Comms Dealer

Beta Distribution MD Steve Soper has confirmed that a deal to acquire Entatech has been called off. He revealed that Beta had been in detailed talks with Entatech and its advisors about acquiring certain assets of the company. "Although we have been in discussions for some time, information obtained during detailed due diligence meant we were unable to continue," stated Soper.

"It is disappointing because this is an industry sector that we are extremely interested in and are looking to develop."

Although not known as a company with an acquisition strategy Soper says that the business is 'always on the lookout for opportunities to grow the Beta name' and has pursued a number of opportunities in the past.

"We have been just as active as our competitors in looking for acquisition opportunities, but so far nothing has materialised," he added.

"We have a five year plan that is based around organic growth, but if the right opportunity came along to increase that growth by acquisition then we would consider it very seriously, as we have done with Entatech."

With annual revenues now approaching £200m and year-on-year double digit growth Beta has the infrastructure and financial capacity to support the right acquisition, believes Soper.

"We will look to buy a company that can contribute to our business that may have expertise that we currently don't have," he said.

"Entatech fitted the bill, with experienced people, important supplier relationships and a well established customer base, but in the end it wasn't to be."

The countdown has begun to VoIP distributor ProVu's latest partner event - 'supercharge your 3CX Sales with Snom' - to be staged at the Etrop Grange Hotel, Manchester on 24th May.

"Aimed at resellers and service providers, this event is designed to equip attendees with the knowledge to successfully position and sell integrated PBX and telephone systems to small and medium-sized businesses," said ProVu's MD Darren Garland.

"With our collaborative approach, we hope to enlighten resellers about the advantages of selling an integrated PBX and hardware solution from independent providers through our close working relationship with both Snom and 3CX."

To find out more visit the ProVu website.

Exertis is to extend the credit lines of a select number of SMB resellers in a move that the distributor described as 'a major credit initiative'.

The Credit Xtra initiative is offered to more than 1,600 accounts and could be worth up to £20m with plans to extend further where resellers have used their increased credit.

Mark Reynolds, Exertis B2B Sales and Commercial Director, said: "By working with our credit insurers, we are in a position to double the facility for over 1,600 resellers and even extend that further if they remain within our usual credit terms."

Exertis works with Chubb Ace, said to be one of the world's largest publicly traded insurers.

Econocom is acquiring operations or parts of companies in Benelux, UK and France as it looks to build business in new sectors.

It is buying 100% of BIS group, a multimedia solutions integrator in the Netherlands and Belgium, a 40% stake in JTRS, an Apple and Google partner for digital solutions in the education sector in the UK, and 100% of LP Digital in France, a digital strategy consulting firm, through its satellite Alter Way.

BIS Group posted a revenue of over €50m in 2016 and employs over 220 people.

This transaction will enable Econocom to bolster its position in the buoyant multimedia segment (indoor and outdoor digital signage, video-conference rooms, smart building, etc.), deploy its entire offering and develop new cross-business line solutions in the key Benelux area.

Econocom will now be present with its three business lines in the group's five priority countries (Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, Italy and France), which was one of the objectives of the current strategic plan.

JTRS is a supplier of technology solutions in the education sector in the UK. This fast-growing company, which achieved around €11m in sales in 2016, is an Apple and Google Education partner.

Econocom, which is already established in the UK via its Technology Management & Financing business, has named the UK as one of the key geographical areas of the next strategic plan.

Alter Way, an Econocom company specialising in open source web solutions and DevOps services, has acquired 100% of LP Digital Agency, thereby increasing its annual revenue to €15m. LP Digital Agency specialises in digital strategy consulting for key accounts.

Bruno Grossi, Executive Director of Econocom Group, said: "We are happy to welcome BIS within Econocom and expect significant synergies between their know-how in the dynamic multimedia solutions segment in Benelux and our strong existing operations in the region.

"Being able to propose end-to-end digital solutions, including financing, brings in our view tremendous value to our clients."

Mitel is targeting a 10% cut in its global workforce by yearend in a move that CEO Rich McBee described as 'proactive cost reduction' based on the loss of circa 330 jobs.

This is expected to generate annualised savings of around $30m while the cost of job reductions is said to be in the range of $25m to $35m this year.

The news was announced with the release of Mitel's Q1 results and follows the Canadian vendor's sale of its mobile software division (based on the $545m acquisition of Mavenir in April 2015) in February this year.

Richard McBee, Chief Executive Officer, said: "With the mobile divestiture behind us we are taking proactive cost reduction actions to align our operating expenses with our current and future business investment needs. This includes a workforce reduction of approximately 10% expected to be completed between now and the end of the year."

Chief Financial Officer Steve Spooner added: "During the quarter Mitel took several major steps to fundamentally strengthen our capital structure and operating model.

"We paid down $364m in debt, secured attractive new credit facilities at significantly lower interest rates, initiated a stock buyback programme and initiated cost reduction actions to position the company to achieve its long-term financial targets."

