Comms Dealer

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."

Congrats to David Carroll, Customer Helpdesk and Technical Support Manager for Integra ICT, who bagged the Technical Person of the Year award at Unify UK's annual partner conference last month. More than 70 candidates were nominated for this award.

Carroll has worked in the telecoms and ICT industries for over 14 years and has much experience in legacy PBX installations as well as IP telephony.

He is-SOCA accredited in a number of Unify products including OpenScape Business, an IP based unified communication solution developed specifically for mid market organisations and HiPath 3000, a convergence communications platform for SMEs.

Integra ICT has recently been recognised as an important Go Forward channel partner by Unify to promote its Unified Communications portfolio to mid-market organisations and has already secured several new business opportunities, including Ramsay Rivers Hospital, one of the leading private hospitals in the UK.

Carroll said: "This award reflects the technical capabilities of our technical team and their knowledge of UC platforms. Many companies and looking to migrate legacy telecoms infrastructures to IP telephony and we look forward to continued collaboration with Unify to facilitate this."

Industry analyst MZA has been busy assessing the state of the global PBX/IP PBX market, and in its Q3 2013 report (July to September) MZA revealed that the market for PBX extensions and call control licenses (excluding Micro PBX products) fell by 7% year-on-year], although marginal sequential growth (2%) was witnessed when compared with Q2 2013.

On a year over year basis the <100 market suffered a 9% year-on-year decline, while the >100 market witnessed a 6% year-on-year decline, found the report.

For the second successive quarter the greatest influence on the global PBX market came from the largest regional market Asia Pacific which suffered a 10% year-on-year decline in Q3 2013.

The markets in North America, Latin America and Eastern Europe suffered significant declines year-on-year, impacting further on the global market downturn.

The Western European market saw some positive signs of recovery with year-on-year growth in the enterprise segment, however a 10% fall in the <100 segment brought the Western European market as a whole down by 4% year-on-year. Only the Middle East and African market witnessed growth, up 3% year-on-year, according to MZA.

"In the competitive environment, Cisco returned to the position of top global vendor PBX market in Q3 2013, just ahead of Avaya who led in Q2 2013 with both vendors holding 13% market shares," explained co-report author Will Parsons.

Against Q3 2012, Avaya gained one percentage point in global share driven by strong growth in the Asia Pacific and Eastern European SME markets.

Aided by share gains in both the Western European and Middle East and African markets, NEC returned to third position in the global market with an 11% market share, noted Parsons.

NEC supplanted Panasonic to lead the <100 extensions/licenses market (excluding Micro PBX products) with a 15% share, the same share as held in Q3 2012.

Co-report author Tim Gelardi added: "Cisco remained the clear market leader in the >100 extensions market with a 23% share, down three percentage points year-on-year; while Avaya strengthened in second position with a 14% share, up one percentage point year-on-year."

The global IP extensions market was flat year-on-year in Q3 2013. The lack of growth was came from a volume decline in the North American market where IP extensions account for the majority of extensions to the desktop.

North America witnessed an IP extension penetration rate of 70% into total extensions in Q3 2013, higher than the global IP penetration rate of 46%.

Cisco continued to lead the global IP Extensions market with a 25% market share, followed by Avaya who had an 18% market share.

Hants-based Peach Telecom has bolstered its growth ambitions with two key appointments to the management board.

Andy Miles joins as Development Director and will lead the company's new business programme and IT sales strategy. Meanwhile, new Finance Director Julian Handley Potts will be responsible for the company's growing commercial portfolio and investments.

Darren Scott-Healey, MD, said: "As a recent winner of the Deloitte UK Technology Fast 50 for the second year running, we have a proven track record of consistent growth. To sustain the company's performance and augment the business further across all products, the talents and experience of both new directors will strengthen the management board and provide a considerable boost to the commercial operation of Peach Telecom."

Miles joins Peach Telecom after more than six years at BT, leading high priority transformation programmes, qualified market opportunities and prioritised investments. He left BT Wholesale as General Manager.

Handley Potts has been a financial advisor to Peach Telecom for the last five years and brings business management and strategy skills.

He is a Chartered Accountant and for the past 15 years has been serving as non-executive Finance Director to a range of SMEs principally in the IT and telecoms industries.

In addition to winning the Deloitte UK Technology Fast 50 for the second year running, the company was also listed for the third year running in the 2013 Sunday Times Tech Track league table which ranks Britain's 100 private technology companies with the fastest-growing sales over the latest three years.

Pictured left-right: Andy Miles and Julian Handley Potts

So the stunning news about UK unemployment provided an apt close to 2013. Within just three months of Mark Carney's forward guidance linking bank rate rises to unemployment, the gap to his trigger point has halved as unemployment fell from 7.8% to 7.4% over the last quarter, writes Clive Jefferys, JMA Network.

With unemployment at its lowest point since 2009, this news was no surprise to the recruitment industry and I get the satisfaction again of saying, I told you so!

However, most employment gains have been at the lower end of the market, and in white collar professions there has been little change. The shortage of skilled workers in IT, manufacturing and of course telecoms, is a direct result of the lack of training and investment made in people over the long years of the recession.

It's no accident that apprenticeship schemes have gained massively in popularity with employers over the last 12 months - good news for young people and those seeking retraining.

However, the skills gap is widening in the middle of most businesses. New recruits are being brought in for basic training and senior staffers are on hand to steward the business and impart some knowledge to the lower echelons. However the greatest number of unfilled telecoms vacancies are in the £25,000-£35,000 salary range, so where are the experienced people you need for despatch, billings, support, or the sales team?

Results from recruitment advertising have hit a 25 year low. 95% of applications seem to come from people so ill qualified for the role, that we can only suppose they are using failed job applications to justify their benefits claim.

So how are people solving their employment needs? I cannot answer this without being self-serving. The answer is simply to use recruitment agencies, as only we can draw the depth and breadth of candidates or vacancies to balance the equation.

It's precisely because we recruit for a multitude of companies that job seekers are drawn to us, and their first call usually produce several good job options.

Equally, our clients benefit from the candidates drawn to other employers' jobs, and then our expertise to spot a good cross match makes its impact. Sounds simple and it is, you just need to put in a hundred man hours in the middle to secure each placement!

Recruitment isn't complicated, unless you make it so!

Swift Managed Services has advanced its channel growth strategy with the appointment of Jonathan Sheridan as Channel Director.

Swift works with partners across the IT and telecoms sectors and Sheridan is central to the company's plan to boost partner numbers this year.

He brings much experience within the reseller community and aims to form white labelled Managed Services partnerships that offer Microsoft Lync design and implementation, IT support and data storage and back-up expertise.

Sheridan said: "I am excited to be joining the team at Swift, their growth over the last few years means that now the reseller channel can have a partnership with us to offer a comprehensive IT service to their existing telephony customers.

"This in turn gives them the capability of capturing more of their spend and adding recurring revenues to their businesses."