Comms Dealer

Dimension Data has been certified as a Top Employer: Europe for its 'outstanding' employee offerings.

Dimension Data Europe has 4,500 employees and is one of the few companies to achieve the Top Employers Europe 2015 certification being certified in seven countries in Europe - Belgium, France, Italy, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland and the UK.

The Top Employers Institute's annual international research recognises leading employers around the world that provide excellent employee conditions, nurture and develop talent across all levels of the organisation, and strive to optimise employment practices.

Judith Oude Sogtoen, director of International Business Development for the Top Employers Institute, said: "Our research concluded that Dimension Data Europe forms part of a select group of employers that advance employee conditions worldwide."

Andrew Coulsen, CEO of Dimension Data Europe, added: "We invest in all our employees from graduates to fast tracking our young talent to providing mentoring, and online learning and development opportunities open to all our 4,500 people in Europe.

"As a service led business we know we can only be as strong as our people."

Salford-based JMC IT has won the highest three star status from Best Companies for the fifth consecutive year and is named as one of The Sunday Times 100 Best Small Companies to Work For in 2015 for the 11th year.

JMC displayed high levels of employee engagement with staff providing detailed anonymous survey feedback in categories including personal job satisfaction; managers' ability to care and motivate staff in fulfilling their potential; and overall excitement about the company's future.

The survey also achieved a response rate of 86 per cent from JMC's staff, who spend on average 12 years at the company.

Andrew Burgess, JMC's MD, said: "We truly believe our employee engagement engenders excellent client service, which in turn creates a 'virtuous circle' whereby clients love our staff and love working with JMC. It takes a huge team effort to achieve this, so we're delighted that everybody's hard work is continuing to pay off."

The two accolades add to a list of previous employment awards for JMC, which has led to the company playing an active role in promoting these initiatives to the wider industry.

JMC has been asked again to sponsor the upcoming Salford Business Awards Best Employer category, encouraging other local businesses to enter the award in recognition of their commitment to employee development and creating a rewarding place to work.

Nimans' reseller support for its hosted telephony service GS-hosted has moved into a new phase and the distributor is urging more resellers to become authorised suppliers.

Demo kits, white label marketing and training support are on hand to help resellers drive their GS-hosted sales, said the firm.

GS-hosted was launched last year and includes a three year hosted seat licence with every handset purchased.

A choice of three models are available with upfront margin potential of 45% or recurring margins of 65%, said the distributor. As part of the expanding service resellers can now add music on hold functionality.

Nimans' Group Sales and Business Development Director, Richard Carter, says becoming an authorised partner is the best way for resellers to develop their sales.

"Resellers simply need to carry out a short online test to become fully accredited and open the door to a world of compelling support services," he explained.

"We are constantly adding to our support strategy to ensure resellers can maximise every sales opportunity. In addition they can use an official 'authorised partner' logo on their marketing and sales material to reinforce their overall expertise.

"We are also sending out a quarterly newsletter to keep resellers up to speed with all the latest developments."

US-based Perforce Software says the number of partners selling the company's portfolio of version management and collaboration software grew by 50% in 2014, bringing in-country customer support in nine of the world's ten most spoken languages.

Partners who joined the program in 2014 include: EDAWay in Italy, InTENSO in Poland and Cohort (previously Legal Softwave)in Russia. Perforce offers a version management and collaboration platform, aiming to protect customer IP and to enables teams to collaborate without conflict on any type of file-from source code to industrial designs to business documents.

"We understand that our international customers want the option of in-country support and we're committed to fulfilling those needs with an array of top-class partners across the globe," said Dave Robertson, vice president of channels. "Our channel network brought in a substantial amount of new business in 2014, and we expect the same to continue this year, especially with our forthcoming product announcements and enhancements."

Perforce continues to expand its partner network across multiple territories. "There is strong growth potential for Perforce-based solutions in multiple markets and we will continue to address this opportunity through the expansion of our channel," said Robertson.

The rebrand of Peach Telecom to Peach Technologies marks the beginning of a new chapter in the company's history, according to CEO Darren Scott-Healey (pictured).

He noted a strong period of growth, the acquisition of an IT MSP and a new focus on bigger business clients as catalysts for the revamp.

"We have always specialised in small to medium-sized businesses, but we are naturally progressing into the mid-market so we needed a slicker look which is more appropriate for enterprise organisations," he said.

Peach Telecom was formed in 2006 and its expansion prompted the creation of a new identity, website and logo, underpinned by the a strapline 'Making technology simple'.

"This heralds an exciting time for Peach," added Scott-Healey. "We now have a consistent identity and use the word 'technologies' in our name to reflect our telecoms and IT offerings.

"The logo gives us a more professional look and feel for entering the mid-market arena, while reflecting the company's dynamism and innovation."

Peach's new logo is made up by four colours representing the main product areasof systems, mobile, data and networks.

Nimans has taken delivery of a new audio conferencing solution from BT - the X300 model which features two rechargeable wireless microphones and is available exclusively from the distributor.

