Comms Dealer

Samsung WLAN training programmes introduced by Nimans aim to help dealers cash in on what the distributor says is a fast growth market.

The first engineering course took place at Nimans' Manchester HQ where engineers learned about site surveys, protocols, system troubleshooting and software, as part of a comprehensive overview. Further training events will be rolled out throughout the year.

Nimans says the WLAN market is set to expand by 20% this year with the £250m UK sector experiencing growth rates much greater than the PBX arena.

One Bolton-based reseller said: "WLAN is going to take off over the next few years especially around new build sites.

"We are a traditional voice reseller so it's a natural fit for us."

Nimans has also produced a Wireless LAN Straightforward Guide to help resellers identify and grasp new market opportunities.

Exclusive Networks UK has set up a division called New Technology (New Tech) through which disruptive technologies will be introduced to the channel.

Headed up by Richard Foulkes, the new division will have a dedicated team of product managers, pre sales specialists, telemarketers and a marketing manager, all with the aim of sourcing relevant new disruptive technologies and enabling partners to take them to market.

"Over the past 18 months I have been focusing on how we can take the business to the next level of growth while continuing to offer value added services to all of our partners," said Graham Jones, Country Manager, Exclusive Networks UK.

"We are all about delivering solutions to our channel partners, and as a part of this the New Tech division will increase our ability to add disruptive new technologies to the mix."

New Tech will include a mobility and shadow IT bundle based on new vendors including Druva, Netskope and SecureAuth, alongside more established vendors such as MobileIron.

IXIA, Bit9 and Lieberman Software will also be placed into the division.

"New Tech will be an important division for us as we continue on our journey towards breaking the £200m revenue barrier by 2017."

A new connectivity product launched by Gamma will strengthen client relationships and bring 'significant financial rewards' to resellers, according to Stephen Proctor, Broadband Product Manager.

The Converged FTTC (Fibre-to-the-Cabinet) broadband service includes support for 30 uncompressed G.711 voice channels, providing access to ISDN quality voice and superfast Internet access on the same circuit with end-to-end QoS.

"Integrating voice and data communications on just one circuit rather than buying two separate lines means a reduction in costs, with the added benefit of providing end customers with a robust service and support SLAs," said Proctor.

"This is a great selling opportunity for resellers as they can benefit from stronger ongoing relationships with their customers and open up new opportunities to sell voice and Internet access. It can also prevent competitors breaking into accounts by creating customer lock-in."

RHM Technologies MD Nick Thomas added: "Converged FTTC allows us to go after the SME market more aggressively with a single supplier for data, SIP and hosted telephony."

Converged FTTC Broadband comes with a Cisco router and a free installation option enables channel partners to migrate customers without upfront costs.

Nimans has taken delivery of a new wireless DECT headset from Sennheiser.

The D10 series is available in three variants - for desk phones, softphones and a version optimised for Microsoft Lync.

The headset offer all day talk-time, a two-in-one wearing style and noise cancelling microphone.

Paul Burn, Head of Category Sales at Nimans, said: "There's one touch call management to answer or end calls from any point within a 180m line of sight.

"In addition, up to three additional guests can join the same conference call simply by docking the headset to the same base station. This makes it quick and easy to join the same conversation."

Burn added that USB and Microsoft Lync versions feature a built-in ringer with a choice of three ring-tones and adjustable ring volume.

Carriers that underestimate the value of voice infrastructure are missing a trick according to Telstra's Head of Global Wholesale Peter Hobbs.

He warned carriers focusing on OTT and data not to sideline traditional voice services which, he believes, are 'yet to hit their peak'.

"Voice services are sometimes misunderstood and undervalued by carriers because of the challenges they present, such as squeezed margins and increased competition, but it is a mistake to ignore voice altogether," said Hobbs.

"The common misconception seems to be that OTT players have stolen the voice market from operators, but in reality they have expanded it. We have only touched the surface of voice service capabilities and the market is big enough for both OTTs and carriers to thrive, with significant opportunities for co-creation too."

