Comms Dealer

NEC has extended its Business Mobility portfolio with a new smart handset that combines DECT and WiFi data.

The G966 SmartDECT handset combines IP DECT communications with the flexibility of WiFi-based Android application support that enable tight integration with business-specific applications.

The G966's WiFi capabilities and Android OS expand on this by providing users with access to their vital business applications, integration with NEC UC platforms such as UNIVERGE 3C Mobile Client, but also to Mail and Calendar, the company's intranet and VoWiFi. In the upcoming months NEC will introduce the G966 handset in its various markets worldwide.

Bert van Koelen, Global Business Manager Mobility at NEC Enterprise Solutions, said: . "Our latest G966 DECT handset empowers the so-called Smart Enterprise. Integration with industry and business specific applications drives business process enhancements and ensures higher safety and service levels making this device a powerful offering to the market."

Gateshead IT firm Advantex Network Solutions has won a £750,000 contract to provide new technology and managed services to schools across the North East.

The firm, one of the region's leading suppliers of IT and infrastructure services to the education sector and established in 2002, won the contracts in the face of stiff competition.

The contract covers work at Oxclose Community Academy, Red House Academy, Farringdon Academy, Sunderland PRU, New Penshaw Academy, Plains Farm Academy and Ryhope Infants School and Durham 6th Form College as well as existing sites including ongoing support and projects for Green Lane in Middlesbrough, Holy Trinity in South Shields and Parkhead Primary in Gateshead

The contract is the latest success for Advantex and is expected to boost the current turnover of £4m by 20%.

The firm will also be looking to expand its current workforce of 40 people with the recruitment of four IT engineers who will look after the contract as work starts to ramp-up over the next few months.

The new work will see the company providing wireless, Internet, servers, SIMS, telecommunications, CCTV and infrastructure support services over the next three years to provide improved computer and online services for staff and students while benefiting from expert technical advice and support.

A key feature of the programme will be the provision of services to enable the schools to increasingly take-on responsibility for the ownership and provision of classroom and office technology, technical support and internet and email services.

The move will give the schools and academies greater autonomy, enabling them to directly improve their ICT provision in line with the latest technological devices such as tablet PCs and the latest touch screen technology for delivering teaching.

Advantex is already targeting further growth in the education sector, eyeing other local Schools and Academies that will benefit from its services and expertise.

Director Stephen O'Connell said: "These and other schools are seeing the value of using us as a single source supplier of IT managed services.

"We will be continuing to look to secure more education work on the back of this success and our experience in the sector, expanding the scope of our comprehensive IT and infrastructure work even further.

"For too long schools and academies have suffered from bad advice and little investment and have yet been paying high costs for that poor service; we want to see that trend change which can only benefit the children."

Advantex was established in 2002 and achieved the prestigious ISO9001/2000 industry quality mark within its first year of trading and holds the IOS9001/2008 mark. It is an accredited Microsoft, Cisco and Mitel partner, providing a single source package which combines to deliver flexibility, added value and cost saving benefits.

The market for PBX/call control extensions and licenses (excluding micro PBX products) fell by 9% year-on-year in CY Q1 2014 (January to March 2014 inclusive), and 6% year-on-year for the rolling year (April 2013 to March 2014 inclusive), according to MZA's Q1 2014 market analysis.

The global dip in Q1 2014 was largely driven by an 11% year-on-year decline in the enterprise market (solutions with above 100 extensions/licenses), while over the rolling year this market declined by 5% year-on-year.

Moreover, there were global year-on-year volume declines in the below 100 market (solutions with 100 or below 100 extensions/licenses) over the quarterly and rolling year periods. This market witnessed a 6% decline in Q1 2014 and over the rolling year.

According to MZA the market in North America drove much of the global decline, falling by 17% year-on-year in Q1 2014, with solutions above 100 extensions/licenses falling by 23%. "Deployments in enterprise may have slowed more significantly due to the frigid North American winter, as US GDP contracted for the first time in three years," said MZA analyst Will Parsons.

