Comms Dealer

A bureau billing service introduced late in 2012 by Union Street Technologies continues to prove popular, says the firm, which now provides bureau billing to 40 clients, roughly ten per cent of its total customer base, with five more customers in the pipeline.

To keep pace with demand Union Street has appointed Steve Lale as Bureau Team Manager to oversee the service. He has worked in the telecoms industry for over eight years, six of which spent in the billing software arena.

He said: "Our bureau service provides a cost effective way to reduce the workload involved in a billing run and frees up staff to concentrate on their core roles.

"Many clients have also reported an increase in their margins thanks to the knowledge and expertise of our bureau team and their commitment to best practices.

"One area of the bureau service that I'm keen to develop is reporting, so in 2014 there's going to be a big focus on margin analysis with the aim of helping our bureau customers to get the most from our aBILLity software."

Openreach has named Joe Garner as its new CEO. Joining in mid-February he is to replace Liv Garfield who leaves to become CEO of Severn Trent. Garner brings substantial commercial, operational and regulatory experience having worked for many years at HSBC, Dixons and Procter & Gamble.

His most recent role was at HSBC where as head of the UK Bank he helped lead HSBC successfully through the financial crisis, rebuilding profitability and strengthening the balance sheet.

In this role, Garner also drove some of the highest customer satisfaction levels in high street banking, including at the UK's No.1 bank for service, first direct, and was responsible for launching M&S Bank. Under his leadership, HSBC in the UK achieved the best long-term record on customer complaints amongst the major banks as well as industry-beating levels of employee engagement.

Garner has significant experience of working in a strictly regulated industry and of dealing with regulators, not least through his role as Chairman of the Financial Services Authority's Practitioner Panel.

This experience will be useful given Openreach is one of the most heavily regulated businesses in the UK, providing all communications providers with equal access to BT's network and operating at arm's length from the rest of the BT Group.

Garner said: "I am thrilled to be joining Openreach at such a critical moment - a moment when technology is redefining how our society communicates.

"The massive investment that Openreach is making in the UK's high speed internet infrastructure is something of a revolution that will greatly benefit people and businesses in this country.

"I am grateful to my predecessor and the engineers who have already delivered so much. It is my ambition to build on this work and I intend to focus on customer service, continued innovation and maintaining fair and equal access for all."

Gavin Patterson, BT Group CEO said: "I am delighted to welcome Joe to the team. His experience of managing a large regulated business with a substantial workforce will help us as we expand our fibre optic network into rural areas. He will also ensure that Openreach continues to play a vital role in supporting businesses, consumers and communities the length and breadth of the country."

Vapour Media was expanded staff numbers following the appointment of two new additions.

Carol McGrotty has joined the firm as Operations Manager, bringing with her 10 years experience in the industry working as a project manager at Virgin Media Business.

And Kevin Homar has been taken on as a Sales Executive. He boasts over 11 years experience working at Virgin Media Business specialising in the SME market providing connectivity and voice business solutions.

Tim Mercer, co-founder and Director, said: "Having worked with Carol for over 10 years I am excited about bringing her into our growing team. She has a wealth of industry knowledge and is tasked with developing and managing our operations delivery team.

"Kevin has been brought in to grow our partner channel and strengthen partner relations. His industry knowledge of the telecoms SME market will be invaluable to Vapour."

A new version of a call blocker that prevents unwanted communications at the touch of a button is available exclusively through the channel from Nimans.

The unit now features a large Block Now button and built-in caller display screen blocks nuisance calls using DECT extension handsets.

The device comes pre-programmed with 200 numbers of the worst known offenders and has the facility to block an additional 1,000.

The unit is also fax compatible and has been developed by CPR Global (The Call Prevention Registry) which is the UK's leading anti-nuisance call service provider.

Nimans' Purchasing Director, Andy Winfield, said: "The CPR Call Blocker is an easy to set-up all-in-one everyday product which helps retain privacy in the home or office, providing Caller ID is active. Silent calls, recorded messages, harassment, malicious and calls from overseas call centres can all be stopped in an instant along with PPI calls, international, unavailable and withheld numbers as well as automated robo calls.

"Call blocking technology is becoming big business and offers resellers a great way to add to their existing revenue streams. A larger Block Now button is located on top of the unit which when pressed, cuts off a caller in their prime with the number logged into its memory and permanently blocked. The device can also reject any caller who withholds their number. 85% of people receive nuisance calls. It's an area of the market too big for resellers to ignore."

Here's some good news if you're keen to get your sales people clued up on call management. in partnership with NEC, Exertis Micro-P is running an NEC Mycalls Technical and Sales Training course on 4th February 2014, completely  free of charge
 
The one-day course, which would normally cost £150 to attend, has been developed for resellers who can send both a sales and engineering delegate to the event..
 
The sales person will undergo training on how to sell the call management and call recording solutions whilst the engineering delegate will be educated in how to install and configure the solution to the customers' requirements
 
John Bird, Head of Systems and Support Services at Exertis Micro-P told Comms Dealer: "This free of charge course will allow our resellers to increase order values by incorporating call management as part of the solutions they offer their customers. This is an ideal opportunity for resellers wishing to on board with NEC to do so with no barrier to entry.
 
