Comms Dealer

Distributor DMSL is on the hunt for additional partners to sell VoIP solutions 'face-to-face' to business customers.

The company says it has received a 'huge' response to the first wave of a new lead-generation campaign and wants to capitalise on what it sees as a major opportunity.

DMSL is leveraging its through-marketing engine to promote hosted VoIP solutions. John Carter, Managing Director of DMSL, says that the high level of interest in VoIP has prompted it to seek out additional partners that are willing to engage personally with the end-user customer.

"We started running the campaign in early August and we've had a phenomenal response to the VoIP aspect in particular.

"Now we really need to find more partners to help us capitalise on the opportunity. We want resellers who will go out and sell VoIP face-to-face.

"Experience tells us that this is the only certain way you can succeed. Customers need to see the technology in action and have all their questions answered.

"Once they have that reassurance - and the support of a local reseller - they gain the confidence to adopt and very soon turn into real advocates for VoIP."

DMSL is running a wide-ranging email marketing campaign to drive enquiries. DMSL's own trained team of experts are taking the incoming calls and qualifying opportunities, gathering details of the customer's exact requirements, before passing them onto the nearest registered partner. It is then up to the reseller to take the initiative. Those that do, are seeing immediate success, says Carter.

"SMBs are ready to embrace VoIP, the benefits are understood now. But it still needs to be sold and that usually has to be done in person.

"We are qualifying leads to a very high level and we've been surprised at the size of the opportunities and the eagerness of customers to take things forward. Resellers who make contact and then go in and see the prospect will win new business, there is no question about that.

"Once they have secured that business and won that customer, they will see additional revenues from the set-up and installation and recurring revenues every year."

Some significant deals have already been done by DMSL partner this month. These include one for more than 30 VoIP users and handsets, with accompanying set-up, installation, and services.

Many more are in the pipeline, Carter adds. "We have lots more potential coming through. The opportunity is there to be taken right now - we just need to have that conversation with more resellers.

"Once they have experienced VoIP, customers are also more likely to adopt other hosted services, such as Microsoft Office 365, security and network management.

"Both comms and IT dealers need to wake up to the reality here. The reseller business that owns the broadband connectivity and introduces the customer to hosted services will be storing up much more business potential for the future.

"It's vitally important to win that first piece of services business and in many cases VoIP will be the key that opens the door to those extended opportunities."

As well as lead generation, DMSL is providing resellers with access to a quote generation tool that makes it quick and easy for partners to create professional-looking quotations for customers.

Union Street Technologies has held the first leg of its ‘Maximising Margins' aBILLity Roadshow.

Set in the surroundings of Vinopolis, London's premier wine tasting venue, the roadshow provided many of Union Street's London and south based clients with demonstrations of the latest functionality available in the company's award winning aBILLity billing platform.

The roadshow also provided a glimpse of what's coming in aBILLity's development roadmap, and information on what's new in the company's client training programme.

Following the presentations, guests were offered the chance to enjoy the Vinopolis Wine Experience, and a networking drink with the Union Street team at Vinopolis's Bar Blue.

Vincent Disneur, Head of Sales for Union Street comments, "The theme of our roadshow is ‘Maximising Margins' and as this suggests, the content has a strong focus on how aBILLity can generate greater profitability and productivity, whilst also providing guidance and advice on best practice.

"The feedback that we've received from our clients has been really encouraging, and we're already looking forward to visiting Manchester later this year for the Northern leg of the roadshow."

Payphones are proving to be a boon to sailors on the high seas with crews using Solitaire 6000 and 6000 High Security Payphones - adapted to take tokens - to speak to family and friends ashore.

Offshore oil installations in the North Sea and off the coast of Brazil, as well as ferries in the Irish Sea are also using the phones, providing controlled pay telephony access (via satellite link) for crew, passengers and staff.

Available exclusively from Nimans, the phones offer resellers the chance to capture additional revenue in mainland locations such as prisons, universities, hospitals, pubs and B&Bs.

The Solitaire 6000HS Wi-fi Payphone is being used to offer paid Internet access on land as well as ships at sea.

"Search 'Payphones' on Google and our website is right up at the top," said Solitaire Managing Director Jeff Wilkes.

"That's just what Captain Shaun Andrew did from Seattle in Washington. His problem was that cod fishing boats that go out for long periods of time, only link to the outside via a satellite phone, one line for the captain and the other for crew - and how to manage , control, regulate and fund that crew link was a big problem.

"The answer was to fit a Solitaire payphone adapted to take tokens and a satellite signal. Since taking delivery - via an official UK reseller - other owners and skippers have seen the phone and made enquiries about sourcing their own."

The number of businesses relying on fax machines has diminished but in certain sectors the fax remains critical to their day-to-day operations, and when these fax-dependent organisations decide to modernise their comms systems and adopt SIP the legacy fax-factor can cause confusion and create technical challenges.

