Comms Dealer

Millions of working hours could be lost during this year's World Cup according to research by Coms plc.

Of the 100 UK businesses surveyed 75% plan to allow staff staff watch matches in a prepared communal area.

Coms CEO Dave Breith said: "In addition to the companies providing communal viewing areas, a further 19% of businesses said they will allow staff to watch the games at their desks. 

"In 2010 the mainstream TV companies reported that 20 million UK people watched the World Cup final. If even half this number watch this year's matches - and with the increased popularity of screening this could well be higher - that is a quarter of a million working hours lost.
 
"Kick off times vary from 5pm, 9pm and 11pm.  With some games finishing after midnight this could also affect late- and night-shift efficiency and  also result in staff arriving late for work."
 
On a more positive side, 41% of respondents said they would require staff to make up the lost time, a grumpy 8% said they wouldn't allow their staff to watch any matches at all in work time and 32% haven't yet made up their minds.
 
73% of respondents felt that their broadband will be adequate to cope with the increased demand.  However, with reports that this year's competition could be the most popular for streaming, broadband systems could be put under an unprecedented strain. Business now relies on broadband for day-to-day operations, so it could be more than just football that could be turned off come June.
 
On the plus side 50% of respondents said that the tournament gives the nation a feel good factor and will actually aid performance. This compares with 19% complaining that it will be a hindrance to performance, 18%  saying they are 'worried' about performance and 13% counting the days until the tournament closes.
 
Breith added: "With the economy growing at the fastest rate since the pre-credit crisis, these survey results beg the question, have the effects of the World Cup been seriously factored into UK-wide business plans?"

The future of one of the oldest cable manufacturers, AEI Cables, and its 200 staff has been secured following a Pre Pack sale handled by business recovery specialists, Springfields Business Recovery & Insolvency.

The acquisition has been made by the Middle Eastern cable manufacturing group Ducab which operates from five manufacturing facilities in the United Arab Emirates.??AEI Cables has its manufacturing base in Birtley, County Durham and has been a respected name in the industry for many years.

The business can trace it roots back to 1929 when it was know as Associated Electrical Industries. In recent times it has specialised in high performance cable manufacture and its products are used in various sectors including Aerospace and Rail Transportation.

The company encountered cash flow difficulties in 2011 and entered into a Company Voluntary Arrangement with its creditors. The company undertook a restructuring of the business, which at the time resulted in a number of redundancies. Following approval of the CVA, the company began to move away from the house wiring market to more specialist markets.

The Administrators were appointed late on 28 February 2014 and the sale was completed shortly thereafter.

Deviesh Raikundalia, Joint Administrator, said: "The sale of the AEI business has ensured continuity for the company's wide customer base and preserved the employment of the existing workforce.

"The sale secures the future of a well-known and established brand and ensures the continued manufacturing business for the local area."

Springfields were assisted in undertaking the transaction by Leicester based law firm Spearing Waite and specialist agents Edward Symmons.

IT operations management solutions provider Orsyp has appointed Eurotech Computer Services to resell its WAN optimisation control and network performance management solutions (Steamcore) in the UK and Ireland.

Eurotech serves clients across oil and gas, media and life sciences industries and public sector.

Omair Zaman, Business Development Director for Streamcore at Orsyp, said: "Organisations wanting to share massive data volumes across networks no longer need to over provision bandwidth, expensive graphical processors or invest in heavy-duty workstations loaded with VDI.

"Orsyp Streamcore's asymmetric architecture combined with Eurotech's industry focus will ensure joint customers realise maximum value from this new relationship."

Salesforce.com has posted fiscal year 2014 revenue growth of 41% in Europe, and plans to expand significantly with 500 new jobs and new data centres in UK, France and Germany.

The firm has picked up customers of all sizes in Europe, including BMW Group, Pernod Ricard, and Zeiss. Salesforce.com plans to open its first data centre in the UK in August 2014, with additional data centres to open in France and Germany in 2015.

"Cloud computing is at the heart of growth and innovation in Europe, which is why salesforce.com delivered full fiscal year 2014 revenue growth of 41% in Europe," said Miguel Milano, president, EMEA.

Research commissioned by BT and undertaken by Plum Consulting has concluded that rival operators continue to benefit from what BT calls a 'price distortion' in the wholesale broadband market.

Bt has now called on Ofcom to level the playing field saying that its share of the broadband market now stands at around 31%, compared with 41-52% for other ex-incumbents in Europe.

