Comms Dealer

A team of students from years 12-13 at St Edwards School, Queen Elizabeth School and Bournemouth School for Girls met VoIP Unlimited MD Mark Pillow to discuss strategy for this year's Enterprise and Skills Challenge.

Designed to develop employability and entrepreneurial skills in Dorset's young people, the Enterprise and Skills Challenge will see teams of students across the county create their own small businesses selling real products with the support of a local business expert.

Student Georgina Leonard said: "I wanted to sign up to this project for the experience that could be gained and to see what skills you need to start up a business."

As a team mentor, Pillow will counsel his group of students in how to raise starting capital in order to design, buy-in or manufacture an innovative product to sell in an effort to help them win the Bournemouth University Company of the Year Award, one of the sponsored trophies on offer.

Pillow said: "I'm looking forward to working with these students and mentoring them through this opportunity. The Enterprise and Skills Challenge enables students to gain hands on experience of running a small business while learning vital skills that can be used in the future.

The programme will conclude in February 2015 with a showcase of talent judged by prominent local business people and an award ceremony with individual and group awards for a number of business categories.

Deloitte's recent CIO Survey 2014 reports on how CIOs are operating with the aim of managing IT services, while simultaneously striving to support business growth.

In light of the survey results, Piers Linney, Co-CEO of UK-based Cloud Services Provider Outsourcery calls on CIOs to use their resources to enhance all areas of the business, moving away from simply a 'keep the lights on' approach.

Deloitte's findings underline the point that the size of IT budgets are preventing CIOs from investing in new technology due to substantial funds being used to support essential IT services - only 22 per cent of IT budgets is being used for new technology.

Though the lack of budget has been identified as a restriction, the report recognises two different trends amongst CIOs. Some have identified the benefit of investing in innovative IT alongside core services but struggling to gain the support from senior management within their organisations, while others are simply focusing on 'keeping the lights on' and not paying attention to the potential of IT to raise profit margins, value-add and maximise business growth.

Linney said: "The way in which CIOs manage IT has a vital impact on the direction that companies move in, more so today than ever before. The solution to greater business success will involve leveraging services through a sustained IT programme that will enable CIOs to reduce the budget that they use to support day-to-day IT requirements and then use these savings to provide the fuel for investment in new technology - technology that will actually add commercial value to that core business.

"Conforming to this programme will be achievable through making strategic investments in a cloud IT infrastructure, while monitoring the ROI to effectively calculate cost savings. With time, the legacy budget will be significantly reduced as the scalability in the innovative infrastructure and IT services will provide an improvement in service value, with savings being used in other areas of the business.

"To ensure that this is achieved, CIOs must take the opportunity to regularly communicate with top-level management in order to identify what needs to be improved in the business and gain a greater perspective of the requirements of the IT system to support the wider demands of the company. As consumer trends such as BYOD and flexible working continue influencing the way people want to work, CIOs must become more aware of how a business's workforce model needs to bend to cope with these unprecedented changes.

"In summary, big changes are happening in technology, and it's in the hands of CIOs to be alert through investing in solutions that will enable their business to achieve growth. The Deloitte survey results highlight the need for CIOs to be mindful of their value in supporting the GDP, particularly after the economic downturn, because how productively and effectively businesses operate ultimately impacts on the whole economy."

STL Communications has renewed its supplier partnership with the Sahara Force India F1 Team for another three years, building on its 14 year relationship with the team which was previously known as Jordan, Midland and Spyker F1.

STL provides communications solutions including phone systems, support to broadband, lines, calls and factory/trackside VoIP.

"We have a close working relationship with Sahara Force India in an industry in which communications are critical for winning or losing a Grand Prix," said STL MD Brendon Cross.

"During race weekends we play our part in ensuring telemetry from the track reaches the team back at the factory in Silverstone, which ultimately helps to ensure the car performs to its maximum."

The team's Chief Operating Officer, Otmar Szafnauer, added: "Communication is at the heart of everything we do and having a reliable partner is of paramount importance for operating efficiently at the track and in our Silverstone factory."

Pictured: Szafnauer (right) with STL's Philip Donigan.

Avnet Technology Solutions has moved from its old office in Bracknell to new UK headquarters in the same town. 

Avnet has taken one third of the 17,000 square metre facility known as The Capitol Building which has recently undergone a refurbishment to Avnet's specifications. The new building has links to the major road and rail network in the Thames Valley as well as close connections with Heathrow and Gatwick airports, making it convenient for Avnet's suppliers, business partners and their end user customers.

The new premises offer Avnet, its employees and visitors a wealth of benefits such as increased office space and additional meeting rooms, the capacity to host special events and seminars, plenty of car parking and on-site catering. 

Miriam Murphy, senior vice president, North region, Avnet Technology Solutions, EMEA, commented: "The building is impressive and by providing our suppliers and business partners with access to highly functional and well-presented facilities we are underlining our commitment to working with all our partners to help them grow. 

"Set in eight acres of green space yet just a few minutes' walk from local amenities, it is a pleasant and inspiring workplace, which we are confident will help to continue to attract some of the best talent in the industry."

Virtual1 has appointed Adrian Digby as Chief Financial Officer (CFO). He brings experience in senior finance roles at Vodafone and Mobile by Sainsbury's.

Following several years as a pilot with the RAF, Digby began his finance career at Intel,= before joining Vodafone and Mobile by Sainsbury's.

