Comms Dealer

Westcoast has made a major move into subscription-based business as the UK and Ireland launch partner for HP's new opex-based IT purchasing model.

The distributor has joined forces with HP Financial Services to launch HP Subscription, a live pilot scheme that gives resellers an opportunity to sell HP kit and bundles that were previously cost prohibitive for many organisations.

"SMBs and other end user customers can now acquire the latest HP products, services and accessories without having to pay large upfront costs," said Paul Hamilton, Westcoast Client Director.

"HP Subscription allows resellers to benefit from increased opportunities, simplified sales processes and reduced risk, and pays the reseller in full upfront.

"This per-user monthly subscription model is designed to help businesses manage cash flow efficiently and give them affordable access to a wide range of HP products, services and bundles. And the move from capex to opex means depreciation becomes a thing of the past."

Hamilton believes the new model will also catch the eye of public sector organisations, including those in education.

Peter Howell, Partner Development Manager, HP Financial Services, added: "We are bringing a style of IT that enables end users to buy what they need as opposed to what they can afford. It also allows resellers to accelerate their revenues by creating new and affordable tailored bundles.

"We'll start by targeting the SMB/SoHo market as well as education. However, this model is a 100% scalable solution so there's great potential to open this out to HP's global markets."

Westcoast's appointment as a tier-2 CSP in Microsoft's Cloud Solution Provider Programme gives resellers greater control over their relationship with customers and significantly expands cloud sales opportunities, according to the distributor's MD Alex Tatham.

Westcoast now provides direct billing, provision, management and support for Microsoft's cloud offerings, enabling partners to provide direct billing and sell combined offers and services.

"Westcoast owns the complete customer lifecycle, allowing us to sell Office 365 and Windows Intune subscriptions, as well as existing Open Licences," said Tatham.

"This means customers can take advantage of cloud services by owning the entire billing process and directly managing the support."

Tatham has witnessed increasing take-up of Office 365 through the IT channel in the UK and Ireland.

"Microsoft's CSP Program will enable all resellers to get involved in providing cloud services to their customers in a way that will enhance their own relationships to their end users," added Tatham.

"Over the coming months, resellers will see a range of different services and support options from Westcoast that are designed for channel resellers to rebrand, add to and resell."

Phil Sorgen, Corporate VP, Worldwide Partner Group at Microsoft, commented: "By joining the Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider Program, partners will deepen customer relationships and expand business opportunities in the cloud."

While many resellers are focusing on increasing their sales potential they should not forget that ring fencing their customer service provision is just as important, writes Clive Jefferys of telecoms recruiter JMA Network.

In many companies the people that run back office billings and support have been overlooked during the recession years. However, they are just as vital as the flash salesman that walks in brandishing new orders and claiming his bottle of champagne.

I can vouch that a Top Three reason why good salespeople leave their job is because the company they work for can't install their orders properly.

At JMA we've seen a significant increase in client vacancies in back-of-house areas, and unexpected resignations are a common thread. So every manager and owner should take a good, hard look at their business in search of points of Staffing Vulnerability.

I bet that if you take the exercise seriously you will quickly identify certain people that are key to your continued success.

Such a person leaving can be even more damaging than losing a big customer account or a supplier hiking rates.

This is because such people are often 'force multipliers'. In other words, their skills directly influence large numbers of client accounts and many colleagues too.

If you find yourself in this situation you should next examine whether there is any skills overlap between key people. Unfortunately, given how tightly most companies have been run during the recession, there probably isn't much spare capacity.

So what's the solution? Firstly, reward your key people with accolades and a pay rise. Do it today!

Secondly, recruit an understudy. This may be an internal move or an external hire, but it's vital that you start straightaway.

Given that most professional level jobs are taking at least three months to fill, and when you consider the time it takes people to get up to speed, we are already talking about the shape of your workforce in 2016!

Mitel has leveraged its strong cash position to voluntarily repay $25m against its existing credit facility

"Mitel continues to drive strong cash flows given the attractive synergies being realised through our integration programmess and the disciplined, leveraged business model we use to manage our operations," said Steve Spooner, Chief Financial Officer.

"We are taking advantage of our strong cash position to make another $25m debt reduction payment."

Mitel's reputation as a cloud comms trail blazer has been reaffirmed by Synergy Research Group's Q3 2014 Market Share Report which says the vendor powered almost 20% of all cloud communications based on subscriptions and seats with more than 850,000 cloud seats globally.

At the same time as the report's publication Mitel announced the release of its next-generation MiCloud solution which, says the vendor, gives service providers speed-to-market advantages and the ability to lower TCO for their customers.

Jon Brinton, EVP and GM of Mitel Cloud Services, said: "We continue to see strong demand for our MiCloud solutions both from direct subscribers and through our global network of partners."

Jeremy Duke, Founder and Chief Analyst, Synergy Research Group, added: "Based on worldwide subscribers and seats, Mitel is the fastest growing provider of cloud communications, trending upward and outpacing its competition.

"This is a great time to have such momentum as our research shows significant industry adoption of cloud communications, with subscribers and seats more than doubling from Q3 2013 to Q3 2014."

Two well attended Wireless LAN fact finding events staged by Nimans and Samsung educated resellers on a UK market that is forecast to expand by 20% this year and be worth £250m.

The events, held at Manchester's Museum of Science and Samsung's HQ in Chertsey, underlined the potential of Wireless LAN sales which are experiencing far greater growth rates than the PBX arena.

