Comms Dealer

New Star Networks (NSN) has attributed its upward trending growth figures to a sharp focus on partner-customer relationships, pushing the firm into a margin positive fourth year of trading and a run rate of around £3.6m per annum and growing.

According to MD Mark Shraga the introduction of its latest market offering, called Cloud Advantage, will quickly build on NSN's growth story.

"We have barely begun to tap into the full potential of our core strengths and the emerging market where everything is becoming cloud-based,' said Shraga.

"Our move into the cloud arena over the last 18 months has reinforced our partner-customer focused business model and produced our latest market offering - the NSN Cloud Advantage."

He said Cloud Advantage brings together two important drivers - partner profitability and the reduction or removal of capital outlay for customers moving to the cloud.

"The IaaS model promises to accelerate our market penetration and bring to fruition many of the promises the cloud has to offer the SME sector," added Shraga.

Timico Technology Group has postponed its admission to AIM blaming adverse market conditions. Trading was planned to start on 30th May 2014 and the flotation was expected to value the firm at approximately £55m once listed. Tim Radford (pictured), CEO of Timico, noted that the initial IPO marketing had been well received with strong institutional support and he hoped that the flotation would help the firm double in size within the next few years.

However, due to some high profile disappointments sentiment towards IPOs has softened, he stated.

"We have a duty to our existing shareholders to ensure that the success of our IPO isn't eroded by recent IPOs performing less well than expected, and hence have made the decision to postpone our process," commented Radford.

"We have been encouraged by the level of interest that we've already received from both institutions and a number of private investors who have been enquiring about our first day of dealings on AIM.

"We hope that the current attitude towards smaller companies looking to raise money and list on AIM is a short-term issue and we look forward to an AIM listing once appetite returns."

Airtime provider Daisy Distribution is set to reward its top handset purchasing partners with a touch of German hospitality in its latest Nokia distribution incentive.

Running from 1st May to 31st July the top eight purchasing partners of Nokia Lumia devices across all variants will be given a place of the Company's trip to London's Oktober Bierfest this autumn.

This latest incentive comes as one of a series of Nokia handset promotions that Daisy Distribution is set to run this year as part of its ambition to increase the Lumia share of its smartphone business.

To qualify, partners need to continue to purchase their Nokia Lumia handsets from Daisy Distribution and be one of the top performers in the outlined period.

Julien Parven, Marketing Director at Daisy Distribution, said: "While the reward for this promotion is very light-hearted, the principle behind it is very much part of our strategic plan to align ourselves with Nokia and to assist and encourage partners in the adoption of the Lumia smartphone range."

Square 1 Products has been appointed as official distributor for digital signage software developer Repeat Software, provider of Repeat Signage, a globally recognised brand with a range of presentation applications that support educational, commercial and corporate environments and niche markets.

The application enables the user freedom to place images, videos, PDF files and even web pages anywhere on screen, pixel by pixel, and within their screen's resolution.

Darren Aspinall, Head of AV Sales for Square 1 Products, said: "Our decision to welcome Repeat Software as a new vendor to our existing AV portfolio was due to the quality of its product and reputation with reseller support.

"Additionally as we're noticing an escalation with enquires for our digital signage solutions, the Repeat Signage Standard Edition and Professional Edition licence agreements enable us to provide our customers hardware and software bundled solutions for either single monitor, dual monitor or video wall use.

"Reseller demand remains high for our range of digital signage products including LFDs, Touchscreens, OPS Modules and Digital Signage Players, but feedback from resellers servicing public and private sector customers are their requirement is for more than just hardware - they seek overall solutions incorporating hardware, software and services such as installation and maintenance SLAs."

Contact: www.square1products.com

Enterprise security vendor Druva is starting distribution with Exclusive in the UK prior to rolling out across Europe.

The firm offers integrated data protection and governance solutions for enterprise endpoints, and its appointment of Exclusive Networks UK aims to build a channel to address the security and compliance risks driven by workforce mobility and the BYOD phenomenon.

"The reseller opportunities around Druva are growing in step with the 200% annual growth rate of at-risk corporate data kept entirely on endpoint devices," said Graham Jones, joint country manager at Exclusive Networks UK.

"With an expanding global presence and its inSync technology ranked number one by Gartner for the last two years in a row, Druva will prove an attractive and logical addition to many reseller/MSP security solution portfolios.

"Targeted partner recruitment is a key feature in our go-to-market strategy with Druva, and once again CARM will be an important education and pre-sales vehicle with inSync slotting seamlessly into this platform."

Distributor Exclusive Networks says strong Q1 growth is down to the growth within regions, general market recovery and strong performance within its vendor portfolio.

A 38% like-for-like growth in revenues to €111m means the business is ahead of target for the period, as it looks to become a €1bn/yr operation.

Exclusive Networks says it has continued to identify and execute acquisition targets in key territories, such as the Middle East and Benelux, and continued to expand market reach.