Plum Consulting reckons that rival operators have benefited from a 'pricing distortion' by £623m over the past nine years.

BT now states that Ofcom has achieved its policy goal of driving competition deeper into the network and that it no longer needs to set prices that favour some operators over others.

This is because such companies are allowed to pay below cost for their main regulated service whereas others, who rely on a different regulated service, are forced to pay above cost.

BT is urging Ofcom to close the current pricing gap now, thereby fulfilling the policy it set in 2009 - rather than over the next six years as is being proposed. Plum estimate such a delay would add a further £369 million of distortion, taking the total impact to around one billion pounds.

John Petter, BT Consumer CEO, said: "TalkTalk and Sky have enjoyed subsidies for the best part of a decade but it is time for that to end.

"Both are successful companies and both are more than capable of standing on their own two feet. It is particularly unfair that BT has to give Sky a commercial leg up when they consistently refuse to provide us with fair access to their own services.

"Ofcom should be given credit for driving competition deeper into the network but that success needs to be reflected in current regulation.

"We know that Ofcom want to tackle this distortion but we want them to act now given this is a highly dynamic and competitive market. All we are asking for is a level playing field where prices reflect costs and consumers benefit as a result."

The current situation has its roots in 2005 when Ofcom decided to promote local loop unbundling (LLU), a process whereby other companies can install their own equipment in BT exchanges in order to offer broadband and phone services.

They have done so over the years by setting the price of the fully unbundled service[3] below cost whilst inflating prices for the alternative option[4] where companies take a direct wholesale service from BT.

The number of fully unbundled lines now stands at 7.6 million compared with less than 50,000 in 2005.

BT says that main beneficiaries have been Sky and TalkTalk who now have more than nine million broadband customers between them, around half of all the broadband connections carried over BT's network.

The new report from Plum Consulting forms part of BT's response to Ofcom's Fixed Access Market Review (FAMR), specifically its proposals around the next price cap for Openreach's regulated copper products.

Unify, formerly Siemens Enterprise Communications, has named Bill Hurley as CMO. 

Starting immediately, and reporting to Dean Douglas, CEO, Hurley will oversee the entire customer experience of the Unify brand and all global marketing functions.   
 
"Our brand launch in October has given us heightened market visibility, and now with Bill's leadership we will further transform our go-to-market programs to build upon that momentum," said Douglas.

"Having worked as a CTO, Bill can bring the customer's perspective and his deep insights into market trends and then use our own technology, both product and systems, to differentiate our market approach."
 
Hurley joins Unify from the Westcon Group, a value-added distributor of unified communications, networking and security solutions and services, where he served as CTO. 

He as worked with leading global brands including ATT Wireless, ExxonMobil and Ford Motor, and brings deep customer relationship marketing experience from executive roles at Mercedes-Benz USA and Peppers & Rogers Group.
 
"Unify's opportunity to fulfill its market leadership potential has never been more possible," said Hurley.  "I'm excited to build upon the new Unify brand momentum, providing solutions that resonate with our customers and markets, by better leveraging the optimal channels and shaping our message and go-to-market programs in new and ways." 

Cloud services provider Vapour Media has secured a second round of investment from Finance Yorkshire.

Finance Yorkshire invested £250,000 from its Seedcorn Fund in the early stages of the business and has now made a follow-on investment of £300,000, again from its Seedcorn Fund, to enable the company to continue its sales and route to market progress.

Cloud comms provider Vapour Media was launched less than a year ago and provides its services to SMEs via a partner network with the ability to connect to Tier 1 network providers - BT, Vodafone, Virgin Media and Talk Talk.

The firm employs more than 10 people and was established by founding Directors Dom Waterson, Tim Mercer and Jason Sharp.

Waterson said: "We're confident that a lot of our business will come in the second year after an initial year of setting it up.

"Finance Yorkshire's investments has been vital, supporting us from the outset and now as we continue to grow. The Finance Yorkshire backing has also given us great credibility. We're not being viewed as a new business anymore."

David Best, Investment Manager at Finance Yorkshire, added: "Vapour Media is headed by an entrepreneurial and strong management team who have a proven track record of driving sales and building businesses in their sector.

"We are confident that they will deliver further growth and success given their competitive offering in the market place."

Finance Yorkshire provides Seedcorn, Loan and Equity Linked investments, ranging from £15,000 to £2million, specifically to help small and medium sized businesses meet the gaps in the market for the funding they need for growth and development.

