Comms Dealer

By Elvire Gosnold, Director, Blabbermouth Marketing: I was thinking about the nature of Mushroom Management (keeping your staff in the dark and occasionally piling a lot of 'stuff' on them) and that the root cause is not that anyone intends to behave is this manner, it is the fast-paced nature of this industry that influences activity and decisions to be made quickly, often without many staff knowing.

However, because teams have not seen the scenario develop or been involved in the steps that shaped the final decision, staff can feel that they are intentionally kept in the dark and have little control in their work roles. Communication is key to keep staff engaged while supporting corporate decisions and plans. Internal staff communication is something not regularly visited in marketing activity as it is not considered exciting or offers a direct ROI. However, keeping staff on-side and continuing to be a positive and upbeat ambassador of your brand is well worth the investment.

There are many ways to nurture staff engagement on a more personal level and I find using several methods together is the most effective. Newsletters are the obvious choice, and by distributing them online there are no longer the print and postage costs to worry about. Newsletters do not just have to be for internal staff - clients and prospects like to hear what is going on and it further reinforces relationships with your wider team.

People love to know about other people and a newsletter plays to our natural tendencies to be nosy. Helping different departments understand what their colleagues actually do all day encourages true collaboration. The more photos the better, and infographics are also a nice touch.

Maintel has appointed Dr. Annette Nabavi the board as Non-Executive Director with immediate effect.

She is currently a partner at AHV Associates LLP, a corporate finance advisory firm, and also undertakes consultancy projects through her own consulting firm, Anchusa Consulting.

Nabavi previously held the position of Head of Telecoms Global Business Development for Corporate Finance at ING Barings, where she gained significant experience in M&A, private equity, structured debt and public equity transactions.

She later became the founding director and CEO of XchangePoint Holdings, a Venture Capital backed Internet Interconnect company providing broadband metro Ethernet based services to ISPs and carriers.

Nabavi is also Finance Director of Women in Telecoms & Technology, a mentoring and networking group with over 500 members, and a member of the Advisory Board of the National Media Museum.

Eddie Buxton, CEO at Maintel, said: "Annette has extensive knowledge and experience in the telecoms space and will bring with her a wealth of commercial experience and insight.

"Annette joins us at an exciting time for our business. Her skills and commercial judgement will be a valuable addition to the Maintel Board as we focus on our future development."

The appointment is the latest in a number of significant changes at Maintel in the past year.

Since acquiring Datapoint in September 2013, Maintel has appointed Jim Close as its new Group Sales Director, elevated Kevin Stevens to the board as Group Operations Director and appointed Rob Leader as Sales Manager of its Mobile and Network Services divisions.

ProVu Communications has linked up Swedish firm Opticaller Software to distribute its Opticaller mobile product, which allows mobile handsets to work in tandem with existing Asterisk-based PBXs, meaning that calls made from mobiles can be routed seamlessly via the PBX.

"There are numerous benefits of this technology for an organisation," explained Darren Garland the MD at ProVu Communications.

"It effectively allows an organisation to do mobile least cost routing thus enabling reductions in mobile costs. It also allows mobile calls to replace the mobile number with the PBX number when presenting outbound CLI. The solution lends itself well to supporting a BYOD policy for mobile workers."

Garland also noted that the Opticaller can be controlled in a cloud-based application allowing resellers or IT managers to set up centrally all their mobile clients and subsequently disable the functionality should a mobile be stolen or an employee leaves.

He added: "Opticaller allows our Service Providers and Resellers to offer a solution for mobile workers that ties in with their PBX functionality.

"I was particularly excited about the fact that most soft phone products on the market are dependent upon a strong Wi-Fi or 3G signal to work effectively.

"Because Opticaller is making calls through GSM it makes the solution a lot more portable and robust, something that I have personally put to good use already."

Daisy Group has been appointed by Ellis Brigham to deliver a full upgrade of the company's IT infrastructure.

Established in 1933, Ellis Brigham is a large outdoor sports retailer. The business has grown from a small specialist boot seller to a household name with 500 employees at stores across the UK.

The group manages thousands of customer transactions each day, both in store and online and needed a new IT infrastructure that would support its growth.

The new operational model also needed to play a key role in improving the overall business strategy, enhance staff and sales collaboration and deliver cost efficiencies.

Ellis Brigham MD Robert Brigham said: "Having been in existence since the early part of the last century, we had a certain way of doing things. However we recognised that we needed to dramatically transform our on-site technology to create a sustainable operational model to take us forward and deliver what we needed to support our infrastructure today."

Daisy is to put in place a full suite of communications solutions that will include hosting the Ellis Brigham website from its data centre and providing a fleet of business-specific mobiles, providing the connectivity that powers the stores' EPoS systems and IP telephony.

Daisy will also power all customer interactions, from credit card transactions to answering phone calls and hosting its website.

