Comms Dealer

AIM listed Adept Telecom CEO Ian Fishwick is at the vanguard of the SME revolution in winning public sector contracts. Here, we reveal the life experiences and character forming lessons that helped make the man.

Fishwick set up Adept Telecom in 2003 and the company now serves 20,000-plus customers across the UK, Here, he reveals some of the determining factors that have influenced his career and outlook on doing business in the comms industry.

Education
Qualifications don't guarantee success. It's more about hard work than exams. However, exams often teach you that hard work is required. Anyone who is good at maths has a huge head start as a business person. If you don't understand profitability then the chances of success are small. That's why I opted to become an accountant, although I wanted to branch out from that role and run a business as soon as possible.

Personal relationships
There is a huge difference between business acquaintances and true friends. When you change roles, or lose your job, not many stay with you. That isn't cynicism, it is simply a recognition that business is business.

Business relationships
I've learnt that for anyone setting up a business it is important to get someone to play the role of chairman, even if it is an unpaid advisor or friend. You need someone who listens to ideas and tells you when you are veering away from the course or taking too big a risk. Experience has taught me that the one thing I want above all from a chairman is someone who'll tell me the truth rather than what I want to hear. That doesn't mean we always agree, but it does force me to think through my arguments in favour of the path I have chosen.

Pets
I get many of my best ideas when walking my dog. I've taught myself that if you can restrict yourself to only thinking about one subject then in an hour you can often make huge headway.

Failure and success
You learn most from your failures. Failure to recognise failures means you'll just do it again. Success comes from planning forward not solving today's crisis.

Biggest lesson learnt
Cash is king. I have done due diligence on over 100 telecoms companies in the last 10 years. Many people get lost in the technology and forget how to make money. There is also no point making, say, £1 million profit per year if every year you have to spend £1 million on capital expenditure. We should never forget Lord Weinstock's great budget question - did your bank balance go up or down last year, and if it went down, where did the money go?

My industry bugbears
Firstly, company valuations: Whenever City people get involved in our sector they often value prospects higher than actual results. Most of us can think of companies that spent years generating little revenue and minimal (if any) profit yet suddenly become fashionable and highly valued. I'm not sure it will ever change because people always get over excited about the 'next big thing'.

Secondly, public sector contacts for SMEs: I've been elected as SME Director for PSNGB. I'm particularly proud that I was voted in by the telecom companies that are members of PSNGB, the industry association for Public Service Network (PSN) suppliers. I'm at the age where I want to help my own company and at the same time give something back to the industry that has been so good to me. I'm committed to making it easier for SMEs to deal with the public sector, both as companies that win contracts directly and also companies that want to sub-contract to larger organisations that deal with the public sector. There is a growing recognition within Government that SMEs are not just cheaper, but also more innovative and fleet of foot.

What drives me
I love what I do. If my alarm goes off and I don't want to get out of bed for three days in a row then I will go and do something else. The fact that technology changes constantly keeps me young at heart.

Have you always had an entrepreneurial streak?
I have been a managing director or CEO for 23 years in large companies. I also set up a company from scratch and floated it on the Stock Exchange. I always wanted to run a business although I was 42 before I set one up. It's hard to take financial risks when you have kids and a mortgage. In some respects the sooner you start out running your own business the easier it will be. •

Wholesale comms provider Entanet has witnessed a sustained period of demand for Private WANs (PWANs) and the signs are that this trend will continue over the long-term, according to Head of Sales Stephen Barclay.

Entanet's PWAN pipeline has quadrupled in a year and its most active partners in this lucrative market have seen demand grow by over 50 per cent. "PWANs represent an expanding market for resellers and now, when they are becoming more widely recognised by customers, it's the best time for them to start taking advantage," said Barclay. "Because PWAN solutions are scalable every company with multiple sites is an opportunity. If a customer has more than one site there is the beginning of a network that can grow with the end user as they expand, usually with great simplicity. We find that companies in every sector are attracted by this solution, particularly those that require high levels of resilience such as hospitals, health care and care homes to ensure continuity and privacy. And for more sensitive data such as governments, banks, councils and organisations that would use networks for secure EPOS transactions, a PWAN is ideal."

