Comms Dealer

Union Street Technologies has added an SQL training course to its customer training programme.

Microsoft SQL Server is the relational database management system on which the aBILLity billing platform is based.

The course has been developed by Union Street's training and consultancy team to cater for complete beginners to the world of SQL, although it assumes a basic level of IT literacy and familiarity with the telecoms industry.

The course's itinerary includes an introduction to what SQL is, how it works, how to extract and view data, and how to create bespoke reports. This is ideal for any aBILLity users that might need to create specific reports that go beyond aBILLity's core reporting tools.

In addition, the course demonstrates the best practices to deploy when using SQL, providing tips on good housekeeping and maintenance, including how to back up databases and schedule backups into automated daily routines.

Union Street Managing Director, Tony Cook, said: "We're continually developing our training programme to ensure our clients have access to all the knowledge they need to use aBILLity to its full potential.

"We're proud to provide more than just basic product training but also advice on best practices and the significant benefits of advanced training."

IT consultancy and solutions provider Northdoor has entered into a new franchise partnership with Colt.

Northdoor will now offer a broader range of services to its customers, including Colt's Ethernet, IP VPN, IP Access and Voice services.
 
Northdoor will also benefit from a dedicated account team, marketing support, technical training programme and partner tools. 

The agreement enables Northdoor to represent Colt at every stage of the customer relationship from selling the service portfolio through to order handling, implementation and billing.
 
David Ballard, CEO, Northdoor, said: "Entering into a partnership with Colt brings many advantages to our customers, helping them to continue to achieve their business objectives through IT enablement."
 
Carol Alexander, Director of Franchise Channel at Colt, added: "Offering Northdoor the opportunity to sell integrated network and communications services under the Colt brand will accelerate the reach of our services."

Cheltenham-based Total has renewed its sponsorship of Gloucestershire County Cricket Club for the 2014 season, as official Club Partner.

Total first became shirt sponsors of the Gloucestershire Cricket squad in 2009, further increasing its support as the official Club Partner from 2011.

This new agreement will see Total continue as official Club Partner and as Shirt Sponsors of the squad for 2014, with their company logo appearing on the back of all LV=CC, Royal London One-Day Cup and NatWest T20 Blast shirts worn by the players.

Their logo will also appear on the front of the LV=CC and Royal London One-Day Cup shirts and on replica shirts available from the club shop.

Total MD Stuart Baikie said: "2014 looks set to be an exciting season for Gloucestershire and we are very pleased to continue as official Club Partner and Sponsor.

"The new Pavilion is a fantastic facility and with the completion of the Mound Stand and the return of International cricket to the County Ground, we are looking forward to working closely together and sharing in the Club's successes both on and off the pitch."

Communications service provider Timico has launched a new channel business, Timico Partners, as the 2010-acquired NewNet rebrands under the Timico banner.

Timico Partners will form a new but distinct organisation with channel expertise from across the Timico group and a 100% focus on providing converged Internet and communications services to MSPs, IT VARs and telecoms resellers.

The launch will see a dedicated partner team based in Fareham, offering a technical helpdesk, technical engineers, project management, technical pre-sales support and assistance from channel business development managers.

Timico Partners also offers a dedicated partner portal.

Timico Partners' Director of Partner Services Darren Hilton, said: "As well as creating bespoke partnership arrangements which reward growth with exclusive incentives and initiatives designed to add real value, we are also passionate about training our partners.

"We have invested more than £600k in our PartnerEye portal, which makes life easier for our partners by helping them manage their own bespoke ordering, billing and reporting."

Partners can leverage Timico's own national 10Gbps MPLS network, carrier-grade VoIP/SIP platform and Tier 3+ data centre, combined with in-depth expertise to support every technical discipline.

Hilton added: "Timico is a specialist in Ethernet, broadband, VoIP, SIP and managed hosting solutions, so we will be able to gather all of this knowledge in one place and pass it on to help our partners grow and develop alongside us."

Cloud and SaaS specialist intY has signed an agreement with Microsoft that sees Office 365 made available in a recurring revenue resale model for the first time to its high volume strategic partners.

The announcement enables selected intY strategic partners to resell rather than recommend Microsoft Office 365, bringing with it new margin and service opportunities for these partners who are now able to directly bill all services supplied.

Chris Baldock, CEO of intY, said: "To date many of our major partners struggled with the existing referral-only model for Office 365, with one sticking point being the billing relationship owned by Microsoft or the Syndication Partner making it difficult for complementary services to be provided by the channel on one bill.

"This agreement puts our larger channel partners firmly back in the driving seat - they become a reseller with margin and value-add as opposed to a recommender with a commission payment. Ultimately, they own that all important customer relationship."

Within intY's aggregation platform, intY CASCADE, selected partners can set their own price, be in control of margin, and bundle other complementary products and value-add service functionality with Office 365, all whilst billing the customer directly.

"This will spur a further migration towards Office 365", said Baldock. "The next phase of customer adoption is highly reliant upon channel partners for migration, support and integration, the path is now clear for rapid uptake.

"With Office 365 being available in a resale model for intY CASCADE strategic partners, plus the guarantee of the latest Microsoft capability and service, we expect this market to accelerate at pace."

Mark Herbert, Business Development Director and Founder of intY, added: "This is the shape of things to come. We've been in the SaaS space since the start, and we've always believed that the right combination of Microsoft and the cloud would be a game changer for channel consumption."

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.