Comms Dealer

New financial sector regulations that come into force next year have prompted TeleWare and Weston Digital Technologies to link up and co-develop an on-site compliance capture, record and analysis solution.

MiFID II comes into effect in January 2018 when all communications - voice, face-to-face and electronic - relating to financial trades must be recorded and stored for a minimum of five years with a possible extension to seven.

And the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) kicks off in May 2018 requiring marketers and data handlers to clean up customer data in their own environment to ensure the correct permissions are held and compliant.

To meet these requirements TeleWare and Weston have created a solution that captures fixed and mobile voice recordings together with SMS and uses TeleWare's Intelligent Import technology to push the recordings to an on-site recorder.

Paul Millar, Chief Innovation Officer at TeleWare, said: "We are working together to offer Weston customers a recording solution that holds everything in one place on-site."

Weston MD Derek Townsend added: "Our goal is to avoid swivel chair compliance. MiFID II requires financial firms to record all communications in all forms that may be involved or result in a trade.

"Bringing it all together on one platform, a unified solution for compliance, is so much more efficient."

Former KCOM exec Afshin Attari has joined Exponential-e as Director of Public Sector. The posting follows a near-ten year stint at KCOM where he was latterly responsible for developing, implementing and leading the client management strategy across enterprise and public sector markets.

Prior to KCOM he spent five years at O2 working as Head of Business Development and Head of Service and Sales.

Attari said: "There is a huge demand for cloud services within government departments as they look to reduce costs by using application solutions and services, rather than the oversized technology contracts of yesteryear. There is also an expectation that organisations must be able to provide support and hold data within the UK and Exponential-e ticks both these boxes."

Lee Wade, CEO of Exponential-e, added: "Afshin has an impressive track record working for some world-class companies and his skills and experience will prove invaluable to the entire company.

"The UK public sector is filled with opportunity for innovative companies like us, so the next couple of years will be crucial to further advancing our growth in this space. Afshin is the right person to lead this charge."

Hats off to ever-popular Comms Dealer sales exec Sophie Timms who completed last month's London Marathon in 5hr 17mins and smashed her £2,000 fund raising target by £500 (and rising) in aid of kids charity Sparks.

Comms Dealer Sales Director Simon Turton said: "Sophie's commitment to her training regime over the past months and determination to raise as much funds as possible for Sparks is a clear reflection of her dedicated approach to working with our clients."

Sophie added: "The marathon was one of the best, and toughest, things I have ever done. Despite painful legs, knees, shoulders, back and feet, along with the mental pressure of having no option other than to succeed, I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and intend to run again next year with a time of under five hours. A massive thank you to everyone who sponsored me along this journey and donated to Sparks, an incredibly worthwhile cause."

To continue supporting Sophie's charity efforts please visit www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Sophie-Timms1

A Merseyside-based technology company is seeking to build a channel of resellers with clients that regularly travel abroad and want to slash data roaming costs.

YRoam's flagship YR4 product is a device, slightly heavier and thicker than a smartphone, that uses cloud SIM technology to locate local 4G or 3G networks that offer the most affordable rates, giving travellers their own portable Wi-Fi hot-spot.

YRoam claims the device operates in 100 countries worldwide and is not locked down to a specific network so users will only ever pay the flat rate from the data package chosen.

The hardware unit includes 1gb of data and can connect up to five devices simultaneously with a range of up to 50 metres. The YR4 also doubles as a power bank so the user can stay online and connected throughout their trip.
?"In 2017, being connected to the Internet should no longer be an expensive luxury, but an affordable and instant necessity," said YRoam MD Matt Agrimi.

"We are in the process of agreeing exclusive commercial reseller opportunities across Africa, Asia and the US to name but a few, all with groups that have recognised the opportunity that the ever-expanding demand for data roaming creates. 

"We are open to all indirect channel opportunities and markets and can bespoke our commercial offering.

"The data roaming space will continue to grow at pace as will the associated revenues, and therefore the returns for any prospective partner are unrestricted."

Hants-based M12 Solutions is to provide a local loop unbundled Internet service from the Basingstoke and Winchester telephone exchanges and launch a new service brand, Giganet.

MD Andrew Skipsey said: "When we launched our rural Internet brand, Wessex Internet, little did we realise that we would be able to generate such a strong identity, clear culture and values, which have since helped us to distinguish ourselves.

"With Giganet we want to provide the same customer service to new customers who will get our connection via the new Openreach cabinets and fibre last mile service."

Research by 8x8 has brought into sharp focus the yawning gap between properly tooled up call centre agents and their ill-equipped counterparts who work in less structured 'informal' contact centres.

According to a new report from 8x8 'informal' agents outnumber formal contact centre workers in the UK by six times (4.6 million) and 46% of this category say they are unsupported and undertrained despite having equal responsibility for dealing with customer service enquiries across various channels.

Almost as many say that access to customer service technology would help them improve their performance with developments such as AI and chatbots cited as a potential boon to their capabilities.

Despite growth in the use of non-traditional channels, skills in managing social media and email contacts are lacking among a sizeable section of informal agents.