Presentations from senior Samsung and Nimans staff were combined with 'stay and play' sessions that included demonstrations on how the technology integrates with all major telephone system brands as well as door entry and access control platforms.

Resellers discovered how to identify, quote and maximise market opportunities - whilst mobile apps from Unify and Samsung highlighted how voice and presence can be seamlessly delivered via WLAN from a telephone system to a mobile device.

Nimans' Head of Dealer Sales, Tom Maxwell, said: "The events reflected how WLAN is one of the most innovative and exciting parts of our business in years. Many resellers are already joining us on the journey."

A Stockport-based dealer commented: "We've got limited knowledge of Wireless LAN but we have lots of potential clients I think we can sell it into.

"I thought I'd get a bit lost in the technical side but I actually found it very easy to understand and straightforward. We can take this new-found knowledge and confidence out into our customer base and build a powerful new addition to our portfolio with the support of Nimans and Samsung."

Nadahl Shocair is to lead snom as CEO following HeidelbergCapital's new status as majority shareholder. HeidelbergCapital purchased shares from former investor Beaufort Capital in July 2014. Due to a capital increase HeidelbergCapital is now the main shareholder.

"We will use the funds to intensify new product development and continue to drive internationalisation," said Shocair, who is joined in the boardroom by Thomas Müller-Braun (CFO) and Olivier Gerling (CSO).

André Deloch, partner at HeidelbergCapital and Chairman of the Board at snom, commented: "We do not want to just invest in snom technology. It was important to us to complement the current expansion course by obtaining extensive funding commitments.

"That is the reason for the capital increase. We want to support the future development of new products and modern software as well as drive international expansion."

Shocair has 20 years experience in the field of business transformation in the ITC market including stints as interim CEO at DeTeWe, interim Director at Boomtel Networks, and Executive Director, Strategy and Business Development at Centile in Cannes, France.

A series of quarterly 'meet-up' events organised by Virtual1 aim to encourage greater collaboration with partners and set conditions where peer-to-peer networking among the partner community can also flourish.

Virtual1 CEO Tom O'Hagan said: "Bringing together our partners in an informal setting within central London on a regular basis enables them to meet with our leadership team and their account managers in one place.

"It's also our role as a service provider to bring our partner community together to build relationships of mutual interest."

The first event is planned for 19th March.

European software development is gearing up for a period of change and growth, as a number of trends are showing, according to IT Europa.

The research house's European Software and Solutions Summit to be held on March 25th (Lancaster Hotel, London) will examine some of these changes and assess the likely impact on the European industry.

Among the sponsoring companies leading the discussions will be a number of industry's most innovative and influential organisations including HP, Interoute, Oracle, Verizon, ConnectWise, Autotask, Coverity, LabTech, Logi Analytics and ISVWorld.

According to Gartner's latest forecasts, Enterprise Software is currently the fastest growing sector in IT, with worldwide spending predicted to grow 5.5% this year - more than double the industry average and outstripping the pace of growth of even the devices sector.

But behind the headline growth lie some fundamental shifts in the way software is being developed, marketed and delivered, says IT Europa.

Reports from the judges of the European IT and Software Awards 2015 on the finalists announced last week, show that the trend towards software development for specific vertical markets has continued. The ISV categories showed increasingly sophisticated projects, often with the external developers buying-in packaged solutions for aspects of security and management, especially in mobile-enabled applications.

"The development world has moved up a gear," said John Garratt, chair of the judges and editor of IT Europa. "And we are seeing the results of the move to cloud and Software-as-a-Service that started to make an impact last year."

There is still a level of uncertainty about future directions, however, with the required level of commitment to a platform to offer multi-device solutions concerning some software companies, he thinks, based on conversations with developers.

The European Software and Solutions Summit (EUSSS) event will set out to find answers to the questions ISVs, enterprise developers, Solution Providers, vendors and channels have on the move 'beyond the cloud' and how business models have to change in an increasingly digitalised and revenue/opex-based software world in which Cloud and XaaS (Everything-as-a-Service) delivery models dominate.

Under the overall theme of 'Beyond the Cloud - Creating competitive advantage by driving Digitalised Business', the European Software & Solutions Summit 2015, which incorporates the European ISV Convention, will explore the new business concepts, models and structures enabled by this new digitalised world and the role the software vendors, solution/service providers and application developers play in their development.

www.isvconvention.com

Westcon Group is running a series of vertical sales enablement workshops to support its partners with tools and expertise to sell more effectively into vertical markets.

Following a successful healthcare event, the latest workshop focused on 'How to sell into Manufacturing' and was held at Polycom's Executive Experience Centre in London.

The event included presentations from Polycom, Spectralink, Westcon, Yorktel and a fashion supplier who successfully worked with Interlink Vision to implement Polycom Solutions.

It also included a live demonstration from New York using Polycom's 'Open Telepresence Experience (OTX)' and Real Presence Immersive Studio Solutions.

Alex Joseph, Account Director at Yorktel, presented his top tips on selling into the manufacturing sector. "Yorktel is a key player in manufacturing and we concentrate on understanding the business requirements and challenges to deliver a solution rather than leading the sale with technology," he said.

John Richardson, Marketing Director, Westcon Group, added: "These interactive workshops are a fantastic way to share ideas and address the pain points that partners experience selling into vertical sectors."