Comms Dealer

Daisy Distribution's ski trip promotion last quarter saw a 118% performance against its connections targets and experienced over 200% growth in O2 handset purchase revenues

The promotion rewards winning partners with a luxury ski trip to Kitzbuhel, Austria, 20th-23rd March.

The incentive encouraged Daisy Distribution partners to collect as many 'points' as possible between 21st October 2013 and 24th January 2014.

Points were earned by purchasing any O2 variant device; and processing O2 new, resign and fixed line connections with Daisy Distribution.

At the end of the three months all partner points were consolidated and Daisy Distribution split them into one of three separate leagues, based on the percentage contribution of each league to the overall points total. Each league was then awarded a percentage of the overall incentive places available and the winning partners were drawn at random from each league. There were ten places in total to be won for the trip.

Julien Parven, Marketing Director at Daisy Distribution, said: "The sales figures obtained through the promotion far exceeded our targets and expectations, demonstrating the value in rewarding partners for their continued and ongoing support.

"We are doubly delighted with the results as they complement our recent O2 Distribution Partner of the Year award."

Genius Networks and Abzorb are to mark their new partnership with a three day roadshow that will provide workshops on how Genius unites best-of-breed carriers to give resellers simpler deployment of converged connectivity solutions across its SIP-enabled core network.

Resellers will find out how to expand network prospects into Europe and beyond, and upsell from voice and data into new business opportunities in networking and connectivity.
 
Abzorb will be demonstrating its pricing and delivery portal at the events. The portal allows resellers to access all major carriers, manage their customer base and maximise sales opportunities across the complete Abzorb product set. The workshops will also highlight the time-saving benefits of Genius’ online support services.
 
Taking place in Edinburgh, Huddersfield and London in March, the events are free of charge for all UK solution and service providers.
 
James Arnold-Roberts, Genius Director, says: "Being part of the roadshow with Abzorb is a great opportunity to speak directly to resellers and solution providers about their needs.

"Businesses in the channel are struggling to add value, reduce complexity and earn profit in a very competitive market. By tapping into our core network and routing platform, Abzorb is providing its resellers with a simple solution to implementing increasingly complex unified communications and unprecedented speed of deployment for UK, European or even global requirements.\"
 
The roadshow is part of a wider partnership between the two companies which provides Abzorb resellers with a streamlined provisioning process, ease of deployment and simplification of service level management. Genius’s unique approach to implementing international networks bridges the gap in services offered by many network providers and carriers.

Mike Walsh, Abzorb Director, added: "More and more resellers are seeking to capitalise on opportunities in overseas markets and to migrate to hosted and cloud-driven processes.

"Working with Genius means we can deliver the reliability and assurance our resellers need to adopt these innovative approaches on a global scale if required. Through the roadshows we want to show our resellers how they can deliver network solutions to their customers simply and profitably with online services and technical support.\"

BT is creating more than 1,000 new apprenticeship and graduate jobs in a major recruitment boost for UK youngsters. The majority of the new roles will be in the areas of IT, technology research and engineering, with other training programmes available in business and finance.

BT is casting its net across the UK for around 300 top science, technology and business graduates who want to build their careers in the IT and telecom sector. Some 730 apprenticeships will also be offered to school and college leavers in the areas of engineering, software design, IT support, finance and logistics.

BT has also created a new digital media technology apprenticeship that will provide new recruits with experience and skills in web development, digital networks, digital TV and digital media distribution.

BT also announced today its commitment to the UK employer-led initiative Movement to Work, aimed at tackling youth unemployment by pledging to provide up to 1,500 vocational training and work experience placements for out of work youngsters over the next 18 months.

Gavin Patterson, Chief Executive of BT, said: "This is a tough time in the job market, with almost a million young people across the UK struggling to find work. Every company needs to play its part in ensuring that Britain's future workforce isn't impaired by long-term unemployment.

"BT has an exciting future ahead of it, investing in the UK's high speed broadband infrastructure, and advances in television and digital media. Through new apprenticeships, graduate training and the Movement to Work programme, we want thousands of young people in Britain to share in this future."

Vince Cable, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, welcomed the announcement, saying: "It's good news that BT are delivering even more high quality apprenticeships and graduate jobs. Hundreds more people will now be able to get the skills they need to get on and help support sustainable economic growth.

"Ahead of National Apprenticeship Week I would encourage all employers to follow the lead of firms like BT and recognise the value and dynamism apprentices can offer businesses of all sizes."

IP handset manufacturer snom has linked up with UC platform developer Centile Telecom Applications to deliver UC services to operators and services providers in the UK.

The Centile Istra platform provides operators and service providers with the tools to develop, deploy, and monetise new services over existing networks.

The integration work undertaken between snom handsets and the Centile Istra platform enriches service provider's offerings when compared to deployment using standard SIP handsets.

The Centile and snom integration offers features including n-party conferencing, boss/secretary, call park/pickup, presence, chat, and voice call continuity, and the ability to move seamlessly from the snom IP terminal to their mobile without disrupting the caller.

Bertrand Pourcelot, DG at Centile, said: "The integration of snom handsets (7xx Series, 8xx Series and the extension module snom Vision) with Centile's Istra platform enables service providers to deliver a high level of Unified Communications and FMC services from the network to IP and mobile devices.

Moreover, the integration includes the Plug&Play Redirect Server technology and Firmware & Configuration files auto-provisioning.

Salford-based JMC IT has been ranked for a 10th year in The Sunday Times Best Small Companies to Work For list, jumping six places from last year's ranking to be placed 15th nationally.

The company also received an award for being one of only three to make the list for a 10th time.

Andrew Burgess, MD at JMC, said: "This year's 100 Best Small Companies saw some of the toughest competition ever and each time around the standard is exceptionally high, so we're elated to come 15th and earn a place on the List for the 10th time.

