Comms Dealer

The comms industry has barely scratched the surface of what's possible with UC, according to Mitel's President and CEO Richard McBee, who believes that a big push towards simplicity and partner innovation will be key to unlocking UC's full potential.

"Transformational technologies like cloud communications are changing the game and streamlining how we connect, collaborate and help our customers drive success, but as an industry we are still at the starting line of what UC has to offer," he said.

"The challenge is to replace the technical complexity with a simple, seamless and universal user experience. The industry will have to come together in new and unanticipated ways to make that happen."

McBee made his comments ahead of ITEXPO in Miami (January 27th-30th) where he will deliver a keynote address.

Hot demand for avsnet's managed services have prompted a move to new headquarters with a state of the art Network Operations Centre (NOC) under its roof.

The NOC serves as the hub of avsnet's IT Service Management (ITSM) team and will allow the company to continue strengthening its portfolio of network management, IT and application availability monitoring, and 24/7 support services with new solutions and capabilities.

This includes new flexible managed services, public, private and hybrid cloud solutions, monitoring infrastructure, and converged networking options, all of which have been built around delivering long-term return on investment, financial freedom and corporate sustainability.
 
Graham Fry, Managing Director of avsnet, said: "This is an exciting chapter for avsnet, especially as we celebrate our ten year anniversary in 2015.

"Our new office is the culmination of the long-standing support our customers have provided us. We have spent the past six months investing heavily in our operational and technical capabilities to ensure we can continue meeting the IT demands dictated by a rapidly changing business environment.

"This development is entirely for the benefit of our customers, many of which have entrusted their entire IT infrastructure to avsnet."

Parliament should reject the introduction of the Communications Data Bill via the Counter Terrorism and Security Bill, according to ISPA Secretary General Nicholas Lansman.

He said: "Amendments to the Counter Terrorism and Security Bill have been tabled that seek to introduce the extensive powers contained in the Draft Communications Data Bill into the Counter Terrorism and Security Bill.

"Inserting the clauses contained in the Draft Communications Data Bill into an already complex Bill that is itself proceeding through Parliament via a fast-tracked process is ill-judged.

"The Lords cannot have time to properly consider the substantial powers contained in the amendments to the Bill, and would deny the Commons the opportunity to properly consider the powers as well."

The Draft Communications Data Bill was scrutinised by a Joint Parliamentary Committee in 2012 who concluded that there 'should be a new round of consultation with technical experts, industry, law enforcement bodies, public authorities and civil liberties groups'.

"At the time industry was critical of the level of consultation and there has since been no adequate consultation since," added Lansman.

"The Committee also had substantial concerns around the wholesale collection and analysis of communications data, oversight regime, definitions of communications data and robustness of cost estimates, and these have not been addressed and would require considerable changes to the current drafting.

"Introducing as amendments to a Bill that is being fast-tracked through Parliament, without acknowledging the need for further debate and substantial change, is deeply regrettable.

"The Government established a review into investigatory powers led by the independent reviewer of terrorism, David Anderson QC, that is set to publish before the General Election.

"Rather than bringing in substantial legislation by the backdoor before this review has published and without addressing the concerns of a parliamentary Joint Committee, we urge Parliament to reject this attempt to insert complex legislation into an existing Bill at the last minute."

In common with Southampton, the premiership football team its supports, things are on the up for Romsey-based Nix Communications.

In a record breaking year the company secured its best ever business performance in 2014 and secured a trophy double, namely Unify Reseller of the Year and Naomi Housing Corporate Supporter of the Year (small and medium sized businesses).

Office Manager Emma Davis was also finalist in the Outstanding Charity Champion category in the Naomi Housing awards process.

"We've had a terrific year and got off to a fabulous start in 2015," said MD Nick Zammit.

"It's a true team effort. With everyone working hard towards the goals of sales excellence and unrivalled customer service, the only way for NIX is up!"

During 2015 Nix will continue to achieve national TV coverage via pitch side banners at the St Mary's Stadium, home of Southampton FC and will also continue to support a number of local causes including the Independent Marshall Arts Association), children's cancer charity Joe Glover Trust and the Baddesley Crusaders Football Team.

Picture shows Nev Wilshire from BBC's The Call Centre programme who gave a memorable motivational speech at Nix's annual sales conference.

Distributor Avnet has reported a 1.8% rise in Q2 revenue from the previous fiscal year, with strong sales in Europe.

Avnet Technology Solutions, the IT arm, reported revenue of $3.1bn, at the high end of expectations due to better than seasonal growth in the EMEA. This figure was a fall of 4.6% year-over-year driven by 13.4% decline in Asia, it says.

Kevin Moriarty, CFO, said: "TS saw better than expected growth in our EMEA and Americas region which led to above-seasonal growth as revenue grew 29.4% sequentially in constant currency.

"Our EMEA region grew 34.5% sequentially in constant currency while Americas and Asia regions grew 29.2% and 13.7% respectively. Revenue of $3.12 billion declined 4.6% year-over-year and was down 2% in constant currency driven by 13.4% decline in our Asian region related primarily to our continuing components business."

