Comms Dealer

GCI has introduced another dimension to its channel strategy with the launch of a Dealer Programme under the GCI Channel Solutions brand.

According to Head of Channel Sales, Mark Whitehead, the scheme enables resellers to adopt a referral model and unlock new revenue opportunities.

"We didn't want to exclude resellers from entering emerging markets because of a lack of experience, short trading histories and limited capital to invest," explained Whitehead.

"Nor did we want resellers missing out on potential GP because of the risks associated with long-term contracts."

Under the terms of the Dealer Programme GCI owns the contract with the end user and takes on the responsibility, while the dealer earns commission for this recommendation.
 
"We want our established white label partners to be able to make money from sales outside their normal areas of interest, and our Dealer Programme can accommodate this ambition," added Whitehead.

"For example, our biggest Partner buys MPLS and Ethernet from us but introduces GCI directly through the Dealer Programme for cloud sales such as hosted desktop and virtual servers.
 
"This adds a new and exciting string to the GCI Channel Solutions armoury."

Andy Tow has been appointed MD of Excalibur Communications just three months after joining the company as Chief Commercial Officer. The move sees Tow join forces with CEO James Phipps to spearhead a growth plan to boost annual turnover to £25m by 2020. Tow, the former head of Avenir, oversaw a record quarter in Q4 2014 and the firm also recorded its highest number of new customers in the period. IT services alone saw a 30% growth.

"This is no coincidence," said Phipps. "A man of Andy's calibre delivers results.

"His general management experience will lead the company not just on its turnover and profit growth, but importantly, on all the required enablers, especially structure and people development".

Tow joined Excalibur following a stint as MD of Chess Partner Services in London.

Hats off to Intercity for winning the GCI Channel Solutions African Safari Experience incentive scheme.

The scheme, which offered resellers the chance to win a Safari holiday, was awarded to the reseller who sold the most Virgin connectivity between July and December 2014.

Mark Whitehead, Head of Channel Sales at GCI, commented: "Intercity has been a great partner for us to deal with over the last year. It is also a ServiceMark accredited company which means we really have to perform as a channel service provider.

"Intercity winning our Virgin Media promotion demonstrates that we have both been successful in collaboration."

Entatech UK has struck a new distribution agreement with YEZZ, a global manufacturer of mobile devices.

Paul Olliver, Entatech Retail, Solutions and Displays Channel Manager, commented: "Throughout 2014 we worked hard to establish Entatech as a distributor of smart devices, ensuring that we are catering to the needs of our resellers and the end user.

"The introduction of YEZZ to our portfolio will provide our resellers with mobile solutions for both end user and business use, boosted by Windows and Android technologies and features."

Martin Tufft has been appointed Director of Sales & Marketing at Mainline, the 4GEE distributor and wholly owned subsidiary of EE.

In this new role, Tufft is responsible for developing and implementing Mainline's Sales and Marketing strategy including customer service, product development and partner relationships.

He has more than 20 years experience in the mobile industry across a wide range of disciplines and organisations.

Most recently Tufft was responsible for public sector sales at EE, helping UK public sector organisations make the most of mobile technology to improve productivity and better serve the UK public.

Tufft said: "Today more than ever, mobile technology has the power to change the face of businesses in the UK, allowing them to become more flexible and improve productivity."

Exclusive Networks UK has been named EMEA Distributor of the Year by Fortinet, the specialist in high performance network security.

Up against Fortinet's entire EMEA distributor base, Exclusive Networks received this recognition during Fortinet's Global Partner Conference, held January 8-12 aboard the Royal Caribbean's Liberty of the Seas.

Graham Jones, UK Country Manager for Exclusive Networks, said: "It is an excellent achievement to gain recognition from one of our strategic vendor partners.

"This award is testament to our investment and development in our value add proposition, and showcases our core attributes including exceptional consultancy, sales, marketing, training and technical support services."

David Park, Director Channel & Commercial Sales for Fortinet, added: "Exclusive Networks UK has continued to demonstrate value by investing in resources to address the business needs of Fortinet and our partner base.

"Keeping in step with Fortinet's local strategy, Exclusive has increased sales, technical and support capability to create, demonstrate and deploy Fortinet Solutions.

"The Exclusive team has shown themselves to be a safe pair of hands when it comes to partner development and enablement, increasing the contribution in Bronze and Silver partners from both a revenue and number of partners perspective.

