Comms Dealer

Network Operator Venus Business Communications is launching a new fixed price scheme for Ethernet leased lines meaning that its resellers can base their prices on the quote Venus has given without having to worry about Excess Construction Costs (ECCs), claims the firm.

he scheme is in response to the variability in costs from many network operators who provide leased line pricing that is 'subject to survey'. This often results in ECCs being applied after the initial quote has been given to the reseller.

"Any professional network operator can make an assessment of the work required to connect a client to the backbone of their network," said Brian Iddon, Venus Business Communications Director.

"Often, it requires a detailed look at how to reach an appropriate point of presence and the costs involved in both materials and expertise. The industry practice of presenting ECCs after the initial quote makes it difficult for resellers to offer a firm price to their client. The new Venus scheme abolishes ECC's and means resellers can present their clients with a firm price and gain an associated competitive advantage."

The Network Union has quickly made its mark as a BT Business Partner Sales prime mover having bagged two of the telco's top awards during its 14/15 Kick off event staged in London.

The Network Union operates as a niche connectivity consultancy aligned with BT Business Partner Sales and scooped the New Partner of the Year accolade as well The Network Union Innovation Award.

Robert Sturt, a Mindmap creator and BT IP Clear and BT IP Connect expert at The Network Union, enthused: "Winning one award is recognition enough but to be recognised twice is a fantastic accolade! One of our core abilities is sales process which combined with BT's Global capability is a compelling value proposition. The innovation award recognises our approach and provides credibility and confidence to our prospects and clients."

The event also saw BT Business Partner Sales General Manager Martin Clarke outline the channel strategy as well as improvements to the proposition including commissions and service enhancements. BT product managers discussed the product launches which are due later in the year.

Simon Rowen, Recruitment Director for the Partner Channel, said: "Our Kick-off event incorporates our UK Partner Awards. There is no better time to recognise the success of our partners over the past year, as well as outlining our shared vision for 2014.

"Without our important network of partners we would not be the organisation we are today. This year, there will be even more opportunities than ever for our partners to succeed with BT Business.

"We are expanding as a channel and looking for other companies to join our partner network."

BT Business Partner Sales Awards hall of fame

ICT Partner of the Year - Phoenix IT Services

Volume Partner of the Year - DMSL UK

Growth Partner of the Year - Koris

New Partner of the Year - The Network Union

Solution Partner of the Year - BSAS Telecoms

Innovation Award - The Network Union

Distribution Partner of the Year - Getech

Partner of the Year - SAS Group

BT Ireland's Partner of the year - Nitec Solutions

ShoreTel has appointed Georges Millet as its new European sales director with a remit to drive European revenue growth and partner acquisition across ShoreTel's investment regions, including the UK, France, Germany, and Spain.

"Georges offers a track record of success in the region and boasts great leadership and experience in the communications space," said Adrian Hipkiss, vice president and managing director of EMEA at ShoreTel.

"Georges' experience and past achievements make him uniquely qualified to help strengthen ShoreTel's presence in EMEA and drive brand awareness in the region. The appointment of Georges also further highlights the emphasis ShoreTel is placing on businesses in EMEA, and the company's desire to further expand and deliver growth throughout Europe."

Based in Munich, Georges joined ShoreTel from LifeSize-Logitech where he held several positions including EMEA channel and alliances director and regional sales director for mature European markets.

Georges is a sales and channel leader with more than 20 years' experience in the information technology industry and has previously worked for Autodesk and McAfee, where he was vice president of EMEA channels.

Channel Telecom notched up a record trading month in April securing contracts and new business orders worth £1.7 million for the first time.

The record trading month was driven in part by Ethernet sales which have shot up following the success of Channel Telecom's scheme that offers up to £3,000 towards customer Ethernet installation costs.

Channel Telecom provides partners with a portfolio of Ethernet solutions including the latest developments such as GEA (Generic Ethernet Access) service which delivers uncontended VPN access over FTTC technology at a lower cost than even EFM but with similar SLAs.

Clifford Norton, Managing Director, stated: "The record orders and contracts signed in April are a terrific achievement for our team and for our partners.

"Ethernet sales not only generate a valuable revenue stream for our partners but also open the way to upselling customers to cloud based services because of the robust reliability of Ethernet connectivity.

"We anticipate further record trading months ahead as our highly successful Ethernet installation promotion runs until March next year."

Organisations based in the Midlands are more likely to enable their employees to work from home than the rest of the UK, according to recent research by Data Centre and communications specialist, Node4. 

The UK-wide survey of 250 IT strategy business decision makers in organisations of between 50-500 employees, found that 64% of Midlands-based companies give their employees the ability to work from home.

The independent research also found that 55% of businesses around the UK currently enable staff to access the corporate IT system, check email and download documents while at home. 

But Midlands-based organisations are more likely to offer these capabilities, exceeding the number of companies in London, the North and Scotland that currently enable their employees to work from home.

Ian, Millward, Head of Channel Sales. Node4, commented: "It is very pleasing to see that the Midlands is leading the way in providing employees with the ability to work from home. 

"Our headquarters are in Derby and as an organisation we are committed to enabling our staff to work from wherever they like. 

"Not only does this policy enable us to hire the best talent, regardless of their location, but it also ensures that we have happier staff who benefit from a flexible working environment where their work is what they do, rather than a location.

"Empowering staff to work from home has a positive impact on both the organisation and the employee.  From a business perspective, the company benefits from greater employee productivity and increased loyalty, and staff have an improved work/life balance and spend less time commuting.

