Comms Dealer

Alternative Networks staged its annual fusionLIVE event at the Royal Horticultural Halls in Victoria, London (November 6th), where the company presented its evolving device to data centre proposition.

"We took what we knew our customers wanted to learn about and developed a rich programme of seminars and demonstrations," said Edward Spurrier, Alternative's CEO.

Lord Professor Robert Winston kicked off the event with a keynote that explored how interaction and collaboration is evolving as a result of technology.

Also presenting was Microsoft's Chief Envisaging Officer, Dave Coplin, and representatives from Extreme Networks and Citrix.

"fusionLIVE was not merely another technology event, but a business event," added Spurrier.

Samsung's first tablet designed specifically for the B2B market will be available exclusively for six months with Exertis, in both the 4G and Wi-Fi versions.

Exertis will offer the ruggedised Galaxy Tab Active with specific sector proposals to enhance the end user experience, across lone workers, field-based operators, the health sector and the education arena.

Graham Long, Vice President of Enterprise Business at Samsung, commented: "Samsung's Galaxy Tab Active device has been designed to address the requirements and challenges faced by business users.

"The enterprise technology landscape has shifted dramatically, driven by the demand for devices that appeal to consumers while being able to cope with the challenging requirements of professional use.

"Exertis' sector-specific proposition reflects our view that a tailored approach is key to differentiating within a crowded marketplace."

Ewan Davies, Exertis' Head of Devices, added: "Samsung's Galaxy Tab Active is its strongest B2B tablet opportunity to date. Exertis will develop a proposition for all sectors, particularly in education and health.

"As an exclusive product for Exertis, this really enables us to be creative in terms of value and service and we are already seeing volume deals across multiple sectors."

Nimans resellers were standing tall on a five-star trip to Chicago after winning their place on a Unify sales incentive.

Dinner at a jazz club and a trip to The Tilt, Chicago's newest attraction - a 1,000ft high viewing platform that offers downward facing views over the city - were part of the three night stay.

Guests experienced the city's famous architecture on a river cruise and watched a high profile ice hockey game where Nimans' Chairman Julian Niman was wished happy birthday on a giant electronic scoreboard.

They also enjoyed a guided tour along Lake Michigan while travelling on Segways, a two-wheeled, self-balancing, battery-powered electric vehicle.

Nimans is the official distribution partner for Unify in the UK and the two parties joined forces to reward high performing resellers who exceeded agreed sales targets of the OpenScape Business portfolio.

Nimans' Group Sales and Business Development Director, Richard Carter, said: "Guests sampled the culture of a unique and colourful city in many fun and invigorating ways. The friendliness of the people and the stunning architecture really stood out. It was a trip to remember."

Custom business applications have risen dramatically, says the latest Good Technology Mobility Index Report.

This quarter, a major rise in custom app development catapulted this category from the fourth most activated app category to number one on the Good Dynamics Secure Mobility Platform.

In the third quarter, businesses accelerated their transformation through custom business apps built on the platform, with 107% quarterly growth and 731% growth over the same time period last year.

This continues a trend of growth in custom app development over the last three years, producing apps and new business processes ranging from aircraft manufacturing, police crime fighting and insurance claims processing to wealth management, treasury management and expense reporting. Third-party ISV apps built on the Good Dynamics Platform, including document editing, document access, secure browsing and secure instant messaging, rounded out the top five activated business apps.

This quarter, iOS reversed the decline in activations from Q2, gaining two per cent, representing 69% of all activations. The release of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus accounted for this gain. Additionally, the report findings showed that iPhone 6 outpaced iPhone 6 Plus in its first partial month, representing 85% of these new devices to be activated. For the sixth consecutive quarter, Windows Phone continues to hold one per cent of the market share in total device activations.

This quarter's Mobility Index Report confirms enterprises are moving to secure app-to-app workflows, enabling organisations to transform their businesses, while protecting sensitive corporate data.

"The rapid rise in custom app development illustrates that organisations are seeing mobility as a real opportunity for competitive advantage and security as a critical requirement in enabling trusted mobility," said Christy Wyatt, chairman and CEO at Good Technology.

"We continue to see the rapid growth of both internally developed and commercial applications in the Good Dynamics ecosystem, the largest secure mobility ecosystem available across operating systems."

Avnet TS is bringing closer its sales and vendor-facing arms in EMEA. As part of the move Dieter Lott, VP M&A/Business Development at the distributor, is taking on more responsibilities for the Enterprise Business Group, managing the core strategic supplier relationships.

This follows on from Miriam Murphy's appointment to senior vice president, North region, in June. Dieter continues to be responsible for strategy, pan-EMEA account management and global System Integrator (SI) sales.

Graeme Watt, president, Avnet Technology Solutions EMEA, said: "Dieter's expanded role will help us maintain the strong relationships we have with our suppliers as we continue to transform technology into innovative business solutions."

Lott added: "Essentially, I will strengthen our sales and customer focus. Having our EMEA sales account team and our strategic supplier teams under one umbrella will enable this. Overall, it will create stronger alignment between our vendors' goals and our customers' needs."

M2M specialist KORE Wireless Group has announced that ABRY Partners, a North American comms sector focused private equity investment firm, has acquired a majority interest in KORE.

This investment, established in conjunction with the current KORE partners, provides growth and acquisition capital. KORE also announced the acquisition, in an all-cash transaction, of RacoWireless, a company known for making IoT/M2M 'easy' by providing end-to-end connectivity solutions.