Bird added "Exertis Micro-P has, in the last 10 months, won over 10 of the leading industry awards, ranging from IT, Retail and Mobile distributor of the year to UC Convergence Distributor of the Year and Best Channel Installer and Maintainer.

?"We have built a reputation of offering multi-vendor end-to-end voice, data and mobile solutions for the channel and we will continue to offer bespoke training courses and best in the channel pre and post- sales support to aide our resellers in specifying and delivering these UC solutions to their end users."
 
For those interested in attending the Free Call Management training please email comms.nec@exertismicro-p.co.uk

Voice and data recording firm Red Box Recorders has appointed a senior sales professional with a previous proven track record within their business, to support the company's continuing aggressive growth plans.

Will Hopkins joins as Global Sales Director, returning to the company after just over a year.

Hopkins has spent the past year with Nice Systems in the role of Sales Director EMEA - Trading floors. Prior to that he was with Red Box Recorders for a number of years, joining in 2008 as Commercial Manager in the UK where he was responsible for building the reseller network and winning key accounts.

In November 2010 he moved to Singapore with his family to head up operations for Red Box in South East Asia.

Lee Jones, CEO at Red Box Recorders, said: "This is an exciting time for Red Box and we are continuing to strengthen our team so that we can maintain our phenomenal growth and take advantage of new business opportunities worldwide. Will has a strong knowledge of key global markets and he understands the quality of our solutions."

A golf event, hosted by business solution provider ProcessFlows for its channel partners, raised a total of £2,076 for the British Heart Foundation (BHF).

The event, which took place at the London Golf Club, was a thank you to partners for their business and also served as a tribute to ProcessFlows' Account Manager, Andy MacGregor, who died unexpectedly last June at the age of 49 after suffering a major heart attack.

Channel Partner Manager Franca Cognata said: "We are grateful to our suppliers, namely Hyland, PrinterOn and Nuance and to the London Golf Club, for their generous contributions to the auction. In total, the day raised over £2,000, which has been donated to the British Heart Foundation."

A low risk acquisition strategy and a focus on organic growth through cross sales, new business, web sales, cloud services and wholesale have combined to drive Chess' 2013 turnover up by 23% to £44m, with an EBITDA increase of 49% to £11m and growth in gross margin to 45%.

David Pollock, Chief Executive, said: "We achieved our 2013 vision by improving the knowledge, skills and performance of our people, including the introduction of our new Academy training for all new starters."  

Steven Dracup, MD, added: "The focus we place on our people has had a major impact on the level of service we provide our customers, resulting  in 76% of our customers entering into contracts for two years or more, guaranteeing our revenue streams.

Chess' growth in revenue and gross profit was driven by its strategy of acquiring 16 customer bases in 2013, complemented by its focus on reducing churn, increasing cross sales in their existing base and improving web sales offerings for new customers.

This approach has resulted in 84% of customers sourcing two or more products from Chess and 63% with three or more.

"Our success in 2013 was rounded off when we acquired The CRM Business, the leading European partner of Microsoft Dynamics," added Dracup.

The Chess Group currently employs in excess of 250 people.

Avnet Technology Solutions EMEA Appoints Sukh Rayat as Senior Vice President, Avnet Global Computing Components (AGCC) EMEA

Avnet Technology Solutions has announced the appointment of Sukh Rayat as senior vice president, Avnet Global Computing Components (AGCC) EMEA, with immediate effect.

Rayat moves from his current position as senior vice president, Avnet Technology Solutions, north region.

Rayat is part of the Avnet Global Computing Components (AGCC) management team and is responsible for the day-to-day operations and growth of Avnet's computer components and integrated solutions offerings in the EMEA region.

The EMEA Integrated Solutions (IS) team also moves into the AGCC business. Rayat is based in Bracknell and reports directly to Jaideep Malhotra, senior vice president, AGCC, Global, with immediate effect.

Tony Madden, senior vice president, supplier business executive for Avnet Technology Solutions, Global, assumes responsibility for the strategic direction and day-to-day operations of Avnet Technology Solutions, UK. He currently works with a number of Avnet's strategic suppliers and alongside Avnet leaders around the world to identify growth opportunities.

Graeme Watt, president, Avnet Technology Solutions, EMEA, stated, "Sukh brings a wealth of experience to the EMEA AGCC team, and I am sure he will be successful in accelerating the success of that integral part of the global business.

"I'd also like to welcome Tony Madden into our team. As an experienced senior executive, Tony aligns business goals with relationships locally, regionally and globally, making him a great asset to our EMEA operations."

Virtual1 has gained access to Viatel's connectivity solutions across Ireland following an extended partnership between the two companies.

High bandwidth connectivity solutions across Ireland including wavelengths and Ethernet up to 10G are available to partners.

The Viatel infrastructure provides EFM, LLU, fibre and radio access, enabling the company to connect across Ireland cost effectively, even into remote areas.

The Viatel network spans over 8,500km which connects 35 European cities, over 120 data centres and Europe's main Internet Exchanges.

Virtual1 MD Tom O'Hagan said: "This partnership with Viatel is critical to enabling us to develop and expand our business in one of our target regions.

"It will enhance the service that we can provide to our existing partners, and open up opportunities to develop new partnerships to sell across Ireland. Our partners expect us to continue to develop our services and this arrangement with Viatel shows that we mean to meet those expectations."