The decline in the Americas gross profit margin was partially offset by increases in EMEA and Asia. 30% of revenue and an even higher percent of operating income is derived in the EMEA region.

Rick Hamada, CEO, added: "At a product level, networking of security, services and storage were all up year-over-year while our sequential growth was led by software services and storage."

Converged solutions continue to be a hot area, he says, as a key building block of today's data centre.

BroadSoft has surpassed 10 million hosted UC lines deployed, a milestone that demonstrates strong and growing demand for BroadSoft's UC-One application by businesses of all sizes and across North America, Europe, Asia, and other global markets.

A broad range of service providers, including fixed, mobile, and Over the Top (OTT) players, have deployed UC-One, which allows voice, video, business directories, call logs, instant messaging and presence to be available on a single interface, regardless of the user's preferred mobile device, type of connectivity, or type of communication service connectivity (hosted or premise-based PBX).

BroadSoft customers have the option to deploy unified communications services via the BroadWorks platform or via BroadCloud, a managed service that significantly shortens the time it takes service providers to enter this fast growing market.

According to an August 2014 Infonetics Report, the global hosted PBX and UC services market is expected to grow from $8.5bn in 2014 to $12.3bn by 2018.

North America is the largest market for hosted VoIP and UC services, commanding 49% of all seats in the first half of 2014, compared to 24% in Asia Pacific, 22% in EMEA, and 5% in Central America/Latin America.

"The fact that BroadSoft's biggest customers have deployed over 500,000 hosted UC seats reinforces our market analysis that businesses are actively seeking out hosted UC solutions, and that adoption is occurring across all market segments - from SMBs to large enterprises," said Diane Myers, principal analyst, Infonetics Research.

Michael Tessler, president and chief executive officer, BroadSoft, added: "Ten million hosted UC lines deployed is more than a number, it's a statement that BroadSoft is redefining the future of work by inspiring workers to create, collaborate and perform in ways never before imagined.

"As BroadSoft continues to focus on developing and delivering innovative technologies that smash through traditional work silos to accelerate workforce collaboration and productivity, we can accelerate the enterprise shift from premise-based to hosted UC - and all of the benefits that come along with leveraging the cloud."

Britain's second largest mobile provider O2 could be sold to the owner of Hong Kong-based Hutchison Whampoa according to a BBC report.

Li Ka-shing, who owns the Three mobile network, is said to be in talks to buy O2 from Spain's Telefonica for £10.25bn. The move could create the UK's biggest mobile group.

Hutchison shares rose 4% on the announcement.

Allied Telesis has bolstered its converged wired and wireless solutions portfolio with the formation of Allied Telesis Wireless.

The new entity incorporates the former Extricom team and the assets acquired (intellectual property, technologies, product portfolio and its customer base).

The Extricom product portfolio has been deployed for over a decade in challenging environments such as large public venues, warehouse/logistics/industrial manufacturing facilities, schools, and hospitals throughout North America, Europe and Asia.

Seiichiro Sato, Allied Telesis director of global product marketing, said: "The formation of Allied Telesis Wireless and the launch of the Extricom product line will allow Allied Telesis to offer a complete portfolio of wireless and wired LAN solutions to our customers."

Manchester-based Invosys (formerly ICS) has completed a staff recruitment drive that builds a solid platform for future expansion.

Following its rebrand from ICS last April the company sharpened its focus on innovating communications software to expand the product suite and level of technical expertise. The move created a number of key roles that Invosys has now fulfilled.

The product development team sees the arrival of Amina Marfoua, from Alternative Networks, who has been appointed in the newly created position of Head of Products, bringing over six years experience in designing and rolling out telecoms solutions.

Additions to the team include Tanya Schultz from Global Capacity as Tester and Graphics Designer, and Jim O'Brien as Graphics Designer, along with Hernan Carreras and Montserrat Areal as Java Developers (key roles which focus on innovation and product functionality).

They are joined by Zeeshan Hussain as iOS developer, who will have a focus on communication related apps.

Invosys has also increased its client services offering with three new appointments. Ed Cheung, also formerly of Alternative Networks, joins as Project Manager. He brings experience in managing a wide range of products including inbound/outbound and mobile, LAN/WAN solutions, Mitel and Avaya system installations.

Cheung is supported by Stephanie Warwick from Redrow Homes in a customer service role along with Andrew Lindley, who joins the order desk.

Amina Marfoua said: "2014 has been a critical year in the evolution of ICS to Invosys. We are thrilled with our new additions to the team who bring a wealth of expertise, which will help us achieve our vision to become the global innovators in the communication software industry, at the forefront of product development."

Radio comms specialist Icom UK welcomed HRH The Princess Royal to its stand at the 61st Annual London Boatshow.

Bob Stockley, MD, said: "We are proud and honoured that HRH The Princess Royal took time to visit us and was interested in our new models, particularly our new Wi-Fi digital radios.

"As a company we have been attending the Boatshow for over 20 years. To have Her Royal Highness visit our stand at the end of our 40th anniversary year in business was absolutely fantastic."

During the show Icom showcased its range of marine radio and navigational equipment.

The company launched two new fixed marine VHF radios to the boating media including new models called the IC-M323 and IC-M423 which feature integrated GPS receivers.