Comms Dealer

Virgin Media Business has launched a free online digital learning resource for businesses which lack knowledge about the so called 'Digital Revolution'.

Called the Big Digital Skills Hub, the tool offers written advice, animated video tutorials, interactive quizzes and downloadable resources.

Fronted by Sir Richard Branson, the hub brings together some of the top industry experts to offer SMBs 15 tutorials on digital knowhow. Topics range from setting up and maximising a website, to social media and content marketing. The whole experience has been designed to work around a busy schedule.

The hub is designed to plug the skills gap between digital technology and the way British businesses are using it.

According to a survey commissioned by Virgin Media Business 48% of UK SMB don't use their website to find new customers, while 28% of SMBs don't currently have a website at all.

The research also found that 13% of the UK's SMBs currently have no plans to build a website and a third (35%) of SMBs admitted that they do not have the social media skills needed to grow their business.

Branson said: "We are living in an increasingly connected world and wherever we go access to the Internet is just a touch away through a smartphone or tablet.

"The way we do business has been transformed and trade online is growing at around 20% a year, so it's now not just a case of making the most of an opportunity for your business, it is crucial for business survival.

"At Virgin we have embraced new digital technologies and it has transformed the way we do business and how we engage with customers.

"Social media has proved to be one of the most effective ways of reaching our customers and there is much more data available for us to find out what our customers want and how best we can create new products and services to meet those needs.

"Taking advantage of the power of the Internet and digital technology has helped Virgin to create many of the great services we have today and put the needs of our customers at the heart of everything we do."

Mike Smith, Director of SMB Virgin Media Business, added: "We're in the midst of a technology revolution and digital has the potential to empower every SMB in the UK. Our research shows that the country's small and medium businesses are excited by this revolution but there is an alarming skills divide between those doing it well and those who are struggling to seize all the opportunities that digital can bring them.

"That's why we've launched The Big Digital Skills hub, but industry alone cannot drive the change that the UK needs. It's the duty of government to help every SMB in the UK cross this divide. This launch is part of our commitment to helping small businesses succeed in the digitally enabled world we live in. With the right tools and skills, SMBs can continue to drive the UK's competitive digital advantage."

Minister for Culture and the Digital Economy Ed Vaizey said: "Encouraging as many people as possible to get online and get the most out of the Internet is vitally important in the digital world we live in. Research shows that companies that embrace technology will grow faster, export and create more jobs.

"That's why Government has introduced funding for Broadband Connection Vouchers to improve Internet access for small and medium sized businesses. We are also working in partnership with digital charity Go On UK to make it easy for small firms to find the right support to help them improve their digital skills and do more business online."

Mitel has expanded Trust's distribution portfolio with the addition of the Aastra A400 communications platform, Aastra SIP, Lync and DECT Handsets and all peripherals to its portfolio.

The agreement follows the appointment of Trust as a value added distributor for MiVoice Office in 2011 and the integration of the Aastra product suite into the Mitel portfolio earlier this year.

Rob Hutton, head of distribution sales, Mitel, said: "Trust Distribution has already demonstrated its commitment to developing expertise around our business communication solutions, and Mitel's business with Trust has almost doubled over the last 12 months. By focussing on a single distribution partner we can provide resellers with the solutions expertise and support they need to take advantage of the growing opportunities within the SMB market."

Vince Leahy, MD for Trust Distribution, added: "Our success with MiVoice Office is testament to the growing demand from SMBs for advanced business communications solutions. By integrating additional Mitel products into our portfolio we can ensure our reseller partners can offer customers a full suite of quality solutions, backed up with value added support services and product expertise."

Pragma is gearing up for its 2014 conference to be held in October at The Worx Studios in Parsons Green, London.

Pragma will be joined by the leadership team from Ericsson-LG and partners Tollring, Mondago, Multimessage, Clear Asset Finance and Pragma Networks.

The Ericsson-LG team will share its product roadmap and plans for 2015 including a new cloud platform and other technologies.

