Comms Dealer

The majority (80%) of SMEs have yet to merge their mobile and fixed line telecoms, according to research from Olive Communications.

However, of those businesses that have been through this process, many report benefits including cost savings (72%), improved business continuity (51%), customer service (39%) and the enablement of flexible working (27%)

"Businesses are missing a trick and it's not just about saving money, said Martin Flick, CEO of Olive. "There's a clear opportunity to improve processes and enhance the working experience. As work is increasingly becoming a thing you do and not a place you go, IT leaders should grasp the opportunity and embrace the tools and systems that enable a more flexible and productive approach to work."

Despite large numbers of IT leaders having heard of converged comms, they point to a number of barriers to adoption that appear to be limiting investment. 

According to the research, over half (59%) of businesses with 10-49 employees had heard of converged communications, rising to almost three quarters (73%) amongst businesses with 250-500 employees. In spite of this, less than a third (31%) have seriously considered converging their communications estates. 

IT leaders cite perceived issues such as cost (mentioned by 25%) and disruption to current processes (31%) as the biggest barriers preventing their adoption. However, of those businesses that have gone through this process or are currently implementing it, only 7% have experienced disruption to their business. 

Flick added: "Many businesses are cautious about changes to contracts due to potential upheaval, but in reality, the disruption caused by fixed-mobile convergence is minimal.

"Converging mobile and fixed line telephony could be a quick win for SMEs who are looking to both reduce their costs and capitalise on the opportunities of a work anywhere culture."

Sennheiser's 2014 charity golf day raised £16,000 in aid of the Caron Keating Foundation and Diabetes UK.

This year's event, staged at the Bearwood Lakes Golf Course in Wokingham, included representatives Corptel UK, Westcon, Rocom and RBS, with entertainment from Sennheiser UK's own Ken Morrison during the evening.

??The majority of the auction money raised was donated to the Caron Keating Foundation, which was set up in memory of the late television presenter Caron Keating and provides a range of support services for cancer patients and their families, with £2,000 being given to Diabetes UK.

??"The day was another great success," said Paul Whiting, President, Global Sales at Sennheiser. "Bearwood Lakes is a beautiful course and the golf is absolutely superb. We like to add a little extra quiver to proceedings with a couple of competitions during the day and there were added elements of fun during the afternoon with the addition of a few exploding golf balls!"

?One of the prizes, donated by Corptel UK, included two tickets to any available Manchester United game of the winner's choice for the upcoming season, including a grand tour of the stadium, champagne reception, VIP access and a four course meal.
 
Pictured: John Richardson, Westcon; Linda Irvin, Sennheiser; Michael Waterworth, Sennheiser; David Silous-Holt, Rocom.

Elite's latest acquisition is the final piece in the jigsaw of its transition from switchless reseller to full ISP with carrier capabilities and multiple data centre facilities.

The acquired data centre, which carries 'secret' status, looks after sensitive public sector data and global corporations including insurance and finance companies, which is why details of the data centre location cannot be revealed.

After a string of high profile network attacks including Domino's Pizza, Reuters, The Sun and more, CEO Matt Newing saw a potential opportunity to bring improved network security to UK businesses.

He said: "Hosting, the cloud and network connectivity is big business, but security is a concern to many businesses. This is where the market is heading."

With this acquisition, Elite launches a full range of data centre services including managed firewalls, unified threat management, colocation and its own hosted PBX, Elite Plus Talk, which is embedded within its own recently launched core MPLS Network.

Newing added: "We've been acquiring unified comms businesses in recent years to get a decent hold on the hosted and network connectivity market, and now with our own infrastructure we have a serious competitive advantage."

Earlier this year Elite made a further £780,000 investment into its own core network, offering MPLS and private connectivity services to businesses.

"Adding our own security measures and acquiring this data centre completes the solution for our clients and helps companies navigate their way through the minefield that can be buying, installing and securing big networks," commented Newing.

According to results from the annual Cloud Industry Forum (CIF) report into cloud adoption, 53% of small to medium sized businesses (SMBs) are currently running a Windows Server 2003 operating system.

On 14th July 2015, one year today, Microsoft will be ending its extended support period for the operating system, meaning there will be no further patches, updates or fixes.

The report, in its fifth year, polled 250 senior IT and business decision makers, 153 of which were from businesses with fewer than 200 employees.

The research found that for 69% of SMBs, infrastructure refresh is seen as a key consideration in adoption of cloud.

While cloud adoption among SMBs has risen to 75%, the research found that a hybrid model of cloud services mixed with on-premise IT has become the preference. 86% of SMB respondents don't currently use an entirely cloud-based IT strategy and 47% claimed to only be using one cloud based service at present.

"SMBs are clearly already favouring a hybrid approach. Our view is that 9 out of 10 companies will continue to invest in on-premise IT alongside and integrated with remote cloud solutions" said Nick East, CEO of Zynstra.

"Businesses can use the opportunity of infrastructure refresh to deliver better value from their IT estate. Those with Windows 2003 server still running should act soon to ensure a smooth transition before support ends."

Voip.co.uk has extended its reach into Europe with the acquisition of Denmark-based UC firm Firstcom.