More moderate declines ranging between 3% and 10% were felt in the other regional markets, with the exception of the Eastern European market which barely bounced back (up 0.1% year-on-year) from a poor quarter in Q1 2013. "Notably, in the quarter total extensions/licenses in North America fell below Western Europe for the first time since Q4 2012," added Parsons.

The increasing development of pure mobile and multi-tenant alternatives and restrictions to credit since the global financial crisis has had some effect on the below 100 licenses/extensions market over the last few years, and in Q1 2014 all regions witnessed declines for a second successive quarter.

The most significant year-on-year declines were in the Middle East and Africa and Latin America which fell by 13% and 15% respectively, helping to drive a decline of 6% in the below 100 extensions/licenses market (excluding Micro PBX products) globally.

Significant declines in North America, Asia Pacific and Western Europe in the above 100 extensions/licenses market drove this segment to its largest decline in recent years, down by 11% year-on-year. "These three regions account for over 80% of all licenses sold in the enterprise sector, and although there was year-on-year growth witnessed in Eastern Europe and Middle East and Africa, this had a limited impact in preventing the double-digit global decline," observed Parsons.

NEC became the leading vendor in the global PBX extensions/licenses market (excluding Micro PBX products) in Q1 2014 with a market share of 13%, flat year-on-year. Compared to Q1 2013, NEC remained ahead of Avaya but overtook Cisco with the two American vendors placed in second and third positions with market shares of 12% and 11% respectively. "NEC's continued strength in Asia Pacific, as well as strong share growth in North America helped it to maintain global market share and take top position," noted Parsons.

"The weakness of the North American market had a comparatively stronger impact on the global performance of Avaya and Cisco, as over 40% of each vendor's voice licenses are usually sold every quarter to their home regional market."

Significantly, Mitel, following the Aastra merger, moved into fourth position in the global market with an 8% market share, up one percentage point on Mitel and Aastra combined in Q1 2013. Moreover, Mitel climbed places to reach fourth position in both the below 100 and above 100 extensions/licenses market (excluding Micro PBX products).

MZA's report noted that NEC retained its Q1 2013 global leadership in solutions below 100 extensions/licenses (excluding Micro PBX products) in Q1 2014, repeating its 17% market share. "Although sales represented a volume decline in Asia Pacific against a very strong quarter in Q1 2013, NEC performed well in its home region and improved its volume growth in North America, Latin America and Western Europe," commented Parsons. "Panasonic held off a strong challenge from Avaya to retain second position, with both vendors holding 11% shares."

Cisco remained the market leader in the Q1 2014 above 100 extensions/licenses market with a reduced 21% share, while Avaya remained in second position maintaining a 12% slice of the cake. NEC retained third position with an unchanged 9% market share.

When looking at the global PBX/IP PBX market over the rolling year (April 2013 to March 2014 inclusive), with the exception of Eastern Europe every regional market declined at relatively similar rates (between 4% and 6% year-on-year). "Eastern Europe declined by 9% year-on-year, reflecting the continued weakness of Russian economy the largest market in the region, and the political situation in Ukraine," added Parsons.

The positions of the top six vendors were unchanged in the rolling year. Cisco retained its global lead in the total extensions/licenses market with a 12% share, down two percentage points year-on-year. Cisco was closely followed by Avaya in second position also with a 12% share, while NEC remained third with a market share of 10%, down one percentage point year-on-year.

NEC continued to lead the below 100 extensions/licenses market (excluding Micro PBX products) over the rolling year, with Panasonic closely behind with both vendors recording a 13% market share. Avaya improved market share, recording an 11% market share. Also during this period Cisco continued to lead the above 100 extensions/licenses market, followed by Avaya, Unify and NEC with the top four vendors unchanged in terms of market positions. Microsoft and Huawei continued to close the gap in fifth and sixth positions gaining one percentage point each in market share.

