Comms Dealer

MyPhones.com is to showcase Cisco's 7800 and 8800 handsets alongside its Altos platform at a roadshow on July 4th in Manchester.

The hosted comms provider has also added the Cisco 7832 conference endpoint to the list of phones that are compatible with the Altos platform.

These additions build on MyPhones.com's partnership with Cisco. The 7811, 7821, 7841, 7861 and 8811, 8841, 8851 and 8861 models have been operational with MyPhones.com's Altos hosted platform since early 2017.

MyPhones.com has worked with Cisco to deliver secure extension mobility hot-desking capabilities on the Altos platform using these phones.

The development is proving popular with MyPhones.com's reseller partners, who, in the first three months, have already ordered more than 6,000 handsets.

Chief Executive of MyPhones.com, Dr Stuart Marsden said: "Our hosted platforms, including our current platform Altos, were originally designed to operate specifically with Cisco handsets.

"We have extended compatibility with other manufacturers over the years to increase choice for our resellers. Now, almost 15 years on, it feels particularly fitting to be working again with Cisco."

Northern Ireland comms provider Rainbow has added £1m to its annual £5m investment pot dedicated to customer support, adding 10 more staff to its customer service and engineering teams.

The company will also invest in cloud-based products during the next two years.

Stuart Carson, Sales Director, said: "This is a mobile world. Companies need to adapt to stay ahead. Unified communications are of paramount importance and relevance and this investment will allow us to develop our offering over the coming years for all our clients."

Rainbow boasts more than 10,000 customers across Northern Ireland, and has offices in Belfast, Dublin and Glasgow.

Although a start-up business, comms consultancy Springtel's founder and MD Peter Cresswell (pictured) underpins the company with almost ten years industry experience, especially in the billing sector.

His father, Steve, was a founding director of Union Street Technologies and instrumental in writing the company’s aBILLity billing platform.

"I joined Union Street in 2008 and worked in a variety of roles, from first line support, second line support, team leader and Technical Support Manager," said Cresswell jnr.

Fours years later he joined Channel Telecom as Operations and Billing Manager and in 2013 decided to go it alone. He contracted for a number of comms companies including G3, Edge Solutions, Digiquip and Direct Response Group which he joined as Billing Manager.

"Within the first three months my team got the billing cycles for telecoms, call centre and Cirrus (a cloud contact centre provider) down to the first three working days of the month, instead of the two weeks it had always taken," added Cresswell.

"I was asked to work more closely with the Cirrus side of the business, helping to design its commercial pricing model and strategy ahead of a channel roll-out. I then worked more closely with the CEO on various projects."

Having left Direct Response Group in February this year, Cresswell launched Springtel in May to make available his experience and services to comms companies, offering an outsourced service for billing runs, reporting, analysis of billing system configurations, advice on commercials, bespoke software development and help with migrations or company acquisitions.

"We also offer cover for bill runs either as a one-off for holiday or sickness or on a longer-term basis," he added. "These services are more cost-effective than employing a full-time billing or commercial manager. 

"Outsourcing the billing functions can also have a big impact on efficiency. Our team of experts are available at a fraction of the cost of billing managers."

Node4 has added database managed services to its portfolio following an investment in Nottingham-based Onomi.

Andrew Gilbert, CEO at Node4, said: "Leveraging Onomi's capability and expertise in database management gives us a great opportunity to add further value to our customers by introducing cloud database skills and management services to them."

Database managed services cover implementation, database administration, optimisation, support, maintenance and disaster recovery of business-critical databases.

Database managed services allow businesses to keep their databases optimised and secure while making the most of the insights databases provide without putting a big strain on their internal IT resources.   

Julian Boneham, Director and co-founder at Onomi, added: "We've grown very quickly and needed to develop our back-office operations but doing it on our own would have required us to slow down."

Andrew Slater, Director and co-founder at Onomi, added: "This investment by Node4 enables us to scale the business without any disruption to our customers. We now have the ability to scale and invest in staff and tech to continue to innovate."

