Comms Dealer

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."

Nimans is marking the third anniversary of its wholesale mobile partnership with O2 by urging resellers to take a 'leap of faith' and embrace the latest technology trends.

The Internet of Things and Machine to Machine (M2M) innovations are set to 'explode' according to Head of Network Services, Mark Curtis-Wood, as he looked back on the company's successful trading period as an official O2 Joined Up Communications Wholesale Partner.

"There are a number of key trends resellers should be tracking this year - the rise of M2M, Mobile Device Management (MDM) and a general shift towards more mobility," he said.

"There's been a lot of talk about how the world is going to be connected and how the Internet of Things is going to explode. Away from the futuristic hype there is some real business substance behind some of these concepts and already in the UK a number of councils are looking at ways to connect up cities and enable better access to 'big data'.

"By 2020 there's estimated to be 50 billion connected devices globally - smart cities, homes, cars and lives. M2M is at the heart of this revolution. Solutions can be sold through many vertical markets and opportunities exist within pretty much all industries."

Security, engineering, utilities and energy, vehicle fleets, vending machines, medicine and also wildlife science are some of the many relevant sectors, according to Curtis-Wood.

JMC IT is one of a select few to be shortlisted for the inaugural Skills for Business Awards 2014 in Greater Manchester.

Announced as a finalist in the Medium Business of the Year category, the Salford-based IT support and technology partner - a national and regional award-winner as a leading employer - has been recognised for its contribution to skills and learning in the region.

Managing Director Andrew Burgess commented: "JMC's success is founded on its people. This is why we value this recognition, as it validates our strategy of investing in attracting and training the best IT talent in the region. Our staff remain with JMC for an average of 11 years, which is far longer than the industry norm and shows our extraordinary commitment to the development and wellbeing of our staff."

This success follows a host of previous awards won by JMC for its lauded approach to recruitment, training and employee engagement. It recently won the highest possible three-star status from Best Companies for the fourth consecutive year and was honoured as one of The Sunday Times 100 Best Small Companies to Work For in 2014 for the 10th year.

The awards event will be hosted on Thursday 3rd July by TV presenter and comedian Dara O' Briain at the iconic Hilton Manchester Deansgate Hotel.

North west telecoms firm Concert are marking a milestone anniversary by pledging to raise £10,000 for a world-renowned cancer hospital.

The Knutsford-based firm is turning 10 in 2014 and to celebrate the team have embarked on a series of fundraising events to raise money for The Christie.

From undertaking the Great Manchester Swim to conquering the heights of Snowdon, the Concert team will be going all out to raise the significant sum, which will help fund a play specialist for young cancer patients.

Neil Hollands, MD of Concert, said: "The Christie is a world leader in cancer care and research and we are delighted to support them in our 10th anniversary year.

"The work they do is absolutely incredible and touches so many lives. We are incredibly proud to support them in their fundraising goals."

Fundraising efforts have already got underway with First Line Support Engineer Manuel Dal Zotto, New Business Specialist Ross Brown and Billing and Sales Analyst Zander Fyfe kick-starting the campaign.

Ross and Manuel took a leap of faith with a 140ft free fall abseil into Manchester United's Old Trafford stadium, while Zander battled mud, ice and 12-miles of gruelling obstacles as he completed the exhausting Tough Mudder.

To reach their fundraising goal, the Concert team will be digging out their cricket whites as they take on the Toft Taverners at the historic Toft Cricket Club, dusting off their irons for the annual Concert Golf Extravaganza and taking on the best the Cheshire business community has to offer at Softball.

Analysys Mason predicts that there will be 3.9 billion smartphone connections worldwide in 2018, a growth of 136% over the next five years.

However, non-smartphones will still account for the majority of handset connections worldwide for the next four years and smartphones' share of connections will reach only 52% in 2018.

The gap between mature and developing markets will widen, as some countries approach saturation, while in others the smartphone market is only nascent.

