Comms Dealer

By Elvire Gosnold, Director, Blabbermouth Marketing: Everyone agrees that you need an online presence for your business, but what people can't agree on is what exactly you should expect from your website and what portion of your marketing budget you should spend on it.

When thinking about commissioning a new website you need to ask yourself several questions to shape the expectations you should have on how your website works for you, and therefore how much time and money you should invest in it.

Some companies with old websites have the attitude that there is no need for a new website as their current one brings in no new business and no significant number of visitors. This should come as no surprise if the pages have not been updated for the past year and the web address is not promoted on other forms of company communication. Websites do drive new business but the manner in which this is accomplished is bespoke to the requirements of a business.

What are the incentives to get people to visit? How will your customers and prospects benefit from visiting your site? B2B customers want to be educated and feel that your website is enriching their knowledge of the wider product set that you are offering. Repeat visits are ideal, so what can be posted regularly to encourage habitual visits? How will your company benefit from having increased traffic to your site and is it worth the time and effort?

Simply throwing money at PPC (pay per click) advertising will make your site more prominent. But if it is irrelevant and visitors accidentally visit your site there is little justification for the money spent. It is important that you attract the right visitors and once you have their attention think carefully about what and how you plan to present your corporate messaging to them.

Telcos need to better flaunt their ability to transport, collect and aggregate large amounts of information to grasp a bigger share of the rising machine-to-machine (M2M) opportunity, according to Ovum.

The latest forecast from the world's largest telecom analyst firm projects that the cellular M2M market will bring in a total of $252bn for the 2015-19 period, presenting an attractive revenue opportunity for operators that choose to invest in their existing capabilities.

Ovum's cellular M2M forecast foresees global connections growing 162% over the next five years to reach 530 million. Asia and Oceania will have the most connections (over 200 million by 2019), followed by Europe and the Americas. According to Ovum, operator revenue share of the total cellular M2M market stands to rise to US$25bn by 2019.

As of 2013 operator revenue was largely comprised of managed connectivity (43%) and network-level data transport (36%). However, with figures anticipating the largest revenue opportunity to be within other layers (integration is expected to account for almost 50% of total M2M revenue in 2019), operators need to look beyond connectivity to reap the bigger rewards.

"Over the past few years, as the hype around Internet of Things has taken off - driven by some wildly exaggerated forecasts - we've seen operators take a gentle approach to M2M.

Staying within their main expertise, most have taken on management of the connectivity layer, yet as conventional wisdom tells us, only minor returns will be made here," says Jamie Moss, senior analyst at Ovum.

"Instead, operators need to leverage their other capabilities, namely their ability to aggregate large amounts of data around their customers.

"We're seeing device and application management become the new focus in M2M, and the ability to collect vast amounts of data will be of considerable value. Data itself has intrinsic worth, but it is the business decisions made based on the aggregation and analysis of that data that are the greatest source of value for enterprises and their connected service provider partners."

As the M2M opportunity continues to develop, so will the business models that operators are adopting to gain a greater share of the revenue.

"Ovum's research into the cellular M2M market has highlighted five key models. Some operators are developing end-to-end services internally as an offshoot of their own supply chain needs. Others are crafting bespoke, end-to-end solutions for individual enterprise partners, although this remains the exception. An increasingly common strategy involves outsourcing to acquire M2M specialisation, which is being done in three ways.

"Some operators have acquired dedicated M2M service providers to own that intellectual property, resell those services into other markets and use the assets acquired to develop new services. Others have partnered with specialists from other markets, working in unison to deliver connected, value-added variants of existing services. Lastly, some operators have opted to license suites of third-party M2M services from aggregators.

"Ultimately M2M is all about the enterprise partner (not 'customer') of the operator. M2M is a market with unique dynamics, where the aim of the operator is to become embedded in the long-term business strategy of the enterprise, not to simply be their current service provider.

"In order for the M2M market to realise its potential, operators must educate enterprises in the utility that connectivity brings. Enterprises should never have to become experts in connectivity, however, as that knowledge is part and parcel of the managed service that the operator must provide for them."

Node4 has launched File Sync and Share, a cloud-based collaboration product that allows users to share and collaborate on content using cloud services.

Based on Node4's resilient N4Cloud platform, File Sync and Share is an alternative to consumer solutions such as Dropbox, Box and Google Drive.

A small software app can be installed by users on a variety of connected devices and synchronises automatically when files or folders are created or modified. This means an employee can create or receive a document on his/her desktop in the office and, using File Sync and Share, access it on a connected smartphone, tablet or laptop through the app.

The platform can be used to share files internally and externally and is centrally managed through a web-portal where administrators monitor access rights and permissions, giving businesses more control than many 'open' consumer applications.

Administrators can manage remotely time-limited projects, so an employee who has left the business or an external user who no longer needs access to information can have project files removed from their remote devices.

John Williams, Product Manager, Node4, said: "The increasing use of personal devices for work purposes has led to consumer sharing platforms such as Dropbox and Google Drive becoming popular with business users.

