Comms Dealer

A portal designed to help resellers seal more leasing deals (particularly in the education sector) is set to be launched by Nimans next month.

Reesellers can also use the portal to submit proposals and gain access to white label marketing documents as well as market insights.

Nimans is now authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and resellers working in the education sector are being encouraged to learn the latest 'leasing lessons', following changes in funding criteria which have had a big impact on the market.

Head of Dealer Sales, Tom Maxwell, said: "There's still a major problem with funding for local authority schools because not as many funders will support them following instructions from the Department For Education that they must include an operating lease.

"This is where the end user only pays back 90% of the value of the lease in their rentals - so someone has to take a residual value risk, which makes the lease cheaper.

"Some funders are nervous about supporting schools and interpreting the rules of the operating lease. We are dealing with big and small resellers who are having problems. But thanks to the strength and credibility of Nimans we are placed to help them and there's been a tremendous upsurge in business."

"We've got various funders in place and are getting lots of proposals from resellers - especially in the run up to April's budgets - who can't get finding from their normal channels."

Nimans has its own in-house financial services arm and is reporting brisk business in other areas, as Maxwell highlighted: "We've got some strong residual value funding which allows the end user lots of different options such as a five year rental that can be extended to seven years without any additional interest costs."

In a further boost Nimans is embracing an e-signature solution to speed up the paperwork process and ensure resellers receive payments as quickly as possible, without trailing to customers with hard copy documents.

René Svendsen-Tune (pictured) is to take the reins as Jabra CEO following the resignation of Niels Svenningsen who cited 'family reasons' as the reason for his departure.

Svenningsen joined Jabra (the GN Netcom brand) in December 2013 and was a prime mover in progressing the firm's innovation and growth strategy.

"We are sad to see Niels leave as he made great contributions to the company during his tenure," said GN Store Nord Chairman Per Wold-Olsen.

"Niels secured a strong launch of our new products and positioned the company well for even stronger results in the future."

Svendsen-Tune joins GN Netcom from Nokia Networks where he was President and member of the executive board with responsibility for Europe and Latin America. Prior to this he was president and CEO of Teleca.

"To have such an experienced professional as René with detailed knowledge of GN Netcom take over the leadership at this time will secure continued smooth operations and continued flawless execution of our 2014-2016 strategy," added Per Wold-Olsen.

Svendsen-Tune has more than 20 years of management experience in the technology sector and knowledge in GN Netcom's key business areas, including information technologies and telecommunications.

Hundreds of Softcat staff from regional offices across the UK made a heroic effort for Comic Relief, dressing as superheroes and cartoon characters and participating in various fundraising activities, raising over £10,000 for poor and disadvantaged people in the UK and the world's poorest countries.

Sporting activities included bike and golfing challenges, a dance competition and a crossbar challenge. More relaxed fundraisers included a charity retro gaming competition and a FIFA competition, where staff flaunted their gaming prowess.

Staff also raised cash by nominating people for a dunking - in ice-cold water. The dunk tank was filled by Marlow Fire Brigade.

A raffle raised £7,000 for Comic Relief, with raffle prizes including iPads, signed Arsenal FC shirts, an extra day's holiday, and a shopping experience with sales director Matt Jones. Prizes were donated by Softcat's staff and business partners. Softcat's Red Nose Day antics were filmed by US TV channel NBC.

On Friday evening many Softcat staff stayed late to help operate as a call centre for Comic Relief, helping to take thousands of pledges from generous donors across the UK. Softcat partners Dell, Snow Software and Trend Micro all stepped in to take part and keep the volunteers fed and watered.

Charles Harman and Michael Walker organised the day of fundraising and the call centre.

Harman said: "Softcat staff always come out all guns blazing for fundraising days and Friday's event was no different - the office was packed with cartoon characters and superheroes and everyone got really involved in all the fundraising activities."

To date Softcat has raised over £1.2m for various causes. Its next charity event will be its annual May Ball which last year raised £250,000 for charity Dreams Come True.

Rainbow has gone full throttle with a sponsorship deal that will give the  Kent based reseller some high octane TV coverage on Sky Sports and exposure across the UK's major race circuits.

Rainbow has signed the main sponsorship deal with the British GT Championship for 2015, and will also sponsor the Aston Martin entered in the championship by communications partner DCB.

To learn more about Rainbow's involvement in the championship
see https://vimeo.com/122207475

Fortinet has revamped its EMEA FortiPartner Programme for EMEA to include a new certification and re-aligned partner levels.

The move aims to promote expertise on the full range of Fortinet's network security products, while adding new multi-lingual support.

Anne Bourgeois, Director of International Channel at Fortinet, said: "Trends for mobility, agile infrastructures and cloud set alongside the evolution in advanced cyber-threats means organisations increasingly demand high performance, integrated security solutions and experienced partner support.

"Our new program will help resellers increase their expertise and leverage our end-to-end network security solutions."

The new Network Security Expert Certification (NSE) is an eight-level certification to equip partners with expertise across Fortinet's full scope of integrated solutions.

Resellers wanting more speed, automation and visibility throughout the leased line ordering and provisioning process have welcomed ICUK's new addition to its web-based control panel.

Ordering leased lines can be complex and frustrating for a reseller but Surrey-based ICUK reckons it has made the process a breeze with the introduction of a new provisioning tool within its web-based control panel.

