Comms Dealer

Beds-based recruiter TTR UK is celebrating the fifth anniversary of its Flat Fee Recruitment proposition, which according to Director Gary Hammond is a proven solution with hundreds of success stories under his belt.

"We have 700-plus successful campaigns from Inverness to Exeter and over to Ipswich, across many industry sectors. We also have many customers employing two or more staff from individual campaigns," said Hammond.

Launched in April 2009 TTR's Flat Fee Recruitment solution offers a fully managed Internet recruitment campaign including anonymous advertising, copy writing, response handling and applicant telephone screening.

The solution also offers proactive applicant searching on job boards and targets technical, sales and support staff on a candidate database that holds 1,5000-plus telecoms, IT, VoIP, mobile comms, data and technology CVs.

"As recruitment demand increases, TTR is in a position now to provide any Company a realistic, cost effective and proven recruitment solution, using job boards and supporting it with candidate searching and vacancy eshots to matching applicants," added Hammond.

There's more to leasing than meets the eye, according to Tom Maxwell, Head of Dealer Sales at Nimans, who pointed out that offsetting payments against Corporation Tax is one of benefits that can get overlooked.

He said: "Sales aid leasing is fast becoming a major factor in any successful sales strategy.  "Adding a lease option with a reputable finance partner to a product can significantly enhance sales and overcome customer's budget restrictions.

"You have a great product and a customer who needs that product to expand, but what happens if the customer is not willing to make a large capital investment?

"Businesses can use leasing to reduce their tax bill. The Inland Revenue allows them to offset the whole of the lease rentals against corporation tax - which could be 20% each year - which makes the facility cost effective."

Nimans is planning to introduce new training courses over the coming months to help resellers capitalise on leasing opportunities.

Management software provider Matrix42 has appointed Robert Adlem as its new UK Channel Manager who will be responsible for the UK partners and channel expansion.

He joins from BT Engage IT where he was a Vendor Alliance Manager in charge with revenue growth targets. Prior to this, he was the UK Channel Manager at Numara where he was responsible for new channel programme.

"Robert has a proven track record of working with vendors and channel partners in order to identify new sales opportunities. He brings energy and enthusiasm along with business acumen and experience in developing strategic alliances. I am confident that Robert will make a rapid impact on our UK channel strategy and quickly become a valued member of the team," said Markus Baumann, Vice President Sales EMEA of Matrix42.

Distributor Northamber has reported a pre-tax loss of £690,000 in the second half of the year following a fall in sales from £41m to £30m.

It lost £390,000 in the second half of the year before and has been slashing costs and jobs, saving, it says, $770,000 a year. But, with margins falling from 7.7% to 6.7%, it has to move rapidly away from its traditional hardware business.

Chairman David Phillips said: "This has necessitated a wide-ranging and costly restructuring. The vindication of the changes we are making can be seen in the foundations of a return to a more worthwhile future."

Ricoh Europe has unveiled an enhanced IT services portfolio which includes on-site, remote and cloud based services which will be offered to customers across Europe.

The new portfolio has been designed to address the needs of both small and large organisations, it says.

The enhanced IT services will be provided through regional delivery teams and Ricoh's European network.

"With more technology-led change on the way and European businesses taking greater strides towards digital transformation the need for more advanced and robust IT services is essential," said Carsten Bruhn, Executive Vice President, Ricoh Europe.

Citing 'slowing consumer purchases' amid high penetration rates in mature markets, IDC now forecasts tablet shipments will grow 19.4% in 2014 (to 260.9 million units), down from a prior estimate of 22% (271 million units).

Tablet growth steadily slowed in 2014: Shipments rose an estimated 142% in Q1, but just 28% in Q4. IDC puts full-year growth at 52%.

Two silver linings for enterprise leader Apple, with its 33.8% Q4 share are that prices are only expected to drop 3.6% in 2014, after falling 14.6% in 2013, as more consumers embrace 'higher-end devices'.

Commercial buyers are also expected to account for 14% of shipments, up from 11% in 2013. IDC also thinks Windows tablets, struggling to gain a strong consumer foothold, will take over a quarter of the commercial segment thanks to rising convertible adoption.

The revised forecast still puts tablet sales within striking distance of eclipsing PC sales: IDC expects PC shipments to drop 6% this year to 295.9 million. Both are dwarfed by smartphones shipments which are expected to grow 19% to 1.2 billion.

SIP and hosted provider tIPicall has named the dates for its 2014 SIP training days.

Now in its third year, the free events are aimed at directors and senior managers of CPs who have not yet shifted their sales focus towards SIP.

The session covers industry best practise around marketing, selling and deploying SIP effectively and discusses how to start moving a traditional comms business into the world of IP.

Steve Harrington, Sales Director at tIPicall, said: "There is a lot of confusion, misunderstanding and over complication in the market around SIP.

"Many senior managers in communications providers do not really understand what it is and why it is so important to get right. They can get left behind by technical talk and often do not realise how straightforward it can be.

"Education is the key to make them see the value in selling SIP services and to do it right first time."

The first two training days are being held in London on the 8th and 15th of April at the 8 Members Club in Bank, with a Manchester event to follow.

 Griffin has launched an all-in-one hybrid cloud solution to the channel, provided by Easynet and Zynstra.

