Comms Dealer

South West Communications Group has launched a webinar series to offer its customers and prospects a more efficient means of keeping up-to-date with changes in business technology.

The company aims to hold a webinar every month tailored to either a marketing vertical or a communications solution.

Its first webinar on telephony technology is due to be held next week and is aimed at GP surgeries and the health sector.

Sarah Flowers, South West Communication Group's sales director, said: "Businesses don't always want to read emails, brochures and case studies or have time for a seminar or face-to-face meeting; but they still have a need to learn more about the technology that exists that may help their day to day working practices, save them money and enhance their customer service.

"These webinars offer a more engaging way for business managers to gain the information they may need in just half an hour, without having to leave their desks. One of our experts will guide them through the topic of the webinar with a PowerPoint presentation as a visual aid and an instant messaging chat box available for any questions."

Frontier Voice and Data has entered the mobile accessory market in a move that brings additional revenue streams for resellers, claimed Michael J Thornton, Director.

The company has launched a new website that showcases 'all things mobile and gadgets', noted Thornton, adding that the accessory market is a natural next step for the firm.

"We have sourced and made available a range of mobile and gadget accessories. Our channel partners now have the ability to supply their customers directly via the portal and have products delivered directly on their account with Frontier."

Square 1 Products has lifted the curtain on its new website where a range of white label professional services can be found along with a rounded product portfolio combining networking and IT hardware with AV products from tier 1 brands and smaller manufacturers.

"We will be adding other new vendors shortly so watch this space," enthused Sales Director Gary Conner.

"As well as using the website to launch our solutions based approach along with our new look logo, resellers will also see the introduction of our Members Area and the Square Miles loyalty programme."

The Square 1 Products Member's Area provides access to product technical documents and brochures and a selection of whitepapers and marketing materials fully downloadable for resellers to add their own logo and distribute as their own.

"The new Square Miles loyalty programme has been created to reward all reseller partners for working with us," added Conner.

"Square Miles are accumulated with everyday business purchases and redeemed against our full range of business products and services, or with your own loyalty card our partners are free to buy branded consumer goods, experiences and holidays or even make charitable donations."

GCI Channel Solutions has joined forces with Taylor Made Computer Solutions in a link-up that sees the reseller provide its customers with GCI's Ethernet and MPLS services.

The Fareham-based managed service provider has been in operation for 20 years and offers IT services to businesses across the UK.

GCI's MD John Whitty commented: "Our product strategy is aligned with Taylor Made's medium and long-term strategic goals to fulfil large or small high margin long-term contracts with little capex expenditure.

"GCIs Channel products are aimed at helping partners like Taylor Made increase ARPU and company valuation. We have spent millions on a robust network which means our partners don't have to and can concentrate their time on bringing on new customers."

Taylor Made's MD Tim Walker added: "Choosing the right technology partners for our business is an important part of maintaining our position and GCI ticked all the boxes."

Network solutions and virtual data services provider Fusion Media Networks and UK-based SIP carrier tIPicall have joined forces in a deal that gives tIPicall resellers direct access to Fusion's core Ethernet network infrastructure, which boasts more than 12,000 points of presence across millions of kilometres of fibre.

Fusion partners gain access to tIPicall's low cost SIP solution which combined with the Fusion network offers end-to-end QoS for voice and multi-media communications.

Steve Harrington, tIPicall's Sales Director, said: "Voice and collaboration solutions continue to evolve and the demand for reliable SIP connectivity has never been higher.

"The reach of Fusion's network means we can now extend our footprint in the UK and penetrate new markets."

The partnership comes six months after Fusion moved into Volta's Great Sutton Street data centre, the high specification, ultra-low latency facility located in central London.

Sean Pearman, Fusion's Channel Sales Manager, added: "Our investment in virtualisation and cloud services delivered from Volta's data centre has given our resellers the opportunity to tap into these profitable, recurring revenues. tIPicall partners can now take advantage of these services."

Pictured: Harrington (left) with Pearman at Fusion's private suite in Volta Great Sutton Street.

Piran Consulting has established a foothold in the heart of London, relocating to the City centre. The move follows the merger of Jam ICT and Piran Partners LLP last year, a marriage that created Piran Consulting.

The company has a particular focus on enabling organisations to monetise mobile technology and its relocation offers easy access to customers and signifies its interest in the emergence of Tech City.