ICUK's control panel, designed and developed in house, sits at the heart of ICUK's channel engagement methodology enabling resellers to place orders, create tariffs, manage customers, run diagnostics in real time and book Openreach engineers in just a few clicks. Customers can even log in under a resellers own custom branding and manage their own services.

The tool came about as a direct result of the service provider's ongoing success with Ethernet sales, as ICUK's founding director Paul Barnett explained.

"Our Ethernet sales increased by over 400% last year and continue to grow month on month. This posed a challenge as the leased line provisioning process was not nearly as automated and slick as other products in our portfolio, so we worked hard to fix it."

ICUK says it has taken the approach it applies to all its other products - ADSL, FTTC, WLR3, Wholesale calls and Web hosting - to address the issue.

Paul Lydon, Senior Developer said: "We wanted to make sure that the quoting, delivery and diagnostic experiences of an Ethernet circuit were the best we could develop. And we wanted to ensure consumers know where they stand at all times, giving them full confidence that we are working for them throughout and beyond the provisioning process."

Regardless of an order's complexity, ICUK has devised a simple flow chart showing the state of a current Ethernet order and the steps required to reach completion. Resellers can follow the exact movement of a provision, and get real time notifications confirming when a new stage has been reached.

"The notifications form an incredibly important element in providing assurance and removing any unnecessary anxiety the customer may have by outlining what event has just happened, what happens next, what the customer needs to do now, and most importantly when we will next be in touch by," said Business Development Manager Neil Barnett.

ICUK has also included white label 'step-by-step' install guides with the managed Cisco routers they supply with each circuit, removing the need for channel partners to visit the end user site.

Arron Morrey of CTR Services UK commented: "When ICUK gave us a demo of the Leased Line Quoting Tool they generated us a customer ready PDF showing prices for various speeds provided by BT Wholesale and Virgin Media Business, including our chosen margin, in less than 60 seconds. Needless to say, we were impressed."

Virgin Media Business has appointed Rob Orr, former Vice President of European Telecoms Operations for Samsung, as the new Director of Large Sales.

Orr, who will report directly to Managing Director, Peter Kelly, will be tasked with accelerating growth within the business' large enterprise sector.

Prior to his role managing the B2B business at Samsung, Rob was the Managing Director at RIM UK.

Kelly said: "With over 15 years experience in the fixed and mobile telecoms sector, Rob will undoubtedly be an asset to our team. I look forward to the role he will play, alongside the rest of our business, in driving Virgin Media Business forward in 2015 and beyond."

Southern Communications has been recognised as one of the UK's best financially performing, privately owned tech companies operating in the UK mid-market sector.
?Southern Communications were placed 31st overall in the inaugural Megabuyte 50 Awards and 8th in the owner managed category.

The Basingstoke-based company, which provides Voice, Data and Cloud based solutions to SMEs, has seen turnover increase by 50% over the past three years and has ambitions to grow further as CEO Paul Bradford explained: "We are on a strategic path of growth and being recognised by Megabuyte is fantastic confirmation that we are making the right business decisions."

UK-based cloud service provider Giacom is to add Microsoft's Office365 to its MessageStream cloud marketplace for IT resellers.

The announcement is the result of Giacom's successful inclusion into the Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider programme as a 2-Tier Distributor.

The programme allows Giacom to supply Office365 and Windows Intune subscriptions and own the complete client lifecycle, including billing, support and the customer experience.

"Including Office365 into our MessageStream marketplace will further expand our growing range of cloud services, providing a wider choice for IT support businesses, system integrators, telecom companies and service providers operating within Europe," explained Giacom's Managing Director Nick Marshall.

Microsoft Corporate Vice President of the Worldwide Partner Group Phil Sorgen added: "To meet the growing demand of our cloud-based solutions, we're thrilled to expand the capabilities for cloud partners under the Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider programme.

"By joining the programme, partners will deepen customer relationships and expand business opportunities in the cloud."

Giacom's MessageStream cloud marketplace is used by 2,500 partners. Giacom manages in excess of 90,000 Hosted Exchange mailboxes growing at 5,000 new seats each month.

Other services in the cloud marketplace include Hosted SharePoint, Hosted File Backup and Hosted Email Security, offered at wholesale prices and fully re-brandable.

Matthew Barton from Exmouth-based Ostrich IT and Giacom Partner believes Office365 within the MessageStream cloud marketplace will help his business attract new customers.

"We'll now be able to take on-board customers that exclusively want Microsoft's suite of cloud services," he said. "This opens a whole new recurring revenue stream for our business."

Giacom is expected to introduce Office365 into its MessageStream cloud marketplace in early April and is already taking enquiries from service providers that are looking to resell Office365 and Windows Intune to their European customers.

Chris Goodman, MD of south coast-based reseller Focus Group, is taking his wife on the trip of a lifetime in October but it will be no second honeymoon.

The couple will be taking on the challenge of their lives by trekking over the Great Wall of China for six days aiming to raise £5,600 for Chestnut Tree House, the only children's hospice in Sussex.

"Neither Elaine nor I have ever attempting a challenge like this but having seen the tremendous work that goes on at Chestnut Tree House we felt compelled to take part and help raise funds and awareness," said Chris.

"Six days of trekking along the Great Wall will see us cover a significant distance, starting each day at around 6am and trekking to the next camp. 

"We will enjoy makeshift lodges as accommodation - t was heartwarming to hear them described as 'very basic and cold at night."

The couple will be taking part in training weekends over the next 12 months in preparation for the trip.

To support The Goodmans in their challenge please visit www.focus-grp.co.uk/china