One of the greatest benefits of this solution for resellers is how sticky a customer becomes, resulting in repeat business that's likely to grow. "Resellers should recognise that they're not just selling customer's access to the Internet but rather their own private corporate network," added Barclay. "There's a real added value in that. Typically the margin that a partner is able to achieve in a PWAN sale is higher than on any regular DIA (Direct Internet Access) line, even considering that access costs have come down. PWANs are in great demand and that demand is increasing every year."

The widespread adoption of PWANs comes at a time when opportunities for resellers in the SME market for connectivity services are growing in general, thanks to technology advancements and price competitiveness that's brought erstwhile high cost solutions within affordable reach (GEA, EFM, leased lines), while the performance of broadband has increased thanks to the rollout of fibre. "Chief among these opportunities are IP VPNs, or PWANs as Entanet calls them," noted Barclay.

He pointed out that all PWANs are different. For example, IP VPNs deliver a bespoke network which caters directly to the specific needs of every customer individually. "There are a host of benefits with an excellent level of security for the client owing to it being a completely separate network to the Internet," added Barclay. "A customer's data is entirely controlled by themselves across any number of affordable connection options."

When it comes to selling this solution to customers, resellers need to consider what sort of data will be transferred within the network. Is it sensitive? What are the bandwidth requirements? Is the data delay sensitive, such as voice or video? "Simply put, PWANs can benefit a multi-site company regardless of size, budget, geographical spread and all other factors," stated Barclay. "In Entanet's case, our pre-sales consultants work closely with a partner to ensure a solution is designed around those aspects and shaped into an efficient and easily explained model that puts the customer at ease and shows them the truly great benefits on offer."

In terms of resilience PWANs are one of the best options, believes Barclay. Being self-contained and able to operate without Internet access there is considerably less risk of interruption to the connectivity. "Customers can choose from many tiers of resilience from a single ADSL backup line that reroutes traffic if the main line becomes unavailable, to providing dual routers and two separate leased lines from diverse suppliers at different PoPs," he explained. "With continuity being a crucial part of any business, having a wide variety of options to suit the customer's needs is invaluable."

PWANs typically operate through a single managed firewall to the Internet. The advantages to a customer of having this solution for their network rather than a firewall for each individual site are cost and resource savings. Meanwhile, consolidating all data across the network travelling to the Internet through one point of access provides complete control over everything that comes and goes through the PWAN. "This gives customers the ability to manage the type of traffic allowed across their entire network, from a particular site or to an individual within a site," commented Barclay. •

Nigel Dunn, incoming Managing Director for Jabra Business Solutions UK&I, talks growth strategies, bridging the 'last yard' gap, and taking on market rivals.

Dunn's inspired appointment in December last year displays perfect timing in Jabra's chase for supremacy in the professional headset market. He boasts a strong background in driving the adoption of technologies and has embarked on a mission to educate users and vendors on UC headsets as the key to unlocking the value of their systems. He aims to grow Jabra's UK and Ireland market share to 50 per cent within three years. And he is a man with a relish to get things done. "I love the buzz of business," he enthused. "We want more core partners in the UC space where we are already strong and additional contact centre focused resellers to take a greater share of that market."

Dunn's strategy involves forging closer links with UC vendors and their key resellers to reveal the big opportunities and drive adoption rates. "I also want to see more resellers in the SMB space realise the opportunities in UC," he added. "Microsoft, Cisco, Avaya, Aastra and Unify make this possible but there are many cloud vendors available too. All of these users need to get the best out of their systems by using quality headsets. The user experience of an audio interaction with IP or UC systems, blended with their working needs and office environment make headsets the most critical decision they could make. Get it wrong and all that investment will be under used, making the RoI lower than anticipated. Get it right and people will easily adopt UC and achieve good RoI."

