Comms Dealer

Nimans' Network Services division has a new mantra for 2014 and will be beating the 'Operational Excellence' drum as the next phase in its growth strategy.

"Last year we committed to improving service to our resellers and in the most part we delivered on that promise," explained Mark Curtis-Wood, Head of Network Services.

"We invested heavily into additional resources and now have better visibility and control of our in-house service team. This was delivered alongside continued growth in our reseller channel and specifically the Wholesale Mobile side of our business. Overall we had our best year ever for Nimans Network Services.

"This year as we build on improvements made in 2013, I want to step up the expectation and the focus will be on 'Operational Excellence'. We have launched an internal initiative to drive this forward already and work has commenced on an online portal to ensure we deliver more automation of some of our manual processes."

Curtis-Wood noted a number of trends - the rise of Machine 2 Machine (M2M), Mobile Device Management (MDM) and the shift to users becoming more mobile (Mobility).

"In light of this we are advising resellers to have a closer look at the growing influence of tablets which are great for capturing notes, displaying images and presentations and allowing users to travel light as they can integrate applications on one device as opposed to switching between a mobile and laptop," he added.

"We are continuing to invest and grow the channel at a time when other industries are restricting business, as we enable our partners to sell many different services, which means we all can expect an even bigger and better 2014."

ScanSource Communications has been awarded Distributor of the Year in the UK by Avaya based on its year-over-year growth, expansion of IP Office business and support to resellers.

Barry Tuffs, Sales Leader, Avaya UK, said: "With all the economic challenges we saw in FY13 there was one distributor, ScanSource, that managed some outstanding performances with year-over-year growth and the highest network/IP Office attach rates.

"ScanSource continues to invest in the Avaya brand and is a worthy winner of this year's distributor of the year award."

Enterprise software is the winner in IDC's latest picture of IT spending in 2014. According to the new International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Black Book, IT spending will be inhibited by the economic slowdown in emerging markets in 2014, in addition to an inevitable deceleration in the growth of smartphones and tablets.

IDC has lowered its forecasts for IT market growth in Asia Pacific (including China), Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa, driving down its forecast for Worldwide IT spending growth to 4.6% this year in constant currency terms (down from the previous forecast of 5%). With currency devaluation and inflation likely to inhibit business confidence in many emerging economies in the first half of this year, and with the explosive growth of mobile devices having begun to inevitably cool from the breakneck pace of the past 2-3 years, overall industry growth will dip slightly from last year's pace of 4.8%.

While overall industry growth has cooled, some areas of tech spending are heating up as businesses in mature economies including the US and Western Europe, begin to invest in overdue infrastructure upgrades and replacements. Spending on servers will increase by 3%, after last year's decline of 4%, and storage spending will also grow by 3% this year (following a 0.5% decline in 2013). The PC market is showing tentative signs of stabilisation, with improving commercial shipments in mature markets. The increased pace of hardware investment will have a positive effect on IT services revenue, which is forecasted to post growth of 4% this year (up from 3% in 2013). Enterprise software spending remains broadly strong, with growth still expected in the range of 6-7%. Excluding mobile phones, IT spending growth will actually accelerate in 2014 from 2.9% last year (excluding phones) to 3.4% this year.

"The inevitable slowdown in the explosive pace of smartphones and tablets is masking an underlying improvement in many areas of IT spending," said Stephen Minton, Vice President in IDC's Global Technology and Industry Research Organization (GTIRO). "Businesses in mature economies are beginning to feel more confident about the economy compared to a year ago, and this is translating into new IT investments. There's significant pent-up demand in the US and Europe for infrastructure upgrades, capacity and bandwidth investments, and overdue replacement cycles. Many businesses will choose to fix the roof while the sun is shining in 2014."

Exchange rate volatility is likely to exert a strong influence over IT revenues for global suppliers this year (in US dollar terms, the IT market grew by just 2.8% in 2013, compared to 4.8% in constant currency, due to the strength of the dollar). It's too early to predict whether the dollar will remain strong throughout 2014, but the Fed's decision to begin tapering its QE program will clearly exert a strong influence in the first half of the year. Not only will this create volatility for IT vendors during earnings season, but it may also create economic instability in key emerging markets.

