Comms Dealer

alwaysON Group and Data Continuity Group (DCG) are to merge, creating an organisation with over £8.5m annual IT managed services and cloud applications revenues.

As part of the transaction Foresight Group VCT Funds is making a significant investment to accelerate product development and to strengthen the balance sheet of the combined company, and is looking to support further acquisitions for the Group.

Foresight is a significant investor in both companies and facilitated the merger to produce a Group with increased scale but also with the capability of investing further in service and product developments.

Martin Peck will take on the role of Chairman of the combined Group and the executive team at DCG, Alan Back (Managing Director), Neil Hewer (Services Director)and Charlotte Histed (Financial Controller), will be appointed to the Board of the Group Holding Company.

"We have no doubt that the combined value offered by DCG and alwaysON will enable our customers to realise significant benefits across the board," said Peck. "Uniting the two organisations means we can provide best of breed solutions that can improve business performance and efficiency today and the opportunity for innovation tomorrow."

alwaysON provides a range of data communications, voice and unified communications applications and has its own managed MPLS network and telecommunications backbone. \

alwaysON also provides private cloud based applications including Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft Dynamics CRM and full enterprise enabled Microsoft Lync Unified Communications solutions, all of which will integrate with DCG's secure private cloud data protection offerings.

DCG provides a new range of data management and protection services, including storage management, data backup and archiving, replication and virtual disaster recovery. DCG uses Symantec and EVault technologies and has its own cloud infrastructure which it will integrate with alwaysON's environment.

Maintel has delivered successful year end results based on organic growth, acquisition, strong margins and a high level of recurring revenues. 
 
Revenue rose by 10 per cent in 2013 to £31.1m (2012: £28.2m) and adjusted profit before tax rose 5 per cent to £5.23m (2012: £4.97m).  Adjusted earnings per share (EPS) increased by 7 per cent to 37.6p (2012: 35.1p).  The final dividend proposed has increased 23 per cent to 9.0p (2012: 7.3p) and dividend for the year has risen 15 per cent to 15.7p (2012: 13.6p).
 
Recurring revenues grew again, increasing to £24m, representing 77 per cent of total revenue.
 
Maintel continued its run of successful acquisitions in 2013, acquiring the UK and Ireland operations of the Datapoint group, which had revenues of £15.8m in the year to June 2013, for a consideration of £3.5m. 

The Datapoint acquisition opens up an international customer base as well as a strong presence within the enterprise contact centre and unified communications market where Maintel already has expertise. 
 
The Network Services Division continued to deliver steady growth against the market trend, with an increase in both revenues (3 per cent) and gross profit (6 per cent) which pushed margins up a percentage point to 30 per cent. 
 
Margins also improved in the Mobile Division, from 54 to 63 per cent.  The focus for the Mobile Division for 2014 will be new sales and connections and this is being addressed with the addition of new sales resource. 
 
Maintel was awarded Avaya Technical Partner of the year status and has continued to adapt its business model and services towards new technologies such as cloud and hosted services.
 
Eddie Buxton, CEO, said:  "While competition levels remain high, we are seeing market conditions moderately improve with businesses engaging in discussions to increase investment in their communications infrastructure.
 
"Our short-term focus will be on the integration of Datapoint and realising the opportunity that its acquisition has brought to the group to diversify our revenues and significantly increase our presence in new markets."

Gamma has launched Converged FTTC Ethernet, a new voice-enabled variant of its FTTC Ethernet product.

The move enables Gamma Partners to compete at the price sensitive end of the small business market by offering customers a more affordable solution, without compromising on quality.

"Ethernet is now the de facto high speed connectivity technology of choice for businesses and, as well as offering fast, reliable internet access, Gamma's proposition enables businesses to also adopt high-quality IP telephony in the form of SIP trunking or a hosted voice platform," said Ethernet Product Manager, George Kinsella.

