Comms Dealer

Quintessentially Lifestyle, the world leader in luxury lifestyle management, has implemented NewVoiceMedia's true cloud contact centre solution ContactWorld for Service acorss its 60 offices worldwise.

NVM says the technology, which integrates seamlessly with Salesforce, has enabled the company to offer its high net worth, globe-trotting customer base a completely unique and personalised experience, making a Quintessentially membership truly exclusive.

Paul Drummond, Commercial Director and Co-Founder at Quintessentially Lifestyle, commented: "With NewVoiceMedia, we have found a technology partner that truly understands our company and the high standards our customers expect. Exceptional service is core to our business and we are constantly striving to deliver world-class experiences to customers, each and every time. ContactWorld is helping us to deliver on this vision, as we can now offer a consistently personalised service, while improving the satisfaction of our lifestyle managers".

The European ISV Convention 2015, which will bring together Europe's leading independent software vendors, major vendors and service providers to develop business relationships and discuss key issues affecting development of the European IT market, will take place at the Lancaster London Hotel on March 25th2015.

A combination of strategic conference sessions, meeting and networking opportunities will provide a unique opportunity for any provider of platform technologies or related services to engage with leading ISVs to drive applications-based growth in Europe.

For further information visit: www.isvconvention.com

Virtual1 have strengthened their operations team with the appointment of Joel Tortolero as Director of Customer Experience and Operations. Joel will be tasked with offering world-class customer experience and support to Virtual1's customers, enhancing the company's recent exponential growth and Network expansion.

Joel joins from BT Group, where he recently worked as Head of Customer Experience. Having worked for BT for 10 years, Joel has held a variety of senior roles including Head of Business Development in BT Wholesale, CX Service and Solution Design Lead in BT Business, and Customer Experience Lead in Openreach.

His experience in managing large operational teams, designing a new customer experience platform that supports over 2 million business customers, and delivering industry-leading transformational change programmes will be a great asset to Virtual1. Joel will take responsibility for Virtual1's Customer Experience strategy, as well as their Provisioning, Support and Service Management teams.

Tom O'Hagan, Managing Director of Virtual1, said: "I am delighted that Joel has joined the Virtual1 team. By enhancing our strategy of putting our customers first in everything we do, Joel will provide a positive impact throughout the business.'

Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise has shipped 100,000 of its new Premium DeskPhones in record time proving that the appetite for business phones remains strong.

The new range of Premium DeskPhones were released in April 2014 and are said to complement and leverage the rich telephony capabilities of the Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise OpenTouch Suites for small-medium businesses (SMB) and mid-to-large enterprises (MLE). Alongside the integrated alphabetic keyboard, the deskphones also offer future proof, secured capabilities such as being IPv6 ready and embedded software encryption.

Eric Penisson, General Manager of the Enterprise Communications Business Division at Alcatel-Lucent commented: "We are meeting our customers' needs for exceptional telephony communications products. Our new Premium DeskPhones are superior in the richness of communication features and the impeccable quality of sound. All of this coming in a sleek, modern, and attractive package giving employees the most pleasurable user experience."

Channel service provider Eclipse has launched a hosted version of Microsoft Lync available on a per user per month basis.

Eclipse says the solution can be implemented without the need for any changes to on premise IT environments and gives its resellers the opportunity to target smaller enterprises looking to connect easily and effortlessly, regardless of location.

Pete Tomlinson, director of product, marketing and sales at Eclipse told Comms Dealer: "Businesses are rolling out Lync trials in days with full adoption in weeks - all backed up with the support of the Eclipse Cloud specialist team.

"Lync can transform the way a business operates which is why it was chosen as the latest product to be integrated into Eclipse's portfolio of cloud solutions and join Hosted Exchange, Backup and Managed Hosting, which all work together to provide a subscription based suite of productivity tools."

