Comms Dealer

Bromsgrove-based Armstrong Bell has provided Dudley Zoological Gardens with a new automated comms system, offering outbound and cross-site communication and cutting the amount of time staff spend handling telephone enquiries by directing callers to the correct department or by providing them with pre-recorded information.

In addition to call-handling, Armstrong Bell has integrated the telephone system with the zoo's public address system, allowing it to control announcements across the 40-acre site to keep visitors informed of activities and events that they may wish to visit.

Will Copley, managing director at Armstrong Bell, said: "The size and complexity of the site posed some challenges that our engineers overcame, including a fear of snakes and integrating the system with the zoo's existing network and public address system.

"Our work doesn't end here. We're now providing Dudley Zoological Gardens with our bespoke maintenance package, meaning we're on call when they need us.

"It is a much sought-after, flagship site for local communications companies and we are pleased to have added it to our client list."

Leeds-based IT reseller and managed services provider Pure Data Solutions has reported a 30 per cent rise in annual turnover to £14.2m, up from £10.9m a year earlier and up £4.1m on three years ago.

In a year-end statement (end of May) the firm also noted that it added almost 200 new customers (making its total of active clients more than 1,000) and recruited seven additional staff, taking its team to more than 40, during 2013-14.

Pure Data Solutions, based in Farsley, remains on course to achieve its target of £20m turnover by the end of April 2015.

The company aims to increase its headcount by 15 per cent and achieve its expansion targets through organic growth in its key areas of consulting, supplying, installing and support services, plus acquisitions of companies specialising in areas such as technical, managed, professional services and IT support.

Steve O'Brien, MD, said: "We're not just signing up additional customers, but our clients are spending more with us too.

"It's an old cliché to say people are a company's greatest asset but here that's unquestionably true.

"Our approach is to recruit the best talent available, provide the right working environment, supply training and development where it's needed and reward people as well as possible for delivering excellent performances.

"By that we mean doing whatever it takes to save our customers time and money on their IT procurement, while demonstrating our core values of honesty, quality and service.

"That's an approach which continues to serve us very well, given that we're maintaining our rapid growth in a difficult and competitive market."

8x8 Solutions (the UK/European arm of 8x8 Inc) is on the hunt for new UK channel partners wanting to capitalise on growing demand for cloud-based unified communications, contact centre and collaboration solutions.

"Following our acquisition by 8x8 we are investing in a recruiting programme to grow our channel team," said Charles Aylwin, Director, Channel and Public Sector for 8x8 Solutions.

"As well as looking for partners with an established pedigree in the voice space, we are also keen to talk to partners who have yet to look closely at the significant revenue streams available from cloud-based communications."

8x8 is hosting two channel recruitment days on Wed 11 June and Wed 18 June at the Williams F1 Conference Centre in Oxfordshire which will include a tour of the Williams Grand Prix collection. The dates of additional channel recruitment days will be announced shortly.

"Our channel partners can increase their revenues through the delivery of hosted business telephony systems that allow businesses of all sizes across all sectors, to take advantage of the benefits of cloud-based communications," explained Aylwin.

"Our training gives them the knowledge and expertise to help them close every potential sales opportunity and that's a win-win situation for everyone.

"VoIP and unified communications (UC) services are forecast by Infonetics Research, to grow from $68 billion to $88 billion by 2018. By increasing our channel partner base we are ensuring that both 8x8 and its partners successfully capture a slice of this growing revenue pie!"

Premier Business Audio and ITS Technology Group (ITS) have joined forces to combine marketing expertise with unified communication and IT platforms.

As an audio marketing provider, Premier works with more than 3,500 customers across the UK and Europe, including FTSE 100 companies such as BT, Barclays and Sainsbury's.

Roy Shelton, ITS Technology Group CEO, said: "With our combined skillset and solution offering, the potential to add significant value to our combined client basis is compelling."

Nick Findlay, MD at Premier Business Audio, added: "This partnership adds up to more than the sum of the parts. With a telecommunications specialist and a marketing and branding agency working closely together, we are going to have some great sounding and highly efficient joint clients."

Exeter-based IP Office has netted 300-plus customer contracts from failed telco The Bush Telegraph Company after it went into voluntary liquidation on May 28th.

IP Office has taken control of servicing Truro-based Bush Telegraph Company's complete customer base which includes the likes of Truro College, the Diocese of Truro, Truro High School, Taylors of Grampound and Lanner Primary School.

Mark Collett, MD IP Office, said: "The first thing customers will notice is that their service will be enhanced. Bush Telegraph was a substantially smaller company running 9am-5pm and customers would not see anyone on a year-to-year basis unless they had a problem.

"We are three times the size and their customers will now get our 24-7 cover and be able to contact us at any time. They will still be ringing the Bush telephone number but now get our service.

"In addition, we are proactive in account management with a post-sale team and qualified engineers. We will be visiting customers personally to let them know what is happening, and who to call for support. We will talk about how we can help develop their business and they will see much more account management.

"We are delighted to also be taking on Bush Telegraph Company's three existing engineers so the same engineer will be maintaining their systems."

IP Office has 35 staff and an annual turn over of £4million.

Timico has launched a new Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) offering designed to encourage businesses of all sizes to protect themselves from potentially damaging downtime.

Timico's new DRaaS solution allows for regular testing with no disruption to the production environment. The solution includes a fully documented annual test as standard. The service allows customers to pool servers into different groupings based on function, applications or importance and prioritise the order in which they are failed over based on business requirements.