"Partners will benefit from the flexibility, resilience and associated cost savings and can take full advantage of Gamma's voice pedigree and single, accountable supplier offering."

Kinsella also noted that the affordability and guaranteed fix time of Converged FTTC Ethernet plus Gamma's ability to run an end-to-end prioritised voice service will make it widely accessible to more businesses as a replacement for ISDN, as well as the soon to be retired SDSL.

"It's also the perfect upgrade for broadband customers because it offers them the chance to benefit from all the features of Ethernet, including an enhanced SLA, an 8-hour fix time and dedicated high-speed access for just a £2-3 daily incremental cost," he added.

Vicki Rishbeth, Operations Director of Focus Group, currently consumes Gamma's Converged Ethernet services and says, "Joined up delivery across the Ethernet and IP telephony components means we can confidently deliver service to our customers on time and with minimal impact to our operation."

Gamma is marking the launch of Converged FTTC Ethernet with a three month free install offer on all 36-month contracts ordered on or before May 30th.

Tech Data Europe has swooped on a senior exec from rival Ingram Micro, Johan Vandenbussche, who takes the new position of senior vice president, Operations. 

He had been with Ingram Micro for 15 years, variously holding responsibility as vice president for regional operations, M&A in Europe and the company's pan-European business unit.

In this role, Vandenbussche will lead the Operations unit in Tech Data Europe, including overall responsibility for HR, Logistics, IT coordination and the company's internal consulting team working on standardisation and enhancement of working practices across its country operations.

TD Europe boss Nestor Cano said: "With Johan's proven ability, experience and deep knowledge of the distribution business, I am confident that he will make a major contribution as we continue to execute on our priorities of effective country execution, enhanced productivity and providing the best customer experience in the industry, all with integrity."

Poole-based VoIP Unlimited has doubled its staff in the past year and aims to boost growth in 2014 as it heads into its eighth year of trading.

Mark Pillow, founder and MD, said: "With the web becoming a more significant part of daily life for companies, more and more business leaders have the infrastructure on which to run VoIP. And this is without mentioning the development of smartphones and other mobile devices in recent years. The continued smartphone boom is making it easier to work on the move and stay in touch with emails and messages, while VoIP services can be deployed to ensure cheap calls can be made from almost any location.

"Users can make the most of their broadband connections to make cheaper telephone calls anywhere in the world. Business is now also increasingly international and firms rely on trading with their overseas counterparts. Of course, the good news with VoIP is that international calls are available at a hugely reduced rate, when compared to the charges imposed by standard telephone operators.

"With the increase in popularity for VoIP technologies, due to the numerous benefits it offers, we are looking to invest further in our team so we can continue to deliver a first-class service to clients."

Vidyo hosted video conferencing is now available on Triumph Boards interactive whiteboard and touchscreens following a link up between NeoCloud and Square1.

The NeoCloud platform, powered by Vidyo, offers Triumph Board users HD video conferencing for universal visual communication, bringing together participants regardless of the device they are using - from smart phones to tablets, desktops to video room systems.

Using the VidyoRouter architecture, Neocloud delivers low-latency HD-quality multipoint video conferencing over any IP network to any end point.

Darren Aspinall, AV product manager for Square1, said: "When NeoCloud demonstrated the potential of incorporating video into our offering, with flexibility and interoperability, we just knew we had to have it in the package we offered to our customers.

"By being able to enable our Triumph Boards with NeoCloud before dispatch, our customers are just a few steps away from HD quality video conferencing, which connects them globally."

NeoCloud's Margaret Brewer added: "We have been passionate about HD video conferencing for years and working with Square1 demonstrates how the NeoCloud platform can enhance a supplier's offering."

Timico has appointed Clare Greenall as Channel Marketing Manager for its new Timico Partners division.
 
Greenall, a CIM qualified marketer, joins Timico after spending four and a half years as Channel Marketing Manager at Gamma Business Communications. Prior to this, she spent two years at Uniworld Communications as a Product Manager.
 
