Comms Dealer

Mobile airtime provider Daisy Distribution has joined forces with Sony to boost its Vodafone 4G connections with an additional connected product bonus for every Sony Xperia Z3 Compact that is connected to any Vodafone 4G priceplan.

Julien Parven, Marketing Director at Daisy Distribution, said: "Vodafone has developed its 4G network in such a way that it can now boast great breadth and depth of coverage across the whole of the UK and has a proposition that is suited to the small and medium business market.

Following some commercial changes from the network, Daisy Distribution hopes that the incentive will allow current flow of Vodafone 4G connections to continue as more and more businesses realise the benefits that it can bring within the workplace.

Parven continues: "This incentive presents a much better commercial proposition for our partners, one which I hope they will take full advantage of."

The incentive is available throughout October.

Small businesses are failing to plan for the increase in communications costs following new legislation on flexible working, says Kate O'Brien, Marketing Director for Daisy Group. 

The new legislation, which gives workers employed by a company for 26 weeks or more the ability to request flexible working, is likely to see some businesses' phone bills rocket over the next six months as employees increasingly need to call colleagues' mobile phones.
 
"Internal business calls to staff mobiles can mount up if people don't think ahead," warned O'Brien. "Unfortunately there will be many businesses offering family-friendly working arrangements that get a nasty surprise when they open their next phone bill. 
 
"We have been bracing ourselves for a flurry of calls from businesses eager to manage their call costs as they receive requests from staff to spend more time off site during the working week. But, although we've had a few enquiries, we've been genuinely surprised that the volume of enquiries we've had over the last few months hasn't been much higher.
 
"There are a number of products on the market that can help SMEs reduce their internal call costs. However, as yet, many businesses still haven't realised the financial implications that staff working off site will have on their call costs."

The UK partner channel developed by Pragma, the distributor set up by channel legend David George just two years ago, has grown by 26% in the last 12 months.

And Managing Director Tim Brooks told 130 delegates at Pragma's reseller conference in London that he expects revenues through committed channel partners to grow even bigger next year on the back of a refreshed product range, incorporating new iPECS UCP and UCS unified communications and Cloud value propositions for both the SME and mid-market business sectors.

"Based on the success achieved to date we could deliver revenues in excess of 30% next year as we now have the UC products to enable resellers to address the mid-market sector which is a massive opportunity."

Brooks said the iPECS eMG80 system launched earlier this year had been extremely successful with 1100 systems already sold.

High Wycombe based 5G communications were named Pragma Reseller of the Year at the conference.

Picture shows left to right: Will Morey (Pragma Marketing Director); Ahed Aikhatib ( Ericsson-LG International Sales Director); Tim Brooks (Pragma Managing Director); and Inho 'Peter' Kim (Ericsson-LG Head of R&D).

The news that HP is planning to split is causing uncertainty in channels on which competitors can be expected to capitalise.

Giorgio Nebuloni, Research Manager for Data Centres at IDC EMEA said: "HP's stated goal is to have an increased focus, faster decision making process, and ultimately different long-term strategies and investment roadmaps for the two business blocks.

"Tellingly, HP (PC and printer) is depicted as a stable business with predictable returns and an organic growth pace, while Hewlett-Packard Enterprise will see 'targeted merger and acquisition activity'.

"In other words, the enterprise side, which is the one HP aligns most to IDC's 3rd Platform vision, is the one where IDC expects to see more radical changes and bets on in the future. Overall, and despite the trends over the past nine months, we believe the underlying assumption is that HP Inc. is poised to face headwinds in the longer term, while the enterprise part can be boosted by significant growth with the correct investments."

In channels there is more uncertainty: Chrystelle Labesque, Research Manager, Personal Computing, at IDC EMEA, added: "As happened in 2011, IDC expects competitors such as Lenovo and Dell to try and leverage this and to try to lure smaller resellers and distributors away with a 'unity' message.

"On the positive side, HP is in a much better organisational and financial shape these days and has a clearer story for the market. In the two-tier EMEA channel, which the company dominates, having two HPs could go either way. Each supplier might weigh less and be less dominant, or it could get more room to focus and grow.

"In the mid-term we maintain that the split could end up being costly particularly to the volume side of both houses - HP is clearly looking at the longer-term horizon, but a strong acceleration in the value-add segments or in brand new markets will be needed to prove the move worthwhile."

Tollring, the provider of telecoms data analytics and visualisation solutions, has struck a European distribution agreement with SIPHON Networks.

Tollring's icall suite (iCS) delivers integrated call management, as a hosted or on-premise solution, which allows customer-facing teams with SLAs/target commitments to monitor inbound and outbound calls on any device. 
 
iCS online integrates with the hosted BroadWorks communication system to deliver call analytics via reports, dashboards and wallboards via a web browser. The intuitive 'click and drill' application is said to be easy to deploy and enables businesses of any size to view call metrics critical to their business. 
 
Managers can frequently monitor caller tolerance, percentage calls answered, abandoned calls and unresolved missed calls to improve customer service and achieve goals.  Enhanced level reporting delivers 'real-time' analytics including call data at the end of every call, report scheduling, 'live' wallboards, calls queuing and user presence.
 
"The solution delivers critical business intelligence, accessible via a web browser and optimised for mobile devices. It will provide our Service Providers with a competitive differentiator and value add for their customers," said Steve Harris, Director, SIPHON Networks. 
 
Tony Martino, MD of Tollring, added: "SIPHON has a wealth of experience in the BroadSoft community across Europe and a proven track record with Hosted Telephony Service Providers. 

