also designed to help businesses to devise services that deliver a competitive advantage and new revenue opportunities.

"The accessibility and universal reach makes real 'art of the possible' use cases a reality," added Pickering. "Remote personal shopping, faulty goods inspection/support, health consultations, virtual incident rooms, live video feeds from public to newsrooms, all suddenly become possible with little more than some imagination.

"Suddenly, you're not just improving the services you already offer - you're creating new ones that differentiate you from your competitors."

Keevio can also be enabled as a softphone in the web browser, with no separate product, interface or VPN to consider, resulting in phoneless call centres and mobility for remote workers.

The release also adds WebRTC to the ipcortex JavaScript API, making it easier for developers to add sophisticated real time comms functions to their own applications.

Pickering added: "Businesses are already able to integrate ipcortex with existing systems to gain a real competitive advantage, but now with WebRTC functionality that benefit increases immensely."

Sixty videos designed to showcase new technology trends and products have been launched by Nimans.

Among the categories covered are Headsets, WLAN, Systems, Conferencing, Long Range Wireless Technologies, Call Management, Cabling, Own Brands and a Call Blocker.

Group Sales & Business Development Director, Richard Carter, said: "Video production is playing an increasingly important role in helping resellers understand and educate their own customers about the benefits and features of product sets and individual solutions. They are a great way of bringing products to life."

C4L has become a registered supplier of the Government's Connected Cities voucher scheme which is now available to the Bournemouth City Region.

A recent Tech City Tech Nation report confirmed Bournemouth as the fastest growing technology cluster in the country, and C4L recognises that this growth is fuelled by access to faster broadband technology.

Matt Hawkins, Chairman and Founder of C4L, said: "We have already deployed huge connectivity infrastructure at our Data Centre based in the heart of Bournemouth, linking local businesses with the global Internet and we are aiming to link them to incredible speeds.

"This government supported initiative allows us to extend our network directly into Dorset enterprises. In many cases the connection voucher covers the set-up costs entirely, effectively removing the barriers to the service.

"Too many businesses are running on domestic grade services, I am looking forward to empowering them with business calibre connectivity, so that they are better able to operate effectively and competitively. My aim is to provide all Dorset businesses with ultrafast Internet speeds as the norm."

Tollring has achieved certification to international standard ISO/IEC 27001 for Information Security Management.

The ISO 27000 family of standards helps organisations to keep information assets secure.

ISO/IEC 27001 is the best-known standard in the family providing requirements for an information security management system (ISMS).

Certification in ISO/IEC 27001 Information Security Management highlights Tollring's ability to identify risks and put controls in place to manage or reduce them, ensures procedures are in place to enable prompt detection of security breaches, shows the company's flexibility to adapt controls to selected/all areas of the business, proves to customers that their data is protected and demonstrates compliance.

The ISO/IEC 27001 standard is based around continual improvement, and requires Tollring to regularly review the effectiveness of their information security management system (ISMS) and take action to address new and emerging security risks.

"Achieving certification shows Tollring's commitment to information security at all levels throughout the organisation," said a spokesperson.

As Intel's March 12th warning led many to expect, PC sales were weak in Q1: IDC estimates shipments fell 6.7% yr/yr to 68.5m, a much sharper drop than Q4's 2.4% and Q3/Q2's 1.7%. Gartner estimates shipments fell 5.2% to 71.7m. With IDC also reporting of price pressure, revenue declines might be larger.

IDC says the Q1 market faced multiple headwinds - including inventory build-up of Windows Bing based notebooks, commercial slow down following the XP refresh and constrained demand in many regions due to currency fluctuations and unfavourable economic indicators.

Gartner thinks sales of mobile PCs (notebooks, convertibles, and Windows tablets) rose, while desktop sales fell sharply.

Both Gartner and IDC report US PC shipments fell only 1% yr/yr. On the other hand, IDC thinks Japan (another high-ASP market) saw shipments fall 44%; strong Q1 2014 spending prior to a tax hike made for tough comparisons.

Market leaders Lenovo and HP continued taking share from firms with less scale: IDC estimates Lenovo's share rose to 19.6% from 17.6% a year ago (3.4% unit growth), and HP's to 19% from 17.1% (3.3% unit growth).#3 Dell's share rose to 13.5% from 13.4%; #4 Asus was flat at 7.1%, and #5 Acer rose to 7% from 6.3%.

Everyone else collectively fell to 33.9% from 38.4%.Unlike in Q4 and Q3 (seasonally stronger quarters for the company), Apple wasn't in the global top-5. IDC estimates the company's US. unit share rose to 10.9% from 10.6%, good for fourth place (revenue share is higher).

Unify's UK channel expansion campaign, launched last month, is gathering pace as exclusive distributor Nimans gears up for a brace of events in May designed to onboard new partners.

The events - 19th May, The Globe in London; and 21st May, The Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester - will highlight Unify's recently enhanced Partner Program and on-boarding support structure.

"With an ambitious growth strategy that places partners at the heart of its plans, Unify has developed, honed and fine-tuned its go-to-market strategy to help partners make maximum revenues and profits in the minimum timescale," said John McKindland (pictured), Head of Systems Sales, Nimans.

The events will also showcase OpenScape Business and Unify's communication and collaboration platform, Circuit.

"Attendees will hear from product experts about the factors driving adoption of Unify solutions and where they see the biggest opportunities," added McKindland.

"Resellers will also benefit from an onboarding package that demonstrates how Nimans and Unify are helping them to grow their businesses."

Distributor Exertis has strengthened its strategic partnership with Ricoh, the global technology company specialising in office imaging equipment, production print solutions, document management systems, sustainability solutions and IT and communication services.

The bolstered alliance - which is effective from April 9th - builds on an existing 12 month relationship with Ricoh and will see Exertis assume responsibility for the global delivery of an extended range of AV and print solutions.
 
Steven Hastings, IT distribution channel director at Ricoh, said: "Our existing relationship with Exertis has enabled us to reach new audiences and strengthen our business in retail, SME/SMB and the public sector, so we look forward to this natural evolution of our relationship."
 
Jamie Brothwell, Print Business General Manager at Exertis, added: "Having worked with Ricoh in the retail sector for the past 12 months, it was a natural progression to expand our offering with the B2B product range. We felt it a great fit."

NewVoiceMedia has named Mark Fellowes (pictured) as Senior Vice President of Sales Development and Operations.

Fellowes will lead NewVoiceMedia's company-wide sales development and operations to support both high growth and efficiencies across the business's expanding global footprint.

He brings over 20 years industry experience to NewVoiceMedia, joining from Syniverse Technologies and MACH, global providers of interoperability and enterprise solutions focused on enabling the mobile communications industry, where he held various senior sales and business operations positions.

Fellowes will report to CEO Jonathan Gale, who commented: "Mark is a talented executive with a strong track record of increasing sales productivity for large global organisations."