"Lync is too good to remain the preserve of corporate giants. Every business should be able to benefit from new ways of working and Lync does just that, especially when combined with Hosted Exchange. It's is no surprise that the UK's fastest growing businesses are those embracing the agility of a SaaS model".

Tomlinson confirmed that Eclipse plans to extend its offering shortly to include the ability to make voice calls from within the Lync application, driving even more value and flexibility for reseller customers.

Nimans hopes resellers will take advantage of a special bundle offer combining a BT conferencing unit with an 'easy use' sim-free mobile phone.

The distributor says demand for BT's X500 audio conferencing device is set to further accelerate with the addition of a free Panasonic mobile phone (worth around £100 RRP) that features large font sizes and buttons and a dedicated help call button.

BT's X500 boasts four wireless microphones for meetings of up to 16 people. Dynamic noise reduction and echo cancellation are combined with full duplex functionality, a 6m connection cable and 50 name and number directory.

Ian Brindle, Nimans' Head of Conferencing Sales, says the bundle offer is for a limited time only, whilst stocks last: "The X500 is a very cost effective out-of-the-box complete conferencing solution. The wireless microphones add a dynamic dimension to any conference call ensuring all parties can easily be heard. They sit neatly within the unit when not in use as part of a compact, user friendly and easy to use overall design.

"Together with the easy to use sim-free mobile phone from Panasonic, it's a very compelling combination that offers dealers the opportunity to capture additional revenue streams," he added.

LHC, the procurement specialist for 150 public sector bodies across the country has turned to Six Degrees Group (6DG) to underpin its IT infrastructure.

The new deal sees 6DG hosting LHC's website, core applications, financial systems and business intelligence capabilities with its highly secure private cloud platform. The environment is built on dedicated hardware housed in their own rack in 6DG's London datacentre facility. The solution employs dual-site technology to cut the risk of potential downtime by backing up the deployment on a secondary cloud platform in a geographically diverse location.

Nimesh Bhudia, Business Intelligence and Technology Manager at LHC told Comms Dealer: "When it comes to building and maintenance projects, the UK's public sector requires us to work to high standards and the team at 6DG fully understands our needs. By using their infrastructure we can keep the data protected and keep our core applications up and running, whilst recommending the best building components, services and contractors to the local authorities, schools and housing associations that rely on us."

Crucially, the cloud platform is cost and time efficient for LHC. Bhudia continued: "Efficiency is at the heart of everything we do. Outsourcing our solution to 6DG means that the internal IT team and I can spend our time bringing the most up-to-date advice to the public sector, rather than managing the infrastructure ourselves. This means that the public sector bodies we work with, and by extension the UK taxpayer, can benefit from the most efficient purchasing solution for their building projects from tender stage through to project completion."

Campbell Williams, Group Strategy and Marketing Director, Six Degrees Group, said: "Process efficiency and taxpayer value are key drivers for the public sector. LHC does an excellent job of helping councils, LAs and public sector bodies across the country to procure the best options for their building projects. It's therefore vital that the service they offer is supported by high quality and reliable infrastructure that can help them to do what they do best."

Unify, has announced general availability of the latest version of its OpenScape Enterprise solutions which should excite ICT resellers keen to offer customers fully joined up collaboration solutions

The vendor says key updates to OpenScape UC and OpenScape Voice include an intuitive user interface, with security and reliability improvements to ensure employees working flexibly can easily collaborate to solve problems and achieve results.

"Today's workers want technology that enables them to easily communicate with teams," said Peter Kürpick, executive vice president of Products at Unify. "The latest enhancements to our OpenScape Enterprise portfolio meet these needs, head on. With its intuitive user interface and enhanced security, and reliability, the solution raises the bar for technology that enables teams to stay connected and collaborate seamlessly.

"The redesigned user interface and new capabilities in the latest version of OpenScape Enterprise enhance the collaboration experience and have helped streamline our internal systems," said Frederic Burger, competence group leader of engineering, Swisscom Communication Business.

