Comms Dealer

In a bid to aid resellers with information on sales, marketing and support aspects of their business ICUK has launched The Support Lounge.

Resellers can now access sales and marketing literature designed to expose new business avenues and proven approaches to market.

The information ranges from making contact, objection handling, through to order collection, ready made order forms and order processing.

Additional marketing topics covered include blogging, social media, and white papers.

Neil Barnett, Business Development Manager, said: "This has been an enjoyable task to complete, working with our resellers and giving them something they can use and refer to daily.

"These tools complement the free one-to-one training we already provide, giving resellers something to reaffirm the concepts we cover."

The support element embraces all ICUK platforms including broadband, telecoms and web hosting.

It tackles common faults and provides resellers with suggestions, advice and checklists to help get the most from initial trouble reporting conversations.

Niall Higgins, Senior Support Technician, added: "Being on the front line with calls and emails, we receive a real mixture of faults and problems to deal with daily.

"The support documents are easy to understand and the checklists ensure that the really important details required to handle any fault can be captured instantly. Ultimately this leads to a quicker resolution time, and that's what we all want."

A record number of partners registered for Zen Internet's fifth Annual Partner event staged at The Belfry in the West Midlands - 20% of the turnout were prospective partners looking to join Zen.

The aim was to help Partners understand how to make the most of Zen's portfolio of products and services, as well as discussing trends in the marketplace and time to network with key stakeholders in order to provide feedback into future product developments.

There was also an opportunity to shape Zen's roadmaps in two collaborative product and systems workshops, alongside a futuristic session on emerging technologies within the channel.

The day opened with Richard Tang, Zen's Founder and Managing Director, taking partners through the company strategy.

Stephen Warburton, Managing Director of Zen's Indirect Channels, spoke about how Zen plans to support its channel partners in the future and the developments being undertaken to strengthen Partners' ability to take advantage of market trends.

A lively panel session debating opportunities in the channel over the next five years concluded the sessions, with an awards ceremony concluding the day.

Winners included:
Reseller Partner of the Year - Nexus
Dealer Partner of the Year - IT Support Business
New Partner of the Year - RHM
Rising Star - Phormium IT
Solution Sale Partner of the Year - Myson Pages
Spirit of Partnership award - TSG

Deborah Wrigley, Channel Sales Manager, said: "The day was a great opportunity to meet with our partners and work with them to develop mutually beneficial relationships and identify opportunities to grow their business, focusing on shaping future plans together in a way that complements their business strategy.

"It was also a pleasure to reward our partners for their continued support and contribution to the business. We are already looking forward to future events."

Hats off to Pragma for scooping a trio of awards at last month's Ericsson-LG Partner Conference staged in Cancun, Mexico.

Founded in 2012, the distributor bagged the Ericsson-LG Growth award and also secured the UC vendor's highest honour - Global Partner of The Year - the first time this category has been won by a UK company.

Five of Pragma's key partners witnessed the award wins first hand (Lily Communications, Network Digital, BDR Group, Digiquip and 5G), and attended the five day conference to hear the latest on Ericsson-LG's UC, cloud and video collaboration strategies.

Pragma MD Tim Brooks commented: "This award is a fantastic achievement. It also recognises the great work of our resellers in growing the UK market."

Will Morey, Marketing Director, Pragma, added: "Working closely with our partners we have been winning in the SMB and mid-market sectors with Ericsson-LG iPECS. We see continued growth through 2015 and beyond." 

To underline Pragma's style, the third award came after a blue and white themed dinner where Pragma and its UK resellers won the Best Dressed accolade.

Pictured in the blue/white tops (l-r) Will Morey and Tim Brooks

Responding to the Home Secretary, who gave a wide ranging speech on counter-terrorism, ISPA, the voice of the UK Internet industry warned against using fast-track legislation and criticised the Home Office for their lack of engagement with industry.

ISPA Secretary General Nicholas Lansman said: "ISPA is disappointed that the Home Office has not consulted with industry on proposals for IP matching, but will work with members to scrutinise and inform the legislation when it is published.

