Comms Dealer

Nuvias has embarked on the next phase of its growth strategy with the EMEA launch of a UC practice following the acquisition of Siphon Networks in October 2016.

The practice builds on Siphon's existing strongholds in the UK and Benelux and will be rolled out over the coming months through Nuvias regional branches kicking off with Germany.

As part of the move Nuvias will add more staff across the region to support vendor and reseller partners.
 
Existing UC vendors and new vendors are expected to take advantage of Nuvias' growing UC capability across EMEA to increase sales in the region. Likewise, it is anticipated that both existing and new Nuvias reseller/integrator channel partners across EMEA will take up the opportunity to enter this thriving market or expand their UC business.
 
Paul Eccleston, CEO of Nuvias, said: "Siphon's technical and solution engineering expertise has enabled it to work closely with vendors and resellers on the development of UC solutions.

"This factor, together with the provision of service and solutions capabilities from Siphon has been instrumental in its success." 
 
Steve Harris, EVP Unified Communications, Nuvias (and MD of Siphon), commented: "A major reason for joining Nuvias was the chance it gave us to grow and expand both in the UK and internationally. The UC EMEA launch of Nuvias lays the foundations for achieving that ambition.
 
"This is an exciting time in UC across EMEA with opportunities for the IT channel to move into the UC market and conquer the legacy competition. As part of Nuvias, and as a solutions and technology enabler, we can provide the service, support and technical know-how our channel partners need to help them make the most of this market opportunity."
 
Siphon was ranked 24th in Deloitte's UK Technology Fast 50 rankings last year, notching up 723% growth in the four years leading up to the award.

Luminet channel partner G3 Comms has doubled connectivity orders since reselling the MSP's wireless 1gb Fibre-Air clear channel business Internet service which can be up and running in 10 working days.

G3 Comms is also the first partner to use Luminet's new online portal which automates all sales processes.

James Jeffs, Director at G3 Comms, said: "There are always a lot of ifs, buts and maybes around ordering fibre leased lines which makes it hard to manage customer expectations.

"Customers have their own timescales for moving and provisioning delays make hitting them a nightmare. Luminet's Fibre-Air has short lead times and offers resilience."

Luminet CEO Sasha Williamson added: "Our Fibre-Air proposition has gone down a storm in the channel market. It is solving a real issue that is a regular frustration for business leaders who have been previously hampered with office moves because of the times it takes arranging the connectivity..

"However, Fibre-Air is not just a temporary fix but as an essential primary or backup connection."

ShoreTel has recruited 21 UK reseller partners to sell its new Connect Cloud and Connect Contact Centre platforms within eight weeks of launch.

Speaking at the company's partner forum held at the Shard in London, UK Regional Vice President Adrian Hipkiss told delegates that resellers have already sold Connect solutions from three users up to 500 and underlined the power of the video capabilities they bring.

"After just eight weeks we know customers like it and will make fast decisions," he said. "And we have learnt that video calling is a game changer. Reducing travel is powerful."

Within the Connect Cloud environment users will now be able to collaborate on desktop and a range of mobile platforms via HD multi-party video initiated in a web browser using WebRTC.

"This is all integrated and included for free, which is disruptive when people are paying for services like Go to Meeting," added Hipkiss.

Hipkiss also stressed the growing value to the channel of open APIs available on ShoreTel's new Mobility Client which will enable resellers to offer applications such as translation services for larger clients.

"Creating propriety applications will keep customers sticky, but they want open applications," he said. "We are delivering to the workplace the expectations users get from the application players like Amazon are providing at home."

As an example, he said, the ShoreTel Teamwork app will enable people to work collaboratively on projects tightly integrated with other ShoreTel applications.

"The ability to share files is built into the application," explained Hipkiss. "People can see who has the ball, they can allocate tasks, manage personal tasks and share dashboards."

Alongside this, ShoreTel has introduced a new Digital Assistant which combines Connect Cloud with the Summit Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS), VoiceBase and Teamwork apps.

"This will, for instance, enable users to record a conference call, translate the speech to text and deliver the transcript to everyone in a group," added Hipkiss.

Glasgow-based Exchange Communication has won further work in Europe from global toy giant Hasbro after the successful completion of an earlier contract.

Hasbro, the third largest toy manufacturer in the world, previously engaged Exchange to upgrade the communications systems at sites in Germany, Spain and France.

