Comms Dealer

Timico Technology Group is set to float on the London Stock Exchange's Alternative Investment Market (AIM), with trading planned to start on 30th May 2014. The flotation is expected to value the firm at approximately £55m once listed. Timico will raise around £15m from investors at the flotation, which it will use to strengthen its service offering to customers through the acquisition of smaller ICT service providers within Timico's four core competencies: Cloud and Hosting, Managed Networks, Unified Communications and Mobile Services.

Investment will also be given to the core network to upgrade and expand data centre capacity.
 
Tim Radford, CEO of Timico, said: "Our flotation on AIM will help us double the size of the company within the next few years. We have a successful track record of acquisitions, having made seven to date, all of which have enhanced our service offering and extended Timico's geographical coverage.
 
"Timico is well positioned in a growing market. Its strength in network provisioning and investment into data centre assets puts the company in a strong position to benefit from the rapid growth in cloud services. This in turn means that we will be able to provide the very best services for our customers."
 
Radford founded Timico in 2004 after selling Project Telecom to Vodafone for £162m. He founded Project Telecom in 1987 with £0.4m seed capital, managing the company through its flotation in 2000, before growing its revenues to £330m and securing its sale.
 
Timico specialises in providing a full set of converged communications solutions, including managed data networks, telephony services (including VoIP), mobile services (including 4G) and cloud and data centre services including managed hosting, IaaS and virtualisation.
 
Timico has invested £5m in building its own 144 rack capacity data centre at its headquarters in Newark, while its core 10Gbps resilient IP data network provides uncontested access and superior functionality. Key customers include Travis Perkins, Jimmy Choo, Informa, Stroke Association, Mitsubishi Motors and the BMA.
 
For the year-ending 31st December 2013, revenue at Timico grew 10.4% to £42.5m, with profits rising an impressive 32.4% to £4.9m in the same period. Funds raised at IPO will enable Timico to capitalise on its scalable business model, providing additional opportunities for organic growth and further acquisitions.

The UK's accounting standards body, the Financial Reporting Council (FRC), has launched an investigation under the Accountancy Scheme into the preparation and approval of the financial information of Computer 2000 Distribution relating to the years ended 31 January 2009 to 31 January 2013 inclusive.

This follows the announcement dated 5th February 2014 by C2000's US parent company, Tech Data, of the conclusion of an independent investigation into Tech Data's accounting practices across Europe and the consequent restatement of Tech Data's consolidated financial statement and other financial information relating to those years.

The FRC is responsible for promoting high quality corporate governance and reporting to foster investment.

It sets the UK Corporate Governance and Stewardship Codes as well as UK standards for accounting, auditing and actuarial work.

Members of Virtual1 staff have been volunteering at recent charity events on behalf of the Royal Marsden hospital - the company's nominated charity - including this year's Marsden March and London marathon.

The Marsden March is a 14 mile sponsored walk between The Royal Marsden's hospitals in Chelsea and Sutton. Over the last three years the event has raised £3.25 million to support the hospital's work on cancer diagnosis, treatment, research and care.

Apart from the walk itself, the day included other activities and the Vitual1 volunteers provided a range of support, including helping in the catering tent, face painting, as well as welcoming and directing teams.

James Hickman, Virtual1's Chief Technical Director, headed up the Virtual1 team, which also included Michelle Hitchins, John Walters, Michelle Connors and Chi Hoang.

Hickman's summary of the day was as follows: "Hot! My knees were aching. John was awesome in the catering tent. That man can cook burgers like nobody I've ever seen. I cycled the route then had to double-back twice so I covered around 25 miles on the 14-mile course.

"I'll happily do it again next year! The two 'chelles were models for the face-painting, each had a butterfly wing on their faces, so you had to catch them together to see the whole butterfly. They were also in the welcoming team along with Chi and then in the Directional team, putting medals around necks and steering tired walkers towards the refreshments."

The London marathon is the largest annual fundraising event - runners have raised over £600 million for good causes since the race began in 1981.

The team of volunteers from Virtual1 cheered on the 81 runners raising money for the Royal Marsden. Based at the 19th mile much encouragement was offered by the Virtual1 cheerleaders which was gratefully received by the runners as they hit 'the wall'.

Tom O'Hagan, Managing Director, said: "I'm very proud of our team of volunteers. It's always good to get involved in charitable events and The Marsden holds a special place in many people's hearts. They do fantastic work for cancer sufferers and it's comforting to know that such an amazing hospital is."

The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity, Virtual1's nominated charity, raises money to help the Royal Marsden provide world-class diagnosis, treatment and care for cancer patients, and support the hospitals pioneering work in cancer research.

