Comms Dealer

Exertis Micro-P has combined its two businesses in Stoke-nn-Trent, Staffordshire, into a new building doubling the size of its previous office capacity.

The new office measures 10,500 square feet, versus the former office's 5,000 square feet, and houses Exertis Security, Exertis GEM Design Services, the northern team for Conect, and Exertis Micro-P Mobile North (that encompasses the mobile and accessories teams and the nationwide airtime team).

The distributor has had presence in the area since the acquisition of Tekdata Distribution in 2008, and has made the move as part of its plans for continued expansion in mobility, unified communication and managed security services.

Gerry O'Keeffe, MD, Exertis UK & Ireland Group, said: "This move is strategic for the development of Exertis. In terms of space, we now have the room to grow our teams, and we can dedicate even more resources to our customers, bringing them to us for planning meetings, vendor training days and more.

"This new office brings our company closer together under the Exertis brand, creating tighter working relationships, strengthening internal relationships and allowing more communication between departments.

"2014 is set to be a year of tremendous growth for Exertis Micro-P. We have invested £1.5m in purchasing this site, which is testament to our long-term plans to build significant sales capacity in the Stoke-on-Trent area.

"We now employ over 60 people in the area and see it as a very promising hinterland for the recruitment of quality sales people."

The new Stoke office also has training and support facilities, including two fully equipped large boardrooms for meetings and interactive planning sessions, a training room with full resources, and is the home of the Exertis Micro-P Mobile Evaluation Scheme that has expanded greatly since its launch two years ago.

Channel Telecom's new offices were officially opened on 31 January by Eleanor Laing, MP for Epping Forest and Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons.

The offices in Buckhurst Hill, Essex, provide the company with room for expansion.

Clifford Norton, MD, said: "The move allows us to further expand our operations and to recruit additional staff. Our goal is always to meet and exceed the expectations of our channel partners and their customers, so high levels of customer support are essential to our business model."

Laing added: "It's so good to see a business that started locally staying local while going from strength to strength, doubling its turnover every year. It is also great to see employment opportunities for bright and enterprising people in the local area."

Pictured: Eleanor Laing MP cuts the ribbon officially opening Channel Telecom's new offices flanked by (left) Clifford Norton, Managing Director and Channel Telecom staff.

Machine to Machine (M2M)) service revenues will reach $20bn globally in 2015 as players across the M2M industry focus on simplifying the process of rolling out M2M for the end user, according to a new report from Juniper Research.

The report also noted that the monetisation opportunities offered by M2M differ significantly according to the industry to which it is being applied.

While telematics is positive, smart metering, despite high forecast numbers and regulatory drivers, is still struggling to find an avenue for revenue generation, reckons Juniper.

In all sectors service revenues will substantially exceed revenues from managing connectivity throughout the forecast period, says the report.
The study also notes that faster mobile broadband networks would impact on M2M use cases, noting that M2M service provision based on 4G LTE technology was beginning to find a market in CCTV, mobile POS (Point of Sale), digital signage and as a backup for fixed broadband services.

Meanwhile the report found that operators are increasingly deploying sophisticated cloud based APIs to address the increased complexities of the M2M industry.

However, it argued that M2M specialist players are the primary creators of the ecosystems behind M2M deployments.

"Operators continue to play a fundamental role in M2M,\" said report author Anthony Cox. "But there is still significant scope for new players focusing on either new technology approaches, or a particular angle of the M2M market.\"

Maintel's technical expertise has been recognised by vendor partner Avaya which handed over the Technical Excellence Award 2014 to the services company at its National Partner Conference.

Kevin Stevens, Group Operations Director, Maintel, said: "This is a fantastic accolade for Maintel and something we are so proud to have been awarded in front of our competitors and peers.

"Having such an award next to our name will naturally stand us in good stead when working with our customers, partners and prospects.

"This is the best possible for way for Maintel to have started 2014."

The award reflects Maintel's know-how around Avaya's core portfolio of video, data, unified comms, call centre and SME products.

Maintel also holds Avaya Platinum Business Partner status and is the only Avaya partner in the UK to hold all five Expert accreditations: Networking, SME, Contact Centre, Unified Communications and Unified Messaging. Just two companies in Europe have achieved this level of competence.

Elitetele.com has acquired London-based Modern Communications for an undisclosed sum, completing the company's ninth acquisition since 2008.

The acquisition is the first of 2014 and will add approximately 300 customers, over £3m of revenue and nine new staff members to the Elite Telecom Group.

Matt Newing, founder and CEO of Elitetele.com, said: "Modern Communications was a targeted acquisition for us as we continue to expand our presence in London. It is the third acquisition we have made in the capital in total and we see this as a key platform for future national and international growth."

Modern Communications was founded in 1998 and provides business telephony, fixed line services, connectivity, hosted IP and business continuity. 

Newing added: "With Modern Communications comes great new supplier and partner contracts, including longstanding relationships with global leaders in hybrid cloud solutions. This greatly enhances Elite's portfolio of virtual and next gen products, furthering our footprint within the UC sector and ensuring we continue to operate above the market."

Adrian Barnard, founder and MD of Modern Communications, said: "Elite shares the same vision and foundations on which Modern Communications was built and I am delighted for us to become part of the Elite business. 

"The company is dynamic and forward thinking.  This acquisition enables us to enhance the provisioning of unified communications services further afield."

Newing added: "Growth by acquisition is a key part of our strategy to double the size of the business by 2015."

SpliceCom's new PCS 552G IP Phone lowers the cost of entry for Gigabit networking, claims Robin Hayman, SpliceCom's Director of Product Management & Marketing.

Based on the manufacturer's existing PCS 552 handset the 'G' variant adds a two port1,000 Mbps switch to the existing 100/10 Mbps connections.

"As Gigabit Power over Ethernet switches become commodity products, we're getting ever increasing requests to supply large numbers of Gigabit phones from those who want to buy our systems, particularly in the education market," explained Hayman.

Mitel has completed its merger with Aastra Technologies, creating a business with $1.1bn of combined annual revenue and 60 million customers worldwide.

Mitel now has one of the largest global footprints in the industry and says it is driving consolidation in the US$18 billion business communications market. 

Claiming number one market share in Western Europe and a top five position globally Mitel is well positioned to capitalise on a global growth opportunity as the market begins a long-term migration to cloud-based services, according to Richard McBee, President and Chief Executive Officer of Mitel.

"With this merger the combined annual revenue of Mitel exceeds a billion dollars, which we believe creates the financial scale and operational leverage to drive shareholder value and profitable growth in an opportunity-rich consolidating market.

"We now have double the talent, tools and range of solutions to aggressively compete for a greater share of our market."

The company anticipates approximately $50m of run rate synergies within two and a half years, driven by supply chain optimisation, facilities consolidation and economies of scale.

With the merger completed, Mitel expects the combined cash flow will allow for ongoing debt repayment and is expected to provide Mitel liquidity and flexibility to pursue growth opportunities.

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.