Nathan Marke, Chief Technology Officer at Daisy Group, said: "Ellis Brigham is a fantastic example of a great British brand that is using technology to build on its heritage and deliver an online experience to customers and staff that matches the high quality of its products."

Daisy Wholesale has revamped data proposition and branded the announcement as 'The Data Revolution'. It's Generic Ethernet Access (GEA) solution is now supported by the launch of a real-time Ethernet pricing tool which enables partners to produce instant quotes from all of the major carriers.

Through Daisy Wholesale's partner services offering it is able to put to market a bundle that includes managed installs, ADSL back-up and maintenance as standard. 

Lee Broxson, Product Director for Data at Daisy Wholesale, said: "Now with the launch of our Ethernet pricing tool, we are able to offer our resellers a competitive data proposition.

"Resellers benefit from a complete support system throughout their relationship with us. With dedicated desk-based account managers and product specialists in the field, we are always available to provide our resellers with support, whether it is placing orders or offering on-site training."

To mark the launch of the new Ethernet pricing tool Daisy Wholesale is giving its resellers the chance to win a holiday. By raising a quote through the pricing portal, partners will be automatically entered into a prize draw and one winner will be chosen at random.

Peach Telecom has secured a foothold in the managed services space following its acquisition of Nexus Business Group. The move enables Peach to offer its 3,000 customer base a suite of cloud services including security, disaster recovery, business continuity and a range of professional services.

Nexus MD Gareth McQuaid has join the Peach board as IT Director. He commented: "Our customers are pleased with the move as they will be able to take advantage of Peach's end-to-end portfolio."

Peach CEO Darren Scott-Healey added: "With the convergence of telecommunications and IT the acquisition has come at a perfect time. We are thrilled to welcome Nexus customers to the Peach family and to be able to offer a more comprehensive range of solutions to current and potential customers."

Andy Miles, Sales Director at Peach, said: "This marks Peach's fourth acquisition, and the purchase of Nexus is another part of the foundation which will underpin Peach's strategy. Peach has further plans for organic and inorganic growth."

Cyber security and data protection have been ranked third in a list of Boardroom priorities, according to a survey by KPMG.
 
The annual Business Instincts Survey, a poll of 498 C-level executives from businesses across the UK, found that under investment has left many businesses acknowledging the need to increase spend on secure technology. 

Yet despite acceptance that cyber security, specifically, is critical to long-term business operations, 1 in 3 executives questioned (36 per cent) said that investing in people skills had become their number one concern, with 19 percent also more focused on plant or machinery purchases.
 
Martin Tyley, a partner in KPMG's cyber security practice, said: "Every day we hear of new cyber attacks and incidents, but the knock-on effect is that Boardrooms become wary of scaremongering. 

"I see a real risk of boardrooms doubting the severity of the issue and the extent of their vulnerability.  Instead, by better understanding the cyber threat landscape and ensuring yber security is weaved into everything else that is done, it's much easier to positively manage the risk rather than reacting when things go wrong."
 
According to the findings, when it comes to technology the Board is concerned about how social media is used to liaise with customers. 

Executives are also worried about data analytics and whether cloud computing can make a difference to their business. 

However, they remain unsure how to maximise the opportunities secure technology can offer, collectively ranking 'the need to get the best from IT investment' as a most important technology-driven priority.
 
The survey goes on to show that there is some positive news for the nation's businesses. 

According to the data, access to finance in order to fund growth was not found to be a major issue. More than one-third (39 percent) claim they do not need to borrow funds, with many having built up cash reserves during the recession and strengthening their balance sheets.  Overall, 86 percent of businesses also expect to increase their turnover this year, with a similar proportion (81 percent) believing their profitability will also improve.
 
Tyley added: "There is an increasing optimism among UK businesses who have indicated a gradual rather than explosive approach to their investment plans this year. 

"Many businesses are feeling that under investment in technology during the downturn has led to the problem of playing 'catch up' with competitors, but the solution is not as simple as splashing the cash.
 
"The changing nature and rising number of cyber attacks makes this a very real and present danger.  The right approach is to remain aware of the changing cyber and technological threats facing business, training staff as they are on the front-line when it comes to security and making sure that responsibility is understood to be a firm-wide issue."

The global cloud services market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 17.6% from 2014 to 2020, reaching a market size of $555bn in 2020.

In 2014, the overall cloud services market revenue will reach $209.9bn, led by public cloud services. The US is seen as the biggest market because of its technology lead in research from US-based Allied Market Research.

The reduction of the total cost of ownership on deployment of cloud services acts as the major driver for the adoption of public clouds. This market attracts numerous new entrants due to liberal government regulations in mature economies. Private cloud will have fastest growth during the period, it predicts, whereas hybrid and community cloud services will gain gradual momentum with steady adoption within specialised end use segments.