8x8 UK MD Kevin Scott-Cowell said: "When people think of customer service they imagine aircraft hanger sized contact centres full of headset wearing agents. This is a complete misconception.

"Informal contact centre agents are having to communicate professionally with customers across multiple channels, but in most instances they haven't been trained and don't feel confident.

"But with the right technology and training staff can be supported, even small teams.
"The advent of cloud-based contact centre technology means this doesn't have to be a huge investment, but will undoubtedly improve overall customer service."

Next Generation Data (NGD) has become one of the first data centres outside London to go live with the new BT Wholesale Optical and Optical Connect National service which delivers 10Gb, nx10Gb and 100Gb Ethernet symmetric point to point connectivity.
 
This follows a surge in cloud-based services at NGD which in turn is creating growth in network traffic.

With a direct connection to NGD's data centre BT's high performance optical solutions will support demand.
 
Nick Razey, CEO at Next Generation Data, said: "Our data centre is relied on by a rapidly increasing number of enterprise cloud users and service providers which makes the availability of high speed, highly resilient and secure network services a top priority."
 
Three years ago NGD was selected as BT's first data centre PoP as part of its 21CN Next Generation Ethernet Infrastructure.

Bob Sparks, founder of Cardiff-based Ayspark, struck gold as the lucky winner of a genuine gold bar at one of Fidelity Energy's 'Gold Rush Discovery' events staged in London and Manchester.

The event was designed to increase the understanding of the tools available to partners entering the energy supply arena, including marketing and sales support and the company's new portal.

"We have seen a significant uptake in portal usage, a number of new partner contracts have been signed and activity is around 20% up compared to before the event," said Fidelity Energy MD John Haw.

Haw will also be running an educational webinar on the 6th June at 10am.

Knight Corporate Finance has launched a new company to help channel businesses gain Government funding for research and development.

The new enterprise, Knight R&D, is headed up by Australian Rupert Mayo, a former scientist who spent over nine years leading teams in KPMG's R&D tax practice both in his home country and in the UK.

The new business helps ICT companies claim for Government R&D tax credits, an initiative that rewards UK companies for investing in technology development and associated innovation.

Companies that spend money developing new products, processes or services (or enhancing existing ones) are often eligible for a cash payment and/or corporation tax reduction.

The Government sees the initiative as an important contributor to the UK's efforts to keep R&D in the UK, particularly post-Brexit.

Mayo believes that passion and common sense are key to a successful outcome for claims, which can lead to a 33p in the pound payback on qualifying project expenditure.

"All too often I saw the 'Big 4' accounting firms hire people with extensive qualifications but litte enthusiasm," he said.

"With Knight R&D I have been able to build my own team based not just on their competencies but on their passion for technology and desire to help companies get their full entitlements."

Mayo claims his team also has a strong practical understanding of how companies undertake their R&D in the 'real world', outside of university style environments.

"We have good minds capable of rapidly grasping the concepts of our clients and we have software and electrical engineers who lead the technical side of our TMT claims.

"We take almost all the effort out of the company's hands. There may be some grey areas in the qualifying criteria but we help businesses to apply the rules as objectively as possible, ensuring there is always a fair and reasonable case for claiming while leaving the final decision in what to include with the claimant company."

Mayo says Knight R&D will only invoice on agreed success fees once the company receives its benefit.

"If required, we will also respond to any enquires from HMRC within the success fee," he added.

"However, to date this has not been required as our reports have served the purpose of providing HMRC with all the information it needs."

Former Head of BT Local Business and seasoned channel builder Jatinder Sispal (pictured) has joined CityFibre as Head of Carrier and National Providers assigned to drive the formation of new partnerships and deliver growth in pure fibre connectivity across the UK.

Sispal brings 22-plus years carrier industry experience as a senior sales and marketing leader in a career that includes a notable stint at Telstra where he was responsible for building the wholesale division from scratch.

He also led Colt's UK wholesale unit before heading up the firm's northern European indirect sales and marketing divisions. 

Sispal joins CityFibre from BT where he was Head of BT Local Business responsible for the enterprise division serving circa 700,000 customers a year and driving annual revenues of £400m.
 
His new remit is to advance the benefits of CityFibre's independent full-fibre networks to the carrier and national provider sector including content providers and data centre operators.

"CityFibre is driving forward the construction of full-fibre infrastructure across the UK and I wanted to play a key role in this agile and revolutionary organisation," stated Sispal.

"Our focus is to enable customers to innovate knowing they have the support of a true alternative infrastructure partner that's committed to extending its reach and delivering service excellence."

CityFibre's Commercial Director Rob Hamlin commented: "Jatinder brings decades of invaluable experience to his new role and is fully aligned with our vision to transform the UK's digital infrastructure. The team is already benefitting from his insights and energy for the task at hand."

Sispal has started work on building automation into CityFibre's channel operations enabling partners to transact 'smartly' and deliver fibre connectivity through his four key sub-verticals - carriers, data centre operators, SIs and VARs.

"We're already introducing CityFibre to a new prospect base," added Sispal. "We are ambitious, innovative and focused on keeping the proposition strong and simple."

Sispal is a Chemistry graduate from Bangor University and holds an MBA from Cardiff Business School.