Comms Dealer

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

A team from KCOM Group took part in the sixth annual Dragon Boat Festival on Pugney's Lake, Wakefield, netting £1000 for children's charity Sparks.
The team of 19 employees rowed a longboat 250 metres across the lake at Pugney's Country Park against another 36 teams in a bid to get the best time. The KCOM Group team managed to record a fantastic time of 59 seconds securing tenth place overall.
Madeleine Buckley, Corporate Partnerships Manager at Sparks said: "This year was the first time KCOM Group has taken part in a dragon boat race and £1,000 was fantastic achievement."
The event is organised jointly by The Rotary Club of Wakefield Chantry (club no 1496) and Huddersfield Rotary Club (club no 209), who have organised the race for five years.
"The whole team has really enjoyed taking part in this event and we're so pleased that we've been able to raise money for such a fantastic cause. There's already talk of taking part again next year," said Team Captain Lee Morrison.
KCOM Group has supported Sparks since 2012 raising £190,000 during that time to beat its original fundraising target by £90,000.

ICT service provider Telindus has achieved Cisco Channel Customer Satisfaction Excellence, the highest distinction a partner can achieve within the Cisco Channel Partner Programme.

The award is based upon the customer satisfaction results captured by the Cisco Partner Access Online tool and will enable customers, Cisco personnel and partners to identify Telindus as having achieved outstanding customer satisfaction as part of Cisco's worldwide assessment process.

Marek Lowther, Managing Director of Telindus, comments: "Achieving Cisco Channel Customer Satisfaction Excellence recognises Telindus' commitment to providing exceptionally high levels of customer service. Customer Satisfaction Excellence is a core value that Cisco and Telindus share, and is a key driver of future success.The pre and post sales feedback we received from customers is very positive and speaks highly of the experience we provide, excellent and committed account teams, strong relationships and professional service."

London based Corona Copy Solutions Ltd, a supplier of printers, photocopiers and document management solutions, has acquired telecoms reseller Corporate Information & Communication Technology Ltd.

James Stephens, Managing Director at Corona, said: "There are lots of synergies between the two businesses. Most importantly we both operate with a high customer focus striving to provide the best possible service to corporate customers. We are very excited about this acquisition as it establishes us in the telecoms sector to add to our established document management specialism."

The joined up business is anticipating a turnover upwards of £10m next year.

The acquisition was funded by a mixture of existing cash resources and debt funding provided by HSBC.

Hove-based EMC Corporate Finance advised Corona on the transaction. Chief Executive Nik Askaroff told Comms Dealer: "The return of bank funding to the acquisition market creates an exciting deal option for SMEs. In this instance James is an ambitious business owner who has a great team around him and being able to fund the transaction with HSBC's support, whilst retaining full ownership of the Group, allows him to achieve aggressive growth and look to acquire again in the next 12-18 months."

Clodagh Murphy, Managing Director at Eclipse, is getting ready to tackle a four day, 300 mile cycling challenge across Italy to raise money for medical research charity, Sparks.
Every day one in 30 babies are born in the UK with a condition which may affect them for life and each year less that £10 per child is spent on health research. Sparks raises money to fund pioneering children's medical research to get this to change and has been the charity partner of Eclipse's parent company, KCOM Group, since 2012.
Taking place in October, Clodagh is part of a 14-strong cycling team riding from Venice to Genoa, which also includes employees from Deloitte, Addleshaw Goodard and Lloyds Bank.
Clodagh told Comms Dealer: "With two young children of my own I'm absolutely committed to successfully completing this challenge and raising money for this fantastic charity. Here at Eclipse we do lots of fundraising activities, from dress-down days and cake sales through to hard physical challenges such as this one, and we love every minute of it."
As part of a summer of fundraising activities across KCOM Group, Clodagh's epic ride will be added to a charity golf day, a longboat race and numerous smaller activities.
Since 2012 KCOM Group has raised £160,000 to support Sparks.

Resellers looking to offer customers low cost video conferencing solutions will welcome a new package from Nimans.

The convergence distributor has formed a strategic alliance with BlinkPipe that enables video to be added to meeting room audio conferencing calls, which it says is ideally suited to the SMB market.

Nimans says customers will be able to deploy flexible video conferencing by simply connecting a BlinkPipe camera to a TV and a traditional meeting room audio conference unit and HD video calls can be 'instantly made and received'.

In addition to the camera, a BlinkPipe Hub cloud service enables group video calls and screen sharing between BlinkPipe hardware, PCs and Macs. Legacy enterprise systems can also connect to the video call via an additional subscription.

Paul Burn, Head of Category Sales at Nimans, told Comms Dealer: "BlinkPipe is a unique solution for resellers to upgrade sites from audio to video conferencing, particularly SMB locations. Video Conferencing is now within the reach of all businesses, big and small. We are very excited by the potential this partnership creates. Users simply walk in, sit down and dial... that's it!"