"IP addresses can generally only be used to identify a subscriber and not an individual. As we argued in our submission to the Anderson Review on future communications data laws, the Home Office needs to do more to consult with industry on its proposals. Once again there has been a distinct lack of engagement with industry."

ISPA also criticised Government for ignoring their own review into communications data laws. Lansman added: "Government committed to a review of communications data capabilities by David Anderson QC which we supported, yet the Home Secretary appears to have pre-judged the inquiry by reemphasising the need for a new Communications Data Bill, a Bill that both relevant parliamentary committees rejected."

School financial heads are so busy trying to balance teaching and running costs they are oblivious to the potential cost savings that could be achieved by taking a closer look at their telecoms spending.

According to Daisy Group's number crunching schools are wasting thousands every year.

The company conducted a bill analysis of 118 primary and secondary schools across the country and found that, on average, UK schools are overspending by 43% on their communications (telephone systems, calls, mobiles and internet connection). Some are forking out as much as 77% over the odds.

Tony Harcombe, Commercial Director at Daisy Group, said: "We have been working with public sector organisations for a number of years but have only recently started working with the education sector.

"Before doing so, we decided to undertake some research in order to learn the areas in which schools require the most help.

"We expected to find some of the schools paying over the odds but we were shocked when we found that every single school we spoke to was overspending with some spending nearly four times as much as they needed to."

The study identified three issues bursars and schools managers were facing that contributed to the overspending - not having enough time to manage their contracts and shop around for better deals; not having enough understanding of recent technological innovations to be able to procure modern systems with a cost-saving capability; and being encouraged to procure from approved suppliers that did not necessarily offer them the best cost-efficiency.

Harcombe added: "We're aiming to put together a white paper on the subject to help schools make informed decisions when it comes to their communications."

One of the schools in the research, The Douay Martyrs School, Hillingdon, London, was advised by Daisy that it could save 71% on its mobile bills and 40% overall on its communications over a 12 month period.

Teresa Doyle, School Bursar, said: "When Daisy drilled down into our bills they advised us that, by changing the system and contract we had, we could benefit from annual bill savings which amount to thousands of pounds per year.

"By switching supplier we have made invaluable savings which are allowing us to reinvest our budget into other areas of our curriculum.

"Daisy also found that we had been unintentionally overcharged by our existing supplier for a number of years."

Harcombe added: "By working with organisations like Churchmarketplace, which can assist schools with finding new PSN-approved suppliers, there is the potential for schools to increase their efficiency and reduce costs."

A listing of the UK's fastest growing private companies has ranked Softcat 28th, up 69 places up on last year's position.

Softcat notched up the second highest turnover and the top EBITDA of the 100 companies listed in the Investec Mid-market 100, based on last year's financial figures.

CEO Martin Hellawell commented: "Revenues have grown by over 300% since 2010. In order to support our growth we've doubled our staff and opened a new regional office in Bristol. In February we open another in Leeds, bringing our total offices to five.

"We plan to continue our growth across all our business sectors. We're not taking our foot off the accelerator just yet."

The list ranks active UK-registered companies according to their four year average compound annual growth rate, with a minimum annual turnover of £10m.

The companies included on the list have all been grown organically and not through acquisition.

Softcat's revenues currently top £500m, and company profits have increased by 30% in one year.

A firm of solicitors based in Warwickshire has selected ShoreTel for its UC and mobility solutions.

Wright Hassall, established in 1846, is a full service commercial law firm advising corporates, SMEs, not-for-profit and public sector organisations. Its private client team advises families, farmers, business owners and high net worth individuals on matters such as medical negligence, contesting a will, personal injury and divorce. The Lexcel accredited organisation is top ranked in the legal directories in 46 areas (25 Legal 500, 21 Chambers UK).

Wright Hassall's diverse workforce requires high levels of flexibility as employees, from solicitors to debt-collectors, must be contactable at all-times no matter the location. Its senior partners are provided with company phones while the rest of its 265-strong workforce must be available to clients and colleagues both during and beyond designated working hours. The company has recently extended its workforce, with the need for improved internal and external communications becoming more pronounced.