In October last year Pragma outlined its channel strategy with Ericsson-LG and committed to a product roadmap that saw the company refresh its portfolio and launch new products for two to 2,000 users. Since then Pragma has witnessed a significant increase in new partners.

Chris Goodman, Sales Director at Focus Group commented: "The new products launched have helped us to compete and win with aggressive pricing and margin opportunities in the SMB and applications, features and UC for our enterprise customers."

Pragma MD Tim Brooks added: "The conference is a fantastic opportunity to share the passion, success and opportunity that exists in our channel and demonstrate the capability of one of the UK's strongest reseller communities.

"We are proud to have Comms Dealer as our exclusive media partner and look forward to engaging the UK's high growth resellers in the Ericsson-LG opportunity."

The conference will include a Solutions Fair for resellers to get hands-on demonstrations of the latest technology, presentations from the Pragma and Ericsson-LG teams an awards ceremony, evening party and entertainment.

Network Digital Group has secured a major deal to deliver a flexible unified communications solution for Richmond Hyundai, one of Europe's most successful car dealerships.

The reseller implemented Ericsson-LG iPECS solution across multi-sites supported by distributor partner Pragma.

Network Digital recognised the importance of helping end users understand the value of unified communications and how integrated applications such as icall from Tollring and PHONE-LiNK can play a role in helping high growth businesses keep growing.

To achieve this Pragma helped Network Digital Communications produce a video case study that demonstrates the benefits that iPECS UC can deliver.

Will Morey, Marketing Director at Pragma, commented: "Working with Network Digital on this case study enabled us to explore the value UC delivers to a high growth business and to articulate the benefits. Using iPECS NDC has delivered a solution that makes a tangible difference to their customers' ability to grow and develop."

To view the case study please click here http://youtu.be/khfKTkw9ZoA

A new big button mobile phone with integrated call blocking technology has been launched exclusively in the UK by Nimans.

The CPR innovation allows users to block nuisance calls at the touch of a button and can be programmed to allow only certain numbers to get through. A large 2.2" colour display and SOS number function are combined with a camera, torch, FM radio and bluetooth cradle. The compact device also features 'photo contacts' that enable calls to be made via pictures rather than traditional numbers.

Nimans' Purchasing Director, Andy Winfield, says the Sim-free device represents a major step forward in the battle against unwanted calls - and is a set forward in big button mobile technology.

"The Call Blocker Mobile is very easy to set up and block unwanted calls. It also benefits from an SOS/panic button where five programmed numbers will be called and SMS messaged incase of an emergency," he explained.

Resellers have given the thumbs up to a new Wi-Fi product partnership between Nimans and Samsung.

The Coombe Abbey Warwickshire launch event hshowcased Samsung's Wireless LAN portfolio, expandable technology that can seamlessly integrate into existing Samsung architecture or be rolled out across other comms system platforms.

"Samsung WLAN ensures a fast, secure and reliable wireless connection in high density, mobile device centric locations that have exploded in popularity," says Richard Carter, Sales and Business Development Director at Nimans. "The expansion of our Samsung range is a natural fit for us and our customers."

The Samsung Wireless Lan portfolio has been developed from the ground up to address the needs of a new mobile generation, offering exceptional performance, ease of installation and network management.

Carter added: "Resellers gave an enthusiastic response to the sales opportunities this new partnership creates. With the ever growing demand for wireless solutions in the market, Nimans are uniquely positioned to offer Samsung Enterprise Wireless LAN and Voice Solutions. Partners can be confident that Nimans has a strong platform allowing for the installation of the most appropriate solutions.

"We are investing in new technologies such as Wi-Fi mapping software that predesigns Wi-Fi solutions. This will help resellers fully embrace burgeoning market opportunities as our Samsung success story continues."

Eclipse has rolled out an entry level priced leased line product to the channel.

Currently available to 66% of business premises (with coverage set to continue) EoFTTC (Ethernet over Fibre to the Cabinet) is a business grade solution that provides guaranteed symmetrical speeds of up to 20Mb with download speeds of up to 80Mb, backed by a service level agreement.

