Comms Dealer

Exertis Micro-P is realigning department leaders as Stuart Bruce has taken up a new split role as Head of Services and Accessories Sales within the Retail Team.

Bruce, who joined the company in 2013 as Commercial Head for Accessories and was most recently General Manager for Attach, will be replaced by Joe Officer who has returned to the business having previously headed the PC Team.

Bruce stated: "These are times of genuine opportunity at Exertis Micro-P and I am pleased to lead the sales arm of Accessories and expand the newly created services offering. I look forward to taking the team to the next level."

Officer has been with Exertis Micro-P for nearly 20 years working in sales, channel development, business development and heading up commercial business units. Over the last four years he headed up the company's largest department, the PC Division.

Most recently, Officer took time out from his long career at Exertis Micro-P but was headhunted back to the business to take over the Attach Division by Simon Woodman, UK Sales Director at Exertis Micro-P.

Officer commented: "I'm excited to be back at Exertis Micro-P after my break. The accessories opportunity is massive with strong relationships between ourselves and all the major accessory manufacturers. That includes those central to the major 2014 trend of wearable technology, including Jawbone, Samsung, and Sony Mobile.

"This is just the beginning of the wearable technology revolution and I am pleased to have the opportunity to help this company be part of it."

Global information security firm MWR InfoSecurity has become the first provider of phishing assessment services to be listed on G-Cloud, the UK Government's approved online marketplace for the public sector.

phish'd, by MWR, is a fully managed phishing assessment service designed to maintain a heightened level of security awareness across an organisation.

It reduces the likelihood of employees clicking on suspicious links within emails, which could lead to a company being compromised in a cyber attack, and helps the organisation improve its incident response timings.

Ian Shaw, Managing Director at MWR InfoSecurity, said: "Phishing attacks against organisations are nothing new, but they are becoming increasingly frequent and complex. These type of attacks are universally used due to their high success, low detection rates and the ease by which an attacker, who is often state sponsored, can target a large estate of users within an organisation."

A group of Mitel employees have completed The Prostate Cancer Research Centre (PCRC) Welsh Three Peaks Challenge raising an impressive £6,000 for the cause.

They scaled Pen Y Fan in South Wales (2,907 ft), Cadair Idris inMid Wales (2,930 ft), and Snowdon in North Wales (3,560 ft), spurred by the memory of their colleague and friend Neil Blackmore who passed away last year from the disease.   

Shameem Smillie, Technical Consultant at Mitel, commented: "Reaching the summit of Mount Snowdon was both emotional and poignant. Everyone on the peak had either lost a loved one or friend to prostrate cancer or had been affected in some way. Hopefully one day this disease won't be as devastating as it is today.

"While the challenge was tough and very tiring from the sheer fatigue because of lack of sleep, we all have got the bug and would relish doing a similar challenge in the near future. The donations are still coming in as more people hear about what we done and the charity we are supporting."

If you would like to donate please click here

Pictured above: The team reach the summit of Mount Snowdon after a five hour climb

Accenture has swooped on UK-based Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) provider PureApps. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

PureApps specialises in implementing performance management solutions based on the Oracle Hyperion Enterprise Performance Management and Oracle Business Analytics range of products; and the acquisition is expected to build Accenture's end-to-end EPM capabilities.

PureApps enables CFOs to report and analyse enterprise performance, forecast business results and work with business units to turn these insights into action.

PureApps will be integrated into Accenture's Finance and Enterprise Performance practice, part of Accenture Strategy.

The technical capabilities will complement Accenture's consulting expertise for the finance function, including its global shared services offering.

The combination of the two businesses will strengthen Accenture's presence in the UK EPM market and support clients in Europe, where demand for EPM-related services is strong, Accenture says.

Hats off to Olive Communications for scooping the Managed Services Reseller of the Year at the Microscope Awards for Channel Excellence (ACES) 2014.
 
Olive's entry was based on a combination of customer testimonials, managed telecoms services, strong financial performance and a commitment to its staff.

The judging panel noted: "The entries were exceptionally strong this year, with most containing solid customer and channel references to back up claims of excellence.

"There were also signs of the transition in the industry towards managed services, with channel providers using that approach to the market popping up in most categories."
 
Martin Flick, Chief Executive, Olive, added: "We've grown rapidly and profitably over the past year, and we believe we're building a business designed to help our customers harness technology to reach their true potential."

Following the announcement of Bull's acquisition on May 26th, Atos has filed a draft public offer with the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF) targeting all of Bull's outstanding shares and instruments.

As background, Atos says this is a part of its '2016 Ambition' three year plan, aimed at enhancing its position in Cloud services in Europe, and anchor its Managed Services and Systems Integration. Complementary technologies will further increase Atos' businesses impact and the relevance of its disruptive and innovative offerings, it says. The transaction will particularly enhance the group's offers in key areas such as Cloud services, Big Data and cyber security and will reinforce its position not only in France, but also in geographical areas such as Spain, Poland, Africa and Brazil.

Cost synergies potential is estimated at €80m after 24 months. These synergies are backed by a well identified and planned integration strategy within Atos' operations, based on transformation programs already experienced by Atos in previous large transactions.

This €4.90 cash offer values Bull's share capital at c. €620m on a fully diluted basis. It represents a 30% premium compared to the company's 3 month volume weighted average share price of €3.77 and a 22% premium compared to Bull's closing share price of €4.01 as of May 23rd 2014, the day preceding the announcement.