In order to address its continued growth and need for workforce flexibility, Wright Hassall evaluated its previous communications system, and, realising that it was out-of-date and unable to meet these requirements, sought a replacement. Wright Hassall selected ShoreTel and Solar.

Martyn Wells, IT Director at Wright Hassall, said: "ShoreTel's UC and mobility solutions were able to offer our entire varied workforce the flexibility necessary, and ensure that our clients are provided with the support they require, whenever they require it."

Adrian Hipkiss, EMEA MD and VP at ShoreTel, added: "Wright Hassall's employees are not restricted to traditional working hours and are often on the move. We were happy to provide them with our solutions which we are sure will provide the flexibility they need to continue best serving their clients."

Mark Colquhoun, Chief Executive at Solar, added: "As ShoreTel's only European Platinum partner, we understand the value of a smooth, efficient implementation. Wright Hassall required an installation that was fast and offered no disruption to the workforce. We were able to provide this and hope that our continued support and expertise will enable the company to get the absolute most out of ShoreTel's solutions."

ShoreTel has provided Wright Hassall's workforce with greater flexibility through a number of features such as the ability to immediately divert landline calls to mobile, allowing users to track voicemail from an email inbox, and the offer of a wider variety of communication channels, such as instant messenger.

By providing this functionality, Wright Hassall has been able to provide its workforce with increased mobility as well as improved overall communications. Also, ShoreTel's virtualised solution has provided Wright Hassall with a more cost-effective, efficient platform that requires little maintenance and offers improved security with means of disaster-recovery. This has resulted in a 12 per cent reduction in telecoms costs as external conferencing facilities became redundant.

ShoreTel's UC solution brings together VoIP telephony, instant messaging, conferencing, mobility, plus presence and collaboration capabilities into a seamless business environment.

Former Proximity Communications CEO Darren Boyce has joined the board at Maintel as Non-Executive Director.

Proximity was created in 2009 following a merger between Applinet and the Unified Group. Boyce, who was Managing Director of Applinet, took the role of group CEO when the two companies came together. The business was sold to Maintel in October this year.

Boyce was previously Sales Director at LANBase which was acquired by Workplace Technologies (subsequently acquired soon after by NTL Incorporated in 2000).

John Booth, Non-Executive Chairman of Maintel, commented: "Darren brings a wealth of commercial experience and insight in our sector and his skills will be a valuable addition to the Maintel Board as we focus on our future development and growth."

According to a BBC news report BT is in talks with Telefonica over the potential acquisition of the O2 mobile network from the Spanish firm.

The discussions are described as being at a 'highly preliminary stage'.

BT spun-off O2 in 2002, then called BT Cellnet. Three years later it was acquired by Telefonica for £17.7bn.

Telefonica said in a statement, 'Telefonica informs that, although it is in talks with British Telecom, these talks are in a highly preliminary phase and there is no certainty that a transaction will take place'.

Resellers with the ability to simplify end user IT infrastructures and provision connectivity solutions stand to make significant gains next year.

That's according to a channel survey undertaken by Brocade which found that the biggest challenges faced by customers are complexity (46%) and bandwidth provisioning (46%).

The study also identified three trends that are front of mind - virtualisation (72%), BYOD and Software Defined Networking (30%).

Over half of Brocade's EMEA channel partners and systems integrators believe that SDN and Network Functions Virtualisation (NFV) will be significant trends within the next two years.

Of those surveyed in EMEA 18% are already deploying SDN and NFV technologies, with 62% either currently evaluating SDN and NFV solutions or planning to do so within the next year.

Marcus Jewell, Vice President, EMEA, Brocade, said: "Our channel partners are looking to the future and focusing on building technology solutions that their customers will need in the years to come, in particular SDN and NFV.

"With customers prioritising virtualisation and BYOD, it's only natural that complexity and bandwidth are their top challenges."