"For businesses, the issue is that it is difficult to control and monitor the use of such platforms and, ultimately, you don't know where your data actually is or what security measures are in place to protect it. File Sync and Share is a solution that provides SMEs with a secure and collaborative way of sharing potentially sensitive information.

"By using a solution based on N4Cloud, hosted in one of Node4's four state-of-the-art data centres, SMEs know exactly where their critical data is being stored and who has access to it. Node4's highly experienced technical team is also on-hand 24/7 to provide local support to businesses in the UK."

Exertis has expand its European footprint with the acquisition of CapTech Distribution AB, Sweden's largest independent technology distribution business.

The transaction is expected to complete during September 2014.

CapTech has a particularly strong market position in IT hardware and AV systems. CapTech partners with technology manufacturers and brand owners including Acer, Asus, BenQ, Dell, Microsoft, NEC and Samsung and sells to a very broad range of etail, retail and reseller customers.

Niall Ennis, Exertis Group Managing Director, said today: "The acquisition of CapTech represents an excellent strategic fit and is another significant step forward for Exertis following the rebranding of the business last year."

Daniel Johnsson, CapTech Managing Director, commented: "We believe our partnership with Exertis will enable the next phase of growth for our business, including an expansion of the business in the wider Nordic/Scandinavian region."

A survey of UK public sector professionals, commissioned by Six Degrees Group (6DG), has found that the majority (66%) of UK civil servants have no knowledge of the UK Government's G-Cloud initiative.

The survey reiterates the findings of a Freedom of Information Act conducted by 6DG at the end of 2013, which similarly revealed that the majority (76%) of local authorities and councils had no knowledge of how the G-Cloud framework could be used.

Of the 300 public sector authorities questioned, only 38 had used G-Cloud to procure their cloud services.

Campbell Williams, Group Strategy and Marketing Director at Six Degrees Group, said: "These statistics demonstrate that as we move towards the end of 2014, the government still needs to do a lot more to educate all public sector departments on G-Cloud.

"The initiative has the power to transform radically how authorities interact with cloud providers. However, as the findings from both surveys have shown, the public sector remains unaware of the many benefits that using the G-Cloud framework can provide. It's a framework designed specifically for the public sector, so it's essential that they know what it is and how it can benefit them."

The UK's alternative superfast network operator market looks buoyant with new investment flowing in from a variety of sources, and new relationships being built between network operators and service providers.

These are the findings from a new report reviewing the past six months in country's superfast broadband sector.

"There is a real buzz in UK superfast broadband with prospects looking good for several of the country's alternative network operators," said Annelise Berendt, Principal Associate at Point Topic.

"Although the period has been marked by final closure of one of the country's alternative network pioneers, Digital Region, several other altnets are proving themselves in it for the long haul, gaining financial backing to power expansion of their networks and develop scale in their relative niche markets. Some are also growing strategic relationships with other players that effectively bypass reliance on BT."

Operators attracting new investors in recent months include Ask4, CityFibre, Gigaclear and Hyperoptic. Urban-focused CityFibre plans to roll out 'Gigabit Cities' throughout the UK after an oversubscribed £30 million secondary fundraising was approved by its board on 9 June 2014.

This latest funding round added to £16.5 million the company raised at its IPO in January 2014. In May 2014 Darwin Private Equity agreed to buy a majority stake in student accommodation specialist Ask4 for £21.5 million.

The operator also provides FTTB services to residential apartments in Leeds, Manchester, Sheffield and Shipley. Residential gigabit specialist Hyperoptic's expansion beyond London into other cities as it secures more funding, is also big news for the altnet community.

Meanwhile, rural FTTP operator Gigaclear confirmed the successful completion of a new round of equity financing totalling £7.75 million in July 2014, designed to enable rollout of several additional new networks.

Also on the rural front, Call Flow Solutions is making its mark in Kent, widening coverage through both its own investment and via public funding. And community-grown venture, Broadband for the Rural North (B4RN), is gaining real ground with deployment in Lancashire speeding up as subscribers come online, easing cash flow as it works towards its coverage targets.

Moving into more remote areas, the Rural Community Broadband Fund (RCBF) in England and Community Broadband Scotland (CBS) appear to be making a difference with deployment now taking place in several communities leveraging their support.

In addition, there continues to be a mushrooming of small altnet deployments around the country including Internet Connections Ltd's deployment in Staffordshire and TripleConnect's in Cumbria.

"Some of these operators are proving themselves highly versatile with a number of companies active in a variety of deployments," says Berendt.

"Fibre Options is a prime example with its FTTP deployment in rural Gloucestershire, new-build home development near York, fibre provision in the RCBF-funded wireless project in Tove Valley, and a 16Gbps infrastructure build for the business community in London's Perseverance Works. ITS Technology Group and Keycom are other examples of players with deployments in a range of locations."

Relationship building between alternative network providers has also been a key feature of the past six months, with a number of smaller players using CityFibre's infrastructure - this includes players such as Ask4, Gradwell, Keycom and potentially Gigaclear.

ITS Technology Group and Fluidata are partnering to establish a wholesale network in London's Hammersmith and Fulham. And the deal involving CityFibre, Sky and TalkTalk to build a FTTP network in the City of York announced in April 2014, is part of a growing set of relationships involving infrastructure and service providers that sidestep BT.