Following the completion of this transaction, the combined company will have offices in five countries and serve more than three million subscribers on behalf of over 1,500 customers using services in more than 110 markets around the world. 

"We are standing at a historic inflection point in our industry where scalability and innovation are critical, and the financial partnership with ABRY delivers the capital and expert support necessary to rapidly develop the scale demanded by global customers in what has so far been a fragmented market," said Alex Brisbourne, CEO of KORE.

"Strategic acquisitions both in advanced connectivity and richer applications solutions are an important goal, as scale and global reach are of paramount importance to our large applications and enterprise customers. These customers seek to leverage new M2M technologies that enable more efficient, innovative, and in some cases, disruptive business models going forward."

Blake Battaglia, partner at ABRY Partners, added: "We have been closely watching this industry as it starts to take off on a global scale. Our commitment to investing in KORE as an engine for global growth is, we believe, an indication of the opportunity within this industry space."

A team of 40 Daisy Wholesale employees have ascended Mount Snowdon via the Watkins track, said to be the hardest route, raising £6,235 for Diversity Role Models, a charity that tackles homophobic and transphobic bullying in schools across the nation.

With Gift Aid contributions included, Daisy Wholesale raised an overall sum of £7,800.

Daisy Wholesale MD Terry O'Brien said: "The final 250 metres was particularly difficult with a steep incline with near sheer drops, especially in high winds and torrential rain. We have all suffered aches and pains, but the sense of achievement among the group shone through.

"Coupled with the amazing funds that we have raised for such a worthwhile charity, I feel extremely proud and thankful to all who took part in the climb itself, as well as the organisation. I want to also say a massive thanks to everyone who donated."

Avaya has created 75 new jobs at its Customer Engagement Centre in Galway, Ireland.

The investment is supported by the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation through IDA Ireland.

Avaya will expand its R&D facility in Galway, one of its global innovation centres. The expanded team will focus on developing business critical customer and team engagement technologies and next generation networking products.

Avaya is recruiting staff for a number of positions including research and development, engineering, finance, IT, and administrative support. Avaya currently employs over 400 people in Galway of which 245 are engaged in R&D activities.

Jason Flynn, Country Manager, Ireland, Avaya, said: "The expansion of our Galway Customer Experience Centre will ensure that innovation continues to thrive at Avaya and in Ireland."

Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Richard Bruton TD added: "Encouraging companies to engage in R&D activities is a key part of our jobs plan, and we have put in place a range of measures to support more companies in this area.

"Increasingly, we are focusing on turning the good ideas that we have developed through investments in this area over the past decade into good jobs. I look forward to working with Avaya as they continue to develop their business and create more high-end jobs in Galway."

Elitetele.com has launched a specialist BYOD division which will ensure its customers are able to implement cost effective BYOD strategies across their business.

The new division will provide advice on establishing which employees will benefit from which devices, give support for building and managing a Mobile Device Management strategy, provide insight on security solutions for BYOD and tips on hosting and managing access to cloud based business applications, to maximise staff productivity. The company is also working with clients and staff to build a BYOD solution to take to market in the near future.

Russell Horton, COO at Elitetele.com, said: "We know that many organisations are still confused about the security and cost implications of BYOD. They want to know how to ensure data protection and prevent malware and malicious apps being downloaded, as well as how to understand usage allowances. There is a real need for specialists to help companies make the most of the benefits of BYOD and ensure security of their information at the same time.

"Having a solid BYOD strategy can make a real difference to businesses, ensuring they are more agile, prepared for growth and importantly employees are productive and satisfied.

"Staff buy-in is key to an effective policy as are the business applications a company chooses to give its employees access to. In order to truly benefit from BYOD, more organisations need to go beyond providing simple email and calendar access and also mobilise SaaS applications which are cheap, easy to implement and allow for a truly flexible workforce which can easily outgrow its competition and react quicker to change."

Over four-fifths (82 per cent) of current UK IT leaders do not believe they are yet fully ready to move from traditional server and hosting environments to IaaS providers due to a shortage of in-house skills, according to new research commissioned by Reconnix, the open source IT specialists.

When asked if they were ready to migrate to Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), only 10 per cent of the 100 IT decision makers surveyed believed they were, while only a further 8 per cent had already migrated or were in the process of migration.

Despite the relatively low rates of migration to IaaS, 88 per cent of IT decision makers stated that moving applications from traditional server environments to the cloud was of top, high or medium priority, with only one-in-twenty stating it was not a priority at all.

Only 7 per cent of respondents were confident that they could call on all the required skills to manage applications running in IaaS environments from an in-house team. While over one-third (36 per cent) believed they had most skills in house, a combined 59 per cent had only some of the required skills, no skills or did not know.

These findings were reflected in planned IaaS buying and management behaviour, with only 26 per cent planning to buy directly from the vendor. Nearly two-thirds admitted they would need some form of third party support, with 38 per cent engaging a third-party consultancy for total management, and 25 per cent planning a mixed model of in-house skills and consultancy services.

"There's a clear desire for businesses to move applications away from traditional environments and towards Infrastructure-as-a-Service providers, however a lack of adequate skills seem to be holding back many IT departments from making this move," said Steve Nice, CTO, Reconnix. "It's natural for businesses to err on the side of caution, but this conservative approach can mean that many are missing out on the transformative benefits of the cloud.

"It's clearly a confidence issue, and the challenge is for IT departments to take the necessary steps to prepare themselves for inevitable change. By failing to take action now, they risk putting themselves at a technological disadvantage to competitors or being caught blindsided and forced to rush through a migration that could end up costing over the odds."