"Providing the technology to enable staff to send and receive email, get on the corporate network and essentially work as they do in the office is no longer only available to large organisations. 

"Companies of all sizes can now easily provide their employees with these capabilities on an op-ex based payment model, giving them access to best of breed technology at minimal cost to the business."

Nimans is trumpeting the benefits of a conferencing product from Sennheiser which it dubs as a ‘conference call in your briefcase'.

The SP Speakerphone series can turn any room into an office, based on plug and play technology for PC, mobile phone and tablet or PC/softphone.

Ian Brindle, Head of Conferencing Sales at Nimans, says the device is available in four versions and ‘looks as good as it sounds' thanks to streamlined styling, a high end finish and clever cable management system.

He said: "Sennheiser voice clarity, echo cancellation and dual talk functionality ensure a clean sound and natural speech and listening experience for professionals on the go.

"The portable conferencing market continues to accelerate and is one of the biggest growth areas in the industry - offering resellers many new ways to boost revenue opportunities."

Mitel has the put flesh on the bones of a product integration strategy following its acquisition of Aastra.

In an update the vendor stated that it will focus on a global portfolio designed to address the requirements of regional markets, protecting the investment of existing customers and delivering a migration path to cloud communications.

Investment in the development of a common desktop (targeted for mid-2015) and applications portfolio (first feature integration expected end of 2014) is also a key focus, enabling communication and collaboration from anywhere by supporting open standards and major industry frameworks such as Google and Microsoft.

Mitel will also aim to expand its contact centre capabilities, building on its solutions that combine business communications with applications delivering integration with and adding value to Microsoft Lync-based solutions.

Rich McBee, CEO, Mitel said: "Our product integration strategy reflects our commitment to customers and channel partners, designed to ensure we can continue to support their businesses and protect their investment in us.

"The combined Mitel and Aastra portfolio is used by over 60 million people worldwide, so we have to ensure that while our integration strategy has a common goal, it still delivers against specific regional requirements and market dynamics."

London has become the first region in the UK to connect all its local authorities and services to the Public Services Network (PSN), as part of the Government's 2012 shared services agenda.

All 33 boroughs across the capital are now fully transitioned and migrated to the PSN, through London Public Services Network (LondonPSN) an initiative coordinated for the authorities by London Grid and powered by Virgin Media Business.

The telecoms company is a key partner of the Public Services Network, contributing to a saving of up to £500m[1] of taxpayers' money through the digitalisation of public services.

Virgin Media Business now provides communication procurement for all London public bodies in partnership with LondonPSN, following the transition which has been completed in less than a year.

The shared network, as well as supporting schools and other Public Sector bodies, provides Local Authorities across the capital with essential local access to facilities such as Department of Work and Pensions, the Government Secure Intranet service and the Department of Health N3 service.

It also encourages data and service sharing across all borough councils, improving efficiency and allowing staff to work more flexibly. This will also help provide a more streamlined and cost-effective service for local residents and businesses.

Mario Di Mascio, Executive Sales Director at Virgin Media Business, said: "Creating one single network for London councils is a huge step in the right direction towards a truly connected capital. Bringing these boroughs together is not only bringing huge cost savings, but is ensuring that for the first time Londoners can benefit from a completely connected city and its streamlined services."

John Jackson, chief information officer for Camden Council, said: "It's been fantastic to see the momentum this project has gained since we kicked off last year. I am particularly excited by the potential for savings which a shared service of this magnitude could bring.

"Experience to date indicates a cost reduction of between 25 and 75 % is deliverable for products and services delivered in this way which, depending on how we develop London PSN as a shared service, could top a billion pounds over the next decade."

Unify showcased a number of stand-out partner deal wins at its International Partner Conference held in Dubai, including Féju (Netherlands) and Gastel Communication (France).
 
"We see increasing demand for dynamic and collaborative unified communication solutions as organisations of all sizes seek to find new ways to work and explore the growth opportunities that communications software provides," comments Jon Pritchard, Executive VP, Worldwide Channels at Unify.

"Our partner community plays a critical role in the go-to-market and growth strategy for the company and we will continue to develop our Go Forward partner program and our portfolio to enable them to be even more successful."   
 
Unify, which has over 3,500 partners in its Go Forward partner ecosystem, also announced a new global partner recruitment drive.

This recruitment drive will focus on engaging Unify with SaaS focused resellers as the company readies itself for the launch of Project Ansible later this year.

Essex County Council (ECC) has appointed software and IT services supplier, Advanced Computer Software Group to host its financial management system, e5.

Advanced has signed a two year contract to host the Council's financial data - which currently runs in e5 - in the cloud. This will enable information to be securely accessed from any connected computers at the same time.

The contract extends across the council and partner organisations, including Essex Cares and the Essex Pension Fund.

Under the contract, Advanced will provide BACS processing and manage more than 1000 payment and collection files each year on behalf of the Council.

It will also provide other managed services including printing and mailing more than 340,000 documents per year including invoices, credit notes, dunning letters, cheque and BACS remittance documents.

As well as receiving a secure service, the Council will also benefit from the preferential postal rates Advanced has agreed with third party postal carriers which will help the Council to save money.

David Wilde, Director for Information Services, Essex County Council, commented: "Having all these services provided by one company makes perfect sense. As well as ensuring we can securely access our financial data across our networks, this contract will help us save money that we can invest in other services.

"We are anticipating significant savings as a result of choosing to work with a single supplier. As a public sector organisation it is essential to contain cost in order to provide local residents and businesses with the best possible value for money."