"What goes up, must come down, and emerging markets have been on the down slope since last year," continued Minton. "The good news is that, at the same time, mature economies have stabilised significantly. The US seems to be heading in the right direction, and the worst of the crisis may be over in Europe. While growth in mature economies will still lag emerging markets in most cases, the balance of risks has shifted considerably."

Despite the pickup in mature economies, there are still significant inhibitors that will mean that IT spending growth remains moderate by historical standards. Cannibalisation remains a broad trend, impacting everything from PCs (tablets) to software and services (Cloud) and ensuring major disruption for individual vendors. Price erosion and commoditisation in hardware have spread to mobile devices. While showing signs of bottoming out, the PC market continues to post year-on-year declines in revenue terms, and telecom infrastructure investment remains tepid in many countries as carriers compete for a more mature customer base.

"Any increase in the sense of uncertainty surrounding the global economy, will only add to cannibalisation and price erosion in the near term," said Minton. "IT buyers are already taking a long time to evaluate major IT projects, and focusing on ways to 'do more with less' in the face of frugal CIO budgeting. The industry remains vulnerable to an economic slowdown."

An eBook produced by Entanet aims to help resellers better understand the market for IP VPNs and comes following a period in which the company has witnessed a sharp rise in demand for VPN solutions.

Darren Farnden, Head of Marketing, said: "Over the past year we've helped hungry partners increase their pipeline of high value IP VPN business by 50%.

"We've been guiding them on how to identify opportunities, scope requirements and sell solutions effectively. That approach is working and we think more partners could benefit. The demand is clearly there, it's just that many customers don't know about the benefits of IP VPNs."

Farnden says that by getting a good understanding of the business benefits, resellers can approach customers with confidence and build good relationships.

"If they can help the customer see the positive impact an IP VPN can deliver, resellers can add genuine value and create good long-term relationships with 'sticky' customers that will provide a strong base for the future of their own business and support their growth plans."

To help resellers get started and introduce its IP VPN services, Entanet produced the eBook, called 'An insight into IP VPNs', designed to highlight the advantages and benefits of the solution and will help resellers to gain the level of understanding and confidence they need to talk customers through the options.

More companies are warming to the idea of moving their comms services to the cloud but despite this growing level of confidence the thought of migrating their finance and accounting applications sends a chill wind through them.

According to cloud service provider Outsourcery it is the channel’s job to ease concerns over the transfer of financial applications to the cloud.

The Cloud Industry Forum says concerns are prevalent with up to 83% of businesses not adopting hosted or cloud-based services for accounting and finance applications.

Adam Cathcart, Head of Channel at Outsourcery, noted: "Moving applications to the cloud has become a popular choice for many companies but there is a clear tendency for many businesses to keep their financial applications in-house.

"This could be because they are concerned about adhering to specific regulatory requirements but the message needs to be conveyed that cloud can be configured to meet this type of business need.

"The problem for VARs is to make sure that they understand these regulatory issues and explain the options to their customers clearly.\"

According to Cathcart the perception of regulatory obligations may in many cases be misleading in terms of their complexity. "For example, a requirement as simple as making sure you know where your data is stored, or ensuring it is stored in the UK, can easily be achieved by choosing the right CSP,\" he added.

"As the channel becomes more comfortable talking to end users about the details of cloud and the options for different applications, the perceived risks will begin to be expelled.\"

Apprenticeships in ICT are growing in popularity among both employers and young people according to figures released by the National Apprenticeship Service.

The quarterly Apprenticeship Index reveals a 13% increase in Apprenticeship vacancies in the sector posted online on the Apprenticeship vacancies website between August and October 2013 (Academic Year Q1 2013/14) compared to the same period the previous year (1,920 vacancies were advertised over the three months versus 1,700 in 2012).

But with online applications in the sector leaping by 42% (to 37,690) and every vacancy now attracting an average of 20 applications, the Government is urging employers to create more Apprenticeship positions in order to meet the demand.

London saw the greatest increase in vacancies in the sector (53% increase) while the north west recorded the biggest jump in applications (76% increase).

The Index also reveals that apprenticeships are attracting increasing numbers of applications from female candidates.

Online applications from women across all industries have increased by more than half since 2012, with 216,100 applications made by females in the three month period, a 55% increase.

This has also served to narrow the male gender bias, with 47% of all applications for Apprenticeships made by females last year compared to 43% the previous year.

