Comms Dealer

ScanSource has signed an agreement with Ruckus Wireless to act as a Pan European value added distributor for Ruckus Smart Wi-Fi products and technology.

ScanSource will provide resellers with access to Ruckus ZoneFlex indoor and outdoor access points, and ZoneDirector controllers, software and services.

The expansion of the Ruckus relationship in Europe builds on the alliance between ScanSource and Ruckus in North America. Maurice van Rijn, MD, ScanSource POS and Barcode, Europe, said: "We look forward to providing these solutions to our reseller partners, along with the value added services and tools that can help them grow and enhance their business."

James Calderbank, Sales Director for Ruckus in EMEA, added: "This new relationship will make it easier for specialists in the retail, warehousing and logistics space to integrate Ruckus Smart Wi-Fi technology into their solutions."

Creating everything as a service (XaaS) and delivering innovation is set to be the major driver of IT development this year as XaaS becomes the preferred consumption model for enterprises, claims IT Europa in the lead up to the European Software and Solutions Summit in London on March 25th.

In its conference sessions the summit (incorporating the eighth European ISV Convention) will feature speakers from Gartner, HP, Interoute, Oracle, Salesforce.com and Verizon delivering their visions of how this changes how users buy IT, who buys it and how it is paid for.

More and more, businesses expect IT to enable their staff to work wherever they are located and via whatever device is most appropriate, says Duncan Campbell Senior Director, EG Alliances Marketing and Business Development Hewlett-Packard Company who is one of the presenters.

"They want to have technology on-demand that can scale and is secure, PLUS pay only for what they consume. They want IT to innovate with the line of business to enable them to transform their processes and the user experience. Those IT departments that do not engage with the business will not be relevant, and their budgets will be impacted."

The impact on IT suppliers and channels is profound: "To stay competitive, ISVs, sellers and marketers must understand the new buyers, rivals and challenges brought by the Nexus of Forces, digital business and the Internet of Things," says Gartner's Errol Rasit.

Providers, facing the impact of business-model disruption on their license and maintenance streams, risk losing their revenue and their relevance. Their partners and delivery models are shifting, not least because of the cloud. Buying behaviour is embracing consumer models. New business decision makers and non-traditional users are entering the market, requiring radically different marketing. Navigating this complexity, remaining relevant and driving growth requires fresh thinking that will revolutionizse partnering, sales and marketing structures, he warns.

John Abel, Senior Director, EMEA Engineered Systems at Oracle will discuss how Oracle works with cloud channels in the "Everything-as-a-Service" era, while Melissa Di Donato, AVP, EMEA and APAC, Channel & ISV Programs at Salesforce.com reveals how to "Connect With Your Customers in a Whole New Way". The Internet of Things is a new phase of global transformation powered by technology and innovation, she says.

Other speakers include Matthew Finnie, Interoute CTO on how the pervasiveness of cloud computing, its convenience and efficiency has made buying infrastructure as a service the defacto for many enterprises and digital businesses.

Capitalising on this momentum now requires the next phase in evolution of Cloud Computing toward a fully integrated digital platform, he argues - 'one that converges sophisticated network and computing in one webscale enterprise and digital business infrastructure platform'.

Verizon will look at how, in times of technological change, the right blend of assets can help channels meet evolving customer demands, expand into new markets, and grow revenue.

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Red Box Recorders has become an Alliance Level member in ShoreTel's Innovation Network, a community of technology partners.
 
Red Box was invited to upgrade its membership to Alliance Level after receiving positive feedback from ShoreTel resellers and customers about its Quantify Recording Suite solution.

Following successful validation testing between Quantify and ShoreTel's latest telephony platform, ShoreTel 14.2, both companies are now sharing knowledge and expertise to offer fully integrated voice and data recording solutions.
  
Adrian Hipkiss, Managing Director EMEA at ShoreTel, said: "Our Innovation Network provides an interactive community of technology partners with the expertise to develop tightly integrated solutions with ShoreTel. Red Box will add considerable value to our portfolio and us to theirs."
 
Will Hopkins, Sales Director at Red Box Recorders, added: "Becoming an Alliance Level member of the Innovation Network will help Red Box gain greater visibility within ShoreTel's sales, marketing, reseller and customer communities, particularly in the US which is a growing market for the business." 

Maintel's Sales and Marketing Director Angus McCaffery will experience an early summer heatwave in April when he runs the Marathon des Sables in the Sahara Desert, billed as the 'toughest footrace on earth'.