Not one to sit on his hands, Dunn is already busy laying the foundations for Jabra's next phase of growth and his relentless quest for fresh ideas could help make it happen quicker than expected. "I am a habitual early riser and my mind starts to work even before I'm out of bed," he commented. "As yet, I haven't run out of ideas. Jabra holds the key to UC adoption and this means new ideas to help end users realise RoI faster. Audio solutions for business are a big opportunity in an already growing area of the market. As companies move to IP telephony and UC, the critical path to adoption is embracing the new way of working which will involve a transformed desktop and mobility as well as video."

Selling licences is meat and drink for most resellers, but serving up the full UC experience requires a different recipe. For companies to achieve RoI and for vendors to maintain the revenue streams in the future, adoption is the most important issue, believes Dunn. "In my experience adoption is most influenced by an urge to work in the new environment rather than resorting to old style convenience, like using a mobile phone instead of the IP system, thereby increasing costs rather than reducing them," he stated.

"Critical to this adoption is the audio headset and that last yard between the multi-million pound system and the user. A headset is the key component that links the user to the system while providing a single interface to the handset, the desktop and the mobile phone. This means headsets are key to the adoption of IP and UC systems, and that places Jabra in the right place at the right time."

Globally, Jabra grew by 23 per cent in 2013 and in the UK 14 per cent growth was recorded. "UC is the fastest growing sector," noted Dunn. "Last year, across the globe our UC product sales grew 27 per cent and we believe this will grow by the same if not more this year. In the UK Jabra holds second position in the devices market but top position in UC. US competition has until now been the de facto choice making it difficult to establish our Danish credentials of expertise in audio and design quality. It's time to tip that overall balance and align the UK with the rest of Europe where Jabra is a leader."

Dunn's predictions should not be taken lightly, especially when you consider his career pedigree and long tenure as a prime move for some of the industry's household name companies. He began his 30 years stint in the IT industry as a graduate trainee salesman at HP. Next came a spell in reseller territory at Rapid Recall, followed by three stints at Tech Data (first as Frontline, then as Datech where he started up the videoconferencing Division becoming PictureTel, Polycom's largest European Distributor in a year). Prior to joining Jabra he operated as Managing Director of Azlan, the Enterprise Division of Tech Data.

Dunn explained: "I've worked for vendors such as Promethean as VP Channels EMEA, started up PlaceWare Europe (now part of Microsoft Lync products) and was VP Sales North EMEA for Genesys Conferencing (now part of Intercall). I also had time to start a few of my own businesses in-between. I have worked at all levels and been involved in all aspects of the channel. I just don't tire of the excitement of being around people and learning."

Dunn succeeded Andrew Doyle, former Jabra UK&I Managing Director, who was promoted to the role of Senior Director, Channel Management in EMEA. Dunn found himself in the right place at the right time, in a professional headset market with a compound annual growth rate of 14-16 per cent and a partner base that is outstripping the market in terms of sales.

"The channel is our only conduit to market and it's our lifeblood," added Dunn. "It's vital that we have the right conditions, programmes and people to help our channel be vibrant and live the Jabra dream for themselves. I'm a channel man at heart and I sold best when I felt the vendor's passion. Much of this has gone and that's why the channel is vital for me. My understanding of the user and vendor pain points and what helps the channel embrace opportunities, I bring strong experience in the right areas to make this all happen. Get it right and Jabra will win."

Dunn's experience of driving the uptake of technologies such as multimedia conferencing at PlaceWare and Genesys, and his background in the IP comms and UC market will also help to determine Jabra's play in the contact centre space. According to Dunn, the vendor sees a big opportunity in the contact centre market for a product refresh, and he has high hopes for the just-launched Jabra BIZ 2300 corded headset.