Nearly half (46%) of England's IT and telecoms firms plan to take on apprentices in the next five years, and a quarter (24%) of them intend to do so in the next 12 months. That's according to new research released to mark the start of National Apprenticeship Week.

The study of 600 businesses revealed that across all industries, 44% of employers plan to take on apprentices in the next five years. It also revealed that one fifth (20%) of SMEs plan to take on one or more apprentices in the next 12 months alone, with more than a third (37%) of larger businesses planning to do the same.

Around a third (32%) of all companies that plan to take on apprentices say this is because they are a core part of their growth strategy.

Ahead of a visit to BT, which recently announced that they would take on 730 more apprentices over the next year, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, Vince Cable, said: "As we kick off National Apprenticeship Week it's good to see that employers are increasingly recognising the value apprentices can bring to their businesses. Apprentices are now a key and valued part of the workforce for most businesses large or small - and the huge increase which this Government has overseen is one of my proudest achievements.

"Given the grants available to help small businesses take on apprentices, it's especially good that so many SMEs are embracing apprenticeships in the coming years and that apprentice recruitment now forms a key part of a businesses' plans for sustainable growth."

Gavin Patterson, Chief Executive of BT, said: "BT's creating more than 700 new apprenticeships in the coming year, including a new digital media technology training scheme. I'm delighted we can play an extremely positive role by hiring these new apprentices and advancing their skills through mentoring and training.

"Apprenticeships really deliver for our business. Hiring apprentices helps BT grow our own talent by developing a motivated, skilled and qualified workforce. And for the apprentices, an Apprenticeship is a way for them to earn while they learn in a real job, gaining a real qualification and a real future."

The study also shows how Apprenticeships are growing in popularity. In fact, 43% of all employers, and 46% of IT and telecoms firms, agree they would be more likely to offer an Apprenticeship than they were two years ago.

Data centre specialist Node4 is to roll out NEC's UNIVERGE 3C UC&C platform to customers as an entirely opex service model. The new pricing model, the latest extension in Node4's strategic partnership with NEC, will provide customers and resellers flexibility around UNIVERGE 3C deployments.

Node4's partnership with NEC now allows it to provide customers and partners with Unified Communications as a service using UNIVERGE 3C.

In doing so, customers can pay for the solution (hosted telephony infrastructure and handsets) on an opex basis - allowing them to scale up or down in line with their business needs.

Furthermore, Node4 can also offer a package where customers can pay a fixed fee for unlimited use of VoIP calls.

Richard Buxton, Voice Services Manager at Node4, said: "NEC is a key technology partner for Node4 and UNIVERGE 3C forms the cornerstone of our communications portfolio.

"Providing Unified Communications as a service to our customers and partners will provide them greater flexibility over their solution and ensure they are using the best model to suit their individual business needs."

UNIVERGE 3C is a software-based, unified communications and collaboration package. It can be delivered to any device - smartphone, tablet, PC, Mac or on a deskphone - as a self-sufficient standalone VoIP solution.

Northamptonshire Police has selected Amillan to deploy an Aspect Unified IP contact centre solution.
 
Northamptonshire Police serves an area of over 900 square miles with 640,000 residents. Its ageing contact centre prompted an upgrade to an intelligent contact centre that ensures the 120,000 emergency calls requesting police attention are handled efficiently and accurately.

Evaluating Amillan's Aspect contact centre solution, which runs on any telephony platform, Northamptonshire Police found that the feature set, resilience and intuitive structure met the Police Force's needs.

Aspect's Unified IP contact centre solution includes automatic call distribution, ensuring that calls are intelligently routed to available officers and can be dealt with efficiently, vital for the emergency services.
  
Ben Long, System Manager for Northamptonshire Police, said: "The police contact centre provides a critical service which depends upon a high level of availability. The Force will be using Amillan's Aspect solution to maintain the high quality response expected from calls for assistance, both in the case of an emergency and in less urgent circumstances.
 
"Our priority is ensuring that we are serving the community that we look after, and the emergency contact centre is crucial to that service."
 
Richard Reid, director at Amillan, said: "A blue light service is one of the most important facilities offered by the emergency services, and it is imperative that the technology supporting it is solid and reliable.

"Our Aspect Unified IP contact centre is a proven technology providing resiliency and intelligent routing that aids our customers in delivering a service to its users, particularly when it can be a life or death situation."