"Our partnership will help SIPHON to meet increasing market demand and add value to its already strong proposition."

The London leg of the nationwide Comms Charity Go-Karting challenge led by Chess in support of the Prince's Trust and Sparks culminated with Chess Chief Exec David Pollock being named Champion, beating Simon Tompkins of Jaguar Telecoms into second place while Chess Partner Services' Joe Green completed the podium.

Pollock said: "I'm slightly embarrassed about hosting and winning the event but my competitive personality got the better of me.

"It was great fun, loads of laughs and testosterone in full flow, everyone had fun. CSR is in the heart of our business and we believe that part of our success is to give something back to the community.

"There's a sense of enjoyment, pride and participations in helping those less fortunate than ourselves and this event was a great example of that."

Sponsors included TalkTalk Business, Chess, eBillz and Comms Dealer. The event raised a total of £6,600.

eBillz MD Arvind Meghani enthused: "We had such a fantastic time. The event was well planned, well run and the race was good fun. Most significantly, we have raised some money for some great charities."

Chess raised over £48,000 for charities in 2013 and is on track to beat that this year.

snom technology's Finance Director Guido Wohlers has been promoted to the role of CFO.
 
Wohlers has been working for the Berlin-based IP company for over 12 years and will use his experience to strengthen links with its worldwide network of distributors, resellers and end customers.
 
Wohlers joins the company's executive ranks including CEO Markus Schmitt-Fumian, who was named Chief Executive in June.
 
Schmitt-Fumian, CEO of snom Technology AG, said: "Guido Wohlers' appointment to this post guarantees the continuity needed to move ahead with our plans to extend the international footprint of the company and optimise our financial processes for success in the national and international markets."
 
John Bennett Managing Director of snom UK, added: "I have worked with Wohlers since 2008 and have great respect for his knowledge and understanding of the market and the product.

"He has a thorough understanding of snom's finances and growth planning and I am looking forward to the success I am sure he will bring to the company."

Daisy Wholesale has added telecoms data analytics to its Hosted Voice Exchange (HVX) solution following a link-up with Tollring.
 
The collaboration sees Tollring provide white labelled call reporting that integrates with the HVX cloud telephony platform, enabling customer-facing teams to monitor inbound and outbound calls on any mobile device. 
 
Through a series of reports, dashboards and wallboards which have been optimised for mobile devices, managers can monitor caller tolerance, percentage of calls answered, abandoned calls and unresolved missed calls. 
 
Graham Harris, Product Director for Cloud at Daisy Wholesale, said: "Strengthening our solution with detailed reporting capabilities means that our partners can go to market with a hosted voice product that not only provides high quality voice communication, but the tools for end users to analyse business-critical data in order to enhance performance.

"And because the application is accessible via mobile devices, it means that we can support the increasingly popular trend of flexible working in the SME market."
 
Tony Martino, MD of Tollring, added: "Not only is our company at an exciting stage of global development, our solutions portfolio has never been stronger. Product development lies at the heart of our organisation to deliver the latest technologically advanced data intelligence solutions."

Pictured: Tony Martino and Graham Harris

Chess has acquired IT systems provider Parachute IT adding £2.2 million to its turnover and 17 additional staff to the Group. Parachute IT will be known as Chess ICT and joins earlier acquisitions ebillz and Chess Partner Services at one of the company's satellite offices in Borehamwood, Hertforshire.

The acquisition bolsters Chess' ability to offer complete end-to-end solutions for businesses while extending its existing IT portfolio.

Chess Chief Executive David Pollock sees the acquisition as a key strategic move for the future direction of Chess: "Parachute IT has been a forward thinking centre of excellence in design, delivery and support of business IT and communication systems for over 20 years.

"It makes sense to strengthen our expansion into being a one-stop-shop by bringing the best out of Parachute IT's knowledge and experience in the IT industry."

Managing Director of Parachute IT Martin Bacon added: "When Chess approached us I saw a great opportunity with a company intensely focused on quality and spirit, strategically driven, financially powered and with a highly evolved approach to creating robust success with acquisitions.

It is clear that the Chess Group is not just holding its own as a significant player in the industry but is setting a new standard. I am confident that our people will continue to stride from strength to strength working under the Chess brand as Chess ICT."

Parachute IT joins ebillz, Integra ICT, Avenir Telecoms and The CRM business as companies acquired by Chess that will further extend the Chess group's portfolio of services and takes Chess' acquisition total to over 80 companies to date.

eBillz' Enterprise Solution has created a buzz ahead its official launch this November.

Billed as the pinnacle of its product portfolio eBillz says its Enterprise Solution is the most innovative contribution to the channel in its 18 years of operation.

The solution is designed to maximise the potential of established telecoms resellers and IT providers, meeting the needs of capacity demands previously not catered for in the industry.

Enterprise uses billing engine technology to scale up its processing power almost without limit. This boosts CDR rating resulting in speeds of up to 12 million records per hour, which eclipses the existing industry standard, claims the firm.

Enterprise also includes new features ranging from enhanced mobile billing to bureau billing.

Arvind Meghani, MD, commented: "The feedback for Enterprise has been outstanding. Larger resellers are already considering the upgrade for the business benefits ebillz Enterprise can offer.

"We believe that with its operational improvements, it will lead to considerable time and cost savings for resellers."

eBillz have recently invested over £400,000 on research and development to produce the enhanced platform. "The November launch will be a defining moment in the history of eBillz," added Meghani.