In a move to address these issues and enhance the service SIP carrier tIPicall has linked up with eFax. "Fax is one of the areas we are asked about all the time," said Steve Harrington, Sales Director, tIPicall (pictured).

He noted that T38 is the protocol for fax on SIP but many of the major carriers in the UK and globally do not support T38, and if they do they do not guarantee it.

G711 is also possible and often easier to use but still has no guarantees.

"One of the main problems is international delivery," added Harrington. "End carriers abroad may not take the transmission and complete the call, rendering any critical fax requirement by an end user as unworkable."

Another factor is the PBX environment on-site, pointed out Harrington. "Some systems handle fax better than others and some restrict the protocols they use and how it should be set-up."

Customers such as law firms depend on their inbound and outbound fax and tIPicall's link-up with eFax enables customers to at least maintain their current requirements and in many cases improve them significantly, claimed Harrington.

"Providing inbound and outbound fax services digitally has been available for a long time, but there is new demand for eFax services which integrate with the new SIP environment," he said.

"Electronic fax and SIP work well together as we can keep the end user's current numbers and provide and enhanced service.

"While the decline of fax is well documented, it is still mission critical for a number of organisations and as such we need to be able to offer the full range of landline services for every customer."

Extreme Networks has reported stronger than expected Q2 2014 results and has nearly finished its overhaul of distribution, it says.

EMEA's quarterly revenue grew by a better-than-expected 4% Q/Q and 5% yr/yr.

The Enterasys integration has 'significantly exceeded expectations', reports CEO Chuck Berger. It is ahead of track in some areas, such as the ERP IT systems integration, and is close to completing the overhaul of its distribution network, focusing on the top-tier distributors which will allow deeper ties and more leverage.

With 2,700 partners globally, and a new partner programme, it aims to reward revenue growth and pick up new partners. It also has a deal with Lenovo, which it hopes will bring in new business later this year.

However, the opportunity for business with Ericsson is described as relatively flat. "We continue to have the opportunity for upside as its hosted cloud solutions strategy unfolds, says the CEO, but Ericsson is very early in that process, he warns.

HP CloudAgile partner Outsourcery is to offer its Unified Lync solution to HP's SMB clients.

"For the first time, this new initiative will give HP's SMB customers access to Outsourcery's Unified Lync offering - at a viable price point, and from a trusted HP partner," comments Piers Linney, Co-CEO of Outsourcery.

"60 per cent of businesses plan to deploy Lync in the next year, and our Microsoft-based Unified Lync solution has been proven to improve communication and collaboration in businesses of all sizes."

Lee Knott, head of SMB, HP UK, added: "Offering Outsourcery's Unified Lync as an alternative to on-premise Lync is a natural step in our journey to providing more cost-effective options for our SMB customer base.

"Working in close collaboration with Outsourcery, HP's SMB sales force will drive demand for Unified Lync. Lync can be a complex product to deploy, and we believe Outsourcery has the experience and expertise to deliver these value-added services."

Robert Pope, Head of Business Development at Outsourcery, added: "As workforce mobility increases, we're seeing more SMB end users in need of enterprise-grade solutions delivered as a flexible and cost-effective service, which has led to a huge increase in demand for our cloud-based offerings.

"We've been an HP partner for many years now and the company's investment in this new campaign is a great indication of its continued commitment to the growing cloud market, and to Outsourcery."

Panasonic is to introduce a new ‘smart hybrid' SMB system at launch events in September and October.

The KX-NS700 is the successor to the KX-NCP and KX-TDE100 and comes built-in with the functions of the KX-NS1000.

Roadshows take place on September 24th at Panasonic Solutions Centre in Bracknell, followed by October 2nd at a Birmingham hotel and October 14th in Dublin.

According to Nimans' Head of Category Sales Paul Burn the system is certain to get the thumbs up from the distributor's resellers.

"The KX-NS700 is a Smart Hybrid PBX suitable for small to medium sized offices," he said.

"It provides various solutions with its built-in functions. The KX-NS700 has sufficient capacity for both legacy and IP ports, and an activation key or expansion cabinet can be used to easily expand the system according to customer needs.

"The KX-NS700 is also designed to be used in call centre environments. Its built-in applications support the basic needs of supervisors, such as Queue Announcement, Live Status Monitor, Activity Report, Automatic Conversation Recording, and NAS (Network Attached Storage)."

Various activation keys are preinstalled or come with a 60-day free trial, added Burn.

"Up to two extensions can be assigned the same extension number. For example, calls to an extension in the office can be received simultaneously on a softphone on a smartphone. Calls can also be switched between paired phones with a simple operation.

"The installer can easily program everything related to functions such as PBX and VM by web based console, because the KX-NS700 comes with a built-in web server. Programming can also be performed from remote sites. Users can also use a web based console to configure terminals and the VM mailbox.

"The KX-NS700 has a built-in messaging system that provides voice mail to subscribers. The Unified Messaging system can also provide voice guidance to outside callers, either directing them to their desired destination or to the mailbox of a subscriber, where they can leave a voice message. All in all this is a very powerful package which will prove very popular with our Panasonic customer base."