The company has acquired 85% ownership of Firstcom (for an undisclosed sum) which will retain its brand and continue to develop its UC suite with product launches planned for later this year.

Oxfordshire-based Voip.co.uk provides cloud-based services and is especially known for its SIP Encrypt product, which prevents phone hacking and is compliant with Payment Card Industry Data Security standards.

Adam Crisp, CTO, said: "The acquisition of Firstcom is a strategic alliance to extend our reach across Europe with the development of next generation unified communications technology.

"Scandinavia is well ahead of the UK in terms of unified comms which will allow us to offer British businesses access to superior technology."

The firm will soon be launching Firstcom's flagship mobile enabled unified communications platform, Universe, which, says the firm will provide new opportunities for Voip.co.uk's existing and new channel partners.

Bjarke Salomonsen, CEO of Firstcom, added: "We have been developing rapidly for three years. With the new ownership we will have more resources to develop our offering to the market and we have the opportunity to share technologies and experiences with our UK colleagues."

Voip.co.uk and Firstcom operate in similar vertical businesses enabling cross selling across the customer bases.

Voip.co.uk customers include Westgate Shopping Centre, Absolute Radio and Delta Taxis. Firstcom also works with high profile businesses such as Citroen, Sephora and Nutrica.

A new cloud-based collaboration platform using Microsoft Lync and Microsoft Exchange aims to meet growing demand from SMEs for scalability and flexibility.

The new service, launched by Node4 and called Unified Office, brings together email, instant messaging, voice and video facilities across all devices.

Natalie Stewart, Product Manager at Node4, said: "SMEs are increasingly ahead of the curve when it comes to how they approach their IT infrastructure.

"They are demanding technology that will fully support more flexible working practices and rapid business growth.

"By offering a cloud-based collaboration tool like Unified Office we are giving SMEs the scalability and flexibility they need to continue to grow and succeed."

Ethos is taking a new message to market under the banner 'Think Unified', a marketing strategy that the company hopes will encourage end users to think holistically about their comms needs rather than focus only on single point solutions.

Group MD Paul Norris said: "Customers increasingly want to deal with just one provider for all their voice, documents and data requirements. So we've unveiled a new proposition to our 3,000 plus customers that focuses on the key benefits of our Unified Communications solutions and services."

In what is shaping up to be a busy period of growth Ethos is also ramping up its event programme and plans to expand its team of 200 with a recruitment drive for positions in the Account Management, Service and Technical departments, while creating new graduate trainee positions.

The company's website has moved to a new domain and provides an information resource on the its voice, documents and data solutions, including case studies, brochures and a new company blog.

KCOM Group has hosted its tenth annual charity golf day, raising an impressive £36,000 for its charity partner 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 than £10 per child is spent on health research. Sparks raises money to fund pioneering children's medical research to get this to change.

Employees from KCOM Group came together with customers, partners, suppliers and celebrity sportsmen, including Ray Clemence, Iain Dowie and Mike Dean.

Forty teams battled it out on the golf course, winning prizes for the best individual round, best hole and best team, before an evening of fundraising activities including a silent auction and a raffle.

Madeleine Buckley, Corporate Partnerships Manager at Sparks said: "Throughout the day and evening it was great to see KCOM Group bring together customers and partners to raise money for Sparks. Everyone who attended played an important part in helping KCOM Group reach their fundraising total and we appreciate their generosity."

Paul Simpson, Chief Financial Officer at KCOM Group, said: "When we first held this event in 2005 just 13 teams took part. Now there are 40 teams with 160 players involved, including celebrity sportsmen from across the country.

"It's our biggest fundraising event in the calendar but we couldn't raise as much as we do without the support we get from the other businesses that attend."

KCOM Group will be taking on a number of testing challenges this summer in support of Sparks, including a dragon boat race and a 300 mile cycle across Italy. It has supported Sparks since 2012 raising £175,000 during that time to beat its original fundraising target by £75,000.

3CX, developer of the Windows VoIP PBX 3CX Phone System, has opened a new office in Modena, Italy.

The move follows new office opeinings in France and Poland last year.

Nick Galea, CEO of 3CX said: "At 3CX we felt that there was no better place to open our Italian office than in Modena, the heart of Italy's high tech engineering industry.

"Being firmly committed to innovation, 3CX is in great company at the home of Lamborghini, Ferrari and Maserati. We look forward to working with our 3CX Partners in Italy to take advantage of the boom in demand for VoIP solutions."

Loris Saretta, Channel Sales Manager of 3CX Italy said: "The opening of our new office in Modena is a great step. 3CX Italy significantly increases our presence within the Italian market, enabling us to better support our partner network and customers."

3CX Italy will provide technical and marketing support for 3CX partners and distributors. The new office will provide a training centre and locally-based support services. It sees sales growing as businesses switch from proprietary phone systems.

Square 1 Products has added AV vendor Draper Group to its portfolio of AV solutions.

Draper, a maker of projector screens, mountings and accessories, was introduced to Square 1 Products by the distributor's AV specialist Matt Farrer who has maintained a close relationship with Draper during his career.

"Our vendor relationships are born from product quality and functionality ensuring new portfolio additions can easily integrate with existing product lines to strengthen our solutions offering, and enable our resellers to further develop new business," he said.

Contact: www.square1products.com