Comms Dealer

Former EMEA Service Development Manager for BlackBerry Nick Rumsby has joined Exertis Micro-P's mobile team as Business Manager for Samsung Mobile, reporting directly to Ewan Davies, Head of Mobile Devices at the distributor.

Rumsby's remit is to help drive Samsung sales by more tightly integrating available resources and bringing the Korean vendor's UK potential into sharper focus.

He stated: "Exertis Micro-P is a great fit for my skills and experience, and everyone has been welcoming. I hope to add to the expertise here at Exertis Micro-P and increase sales of Samsung's mobile devices across the channel."

True Telecom has appointed Lee Sutch as Head of Channel Sales. He moves from XLN following a four year stint at the company, bringing his total comms experience to 21 years.

Sutch commented: "We aim to grow True Telecom to become one of the top three providers in the UK, giving our partners a safe, secure home for their customer base.

"In addition, we help businesses looking for an assisted entry into customer ownership within the voice and data marketplace. With our growing client base we are fast achieving this."

True Telecom offers a complete wraparound service for resellers, where clients can utilise its branded billing platform, credit control, experienced UK customer service and debt management teams, freeing resellers to sell and operate more efficiently, according to Sutch.

He added, "True Telecom is going from strength to strength because it's a young, agile company."

TIBCO Software has bought Jaspersoft Corporation, effective immediately.

Jaspersoft is now a product group within TIBCO and the name will continue in this form. TIBCO's Spotfire product line provides visual analytics and data discovery capabilities while Jaspersoft offers embeddable reporting and analytics, being strongest in the mid-market BI (both on-premises and in the cloud).

Tibco expects that our combination of strengths can build a diverse product portfolio in BI, able to support a wide set of analytics use cases. During the next few weeks and months, Jaspersoft will convert some of its systems and processes over to TIBCO.

All subscription software licence and services agreements, customer support, outstanding price quotes and current pricing model are unchanged. Jaspersoft's product team continues to execute on its current product roadmap, working on a new release coming soon.

UK tech sector companies are in a buoyant mood in terms of future job hiring and business activity, with employment trends in the tech sector outstripping those seen across the UK private sector as a whole, according to the latest KPMG/Markit Tech Monitor UK Report.

Almost half of tech companies (49%) expect to employ additional staff over the next 12 months. Meanwhile, the PMI Employment Index shows that current job hiring by UK tech companies is close to its strongest for three years, and faster than the UK private sector average.

Tech sector business activity growth in the first quarter of 2014 was only marginally slower than the ten-year high reached at the end of 2013, supported by steep rises in incoming new work and the lowest rate of cost inflation for over four years.

The headline UK Tech PMI index measuring UK tech sector business activity posted 60.0 in March, well above the crucial 50.0 no-change threshold and close to the ten-year high of 60.9 recorded at the end of 2013, indicating business activity growth in the tech sector outstripped that of the UK economy as a whole (Markit's UK Composite PMI was 58.1 on average in Q1 2014).

Commenting on the latest Tech Monitor UK results, Tudor Aw, Head of Technology at KPMG, said:b"Recent falls in share prices of technology stocks have led some to question the health of the tech sector but all the data in this report point to a UK tech sector that is in rude health, and increasingly optimistic in its outlook on business activity and recruitment plans.

"Our data also shows the positive impact the sector has on the UK's economic performance as a whole and the important role UK tech companies up and down the country play in the burgeoning recovery. It is time the sector received the recognition and support it deserves.

"There are some fantastic advocates in government and business for the UK's buzzing start-up scene but we must not neglect the wider tech sector. We should ensure that the sector as a whole gets the profile and support that it needs such as focused government policies that help develop and encourage education in STEM subjects, and ease access to tech talent on a global basis.

"With the increase in IPO activity, I would like to see the strong performance of UK tech companies translate to a mainstream technology company floating in London to help boost the sector and cement the UK's position on the map of global tech hotspots."

An improved domestic economic outlook, increased investment spending and buoyant client demand were all key factors behind the latest rise in tech sector business activity, according to survey respondents.

Latest survey data show that tech sector firms also benefited from a combination of higher selling prices, weakening cost inflation and rising new business volumes during the first quarter of 2014. The index measuring average input costs faced by tech sector firms posted 53.9 at the end of Q1, down from 56.2 at the end of 2013 and consistent with the slowest rate of input cost inflation since late-2009.

Tim Moore, Senior Economist at Markit, added: "UK tech companies clearly punch above their weight in terms of contribution to UK GDP growth. The latest survey results will be reassuring to policymakers given the importance of the sector to the sustainability of the economic recovery.

"The health of the tech sector and its ability to deliver productivity gains across the wider economy are key factors that will determine how quickly the UK economy can recover without hitting growth constraints.
"Strong figures from the tech sector add to a recent flurry of positive news on the UK economy, which has prompted substantial upward revisions to the 2014 growth outlook from institutions such as the IMF and Office for Budget Responsibility.

"Tech companies stand to benefit from two key domestic economic tailwinds this year, which are rising business investment as confidence in the recovery takes hold and improving household spending power as wages finally start to climb more quickly than consumer prices.
"The latest survey suggests that the tech sector again outperformed the UK economy in terms of job creation, reflecting widespread optimism that workloads will continue to expand over the months ahead.

"Moreover, a buoyant mood among tech companies about future job hiring intentions bodes well for growth in the year ahead and is a further signal that the UK economy is set to continue its upward ascent over the course of 2014."

Riverbed Technology's Q1 showed sales up 8% yr/yr, driven by good channel and European performance.

The network optimisation and app performance company showed total GAAP revenue for Q114 was $265m up 8% compared to the first quarter of 2013, as data centres look for maximum performance.