The cloud computing market surged during recent economic slowdown; with the fact that over 35% of the IT cost can be saved with the adoption of the technology. Since then the cloud services segment has greatly emerged as companies in a cash crunch required cost-effective solutions with minimum to zero investment and reduced management of IT resources.

Although the cost and functional benefits such as scaling ability and multi-tenancy is still driving much of the cloud services market growth, the evolution of much value-creating productive solutions has become the current growth function of the market. The cloud, from an exploratory potential option, has now grown to become the undeniable part of organisations' overall IT portfolio. However, data security has still concerned a number of sensitive potential end users.

Strong growth is anticipated within the varied segments of cloud services market such as infrastructure as a service (IaaS), software as a service (SaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), business process as a service (BPaaS), cloud advertisement services, and cloud management & security services. Cloud advertising services will be the largest segment followed BPaaS with about 47% and 28% market share respectively in 2013. The cloud management & security services will be the fastest growing segment at a CAGR of 28.4% during the forecast period.

On the basis of cloud type the market is categorized as public cloud, private cloud, hybrid cloud and community cloud. Public cloud hold prominent share of the market through 2020 and is expected grow at a CAGR of 16.4% during the forecast period. Based on end users, cloud services market can be segmented into government utilities, private organizations, healthcare, academics & education and supply chain management.

Private organisations lead the end user market due to the rapidly growing IT sector, which is contributing largely to the revenue streams of the private organizations segment. The segment is expected to grow at a CAGR of 24.1% during the forecast period and it is anticipated to register revenue of $86.8bn by 2020. Cloud services promote sector-specific services, which are customised for specific end users.

TalkTalk has named Gary Steen as Chief Technology Officer, replacing Clive Dorsman who retires this summer after 17 years at the company.

Steen, who will move from his current role within the company as Chief Development & Delivery Officer, will lead the overall group technology capability at TalkTalk including Network build and operations, IT operations and software development to oversee TalkTalk's major IT projects and lead the group's technology strategy. His team makes up over a quarter of the firm's UK workforce.

The move forms part of TalkTalk's strategy to leverage its network to drive future growth and innovation. TalkTalk's Next Generation Network reaches over 95% of British homes and the broadband provider continues to invest in expanding its infrastructure, with traffic on the network trebling over the last three years.

Steen has over 20 years experience working in the UK and internationally as an innovator in technology and business transformation. He brings with him significant experience in designing and implementing systems for the telecommunications market, having worked with companies including AOL, Vodafone, BT, O2 and Carphone Warehouse, before joining TalkTalk in 2012. He will report into TalkTalk Chief Executive Dido Harding.

Harding said: "We're delighted to appoint Gary as CTO. Having been with us for over two years already, Gary fully understands our commitment to making Britain better off by providing customers with simple, value for money products, all made possible thanks to our state of the art network. His wealth of expertise in technical innovation will strengthen our position even further."

Steen added: "It's an exciting time for TalkTalk. TalkTalk Business is one of the fastest growing B2B telecom operators in the UK. This, coupled with the exciting new innovation projects we have in the pipeline, means it's a fantastic time to be taking on this role."

TalkTalk announced earlier this year that it will be building its own fibre to the premise network, bringing speeds of up to 1 Gbps to homes and businesses in York, as part of a joint venture with Sky and CityFibre.

Redcentric has completed the integration of InTechnology Managed Services to form one of the largest independent IT managed services businesses in the UK with annualised revenues in excess of £90 million.

he integration of InTechnology Managed Services sees all infrastructure, mobile, networks, security, collaboration and applications re-branded as Redcentric from 1 July 2014.

The acquisition of InTechnology has augmented Redcentric's end-to-end managed service offering.

The company's data centre assets now contain 1255 racks connected by a national data network with a significant cloud platform and a broader suite of technical support skills.

Tony Weaver, Chief Executive of Redcentric, said: "This has been an important step in the evolution of Redcentric as a serious and leading managed services provider to the mid-market.

"Combining InTechnology's and Redcentric's complementary voice, data, applications, networking and hosting solutions enables us to provide next generation cloud services underpinned by strong network delivery from five industry leading data centres."

The integration of the two businesses has been instrumental in Redcentric winning a series of significant new contracts.

These deals include The Salvation Amy, The Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) and a number of major new contract wins procured through the government's G-Cloud framework including one for an NHS partner worth in excess of £5m.

Redcentric has also strengthened its position as a public sector services provider after being named by the HSCIC as one of only two private sector commercial aggregators with authority to connect third party organisations to N3 - the internal NHS network.

Now trading as one company, Redcentric employs over 450 staff and serves over 2,000 commercial and public sector customers across markets including healthcare, education, retail, hospitality, manufacturing, financial and professional services.

Redcentric provides a range of services and business technology solutions that include infrastructure, networks, mobile, security, applications and collaboration tools delivered on-premise, as a managed service or via the cloud.