"In addition, their focus and investment to develop skills and ability in the Fortinet Advance Technology suite will drive the relevance of the wider Fortinet portfolio to partners and their customers."

Avnet Technology Solutions UK has launched an Elastic Cloud Infrastructure (ECI) solution combining technology from Cisco, EMC and VMware.

The new addition to Avnet's portfolio will accelerate the success of business partners looking to maximise the potential of the expanding Hyper-Convergence market.

The platform is aimed at smaller service providers and mid to large-sized organisations looking to increase the flexibility and scalability of their next generation data centre environments.

Avnet's ECI solution will also help to lower total cost of ownership (TCO) through the lifecycle of the infrastructure. Avnet business partners can install and deploy Cisco's UCS servers and EMC's ScaleIO storage systems with VMware's vSphere® virtualisation platform to offer one totally integrated solution.

Tom Corrigan, open storage and Cisco business unit leader, Avnet Technology Solutions, UK, commented: "Working with some of the world's most trusted technology providers, we have created a powerful addition to Avnet's portfolio that tightly integrates computing, storage, networking and virtualisation resources in a single package."

Traditionally, organisations were committed to one brand of storage technology that often locked them into long-term contracts. Avnet's ECI solution provides a flexible, scalable, building block approach by allowing storage functionality and capacity in any server to be accessed as and when the organisation needs it.

By offering a common pool of storage, purchasing decisions can be planned over shorter cycles with less impact on budget and scheduled downtime can be reduced said the firm.

Using ECI, Avnet business partners will benefit from incremental revenue from upgrades and services as they work closely with customers to plan capacity in line with real-time operational and financial requirements.

Avnet anticipates that the new ECI solution will appeal particularly to Software as a Service (SaaS) providers who are reluctant to make large initial infrastructure investments but need to scale resource as demands increase.

In addition, education sector organisations implementing Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) to avoid investing in large technology stacks for point solutions, such as end user computing, are a key target.

Avnet plans to host a series of webinars on ECI that will give business partners the product and market knowledge they need to address the growing demand for Hyper-Convergence solutions.

By outsourcing the IT management function, businesses can ensure high value employees are focused on core activity.

That's the view of Gary David Smith, co-founder of cloud provider Prism Solutions, who says IT management is one of the most common business functions that someone simply assumes.

"In the absence of an IT manager or outsourced IT agreement, this function is quite often picked up by an individual who was originally recruited to perform different tasks," he said.

"When the original role was more profitable or of higher value to the organisation, this could be deemed as false economy, even from the most simplistic hourly rate calculation. For example, if the de facto IT manager is a fee earner or sales person, then this value is questionable."

Smith also argues that small companies that do not outsource IT are risking technology meltdown.
?"No one can be an expert at everything and reaction and response times are severely limited in the event of a disaster, potentially leading to costly and unnecessary downtime," he added.

"The best approach is ensuring businesses explore their options and choose the best IT management outsourcing model for their needs. Making a long-term decision in the short term can be extremely serious."

A Channel Telecom voucher scheme to ramp up Ethernet sales has been an unprecedented success.

Towards the end of 2014, the company rewarded partners with gift vouchers for a selection of leading high street stores.

To qualify, partners had to sell a fully managed Ethernet circuit between October 1st and December 12th.

The incentive was originally planned to end in early November but, due to its popularity, was extended for a further month resulting in a total of over 25 Ethernet orders being placed.

Channel Telecom MD Clifford Norton told Comms Dealer: "We wanted to rapidly to expand our Ethernet installed base through this latest partner incentive."

More than 80 VIP guests of Channel Telecom will get the chance to discuss how Government initiatives and legislation can help boost the industry.

The channel-only service provider is to hold a champagne and canapé reception for its wholesale and channel partners at The Houses of Parliament on March 4th.

In a special address at the event, Sajid Javid, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, will speak about the importance of the industry and how telecoms is a vital part of a modern infrastructure and key for a strong economy.

In line with the event Channel Telecom is launching an 'industry manifesto' highlighting how the next Government, following the general election in May, might better support the telecommunications industry.

The manifesto will discuss fraud detection and prevention, improving connectivity and also discuss the control Ofcom has over the industry.

There will also be expert comment by Clifford Norton, MD of Channel Telecom, discussing the current environment, how current Government initiatives work and also where the industry is heading

Norton told Comms Dealer: "This evening reception at The Houses of Parliament will provide a unique and memorable experience for us all, while giving an unbelievable opportunity to share best practice and hear from experts in the field."