According to Hobbs new business and MNC applications are two primary drivers of voice requirements, which means enabling a consistently high quality service underpinned by platform and network capabilities are key.

"The growing HD trend, including developments in HD voice, IPX and Voice over LTE (VoLTE), delivers increased quality and is where operators have a distinct advantage over their competitors, and where they can grow their minutes too," added Hobbs.

"HD voice is like HDTV, but instead of high definition images you get high definition sound. No background noise and crystal-clear voice quality. Offering these superior services is key for carriers."

Hobbs also noted that VoIP, specifically Mobile Voice over IP (MVoIP), is a potential space for major growth. "This brings HD voice to mobile and integrates voice, video, and private branch exchange communications to connect computers, telephone connections and internal/external mobile networks," he said.

"The rebirth of the voice services market is already beginning to happen and those who capitalise on it quickly will see the greatest success."

Azzurri has joined forces with Sorrento Networks to service the UK service provider market for optical transport solutions employing next generation equipment from Sorrento.

The deal means Azzurri customers will be able to source Sorrento Networks solutions, incorporating its CWDM, DWDM and ROADM products.

Key to the partnership is The Comtek Group's acquisition of Sorrento Networks intellectual property rights and trademarks in late 2014.

This acquisition results in new investment in the development, manufacture and support of the Sorrento Networks portfolio, with an ambitious future product roadmap.

Azzurri is reselling Sorrento Networks GigaMux product line, enabling carriers, enterprises and data centre operators to design networks to be scalable and cost effective.

GigaMux supports data encryption, and has low power consumption, which aligns with Comtek's active role in promoting environmental initiatives within the telecoms industry.

"In these days of terrific network expansion and increasing demand for fibre services, this relationship helps us to deliver high capacity services to both our enterprise and our carrier customers," said Rufus Grig, CTO of Azzurri Communications.

Ofcom has launched a major strategic review of the UK's digital communications markets as it seeks to ensure that the industry continues to meet the needs of end users.

The last such review lasted almost two years and ultimately led to the separation of BT's access network.

This time round the review is unlikely to focus on a further separation of the incumbent and ask where further deregulation can take place as a result of competition coming from so-called OTT players, according to Matthew Howett, Practice Leader, Regulation, Ovum.

"The review is taking place against the backdrop of the biggest shake-up of the industry for more than a decade, with both BT and Hutchison's Three trying to convince competition authorities that their acquisitions of EE and O2 respectively should be given the go-ahead," he said.

"This presents a challenge for Ofcom as it tries to envisage what the landscape will look like in the years to come.

"Clearly the review needs to consider these mergers - and indeed it will be useful input for the advice Ofcom gives to the relevant competition authorities.

"However, the regulator is keen to downplay this aspect, instead attempting to focus on how the review could lead to further deregulation of the sector. This is where OTT comes in."

Howett also noted that although Ofcom is a converged regulator it still largely regulates things in their individual silos and within the fairly narrowly defined structure of the European telecoms framework for regulating markets.

"As new, more nimble players such as Skype and WhatsApp have arrived on the scene and competed away traditional telco revenues, regulators have been somewhat constrained in their ability to react, and certainly have not responded in the way telcos might have liked," he added.

"This review presents an opportunity for the regulator to properly consider the impact these competing services are having on the sector, and whether this impact warrants further deregulation of the traditional communications markets along the lines of what telcos have been demanding.

"It would not be entirely cynical to think that the review will focus mostly on this aspect rather than on issues such as a further separation of BT or new wholesale access requirements - just a couple of areas under the spotlight as the proposed mergers are considered.

"Instead these are likely to be addressed as part of the proposed remedies to get those deals approved. Ofcom's wider strategic review could then be revisited once the dust settles following any eventual industry consolidation."

Hosted comms provider MyPhones.com has fuelled its accelerating drive into the UK channel following a distribution agreement with SOS Communications. The move is a key component of MyPhones.com's strategy to gain significantly more market share and comes as the number of subscribers to its Altos hosted telephony platform reaches an all time high.