Matthew Hancock MP, Skills and Enterprise Minister, said: "These figures show that apprenticeships are growing in appeal to young people, and yet more young women are seeking out this unique opportunity to earn while they learn and gain a recognised qualification while notching up vital work experience.?

"With new independent research revealing that one in five employers currently have former apprentices working in senior, board level, positions, it's also very encouraging to see vacancies increasing and new employers coming on board.

"But with each online position attracting an average of 12 applications, demand continues to outstrip supply and I would urge more employers to consider how they can take advantage of this available pool of talent and grow their business through apprenticeships."

ICT service provider PSU Technology Group (PSU) has expanded its Gloucestershire HQ to over 10,000 square feet, enabling it to enhance its service delivery and range of products and services that includes IT managed services support, unified communications and connectivity.

Michael Lounton, MD, said: "This expansion is reflective of our evolutionary journey into a fully unified ICT service provider. As well as providing extra room for growth the space will enable us to better align resources around service delivery and engage in more product development work."

It seems that January pay day precipitated the greatest number of resignations across UK industry for many a year. It sounds paradoxical, but if you want to improve your job prospects the best thing you can do is leave your job, writes Clive Jefferys, JMA Network.

It turns out a lot of people have secured a new role in January and have just broken the news to their current boss. The economy is moving forward at an increasing pace. With two per cent GDP growth last year newsreaders have had the unusual experience of reporting positive statistics, one after another.

Politicians, economists and pundits have been cautious in expressing their joy not wishing to brag, but as my Egyptian friend once said, 'If you want to keep your candle alight, keep it covered!'.

The purchasing index indicates that we are entering a period of significant investment in industry. In other words, lots of capital goods and services sales, and of course the telecoms industry will directly benefit. Presumably this will improve worker productivity too as companies invest in Bigger, Better, Faster tools for their staff.

Across my network of contacts within the channel and fellow recruiters the message is the same - every company wants to expand but can't find the staff because people are hesitant about moving jobs.

The plain fact is that the UK has full employment in so-called white collar professions and so there just aren't any more people to hire. We need the good news to spread and build confidence and find ways to tempt people onboard.

In the meantime employers are fighting over talent and as one of my clients said to me, iIt's like trying to run a football team without having developed the youth squad for the last five years'. It's become a bidding war for the few players that are up for transfer.

In Recruitment Land the big word is Headhunting, and I'm inundated with invitations to seminars to teach me what I already know. The solution is straightforward, but tough to implement. It's not what you know, but WHO you know, that's what vital to securing the right people for your role.

Adept Telecom CEO Ian Fishwick has been appointed SME Director for PSNGB, the industry association for Public Service Network suppliers.

In tandem with driving forward Adept's growth strategy he aims to champion the cause of all SMEs and work closely with government and the Cabinet Office to uncover easier ways for the Public Sector to do business with SMEs.

Fishwick said: "Being appointed as SME Director of PSNGB is a great honour because the directors are elected by the various Telecom companies, large and small, that comprise the PSNGB trade association.

"This is a clear sign of the respect with which Adept Telecom is held by its peers and the growing recognition that Adept is an important government supplier."

The government wants to do away with individual stand-alone networks for each major department such as Defence, Justice, Health etc, in favour of a single network - the Public Service Network (PSN).

"The concept put simply is that suppliers all provide connectivity to the same technical standards so that all local and central government networks are interoperable," added Fishwick.

"The PSN will then become the key enabler for a whole range of new ways of delivering online services and the adoption of cloud-based offerings.

The key challenge is to ensure that all of the contracts don't go to the normal winners, the large telcos."

Fishwick's remit includes identifying barriers to entry for SMEs and then persuade government to remove them. "We are pushing at a door that is already partially open," he added.

"Sir Francis Maude, the Paymaster General, has already set ambitious targets for the proportion of ICT spend that should be placed with SMEs."

Contact: ian.fishwick@psngb.org

Extreme Networks has introduced a product that analyses networks in a way that increases end user and channel knowledge of how customers are using their apps.

Purview is built on patented ASIC technology and provides visibility into application use across the network, capturing network data and then aggregating, analysing, correlating, characterising and finally reporting the data to provide insights into how and why systems and users perform.

Purview works with with Extreme Networks solutions, or networks from any other Ethernet switching vendor.

UK&I Head Steve Johnson said: "It enables channels and providers to become consultants on policies,. The network is a strategic investment and the CIO needs to be able to analyse it and provide insights."