"We are seeing our acquisitions towards the end of last year performing better than we expected," explains Olivier Breittmayer (pictured), CEO of Exclusive Networks Group.

"The Middle East especially has delivered excellent results, while our consolidation in Benelux and early indicators of market recovery in some southern countries have combined to deliver a record quarter for us.

"In addition, core vendors such as Fortinet and Palo Alto Networks continue to out-perform their sector growth rates, taking market share against more traditional IT security infrastructure vendors, while our early investment into vendors like FireEye and Arbor are now paying substantial dividends."

The MD of an outsourced service for ICT resellers claims to be one of the few remaining companies that can still do the basics and 'mend a phone'.

Bucks-based Channel Solutions Resource (CSR) was established late last year by MD Don Moore as a one-stop-shop offering nationwide and international coverage for bespoke integrated service solutions that also include threatened skills in basic telephony repair, which Moore says are being lost due to the widespread adoption of new technologies such as the cloud.

The channel-only organisation operates to an MOD Quality Assurance System (JSP480) which combined with Moore's 35 years experience in the tele-coms sector adds up to a fully rounded solution, he claims.

"I've worked across most manufacturers' products and seen and worked on the various flavours of PBXs, phones, features and connectivity options," he commented.

"This means we can look after channel partners' voice requirements from basic TDM telephony to IP UC solutions, whether site or cloud-based."

According to Moore his basic 'mend a phone' service is an attractive differentiator that appeals to resellers wanting to offer CSR's broader services portfolio on a white label basis.

As well as an ability to mend phones on the bench the company's skill set also includes voice, mobility, cloud data, video and wireless, along with consultancy and configuration design, installation and commissioning, repair and maintenance.

BT Wholesale's new strategy to drill deeper into end user priorities, roadmaps and challenges is paying early dividends according to Mark Rosson, Director, Indirect Channel.

"This year we're focusing more on pinpointing the requirements of end user businesses so we can build a portfolio and sales approach that better suits the needs of our channel customers and the businesses they serve," commented Rosson.

He says BT Wholesale is evolving its sales approach to align with insights gathered from its research work, noting that themes such as reliability, security and choice continue to dominate the agenda.

"In an increasingly IP and cloud-based world the need for reliable, predictable and secure connectivity to underpin services like hosted communications is never more critical," he added.

"Not just in terms of delivery but also in securing the confidence of companies that could potentially invest in new cloud-based technologies."

BT Wholesale is therefore investing further in its Ethernet services, significantly boosting Ethernet node numbers across the UK by doubling the number of EFM exchanges and upping overall Fibre Ethernet coverage.

"We're also increasing our data centre and telehouse presence to make it easier for customers to establish connections into the 21CN Ethernet network, as well as offering connection price reductions and increasing price certainty through inclusive excess construction costs," stated Rosson.

The feedback gathered by BT Wholesale also revealed that end users attach most value to suppliers that focus as much on business issues as technology.

"We're deepening our understanding of such issues this year, from an enterprise and channel perspective, to make sure we're responding in a way that is more relevant and meaningful," added Rosson.

Azzurri has announced the appointment of Chris Jagusz as its new Chief Executive Officer. He joins Azzurri from SSE Telecoms where he was Managing Director. Prior to SSE Telecoms, Jagusz' earlier career included telecommunications sales into the banking sector, spells in Germany and Switzerland, along with senior roles in BT Wholesale and Openreach, and the role of chief executive of private equity backed mid-market provider Eurotel.

More recently, he has held roles with Daisy Group and Six Degrees, and worked with a number of organisations as an advisor on strategy.

Steve Andrews, Azzurri's Chairman, said: "We are thrilled that Chris is joining us to lead the next phase of our growth and development. He brings with him a wealth of experience in our sector through his time with BT, Eurotel and Daisy.

"He has a track record of delivering growth and commands enormous respect within the industry. We look forward to working together to bring more success to Azzurri Communications."

Jagusz added: "In my current role I work with Azzurri as both a supplier and a customer, and I know the business is very well positioned to compete in the changing communications marketplace."

Jagusz will join Azzurri after the summer break and in the intervening time, Chairman Steve Andrews will continue to act as Interim Chief Executive.

Networking and AV distribution company Square 1 Products is again supporting national charity Cash for Kids through its summer of football initiative.

Cash for Kids supports children and young people who are suffering from abuse or neglect, who are disabled and have special needs or who simply need extra care and guidance.

Last year the charity raised more than £13 million supporting children from across the UK, a total we're helping them to exceed during 2014.

Square 1 Products Sales Director Gary Conner said: "We're proud to be associated with the charity and show our support. At Christmas time the company was involved with raising a staggering £800,000 for the charity ensuring that 150,000 children had a gift to open on Christmas morning.

"Six months on and we're continuing our support with raising money for children in poverty through a series of company wide World Cup and summer promotions."