Colin Bell, Director of Cloud and Hosting at Timico, said: "Disaster recovery isn't a new concept, but with the ever-growing reliance on IT it's imperative to have a resilient strategy in place. For a long time businesses have viewed disaster recovery as a headache - something they know they should implement but that just seems too time consuming, expensive and a big drain on resources.

"Timico's new pay-as-you-go DRaaS solution alleviates many of these fears. Our customers decide how many servers they wish to protect each month and pay a minimum monthly fee based on that amount.

"Using our cloud platform as back-up in the event of a major disruption, assets are protected almost instantaneously until a business is ready to failback to its primary site. "

Timico has selected Zerto as its software partner for DRaaS, offering full integration with vCloud director for Virtual Data Centre recovery.

Timico has also recently bolstered its security credentials by attaining its ISO27001 accreditation, the international standard ensuring best practice for Information Security Management Systems.

IT solutions specialist TSG has been awarded a sixth Gold Status Competency, which reaffirms its position as an expert in Microsoft technology.

The competencies are awarded by Microsoft to partners with proven skills and experience in specific areas to set them apart from the competition.

The latest competency achieved by TSG is in small business, adding to collaboration and content, customer relationship management, enterprise resource management, midmarket solution provider and server platform.

TSG, which was founded in Newcastle, has regional headquarters across the country including in Scotland, Teesside, Manchester, the East and West Midlands, Leeds and Southampton.

Less than one per cent of the 650,000 Microsoft partners worldwide are regarded highly enough to hold a single gold competency.

"By achieving a gold competency, partners have demonstrated the highest, most consistent capability and commitment to the latest Microsoft technology," said Phil Sorgen, corporate vice president Worldwide Partner Group at Microsoft Corp.

"These partners have a deep expertise that puts them in the top one per cent of our partner ecosystem, and their proficiency will help customers drive innovative solutions on the latest Microsoft technology."

David Filmer, TSG's training and development manager, said: "To renew our five competencies and add a sixth was no mean feat. In 2012 Microsoft launched five new products which required training and development across the TSG team to ensure we had the right knowledge, skills and experience in place to retain our competencies. Essentially it was like starting from scratch, as each product brought with it changes to the accompanying competency."

TSG's chief executive David Stonehouse added: "Picking up the sixth Gold Status Competency demonstrates to our customers that we go that extra mile to show we are trusted, expert advisors for our key strategic partners.

"A lot of our customers rely heavily on Microsoft's product stack. Achieving all these Microsoft Gold Status Competencies reflects our continued investment in helping customers get the most out of Microsoft's portfolio of products."

Broadband Everywhere is using Astra Connect to offer satellite broadband services to the whole of Scotland, including remote locations

ISP Broadband Everywhere has launched a new high-speed satellite broadband service in Scotland to help bridge the digital divide between urban and rural communities.

A range of packages with download speeds of up to 20Mbps will be available to anyone living in Scotland. The new offering widens the geographical area covered by Broadband Everywhere, which already provides Astra Connect satellite Internet to customers in England and Wales, via SES satellite ASTRA 2F.

SES's newest satellite ASTRA 2E, located at the orbital location of 28.2o East, will power the satellite broadband in Scotland. The service includes a static IP address which enables users to watch BBC iPlayer, Netflix and other services - even if they choose to install the satellite on a motor home or caravan for travel outside of the UK.

"Broadband Everywhere frees users from the limitations of terrestrial Internet connections, and brings fast, reliable broadband anywhere, and we are delighted people in Scotland will now be able to benefit from our service," said Steven Burton, Business Sales at Broadband Everywhere.

"With satellite broadband, there is no need for a phone line or mobile dongle and the connection is unaffected by landscape. If broadband is required at the top of a mountain, in the middle of a field, or simply living in a rural hamlet - this is the perfect service."

Broadband Everywhere's satellite Internet works in a similar way to digital television, with the signal sent to the modem through a dish on the property.

Channel Telecom is fulfilling a major mobile phone contract including the supply of over 350 handsets.

The contract value exceeds £70,000 over the next two years and a mix of iPhone, HTC and Samsung smartphones will be supplied. A further 300 handsets will be supplied later in the contract period.

Channel Telecom has recently revised its mobile proposition for channel partners, providing more flexible contract terms with competitive pricing.

Matt Donaldson, Sales Director for Channel Telecom, stated: "This is another example of where Channel Telecom has been able to support a channel partners with excellent contract terms and aggressive pricing to win deals in a competitive pitch."

Responding to news that G-Cloud has been given an 'amber/red' status by the Major Projects Authority (MPA), the Cloud Industry Forum (CIF) questions what it has really achieved since it launched in 2011.

According to Alex Hilton, CIF's CEO, G-Cloud lacks the single ingredient that must underpin every procurement service - transparency.
 
Hilton said: "Our latest research on the UK market indicates that cloud adoption rates in the public sector match those in the private sector, both standing at 69 per cent, but this enthusiasm does not seem to have spread to local government, which simply hasn't taken to G-Cloud as was predicted.
 
"From its inception, G-Cloud held a great deal of promise and we fundamentally support a consistent approach to cloud procurement by government. The government's stated aspiration is for 25% of central procurement to be through SMEs, but  this does not seem to be following through to local authorities.
 
"The Cloud Industry Forum's Code of Practice is a certification model for Cloud procurement services. We encourage G-Cloud providers to promote it to their local authority customers to further assure their Cloud credentials.
 
"Whilst the European Commission is driving it's Digital Agenda for Europe the UK government doesn't itself subscribe today to any certification schemes, we believe it should be offering more assistance and guidance in the selection of suitable and trustworthy cloud providers."