Comms Dealer

Advanced Computer Software Group has acquired Compass Computer Consultants, and education sector software provider, for £14.5m.

Compass, based in Cheshire, provides fully integrated record management and customer relationship (CRM) systems which are used by more than 80% of UK colleges and increasingly by the Learning and Skills Council.

Compass will be integrated into the Group's Business Solutions division, where it will complement existing education software solutions for local authorities, schools, academies and higher and further education providers.

Vin Murria, CEO, Advanced Computer Software Group, said: "This is an important acquisition for Advanced because it expands our presence within the education software sector across the UK and Ireland.

"Since the launch of its first college-based software solution, ProAchieve, in 1999, Compass has earned a reputation for providing a range of solutions to meet the challenges faced by further education providers."

Compass is the second education software company acquired by Advanced. The Group acquired management information system provider, Serco Learning in December 2012. Advanced now provides technology solutions to more than 2,000 educational institutions throughout the UK and across the world.

A surprising hike in outbound minute traffic helped to spur Voiceflex towards another year of remarkable growth, according to Sales Director Paul Taylor.

He noted that 2013 outbound revenues jumped 40% compared to the previous year, and he says this growth trend is evidence of a new wave of confidence in the market for SIP trunking.

"We knew traffic and trunks where up month-on-month, but not until we analysed the figures did we realise a sharp increase in outbound," said Taylor.

"Customers want to keep their telephone numbers when moving but don't want to fully commit to SIP, so we have routed the inbound traffic over Voiceflex and outbound via ISDN, meaning that SIP is primary for inbound and backup for outbound.

"I believe all SIP providers will see an increase in outbound traffic based on the Narrow Band Market Review."

Eclipse is fizzing with excitement following the launch of its biggest ever channel incentive.

The new Fastest 4 scheme offers resellers an opportunity to speed up and get ahead with the firm's fastest four connectivity products, and the winners will continue to accelerate by racing four of Palmer Sport's fastest cars at Bedford Autodrome.

To rev-up the interest Eclipse is also launching promotional pricing on all qualifying products for the duration of the incentive (Bonded DSL, FTTC, EFM and Fibre Ethernet services).

Under the points-based scheme partners can qualify for a place at the event in June by selling any mix of services, and as few as four Ethernet connections will qualify resellers for a place on the track.

Dan Priestman (pictured), Channel Sales Manager, enthused: "I can't wait to get my racing helmet on to race as many channel partners as possible. I'm expecting our partners to hit the ground running on this great incentive. End customers are crying out for these products and we're expecting sales to really ramp up this year."

The Eclipse Fastest 4 promotion runs from 3rd February 2014 to 30th April 2014 and is open to the entire reseller channel.

Exponential-e has swooped on tech-whizz Steven Harrison to take the company's technological development to the next level while also helping to realise a number of the firm's strategic goals as a cloud and network provider.

As well as supporting commercially important bids and aligning Exponential-e's technology initiatives with its business objectives, Harrison will also serve as a 'cloud evangelist'.

Harrison joins the firm after two years as a technical solutions architect with Huawei Enterprise for the West Europe region.

His latest role in a number of high-level network engineering and architecture roles spanning 20 years with carriers, and software and technology development and vendors in Europe, Barbados and Canada.

Harrison said: "As a natural born technologist I'm always excited to be on the cusp of new innovations. More businesses are realising that having a cloud isn't enough - you also need a robust and secure network to connect you to that cloud, and key to enabling the data security and privacy levels that enterprises need.

"I'm looking forward to being part of Exponential-e as it forges the creative and bespoke solutions for enterprises."

Lee Wade, Exponential-e's CEO, added: "Steven's wealth of experience from across a range of technologies and environments means that his leadership will deliver benefits to many of our teams, including sales and solutions, cloud, voice and networks.

"His passion for technology will inspire employees, customers and prospects alike, helping us to meet and grow our vision for 2014."

UC vendor Swyx has strengthened its leadership team behind its developing cloud business with the appointment of Mathias Reidel.

The incoming Director of Business Development will primarily be responsible for the growth of the company's global SaaS Division.

Reidel has worked in the IT industry since 1997 and during the last 13 years he has played a key leadership role at Microsoft as part of its sales and organisational development with a focus on areas such as unified communications and cloud computing.

Dr. Ralf Ebbinghaus, Chief Executive Officer of Swyx, said: "With Mathias not only have we gained a valuable member of our management team we also benefit from his broad experience of business and sales development.

"Our goal is not only to become the leading supplier of SaaS based UC solutions in Germany, but to also inspire the expansion of our cloud business internationally."

Irish Java virtualisation specialist Waratek has entered into a partnership with systems integrator Darwin Solutions in a move that aims to boost the number of applications running on existing server hardware.

It means that applications can be run on existing server hardware without requiring them to rewrite existing applications, as Waratek's Java virtualisation takes core Java code and enables applications with cloud benefits and with no code change. According to Waratek, this will increase application density and enable cost cutting on Java infrastructure.

