Comms Dealer

Exclusive Networks Group has appointed Julien Antoine as Director of Global Operations, an international business transformation specialist with a remit to develop on a global scale the Group's capabilities in value added services.

He comes from A.T. Kearney, the global management consultancy and is part of the drive to hit €1bn turnover by 2017.

"Our opportunity is to address the demand for a wider array and reach of our services as we extend into new and increasingly distant territories, and drive greater momentum across our vendor base," said Olivier Breittmayer, CEO of Exclusive Networks Group.

"Bringing in Julien's expertise complements our ongoing investments in global operations, our Passport 24/7 International Support Centre and supply chain solutions, and enables us to scale our services in line with future significant growth ambitions."

Antoine added: "As we expand, it is essential that our partners continue to receive consistently excellent standards of service and we do this by continually improving and innovating back-office, global supply and 24/7 support capability."

The UK tech sector enjoyed a quarter of robust growth from April to June 2014 with the expansion of business activity rising at its fastest pace since the onset of the financial crisis in 2007, says the latest KPMG/Markit Tech Monitor.

The UK survey also indicates that improving economic conditions have ushered in a sustained period of strong top line growth for tech companies, which in turn boosted investment spending plans across the sector.

Almost two thirds (61%) report a solid upturn in year-ahead expectations for business activity and more than 4 in 10 (43%) also declare an intention to hire more staff.

It is also clear from the study that capital expenditure plans within the tech sector are at their most upbeat since data was first collated in 2009. Today, 43% anticipate an increase - compared to the previous high of 37.5%.

Commenting on the latest Tech Monitor UK results, Tudor Aw, Head of Technology at KPMG, said: "The UK tech sector is firing on all cylinders with sustained growth outstripping the wider economy. Importantly, this good news story looks like it will continue in the year ahead with many tech companies planning to loosen the purse strings to hire staff and raise capital expenditure.

"For the first time since 2007, there is also a welcome upturn in Tech IPOs which hopefully signals the beginning of a comeback of Tech companies to the London Stock Exchange, something that will be important in convincing tech start-ups that the UK is the right place to be."

Solution Builders (SBL) has secured a £1m investment and named Chris Brassington as CEO to lead the firm through its next growth phase.

The investment will enable SBL to catalyse its growth strategy, expand its service offerings, extend its reach with a new office in Manchester, and recruit more staff to the sales, marketing and finance teams, as well as customer support.

"SBL is a key player in the hospitality, corporate and retail markets and this investment gives us a fantastic opportunity to move the business forward and continue to support our clients effectively," stated Brassington.

Before joining SBL Brassington was Chairman of mobile digital strategy company Starfish360, providing mobile commerce solutions to the retail industry.

He has 20 years experience within the mobile technology industry and has held senior positions with Cap Gemini Ernst and Young, BT, CPW, and NCR, and was MD for 2ergo and CEO at Totem Communications.

Also joining SBL is Richard Hubbard as Head of Finance. His experience includes a stint at Calyx Managed Services in a similar role, and senior management and financial controller positions at Evolve Energy, MKD Holding and Alcontrol.

IT Europa has announced that the eighth annual European ISV Convention will be on 25 March 2015 in London.

The event will bring together leading Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) with hardware, software and service organisations to explore and address the issues affecting the development of the IT Industry in Europe and to develop and strengthen partnerships aimed at supporting solution-based sales.

Over recent years ISVs have been very much the driving force behind growth within the IT and Telecoms markets. This seems set to continue this year with Gartner predicting Enterprise Software sector growth of 6.8 % in 2014 - more than twice the rate of growth in IT spending as a whole (3.1%).

The European ISV Convention 2015 will build upon the success of the seven previous conventions, which have been staged in Brussels, Frankfurt, London and Berlin, and attract leading ISVs from all over Europe. The convention will feature a high-level conference programme with leading industry speakers on topics that include the challenges and opportunities facing ISVs in Europe.

Under the umbrella theme of "Beyond the cloud - Creating Competitive Advantage - harnessing the power of connected technologies to drive digital business," presentations will also cover such areas as managing information across Hybrid IT, Mobile and M2M environments, developments in business analytics, collaboration, and cloud computing and the impact of new business models on the future of application development and delivery.