Ronan de Renesse, Principal Analyst, said: "2014 will be a pivotal year for vendors as the high-end smartphone market reaches saturation in developed countries. 76%, 82% and 88% of handset connections will be smartphones in Western Europe, North America and Developed Asia-Pacific in 2018.

"Smartphone unit sales will decline as early 2015 in some countries, such as the Nordics in Europe and the USA, as smartphone replacements fail to compensate for the lack of non-smartphone-to-smartphone conversions. It will therefore be critical for smartphone vendors and operators to shorten replacement cycles further and retain existing customers. Stakeholders will also need to look at new areas of growth such as low-end smartphone segments and wearables."

Ronan de Renesse noted that launch of Apple's iPhone 6 will not stop iOS from losing market share. iOS will correspond to 13% of smartphone unit sales in 2018, down from 16% in 2013. Android will maintain its comfortable lead with a 72% share of unit sales in 2018. The level of native software customisation and the size of the ecosystem are significant drivers for Android's adoption compared with competing operating systems. Windows Phone will continue to grow its market share, particularly in the high-end segment, but will remain below the 10% mark. Other OSes such as Firefox OS, Tizen and Ubuntu have yet to prove their ability to disrupt the market and will take a long time gain market share; they will only correspond to 5% of smartphone unit sales in 2018.

Ronan de Renesse added: "Chinese smartphone manufacturers are well positioned to dominate the worldwide market. 1.3 billion smartphones will be sold in China in the next 5 years. Assuming an average selling price of USD50-100, the Chinese smartphone market will generate between USD65 billion and USD130 billion in that period. China's smartphone vendors like Coolpad, Meizu, Oppo and Xiaomi will use this revenue to drive international expansion.

"The pole position for the smartphone market in terms of operating systems and device manufacturers will not change much in the next five years. However, like a tugging war, much strength will be required from the major stakeholders to maintain their position and capture whatever little market share they can. The low-end smartphone segment will be paramount in maximising smartphone adoption across the world. The user experience on low-end smartphones is as important if not more than on the latest iPhone or Samsung Galaxy S."

Smart city projects launched across the globe are driving the creation of new sources and types of data as well as enabling technologies and ways of consuming data.

These factors are boosting the prospects of ICT providers that offer big data analytics software, open data platforms, cloud computing, and broadband connectivity services.

Recent analysis from Frost & Sullivan, The Role of ICT in Building Smart Cities - Infrastructure, focuses on the ICT investment outlook in the smart energy, transportation, and water segments. Smart energy and transportation are currently top research priorities, and thus will prove to be the main growth areas for ICT providers.

"Smart transportation is receiving the most attention in cities across the globe and hence opening up the maximum opportunities for ICT providers," noted Frost & Sullivan Information & Communication Technologies Research Analyst Ewa Tajer.

"ICT providers should particularly tap the large European cities, where numerous tenders for intelligent transportation systems (ITS) are being issued and novel functionalities are expected to be introduced to reduce traffic congestion, noise and pollution."

The smart energy segment - presently in an early development stage as energy companies look to build a business case for smart grids - is also heightening the demand for ICT. In fact, the smart energy market value is likely to exceed the smart transportation market value by 15 to 20 percent in 2020.

Unlike the smart transportation and energy segments, there are limited opportunities for ICT providers in the smart water segment due to a lack of proper standards, poor regulatory support, and inadequate project financing extended by authorities in most countries. Hopefully, this will change over time as new funding schemes prompt water companies to invest in smart water technologies that significantly will reduce operational costs.

Another set-back for ICT providers is the fragmented implementation of smart city projects as a result of poor cross-sector coordination and cooperation between different stakeholders. Other restraints are unwillingness of some stakeholders to test new technologies, the limited involvement of local authorities and the lack of a holistic vision when deploying smart technologies.

"ICT providers, acting as trusted advisors, should work with city stakeholders to help create a robust smart city vision and implementation plan that will ensure a key role for them in regions looking to build a more sustainable future," concluded Tajer.