The X300 boasts a large base speaker for high quality sound, 50 name and number directory, dynamic noise reduction, echo cancellation and full duplex capabilities for natural two-way conversations.

Nimans' Head of Conferencing Sales, Ian Brindle, says the compact unit is a suitable solution for standard meeting rooms of up to eight attendees.

"Microphone talk time is five hours or 70 hours in standby mode and they have up to a 3m pick-up range," he explained. "The X300 certainly packs a punch at a competitive price point. It boasts many features as well as high quality audio performance."

The X300 follows on from the launch of the X500 which has four wireless microphones.

West Berkshire Council has completed an 18v month £200,000 upgrade of its main data centre with help from Redcentric.

The Council, which covers half of Berkshire, runs two data centres supporting the day-to-day operations of 1,800 council staff as well as delivering online services to 155,000 residents.

Its data centre refresh focused on uprating power, cooling and building management capabilities to reduce its PUE from 1.99 to 1.43, as well as upgrading its switching provision. This allowed the Council to preempt any performance issues as the demands on bandwidth inevitably increase over time.

Redcentric's projects team looked at a number of scenarios and equipment vendors before recommending a 10 gigabyte top of rack switch-based solution using Brocade.

It met the needs for port density within a set footprint, would integrate seamlessly with the existing architecture and offered future upgrade options.

Redcentric also leveraged its relationship with Brocade to enable the team to put forward what it deemed to be an optimum solution at the right price point.

Andy Best, ICT operations manager at West Berkshire Council, said: "We knew that this was giving us exactly what we needed technically, operationally and commercially. We were now free to focus on testing the configuration and evaluating the equipment, prior to the go-live."

Uprated bandwidth has ensured West Berkshire has sufficient capacity going forward to maintain speed and availability. The investment in new switches has helped safeguard the ongoing reliability and continuity of service to both council staff and residents.

The Brocade deployment has also allowed West Berkshire Council to maintain system and application availability SLAs during this major in-situ data centre upgrade, within tight project budget constraints.

A new breed of data specialist is set to empower big businesses by bridging the gaps between data, people and technology.

The emergence of Chief Data Officers (CDOs) underlines the strategic value of data, and according to a survey of CIOs by Experian (the global information services group) the requirement for such people appears urgent, with 61% wanting to see a CDO hired within the next 12 months.

Alongside the CIO as the point-person for guiding the use of data within the business, the CDO will be expected to navigate an increasingly complex landscape to deliver the best results for both brands and customers.

Experian's study, called Dawn of the Chief Data Officer, concluded that 90% of CIOs believe that data is transforming the way they do business, and 92% suggested that a CDO is best placed to define data strategy, with CDOs tipped to become senior board level players by 2020, reckons Experian.
 
The study also suggests that 2015 is set to be the year where this new 'data force' takes the lead in overseeing the use of data within organisations.

Boris Huard, Managing Director of Experian Data Quality said: "The 'data force' will have a key role at the heart of businesses. We can add Chief Digital Officer, alongside CDOs and Director of Insights, as emerging new roles which have come about in response to the pressure and opportunity presented by big data.
 
"What is particularly encouraging is that companies are increasingly switching on to the value of data. They are realising that more emphasis needs to be placed on data management and strategy to ensure that they are able to satisfy burgeoning customer expectations, both now and in the future.
 
"This new breed of data professionals will have wide-ranging impact on the way that brands interact with customers. Regardless of what industry you are operating in, your marketers are only ever as good as the data that underpins their plans, ensuring data quality is one important element of getting your interactions with the consumer right."

The plug has been pulled on a deep pool of workplace talent and this drain on professional experience is damaging to UK businesses, according to Clive Jefferys, MD of telecoms recruiter JMA Network.

He cited a new report by Business in The Community (a charity backed by the Prince Charles) which states as many as one million over-50s have been forced out of the professional workforce during the last five years.

Jefferys condemned the development as 'prejudice against older workers' and called on all industries to reverse the trend. With hackles raised he stated: "This is a crazy situation and has to change.

"The  UK economy is short of a million workers, but companies are unwilling to acknowledge that improved life expectancy has added at least another ten years to most people's effective working lives.

"It would seem that the stigma of having grey hair is still able to curtail most people's employment, in any profession, regardless of their abilities.

"We need to stop throwing away talent and experience. No-one expects a sportsperson to be at the top of the game forever, so why can't we help people to move into less onerous roles to keep them productive?

"Forcing the over-50s to leave professional jobs is a total waste of resources."

Node4 has completed a multi-million pound investment in its core infrastructure including the install of its own Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) network.

The company will be able to offer its own high-speed connections directly to customers, slashing deployment times by at least 50%; and offer businesses 10Gb Ethernet or 8Gb fibre channel connections in its core network with minimal deployment time, says the firm.

Paul Bryce, Business Development Director at Node4, commented: "Organisations today rely on robust and secure high-speed connectivity, which is why we are continuously upgrading our capabilities to ensure that we meet the ever-increasing needs of businesses."