The global IP extensions/licenses market declined by 8% year-on-year in Q1 2014, at a slightly slower rate than the total market (IP and TDM solutions), driven by the market declines in North America where IP extensions account for the vast majority of extensions to the desktop. As a result, and against the expected trend, the global IP penetration rate (the % of IP extensions into total extensions to the desktop) remained at 43% against Q1 2013 and fell sequentially from 46% in Q4 2013.

Middle East and Africa saw the sharpest rise in IP penetration from 30% in Q1 2013 to 37% in Q1 2014, as Avaya and Mitel saw some strong growth in IP deployments.

Cisco continued to lead the global IP extensions/licenses market with a reduced 22% market share over the quarter, closely followed by Avaya which achieved an 18% market share. Mitel took a 10% market share, gaining percentage points as a consequence of the merger with Aastra.

"Over the rolling year (April 2013 to March 2014 inclusive) the top three positions in IP deployments were taken by Cisco, Avaya and Mitel," concluded Parsons. "Cisco remained in front with a reduced 24% market share, followed by Avaya who recorded a 17% share, up one percentage point."

Nimans' new hosted telephony service has caught the attention of hundreds of resellers just weeks after its official launch.

The hosted voice service called GreenSky is being hailed as a 'game changing' expansion of Nimans' reseller service proposition - a 'free' hosted voice facility offering resellers either upfront or recurring revenue opportunities for the first time.

The service includes a free three-year hosted seat licence (worth £360) with every handset purchased. A choice of three models are available - Standard, Advanced and Executive - with upfront margin potential of 45% or recurring margins of 65%.

"We've been blown away by initial interest that has exceeded all expectations and demonstrates just what a compelling proposition we have brought to market," says Group Sales and Business Development Director, Richard Carter.

"We are excited by this venture that allows resellers the choice to sell hosted in a completely different way. Free hosted voice, plain and simple," said Carter. "We are turning hosted voice on its head.

"It's based on a traditional 'tin' style revenue model where resellers can sell phones upfront with included licences - or they can embrace a more modern approach of charging on a monthly basis."

8x8 Solutions has been accepted as a supplier by the Crown Commercial Services (CCS) on the CCS' recently announced G-Cloud 5 framework. G-Cloud is a UK Government initiative to encourage the adoption of cloud services across the whole of the public sector.

"Our solutions now appear under the SaaS category of G-Cloud 5's CloudStore online marketplace," said Kevin Scott-Cowell, CEO, 8x8 Solutions. "This will help potential customers across the public sector to quickly and easily identify which of our easy to use, cloud-based, managed services will best suit their individual business communications needs. The important thing is, that they can fund deployment out of their operational budgets."

8x8's hosted business VoIP solution allows public sector organisations to move their phone systems to the cloud, giving them access to not just a phone and fax service that delivers more functionality than a traditional hardware PBX, but access to online meetings via web and video conferencing plus integrated call centre capabilities at the same time as delivering flexibility and agility through 8x8's mobile apps.

Additionally, for a public sector organisation which understands the financial and functionality benefits that could be achieved by switching from its existing on-premise VoIP provider, 8x8 can offer a migration path which utilises the organisation's existing infrastructure, to 8x8's hosted cloud-based VoIP solution.

"8x8's cloud-based unified communications importantly enables public sector organisations to considerably enhance their levels of customer service by putting the tools to improve their external communication and collaboration at their fingertips," added Scott-Cowell.

G-Cloud 5 supports the Government's policy to centrally manage the procurement of common goods and services through an integrated procurement function at the heart of government. Suppliers are carefully evaluated during the tender process and pre-agreed terms and conditions offer public sector customers sound contractual safeguards.

"The key difference between G-Cloud 5 and other procurement frameworks is that public sector organisations are able to enter into a contract with 8x8 which enables them to pay for the services they use on a pay-as-you-go basis," explained Scott-Cowell.

"8x8 and our channel partners look forward to helping public sector customers take advantage of G-Cloud 5's SaaS solutions to cut their operating costs by avoiding lengthy and often inflexible supplier contracts, saving money on the supply and maintenance of traditional hardware and by paying for just the services they actually use."

Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise premium partner SBL has been appointed as the first to deliver OpenTouch Enterprise Cloud (OTEC) to the UK market.

SBL is working with Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise IaaS partner CentriLogic to deliver the cloud solution to customers.

John Owen, Managing Director, SBL, said: "There is a definite demand for unified communications in the UK, and it's not just coming from large enterprises. Many businesses across different verticals, including SME, education, public sector and hospitality all want easy access to modern multimedia communicaton technologies.

"Hospitality is a key market for this technology as the prevalance of mobile devices and mulitple guest users requires a fresh way to engage with guests through the devices and applciations that they are comfortable with."

Peter Tebbutt, Country Leader, UK&I, Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise, added: "The shift to the cloud is picking up considerable momentum, with consumer devices, mobility and open standards in technology driving the trend.

"We are seeing growing demand for flexible solutions which offer access to unified communications and collaboration tools, without prohibitive up-front costs. This is why we developed OTEC, to bring these advanced communication technologies to a greater number of users with ease."

IT Europa and Angel Business Communications have revealed further details of the Managed Services & Hosting Summit which will be staged on 25 September 2014 at the Pullman St Pancras Hotel, London.

The Managed Services & Hosting Summit 2014 is a management-level event designed to help channel organisations identify opportunities arising from the increasing demand for managed and hosted services and to develop and strengthen partnerships aimed at supporting sales.

The event will bring together leading hardware and software vendors, hosting providers, telecommunications companies, mobile operators and web services providers involved in managed services and hosting with resellers, integrators and service providers developing their own managed services portfolio and sales of hosted solutions. Initial sponsors include: AppRiver, AVG, Autotask, Dot Hill, Dropbox, GFI Max and EG Innovation, with further major names expected to be announced over the coming weeks.

The summit will feature a high-level conference programme exploring the impact of new business models and the changing role of information technology within modern businesses. A strong line-up of speakers will be headed by Tiffani Bova, VP and Distinguished Analyst at Gartner Research, who will provide the opening keynote. Tiffani's presentation will examine how both technology changes (cloud, consumption and managed services) and new customer demands are forcing technology providers and the broader channel ecosystem to re-examine their sales models.

Tiffani will draw on new research from Gartner to show that the evolution of IT consumers in developing economies has gone faster than the providers' capacity to realign their sales models and channel strategies and argue that a technology provider's market success can be enhanced by the ability to address complex buying processes that span not only CIOs, but also departmental managers and other influential business decision makers.

Other presentation subjects will include: Trends in service delivery and changing customer demands, Hybrid IT, the impact of new technologies and evolving business models, Creating Value with Managed Services and the Future of Managed Services and Hosting and the changing role of MSPs and other channels.

"Advances in technology, economic pressures and evolving business models are combining to fundamentally change the role of both IT and Telecoms channels," says Alan Norman, Managing Director of IT Europa.

"The Managed Services & Hosting Summit 2014 provides a unique opportunity for vendors, distributors, VARs, integrators and service providers to come together to address the issues and opportunities arising from the continued growth in customer demand for managed services and hosted delivery models."

Report by Philip Carse, Principal Analyst, Megabuyte: Daisy has reported revenues and EBITDA for the year to March 2014 up marginally at £353m and £58m respectively, suggesting organic declines of about 7%, down from 11-12% the previous year due to growing data and other revenues offsetting voice pressures. The company has increased its M&A war chest to an estimated £150m, and also announced two small recent deals - ABSE and Layer 7.

For the year to March 2014, business comms provider Daisy reported small headline growth in all key measures; revenues up 0.3% to £352.7m, EBITDA up 2.8% to £57.9m and adjusted EPS up 6% to 13.85p, while the full year dividend has been increased by 15% to 4.6p. The headline operating loss increased marginally to £17.9m, including £7.1m of exceptional costs and £63.8m of goodwill amortisation. Finance costs of £6.7m contributed to a loss before tax of £24.4m, up £0.8m.