"Organisations across Europe are looking for solutions that will deliver real value for their business. Increasingly, that means finding smarter ways to capture and analyse data and integrating new cloud-based solutions with legacy applications," says Alan Norman, Managing Director of IT Europa.

"The European ISV Convention 2015 provides a unique opportunity for Europe's ISV community to come together to address the issues affecting the development of the software applications industry. It also provides a framework within which major hardware and software vendors, as well as service providers and system integrators, can meet and engage with the directors and decision makers of Europe's most significant ISVs and Solution Providers to create business opportunities."

The European ISV Convention 2015 will take place at the Lancaster London Hotel, London, on 25 March 2015. ISVs wishing to attend the convention and vendors, distributors or service providers interested in sponsorship opportunities can find further information at www.isvconvention.com

Mobile airtime distributor Daisy Distribution has added Vodafone's UC VoIP solution Vodafone One Net Business to its portfolio, a cloud-based comms service that delivers fixed and mobile communications through a single platform and on one number.

Julien Parven, Marketing Director at Daisy Distribution, said: "As the rate of convergence maintains its pace, this type of UC solution is in high demand.

"Not only does it provide the ability for end users to be responsive regardless of their location, but it is also an extremely scalable product that has the flexibility to be tailored to a customer's needs.

"The addition of the voice element from Vodafone One Net, teamed with all the capabilities of Lync, will allow us to bridge the gap between the traditional mobile solutions and cutting-edge UC products."

To enable its partners to sell the Vodafone One Net Business product, Daisy Distribution has set up a detailed accreditation scheme.

The firm has also introduced an early bird bonus of £1,000 to its partners when they connect accounts of 12 or more seats from now until September.

A new company being launched next month is claiming to be the first to offer customers same day telephone and broadband services without holding them to long-term contracts.
 
TenTel says it will offer a 'move-in, turn-on' service with no enforced tie-ins or hidden extras, aimed principally at customers in rented accommodation.
 
It aims to work in partnership with landlords and letting agents, offering them a commission for each line of data they supply and for each of their tenants who signs-up, with deals that could increase their profitability by up to 40%, according to Tentel.
 
Selkirk-based TenTel anticipates signing 20,000 customers in its first year of trading, generating a turnover of £9 million, rising to 100,000 customers within five years. It will, initially, employ 18 people at its Borders HQ.
 
The same business model has worked successfully in the energy market, with landlords agreeing similar deals with suppliers of gas and electricity, and TenTel is confident it can be replicated in the telecoms market.
 
Letting agents that manage 1,000 properties would generate commission of £25,000-a-year, significantly increasing yields, according to the company.
 
"This would be the equivalent to them managing an extra 250 properties without incurring any additional workload or expense," says Robert McKechnie, the company's Managing Director.
 
"This approach has worked successfully in the energy market, where the onus is on customers to opt-out, whereas ours is an opt-in model which assumes nothing and gives customers the choice to switch.
 
"This is a brand new approach in the telecoms market that offers customers a less expensive and more convenient service, while also providing a new income stream for landlords."
 
According to Tentel there are 9 million tenants in rented accommodation in the UK, 67% of whom will move within 12 months, giving the company a potential market of 6 million people per year.

Westcon has gained a stronger foothold in the headset market reporting 90% growth in sales during the past 12 months, driven by the adoption of UC solutions from vendors such as Microsoft, Polycom, Avaya and Cisco.

To bring more focus on headset sales the distributor recruited headset specialist Rhys Mathews whose remit is to increase attach rates across all areas of the wider business, which includes Comstor and Westcon Security.

Nick Wright (pictured), European Product Manager, said: "Headsets may not be the most lucrative part of the solution and many people consider the market to be commoditised and price-driven, but they are a critical component.

"With guidance from the channel, businesses are now realising that the last three feet, the space between the device and the ear, is critical to maintaining the quality of the UC experience.

"By making the wrong choice in headsets can undermine the customers' entire UC deployment."

According to Frost & Sullivan UC-enabled headset shipments are set to grow at a compound annual rate of 30% over the next six years.

8x8 has announced the availability of a new out-of-the-box integration with Zendesk's customer service platform that enhances the Customer Experience Management capabilities of the 8x8 Virtual Office cloud telephony and unified communications (UC) platform.
 
