Comms Dealer

Claranet has expanded its European footprint with the acquisition of Portuguese managed hosting and applications provider Echiron, the latest in a string of acquisitions.

The Claranet Group now boasts annual revenues in excess of €155m, around 750 employees, over 4,500 customers and operations in six European countries (France, UK, Germany, The Netherlands, Spain and Portugal).

Echiron has annual revenues of around €5m a year and builds Claranet's position in Portugal, making it one of the main providers of managed hosting and applications services in the region. 

António Miguel Ferreira, MD at Claranet Portugal, said: "The acquisition is part of Claranet's overall growth strategy and allows us to expand our teams and our service offerings. It confirms our ambition to become the leading independent provider of managed services in Europe."

Avnet Technology Solutions has launched the Altitude programme in the UK aimed at promoting EMC storage and back-up devices for SMBs.

Avnet Technology Solutions' partners now have access to EMC's range of VNXe storage solutions and Data Domain back-up products following a new supplier agreement.

To speed time to market the distributor has launched a new programme, called Altitude, which consists of an online configuration tool that business partners can use to calculate pricing for EMC products without the need to contact either Avnet or EMC.

Lee Bushnell, EMC business manager, Avnet Technology Solutions, UK, said: "We believe the next 12 months will see a high level of growth in terms of companies leveraging existing network technology and adding storage functionality to their data centre environments. The new Altitude portal will give Avnet business partners an advantage in terms of speed of response to such opportunities."

Terry Beale, channel director at EMC, added: "Offering storage and back-up devices for SMBs with minimum delay makes sound business sense. Avnet has already demonstrated its ability to act quickly and efficiently by setting up this programme, and we look forward to working together to maximise this market opportunity."

Exponential-e has lifted the lid on CloudNet, a business-class fibre connection that comes bundled with Internet and direct private access to multiple cloud services with a single end-to-end SLA.

Exponential-e has integrated its cloud infrastructure with its own UK network to offer free-to-connect private connections from company offices or data centres direct into a range of pay-as-you-go cloud services. The Cloud connections bypass the Internet thereby negating serious business concerns regarding data security and Internet performance issues, said the firm.

CloudNet offers multiple private connections to various cloud services over a single 100 or 1000Mbps fibre connection, the same fibre connection it delivers business Internet services on.

Exponential-e has recognised that standard Internet connections are no longer enough for businesses, as witnessed in the consumer market with triple-play entertainment packages.

Lee Wade, Exponential-e CEO said: "This cloud-network innovation resolves the data security and privacy concerns many companies have regarding the adoption of cloud services."

Dave Joplin, Exponential-e's Head of Channel, added: "CloudNet delivers the agility and flexibility the cloud promises, without any of the previous concerns end-users had about Cloud technology - namely, security and privacy of their data.

"Companies today require cloud with a dynamic agility to react to the changing needs of business, providing connectivity, compute, storage and voice - a cloud and network connection where both are elastic and can scale up or down on demand as well as being cost effective, which is what CloudNet delivers."

BT has entered the audio conferencing market with its first professional grade device as part of an exclusive supply partnership with Nimans.

The X500 boasts four wireless microphones for meetings of up to 16 people - in addition to a large base speaker for high quality audio performance. Dynamic noise reduction and echo cancellation are combined with full duplex functionality, a 6m connection cable and 50 name and number directory.

Ian Brindle, Nimans' Head of Conferencing Sales, said: "This is a cost effective out-of-the-box complete conferencing solution. The wireless microphones add a dynamic dimension to any conference call ensuring all parties can easily be heard. They sit neatly within the unit when not in use as part of a compact, user friendly and easy to use overall design."

BT Account Director, Phil Jones, added: "Over the last 12 months BT has diversified into other complementary product sectors such as broadband extender plugs and headsets. Audio conferencing was the next logical step and we are delighted by the exceptional value and high performance of this device."

Avnet Technology Solutions has named Marc van Ierland as country manager for Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg (Benelux), effective immediately.

With more than 20 years experience in distribution, Marc joined Avnet in November 2007 as part of the ACAL acquisition. In his time at Avnet he has held several management roles covering multiple business units. Most recently Marc was sales director, Avnet Technology Solutions, for the IBM, Oracle, networking, security and document management business units in the Benelux. 