With a finance career spanning over 12 years, Digby held a number of key financial positions at Vodafone, including a number of European Finance Governance roles and leading both financial planning and commercial finance teams.

He was appointed CFO of the Vodafone-Sainsbury's joint venture: Mobile by Sainsbury's in 2013 where he played a pivotal role in the launch of the new MVNO.

Digby commented: "I'm delighted to join the team at Virtual1 at such a crucial period in the company's growth. I look forward to building on an already successful team and forging stronger commercial relationships with our partners."

The appointment follows two further key recruitments to the Virtual1 management team in recent weeks. Jazz Sandhu joined as Marketing Director bringing over 10 years technology marketing experience to the business.

Sandhu joined from Exponential-e where she headed up the marketing function for two years and was previously at fibre-provider Geo Networks (now part of Zayo Group). Joel Tortolero also joined as Director of Customer Experience and Operations bringing over 10 years' experience from BT Group where he most recently headed up the Customer Experience team.

Tom O'Hagan, MD, Virtual1, said: "It's a pleasure to welcome Adrian to the team. His experience in leading strategic commercial and financial projects will be invaluable to Virtual1 as we enter a key period of growth.

"Our recent appointment of Jazz Sandhu and Joel Tortolero as Marketing Director and Director of Customer Experience and Operations respectively, also brings senior experience in areas that will be vital to our mid-long term objectives."

Connect Managed Services has strengthened its Board with the appointment of two Non-Executive Directors

David Summers joins as Non-Executive Chairman, with a career to-date spanning 25 years in US and European telecommunications and 10 years as a senior private equity professional. He also currently holds Board positions with Oxygen8 Communications, Adaptive Mobile Security and FeedHenry.

Simon Blagden MBE joins as Non-Executive Director and currently holds the roles of Non- Executive Chairman for Fujitsu Telecoms Europe and Chairman for MDS CEM holdings. Blagden has over 20 years experience in IT and telecommunications and was appointed a Member of The Order of the British Empire in 1997 for services to the telecommunications industry.

Alex Tupman, Connect's CEO, commented: "Both David and Simon bring a wealth of industry experience and relationships to our business, which will be invaluable in supporting our growth strategy."

In April this year Tupman led a management buy-out of Connect backed by mid-market private equity firm LDC.

A new team within BT headed up by Georgina Williams, General Manager for Cross Product, BT Business, aims to add value to the process of buying multiple products from the company.

"The Cross Product team that I manage is new within the commercial area and was created in recognition that many customers come to BT to buy solutions for their businesses rather than specific point products," she said.

"Customers who buy multiple products from BT expect to get better value for money not only through discounts but also through enhanced functionality, easier installs and a better overall level of service. Our goal is to ensure this happens."

A new report from Juniper Research has claimed that voice and messaging traffic lost to OTT (Over The Top) players such as WhatsApp, Facebook and Skype will cost network operators $14 billion in revenues globally this year, up by 26% on 2013.

The report - Mobile Operator Business Models: Challenges, Opportunities & Strategies 2014-2019 - found that in a number of markets, including Italy, Spain and the UK, operator mobile voice revenues had fallen to less than 60% of their value five years' ago.

It argued that a combination of IM, VoIP and social media substitution was primarily responsible, resulting not only in lost revenues but in additional costs due to the scale of signalling traffic.

However, the report also identifies an array of new revenue streams with the potential to deliver cumulative revenues to operators in excess of $66 billion over the next five years. The resulting revenues could more than offset the decline from core service revenues on an annual basis by 2018.

Report author Dr Windsor Holden said: "In areas such as M2M (Machine to Machine) and mobile money, operators can achieve a substantial revenue uplift by focussing on full service provision rather than simple connectivity."

IT services company Comms-care has reported strong growth driven by acquisitions and growing demand from partners to support emerging technologies.

 In its 2013/14 financial year results Comms-care reported £19.6m revenue, up from £15.6m; while operating profit increased by 44% to £3m, up from £2.1m.

Comms-care's network of new IT channel partners grew by 33% to more than 723 in the UK and Ireland, and the company secured a major contract with Kcom to provide all Cisco support for its end user customers.

Comms-care also acquired channel only professional services firm Platform Consultancy.
New technologies such as virtualisation, cloud computing, wireless, remote working and the issues around data storage have driven opportunities to the IT channel community, but technical support for these complex platforms is becoming more difficult to provide from a single team based within a channel partners' business, according to Comms-care MD Ben Davies. 

He said: "We have invested heavily in technical expertise over the last 12 months, and with the acquisition of Platform Consultancy in June we are now able to offer a wider portfolio of professional services including additional propositions around Microsoft, VMware, Citrix and NetApp technologies."

 Comms-care Chairman Peter Lloyd added: "The great work undertaken by the team in the last financial year laid the foundation for the acquisition of Platform Consultancy and the formation of our strategic partnership with Kcom. 

"The technology industry is fast-moving and we know that we cannot stand still. W need to continue investing in our technical expertise and ability."

ShoreTel has confirmed that it has received an unsolicited proposal from Mitel to acquire all of the outstanding shares of the company for $8.10 per share in cash.
 
ShoreTel's board of directors, in consultation with its financial and legal advisors, will  review and evaluate the proposal and determine the course of action that it believes is in the best interest of the company's stockholders.

ShoreTel has advised stockholders not to take any action at this time pending the review of the proposal by the company's board of directors.