Comms Dealer

SIP and hosted carrier tIPicall has added 10 new countries (including Iceland and Cambodia) to its portfolio of overseas local numbers that can be terminated to UK-based clients.

As well as Iceland and Cambodia, new local numbers are now available from destinations as diverse as Benin, the Republic of Congo and Sri Lanka.

This brings tIPicall's international numbering service to a total of 102 countries and territories with local number availability and 130 with toll-free numbering available.

Steve Harrington, Sales Director, said: "Our extended range of worldwide options available to resellers stands out, but the real differentiator is that we can deliver these numbers as call forwards to any number or via SIP straight into the PBX.

"As we have the ability to broadcast these numbers as the CLI on outbound calls in local format as well, it creates a compelling sales opportunity for our partners."

Other recently added numbering destinations for tIPicall include Bolivia, Costa Rica, Guatemala and Honduras.

Vision Corporate Services has made great gains since signing up to the Zest4 Marketing Accreditation Programme in July, a move which put the firm on a new strategic path that has resulted in UC sales leads and a strong pipeline of new business.

The scheme operates as a bespoke programme built for each partner to support their transition into the UC market.

"The programme is well structured and has been a thought provoking exercise for our business, enabling us to build a strategy to go to market with a new UC product from a standing start," enthused Guilio Liase, MD and founder of Vision Corporate Services.

Exertis Micro-P has extended its distribution agreement with Logitech to include its business solutions that scale from small, medium, large to enterprise-grade capabilities.

John Howard, EMEA Director, B2B & Unified Communications, Logitech, stated: "Exertis Micro-P's channel reach, value-added services and focused teams will help to drive pre-sales support for Logitech products.

"It will help to propel Logitech's strategy to drive specific business products for the Small, Medium, Large and Enterprise markets across productivity, tablet accessory and UC solutions."

Phil Brown, B2B Director at Exertis Micro-P, added: "Exertis has been a partner for Logitech across its retail business for a number of years and we're excited to build on this with its B2B business solutions."

Daisy Wholesale has added Hosted Desktop Services (HDS) to its cloud portfolio, prompted by what Product Director for Cloud Graham Harris calls a U-turn in computing. "We are now seeing a reverse in trend with computing reverting to mainframes in data centres and dumb terminals on the desk," he said. "Where once a business relied on a PC to have the power to run its own desktop, HDS centralises the intelligence.

"From this central 'hub', users can log in and use this core as their processing power, thereby removing the need for PCs and servers and their onerous support overheads.

"As data solutions advance, we are beginning to see more SMBs invest in cloud technologies. Gartner reports that already 43% of SMBs in the US have adopted hosted desktop and it forecasts that this space will see the strongest growth over the coming years.

"HDS gives resellers the capability to go to market with a solution that provides their customers with the flexible working capabilities that they have been striving for, at a predictable cost."

Through an individual login, users are able to access all the programmes, business systems and shared files in the same way as previously.

Daisy Wholesale provides a choice of three packages - Bronze, Silver and Gold - however, there are also storage and application add-ons that allow partners to increase the value of the sale. This ease of deployment means that trials are more accessible to customers, allowing them to witness proof of concept and as a result heighten confidence in the service.

Harris added: "I believe that now is the perfect time for a solution like this. With the government's new flexible working policy; the end of Window's support for Microsoft XP; the demand for BYOD; and the availability of high-performance, low-cost connectivity like FTTC and GEA - many businesses will find themselves at a crossroads on the IT infrastructure roadmap."

To mark the launch of HDS, Daisy Wholesale is offering site licences to new HDS dealers free for the first three months. Continuation of the free service is subject to the dealer's sales performance.

Growing channel player Nasstar is on the hunt for innovative resellers with customers in niche vertical markets looking to take the plunge into hosted desktop applications.

Nasstar, which was acquired by managed services specialist e-know.net late last year in a reverse takeover deal, says its Hosted Desktop provides a single access point for a wealth of software including the Microsoft Office suite, Microsoft Exchange and several hundred line-of-business applications.

Nasstar is looking to team up with resellers who can add significant value to the cloud-based services it provides.

CEO Nigel Redwood explained: "The Nasstar platform provides resellers with the opportunity to offer a bespoke service in addition to standard productivity tools such as Office, Exchange and Lync for example.

"The platform enables the resellers to manage all applications for the client, allowing them to engineer tailored solutions and so extend their value and the quality of their engagement.

"In essence, we are providing a turnkey solution for fully managed desktop environments. We can also offer a consultancy, training and application development wrap around the core hosting provision.

"Our platform operates on a recurring revenue per user, per month contract which enables the reseller to build a strong foundation and establish long-term relationships with clients."

Redwood said Nasstar is committed to helping reseller partners identify target markets or vertical sectors and jointly strategise the go-to-market offering.