"Jabra has a strong portfolio that enhances the working experience for agents," commented Dunn. "Our competitors have had an easy run at this market and Jabra now wants its share. We are turning up the heat in the contact centre space and also upping the tempo in the mobile market with the Jabra Motion UC multi-use headset. Also in the 2014 pipeline is a new product family that will transform the CC&O environment. Watch this space."•

We should expect nothing less. The Danes have a strong heritage in audio, design and the telecoms business. Copenhagen is one of the epicentres of new software progression and Jabra is part of this culture. "There is a hunger for business but the Danes have a wonderful way of wanting business for the right reasons," commented Dunn. "Customers and their experience come first, and Jabra's staff are equally considered. Our CEO, Niels Svenningsen, says it perfectly, 'Look after your customers and your people and everything else will fall into place'. I love this philosophy and that's what makes Jabra special to me." •

Sean Taylor, Managing Director of Content Guru and Radius Communications, is on a journey that was perhaps mapped out for him years ago.

Taylor's choice of career in telecoms is characterised by a strong sense of inevitability. After all, following his father's footsteps is a natural step for anyone to take. And perhaps, with an equally compelling sense of destiny, Taylor will realise his ambition to build one of the world's biggest providers of cloud communications services and make the most of an opportunity equal to the one that slipped away from his father in the early days.

"My dad got me interested in telecoms," explained Taylor. "Witnessing some of the highs and lows that he experienced got me off to a flying start with my own career. One good example was when he was a director at Air Call Communications. In the 1980s it had the only UK public radio network, running in-car mobile phones and paging networks. It was the predecessor to today's big mobile network operators and experienced massive growth. He was confident it would win one of the two cellular licences. The first went to BT but the second went to Racal, now Vodafone. The party was over."

But the Radius Communications party is just beginning. Formed last year the firm is part of a small group with two sister companies. And Radius' strapline - from the centre to the edge - neatly sums up its proposition and purpose. "As an example, if you have a cloud PBX service and there's an issue on the phone, on a desktop PC, on a LAN or a WAN, in a carrier's network or at the cloud data centre, the customer doesn't care - it's just a service problem," noted Taylor. "We bundle all those elements so that customers have a seamless service experience."

He co-founded Redwood Technologies 20 years ago as a manufacturer of comms systems, predominantly for telcos, providing services such as IP telephony, unified communications and contact centres, and has rolled out to over 50 countries. "We've punched above our weight in terms of customer wins with major banks, major government bodies and multi-national corporations in the fold," added Taylor.

Eight years ago he founded Content Guru, a cloud services provider that leverages Redwood's technology. "We integrate our storm platforms into tier-one carrier networks, usually working on a partnership basis," explained Taylor. "Today we have infrastructure in the UK, Ireland and the Benelux, and we are rolling out into the USA with Germany and Asia to follow."

Radius enables customers to purchase end-to-end cloud services based on storm. It also takes care of other elements such as data networks and desktop integration software. All three businesses use an indirect model with a range of partners such as Vodafone, KPN and Panasonic. The company has offices in the UK, USA and the Netherlands and a presence in Malaysia and Germany. Turnover is around £20 million and with strong growth on the cards Taylor's aim is to reach £300-400 million over the next five-seven years.

"We like a challenge," he enthused. "Cloud is booming and if we believe the experts there will be 50 per cent penetration in some sectors over the next two-four years. We need to ensure that we're the de-facto choice for cloud services such as cloud contact centre and communications integration. That will involve establishing full global coverage for our storm platforms, acquiring more partners and some acquisition work to give us the base of people that we need to cope with demand. We currently run cloud services in over 30 countries but aim to operate more in-country platforms to bring our costs down further and ensure that we're compliant in areas such as data protection."

There's a saying, pointed out Taylor, that 'the pioneers are the ones with arrows in their backs'. "We spent the first five years with Content Guru trying to convince customers that cloud was a viable way to run services," he added. "Over the past three years customers have come to us wanting advice about how we can deploy cloud to help them. We formed Radius because the timing is right. Cloud is growing strongly and customers want to be able to consume it in an easy way. That's what Radius offers."