Exchange Communications connected 700 users at these sites by extending Hasbro's existing Avaya Aura Communication Manager Solution, and having this fully operational by December last year. It has also carried out similar work for Hasbro in Moscow.

Now the company has been rewarded with the job of extending the network into further Hasbro sites in Italy (Milan), Greece (Athens) and Turkey (Istanbul).

Exchange Communications MD Tom Sime said: "There was a challenging deadline of connecting the German, Italian and French sites by the end of last year without disrupting the day-to-day operation of a busy global company, but we knew we could deliver on time."

UKCloud has launched Disaster Recovery to the Cloud, a self-service replication and recovery solution underpinned by software provider Zerto.

The service mitigates a range of failure scenarios that can affect a local data centre - including power cuts and natural disasters - as well as providing protection against application failures, including unsuccessful software updates, and malicious cyber attacks.

"It is crucial for our public sector customers to ensure that in the event of a disaster their essential public services would face little or no disruption," said Simon Hansford, CEO of UKCloud.

"Having a disaster recovery plan in place is mandated by the Civil Contingencies Act, but traditional disaster recovery solutions are expensive and inefficient.

"Disaster Recovery to the Cloud has been specifically designed with our public sector customers in mind to protect sensitive data and services that are depended on by UK citizens, patients and public sector workers."

Distributor Exertis has sealed a distribution agreement with CipherCloud, a specialist in cloud security and visibility.

Its security platform integrates with awide range of business cloud applications to scan content, monitor user behaviour, analyse risk, and protect sensitive data, delivering a solution to combat data loss and compliance violations through the cloud and mobile devices.

Jason Hill, Exertis, Sales Director for Security, said: "Organisations increasingly want a hybrid deployment of cloud-based and on-premises security from a unified platform that provides activity monitoring, automated anomaly detection, and data loss protection through strong encryption or tokenisation.

"CipherCloud solutions enable customers to adopt the cloud and provide protection from data loss on mobile devices. As more cloud adoption occurs through implementation of SaaS and mobiles proliferate the workplace, more opportunities open up for resellers to help companies maintain compliance and secure data for their customers, even more pertinent with GDPR looming."

Telecoms financing company Lease Telecom has launched a mobile application to over 300 partners, enabling resellers of mobile, fixed and IT equipment to quickly generate quotes and submit credit applications from the tap of a smartphone or tablet.

Simon Fabb, co-Founder of Lease Telecom, said: "Now there's nothing to stop Lease Telecom Partners from capitalising on opportunities when out in the field.

"The app complements our desktop offering and gives instant access to multi-term leasing rates and allows the user to submit deals for formal approval.

"From the point of submitting the application, the deal is treated under our usual SLAs."

The app will also be available to distributor sales teams with branding options available later in the year.

Zen Internet has again been awarded Which? Recommended Provider status for Broadband, with the consumer organisation praising the company's commitment to customer service and technical support.

Zen again achieved top marks in the survey of 3,100 broadband customers. The company's customer satisfaction score of 86% - an increase from the previous year - was five points ahead of its nearest rival and well ahead of the so-called 'big four' - BT, Virgin Media, Sky and TalkTalk.

Andrew Fryatt, Zen's MD for residential and small business, said: "Awards like this are not something we take for granted. Our aim is to be different to other providers by continuing to keep our customers at the heart of everything we do."

Distributor ProVu Communications has doubled its warehouse capacity following works to better use the available space at its Huddersfield-based offices, making the most of unused cellar space.

The development also included the installation of a lift and a new stairwell.

Sales Director Ian Godfrey said: "The expansion of the warehouse opens up more potential for ProVu. Our sales are increasing year-on-year, and with a greater capacity to hold stock we can continue to meet the growing demands of our customers.

"Not only is stock more accessible for our warehouse staff, we can also hold a greater amount of products ready for next day delivery."

ProVu offers over 900 items available to order and supplied hardware to almost 1,000 companies last year.

In response to growing demand for product bundles Voiceflex has conducted feasibility tests on its own channel offering and launched bundled SIP trunks (SIPTB) and standard SIP Trunks (SSIPT) which don't have a call bundle package.    

"Where some carriers have opted for a bundle-only option, we decided this was too restrictive," stated Sales & Marketing Paul Director Taylor.

"From the due diligence undertaken, offering only a bundled SIP trunks package meant customers were forced to seek alternative providers if the call spend was too low or too high.

"Having both options is proving to be the right decision with our channel partners as we have seen increased sales since our soft launch on 1st February this year."