Zen Internet has unveiled a new commission scheme as part of a series of planned enhancements to its Partner Programme.

This investment is set to transform Zen's Partner Programme and its membership principles. Along with the more competitive commercials launched, longer term it will also include growing the existing training programme, developing a range of new online tools, augmenting the provision of dedicated Technical support and investing in cutting-edge marketing support.

All of these enhancements to the Programme have been shaped in collaboration with Zen's existing partners.

Stephen Warburton, Sales Director, said: "Zen's Partner Programme provides a range of different business models to suit channel partners of all sizes and types. We have completely transformed our commercials and are looking for partners who share our customer-focused, service-led approach."

The commercials make it easier for Partners to calculate their earning potential whether selling Connectivity, Hosting, Voice or full solutions.

It provides progressive rewards including streamlined pricing, higher re-occurring commission and improved discount percentages enabling Partners to achieve their business objectives and enjoy continued growth. On the new scheme a Partner selling Broadband could now earn a maximum recurring commission of 15%.

The commercials underpin the programme but Zen also believes that education and knowledge are key to building Partner relationships.

While Zen regularly runs broadband workshops and training events, this is going to be extended to include the full product portfolio and will include webinars, open courses and, where relevant, bespoke training. Full details will be announced in the summer.

Strategic Imperatives (SI), provider of virtual network solutions, has extended its Elevate Platform to provide an on demand unified provisioning and order management interface to multiple network operators.

The Elevate Platform already underpins SI's WLR3 implementation used by over 500 communications providers (CPs).

Following a major investment programme the platform has been extended to enable provision across multiple networks with the initial roll out supporting broadband via BT Wholesale WBC and IP Stream as well as TalkTalk Business and Vodafone MPF/SMPF products.

Work is underway to consume other B2B interfaces as well as enhancing the SI provisioning portal to provide a single order journey across network providers.

SI has created a single interface (API) that enables CPs to more easily integrate with and consume services from multiple network providers as well as allowing easy migration of services between them. Supporting the CP with full documentation and sandboxed development and testing environment, SI's Elevate Platform reduces the effort required by CPs to integrate with one or more network suppliers, claims the firm.

Head of Business Development Tim Sayer said: "Broadening our platform to include multiple carriers is a significant step towards our vision of creating a truly unified interface for the converged communications community.

"Our aim is to enable rapid and cost effective establishment across multiple suppliers with streamlined automation and a simplified technology stack."

One of the key challenges facing CPs is being able to provide choice of both network and connectivity technologies seamlessly by automating the full order life cycle with multiple network providers.

"Elevate now offers a single, unified interface that provides CPs with the opportunity to easily consume various connectivity technologies from multiple network providers, reducing the CP's development effort and shielding them from downstream changes to the suppliers."

Aspire Technology Solutions has increased turnover by almost 60% in the last 12 months to achieve record results for a seventh consecutive year.

Turnover climbed by 58% in 2013 from £3.8m to over £6m, and the firm is bullishly predicting growth of at least 30% for 2014.

Managing Director Nigel Begg said: "I am delighted that the company is continuing to grow at such a significant rate. Just as importantly, our client retention rate remains at over 98% and we have also attracted many new clients both in the UK and Europe.

"We remain intensely focused on outstanding technical delivery, service and support as well as helping our clients to make significant cost savings.

"In the last year we have helped clients save up to 30% on their IT budgets. Our innovative approach has also resulted in an increased demand for Converged Solutions.

"We have also seen an increased demand for fully managed services and now effectively provide an outsourced IT department for many businesses across the UK, from start-ups up to multi-nationals all applying the same best of breed technology to their businesses.

Aspire, which was only established in 2006, saw employee numbers rise by more than 25% during the period and expects technical and service recruitment to increase by a further 15% in the next 12 months to support continued planned growth.

Sales Director Michael Errington added: "We are a people business and much of our success can be attributed to the talented team at Aspire. In the last 12 months we have continued to attract the most experienced technologists from the region and beyond to work at Aspire. For us, it's not just about the technical products and services we supply, but more about the overall solution we deliver and the way in which we deliver it."

The company whose head office has been located in a landmark listed building on Shields Road since November 2011 also has offices in London.

Pictured: Aspire Technology Solutions Directors outside Heworth Hall head office (L-R Michael Errington, Chris Fraser and Nigel Begg).

The EU's obsession with cutting roaming charges is not going to help Europe's comms industry, says a note from researcher Strand Consult. It thinks the industry has not done enough to promote itself to politicians looking for a popular move to justify themselves.

