Comms Dealer

SpliceCom has launched a 16 user entry-level version of its Vision Business Management System, designed for use alongside the new S716 Small Soft PBX or existing 5108 Small Hard PBX.

Small Vision Reports offers all of the features of the standard Vision Reports embedded app, providing 30 pre-defined historical reports.

Small Vision Reports can be expanded through the addition of fully integrated call recording (Vision Record) or real-time wallboards/dashboards (Vision Live).

There's also an upgrade path to the standard Vision Reports.

Channel Telecom is taking the winner of its Overall Partner of the Year Award on an all-expenses paid trip to the Monaco Grand Prix on 25th May. The prize includes travel by private jet to Monte Carlo, limousine transfers and lunch at the exclusive Café De Paris to watch the race.

This follows last year's Overall Partner of the Year Award to the same event which saw Channel Telecom guests enjoying an exciting race with Nico Rosberg for Mercedes win just ahead of Sebastian Vettel for Infiniti-Red Bull in a nail biting finish.

Clifford Norton, Managing Director,said: "Last year's Award trip to the Monaco Grand Prix was a fantastic day for us and our guests. We enjoyed it so much that it seemed only natural to reward this year's winner with the same prize. We hope this prize will motivate our partner community to even greater levels of business in 2014."

Virgin Media Business has secured a contract worth around £1 million to upgrade the contact centre services at City Link, the express parcels carrier.

The solution, which integrates a Cisco Unified Communications (UC) platform with Enghouse Interactive software, will allow City Link to save on telecoms costs and improve the way it manages its customer enquiries.

The contact centre team, which handles two million calls from across the UK, will be able to cut down on response times by seeing real-time customer information as the call arrives. They can also share information more easily via instant messaging or desktop-sharing, meaning callers no longer have to 'start again' when their enquiry is passed to someone else.

The service allows much greater flexibility in the way enquires are handled. With one click an incoming customer call can be recorded or turned into a video conference or instant messaging chat. It also enables the team to see the customer's details and the number of calls waiting to be answered on their desktops, rather than on small display buttons on a telephone.

The service also provides 'presence information', such as 'on a call' or 'away', so colleagues always know each other's status. For example, if one of the team is struggling to resolve a customer issue, they can search for an expert that is available on the network. They can then instantly transfer the call, boosting the overall number of calls resolved at the first attempt.

Mario Di Mascio, director sales, Virgin Media Business, said: "This contract is about bringing the contact centre world firmly into the 21st century, reducing costs and overall response times.

"It also provides a platform to roll out instant messaging, presence and video to the rest of City Link's telephony services."

James Coxon, City Link's IT Director, said: "Virgin Media Business' ability to work with multiple vendors to suit our own specific needs played a major role in them securing this contract."

Maintel has kicked off the New Year with the appointment of Kevin Stevens as Group Operations Director. He joined the Maintel Group on 1st June 2010 and has been a director of the main trading company, Maintel Europe, since 12th December 2011.

Stevens has worked in the communications and IT industry since 1981 and has held senior operations and general management positions with Genesis Telecommunications, Xpert Communications, Redstone and Westcon Convergence, with a focus on improving business operations, process and customer service.

Demand for security hardware remains healthy compared to servers and storage systems. IDC estimates security appliance sales rose 6.5% yr/yr in Q3 to $2.2bn, even as units only rose 0.3% which indicates higher prices.

Sales had risen 6.1% in Q2 in spite of a 1.5% shipment drop. IDC thinks Cisco, which just acquired leading intrusion prevention system vendor SourceFire, was top supplier, with a 15.9% industry share, down fractionally yr/yr. Check Point was just behind, with a 12.4% share (-30 bps), and #3 Fortinet has a 6.4% share (+50 bps).

Fourth vendor in the list Juniper, whose security unit has been a weak spot and is now under new management, saw its share fall 170 bps to 6.2%. Meanwhile, fast-growing next-gen firewall vendor Palo Alto Networks saw its share rise 140 bps to 5.3%. In spite of healthy industry growth, the firewall market (21% of industry revenue), which Cisco, Juniper, and Check Point are well-exposed to, saw a 15% yr/yr sales drop. On the other hand, the unified threat management (UTM) market, which Fortinet is a leader in, grew 29%, and the IPS market grew 8%.

As the EU tries to encourage Europe's software industry, some ideas on what helps and what hinders progress has come out from the OECD.

It says governments and legislative bodies have to be very careful not to introduce distortions, but there are some aspects of competition policy which can assist.