Mike Ayres, Easynet Managing Director Business Markets (UK) Indirect, said: "There's no doubt that 2014 is the year that cloud computing becomes ubiquitous, but among SMEs in particular there are still some concerns around complexity, cost, security and resilience.

"In reality, the cloud is one of the safest, most cost-effective places for data. This is where our resellers come in. They can dispel the cloud computing myths, offer unrivalled market knowledge and provide impartial expertise and advice. With Hybrid Cloud, customers can experience exactly the same benefits of cloud as a large enterprise, without the need for a huge IT investment."

Graham Bromham, Managing Director of Solsis (a Thames Valley-based Managed Service Provider), added: "For the reseller, this solution delivers all the IT services a business needs in one product. It removes the headache of us having to manage multiple products from multiple vendors. With several quick wins already under our belt and more in the pipeline, it's a winner for us already."

The latest figures released by MZA show that the market for PBX/Call Controller extensions and licenses (excluding Micro PBX products) fell by 3% year-on-year in Q4 2013 (period October to December 2013 inclusive) and 5% year-on-year in CY 2013 (January to December inclusive).

There were overall year-on-year volume declines in both the SME (solutions with <100 licenses/extensions) and enterprise (solutions with >100 licenses/extensions) over the quarterly and annual periods: the <100 market suffered a 5% decline in Q4 2013 and a 6% decline in CY 2013, while the >100 market witnessed a 1% decline in Q4 2013 and a 3% decline over the year.

In Q4 2013, there were significant regional differences in performance. The market of Latin America grew by 10% year-on-year and was the only region in growth, while the Asia Pacific market remained flat. The global downturn was driven by the markets of North America and Middle East and Africa which fell by 5% and 3% respectively, and the markets of Western Europe and Eastern Europe which continued to decline year- on-year falling by 8% and 5% respectively.

Historically, the final quarter of the calendar year has often seen the largest quarterly market volumes of the year, and Q4 2013 did continue this trend. However, continued economic constraints on the SME market to invest in a PBX/Call Controller coupled with an increasing impact of alternative solutions (mobile and multi-tenant) on the market, drove a quarter-on-quarter decline of 2% in the <100 extensions/licenses market (excluding Micro PBX products). The >100 extensions/licenses market witnessed a 3% quarter-on-quarter growth in Q4 2013, to record the highest quarterly market volumes this year.

Cisco remained the leading vendor in the global PBX extensions/licenses market (excluding Micro PBX products) in Q4 2013 extending their Q3 2013 lead over Avaya with a 14% market share. Avaya took an 11% market share to remain in second position. Both vendors saw some notable growth in the Latin American market in Q4 2013, largely driving a double-digit year-on-year uplift in the Latin American >100 extensions/licenses market.

Aided by year-on-year double digit volume growth in both the Asia Pacific and Middle East and African markets, Panasonic supplanted NEC for third position in the global market with an 8% market share.

When looking at 2013 global PBX market in full, every regional market and the majority of country markets declined. The North American market fared best registering only a minimal volume decline, but significant volume declines in Western Europe and Asia Pacific drove the market to a 5% year-on-year decline.

Cisco retained their global lead in the 2013 extensions/licenses market with a 13% share, down one percentage point year-on-year. The positions of the top five vendors were in fact unchanged in 2013, although Avaya and NEC in second and third respectively, increased their lead over Panasonic and Unify (formerly Siemens Enterprise Communications) in fourth and fifth.

Panasonic replaced NEC to lead the <100 extensions/licenses market (excluding Micro PBX products) in Q4 2013 with a 13% share, aided by an improved performance in Asia Pacific against Q4 2012. However, over the year NEC supplanted Panasonic as the number one vendor globally in the <100 market taking a 14% market share, compared to 13% in 2012. NEC performed particularly well in EMEA in 2013 and gained market share in the process, adding to their strong position in Asia Pacific and North America.

Cisco remained the clear market leader in the Q4 2013 >100 extensions/licenses market with a 24% share, down two percentage points year-on-year, while Avaya remained in second position with a 12% share. Alcatel-Lucent's strong performance in EMEA in Q4 2013 saw the vendor climb to third position with a 7% market share.

Over the year, Cisco continued to lead the >100 licenses/extensions market, followed by Avaya and Unify with the top three vendors unchanged. Key performers in 2013 included Huawei, Microsoft and Mitel who all gained one percentage point in global market share year-on-year.

Prime Minister David Cameron has committed more funding to develop the Internet of Things in joint development with Germany on various technologies.

There are three specific areas where the UK wants to work with Germany, he says: 5G - faster Internet quick enough to download a full length feature film in less than a second; Internet of Things - getting everyday objects talking to one another to simplify daily life; and strengthening the EU's digital single market.

The Prime Minister unveiled a package of measures to achieve this, including:

• £45 million funding for research in areas linked to the 'Internet of Things', taking total pot available to £73 million
• A new spectrum strategy that aims to double the economic benefits of spectrum to £100 billion by 2025
• A new 'innovation one stop shop' within UKTI for securing science and innovation investment from large international funds and corporate companies
• A review by government's Chief Scientific Advisor to identify how we can exploit potential in this area
• £1 million 'European Internet of Things' grant fund to support companies who want to exploit these new opportunities
• New collaboration to develop 5G between the University of Dresden, King's College University in London and the University of Surrey