Channel industry veteran Simon Howitt has launched a new UC venture, Lapdog for Business, alongside former Outscourcery colleague Adam Cathcart.

The business aims to provide resellers addressing SMEs with a range of technologies to get the best of UC services on a pound per unit, per month basis.
?The duo believe that while the proposition of full UC using cloud services packaged with an opex pricing model is a perfect fit for SMEs, very few are making the transition.

"We're offering resellers a sell for us or sell with us model, either as a white label package or under the Lapdog brand," said Howitt.

"This allows traditional resellers to sell the whole bundle and lean on Lapdog for the expertise and experience in the aspects they currently don't have.

"As the landscape continues to evolve, this will ensure resellers protect their base of customers from competitors and at the same time prove to be more valuable to them."

Lapdog is also aiming to work with affinity partners who already have relationships and trust with SMEs and can introduce new services which in turn will bring additional revenues from their relationship.

Cathcart commented: "These relationships are valuable, but introduction partners need the help and support we can provide as they will definitely be outside their comfort zone.

"They believe UC is too disruptive and too complex to piece together and therefore don't recommend some of the solutions."

Howitt, who was Sales Director at Outsourcery and before that Yes Telecom, says Lapdog will help channel partners maximise on the 'perfect storm', namely the growth in ownership of tablets and smartphones, the acceleration of 4G penetration and the rise in popularity of business grade software such as Microsoft Office 365 and Lync enterprise voice.

"All of these factors allow remote and mobile working to become a reality," added Howitt. "By aggregating the products and services Lapdog creates an 'office in a box' solution for end users.

"By having everything on a subscription model, including leasing packages for devices, Lapdog creates a way for SMEs to access all of this without the need for capital expenditure."

With analysts and vendors predicting that the Software Defined Data Centre (SDDC) is the next big step for the IT industry , Adapt has announced results from a survey that illustrates the UK cloud industry is still divided in its opinion of the software defined concept, its potential and benefits.

The results of the survey, which took place at Cloud Computing World Forum on 24th and 25th June 2014, show that although three out five respondents (61%) claim to be familiar with the concept of the SDDC, when it comes to explaining the benefits most are unclear. 13 per cent felt it was about performance, 20 per cent felt it provided centralised management and 17 per cent admitted they don't understand the benefits.

The statistics go on to show that two in five (43%) don't think a true SDDC is achievable in the next 12 months as a production ready environment, whilst a quarter believe it's already achievable.

The results also revealed a myriad of answers when respondents were asked to explain in more detail what SDDC might mean to their business. From flexibility and security through to efficiency and lower costs, it's clear a true explanation of the benefits has not yet been defined or understood by UK organisations.

So what is the SDDC? Put simply, it's a way of making the most economic use of data centre resources like storage, network and compute - controlling infrastructure consumption, process and operation down to component level without having to touch a single piece of hardware.

In the SDDC, business rules manage the automated deployment and redeployment of workflows and workloads across tiered platforms to deliver continuously optimised application performance. This means that an SDDC can (for example) rapidly respond to demand changes and bottlenecks without human intervention, 'promote' or demote workloads into different performance tiers based on their business criticality at a point in time (such as month end billing, new customer-facing initiatives, archive data) and even move these on and off premise, in and out of the cloud.

Kevin Linsell, Head of Service Development, Adapt, said: "The data centre industry is rapidly evolving. Building large scale data centres with high-volumes of hardware is very inefficient and complex for cloud service providers and enterprises. Through the use of software as opposed to hardware, a SDDC can offer businesses a fast, incredibly flexible way to not only virtualise their IT, but increase levels of flexibility, agility and control from the application layer down, removing barriers and enabling business transformation.

"As with all big evolutionary steps it can take a while to arrive at market acceptance. Our latest survey is evidence of the confusion in the industry - education is key to ensuring businesses reap the rewards that SDDC promises."

ShoreTel has unwrapped Mobility version 8 which integrates with the ShoreTel Communicator desktop call control suit, introducing a virtualised ShoreTel Mobility Router meaning that IT departments can mobile-enable the company workforce to encourage collaboration and productivity.

ShoreTel Mobility 8 eases video communication between iOS and Android smartphones and tablets using the ShoreTel Mobility Client, with single touch video calling from the keypad.

With ShoreTel Mobility 8, users can participate in multi-party video sessions from mobile devices to room-based video communication systems. ShoreTel Mobility 8 also supports video communication from the user's Windows desktop using ShoreTel Communicator.

"We're making mobile collaboration simple and ubiquitous," said Pej Roshan, vice president of product management at ShoreTel.

"End users want consistency of capabilities regardless of which device they use. Now teams can stay connected and collaborate using the ShoreTel Mobility Client as well as the ShoreTel Communicator desktop client, on any device, and from anywhere."