Growth opportunities are everywhere. Whether it's basic product requirements such as replacing ISDN circuits with SIP trunks, or more complex cloud contact centre and communications integration projects, everything is in a growth phase, believes Taylor. "We're also beginning to see businesses gain financial benefits from social networking, either helping them to drive down costs or generate more sales," Taylor commented. "We're putting more focus into this area as part of our cloud contact centre strategy."

He's also looking to work with organisations that understand the difference between a partner and a supplier. That means they have to understand that everyone in the value chain needs to earn money. They also need to share the same principles based on working fast and hard for the customer. "The days of marking up a product and passing it on are numbered," Taylor added. "Customers expect value from anyone involved in the supply chain. They can also easily find the types of services that they need. Twenty years ago you'd have to know which trade show to go to. Today a search engine takes care of the job. That means organisations need to really understand their customers' business needs and become much more flexible in their service offerings."

The traditional method of getting the lowest wholesale rate for a minute of voice or a Mb data bandwidth and then trying to sell it on at the highest price isn't going to go away in the short-term, but, warned Taylor, that's not a medium to long-term business plan. "The smarter resellers have put serious effort into building an application portfolio but there are still far too many that haven't thought through how they can deliver real value in the future," he stated.

There's good commercial reasons for adopting a cloud strategy, noted Taylor. "Any industry sector can be approached, whether construction, finance, IT businesses, legal, leisure, retail or travel. But I would generally recommend approaching SME organisations first. Apart from the fact that there are 4.9 million registered SME businesses in the UK employing 14.4 million people, SMEs will tend to make purchasing decisions more quickly and be less troubled if you're not an international brand."•

Klaus Allion became fluent in solution selling early in his career when based in Germany, long before exporting his consultancy expertise to the UK when he took the helm at ANT Telecom as Managing Director.

While many resellers remain locked in consultancy catch-up mode, Allion's runaway success in solution selling can be traced back to a time soon after he finished studying economics in the homeland. "I then undertook a one year trainee programme at Bosch where I spent half the time in sales training including sales psychology, solution selling, general telecom and product knowhow, and the other half working in a sales region with the sales team," he explained. "I became responsible for a new product, the first ISDN system, and was tasked with developing sales in one region of Germany. This went well and we outperformed all other regions which led me into international sales with a brief to implement solution selling, the approach which made us successful in the first place."

In 2003 Paul Smith and Allion joined ANT as Managing Directors and quickly took the company from a headcount of 22 to 30-plus, and from £2.5 million in 2002 to £3.6 million in 2004 by growing the professional services revenue and also by improving ANT's ability to win projects. "In the last two years we have changed the management structure by promoting internal senior staff into Marketing and Technical Director level roles," added Allion. "We also reorganised the service team and gave more responsibility and authority to staff."

ANT Telecom's expansion plan also includes increasing the business by 30 per cent over the next three years, with 10 per cent growth year-on year until the end of 2015. "We have further established ourselves as a solution provider, especially in industries and areas where standard desk-based solutions are not sufficient and where mobile staff require a solution to meet their needs, which also improves staff safety and productivity," added Allion. "In 2013 we expanded our operations in Scotland and appointed two further members of staff to focus on our Scottish customer base."

The company is on target to hit £3.7 million turnover this financial year and expansion in Scotland will be key to achieving this objective, as will nurturing existing markets. The ANT customer base mainly comprises the industrial and manufacturing sectors including FMCG, Automotive, Pharmaceuticals, Utilities and Transport. "We have approximately 150 customers across these varied sectors, including organisations such as Bosch, Astrazeneca, Severn Trent, Network Rail, to name a few," said Allion. "We have also added more well known names to our customer list in the last couple of years including a major energy provider where we provide a lone worker communication system on wind farms, Eurotunnel where we are providing a communication solution to tunnel staff and NHS customers such as Newcastle upon Tyne Hospital Trust."