The combined 8x8 and Zendesk solution integrates business telephony and customer relationship functionality to enable organisations to provide more efficient and more personalised interactions with their customers.
 
"We are excited to be the first cloud UC provider to offer secure and reliable business telephony as well as contact centre integration with Zendesk, enabling all companies to conduct better Customer Experience Management," said 8x8 CEO Vik Verma. "Businesses today who are not optimising the experience that occurs with each and every customer interaction will certainly enable their competition to be considered for that customer's next call."
 
Sam Boonin, VP Product at Zendesk, added: "Customers expect to be able to reach companies at any time and across any channel or device.

"With 8x8 Virtual Office's integration into Zendesk the customer not only has these options, but they can also receive the high quality and personal service that they deserve."

It seems that economists and brokers are disappointed by financial performance within the recruitment sector, despite a 20-30 per cent uplift in sales and profitability, something that most companies would be overjoyed with, writes Clive Jefferys, JMA Network.

This attitude highlights a fundamental failure by so-called experts to understand how the recruitment sector is reshaping itself after the recession. The crux of the matter is how the recruitment process has totally, and perhaps permanently, swung in favour of the candidate.

In the olden days if you wanted a new job the first and often biggest challenge was simply where to look. There were no Internet job boards to show you new jobs in real time. There weren't websites to show companies that used the skills you possess. There wasn't a LinkedIn to give you the name and contact details of the manager that might want to hire you.

Never before has any company had so much opportunity to announce its market presence and staff requirements. Has this helped? In the end - no!

Over the last five year of recession I was constantly told by friends and contacts that my biggest challenge must be finding job vacancies. They still say it to me today. Trouble is they have it completely wrong. Jobs in telecoms we have aplenty. We always have. We'd be lousy specialist recruiters if we didn't.

Our challenge has always been to find suitably qualified candidates that wanted to move job today. Fortunately that's the bit we are best at. The good news is that more and more people are ready to make a career change and that's why our business is on the up.

Back to those economic experts: They think the big recruitment PLCs are market barometers, that they should be placing twice as many people. Because they are not, they have concluded that the recovery is weaker than expected.

Sorry guys, you just don't get it.

The economy is rebounding strongly with a forecast three per cent growth in UK GDP, and half of this is coming from business investment. Candidates are better educated, savvier and more focused than they were 20 years ago. They don't jump at the first job they see, they wait until they find exactly the right one.

So where is the recruitment industry heading?

The answer i; an ever closer partnership between candidate, agency and hirer. At long last, everyone in the equation is starting to realise just how much they need each other.

Following the success of last year's banger rally from Newbury to Budapest which raised £50,000 for charity, Gamma is taking to the road once again for Gamma Ball Rally III.

30 teams, comprising Gamma Channel Partners and sponsors Cisco, Polycom and Oak Telecom, are being challenged to drive 500 miles from Newbury to Dublin in cars costing no more than £500.

With en-route visits to the iconic race circuits Thruxton and Mondello Park, this three-day driving adventure will see the teams face a series of fun challenges to compete for points and prizes; such as go-karting, a scavenger hunt, geo-caching and plenty of car-based mayhem along the way.

Starting at Gamma's Newbury offices on Wednesday 17th September, the participants will enjoy overnight stops in Wolverhampton, Dublin and the outstanding 5-star Powerscourt Hotel in Co Wicklow on the 19th September.

The last night of the trip will be celebrated with a charity gala dinner, followed by a prize ceremony and 'money can't buy' auction. 

All proceeds raised from Gamma Ball Rally III will be donated to two very worthy causes - Action Through Enterprise and Honeypot Children's Charity. Each team has donated £500 as an entry fee - all of which will go directly to our nominated charities.

John Haw, Sales Director at Gamma, said: "Building on the huge success of last year's Gamma Ball Rally, we intend this year's to be bigger and better with more cars and more challenges and the ultimate aim of raising even more money for our nominated charities.

"The response we've had so far has been phenomenal, with places fully booked within just two weeks of registration opening. While the main aim is to raise funds for two well-deserved charities, it's also a brilliant opportunity for our Channel Partners and sponsors to spend an enjoyable few days together and hopefully to go down in Gamma Ball Rally history!"