McCaffery aims to clock-up 150 miles in six days in aid of two charities - Prostate Cancer UK and the Stroke Association.

"I'm running in memory of John Bassett my father-in-law who died in 2013," he said. "Having never asked for sponsorship before, and with my assurances I won't be asking again, I thought I'd go large with my chosen challenge."

The event is a self-supporting 'ultra marathon' and will see McCaffery endure up to 50-degrees heat and sand storms. "Two weeks later, all being well, I plan on running the London Marathon to top it off," he stated. "The training is intense. I've completed eight marathons and ultra-marathons in the last nine months, and I have been running up to 70 miles every week.

"Barring an injury I hope to be as prepared as I can be by the time I go, and assuming I finish the Marathon des Sables and can still walk, the London Marathon should be a formality."

McCaffery's progress can be followed via his blog and the @maintel twitter account where regular updates on the race will be posted.

To find out more, in McCaffery's own words, view his pre race video here

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MWC 2015 - a personal view by Andrew Skinner, Relationship Director for Barclays' Technology Media and Telecoms Team

Wearables obviously attracted a lot of media attention at MWC this year because of their appeal to the consumer, but for old hands, it will come as little surprise that a number of the more interesting conversations had were about what 5G means for the industry. After all, despite all the hype about wearables, what good is a connected watch when there's no network available for you to connect to?
 
For all the timelines being bandied around 5G remains largely conceptual. Yes, the Wireless Alliance tested a device on a 5G network, providing connectivity of approx. 5,000 times faster than on 4G. But we are still to define exactly what it is that 5G needs to be and the services it needs to enable, and the industry must move relatively quickly to put a framework in place to achieve the lofty goals that have already been set.
 
One of the major problems facing those charged with development of 5G standards and technologies at the minute is that they must do so in tandem with maximising the opportunities that 4G brings; not to mention 3G in the developing world. And actually, there's an argument in an increasingly globalised economy for focusing on the latter, or else risk widening the gap between the developed and the developing world. After all, there are still several countries in Africa, relying predominantly on GSM (2G), let alone the luxury of 3G.
 
One of the fundamental requirements of 5G is the need for ultra-high availability, but how much of that can be achieved by augmenting and optimising existing technology? Google announced its plans to launch a virtual mobile network in the US, enabling users to switch seamlessly between cellular, Wi-Fi, and different wireless carriers, to provide an optimum mobile experience for the end user. For plenty of telcos and hardware manufacturers, it seems like the biggest opportunity can be found in the convergence of cellular and Wi-Fi to achieve near universal connectivity.
 
The development of 5G for 2020, cannot be at the expense of advances made to fully realise everything that 4G was supposed to achieve. Some of the most interesting companies I found myself speaking to while out at MWC buy into this vision of the future, but understand that even if 5G is delivered to the market in five years' time, many improvements in connectivity can be achieved in a considerably shorter timeframe by focusing on the networks that are already in play.
 
And actually, that's all part and parcel of one of the shows other big themes; enterprise mobility. To properly take advantage of the roll-out of 4G services and integrate mobile into the work place, it is increasingly important that businesses employ mobility practices to provide the necessary support, infrastructure and security, to enable fully mobile ways of working. From robust BYOD policies, to delivering enterprise applications for collaborative ways of working, there are already so many different ways for businesses to mobilise their workforce.
 
The internet of things remains a hot topic and it's pleasing to see that we've moved significantly forward in terms of the hype cycle, to a place where practical deployments of machine to machine interactivity are becoming part of mainstream society. But for IoT to truly take off, the focus must once again be brought back to how we can make best use of 4G technology to deliver robust M2M deployments as quickly as possible.

Virtual1 has announced plans to roll out The Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) Connection Voucher Scheme nationally.

Partners will be able to provide some of the fastest quotes nationally on the BDUK scheme via the company's portal - 1Portal, said the firm. Quote to orders are done in real-time with APIs into major carriers.

The company already offers its partners' end customers superfast business Internet as part of the BDUK scheme across London.

The scheme offers up to a maximum of £3,000 of Government funding to SMEs covering installation and connection costs on connectivity.

On 3rd December 2015, the Chancellor announced that the Government will make up to £40m available from April 2015 to March 2016 to support more cities administer The Broadband Connection Voucher Scheme.

CEO of Virtual1, Tom O'Hagan, commented: "It makes sense for us as provider to roll-out the BDUK scheme nationally.

"Our network and our offers need to reach where our partners' end customers are."

Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise partner SBL is the first to deliver the OpenTouch Enterprise Cloud (OTEC) solution to UK businesses.