"We're using the solution for our live demo that our presale and engineering teams use to show our products. We expect our customers will be very excited about this new interface once they see it."

Acording to Unify the latest version of OpenScape UC includes a redesigned user interface to enhance the user experience and improve productivity. Leveraging the design principles used for Project Ansible -Unify's upcoming real-time collaboration platform-OpenScape UC is workflow and collaboration oriented to provide a more productive experience. The solution brings virtual teams together with rich federated presence, mobility, one number service, application plug-ins, and audio/web/desktop video conferencing capabilities. To further support mobile Anywhere Workers, OpenScape UC is now available for Android tablets and the iPad, as well as iOS, Android, Blackberry, and Windows smartphones.

The latest release of OpenScape Voice is said bring key enhancements designed to increase security, reliability and interoperability.

Highlights include:

• SIP Connect 1.1 compliance. This is an industry-wide recommendation developed by the SIP Forum ensuring compatibility between SIP-enabled platforms (such as OpenScape Voice) to VoIP Service Provider networks for improved interoperability. The recommendation has gained international support from BITKOM in Germany and NICC in the UK.

• SIPQ Version 2 which provides additional support for multi-vendor networks where integration of third party PBX systems allows customers to leverage existing investment.

• Trusted business groups for hosted and cloud deployments, ensuring business applications are easily and securely partitioned by specific user communities.

• More automation for branch offices. A configuration capability automatically synchronizes user data, which speeds deployment and reduces configuration errors.

Astro Communications has been granted regional growth funding by Kent County Council to help ramp up its plans to become a fully-fledged ISP.

With 30 years' experience in delivering communications solutions to medium and large organisations Astro plans to develop its service offering to include internet services and hosting solutions via its own core network to complement the reselling of others' services. Partly funded through the Kent TIGER scheme, Astro plans to build its own network with links directly into the major network providers in the UK allowing it greater control over the cost and quality of the services it provides.

Steve Smith, co-founder and technical director of Astro told Comms Dealer: "Astro have always focused on providing innovative and reliable services to our customers. By taking this step in delivering our own ISP service, coupled with our existing products and highly technical team, we will be able to ensure that we design and manage every element of the customer's network and that we provide the best possible service to them".

Astro has taken on a number of new team members in recent times at all levels within the business to help support this strategy and with the support of the TIGER fund, plans are well underway to be able to deliver service from the new network within a matter of months.

Steve Hodges, Managing Director added: "In 2007 an OFCOM* study found that over 700,000 businesses had connectivity and hosting services provided by a niche ISP and since then this market has gone from strength to strength. Customers choose to go with such suppliers because of the greater flexibly of service, higher levels of customer care and a more customer-centric approach to solution design. Astro have always employed these principles so by being in control of the solutions and choosing very strategic partnerships we feel we can bring a broader range of services to our customers".

Former Royal Marine Andrew Skipsey is hoping to pedal his way to a big charity sum next Sunday, August 10th.

The M12 managing director is aiming to complete the 100 mile Ride London event in under six hours and net £1664 for the Royal Marines Charitable Trust Fund

Skipsey told Comms Dealer: "It's over a year since I did a challenge to raise some money for a damn good cause. I am going to have a go at cycling the 100 miles with hardly a stop and at a sensible speed and get round in under six hours. The Ride London event has two massive hills and about 25,000 others to contend with en route. My Royal Marine Commando values have stood me in good stead over the years so it's a good cause.

"M12 is also celebrating our 11th business birthday this week. During this time I have been privileged to have had a fantastic workforce, superb suppliers, tremendous clients, wonderful business and local friends and a great family. M12 is behind another RMCTF initiative as well so as I'm encouraging others to get out and do something it's important to show how it can be done!

For more information on the RMCTF challenge go to www.atleast350.org

To support Andrew for his Ride London challenge go to www.justgiving.com/ajskipsey