Comms Dealer

Four Daisy Directors have left the Group following the company's take private approach led by current CEO and now Executive Chairman Matthew Riley.

Peter Dubens, Christina Kennedy, Laurence Blackall and Ian McKenzie resigned with effect from 19th December 2014.
 
Riley commented: "I would like to thank Peter, Christina, Laurence and Ian for the contribution they have each made to Daisy's successful execution of its acquisition-led strategy since its Admission in 2009. 

"The guidance and support they have given during this period has helped to deliver shareholders 185 pence per Daisy Share under the terms of the Offer, compared to the placing price in July 2009 of 80 pence per Daisy Share, an increase of 131.3 per cent. I wish each of them every success in their future ventures."

South West Communications Group has scooped the Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise 2014 SMB Growth partner award.

Peter Tebbutt, Country Leader, UK&I, Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise, said: "The Award acknowledges the investment swcomms has made in our product portfolio over the past 12 months and their achievement in driving business efficiency and growth for their customers.

"The company is dedicated to designing solutions that suit the needs of each of its clients, and this Award illustrates the way in which it has aligned its strategy with that of Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise in order to deliver advanced solutions and integrate them seamlessly into existing infrastructure. "

Sarah Flowers, swcomms' Sales Director, added: "We have a long established relationship with Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise, which has seen us successfully work together to provide efficient voice and data communications solutions for a range of businesses and public sector organisations."

IT infrastructure and support services provider Onyx Group has boosted its revenues, consulting and managed service capabilities with the acquisition of Knowledge IT. Onyx has completed five significant acquisitions since 2000 and forecasts £20m turnover for financial year 2014, up 13% on the previous year.

The purchase of north east-based Knowledge IT adds a further £10m to Onyx's run rate revenue now rising to £30m-plus while increasing headcount to 170.

The acquisition forms part of Onyx's plans to become a £100m revenue IT support and services business in the next five years.

Onyx owns five data centres and six workplace recovery facilities across the UK and has a growing base of more than 200 customers.

Onyx Group CEO Neil Stephenson said: "Increasingly over the past two years customers have been asking us to manage their entire IT infrastructure, as well as providing resilient solutions to complex cloud and hosting requirements.

"The Knowledge IT team has a great reputation for delivering these services and this deal will make the Onyx propositions and reach stronger for both sets of customers."

George Sanger, MD of Knowledge IT, added: "We welcome the opportunity to share our expertise to help Onyx build on its achievements and grow the enlarged business."

Adam Holloway, Partner at Living Bridge, Onyx's private equity partner added: "Having invested in Onyx in 2011, we're delighted to see it make this strategic acquisition and are excited by the growth opportunities for the combined group."

By Elvire Gosnold, Director, Blabbermouth Marketing: If you have not already written your 2015 marketing plan here's a few starting points for your consideration. Planning: This is a vital exercise and must knit in with all the goals of your stakeholders.

Planning is key and should be firmly integrated into your business strategy and corporate ambitions. Ensure all key team members are on board with your marketing ideas.

Don't confuse: Be clear on your key messaging and ensure this message is repeated in the same fashion across as many channels and as often as your budget will allow.

Know your customers: Get a true understanding of your client's business, their key objectives and pain points. If you know this you can offer them meaningful services that will enrich their business environment and keep them coming back for more.

Be open minded: There are many more routes of communication than before. Experiment with video, SEO and social media but always ensure it is integrated with your more traditional activities.

Don't be stubborn: Give new marketing ideas a chance to establish but equally do not continue with a route that is not working for your business. Use this knowledge to create a new more successful campaign and move on.

ROI: Always a hot topic. Utilise the monitoring tools readily available for online activity. Speak to your sales team who engage directly with your clients on a daily basis. Although not automated, they have knowledge that offers invaluable insight into your campaign success and how it was received by your target audience.

BT has announced trials of a solution which could deliver superfast broadband to hard-to-access locations in cities across the UK.

The new form of Fibre-to-the-Basement technology - developed and funded by BT - will be piloted in two City of London buildings from next month.

As a result of the trial, 225 homes in the Middlesex Street Estate and around 50 SMEs based at 65 London Wall will have access to download speeds of up to 80Mbps from more than 130 different service providers for the first time. 

By integrating fibre broadband kit into a building basement or comms room, the need for street furniture, public civil engineering works and road closures will be reduced - and so will the time it takes for an installation to be carried out.

Graham Bell, Chief Information Officer of the City of London Corporation, said: "All businesses are keener than ever to be well-connected and this Fibre-to-Basement pilot is a welcome step forwards, especially for smaller SMEs who are critical to London's commercial dynamism.

"We hope the trials will lead to further expansion of fibre broadband across the Square Mile for residents and SMEs, complementing the Ethernet infrastructure already available to larger firms."

Joe Garner, CEO, Openreach, said: "City centre locations present unique challenges when it comes to upgrading consumer broadband. For example, there is less room for us to install a fibre cabinet on the pavement, and it is often harder to get permission to close roads to do the work.  We also need to secure permission from multiple landlords to run new cables across their land and properties.