"While the initiative does not make either service provider a permanent infrastructure player, it does signal a willingness to look at possibilities beyond the Openreach network," added Berendt.

"Indeed Sky is building other relationships - it has agreements with both GTC and seethelight, and is also trialing FTTP infrastructure in Hampshire with television solutions provider, Love Digital TV."

IDC estimates global server sales rose 2.5% Y/Y in Q2 to $12.6bn. That marks a turnaround from the 2.2% drop seen in Q1, and the 4.4% drop seen in Q4. ear or year, teh volume systems saw a 4.9% revenue growth.

Gartner estimates also sales grew 2.8%. IDC declares the server market, hurt in recent quarters by system consolidation and a shift in demand towards the white-label gear used by web and hosting giants, is seeing "the beginning of a cyclical refresh cycle." It sees the pending launch of Intel's new Grantley Xeon CPUs, along with Microsoft's plans to end Windows Server 2003 support, lifting sales into 2015.

Sales of x86 servers (mostly Intel-based) rose 7.8% in Q2, and now make up 78% of industry revenue. Non-x86 server sales fell 12.8%. Market leader HP's share rose 40 bps Y/Y to 25.4%, with x86 growth offsetting Itanium weakness. Number 2 IBM's share fell 340 bps to 23.6% ahead of the sale of its x86 server ops to Lenovo; on the bright side, IBM's decline narrowed from Q1's 600 bps.

Number 3 Dell's share fell 160 bps to 16.2%. Fourth placed Oracle's share grew 10 bps to 5.9%, with engineered system growth offsetting declines for older UNIX/SPARC server lines. Then comes Cisco, which recently proclaimed its UCS server ops are on a $3B/year run rate, and which saw its share rise 140 bps to 5.8% on the back of 35% growth. Cisco should pass Oracle in a quarter or two. White label direct vendors saw their share grow 110 bps to 6.6%. The shares of all other vendors rose 190 bps to 16.1%.

Datatec has announced that Logicalis Group has acquired a 51% shareholding in ituma GmbH, a speciality software developer based in Germany.
 
Logicalis will have exclusive rights to ituma's proprietary software based Wi-Fi platform. The technology enables businesses to deliver Wi-Fi enabled-services such as 3D in-location navigation, product and service offerings access, product promotions and omni-channel retail ordering to their customers.
 
The acquisition presents a significant opportunity for Logicalis to grow ituma's licence revenues exponentially and increase infrastructure revenues globally through its own sales organisation.
 
Jens Montanana, Datatec's Chief Executive Officer commented: "Wi-Fi enabled-services is an exciting segment of the growing global wireless data market. Our investment in ituma provides Logicalis with access to a new complementary solution that has the potential to support increases in annuity, services and infrastructure revenues across multiple territories in which Logicalis operates."

GCI has strengthened its Board and growth strategy with the appointment of Ian Brown (pictured) as Chairman. Acknowledged as an established entrepreneur and business leader, Brown has been operating in the technology, telecommunications and services sectors for 30 years and is highly experienced in obtaining growth from businesses, corporate finance, strategy, and general management.
 
He commented: "I am looking forward to working closely with Wayne and the team at GCI, my interests are firmly rooted in working with businesses that are seeking to grow and develop and GCI certainly personify this."
 
Brown's current role is CEO of Axell Wireless, a company he created through the acquisition and merger of AFL from the UK, Avitec AB of Sweden and Dekolink of Israel.

Today, Axell operates out of 16 offices across the globe and has become one of the leading manufacturers of wireless coverage and capacity solutions exporting products to over 150 countries. In May 2013 Axell was acquired by defence technology giant Cobham plc for £85m. ??Prior to Axell Brown was CEO of Redstone, a LSE quoted communications services provider with approximately £80m of revenues and 500 staff.

And prior to this in 1995 Ian formed and led another management buy in of two companies to create Fastnet Group, that he grew to become one of the UK's leading network and communications services companies. Fastnet was sold to Redstone in 2000 returning institutional investors 10 x their original investment. ??Brown's early career included key positions at 3Com and Hewlett Packard. He also operates an independent business advisory practice Consilium Associates Ltd. 

GCI's CEO, Wayne Martinadded: "We are thrilled to have Ian on board and feel confident that he will help refine our strategy of continuous improvement and work with us to build a successful future for GCI."
 

Maintel has achieved ISO20000 status, the International Standard for service management.

Kevin Stevens, Group Operations Director, said: "ISO20000 took a lot of time and hard work to achieve. We had to be extremely thorough in our process and standards review, and consequently we can offer our clients an even more rigorously policed service."

"The pay-off for all that time and effort is that achieving the standard underlines Maintel's credibility and is a big tick in the box for Maintel's Managed Service proposition.

"As one of just 100 companies across all sectors in the UK which has attained this certification, we become part of a service management elite.

"Add to that our existing ISO9000 certification for quality management and ISO27001 certification for information security, and Maintel more than demonstrates its pedigree in Managed Services sector. Maintel is ambitious in this area of its business and we fully expect to become even more competitive as a result of attaining the new certification."