Allion has witnessed notable demand for IP Office and also growth in sales of digital mobile radio solutions from Hytera, which is another key growth area for the business especially in remote areas and among those requiring lone worker solutions. "However, we offer much more than a product sell. We aim to understand our clients' business drivers and then develop a solution that addresses those issues," commented Allion.

ANT Telecom has mastered the consultative approach, working with customers and partners on a case by case basis. "Our customers influence what we do," explained Allion. "We try and understand how they work, what is important to them, how they can improve and we act accordingly to offer forward-thinking business solutions. We focus firstly on customer service and secondly on cost and profit. For example, we send an engineer out when a fault occurs regardless of where the responsibility for the fault lies and we will aim to resolve it with urgency, sometimes battling network operators on our clients' behalf."

Technology trends that are of particular interest at the moment include the emergence of Wi-Fi enabled telephones, DMR and smarter ruggedised smartphones. Other trends to watch, noted Allion, include the increasing pressure on the NHS to improve the tracking and management of its assets, along with potential improvements in patient handling and health and safety.

"For example, changes in H&S regulations and the development of mobile communication technology have enabled us to significantly broaden our portfolio to provide solutions to suit as many of our customers' evolving business requirements," commented Allion. "Aside from these areas our target markets remain general industry and manufacturing. The growth in these areas is driven by the understanding that manufacturing is important for the UK's sustained economic recovery." •

InTechnology has scooped a managed services contract with East Lancashire Medical Services (ELMS), a social enterprise organisation.

InTechnology is to provide a secure environment to manage urgent primary care services out of hours across its seven treatment centres and throughout its 50,000 patient interactions every year.

The contract, which continues to boost InTechnology's client base in the health sector, will see ELMS's IT infrastructure removed from under the guidance of the local NHS Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and into hands of InTechnology where it will be supported as a managed service.

In addition to IT infrastructure provision, InTechnology is also providing N3 connectivity, IP telephony, managed firewalls, hosted virtual servers and SIP Trunks.

This provides ELMS with full control of all systems, enabling it to swap low value housekeeping activities for added value projects that support of both staff and patients.

ELMS is now able to mine its call statistics to identify patterns to help refine its services and ensure patients are getting the quality, speed and accuracy of care that they need and allowing ELMS to better match resources.

Craig Winters, IT and Systems Manager at ELMS, said: "We were frustrated and felt we lacked the degree of control we needed to deliver IT that both supported our staff and could drive better patient care. Previously there were restrictions on what we could do, changes were slow to happen, and there simply wasn't the agility, will or resource to help us fully capitalise on today's technology."

"The switch was remarkably empowering. The new telephone system sits on the network and we're aggressively mining the call statistics and patterns to help refine our services and ensure patients are getting the quality, speed and accuracy of care that they need.

"It's allowing us to better match resourcing to demand and with the seven treatment centres soon to be linked together, we'll be able to leverage the opportunities and efficiencies within an enlarged but fully connected unit."

ELMS needed a high availability service that provided UK-based support 24/7, 356 days a year and peace of mind that patient data would be completely secure. InTechnology Managed Services was chosen due to its technical capabilities, full track record in N3 provision and its UK data centre estate.

Comms-care has named Mark Berry as Account Director responsible for the growth of key accounts across the firm's existing clients as well as supporting its efforts to expand operations across the UK.

Comms-care's network of customers has grown rapidly to over 700 channel partners, including top tier enterprises that offer IT services to a wide range of private and public sector customers.

Berry has more than 20 years' business development and customer services experience and will be in charge of managing the important relationship between customer and partner. He will also address opportunities to grow important segments of the business, including key account growth and new services adoption.

Prior to joining Comms-care, Berry was account director at cloud and managed IT services provider Phoenix IT Group. During his time at Phoenix, he was responsible for managing enterprise clients, winning new business and ensuring the successful delivery of hardware, design and network services, as well as local and wide area network technology.