"We see huge potential among verticals, with professional services leading the way, and we're ready to leverage our expertise to help resellers take maximum advantage of the market opportunity," he added.

"With the platform pretty well suited to 99% of all business types - given the insatiable demand for access anywhere, anytime - we're confident that that opportunity is a rich and sustainable one for dynamic resellers keen to work with us."

Pure Data Solutions has snapped up Wakefield-based Servatech for an undisclosed sum, a move that marks its entry into the IT services market.

The acquired company specialises in managed services, client hosting, remedial maintenance, disaster recovery and cloud service provision. Its 40 technically and services-based personnel, all of whom retain their roles following the sale.

Yorkshire-based Pure Data Solutions employs over 50 sales, administration, management and other personnel, and the combined organisation is expected to record a turnover of about £17.7m and a pre-tax profit of around £1m in its first year.

Pure Data Solutions announced a turnover of £14.2 m and gross profit of £500,000 in the 12 months to May 31st this year.

Servatech was sold by Pino Pastore and Steve Spence who founded the business 15 years ago.

Pastore has taken early retirement while Spence assumes responsibility for services sales in the enlarged business.
Pure Data Solutions CEO Stephen O'Brien said: "I'm excited by this important milestone in the growth of Pure Data Solutions, not to mention the significant increase in deliverable capabilities the acquisition brings to our enlarged client base.

"This takes us from being a successful local product reseller to a nationwide IT solution and services integrator.
"We intend to push further south and make additional synergistic acquisitions, increasing our geographic coverage and capability."

To coincide with the acquisition, Colin Meakin of Huddersfield-based Excel Business Management Consulting, which advised Pure Data Solutions on the transaction, has been appointed the enlarged company's COO.

He was formerly group sales director of ICM Computer Group (now Phoenix IT Group) and CEO of Concorde IT Group.

Voip.co.uk is gearing up to launch its new channel partner programme following the acquisition of Danish UC specialist Firstcom.

The programme will be headed up by Chris Harding, promoted to Channel Director, with the newly appointed Adam Millington in support as Channel Manager.

Adam Crisp, Voip.co.uk's co-founder and CTO, said: "The majority of our sales come via the channel so it is important to ensure our approach is right when it comes to launching our Firstcom unified comms suite later this year.

"We will be organising a series of training events at our Oxfordshire HQ to ensure new and existing channel partners are up-to-speed with our unified communications suite, as well as continuing to work with some of our existing partners in regional hubs across the UK."

Node4's IaaS, DR and virtualisation services have been extended following the acquisition of LETN Solutions, a cloud infrastructure company based in Reading.

LETN Solutions provides managed support, professional services and hosting solutions and its evoCloud and evoPod services beef up Node4's portfolio.

Andrew Gilbert, MD, Node4, commented: "This is a strategic acquisition given LETN's capability and expertise around cloud computing.

"We have been placing increasing amounts of emphasis on our cloud-based solutions in the past year and this move reaffirms our belief in the opportunity cloud brings to our customers and the industry.

"There is a common belief in technology and customer focus that will provide great synergy between our two businesses. "Furthermore, given our regional business model, LETN's location in the south is of great strategic benefit to Node4."

David Mearing, Co-founder and Chairman, LETN Solutions, added: "Combining LETN and Node4's respective solutions range and expertise means customers of both organisations will benefit from an enhanced service with greater choice."

As part of this acquisition, Steve Denby and Gregg Mearing, Co-founders of LETN Solutions, will take up positions within Node4's management team.

Advising LETN were M&A specialists, Winchester Technology Advisors (WTA) and lawyers, Goodman Derrick, whilst business analysts, PwC and lawyers, Pinsent Masons worked on behalf of Node4.

Polycom has introduced subscription-based personal virtual meeting rooms to the UK market with the roll out of Polycom RealPresence One which has proved popular in many vertical sectors.

"RealPresence One opens up new opportunities for businesses in Europe to adopt collaboration solutions that would truly enable their teams to benefit from face to face collaboration no matter where they are in Europe," said Glynn Jones, Vice President Advanced Technology group, Polycom EMEA.

"These are exciting times for organisations as they can strengthen their competitive offerings not just across their own region but in the global market place as well."

Gamma has exceeded the 200,000 mark with its live supported SIP channels in the UK.

Gamma SIP Trunks come with a number of features as standard including number flexibility, free calls to 01, 02 and 03 numbers, self-provisioning and management, Microsoft Lync 2013 compatibility, business continuity support and fraud-protection.

Alan Mackie, Product Director at Gamma said: "Our ongoing focus and investment in innovation means that we can ensure our voice solutions continue to evolve in line with ever-changing business needs and advances in telephony, which is great for our channel partners and their customers."