In the event of a common European charge for mobiles, it says, the revenue loss from the average roaming customer will likely be marginal. "The bigger impact comes from the policy's unintended consequences, that of the creation of a new market for "mobile arbitrage", the sale and speculation of SIM cards and mobile services from low cost EU countries to high ones. It's no secret that the EU is hardly a physical single market, let alone a digital one."

Just looking at price differentials between cars gives an insight to the challenge of creating a single market, it says Car producing countries such as Germany, Sweden, Spain, and France encourage their sale with little tax on cars while Denmark marks up the price by 180%. The EU demanding a single price for cars would be welcomed by consumers but met with outrage by governments. Yet the cost of a car is a larger expense both in upfront and maintenance costs than telecommunications is for consumers.

The current EU proposal will probably not be adopted before EU elections in late May. The new commissioner that replaces Neelie Kroes (above) will likely not support the proposal either, or at least not in the current form. While Europe's operators might not necessarily be impacted if the proposed rules are not enacted, there is no indication that a new governmental regime will create an environment that encourages investment. Europe's operators will hold back on their investments in the uncertain political climate, it warns.

"If EU leaders cared so much about consumers, why don't they address the expenditures that drive the greater part of consumer income, such as housing, fuel, transportation, food, and clothing? Consumers even spend more on discretionary vacations than they do on telecommunications. EU prices, even with roaming fees, fall well below the 5% of gross domestic income per income threshold suggested by the ITU. The only explanation is that the telecom industry has not done a good enough job to explain to politicians and the public they tremendous value of telecommunications," it concludes.

SAP has appointed Rodolpho Cardenuto as the head of a new Global Partner Operations (GPO) who will drive Board-sponsored initiatives through SAP partners.

He will also develop sales through new and existing channels and build new routes to market through partner ecosystem. He will report to Co-CEO Bill McDermott.

Mark Ferrer, current head of SAP Ecosystem and Channels, will continue his role as chief operating officer of Customer Operations reporting to Robert Enslin, president of Global Customer Operations and member of the Executive Board of SAP AG.

Cardenuto's previously held a role of Presiednt of SAP Latin America and Caribbean. He has over 25 years of experience in IT industry and his prior experience includes work at Hewlett-Packard and other roles across the SMEs sector in Latin America.

"The formation of our new Global Partner Operations organisation is key to driving scale and adoption of the SAP Cloud powered by SAP HANA. Rodolpho will engage with a vibrant and open ecosystem of more than 11,500 companies worldwide to unlock the potential of every customer to become a best-run business. Rodolpho's appointment shows that our bedrock commitment to the spirit of partnership with the SAP ecosystem has never been stronger," says Bill McDermott, co-CEO and member of the Executive Board, SAP AG.

With Cardenuto's move to his new role, SAP also announced that Jennifer Morgan has been named president of SAP North America and Diego Dzodan has been named president of SAP Latin America & Caribbean. Both will report to Enslin, it says.

Nimans has strengthened its working relationship with Doro by becoming the official sole distributor of the AUB 200 and 300i business models.

Nimans' Purchasing Director, Andy Winfield, says the business phones are firm industry favourites, renowned for their reliability and robust no nonsense performance.

"This new agreement is another example of how there's plenty of life left in the traditional handset market despite a perception in some quarters that it's dramatically slowing down," he said.

"The new deal represents a significant step forward in a long standing and productive partnership between Nimans and Doro and our continued confidence in this area of the market."

A series of webinars hosted by Exertis Micro-P, Samsung and guest management systems specialist TigerTMS will educate resellers on how Samsung's OfficeServ Hospitality helps the hospitality industry run more efficiently, offering resellers an opportunity to check-in to this lucrative sector.

The initial webinars are scheduled for Friday 16th May and Monday 19th May and will detail how OfficeServ Hospitality can automatically handle end user reservations and telephone call management, providing efficiencies for the front-of-house teams.

There are facilities to allow guests to express check in if required and the application supports single or multiple languages to provide international travellers to use the product simply and efficiently.

In addition, telephone rates and tariffs can be configured easily to meet revenue income requirements and the product suite can encompass Point of Sale (POS) systems, internet metering systems, non-room bookings (e.g. Spa treatments) as well as reporting on guest history, room usage and a whole suite of reports required by the hospitality industry.

John Bird, Head of Systems and Support Services at Exertis Micro-P, said: "Hospitality products are perceived to be a 'black art' and these webinars are designed to update the channel as to the capabilities of the product and allow resellers to quote, with confidence, solutions for the Hospitality vertical market."

To register for a webinar please email comms.samsung@exertismicro-p.co.uk