Comms Dealer

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."

Today's deadline for the proposed take-private of Daisy Group by a consortium led by Daisy CEO and founder Matt Riley has been extended to 5pm on 22nd September 2014, by which time the consortium is required to have made a 'firm offer' in accordance with Rule 2.6(a) of the Takeover Code, or announce that they do not intend to make an offer for Daisy.

Last month Riley made a tentative take-private approach for the business at 190p per share backed by investors Toscafund and Penta Capital.

At the time Philip Carse, Principal Analyst, Megabuyte, said: "A 190p offer would value Daisy's equity at about £490m, giving an enterprise value of £600m, or about 10.3x current year consensus EBITDA. This is comfortably above the 6-9x of most of its UK B2B peers, though below Alternative Networks M&A-boosted 13.2x (though still 11.3x financial year 15).

"One clue to what Daisy may seek to do if privately owned comes from the other UK comms holdings of its backers - Phoenix IT and Six Degrees. A combination of the three would create a £600m UK business comms and IT player, behind only BT and Vodafone/CWW."

Distributor Exclusive Networks has outperformed revenue expectations by 5% in the first six month of 2014 with revenues of 232m euro. Year-on-year revenue rose by 27%.

Growth was partly driven by strong performances of Exclusive's main vendors as well as a return to growth for the company's business in the southern part of Europe.

The continuing acquisition drive contributed to positive results in H1.

"Organic growth has been well ahead of our expectations and this is coming from many sources - strong performance in core vendors like Fortinet, Arbor, FireEye, and Palo alto Networks, a return to growth in our southern European business, and a tremendous amount of traction in our Big Technology venture that targets the datacentre transformation market," said Olivier Breittmayer, CEO of Exclusive Networks Group.

"Recent acquisitions to grow the Exclusive family are also performing well and have extended our geographic footprint across EMEA and now into Asia-Pacific with the recently announced acquisition of White Gold, the Australia and New Zealand based security VAD.

"This market diversity has the effect of making us more resilient to regional economic variations, while strengthening our proposition to our vendor portfolio, many of which outperform market growth rates."

Chess has been named as the UK's National Champion in The European Business Awards for Customer Focus.

The European Business Awards, now in its eighth year, engaged with over 24,000 businesses from 33 countries with Chess being named as UK National Champions.

Chess are one of the UK's largest suppliers of business voice and data solutions serving over 40,000 business customers, delivering a full range of services including business broadband, phone lines & calls, mobiles, data, ICT, CRM and telephone systems.

CEO and founder of The Chess Group David Pollock commented: "We are and have always been an ambitious organisation with a desire to grow and be great at what we do.

"We strive every day to be the best of the best and this award is testament to our efforts. We firmly believe that happy people make customers happy and this award shows we are staying true to our vision of being a great place to work and a great place to be a customer."

Adrian Tripp, CEO of the European Business Awards said: "Congratulations to Chess, it is a great achievement to be named National Champion and we wish them luck in the next stage."

Sabio Network Services analysis has shown that switching from ISDN to SIP trunking has saved its customers £500,000.

"Our cost analysis clearly shows that SIP trunking presents organisations with a rare opportunity to unlock significant savings - while also improving operational effectiveness, particularly through communications centralisation and rationalisation initiatives," commented James Hughes, Sabio's Head of Support Solutions.

"Already we have succeeded in helping our customers secure cumulative SIP trunking savings, and that number will keep on rising as the long-term benefits of reduced channel rental and call costs continue."