On May 23 and 25 2014 respectively, Atos' and Bull's Boards of Directors have both expressed their full and unanimous support to the transaction. On the date of the draft offer document, Crescendo Industries and Pothar Investments have both committed to tender all of their shares to the offer, representing an aggregated amount of 24.2% of Bull's share capital.

The Orange group and the BPI, with respective ownership stakes of 8% and 3.26%, have both expressed their support of the transaction as well and announced their intention to tender all of their shares to the offer, representing a total amount of 35.5% of Bull's share capital to Atos' public offer, comprising the tender agreements.

The offer's success is subject to reaching a 50% + 1 share threshold of Bull's share capital and voting rights. The offer is not subject to the approval of competition authorities.

IT distie Tech Data has announced an expansion of its strategic alliance with Extreme Networks. Under a new deal, it will offer additional customer resources, technical support and more sales training options for its channel.

Tech Data's Advanced Infrastructure Solutions (AIS) division offers access to Extreme's Networks data centre solutions portfolio, and with new educational training and resources for Extreme's resellers, Tech Data will offer webinars, customised support as well as assistance in how to best leverage Extreme Networks' networking and wireless solutions.

In conjunction with Extreme Networks, Tech Data will continue to provide product inventory management, channel recruitment and business development initiatives through its TeleSmart services and TDAgency, Tech Data's in-house channel marketing services agency, it says.

"This announcement is another step in accelerating our long-standing strategic alliance with Extreme Networks," said Chuck Bartlett, senior vice president, AIS at Tech Data.

Companies based outside Europe must meet Europe's data protection rules, EU ministers have agreed, although governments remain divided over how to enforce them on companies operating across the region.

The agreement to force Internet companies such as Google and Facebook to abide by EU rules is a first step in a wider reform package to tighten privacy laws - an issue that gained prominence following revelations of US spying in Europe.

"All companies operating on European soil have to apply the rules," EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding told a meeting in Luxembourg where ministers agreed on a position that has also been backed by the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ).

Germany and the European Commission, have been highly critical of the way the US accesses data since former U.S. National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden last year revealed U.S. surveillance programmes.

Disclosures that the United States carried out large-scale electronic espionage in Germany, including bugging Chancellor Angela Merkel's mobile phone, provoked indignation in Europe.
"Now is the day for European ministers to give a positive answer to Edward Snowden's wake-up call," Reding said.

The reform package, which was approved by the European Parliament in March, has divided EU governments and still needs work to become law despite progress.While ministers also agreed on provisions allowing companies to transfer data to countries outside the European Union, there was no decision on how to help companies avoid having to deal separately with the bloc's 28 different data protection authorities.

Speaking on behalf of DIGITALEUROPE, Rene Summer, Director for Government and Industry Relations at Ericsson said "The improvements to chapter 5 come at zero cost to citizens' privacy. This shows that there doesn't have to be a trade off between improving the legal framework for companies and protecting citizens' data."

Ministers agreed to three important changes to Chapter 5. They acknowledged the concept of 'legitimate interest' as a legal basis for transfers of data and they fine tuned the definition of appropriate safeguards for data.

They also improved the wording of the adequacy regime to make it more outcome oriented. This means that when assessing third countries' data protection rules, the EU will consider how the rules are enforced, not just whether countries have a rule or not.

Agreement has not been reached by Member States on one-stop-shop - one of the core elements of the proposed legislation. DIGITALEUROPE supports the concept of the one-stop-shop, where one data protection authority acts as lead authority for the whole EU.

"It is vital that ministers agree on a workable one-stop-shop approach. It will help ensure a consistent application of data protection law across the EU, giving companies the legal certainty they need to do business," Summer said.

Airtime distributor Daisy Distribution is to run a handset promotion in conjunction with this year's World Cup, starting on 12th June until the final on 13th July.

To take part in the competition, partners must register to be allocated with one of the 32 teams taking part in this year's competition.

If their team should reach the quarter or semi-finals, they will be awarded high value Sony merchandise and World Cup related prizes, with the overall winner receiving a Sony Xperia Z1 Compact and wireless charging mat package.

Throughout the competition top performing partners will be rewarded with World Cup associated gifts such as replica shirts, BBQ sets and Brazilian-themed hampers, based on handset specific promotional days.

Julien Parven, Marketing Director at Daisy Distribution, says: "As we continue to grow our handset distribution side of the business the World Cup offered an ideal opportunity for a bit of fun and to bring some focus to the diversity of handsets we offer.

"As well as rewarding those partners who are achieving great numbers, we will also be presenting prizes to those whose teams are performing well on the pitch. The partner who has the winning team will receive a high value prize from one of the official sponsors of the event."

Virtual1 has made a forward looking multi-million pound investment in its new London Metro Network and core infrastructure. Following 2,000 man hours in the build the expanded network brings an increase of over 200% in its Points of Presence to over 50 PoPs and data centres, 1,200 cabinets on the footprint, 2,000+ Gb ports in London with 15 Tbps of throughput on the Network.

"The dedicated dark fibre network, which is entirely Juniper based, now provides over half a million on-net opportunities and has created a high capacity, low latency network direct to the channel with the most competitive fixed London pricing on 100Mb, 500Mb and 1G services," said Managing Director Tom O'Hagan.

"While 100Mb and 500Mb are currently seeing the most growth we have built our network to provide resilient and diverse options to cater for the anticipated growth over the coming years.

"With future trends predicting that lower bandwidths will decrease in growth and customer aggregation and migration to higher bandwidths being the norm Virtual1 has built the network with future proofing forefront of mind."