Berry said: "My experience within the IT sector will help to support Comms-care's ambitious growth plans."

Rob Darby, Sales Director, added: "Mark has extensive commercial experience across all business sectors and a solid track record in achieving impressive business results. Most importantly, he has a great can-do attitude and is willing to go the extra mile."

Mitel has unveiled its 6800i series of IP business phones, using the SIP protocol the phones are designed to offer the broadest interoperability and support both on-premise and hosted services with the best path for businesses migrating to the cloud.

"Adding the 6800i series to our portfolio further expands customer choice with interoperable phones that are designed to work with all of the leading IP call platforms," said Dave Johnson, marketing manager for Business Communications at Mitel.

This new SIP phone series comes from Mitel's recent merger with Aastra and further expands Mitel's offering of business phones and enterprise voice solutions.

The latest phones build on the 6700i series feature set, adding high-resolution colour displays and GigE interfaces for clearer image and video support.

They further enhance the phones' crystal clear audio and speakerphone performance and include a native electronic hook switch (EHS) headset port. With lower power consumption, intelligent Power over Ethernet (PoE) Class reporting and smaller packaging that includes 100 percent recycled and biodegradable material.

8x8, a provider of cloud-based unified communications, contact centre and collaboration solutions, has introduced two new Virtual Office service enhancements that support the scalability and internal communications requirements of its growing mid-market and distributed enterprise customer base.
 
8x8 Branch Office is a new Virtual Office feature that allows customers to segment their primary 8x8 cloud-based PBX to unique physical or logical branch offices, while still keeping those individual locations fully integrated into a single unified communications platform.

System administrators are able to quickly define a branch office and associate extensions from their corporate directory to that location or group.
 
"Branch Office is an example of how the cloud technology inherent in the 8x8 Virtual Office communications solution can be put to work to support an organisation's strategic business processes and goals," said 8x8 CEO Vik Verma.

"In this instance, rapid deployment and scalability, characteristics many of our mid-market and distributed enterprise customers choose us for, is easily achieved using our cloud-based service delivery model which also carries the added bonus of requiring very little oversight on the part of an organisation's internal IT staff."

8x8 also announced Virtual Office Switchboard Pro, a web-based multi-faceted offering that streamlines call routing and management capabilities for receptionists and other front office users.

Switchboard Pro enables the receptionist to view real-time presence of all users, corporate-wide or within a branch office, all on their computer screen. This allows them to manage multiple incoming calls, and quickly apply call treatment options such as Call Park (public, Branch, or extension), Hold, and Call Transfer to an extension or directly to voicemail, all with the click of a mouse.

Switchboard Pro also provides a platform to coordinate call coverage with other receptionists when on a break and toggle to auto attendant when no receptionist is available. Incoming calls can be answered from either the Switchboard application or from a physical handset.
 
 

Mobile phone giant Vodafone has agreed to buy Spanish cable operator Ono for £6bn. Vodafone's shares rose 3% on the news which follows the sale of its US joint venture stake to Verizon for £69bn. Ono boasts almost two million customers. Before the deal Vodafone had approximately 14 million customers in Spain. The deal is due to be completed in the third quarter of this year, subject to the usual regulatory approvals.

Vodafone Group Chief Executive Vittorio Colao said: "The combination of Vodafone and Ono creates a leading integrated communications provider in Spain and represents an attractive value creation opportunity for Vodafone.

"Demand for unified communications products and services has increased significantly over the last few years in Spain, and this transaction - together with our fibre-to-the-home build programme - will accelerate our ability to offer best-in-class propositions in the Spanish market."

The Chairman of the Ono Board of Directors José María Castellano Ríos added: "As part of Vodafone, Ono will continue to seize new growth opportunities and deliver the quality that our customers expect. The enlarged business is also expected to drive innovation in the Spanish telecommunications industry."