Andrew Binding, vice president, Avnet Technology Solutions EMEA, South Region commented, "Marc is a well-known and respected leader and has a proven track record in developing and managing highly motivated teams. I am confident that Marc will lead our Benelux operations to even greater success in the future."

Colt has agreed a partnership with Insight Enterprises to deliver networking, cloud and data centres services to Insight's 80,000 customers across Europe. Through Insight's cloud brand, customers will gain access to the IT services that Colt has developed specifically for the channel to take to market.

"This is another milestone in our journey to take our cloud services portfolio to market across Europe" said Scott Holmes, Director, Cloud Services North Region, at Colt.

Mobile airtime provider Daisy Distribution is cock-a-hoop having bagged the O2 Distribution Partner of the Year award for 2013 at the operator's annual partner conference.

The accolade, picked up at O2's conference dinner which took place on 30th January at The Riverbank Plaza Hotel, London, recognises Daisy Distribution's impressive net connections performance and revenue growth in 2013.

Dave McGinn, Managing Director at Daisy Distribution, said: "Although we continually perform strongly on customer acquisition, our goal for 2013 was to further improve our retention performance. This reward is a great testament to the hard work we put in over the past year and to the efforts of our teams and partners in delivering great business."

Angie Simpson, O2's Head of Distribution Partners, commented: "O2 and Daisy Distribution have enjoyed an excellent working relationship in 2013 and our strategic alignment has helped forge a closer working relationship over the last 12 months."

In an update to its 2008 and 2011 reports, Arthur D. Little has reviewed the performance of leading telecom suppliers in its latest Viewpoint 'suppliers - on the Road to Redemption?'.

The Viewpoint is based on a global survey of over 150 Chief Technology Officers and Chief Procurement Officers.

"After four tough years and significant M&A activity, the industry is showing initial signs of market repair," stated Clemens Schwaiger, a Principal in Arthur D. Little's TIME practice. "As a result of a number of consolidations and positive underlying demand for its equipment and services."

In 2012, 56 per cent of the top 26 operators spent more revenue on Capex than in 2011. This trend is expected to continue, leading to the telecom network equipment and services market delivering healthy growth of 3 to 4 percent CAGR between 2012 and 2017.

According to the survey, LTE/SAE, All-IP (Edge and Core), and Network Maintenance and Operations will be the fastest-growing segments.

However, the industry is still generating little cash despite turnover of USD 125 billion and positive top-line growth. In 2012, the five dominant players generated only USD 8 billion in net operating cash flow. This is an issue, as financial stability is one of the key criteria in procurement decisions.

Asian players have made considerable inroads, now accounting for 38 percent of industry revenue. Many operators see Huawei as an incumbent. Ericsson is another leader, followed by NSN, Alcatel Lucent, and ZTE. A majority of respondents expect the industry to move toward a competitive market of four financially healthy players with comparable product portfolios.

Network equipment suppliers are changing their business offerings to align with the strategic needs of telecom operators, positioning themselves as high-end managed service providers.

"Suppliers and operators will need to work together to manage the transition from growth to efficiency," said Karim Taga, Global Leader of Arthur D. Little's TIME practice. "The business models of operators will dramatically change, and suppliers must respond."

Nimans has added to its iQ PBX family of IP-based solutions with the new x600i, an enhanced version of its predecessor that's capable of 25 concurrent calls and offers an optional hotel module, soft client capabilities, call recording via USB and call logging software. RJ11 sockets are now front facing along with WAN, LAN and USB ports.

Nimans is the exclusive UK distributor of the gateway solution which is available in four versions, from the sub 12 extension market up to over 300 users.

iQ PBX Business Manager, Judith Addison, said: "Thex6000i represents a major step forward and provides resellers with even more ways to capture additional business. It's been redesigned, boasts added processing power and represents exceptional value for money as part of a very powerful all-round package."

Channel Telecom has unveiled a new portal providing partners with a secure Intranet for pricing with supporting information and product collateral.

The portal has a pricing tool for all the carrier networks that Channel Telecom is contracted. This makes it easy to check and compare prices without the need to contact Channel Telecom support staff.

Partners can also find details of any special offers or discounts that Channel Telecom is running currently. The updated portal is intended to make the pricing process faster and more efficient.

Clifford Norton, Managing Director, said: "Together with our website and our personal phone support the new portal will be an important information source for our partners. It gives access to the latest pricing and tariffs instantly online together with details of special incentives that we are running."