Synnex has pocketed Westcon-Comstor's North and Latin American businesses in a deal that also sees the California-based distributor acquire a 10% stake in its international operations.

"Our customers gain access to complementary technology solutions and business services that open up new opportunities to accelerate growth," said Dolph Westerbos, CEO of Westcon-Comstor.

"This transaction not only brings together two complementary businesses, but also two similar cultures around employee and customer success." 

Both entities expect to benefit from Westcon-Comstor's recent completion of its global business transformation - a SAP implementation and business process outsourcing across five continents, intended to deliver consistent and improved customer services while generating efficiencies.  

The transaction is expected to close in the third calendar quarter of 2017. Until the transaction is completed, the companies will continue to operate independently. 

Reseller directors looking for guidance on boosting profits by adding new technologies and services to their business portfolio and processes will get the help they need at Comms Dealer's Margin in Voice & Data symposium. 

The event returns to the Forest of Arden Hotel and conference centre in the West Midlands on June 22nd and is designed for resellers addressing SME markets, giving director delegates the best of both worlds - an inspiring educational programme and the chance to meet new partners in an informal business environment.

As a bonus, the entire event is absolutely FREE for qualified reseller delegates including overnight accommodation, as Comms Dealer Editorial Director Nigel Sergent explained: "We understand how difficult it is for reseller directors to take a day out of their busy schedule to attend events,  but MiVaD is a special event and well worth the effort and time because they can achieve so much in 24 hours.

"They say the best things in life are free and MiVaD certainly falls into that category. The educational seminar in the morning always provides a wealth of ideas and information, the managed meetings session in the afternoon represents a superb partner development opportunity and the famous MiVaD evening dinner is the perfect chance to relax and network with industry friends old and new before enjoying the comforts of an overnight stay in a top quality hotel."

Claire Maddox, Commercial Director at Gloucestershire-based Eurolink Connect attended last year and will be returning on June 22nd.

"The MiVaD speakers are always excellent and it's great to make old and new connections. We always come away with new energies and ideas, so once again we are really looking forward to this year's event."

To see the full line of speakers and channel sponsors and to REGISTER to attend go to www.margin-in-voice-data.com

IT industry body CompTIA has launched its manifesto outlining recommendations on what can be done to secure the UK's digital future.

The manifesto outlines key proposals for the UK government to guarantee that the nation's digital economy continues to thrive.

CompTIA has called for cross party endorsement for key parts of the UK Digital Strategy to give certainty to the UK's digital future; it argues that digital skills (benchmarked to industry standards) must be a core component of all apprenticeships, and believes that the the UK must avoid a 'one size fits all' approach to digital skill qualifications.

According to CompTIA, political parties must seek a more flexible approach to T-levels; and the UK needs collaborative local careers advice that promotes digital careers and local digital job opportunities.

CompTIA also urges cross party scrutiny on how local SMEs can be involved productively in this careers advice process, as well as measures to tackle outdated stereotypes will be important if such a forum is to be successful.

The industry body says that next government should put SMEs at the heart of the digital agenda. Two areas in particular need this SME centric focus - regional tech ecosystems and specialist skill pipelines.

Graham Hunter, Vice President, EMEA at CompTIA, said: "The digital market has become of vital importance to the UK's economy, highlighted in a recent report from Tech Nation, which revealed that there are 1.64 million digital jobs in the UK, and new jobs are created at over twice the rate of the non-digital sector.

"As such, it is important that whichever political party comes into power on 8th June ensures they have a plan in place to guarantee that the technology sector continues to grow and thrive. With monumental political negotiations slated to take place as the UK leaves the EU, it is vital that the government takes into account what potential impacts these will have on the digital economy and have the tools and information available to make the best decision for the sector and nation as a whole.

"CompTIA has launched this manifesto, on behalf of the UK technology industry, to help all political parties understand what needs to be addressed to ensure that the UK continues to thrive as a digital hub. From digital strategy through to developing a world class technology workforce, whichever party is in power must look to work with organisations and bodies within the sector to secure a prosperous technology industry, and sustained job creation for a healthy UK economy in the future."