RRP prices start from £750 based on upfront and recurring revenue opportunities for dealers.

BlinkPipe co-founder Dave Gwilt, commented: "We believe high quality video gives so much more feedback than voice alone. It can change the outcome of a call. We started BlinkPipe to make it unbelievably simple and cost effective for businesses to switch to video calling. Working with Nimans will enable us to take the brand to a new level - and most importantly it allows their resellers to capture additional revenue from their own customer bases, or target new areas of activity."

A joint launch event is planned for September 16th at Nimans to provide resellers with a hands-on experience of the new technology.

Newbury based Gamma has achieved a 20% hike in gross profits with EBITDA up to £17.2m.

Announcing its financial results for 2013 the channel only network operator claims the following set of encouraging headline figures:

• Turnover up 8.4% from £137.2m to £148.7m
• Gross Profit up 20.0% from £44.9m to £53.9m
• Gross Profit percentage up 3.5% from 32.7% to 36.2%  
• EBITDA up 19.6% from £14.4m to £17.2m
• Profit before tax up 20.2% from £9.3m to £11.2m
• Cash inflow before acquisitions and financing up 23.6% from £6.6m to £8.1m

Gamma said it has now demonstrated consistent growth in cash generation for six years. This is despite the poor economic climate over much of this period and the continued erosion of the wholesale calls market which now only accounts for approximately one third of gross profit.

The growth has come primarily from Gamma’s more disruptive communications services that have much higher know-how and software content, and in which the Group has invested significantly. In particular SIP, an alternative to traditional ISDN for business connectivity, has grown by over 50%. This is a displacement market, where investment in automated provisioning and resilience is clearly bearing fruit. Similarly, Gamma’s Horizon product, which provides a cloud based alternative to a traditional PBX, has exceeded expectations with over 18,000 new seats added during 2013.

Bob Falconer, CEO at Gamma, commented, "We are pleased with another set of strong results.  Around 20% of our staff is engaged in product development, and it’s good to see this investment bearing fruit. As a channel focused business, our growth continues to demonstrate the appetite of our partners for taking new disruptive services into the business.

Arrow bounced back in Q2 with the European acquisition of COMPUTERLINKS helping to keep its growth positive. Second quarter sales of $5.7 billion were above the midpoint of guidance and overall and adjusted for the impact of acquisitions and changes in foreign currencies, total sales increased 1% year-over-year.

Enterprise computing solutions (ECS) grew 10% year-over-year and was flat globally adjusted for acquisitions. Operating income grew 12%, and billings grew at a mid-single digit rate year-over-year adjusted for acquisitions. Sales in the ECS business were $2.1bn, driven by continued growth in the software and services businesses and by a rebound in hardware-related business, following a spending pause during the first quarter.

"In enterprise computing solutions, we continue to move forward on our strategic transformation towards selling comprehensive solutions with a focus on the higher value segment targeted at the data centre. Our comprehensive solutions addressed enterprise customers' entire needs, be they on-premise, in the cloud or a hybrid combination. Both global components and enterprise computing solutions are benefiting from the growing demands to generate and capture data from a proliferating variety of Internet-connected devices and security transmit, analyse and store that data," Michael J Long, CEO told analysts.

In the Americas, ECS sales grew 34% quarter-over-quarter and grew 1% year-over-year. In Europe, sales grew 17% quarter-over-quarter. Europe sales in constant currency advanced 26% year-over-year, primarily due to the acquisition of COMPUTERLINKS. Adjusted for the impact of the acquisition, sales declined 1% year-over-year in constant currency in Europe.

"COMPUTERLINKS brought us new capability, new reach. And if you look at our European performance, we had record sales, record operating income and record operating income percent in Europe. So that's a big validation of that strategy that's paid off. And so when you look even deeper below that, security is growing at 9% worldwide for us."

In both the Americas and Europe year-over-year, growth in software and services were offset by a decline in proprietary servers. Enterprise computing solutions gross margin advanced year-over-year due to the more favourable mix of security infrastructure software as well as services. Operating income grew 20% year-over-year in the second quarter, and operating margin of 4.8% was up 40 basis points year-over-year.

"Proprietary servers year-over-year are down about 17%. That's why I'm really ho-hum on the IBM changes. There's really just not that much there that's worth going after. But our services business and software business is up 11% and 15%, respectively, towards that number."

"What we've really seen in the services piece is North America's a little bit ahead of Europe in growth. Europe's around 7% on the services side. And on the software side, Europe is actually leading North America by the same kind of few percentages as you saw services the other way. So the good thing about what we're seeing is that the business is learning from each other, region to region."