Comms Dealer

Cloud comms provider NFON AG has collected the 2017 European Frost & Sullivan award for Growth Excellence Leadership following growth at above the market average in the European hosted IP telephony and UCaaS market.

Elka Popova, Vice President at Frost & Sullivan, said: "With its strong position in the German market NFON now strives to continue this success in the European market."

Hans Szymanski, CEO of NFON AG, said: "In addition to the German market we have successfully launched operations in Austria, Croatia, Hungary, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, and the UK. Services in the Portuguese market will be launched in the second quarter of 2017 which will be followed by Italy in the third quarter of this year."

TalkTalk Business has added a multi-platform mobile application to its Hosted Voice product in preparation for a near tipping point in workplace mobility.

The company cited a report by The Work Foundation which says that within three years 70% of people will work away from the office just as much as they work at their desk.

In preparation for this future working environment TalkTalk Business has introduced MiCollab, a UC application based on Mitel technology that enables users to access the same functionality from a PC, laptop, desk phone or smartphone.

An optional Skype for Business plugin means that TalkTalk Business partners can more easily provide enterprise-class voice within the Skype for Business platform.

Workers can download the app directly from the Android, iOS, BlackBerry and Windows application stores.

Guy Miller, Director of Trading at TalkTalk Business, commented: "Businesses have long been looking for ways to improve their productivity while also providing much more flexibility for their increasingly mobile workforce.

"More and more firms are finding that for their employees work is an activity rather than a place to be. They expect to be able to work from any location with the same level of access and connectivity as if they were in the office.

"With the introduction of the Unified Communication feature set to our Hosted Voice platform, TalkTalk Business is allowing Partners to cater for evolving working practices while also providing telephony which is secure and reliable."

TalkTalk Business is a Mitel Platinum partner.

Elitetele.com CEO Matt Newing has set up a Just Giving page where people can donate funds towards helping the Manchester Arena victims and their families.

The company has a strong presence in Manchester and aims to raise £25,000. "Once the target has been met we will decide where the monies will be distributed to make sure it helps those people who need it the most," said Newing.

At present the total raised is almost £11,000.

If you would like to donate please visit
www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/we-stand-united-for-manchester

The merger of Sonus Networks and Genband creates a new force in next generation communications networking with increased scale and market reach across products, customers and geographies. The joint entity has an enterprise value of circa $745m with Sonus and Genband shareholders each own approximately 50% of the combined company.  

The transaction brings together Sonus' expertise in real-time communication virtualisation, cloud-based SIP and 4G/voice-over LTE solutions and security initiatives, with Genband's UC, mobility and embedded communications solutions. 

The two companies' combined 2016 revenue and EBITDA would have been approximately $680 million and $50 million, respectively, on a combined basis which excludes synergies and is prior to any impact from purchase accounting.

The combined company is expected to realise annual cost synergies of $40 million to $50 million by the end of 2018 and to drive solid cash flow from operations in the first year after closing. 

Following the full impact of expected annualized synergies, the combined company is expected to generate at least $100 million in annual EBITDA, with fiscal year 2020 EBITDA projected to be approximately $140 million.

Raymond Dolan, President and Chief Executive Officer of Sonus, said:  "The transaction is expected to generate significant near- and long-term value for shareholders, who we believe will benefit from their ownership in a combined company with increased scale and resources to invest in and accelerate each company's growth initiatives. 

"This is a strategically and financially compelling transaction for Sonus and we are confident that together with GENBAND we will achieve our growth initiatives faster and more fully than either company could do on its own."

David Walsh, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of Genband, added: "Like Sonus, Genband has transitioned its business to support this industry shift and we have seen improving profitability over the last couple of years and into 2017."

NTA's target busting hosted telephony resellers were rewarded with an all-expenses paid trip to Cyprus (May 16th-20th) where they enjoyed a selection of activities including golf, a boat trip and diving, along with evening treats such as a Casino trip.

NTA Sales Director Justin Blaine commented: "It's great to have so many partners who qualified. During the trip they have not only forged a stronger relationship with the NTA team, but also between themselves by sharing business ideas and stories about their different routes to success."

Hosted UC provider thevoicefactory (tvf) has developed a cyber security solution for its Hosted Telephony and SIP Trunking customers.

The SENTRY fraud management service monitors and reports any suspicious activity enabling customers to identify and thwart attacks on their telecoms systems. It is mandatory and free of charge and is designed to ensure tvf's partners and their end customers are protected against fraud.

"Unified Comms applications such as voice, video, messaging and file sharing are as prone to network attacks as web and data applications," said MD Paul Harrison. "However, businesses tend to focus their security efforts on incoming and outgoing data and neglect real-time communications.

"Attacks can include theft of service, telephony denial-of-service (TDoS), voice phishing, toll fraud and eavesdropping. Cyber criminals are actively targeting cloud platforms which provide diverse attack points for hackers and there has been a rise in attacks using SIP. SENTRY ensures our partners' customers are not left vulnerable to such attacks."

A team of 22 staff from Telford-based communications wholesaler Entanet completed the Tough Mudder Half Midlands challenge, raising funds for the stillbirth and neonatal death charity Sands.

The Entanet team comprised a mix of men and women from various departments within the company, including two even completing the challenging run dressed as Tyrannosaurus Rex dinosaurs.

Stephen Barclay, Entanet Sales Director, said: "The course lived up to its name. It was really tough and very muddy, but it was also a lot of fun.

"It must have been particularly difficult for our T-Rex duo, who really went above and beyond to support Sands. However, it was well worth the effort to raise money for such a special charity."

A new study carried out by Cisco has revealed that 60% of IoT initiatives stall at the Proof of Concept (PoC) stage and only 26% of companies have had an IoT initiative that they considered a complete success. A third of all completed projects were not considered a success.

"It's not for the lack of trying," said Rowan Trollope, Senior Vice President and General Manager, IoT and Applications, Cisco. "But there are plenty of things we can do to get more projects out of pilot and to complete success."??Inbar Lasser-Raab, VP of Cisco Enterprise Solutions Marketing, added: "We are seeing new IoT innovations almost every day.

"We are connecting things that we never thought would be connected, creating incredible new value to industries. 

"But where we see most of the opportunity is where we partner with other vendors and create solutions that are not only connected but also share data. That shared data is the basis of a network of industries - sharing of insights to make tremendous gains for business and society, because no one company can solve this alone."

Daisy Group has been awarded Gold Business Partner status by hardware manufacturer Lenovo, its highest tier.

The announcement follows a period of revenue growth over the last 12 months during which Daisy's Lenovo revenue stream achieved over 170% year-on-year growth.

Andrew Pring, Group Vendor Alliances & Supply Chain Services Director at Daisy Group, said: "Lenovo underpins our desktop lifecycle services to some of Daisy's longest-serving and most prestigious customers. It's exciting to consider what more we can achieve together as this partnership continues to develop."

8x8 has appointed Rani Hublou as Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) responsible for aligning 8x8's value proposition, products, packaging and positioning with global marketing initiatives.

"Rani is a proven innovator, competitor and winner and her accomplishments at Comprehend, PSS Systems, BEA Systems, Broadvision and Icarian speak for themselves," said Vik Verma, Chief Executive Officer of 8x8.

"She has the marketing expertise, management consulting background and successful track record using a big data analytics approach to help companies create and expand into new markets."