For its first quarter Mitel reported a dip in revenues to $223.1m (down from $233m in the same period last year), and a net loss of $21.1m.

Recurring cloud seats grew by 45,000 during the quarter and now stand at 588,000.

"In Enterprise, we drove steady market share gains," adde McBee. "We were especially pleased with our performance in the larger European markets, and recurring cloud grew in-line with our expectations as orders continued to be strong, and we continued to ramp our installation capacity."

Logicalis UK has enlisted Stuart Radcliffe as Finance Director, replacing Paul Crilly who has taken on a new role within a Datatec Group company in Australia.

Radcliffe brings over 20 years experience and joins Logicalis UK from Unify where he was Chief Financial Officer responsible for the governance of various territories within APAC, EMEA and Russia, managing a combined business turnover exceeding 400 million euros.

Prior to this, Radcliffe held Finance Director positions at Acentic, Affiniti, and Omnetica.

Radcliffe reports directly to the Logicalis UK Managing Director Bob Swallow, who said: "Stuart's knowledge and experience in our marketplace will enable him to contribute to our strategy of putting our customers at the centre of everything we do, giving them access to the full portfolio of Logicalis solutions allowing us to strive toward our vision of making every customer a reference."

Ahead of the latest release of its partner and customer portals fast expanding plan.com has added 15 more sales staff, moved to a new Isle of Man HQ and is relocating its UK office.

Angie Ablard, Head of Sales, said: "It takes more than an intelligent portal and hard work to maintain and grow our customer base and relationships. It takes people - smart, experienced people.

"Partners told us that you want fewer points of contact, who are more hands on, and more accountable than ever before. The growth of our sales team reflects our commitment to our partners and the importance of the sales role to our business."

The retentions team is also expanding and will relocate from its current base in Didsbury, Manchester, to a new office in Stockport.

"Renewals and retentions are something that we take very seriously," added Ablard. "We're developing the team, the portal that the team uses, and their working environment, too."

Gigaclear has secured £111m in additional equity funding to build new full fibre networks in rural Britain, enabling a significant acceleration in the build rate of ultrafast Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) networks across multiple counties, reaching hundreds of thousands of people.

The funding has been raised from existing shareholders and one new institutional investor.

Existing shareholders Infracapital and Woodford have committed to investing £60m and £15m respectively with other shareholders contributing a further £1m. RPMI Railpen, the investment manager for the Railways Pension Scheme, is the new institutional investor, putting £35m to work in the company.

"In recent months we have won significant tenders to deliver our broadband network to hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses across Devon, Somerset, Gloucestershire, Herefordshire and Northamptonshire through the Government-backed BDUK programme," said Matthew Hare, Chief Executive, Gigaclear. "The new investment will fund the first stage of these new networks, along with other commercial network build projects.

"Full fibre is the future. This latest round of investment will enable Gigaclear to step up our speed of network delivery and is a clear signal of the confidence investors have in our continued expansion and success.

"Millions of rural homes and businesses across the country need better broadband and we want to reach as many of those in rural areas as quickly as possible. Our pure fibre network transforms lives by providing access to the fastest Internet speeds to be found anywhere in the world and technologically future-proofing these rural communities for years to come."

Ed Clarke, Co-Founder and Director, Infracapital, commented: "Gigaclear has made significant progress since we made our original investment and we are proud to be supporting the team as they roll out this essential infrastructure in underserved areas of the country."

Greg Mesch, CEO of fellow fibre trail blazer CityFibre, commented: "This is not only welcome news for the rural communities stranded on unsuitable copper infrastructure, it also serves to highlight the crucial role and growing momentum of competitive full fibre players and the rapidly increasing market support for full fibre investment.

"Alternative network providers like Gigaclear and CityFibre are playing a central role in transforming the UK's digital infrastructure. This will ultimately contribute towards safeguarding the nation's future as an economic force in a digital world."

This year's sparkling Comms Dealer Sales & Marketing Awards extravaganza (staged at London's Park Lane Hotel on May 4th and sponsored by KCOM) reflected the growing strength of the channel's sales organisations with more entries than ever mirroring a 25% increase in the scale of the event itself on last year.

Hosted by Radio 5 live's Colin Murray the awards luncheon celebrated the top revenue generating teams from the distribution, vendor and reseller sectors of the channel.

Stand-out winners were Entanet and Provu which both scooped a brace of awards and Pure Telecom which collected a Sales Team of the Year gong along with the coveted overall Comms Dealer Channel Team of the Year award (pictured above).

This year's event also saw the debut of two new awards, Best Apprenticeship Scheme and Best Company to Work For, picked up by Lily Comms and Berry Telecom (pictured below) respectively.

"Channel sales are as good as they have ever been as the record breaking Comms Dealer Sales & Marketing Awards has underlined," stated Comms Dealer Editorial Director Nigel Sergent.