Operating cash flow of £44.2m (76% of EBITDA) was down marginally, impacted by exceptional costs and working capital requirements of large managed service contracts. This was more than consumed with acquisitions of £45.5m, dividends of £14.2m, interest of £5.8m, tax of £4.9m, and capex of £1.9m. Net debt rose by £32.8m to £114.0m, or just under 2x EBITDA.

The picture was somewhat mixed by division. Daisy Retail (£300m, 65% of revenues) suffered a 6% revenue decline, maintained gross profit in absolute terms (lifting the margin 2.7pp to 43.7%), whilst EBITDA fell 5% to £43m. The main culprit as ever was Networks, with revenues down 13% to £114m, whilst Data revenues rose 25% to £59m, helped by the ex-2e2 data centre deal. Mobile gross profit increased marginally on revenues down 15% at £40m, reflecting new commercial arrangements with MNOs.

Daisy Wholesale (£73m, 21% of revenues) saw revenues rise 18% and EBITDA by 45%, helped by the Indecs acquisition. Daisy Distribution (mobile products) reported revenues up 11% to £50m and EBITDA up 20%, helped by MoCo.

The company noted strong contributions from acquisitions announced during the year - the ex-2e2 data centres, MoCo and Indecs - and also said that it acquired public sector focussed network operator ABSE in February 2014 for an initial £7.9m (with up to a £4.4m earn out), and LAN and WIFi specialist Layer 3 for £1.8m at the end of May.  M&A remains a target, with CEO Matt Riley noting that the company remains on the lookout for a 'transformational' deal. To this end, Daisy has negotiated to lift its bank debt availability from 2.5x to 3x EBITDA, giving about £150m current headroom including the potential to borrow against the target's EBITDA.

First thoughts
The broad numbers had been flagged in a trading update and therefore come as no surprise. What they do show, however, is a continued improvement in underlying revenues, with an estimated organic revenue decline for the year of just under 7% (with £23.6m contributed by the acquired businesses) and by 5% for EBITDA (with £3.1m contributed). This contrasts with 11-12% for the previous financial year and 7.8% for the first half. Broadly speaking, contributions from growth areas such as Data are increasingly outweighing market declines in calls and regulatory driven reductions in mobile termination rates. There was also a welcome improvement on operating cash flow in the second half, contributing nearly two thirds of the total for the year.

The focus on growth is reflected in M&A, with the acquisitions undertaken during the year and the two new deals (LANs/WiFi and public sector networks - the latter presumably a la Updata) being far from the distressed voice base that Daisy might once have acquired. The £150m plus firepower from the enlarged facilities gives it considerable scope for a transformational deal - though it has seen InTechnology and Updata slip by in the last year or so. 

Nimans has taken in a new series of SIP phones from Aastra (a Mitel company) - the 6800i family of four models offer HD wideband audio, a 'superior' speakerphone and audio processing, combined with attractive price points, Gigabit capabilities and interoperability with all major IP Telephony platforms.

"There's a choice from entry level to advanced executive phones, all competitively priced," says Paul Burn, Head of Category Sales at Nimans. "In addition they use Power over Ethernet which reduces power usage, enables scalable delivery of power and simplifies deployment."

Outsourcery is beating the drum following a successful year for its partner programme.

Outsourcery's channel-centric business model has seen its partner-base increase from 307 to 560 companies in the 12 months to May 2014, following its IPO and listing in May 2013.

Piers Linney, Co-CEO of Outsourcery, said: "To meet end-user demand in a rapidly changing landscape, partners need to get cloud solutions to market quickly, ahead of competitors.

"The rapid growth of our partner network is a testament that our approach to cloud services is the right one for the supply chain.

"Many operators in the channel have struggled to adjust from selling technology-as-an-asset to a service-based business model, so we have developed our channel programme in order to specifically overcome this issue.

"Furthermore, our partners are converging on cloud from a variety of industries - from telcos to ISPs - so it has always been our aim to offer a tailored approach."