"Our first quarter results are a strong proof point supporting our strategy to bring value to our customers by optimising the delivery of applications and data on a global scale and to deliver profitable returns to our shareholders," says Jerry M. Kennelly, chairman and CEO.

"Year-over-year revenue growth was led by WAN optimisation and strength in enterprise and international sales. We are also encouraged by our performance management business with increasing revenue from channel partners and significant growth in Europe.

"As customers increasingly adopt the full breadth of our Application Performance Platform, we expect to achieve higher than industry growth across all of our product lines and deliver non-GAAP earnings per share growth that exceeds revenue growth.

"In a world where nearly every business runs on applications, Riverbed improves business performance by improving application performance. We see tremendous opportunity ahead of us."

tIPicall has successfully approved the interoperability of Yealink's SIP-T48GN executive handset for use on its hosted telephony platform, OnePBX.

tIPicall's MD Guy Miller said: "We now have the opportunity to offer tIPicall's customers access to the SIP-T48GN. This is a particularly stylish and feature rich handset offering audio and video experiences, resilience and reliability."

Yealink's Business Development Manager Peter Holland added: "Thorough interoperability testing has confirmed that harnessing tIPicall's OnePBX solution with our flagship handset creates a cutting-edge proposition for end-users."

For 'plug and play' installation Yealink handsets will be supplied to tIPicall pre-programmed so that they will automatically connect to the company's provisioning server.

Timico has become the first mid-market UK Managed Service provider to offer Good Technology's Good Dynamics Secure Mobility Platform.

Thew firm is now offering the Good Collaboration Suite and the Good Dynamics Secure Mobility Platform, building on its heritage in mobile technology which includes experience as an independent service provider for both O2 and Vodafone.

The company's newly-formed mobile services division will lead the charge with Good Technology's solutions, solely focused on servicing the growing demand for the management of smartphones and tablets in the corporate environment.

Along with the increasing availability of 4G, remote working on tablets is now becoming a reality for many businesses, believes the firm.

Gartner says 70% of mobile professionals will conduct their work on personal smart devices by 2018, making reliance on secure mobility platforms an increasingly business critical issue.

Andrew North, Director of Mobile Services at Timico, said: "Businesses have embraced the flexibility of mobile working but IT departments are facing the challenges of delivering seamless, secure collaboration across 'three screens' for employees.

"As geographical coverage of 4G mobile increases we believe adoption of the Good platform will accelerate."

Avaya has added Contact Center Select to its customer experience management solutions for mid-sized businesses, offering multi-channel contact centre capabilities in a 'simple' package, claims the vendor.

Avaya Contact Center Select is the first of a new category of products from Avaya, optimised for the mid-market and working with the Avaya IP Offic Platform. It is expected to be generally available globally in June 2014 through Avaya channel partners.

Avaya Contact Center Select is the second Avaya contact centre solution for IP Office to be announced since the beginning of the year. Avaya IP Office Contact Center offers multi-channel capabilities for 5-100 agents.

"Customers' needs and expectations don't change simply because of the size of a business," said Simon Culmer, Managing Director, Avaya UK.

"Many midsize companies have the same customer experience aspirations as large enterprises, but with limited resources. Avaya Contact Center Select and Avaya IP Office Contact Center provide the multi-channel capabilities, simplicity and affordability they need."

Sennheiser has unwrapped its new range of SP 10 and SP 20 portable speakerphones for business professionals and 'prosumers'.

The Sennheiser Speakerphone Series now enables users to make personal and small group conference calls on PC/softphone in offices and campuses or when travelling, and doubles up as a portable high-fidelity speaker for listening to music on the move, with a dedicated Sennheiser HD optimised sound profile.

Already winner of the 2014 red dot and 2014 iF design awards, the Speakerphone Series enables business professionals to easily make personal or small-group conference calls.

All the models provide users with 'plug in and talk' simplicity, with the SP 10 connecting to PC/softphone and the SP 20 connecting to PC/softphone via USB cable or mobile phone/tablet via 3.5 mm jack plug. Furthermore, the SP 20/20 ML versions allow call participants to be connected via mobile phone and PC.

The Sennheiser Speakerphone can also mix business with pleasure, with a dedicated music setting so users can relax and listen to audio between calls. At the touch of a button the Speakerphone engages a Sennheiser HD optimised sound-enhancement profile, effectively turning the unit into a premium-quality portable speaker to allow consumers to enjoy high fidelity music and video content wherever they are.

Andreas Bach, President at Sennheiser Communications, said: "There is a growing trend towards professionals working more flexibly through group collaborations and small group conferences, when moving around office complexes, holding ad hoc calls throughout their working day and when travelling.

"Through the Speakerphone Series, Sennheiser is adding a new category of portable conferencing solutions to its product portfolio designed to enhance both productivity and performance of office and field workers, through its voice clarity and quality design.

"In combination with our existing portfolio of wired and wireless headsets for the office, Contact Center and Unified Communications, we now provide a toolkit for business professionals - whatever their needs."

Cables and associated items distributor Anixter has reported a slight sales increase to $1.52bn for Q1, it says. Despite the negative weather impact in the months of January and February and excluding the impact of copper pricing and foreign exchange, organic sales increased by 3.8%.

The main networking related business, Enterprise Cabling and Security Solutions (ECS) saw sales of $760.1m compared to $745.1m in the prior year period. The 2.0 percent increase was driven by strong growth in the European and Emerging Markets geographies of 17.3% and 16.3%, respectively, combined with solid improvement in the core US enterprise cabling business. Security sales, which represent approximately 26% of total segment sales, increased slightly in the quarter.