"Subscriptions have increased by more than 1,750 so far this year," stated MD Dr Stuart Marsden. "Since the beginning of March we've been setting up subscriptions at a rate of circa 50 per day. This trend can only continue as resellers become more aware of Altos and its benefits." 

The agreement with SOS Communications will introduce Altos to a sizeable reseller base and the solution will be offered as the only hosted telephony product in the distributor's portfolio.

Work is also under way to establish SOS Communications as a direct provisioning point for Altos hardware; and dealer launch events are being planned to support these developments. 

SOS Communications MD Colin Hepher commented: "This opportunity offers huge potential for our resellers whether they are already selling hosted or not.

"Resellers have the option to white label the service, use their own carriers and choose the hardware.

"SOS Communications requires no minimum contract term or volume commitment and offers a simple, competitive pricing structure."

The management of all orders will be undertaken by MyPhones.com.

Pictured above: SOS Communications resellers gain their first insights into Altos

Billing solutions provider ebillz has joined the Chess Partner Services division as a billing product, supporting the drive of Partner Services to create a one-stop-shop partner programme for resellers.

Billing Director of the Chess Group, Arvind Meghani, said: "Our move to Chess Partner Services will maximise the support available to ebillz customers and increase investment in the ebillz system development moving forward.

"It also gives all partners of Chess a real opportunity to grow the enterprise value and truly own their customers.

"Teaming up with the expertise available across the Chess group will make 2015 a year of Growth and Opportunity for all our clients, bringing them more products, investment and marketing support than ever before."

Formed in August 2014 from the merger of Chess Wholesale and Avenir Telecom's Airtime division, Chess Partner Services supports telecoms resellers in their business growth by providing a range of support, products and solutions.

John Pett Sales Director of Chess Partner Services, added: "Our closer integration with ebillz opens up for ebillz clients the same opportunities all our partners receive, a chance to re-sell Chess' products and services, to acquire more of their customers wallet share & grow their business further."

Cisco has extended its cloud and data centre relationship with Microsoft to include a new technology platform designed to accelerate service delivery and streamline the journey to the Intercloud for cloud providers.
 
Cisco and Microsoft are launching the Cisco Cloud Architecture for the Microsoft Cloud Platform, an integrated solution that combines Windows Azure Pack and Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (Cisco ACI) to help cloud providers rapidly deliver hybrid cloud services while drastically simplifying operations and reducing costs..
 
Additionally, 14 cloud providers today announced they plan to join Cisco's Intercloud partner ecosystem, bringing the number of Intercloud providers to more than 60 with a footprint of more than 350 data centers across 50 countries.
 
The integration between Cisco and Microsoft technologies will aim to enable cloud providers to realise 'unprecedented value'.

The combination of Windows Azure Pack and Cisco ACI allows partners to deliver services - from network services and disaster recovery, to big data, and enterprise application services - at DevOps speed, reducing total cost of ownership and accelerating time-to-revenue.

This collaboration will deliver pre-packaged policy management libraries that allow cloud providers to implement applications more quickly with consistent policy management. In addition, Microsoft System Center 2012 R2 is integrated with the Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) Manager to provide the operational simplicity and control that cloud providers need to manage their growing business.
 
Cisco and Microsoft plan to support their ecosystem partners with a full lifecycle go-to-market approach that delivers everything from service idea and demand generation to customer retention.

Nick Earle, senior vice president, Cloud and Managed Services, Cisco: ?said: "We want our service provider partners to move up-market with us and offer higher-end cloud services. By partnering with Microsoft we're able to deliver a tightly integrated, application centric cloud architecture. This new platform will help our partners accelerate the delivery of new and innovative hybrid cloud services for their customers."
 
Aziz Benmalek, general manager, Hosting Service Providers, Microsoft, said: "Cisco and Microsoft already have a strong relationship in the cloud and data center markets. We're expanding that collaboration with a solution that will allow our mutual partners to deliver services quickly and grow revenue faster with a cloud-enabled platform."