Greenall's remit is to deliver the Timico Partners channel strategy from recruitment of new partners and resellers, through to a range of marketing activities to boost the sales efforts of both Timico's dedicated channel sales team and its existing partners.
 
She said: "Joining such an established brand as Timico is a perfect opportunity for me. I was looking for a new challenge and have enjoyed being involved with the development of the Timico Partners brand right from the start.

"I'm excited about becoming an integral part of a growing and successful team, and contributing towards further successes for Timico as it enhances its relationships with SMEs across the country."
 
Darren Hilton, Director of Timico Partners, added: "Clare has a strong commercial background and a proven track record of developing a channel within the UK market. In her previous role she supported the channel and aided significant revenue growth across the entire product portfolio for three years, and we look forward to her marketing skills and knowledge having a similar effect here at Timico."
 

Unify's new worldwide channel chief Jon Pritchard is promising a root and branch re-engineering of the company's global channel strategy with a revised focus on channel development and partner recruitment.

In a no-nonsense interview at this week's Connected Business show in London, Unify's new Executive Vice President Worldwide channels told Comms Dealer that although the rebranding of Siemens Business Communications has been an unqualified success, in his view the business still lacked agility.

Alongside CEO Dean Douglas and CMO Bill Hurley, Pritchard has been recruited by Unify owner Gores Group from channel heavyweight Westcon to ramp up the company's indirect market performance.

On the back of Unify's OpenScape XI launch - a product aimed squarely at the SME sector - Pritchard aims to shatter Unify's (nee Siemens) reputation as an enterprise centric business that ‘competes with its own channel'.
?"Because of the sales DNA that exists and because of the enterprise product portfolio we have had, there is a perception that we are a direct sales organisation and we are not channel friendly," said Pritchard.

"It is true that the old Siemens had a reputation for addressing end users directly in the UK and we have now made it very clear that we will not compete with partners head-to-head. We have been inconsistent and we haven't always done the right thing by our partners. That is going to change. We are behind the curve today in terms of our partner coverage compared to what our competitors are doing.
?"We need a better partner community, we need to improve our product proposition and make it more logical and we need to make our licencing simpler, repeatable and scalable - all the things that partners need.?
"The recruitment of Dean, Bill and I sends out a huge message to the partner community that this business hasn't done a good job in the channel, but moving forward we will transform this business by changing our approach to the channel. We are committed to this."

Based on the channel development experience he gained during 11 years at Westcon, Pritchard is planning top-to-bottom cultural changes within Unify and says he will be seeking ‘committed' partners as part of a forensic scoping exercise that will ultimately move Unify away from its service focus to product and partner development.

"Sixty per cent of our business today is service based, helping partners deliver solutions and we don't want to keep doing that. We need to understand the profile of a Unify partner today who can move forward with us on our long term roadmap. We have got work to do with our partner community to make sure that they can upscale to properly address the opportunities we come across in a quality way the customer demands.

"Our channel programme is not as channel ready as it needs to be. We need to make sure that as we push back on our direct sales to focus on partners we up-skill that partner community to be able to deliver. They need to be able to stand on their own two feet and deliver these solutions themselves. They have to be committed and we have to be committed.

"We haven't made it easy for them. Our product portfolio is very complex. It is hard for them to understand where there is a sweet spot for a specific product in a specific market.

"Our products have always been driven down from the enterprise and the question has been always been ‘can we make it fit for the channel'. Now what we are saying is ‘if it isn't a channel ready we will not take it to market. Project Ansible is a great example. It is a completely new way of approaching the market place and we will make sure that it is channel ready proposition."

Pritchard says staff are behind the changes, predominantly the need to interact more with partners and is promising more direct business will be directed into the channel.

"The business is supportive of the changes we are making. People understand the issues and the challenges and understand that channel is so important to us. We have got some great strengths in the business, we just need to realign them with a different go to market strategy.

