Comms Dealer

US-based data governance specialist STEALTHbits has appointed Mark Pilgrim to drive its sales and operations across Europe and the UK as new Vice President of Sales and Operations for EMEA market.

He joins from NComputing where he served as VP EMEA and prior to this he had worked at Quest Software as a Regional Director for the UK and Ireland.

Pilgrim has been hired to support sales of STEALTHbits' data access governance solutions for unstructured data and Microsoft Infrastructure management solutions to large enterprises across Europe and North America, the company says.

"We view Mark's appointment as a sign of our commitment to serving the UK and EMEA markets the right way," said Ed Hand, Vice President of Worldwide Sales for STEALTHbits.

The full potential of the ISDN replacement market (ISDNoIP) can only be unlocked if certain preconditions are met, according to Stripe 21 MD Steve North.

ISDNoIP leverages new technology to drive down costs by up to 40%, but only if it is delivered with the same guarantees as the established 20CN ISDN technology it replaces, noted North.

Anything less than 20CN ISDN levels of reliability will only lead to failure, he believes.

"Reliability is crucial to sustainable, recurring revenue," he stated.

"When selecting a ISDNoIP supplier it is crucial that they offer a SLA which exceeds 99.99% availability. Similarly, the ISDNoIP service must be fully managed end-to-end as standard."

North also believes that Ofcom's uplift of 74% in CPS charges plays into the hands of resellers wanting to side-step the margin squeeze and potential CPS price war associated with the watchdog's attempt to encourage resellers to adopt a SIP and hosted strategy, which also raises security and reliability issues if the system relies on the Internet to carry part of a call.

"However, leveraging a ISDNoIP service bypasses CPS and offers guaranteed quality of service," added North. 

He argues that the upsides of such an approach are undeniable, citing the benefits of no change to existing telephone numbers or customer CPE, and therefore no additional costs to the customer. 

"Number porting must be seamless and transparent, and one-off setup costs must have the option to be amortised over the contract term," added North.

"There is also no risk of losing the customer as a result of migrating to the new service. ISDNoIP should cost no more than £8.00 per month per channel and be cost-effective from six channels upwards, either ISDN2e or ISDN30e. This vastly increases the reseller margins on both rentals and call charges, but requires zero effort from the customer."

To motivate the market for ISDNoIP Stripe 21 is offering a free ISDN30e installation to all new and existing resellers on orders placed before 30th June 2014.

Annodata has secured two more northern footholds following the opening of regional offices in Leeds and Edinburgh.

The new offices add to Annodata's Manchester sales operation, and the extension into Leeds was driven by the appointment of Northern Regional Sales Manager Max Kay along with a new sales team.

Andrew Harman, founder and MD of Annodata, said: "As a result of our current sales and projected growth, Scotland is demonstrating a strong platform for developing deeper relationships with current and prospective clients.

"We're excited to have a more permanent presence in this large and growing market."

The company also has an expanding office in Glasgow and the additional presence builds on Annodata's strong Scottish client base, coupled with strong partnerships in the 'Third Sector' and the Housing Association marketplace.

Harman added: "We are a different size and shape organisation to the one that was present five years ago. We've grown notably in the last three years and need the space and infrastructure that can accommodate our exceptional expansion."

Annodata was established in 1988 and has 12 regional offices,6,400 client partnerships serviced by a team of over 400 sales, service and support specialists.

UK Prime Minister David Cameron has posted a special YouTube endorsement for The Twin Town Challenge, the Top Gear style Anglo-French charity driving extravaganza linking Witney and Le Touquet organised by STL Communications boss Brendon Cross.
?See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6txFOSqZxE

The challenge, which runs from 23-26 May 2014, will raise funds for Oxfordshire charity SpecialEffect, which helps people with disabilities benefit from the fun and inclusion of video games. A number of teams from the comms industry have entered and Cross is hoping more will take part.

"This type of event is a perfect team-builder and networking opportunity," he said.

The teams will provide and drive their own car, costing no more than £500, from Witney in Oxfordshire to Le Touquet in France. They'll take on the iconic race circuits of Brands Hatch, Le Mans and Croix En Ternois en route, and enjoy a VIP send-off from Cornbury Park in Charlbury, a civic reception in Le Touquet and an unforgettable finish line celebration event in Witney.

To enter a car visit http://www.specialeffect.org.uk/twin-town-challenge-2014

Sales of SpliceCom's soft PBX family have double over the past three months according to Business Development Manager for the UK and Ireland Stuart Bell.

Enhanced by the introduction of the S716 Soft PBX for smaller businesses in late 2013, SpliceCom's range of IP Telephony platforms, for native and virtual computing environments, now scales from a five user starter bundle to 1,000-plus extensions.

"Several factors have conspired to make this the year of the soft PBX," said Bell.

