Comms Dealer

Huawei has appointed Lord Browne of Madingley as independent non-executive chairman of its UK subsidiary, Huawei Technologies (UK).

The company also announces the appointment of two further independent non-executive directors to the Board of its UK subsidiary, Dame Helen Alexander, chairman of UBM plc and Sir Andrew Cahn, who served as chairman of Huawei UK's Advisory Board from 2011 to 2014.

The independent non-executive directors will be responsible for reviewing the performance of Huawei in the UK, where 70 per cent of employees are recruited locally, and providing counsel to the UK Management Team, as well as the standard legal obligations of directors of a UK limited liability company.

The enhanced UK Board that Lord Browne will lead has six directors - three non-executive and three executive.

Ken Hu, Deputy Chairman of the Huawei Group Board and Huawei Group Rotating CEO, said: "As a global business we are committed to adopting high standards of governance and management. As our new Chairman, Lord Browne brings invaluable experience from his many years as a global business leader and I look forward to working with him and the other non-executive directors as we seek to build on the continued success of our company."

Lord Browne said: "In a short period of time, Huawei has become a global leader in technology and one of mainland China's largest investors in the UK. I have worked in China and with Chinese businesses for the past 40 years, and continue to be impressed by the corporate sector's ambition and potential."

Dame Helen added: "We live in a digital age in which technology and innovation are more and more critical in the development of companies and economies. Connectivity represents an incredible part of this and Huawei is a world leader in connecting people and their communities."

BlinkPipe has added new developments to its video conferencing solution including a Presentation PC for sharing documents and a dual display stand, as well as a camera boardroom upgrade pack, software and licence enhancements, advanced hardware warranties and increased service and consultancy support.

Based on 'lip sync' technology - fusing voice over the phone and video over the Internet - users plug a BlinkPipe camera into a TV and a traditional meeting room audio conference unit, and HD video calls can be instantly made and received.

In addition to the room system camera, a BlinkPipe Hub cloud service delivers group video calls and screen sharing between BlinkPipe hardware, PCs, Macs, tablets and smartphones.

Paul Burn, Head of Category Sales at BlinkPipe distributor Nimans, said: "Video Conferencing is now within the reach of all businesses, big and small," he explained. "Users simply walk in, sit down and dial. These latest product and service improvements will help resellers significantly grow their sales and penetrate deeper into their customer bases."

Alex Nancekievill, BlinkPipe Co-founder, added: "These new products and services are the next logical step, allowing resellers to create more value for their customers by tailoring solutions to individual requirements. The boardroom upgrade pack for example is an option for customers using BlinkPipe in large meeting rooms. It offers enhanced zoom, more powerful face detection, extra-long cables and a wall-mountable camera stand."

Gateshead-based telecommunications and IT infrastructure firm Advantex Network Solutions has won an undisclosed five figure contract to supply, install and support The Fat Brewer pub, hospitality training and brewing group with new cloud-based telephony services.

The firm sees big potential for this sector and aims to bring on-board more than 3,000 new hosted extensions by 2016.

At Fat Brewer, the new Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) system, which utilises cloud technology, will provide free inter-department calls and significantly reduce costs in line rentals and external calls.

It will also enable new extensions to be added quickly in the future as the Fat Brewer ramps-up it activities to meet growing demand for its products and services.

Christian Burns, owner of The Fat Brewer Company, said with business booming he needed the latest in advanced phone services to support growth.

"Advantex has supplied a great solution using technology that will meet our current and future needs. This will not only provide long term cost savings but ensure high quality communications are retained as the business expands."

Telephony is currently responsible for around 25% of Advantex's turnover - worth around £1m per annum. Head of communications Andy Shannon says businesses like The Fat Brewer recognise the flexibility and cost savings available using these type of systems.

"Hosted telephony is a fast growing sector and companies like ours are in the vanguard of delivering high quality, seamless services to regional and national customers.

"We have seen demand triple in the last year as more organisations look to migrate away from traditional telephone services where it take weeks to add new phone lines.

"We will be investing further in our services and products over the coming years to ensure customers can take advantage of this flexible technology."

American network security specialist ForeScout has signed value added distributor Arrow in the UK and Ireland in a move to bolster its reseller channel and expand the customer base.

This agreement comes as the extension of the existing collaboration between the two companies in the DACH region. Arrow already operates as ForeScout's VAD in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Under the terms of the deal Arrow will support the UK and Ireland channel community with ForeScout's CounterACT Security Platform. It will also offer to resellers in new markets its support in the area of technical problems, sales and marketing.

"Through ForeScout's ControlFabric technology we can add continuous monitoring and mitigation to our existing suite of security solutions by leveraging their CounterACT platform, and in return, allow organisations secure access to business critical information regardless of time, location, or device," said David Ellis, director of strategy at Arrow ECS UK and Ireland.

John Hagerty, EMEA director for Channels at ForeScout, added: "As we continue to grow our business in the UK, our collaboration with Arrow will allow us to further strengthen and expand our position through its network of resellers and system integrators."

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."