Apps are one of the main sources of innovation in the economy and have remained an area of spectacular growth during the economic downturn, says the latest OECD paper. They extend the communications potential of the Internet beyond the traditional desktop computer and enable users to benefit from a lot of information services anywhere and at any time.

The app economy is dynamic and evolving, and policy makers are keen to maximise the potential for innovation and benefit all sectors of the economy and society. But policy makers need to understand the mechanisms of the app economy in order to support innovation and maximise benefits, the report says.

The current wave of app development is the result of the growth of broadband, new portable devices and some innovative and appealing services on open networks. The growth has been phenomenal [see chart]; with over 800,000 apps available for Apple's IOS, and nearly 700,000 for Google. On average the android smartphone user will have 26 apps - most of them free.

Red Hat EMEA sales have bounced strongly following a soft FQ2, making up 29% of revenue (up from 23% in the prior quarter).

Red Hat's Q3 saw total revenue for the quarter at $397m, an increase of 15% from the year ago quarter, 17% in constant currency. Subscription revenue for the quarter was $343 million, up 17%. "Strong demand in Q3 for our core Red Hat Enterprise Linux and JBossMiddleware technologies led to results that exceeded guidance across several key financial metrics," says CEO Jim Whitehurst,

Net income for the quarter was $52m compared with $35 million. "We experienced an acceleration in our billings proxy growth in Q3, both year-over-year and sequentially, due in part to the strengthening of our European and US federal government businesses," says Charlie Peters, EVP and Chief Financial Officer.

Subscription revenue (86% of total revenue) rose 17% yr/yr, even with a poor Q2. Training/services revenue rose 9%. Linux server share gains appear to be giving Red Hat a lift, as is the company's growing middleware business.

Oracle's software license/cloud subscription sales fell 1% yr/yr in FQ2 to $2.4bn, down from FQ1's 4% growth. Cloud/SaaS software bookings rose 35% yr/yr amnd EMEA sales were up 4% following Q1's +2%.

The high margin hardware product sales fell 3% Y/Y to $714m, an improvement from FQ1's 14% drop. Licence update/product support services revenue (49% of total revenue, tends to be fairly stable) rose 6% yr/yr after the 7% rise in FQ1. Hardware support sales rose 4%.

Software licence/cloud subscription sales are expected to post 1%-11% growth in FQ3. Hardware product sales growth is expected to be in a range of -2% to +8%, better than Q2's -3%. Oracle also notes its costly/high-margin engineered systems (Exadata, Exalytics, etc.) now account for 30% of hardware product revenue.

Flash storage solutions specialist SanDisk has signed a distribution agreement with Avnet, enabling Avnet to offer a portfolio of SanDisk's flash-based hardware and software solutions to its customer base in the EMEA region as well as globally through its Avnet Electronics Marketing and Avnet Technology Solutions operating groups.

SanDisk products purchased through Avnet can be combined with complementary products offered by Avnet, which will also provide its partners with education, resources, services and other tools.

Additionally, Avnet will become one of the first global disties for SanDisk Commercial Business Channel and will offer a variety of business and commercial solutions to its partners, VARs, OEM developers, SIs and direct market resellers, it says.

"The combination of Avnet's technical expertise and integration capabilities with SanDisk's flash products enables our channel partners to not only address the growing demand for flash-based storage solutions in the commercial market, but also create complete solutions," said Phil Gallagher, global president, Avnet Technology Solutions.

UK SMEs are optimistic about business prospects in 2014 according to independent research by data centre and communications specialist Node4.

The survey of 250 decision makers in companies between 50-500 employees found that one fifth have no concerns about 2014 and expect this year to be prosperous and successful.

IT topped the list among those that do have concerns about this year, ahead of generating enough business and workforce retention. 34% of those interviewed agreed that their existing IT infrastructure would not support business growth and that a lack of IT innovation would hold back success.

The ability to generate enough orders to maintain survival in 2014 was cited by a third of SMEs and concerns about staff was mentioned by 18% as an issue for this year.

"We are, at last, coming out of one of the worst recessions in living history," claimed Paul Bryce, Business Development Director at Node4.

"Over the past five years SMEs have struggled to keep their head above water, fighting to keep their business afloat and profitable. But the tide is turning, the economy is looking up, businesses and consumers are buying again and as a result, SMEs are in a positive mood about 2014.

"It did come as a surprise to find that IT concerns topped the list as the biggest hurdle that SMEs will face this year. To our mind, this underlines the important role that IT will play in helping SMEs prosper in a buoyant economy.

"IT has gone from being a static cost-centre to a dynamic business enabler that must support the organisation at every stage of the sales cycle, overall empowering the business to grow and succeed."