"Java is widely used in the world but it was not developed for cloud computing environments," said Damien Peat, CEO of Darwin Solutions. "This makes it difficult to run Java applications in cloud therefore we are bringing Waratek's Java virtualisation to key enterprise clients in Ireland."

European UC platform vendor Centile Telecom Applications has linked up with London-based cloud and data centre firm Pro-Net in a collaboration that enables resellers and integrators to become virtual operators.

Pro-Net launched the cloud UC service during an educational event held in Manchester late last month. The company is operating in tandem with Centile, snom and network provider Vodafone which have all joined forces to extend the Virtual Network Operator model, meaning that resellers can create their own independent hosted VoIP platform without the risks and significant investment of self-design and development.

The model means that resellers are free to focus on sales activities and ARPU while outsourcing the technical efforts to Pro-Net as the infrastructure provider including hosting, broadband and telecom interconnect.

Kenny Roberts, Development Director at Pro-Net, said: "Pro-Net has 18 years of ISP infrastructure management experience and I believe that the partnership with Centile will help resellers take their communications services to a new level. Centile's cloud UC platform will shorten resellers' time to market including hosting, VISP/VNO, UC platform and telecom interconnect."

Bertrand Pourcelot, DG at Centile, added: "The Centile cloud UC platform is a pre-integrated end-to-end solution that will give resellers and integrators the opportunity to add tangible value as service providers, own their customers and position their own private brand rather than just reselling traditional PBX brands or managed services from another operator."

A call management, reporting and recording solution designed for Panasonic systems has been attracting strong attention according to Nimans, which has reported a large audience for its first webinar on the product set.

Its partnership with Panasonic's Selected Gold Partner Poltys offers resellers bolt-on solutions that boost the performance of Panasonic systems.

Call Centre applications, business productivity, collaboration and healthcare are some of its areas of application along with dedicated modules for Panasonic's Communication Assistant productivity application suite.

An overview and demonstration of its CCView call management suite - with enhanced Automatic Call Distribution Monitoring and reporting (including wallboard functionality) took centre stage, along with a mobility solution.

"This new partnership strengthens the power of Panasonic systems and gives resellers the opportunity to clinch greater levels of business by winning new customers looking for complete solutions," said Paul Burn, Head of Category Sales at Nimans.

"Poltys is a global player in the reporting and call management arena and the webinar was a convenient way for our Panasonic customers to discover more compelling ways to capture revenue opportunities and accelerate their PBX sales.

"Poltys solutions are designed to dovetail and integrate into the Panasonic system family with high end recording and reporting features, from dial out conference services to speech recognition auto attendant  and appointment reminders - helping businesses perform smarter and more effectively across a range of vertical markets."

Burn added that more webinars will be held throughout the year.

Daisy Group has entered into a five year framework agreement to provide third party professional services and engineering support to Virgin Media, part of Liberty Global.
 
As part of the agreement, Daisy will work with Virgin Media to provide services into its enterprise customer base through project-based consultancy and professional services support.
 
Daisy has described the deal as 'the first milestone' in the growth of its partner services division, which was strengthened by the acquisitions of NetCrowd and Indecs in 2013, expanding the Group's IT services offering.
 
Daisy's partner services division is a multi-vendor specialist that provides support across traditional and IP voice systems, including Mitel and Avaya, as well as IT server and data cloud storage for leading brands including HP, Microsoft, IBM, Cisco, Sun, Dell and Oracle.

The division, which forms a part of the wholesale business, is a UK-wide engineering and professional services force, with over 250 engineers and support staff.
 
Matthew Riley, Daisy Group Chief Executive Officer, said: "Over the last year the Group has acquired businesses that have represented a strong strategic fit, with particular emphasis on bolstering Daisy's partner services offering and a continued movement away from the declining fixed-line market. This is an area where we see significant opportunity for continued growth and investment."

Check Point has posted a 5% growth to $387.1m (€286.9m) in total revenues for the fourth quarter 2013. The increase in quarterly profit was driven by better than expected sales of new data centre appliances and threat prevention software blades, it says.

The annual revenues grew by 4% year-on-year to almost $1.4bn (€1.04bn).

In Q4 GAAP net income saw a 12% growth to $194.1m (€143.8m) and non-GAAP net income stood at $192m (€142.3m) which translates into a 4% y/y increase.

For the full year of 2013, GAAP net income was $652.8m (€483.8m), an increase of 5% year-on-year, non-GAAP net income stood at $685.2m (€507.8m), an increase of 3%. In Q4 non-GAAP operating margin was 59% against 60% in the previous year.

According to Check Point, Europe delivered positive results and accounted for 37% in terms of revenues. It was overtaken by the Americas which region accounted for 47% of the revenues.

Additionally, during the last quarter of 2013 the company continued to increase its headcount, especially in sales, R&D and technical support.

"The fourth quarter represented one of the best quarters that I can remember, which is reflected in our customer wins and deferred revenues. The Americas and Europe delivered great results that were driven by the strength of our new data centre appliances and next generation threat prevention software blades".

"We finished 2013 on a strong note, underscoring the strength of our advanced technologies and highlighting the success of our software blades and data centre appliances," said Gil Shwed, founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Check Point Software Technologies.