"The addition of EoFTTC to a reseller's portfolio bridges that gap between the need for a dependable connection with the challenges of a limited budget," said Pete Tomlinson, Director of Product, Marketing & Sales at Eclipse.

"With the growing adoption of hosted applications and services from businesses of all sizes, and the increased strains business connectivity is expected to cope with, the opportunity for this product is huge.

"Having the ability to offer an affordable mid-range solution that delivers the robustness of a business class service simply widens the net for our partners and opens up new conversations that wouldn't have been possible before."

The data centre and enterprise software defined networking (SDN) sector jumped 192% year-over-year, according to Infonetics Research in its 2014 Data Centre and Enterprise SDN Hardware and Software report. The analyst firm forecasts the market for SDN to he worth up to $9.5 billion by 2018.

"There is no longer any question about SDN playing a role in data centre and enterprise networks," stated Analyst Cliff Grossner. "The early SDN explorers and pure-play SDN start-ups were joined last year by the majority of traditional switch vendors and server virtualisation vendors offering a selection of SDN products.

"Even more eye opening, in-use for SDN Ethernet switch revenue, including branded Ethernet switches, virtual switches, and bare metal switches, grew more than 10-fold in 2013 from the prior year, driven by significant increases in white box bare metal switch deployments by very large cloud service providers such as Google and Amazon."

Vendors are seeding the market with SDN-capable Ethernet switches in the data centre and enterprise LAN, he says.

Bare metal switches are the top in-use for SDN-capable switch use case in the data centre and are anticipated to account for 31% of total SDN-capable switch revenue by 2018 with the adoption of SDN network virtualisation overlays (NVOs) is expected to go mainstream by 2018.

Demand for cloud technology among retail banks and insurance companies is on the up despite lingering concerns about compliance and integration issues, according to survey findings from SAP and analyst Ovum.

"The findings reveal a new maturity for cloud computing in the financial services industry," said Daniel Mayo, chief analyst of Ovum.

"The cloud is now a growth driver for banks and insurers, rather than a medium just for bringing costs down. They are buying SaaS solutions to simply operations, develop better products and quickly enter new markets. The industry has made it clear that SaaS will radically change the banking and insurance landscape."

Decision makers in retail banks expect to see the greater future investment in cloud. In total, 42% expect SaaS spend will 'increase significantly' over the next 18 months, compared to 33%  among insurers.

SaaS is the preferred option for 27% of banks and insurers, with  a further 42% considering it for every IT project. Within the lines of business, 49% of decision makers expect SaaS to see increased or significantly increased investment over the next 18  months.

This will be focused most heavily on operational functions  within insurers and delivering growth objectives for banks.

Banks and insurers see concerns over regulatory compliance (36%), concerns over reliability and availability (35%) and the difficulty of integration SaaS with existing systems (31%) as the most important barriers to the greater adoption of SaaS.

ECI Partners' 2014 Growth Survey shows UK growth companies are increasingly impacted by a growing skills shortage as economic growth picks up and hiring rebounds.

Over eight in ten companies (82%) said they were experiencing a skills shortage, and the problem is not restricted to London and the South East but across the whole country and every sector, with the North West and Midlands the worst affected areas and industrial companies the worst affected sector.

Charlie Johnstone, Partner at ECI Partners, said: "Our survey shows that companies are ramping up hiring and investment and looking to expand overseas. We see this across our own portfolio companies - currently growing sales at a CAGR of 18%, headcount at 19% and export to over 100 countries and with international sales growing at 33% p.a. compared to UK sales of 17%.

"Wage inflation is holding steady, backing the ONS recent estimates of wage growth. This is helping companies to remain competitive, but we fear the growing skills shortage keenly felt across the country could limit the growth potential of these companies and therefore the UK economy.

"The UK is in desperate need of a better skilled workforce, world class infrastructure and a 'normal' functioning banking sector. These items should be top of the agenda in the upcoming party conferences, the 2015 general election and beyond."