"We need to make sure we open up lines of communications with partners and our own people to look outside of the Unify bubble and make sure products are channel ready, not enterprise ready.

"And we are going to move a large chunk of our business away from direct to indirect so this a great opportunity for resellers to get a large slice of that bigger pie. We are making all the right noises but it's a transition. It's not revolutionary, it's a process. It's a journey we have to go through. We will be a channel friendly business."

Alderley Edge-based Chess has been listed for the fifth year in a row as one of the Sunday Times 100 Best Companies to Work For in the recently published 2014 list.

Only organisations with the highest level of overall employee engagement qualify for the prestigious list.

David Pollock, Chief Executive, commented, "Over the last 21 years our team has focused on building a business that is a great place to work. We firmly believe that happy people make customers happy. We're lucky to work in a fast moving, dynamic, growth industry that creates opportunities for our people to progress their careers, develop their knowledge and skill and gain rewards and recognition for their efforts. The growth and success of our people ensures the growth and success of our business and will continue to do so for years to come."

Best Companies methodology is widely recognised as the most academically rigorous measure in present workplace engagement. As part of Chess' entry it had to provide evidence of different workplace initiatives including examples of corporate social responsibility, environmental practices, employee benefit packages along with detailed training and development programmes. After the process was complete Chess was awarded a 3 star accreditation status from best companies, the highest ranking engagement benchmark the institution can bestow on a business, to go along with a ranking in their top 100 overall companies to work for.

Chess provides its people with traditional benefits such as health and pension plans, a share-option scheme and flexible working but impressed judges with more unusual benefits such as massages, breakfast clubs, flu jabs, sponsorships for qualifications, charity work and regular holiday prize draws. A Chess employee recently won a £2,500 holiday to Dubai as the winner of their Christmas conference holiday giveaway and joins a long list of Chess holiday winners.

The passion, energy and attitude that has defined Chess as such a great place to work for their people is also emulated in the work they do in the wider community, having raised over £48,000 for UK charities in 2013 alone.

The Chess people have also continued their commitment to an environmentally friendly working ethos, having been accredited with the prestigious ISO 14001 for its environmentally sustainable working practices.

Stephen Dracup, Managing Director at Chess stated: "As one team, together, we own and nurture our vision, culture and values. We're an ambitious organisation and our people work to maximise their potential, striving to be the best of the best. Our spirit inspires and motivates, it is infectious, stimulating and must never be taken for granted."

Unify has is targeting the below-30 user segment with its just launched OpenScape Business X1 appliance, offering professional voice, UC and mobility for small offices, branches and the home.

According to Unify, X1 will better enable partners to provide customers of any size with an easy to deploy, manage and use, all-in-one UC solution, and leverages their current training and investment in the complete OpenScape Business portfolio.

The OpenScape Business X1 appliance provides embedded UC features for up to 30 users, including functions such as presence, visual voicemail, voicemail to e-mail, and ad hoc conferencing.

To support anywhere workers and the new way to work, mobility is integrated with the new myPortal To Go app for Android and Apple iOS.

It provides Unify's One Number Service and offers presence, favourites, voicemail, directories and journal functionality to users wherever they choose to work, improving collaboration among virtual teams.

It also enables users to control their office phone remotely and allows dialing from smartphone contacts or a local UC smart directory when off-line.

For non-Android smartphones, such as the Windows phone, OpenScape Business offers myPortal for mobile and myPortal for tablet as a web-based solution. 

"Over the past 12 months, we have made significant market share gains in the UK mid-market with the OpenScape Business portfolio and now we have the opportunity to increase our presence in the large below 30-user segment," said Tony Smith, sales director, indirect channel, UK and Ireland, Unify. 

"We are finding smaller companies often embrace new ways of working and mobility more than their enterprise counterparts and our UC solution will enable them to harness that trend and turn it into competitive advantage."