"Many end users now view voice as an IT application that needs to fit into their computer environment, whatever form that might take, alongside the rest of their apps.

"This is particularly true of those who view Unified Communications as integral to their overall IT strategy.

"These organisations are demanding soft PBXs from their suppliers. They won't even consider hardware based IP PBXs. We're seeing a near 50:50 split between native Linux and virtualised environments, mainly VMware and Windows Hyper-V, when it comes to our soft PBX installs meeting this type of requirement."

Bell also noted that finding potential partners who are more comfortable addressing this type of need are 'beating a path' to SpliceCom's door.

"We're now getting far more approaches from those with a background in computer networking, operating systems, apps and virualisation," he added.

"They talk the same language as CTOs and IT Directors, so our Soft PBX strategy fits in with what they're already doing.

"Finally, there's the Soft PBXs role in the other big growth market - hybrid systems. Add all of these points together and its easy to see just why the recent growth in our soft PBX sales has been so spectacular."

Nimans' staff have proved their sporting pedigree and dressed up for charity in support of Sport Relief. Dozens of workers turned up at the company's Manchester HQ in sportswear that reflected their favourite football team, rugby side and even retro tennis players. The funds raised have been donated to Sport Relief 2014.

Vaioni Wholesale has been named in the Top 50 Fastest Growing Technology Companies in the The Northern Tech Awards. This follows a £500k funding boost raised through Private Equity House Maven Capital.

Vaioni MD Sachin Vaish said: "It is great to see the hard work and dedication the Vaioni staff have put into the growth of the business is being recognised. Our growth plans are to continue customer acquisition with an order book which has grown by 100% during the last six months."

Outsourcery has posted its preliminary results for the year ended 31st December 2013 reporting revenues of £5.2m (up from £3.6m in 2012) with £4.1m recurring and £1.1m non-recurring.

Monthly recurring revenues have doubled from £0.3m in 2012 to £0.6m in 2013.

The company also reported an adjusted loss from operations of £8.8m compared to £10m in 2012.

A collaboration between Rainbow and The Portable Office Company (POC) has paid early dividends in the virtual desktop space, according to Rainbow's MD Dave Corgat.

He believes that the virtual desktop market will have the same impact as the launch of CPS and is claiming an early mover advantage ahead of widespread adoption.

"It's an easy product to deploy and gives us a strong foothold in what has been a traditional data domain," said Corgat.

"The margins we are seeing and the speed of uptake reflects Gartner's predictions that by 2015 almost 50% of the US SME market will adopt virtual desktops."

In partnership with POC Rainbow has created a portal that enables customers to control the deployment of their service.

"We aim to steal the march in this market," added Corgat. "The success so far has been staggering and supports our strong recurring revenue model."

Rainbow's interest in hosted and cloud integration caught the eye of POC founder Pete Melhuish.

He said: "We targeted Rainbow early due to its appetite for all things hosted and forward thinking attitude towards the unification of cloud services.

"From the moment we handed the platform over and introduced the product to the sales team they were inundated with calls for site visit requests."

Within three months Rainbow had built a 'healthy and growing' installed base with some customers expanding their networks automatically through the bespoke App Stores provided with every desktop.

Corgat added: "We are now seeing revenues rise outside of office hours with no sales team interaction. The dream of making money while you sleep is now very much a reality for Rainbow."

Connectivity and cloud distributor DMSL has joined forces with Plusnet to catalyse dealer recruitment and drive the Sheffield-based ISP's broadband and phone services deeper through the SMB channel, with a particular focus on small businesses. DMSL will also be championing Plusnet's broadband and voice solutions to its current dealer network.

John Carter, MD, DMSL, said: "This is a defining partnership for both companies and will deliver tremendous business potential and benefits for SMB resellers.

"We intend to make full use of the strength of the Plusnet brand in the business market and our own established reputation in the SMB channel to drive new opportunities and make it as easy as possible for resellers to do business."

Carter noted that becoming a Plusnet dealer with DMSL will be a 'straightforward process'.

"Resellers can engage with us and with Plusnet directly," he added. "A tracking system for sales with full billing, contracts and customer support has already been put in place by Plusnet and it will be simple to sign-up and process new customers."

The move reaffirms Plusnet's commitment to building a prosperous channel, according to Nick Silverwood, Head of Business for Plusnet (pictured above).

"With the growth of social media and the importance of online sales, connectivity is more important than ever to small businesses," he commented.

"It can provide more flexibility and agility, and enable improved customer service and boost competitiveness. We are excited about the prospects of working with DMSL to build a thriving and vibrant community of channel dealers who will take the Plusnet message to the SMB market."

Plusnet boasts 16 years of experience providing Internet service solutions to small businesses across the UK, with the primary focus on broadband.

The company's Sheffield-based business support team already caters for tens of thousands of business customers across the UK.