SBL, an Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise Premium Partner, secured a deal to supply the solution to the UK HQ of a global hotel group with plans to take in over 100 of its hotels over the coming years.

SBL has appointed David Marsh (former Director of New Business Development at the Steria Group) as Commercial Director to spearhead a wider drive to market.

The OTEC solution delivers UCaaS through a variable usage licensing model, with an initial focus on providing a low-cost-to-market solution for the hospitality, retail and education sectors.

Chris Brassington, CEO, SBL, said: "The shift to cloud is gaining momentum but we are now seeing customers start to push back at the idea of a one-size-fits-all approach to delivery.

"Combined with the maintenance and hardware side of our business, one of the advantages of OTEC is that it allows us to offer our customers the level of tailoring we know they want from their solutions, and being able to tie our pricing model to vital industry metrics allows us to tie the cost of the solution to key business processes and revenue flows."

Peter Tebbutt, Country Leader UK&I, Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise, added: "SBL has impressed us with its go to market strategy and it brings a high level of competence and professionalism to the delivery of UCaaS in the UK.

"This partnership is set to meet the growing business demand for flexible solutions that offer access to Unified Communications and collaboration tools, but without the prohibitive up-front capital costs."

Strategic moves made by Chess and outlined at last month's first Chess Partner Services conference got a big thumbs up from delegates with 98% of partners likely to take on new products and services.

John Pett (pictured), Sales Director at Chess Partner Services, said: "The industry is changing. Partners can no longer survive on just one product and have to acquire more of their customer's wallet share in order to grow their business.

"We take the pain out of adopting new services for our partners by providing them with the tools they need to go out and do what they do best - win business."

Formed in August 2014 following the merger of Chess Wholesale and Avenir Telecom's Airtime division, Chess Partner Services has 700 partners and £29m turnover, and has dubbed 2015 as the 'Year of Growth and Opportunity'.

The conference brought together expertise from all areas of Chess including voice, connectivity, networking, IT and professional services, and featured guest speakers from O2 and Microsoft.

The event included news on the ebillz billing solution which now sits under the Chess Partner Services umbrella and caters for all partners from start-ups to enterprise businesses.

A One Stop Shop for products and services was introduced alongside a new Elite Partner Programme launched with incentives and commercials.

"Partners with Chess now all have the opportunity to earn a further £16,000 each and every year with the new commercial bonus scheme, and will benefit from having £1,000s in cash, holiday prizes and tickets to the nation's biggest events," added Pett.

Poole-based VoIP Unlimited has supported its charity of the year, The Brain Tumour Charity, by taking part in Bandanas for Brain Tumours 2015.

In a mission to encourage awareness of the symptoms of brain tumours the team embraced casual Friday and donned bandanas exclusively designed by The Brain Tumour Charity as part of its Wear it out campaign and Brain Tumour Awareness Month, raising £86.

The key objective of Bandanas for Brain Tumours 2015 was to get the message to Parliament that diagnosing brain tumour patients earlier can save lives, as despite the government's commitment to early diagnosis of cancer it has provided no funds or resources to raise awareness of the symptoms of brain tumours.

Mark Pillow, MD of VoIP Unlimited, said: "VoIP Unlimited is dedicated to supporting The Brain Tumour Charity in its work to fight brain tumours and save lives through ground-breaking research, awareness and care.

"Taking part in Bandanas for Brain Tumours was a way to get behind the charity and spread the word about the incredible work it does, and to encourage the government to sit up and listen."

VoIP Unlimited also supports The Brain Tumour Charity's HeadSmart campaign, which aims to raise the awareness of brain tumour symptoms in children and young people.

Planet Hippo, part of The Network Selector Group, has launched a new reseller hosting solution. The company is also seeking to acquire additional hosted services businesses to extend its reach across the UK.

Darren Lavender, Managing Director of Planet Hippo, said: "This new hosting service takes care of server maintenance including backups, security, software installations and more, allowing resellers to concentrate on growing their businesses instead of supporting their own hosting service.

"The investment we have made in building new data centres can be leveraged by resellers to provide clients with a value-added service."

Planet Hippo offers Linux-hosted solutions across dedicated, cloud and shared networks enabling the delivery of a reliable and resilient hosting service. "With no minimum-term contracts and a 30-day money back guarantee, this new service presents a risk-free option for resellers looking to switch ISPs," added Lavender.

"We have experienced a significant expansion over recent months with a 100% growth month on month as an increasing number of digital agencies outsource their web hosting operations to Planet Hippo."