"Our business treasures its reputation as a stand-out IT employer and the fact staff stay with us for an average of 12 years is a key factor in the long-term relationship we forge with customers, who also stay with us on average 12 years.

Privately-backed Exclusive Networks says it will notch up €0.5bn in sales this year, putting it on course for its planned €1bn by 2017. It says it managed €328.3m in 2013, which was boosted by its acquisitions.

"We believe there is considerable scope to scale-up our business model without compromising any of the value-generating integrity that's delivered our success so far," said Olivier Breittmayer, CEO of Exclusive Networks Group. "

Every Exclusive territory is a dynamic business in its own right, driven by entrepreneurs who know their markets. As we grow, this cell-based structure liberates our companies to think globally but act locally with the agility and flexibility to adapt to local needs."

Late 2013 and into early 2014 was a particularly eventful period regarding Exclusive Networks Group's expansion, with the acquisitions of Bili?imcim and Secureway in Turkey and across the Middle East for the first time.

The launch of operations in Switzerland also contributed to the Group's 15% growth in headcount, as did the acquisition of Terach in the Benelux region.

The Group says it traded with around 4,300 resellers in 2013, and is now present in over 20 countries throughout Europe, the Middle East and North Africa - with Denmark the latest addition earlier this month.

Mimecast, supplier of cloud-based email archiving, security and continuity for Microsoft Exchange and Office 365, says that around 100 firms, 25% of its UK channel, have been recognised as Mimecast Certified Technical Specialists after completing training in managing cloud migration projects.

Nessa Lynchehaun, Channel Director at Mimecast, commented: "We have found many Mimecast customers want to benefit from cloud services but don't have the skills in-house to manage the migration. We have worked with our channel partners to build this certification training so that they can manage cloud projects for our customers, reducing any barriers to migration. It has quickly been successful because it gives the channel the skills to capitalise on the cloud and a certification brand that gives customers confidence."

The total amount invested in data centre outsourcing solutions in Europe will significantly increase over the next three years, according to a new report by DCD Intelligence.

The report notes this is despite the region currently being behind other regions in terms of its data centre outsourcing profile, due to increased pressures placed on data centre operators in terms of increased power, IT capacity planning and budgetary concerns.

The most diverse of all the regions covered by the report differ greatly in terms of their economic, political and cultural profile, but all share a common theme in terms of being classified under the DCD development index as 'evolving markets'.

Characterised by smaller facilities, a lack of 'mega data centres', lower power per rack and a small percentage of data centres located in purpose-built facilities, evolving markets show greater growth rates in terms of investment, power and space than their mature counterparts.

"Growth rates in the region continue to remain healthy in terms of space and investment, especially in Turkey and Eastern Europe. Across the region, we predict that growth rates for space will remain in double digits for the coming few years," Nick Parfitt, lead analyst at DCD Intelligence, explained.

With regards to space, DCD says the total amount of white space in the region is currently just under 1.4 million square metres, with Russia accounting for by far the largest proportion of the market, at 650 000 square metres. The strongest growth has occurred in Turkey and Eastern Europe, while the Middle East has witnessed a very small growth in total white space over 2012 levels.

The report also states that emerging EMEA has witnessed a 13.2% increase in data centre power consumption over the past 12 months, and while power per rack is still below levels in other regions, power consumption is expected to rise in line with the growth in white space through to 2016.

The global enterprise PBX market including TDM, hybrid, and pure IP amounted to $7.4bn in 2013, down 9% from 2012 and down 9% from the year-ago 4th quarter. More consolidation among vendors and other changes are expected this year as the business moves to cloud and managed services.

"It isn't revenue growth or big shifts in market share that are making news in the enterprise telephony market, it's shake-ups in the vendor landscape," said says Diane Myers, principal analyst for VoIP, UC, and IMS at Infonetics Research.

"Of note is Mitel's merger with Aastra which will make the joined company a top5 vendor. Meanwhile, Alcatel-Lucent finally found a buyer for its enterprise business in Chinese private equity firm China Huaxin, and Siemens changed its name to Unify and is going through a complete management overhaul."

Market research firm Infonetics Research has just released vendor market share and preliminary analysis from its 4th quarter 2013 (4Q13) and year-end Enterprise Unified Communications and Voice Equipment report.

Myers added: "We expect 2014 will bring further vendor shake-ups. The market's too tight to maintain the number of vendors in existence right now."

Eating into growth is the move to cloud-based PBX and unified communications (UC) services as Unified communications applications continue to be the most resilient segment, with a combined 31% worldwide revenue increase in 2013.

Cisco still leads the PBX market with 26% worldwide revenue share in 2013, followed by Avaya at 21%. Microsoft leads the unified communications segment with 43% revenue share in 2013

Infonetics forecasts the unified communications segment to grow at a 7% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from 2014 to 2018.

Vendor of data centre solutions Minkels has announced an expansion of its UK partner network with an addition of UPS services provider MPower.

Under the terms of a deal, MPower will provide Minkels UPS installation, commissioning and maintenance services in the UK.

Also, MPower will be Minkels' first partner dedicated to business in the UK while other partners specialise in the company's segment of cooling solutions, it says.

At the same time, Minkels has announced an introduction of its UPS system, a solution that originally was launched last year, which has been designed for small and medium-sized server rooms, it says. The company plans to sell its new system mostly through partners.

At the moment, Minkels is looking to add more UPS-focused partners in Europe soon due to its planned rollout of UPS system across Europe. Last year it managed to introduce a new system in the Benelux region where it also signed new UPS services partners.

"Now that MPower is appointed for delivering UPS services we believe this is the right time to officially introduce Minkels UPS System in the UK," says Jeroen Hol, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Minkels.