"All of our finalists are to be congratulated on their achievements and deserve wide recognition for their hard work."

Awards judge Lee Shorten added: "Entries this year were exceptional. The quality and breadth of the submissions has shown me that channel companies are upping their game and developing top notch sales and marketing teams which are ignoring the economic news and smashing targets via resilient selling and creative marketing."

COMMS DEALER SALES AWARDS 2017 WINNERS

Best Partner Or Customer Portal - Daisy Wholesale

Best Partner or Customer Event - Gamma

Reseller Best Marketing Campaign - Cisilion

Reseller Sales Team of the Year with a turnover of above £5m - SWComms

Reseller Sales Team of the Year with a turnover between £2.5m & £5m - Exsel Group

Reseller Sales Team of the Year with a turnover up to £2.5m - Pure Telecom

Best Vendor Partner Programme - TeleWare

Vendor Channel Marketing Campaign of the Year - Union Street

Vendor Channel Marketing Team of the Year - Entanet

Vendor Channel Sales Team of the Year - Entanet

Service Provider Channel Marketing Campaign of the Year - Assembly Channel Services

Service Provider Channel Marketing Team of the Year - Fidelity Group

Service Provider Channel Sales Team of the Year - Channel Telecom

Distributor Channel Marketing Campaign of the Year - ProVu Communications

Distributor Channel Marketing Team of the Year - Pragma

Distributor Channel Sales Team of the Year - ProVu Communications

Best Company to Work for - Berry Telecom

Best Apprenticeship Scheme - Lily Comms

The Comms Dealer Team of the Year - PureTelecom

NetApp research has put a spotlight on the compliance challenges faced by businesses in the run up to the deadline for the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

NetApp's research into European cloud adoption, security and GDPR compliance found gaps in the understanding and sense of urgency among organisations that should be on top of preparations for the May 25th 2018 GDPR deadline.

Only 37% of respondents so far have invested extra funds in data regulation compliance, a figure that should be much higher to prepare businesses for a data-driven future and to fend off crippling fines.

Other key findings from the survey of 750 CIOs and IT managers from France, Germany and the UK show that the responsibility for data compliance is not always clear, a comprehensive understanding of what is involved in the GDPR is lacking, and that GDPR preparation moves slowly.

The crux of meeting the GDPR deadline is compliance. While the originator of data remains the owner, under GDPR anyone who processes that data is also responsible.

However, 51% of the respondents say responsibility for compliance rests with the company that produces the data, 46% say it is in the hands of the company that processes the data and 37% of survey participants believe responsibility for data compliance is in the hands of third-party cloud providers.

All of these parties will be individually responsible for the data they handle and the survey respondents' multiple answers indicate a basic understanding of this 'shared responsibility' for personal data.

The low figures also demonstrate an air of uncertainty among EMEA's CIOs and IT Managers.

Compounding the confusion over compliance is the lack of comprehensive understanding of what is involved in the GDPR.

Understanding is highest in Germany, but only 17% of respondents there say they fully understand GDPR. France is second with 15%, followed by the UK with 12%.

The majority of base respondents say they have 'some' understanding of the GDPR (47%), and with only a year until the 2018 deadline, 9% still say they 'don't know' what GDPR is.

This lack of understanding is mirrored by 73% of base respondents admitting to having some concerns about the looming deadline, which threatens businesses with a large fine if regulations aren't met.

With the clock ticking and only a third (37%) of respondents across Europe saying they are investing extra funds in preparation for the GDPR deadline, Germany is taking GDPR preparations most seriously, with over a quarter of respondents (27%) saying they've already hired specific personnel with data protection expertise; France is second with 20% and the UK following behind with 17%.

However, 14% of base respondents have yet to make any preparations at all. These preparations will prove essential given the rising power of data for businesses.

As IDC figures predict, there will be an exponential growth in data, with 80 billion devices expected to connect to the internet by 2025.

When it comes to cloud adoption,?a little more than a quarter of respondents (29%) regard compliance with regulation as a key motivation.?This suggests that businesses are still not focused on the issue of compliance - even when it comes to major business decisions like cloud adoption.

Dr. Dierk Schindler, Head of EMEA Legal & Global Legal Shared Services at NetApp, commented: "As the cloud continues to transform the way we do business, the GDPR is a landmark piece of legislation.

"It lays the foundations for our data-driven future and provides a strong incentive for all enterprises which process EU citizens' data to build a robust data privacy compliance framework.

"C-suite staff and IT managers, however, are still uncertain when it comes to data compliance, which is both striking and concerning as it lies at the heart of GDPR.

"Their understanding of compliance and their ability to embrace the responsibility for any data they handle will directly affect their capacity to fend off future fines.

"With only half of the NetApp survey's base respondents having at least 'some' understanding of what GDPR is, we have a long way to go - and only a year to do it."