"That's why we are being innovative with new technology solutions like this one. We are optimistic that this new solution will prove that fibre broadband can be installed into building basements quickly, smoothly and economically. It could also have the added benefit of being less disruptive for our customers and the general public."

Acquisition target EE has itself completed a strategic buy, snapping up distributor Mainline Communications Group to bolster its B2B channel capabilities. EE, the subject of a £12.5bn acquisition bid from BT, has been a prime mover in driving the adoption of 4G products and services in the business market.

The acquisition of Mainline enables EE to work more closely with its channel partners.

"Mainline is a responsive, efficient, and entrepreneurial distributor with excellent business practices and partnerships," said Gerry McQuade, CMO at EE.

"By acquiring Mainline, we will be able to extend their capabilities in support of our indirect B2B sales strategy."

The acquisition builds on EE's current share of 26% in Mainline, which will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of EE and will continue to operate under the Mainline brand.

"Having been a part of the EE family for some time, we are proud to have played a key role in building and supporting EE's business customer base," said Andrew Boden, MD of Mainline.

"We are excited to be entering this new chapter in our relationship with EE, and we look forward to helping EE forge even more successful relationships with its channel partners."

Excell Group has acquired the customer bases of Resource Utilities and virtual network operator Green Mobile (which offers a carbon zero service), adding significant turnover to the Group from a diversified customer base.

"The Group looks forward to delivering and supporting services to this diverse and socially responsible base of customers," said Excell's Head of Marketing Chris Attwood.

The Excell Group provides cloud-based managed services to businesses and the acquisitions advance its growth strategy and commitment to social value, building on charitable commitments already made to Teenage Cancer Trust and local charitable projects and initiatives.

"Customers will benefit from the continued offering of Resource Utilities and Green Mobile combined with Excell's support and range of cloud products and services," said Attwood.

"We will remain focused on our customers and strengthen our offerings to deliver more value."

The ONS announcement on unemployment falling to 6%, its lowest level since 2008, coincides with a widespread rethink in HR strategy, according to JMA MD Clive Jefferys.

"No great surprises there as 2014 has been notable for growing skills shortages right across the economy," he said. "It transpires that the active qualified candidate pool now is less than 500,000 people, lower than it ever was throughout the economic boom that ended in 2008.

"At every level, organisations are struggling to meet the headcount targets that underpin their growth strategy for next year. Whether they need more van drivers, production line workers, technical support, salespeople or CEOs, most companies have learnt that the UK is firmly a Seller's Market now."

Jefferys cited a survey of HR Directors commissioned by Robert Half, published on 15th December, which found that 56% are radically changing both their recruitment processes and the benefits on offer to attract talent.

"The battle for key hires in sales, marketing and technology has intensified to the point that hiring managers are being re-educated to act decisively," said Jefferys.

"With many positions remaining vacant for more than six months they are learning that they need to seize the opportunity presented by even single candidate applications.

"Benefits packages for new hires have gone up by average of 8% in response to competition, and this will also have ramifications for all staffing costs next year."

International digital services company Atos has successfully certified against the Cloud Industry Forum's (CIF) Code of Practice, demonstrating its commitment to transparency, accountability and capability in the provision of cloud services.

According to the Cloud Service Provider (CSP), best practice schemes, such as the Code of Practice, are key if the cloud industry is to arrive at maturity.

Atos is a digital services company with 2013 pro forma annual revenue of €10 billion and 86,000 employees in 66 countries.

Serving a global client base, the Group provides Consulting & Systems Integration services, Managed Services & BPO, Cloud operations, Big Data & Security solutions, as well as transactional services through Worldline, the European leader in the payments and transactional services industry.

Rob Price, Head of Digital at Atos UK & Ireland, said: "As the industry continues to move and evolve at such pace it's important that we can publicly demonstrate our adherence to best practice.

"The next stage in the evolution of the cloud industry hinges on our ability to provide reassurances to the market that we can meet high industry standards, which is why schemes like the Code of Practice are so valuable."

Alex Hilton, CEO of the Cloud Industry Forum, added: "The CIF Code of Practice is all about building trust in the cloud industry between cloud users and cloud suppliers.

"Organisations seeking to use cloud services need a straightforward way to qualify potential suppliers that will accurately define the services offered and standards of operations and security."

Daisy Group has launched a new recruitment campaign for field technicians to join its engineering division.

Eight new positions have been created for people looking to get their first step on the engineering ladder.

The drive follows the recent success of participants that took part in Daisy's first engineering apprenticeship programme, all of whom are about to be offered full-time positions within the company upon completion.

Rik Horton, Engineering Director at Daisy, said the firm is keen to offer opportunities to talented engineers who will help to bolster the firm's capabilities in the IT services market, particularly in managed services.

"The new recruits will initially join our tier 1 team and be primarily responsible for cabling infrastructures and hardware deployments of varying sizes; however there are also various opportunities for progression within Daisy to eventually join one of our more technical teams," he said.

"It is widely-recognised within the IT and telecoms industry that it is difficult to hire highly skilled, qualified engineers without having to recruit from competitors. What Daisy wants to do is break that cycle and provide a platform for engineers to develop, ultimately leading to a new breed of engineering talent coming through the business."