Azure is migrating its comms to the cloud following a deal with 8x8 that enables the vacation ownership company to transform its customer service operations in its Malta-based head office where the UK and Scandinavian membership is supported.
 
Azure specialises in offering luxury holiday properties at the Golden Sands Resort and Spa in Malta. With plans to expand its member base in Europe to include Germany, Norway and Italy, Azure called on 8x8 provide a platform that will grow alongside the business.
 
8x8 will also be upgrading Azure's customer service offering with its 8x8 Virtual Contact Centre solution.
 
The new system will support all 250 of Azure's staff in its Malta and UK offices and is estimated to deliver cost savings of 35% on telephony.

Marthese Vella, Chief Information Officer, Azure, said: "We're looking forward to working in a more unified and coherent way as an organisation and give our customer service agents the tools they need."
 
Kevin Scott-Cowell, UK MD of 8x8, added: "A truly unified communications platform that can offer everything from mobility, flexibility and scalability through to presence management, advanced call forwarding, ring groups and analytics is vital to Azure's continued success."

A bikeathon and company car wash event staged by Bamboo Technology Group at its Cheltenham offices has raised over £500 for local charity Deaf Direct which supports the deaf and hard-of-hearing in Herefordshire, Oxfordshire and Worcestershire.
 
During the bikeathon, which took place on Cheltenham's hottest day of the year, 32 staff members did nine minute stints each on a fitness bike clocking up 107 miles between them. Other staff cleaned their colleagues' cars for a £10 donation.

MD Lorrin White said: "With one-in-six people in the UK being unable to hear this was a worthy cause which affects us all in some way."
 
Deaf Direct CEO Philip Gerrard added: This year is Deaf Direct's 90th anniversary and we are pleased that local businesses are supporting our work.

"Hearing loss is invisible, but we make sure the person isn't and are thankful that Bamboo has helped to change the lives of deaf and hard of hearing people."
 
If you would like to make a donation please visit -
www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Bamboo-Bikeathon.

SOS Communications has added Cisco's new IP phones to its hosted telephony solution Premier-Cloud.

According to SOS MD Colin Hepher the move brings 'greater differentiation' to his proposition as Cisco bids to claw back market share in the competitive IP phone space.

"Hosted telephony is no longer in its infancy even though penetration has only reached a small percentage of the potential market, yet most resellers are offering very much the same platform base and features," stated Hepher.

"Not so long ago Cisco had over 50% of the market share and intends to regain this space as soon as possible."

Hepher says SOS Communications will play a key role in helping Cisco advance its strategy believing that the infrastructure and methodology that supports Premier-Cloud along with attractive commercials will tip the balance.

"What really counts is resilience," added Hepher. "Most adopt a model where 'identical' servers are located in two separate data centres. One is designated as active and carries all the live traffic. The other is either a hot or warm standby and is normally inactive.

"Failover between the two at network level is relatively straightforward. But there are a number of serious weaknesses to this approach leading to customers suffering long delays, sometimes days, in the event of failover."

Following the Cisco distribution deal Hepher has grasped the megaphone and is amplifying his 'alternative' message to the channel.

"There is another way," he stated. "Our telephony service (phones, portal, SIP trunks and APIs) is supported by two resilient data centres that are fully operational, always carry live traffic and have capacity to scale.

"Our customers are evenly distributed between them and each facility uses the native IP ranges of the data centre provider.

"Since all data centres are active in the event of a data centre failure the only thing that changes is the amount of traffic they carry."

It is not always possible to protect all calls in play during a data centre failover, but Hepher emphasised that IP phones such as Cisco's and resilient SIP trunks can failover significantly faster than BGP.

In what Hepher described as 'another attention grabber', SOS is offering free SIP trunks to channel partners.

Resellers can find out more about SOS's channel propositions during three roadshows next month - 4th July in Manchester, 11th July in Horsham and 18th July in Leeds.