Comms Dealer

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."

The managed services and hosting industry is seeing an unprecedented level of change, with consolidation and birth of new businesses running at a high level, even for the normally fast moving world of IT.

New research by IT Europa shows that 2014 has seen many new brands fighting for a place in the market, as existing firms up their game and traditional IT firms look at new delivery models.

Recent research by Gartner supports this view: "The market opportunity arising from broad technology changes is creating a digital business opportunity that is forcing a restructuring in strategy, talent, portfolio and organisation within services providers," said Susan Tan, research vice president at Gartner.*

The impact of these technology changes coupled with increasing demand for Managed Services is revolutionising the IT industry, its channels and supply models, as new players emerge to lead the market. As Gartner says, service providers must also come to terms with the fact that "in a digital world, their existing delivery models will not effectively address new demands".

"We have reported on many changes as vendors adapt to this," says John Garratt, editor of MSP Europa and Content Director of the Managed Services and Hosting Summit in London next month.

While major hosting companies such as Google and Amazon continue to cut their prices, and those in the second tier such as Rackspace complain of 'intense cloud infrastructure price competition', others are looking at where they can carve off a slice of something sustainable.

"We have seen many new software companies entering with tools to manage and integrate applications, and new mobile security announcements almost daily," added Garratt.

Those attending the Managed Services & Hosting Summit 2014 will have the opportunity to learn more about the issues facing Managed Service Providers, other channels and their suppliers as they evolve new business models and relationships to address the customer challenges and opportunities of the 'post-product' era.

A strong line-up of speakers is headed by Tiffani Bova, VP and Distinguished Analyst at Gartner Research, who will provide the opening keynote. Tiffani's presentation will examine how both technology changes (cloud, consumption and managed services) and new customer demands are forcing technology providers and the broader channel ecosystem to re-examine their sales models.

The sponsors supporting the event now include platinum sponsors: AVG, Datto, GFI Max, Kaseya, NaviSite; gold sponsors Asigra, Avnet, Claranet, CommVault, Dot Hill, Drop Box, GCI, Modern Office, Qlogic, Virtual Instruments, Webroot; silver sponsors AppRiver, Aurora Kendrick James, Autotask, eG Innovations, Huawei, Opengear, Riverbed, SolidFire, Techgate, Tintri and Zycko.

Newly added platinum sponsor NaviSite will address the emergence of new hybrid models for IT supply. The audience of service providers, hosting companies, telcos, mobile operators and web services companies, plus channels, will hear from Mark Hart - Channel & Strategic Alliance Director, NaviSite Europe on "How service providers and partners work together to create hybrid solutions that deliver customer value".

NaviSite's presentation will examine the key trends in the adoption of cloud computing, the challenges for service providers and channel partners in delivering hybrid cloud solutions as part of a managed service and how service providers and partners can work effectively together to deliver customer value. "With organisations adopting cloud services in a variety of ways, the challenge of 'pure' cloud services means they look to hybrid cloud and managed services to meet their needs," Mark Hart says.

A key driver of the industry is the rise in enterprise use of mobile technology. Prakash Khot, Chief Technology Officer at another newly added platinum sponsor, Kaseya, will discuss the "democratisation of IT" as it continues alongside adoption of cloud-first and mobile-first strategies. Companies have varying needs around Enterprise Mobility Management, he says and these are based on company size, industry, IT policies, and the estimated business value of having a mobile-enabled workforce. It is important to understand the nuances and implications of Enterprise Mobility Management and how to make a profitable services offering from it.

IT Europa and Angel Business Communications will run the Managed Services & Hosting Summit 2014 on 25 September 2014 at the Pullman St Pancras Hotel, London.

The Managed Services & Hosting Summit 2014 will take place at The Pullman St Pancras Hotel, London, on 25 September 2014. Resellers and integrators wishing to attend the convention and vendors, distributors or service providers interested in sponsorship opportunities can find further information at: www.mshsummit.com

Fast growing broadband, mobile and telecoms billing provider True Telecom has expanded into new offices in north Kent and increased its workforce.

Having launched just over a year ago with a core team of staff, True Telecom has now outgrown its existing office in the heart of Maidstone, having secured additional space at Crossways Business Park in Dartford, bringing its operations closer to the capital.

The new office is designed to accommodate an increase in the sales team and boasts new meeting rooms, leisure facilities for staff and picturesque surroundings.

Particular care was taken with the interior design of the new office, which has undergone a complete refit to reflect the positive, vibrant and modern ethos of the company and staff. The design was conceived to promote an interesting and proactive work environment for management and team members alike.

Staff are able to enjoy a number of local amenities, including restaurants, leisure facilities and the Bluewater shopping centre located just three minutes away by car.

True Telecom CEO Stuart Griffiths (pictured) said: "Our fierce growth is testament to the hard work and dedication of all members of the team which continues to drive our brand and our business forward.

"We've also made a number of important staff acquisitions to support the business as it grows. The new office not only gives us the capacity we need now, but also allows for our projected growth in the future."

True Telecom was established last year to specifically meet the telecoms requirements for small businesses in the UK, offering line rental, superfast broadband, mobile, cloud IP Telephony and SIP services.

Consumer adoption of network connected technology is on the rise, with 69% of US consumers planning to buy an in-home device in the next five years, according to the Accenture 2014 State of the Internet of Things Study.

By the end of next year, a total of about 13% of consumers will own an in-home IoT device such as a thermostat or in-home security camera. Currently, only about 4% of those surveyed own such a device.

Adoption of wearable IoT technology such as smart watches and fitness devices is also expected to gradually increase, with nearly half of consumers already owning or planning to purchase a device in this category in the next five years.

The study was conducted in the US by Acquity Group, a digital marketing agency, now part of Accenture Interactive.

HP's Q3 saw top-line revenue growth year-over-year, but this was driven by growth in PCs, helped by the XP refresh.

Revenue was $27.6bn, up 1% yr/yr. Software, storage and enterprise services didn't do so well in the mix, and this affected the overall margin.

Enterprise services remains weak, falling 6% to $5.6bn after dropping 7% in Q2; software fell -5% to $959m, worse than Q2's flat growth. Printers were down -4% to $5.6bn, an even decline with Q2. Financial services -3% to $855m, after dropping 2% in Q2

CEO Meg Whitman: "As I said many times before, turnarounds are not linear and we face some tough comparisons in the fourth quarter, but overall I continue to be encouraged by the progress we're making.

"Overall, results in Q3 were driven by good performance in personal systems, growth in industry standard servers and networking as well as disciplined cost management across all of our businesses."

The Windows XP expiration has contributed to growth. It also claims 'good early traction' with service providers as a result of the partnership with Foxconn to produce a line of cloud optimised servers and has been aggressive to take advantage of the uncertainty customers feel about the IBM Lenovo transaction.

Storage revenue declined 4% year-over-year. However, converged storage was up 9% while traditional storage declined 14%.

In the regions: EMEA revenue was $10bn, up 5% year-over-year or up 1% in constant currency, driven by some recovery in mature western economies, partially offset primarily by significant weakness in Russia.

PCs in EMEA had double-digit performance, led by the UK with double-digits, Germany double-digits and to a lesser extent Italy.

EMEA weakness in Enterprise Services was put down to weakness in public sector spending in the Enterprise Services group within EMEA, mostly in Western Europe.

"We saw some general run off in the region and then we were also impacted by the geopolitical instability in Eastern Europe. And so those were the big impacts in Q3 and we actually believe that we're going to continue to see those pressures in the near term," she says.