Piran Chairman Andy Dewhurst said: "Our business is developing rapidly as mobile becomes central to business strategy, and this move to the heartland of the financial services industry, close to the emerging technologies of Tech City, gives us a platform to demonstrate our expertise and better serve our client base."

CEO Julian Sawyer added: "Being close to our market in terms of location as well as expertise is critical to the future success of Piran Consulting."

SAP's Q4 and full year showed a changing business. The EMEA region saw high single-digit growth with non-IFRS software and cloud subscription revenue increasing 9% at constant currencies. This was the result of high double-digit growth in cloud subscription and support revenue in this region and strong double-digit software revenue growth at constant currencies in Germany, France and Russia.

The growing cloud business and helped drive a 4th consecutive year of double-digit growth: full year 2013 non-IFRS software and software-related service revenue increased 11%.

"We are proud of having delivered another year of double digit growth, outperforming the market and expanding our margin, while at the same time investing in innovation and the cloud," said Co-CEOs Bill McDermott and Jim Hagemann Snabe.

"Based on our strong global momentum from 2013 we will accelerate the transition to the cloud by offering customers choice. With all solutions moving to the Cloud powered by our real time platform HANA, we will simplify for our customers, extend our lead and drive growth that is more predictable and profitable for the long term."

Analysts expect the European software and IT services market around digital transformation to grow by 11.2% per annum within the next three years.

Software and IT services providers will be facing new skill requirements as well as new competitors and ecosystems, says Pierre Audoin Consultants (PAC) which has released its first market figures for digital transformation.

He also noted that the proliferation of digital technologies is currently shaking up business models, value chains and ecosystems in almost all industries, it says. It is forcing companies in B2C and B2B industries alike to fundamentally rethink their business strategies and organisational structures.

According to PAC, this trend is significantly impacting the IT industry because it is bringing IT to the centre of business strategy. While organisations have to undergo a 'digital transformation', IT providers need to position themselves as their strategic partners.

The European research and consulting firm for the software and ICT services market expects a strong growth in demand for technologies and services that enable and support digital transformation processes in the years to come. According to PAC's recent research, digital transformation software and services currently account for about 9.5% of the overall software and IT services (SITS) market in Western Europe. PAC forecasts a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11.2% between 2013 and 2017.

This growth rate is clearly above the expected growth rate for the overall SITS market of 3.3% (CAGR 2013-17). At the same time, it is not soaring either, as digital transformation projects are often still small and limited to specific areas such as marketing or sales, rather than touching overall organisations.

"Digital transformation has to become a top priority for software and IT services firms," says Nicole Dufft, SVP at PAC. "They have to decide today if they want to establish themselves as strategic partners to business decision makers or remain stuck in the low-margin legacy IT business."

Adaptive Planning, specialist in cloud-based business analytics solutions, announced during its recent Worldwide Partner Summit a global expansion and rising revenue driven by its channel partners.

The company says its channel programme proved to be significant in its continued growth, especially in midmarket and enterprise sectors. In 2013, it saw a 100% year-on-year growth in the number of partners elevated to Gold status, based on revenue generation.

Adaptive also welcomed new partners into its channel programme, such as global SI providers Cap Gemini and Cognizant Technology Solutions.
Altogether in 2013 the company's 20 highest performing partners grew their sales by a combined average of 37%, it says. And the company's number of Platinum status partners grew by 17% year over year globally.

"Partners are the lifeblood of our global successs receive critical product information at the same time as our sales force. We look forward to an even stronger 2014 as we further strengthen our partnerships, both large and small," said Carolee Gearheart, vice president, Global Channels and Partners, Adaptive Planning.

GCI Channel Solutions has launched a new channel-only portal which enables resellers to quote, order, provision and support cloud products from a single control panel. In the first phase of development the portal will facilitate Hosted Lync and Hosted Exchange with additional products such as Ethernet, broadband and virtual desktops coming out of the pipeline soon.

Head of Channel Sales Mark Whitehead (pictured) stated: "The inflexibility of Microsoft Office 365 and the lack of multi-tenanted offerings in the channel has created a barrier for many resellers wanting to sell hosted solutions.

"Resellers who are not familiar with deploying these service are looking for an entry into the market without jeopardising customer relationships through their lack of knowledge.

"Our strategy is to cloud-enable these resellers through a combination of cloud focused roadshows, product training and our Partner Accreditation Programme."