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Logicalis has unveiled Student Analytics, a predictive analytics package designed to bring significant social and financial benefits to UK universities as they seek to heighten student engagement, support retention strategies and enhance satisfaction.

Logicalis' Student Analytics, powered by IBM technology, enables Universities to capture, predict and act on rich stores of information to develop more informed strategies and decisions for operational efficiency and student engagement.

Mark Starkey, Managing Director of Logicalis UK, commented: "Critical data is being captured every day by Universities that can inform better engagement and growth strategies - lecture attendance, use of library cards, student union and other facilities - they just don't know it. Student Analytics gives them the ability to identify and analyse this information - mapping student insight across attendance, engagement with services and views on participation against key metrics and risk factors for real, actionable intelligence."

One key area where institutions see a clear Return on Investment (RoI) from predictive analytics is in student retention rates; accurately predicting at-risk students and designing effective intervention and support strategies for students.

According to recent data by HEFCE upward of 8% of undergraduates drop-out in their first year of study[1]. This has a financial impact, of approximately £33k per student, as well as social implications for the individuals and the University at large. Using Student Analytics, institutions can harness everyday data to reduce these rates, by accurately identifying those students most at risk - and taking action.

Logicalis is currently working with a number of UK institutions to pilot Student Analytics and recently built a predictive model for retention, which has proved 90% accurate in identifying at-risk students. For a University with 3,000 first year undergraduates, that equates to hundreds of students proactively supported and potentially retained to continue to study and succeed.

Logicalis' Student Analytics is built on IBM SPSS technology, and can be deployed on-site or hosted in Logicalis' data centre with fully-managed and as a service consumption options available.

Starkey concluded: "Predictive analytics technology has already proved a success into student retention and engagement strategies in many American institutions and it presents a great opportunity for UK Universities on the global stage. By providing the all-important opportunity to engage and act upon the right information, at the right time, we look forward to working with many of our customers in the higher education space to make a real difference in meeting their long term objectives to maintain the highest quality experiences and a balanced budget."

South West Communications Group staff have been invited to take part in a company-wide immunisation programme to protect themselves against the flu virus this winter.

The telecommunications firm first offered its staff free flu jabs last year in an effort to keep sick days at a minimum during the colder months.

Managing director Harry Langley said: "We saw a significant fall in sick days taken due to cold and flu last winter and so it makes economic sense for us invest in this company-wide immunisation programme again to try to keep as many members of staff as healthy as possible during the winter."

South West Communications Group experienced a 59% drop in sick days compared to the previous winter.

Langley added: "Like all businesses, we want to avoid the effect lengthy absences could have on our project deployments and our customer service. We don't want to let our customers down or put stress on other members of staff who have to step in to fulfil their duties. Healthy staff tend to be happier too, so it's a win-win situation for us."

Gamma has been awarded a place on the Government Procurement Services Telephony Services Framework.

As part of the Cabinet Office's strategy to migrate the public sector from traditional telephony services to next generation solutions, the telecommunications framework allows organisations to find best value for their ICT spend through a shortlist of approved vendors.

For the framework Gamma has created a service where organisations can migrate their traditional voice services to Gamma which then ports them on to SIP based services for a low fixed monthly charge that includes local and national calls.

Gamma has more than 500 existing public sector customers - among them London boroughs, county councils, universities and healthcare trusts - who report savings of 20% or more in their call and infrastructure costs after moving to next generation services such as SIP trunking.

Bob Falconer, Gamma's CEO said: "We have demonstrated time and time again how organisations currently using traditional communications infrastructure and services can show immediate savings and productivity benefits by switching to our next generation services.

"Alternatively they may wish to retain the services they already have but make savings and improvements through a new provider. Either way our goal is to make that process as easy and as cost effective as possible."

With the publication of a new draft guidance documents, the government has outlined a series of guidelines for public sector workers who wish to implement Bring Your Own Device (BYOD).

The series of documents advises public sector system administrators on the best way to manage access to private networks through the use of personal devices. The move marks the first instance where the government is embracing the growing trend enabling workers to use their own gadgets in the workplace.

Qubic Group, communications and cloud computing specialist, believes that this move further reinforces the surging popularity of BYOD but also shows the level of trust that companies now have in the technology. Coupled with a recent report from Gartner, estimating that 85% of companies will eventually implement BYOD at the workplace, the trend is now firmly positioned in the mind set of employers.

Chris Papa, Managing Director of Qubic, stated: "Bring Your Own Device definitely represents the future of the workplace, as demonstrated by this recent move from the government. The fact that the government is finally embracing BYOD, and providing a framework for the public sector to implement it, is the ultimate endorsement.

"There may be some hesitation on their part, but the fact that public sector workers are now being entrusted to harbour confidential information on their own personal devices, speaks volumes about the shifting attitudes toward BYOD. If implemented in the correct manner, BYOD is a hugely beneficial tool, and can help to enhance efficiency and productivity for a diverse range of businesses across the globe.

"Adoption on this scale represents a huge step forward for those implementing the technology for both public and sector clients but more importantly is a step towards a more modern and flexible workplace. The main aim now is to engage with the concerns surrounding BYOD procedures, and ensuring that it is implemented in the correct and most secure manner."

CIT Vendor Finance has launched a new suite of products that address the financial, operational and go-to-market challenges facing SMBs that offer complex sales and pricing structures such as managed services, bundled or usage-based solutions to their customers.

Called FlexAbility, the suite of products includes FlexSell and FlexInvoice that provide the financial offering structure and administrative/cash management support to meet any go-to-market strategy, said the firm.

"FlexAbility is an innovative suite of products that can transform the traditional relationship CIT has with our customers," said Ron Arrington, Global President, CIT Vendor Finance.

"FlexAbility removes the burden of high operational expenses and error-prone manual processes for small and middle market companies selling complex solutions by providing them with a reliable, systemic solution.

"Our FlexAbility suite of products allows companies virtually unlimited flexibility in structuring what they sell, how they charge for it and who they partner with-- uniquely tailored to each of their customers."

Nick Small, Managing Director of CIT Vendor Finance, US, said: "Companies are seeking ways to de-commoditise their offerings, build competitive differentiation and improve their value to clients. This can lead to more complex sales and pricing structures. These products provide unparalleled flexibility and the infrastructure to support the market shift to selling customized total solutions."

FlexAbility allows manufacturers, software and service companies, distributors, and dealers/resellers in the technology, office equipment, healthcare, and industrial markets to fulfill the essential needs of their customers through this innovative offering.

FlexAbility provides a non-manual approach to accurately identifying accounts receivables, creating transparent invoices tailored to customer requirements, and applying payments to all parties involved in the transaction; and does this consistently for any billing cycle over the life of the transaction.

In using FlexAbility companies could increase revenues and profitability by growing sales with existing customers, attracting new customers, enhancing retention and providing opportunities to increase margins, claimed the firm.

Nimans has welcomed the rebrand of Siemens Enterprise Communications to Unify, and despite a period of adjustment the new name will generate instant recognition and synergy in the market, according to Nimans Director Andy Winfield.

He stated: "I'm sure Unify will be very well received in the industry, symbolising the ever evolving world of communications based on harmony, mobility and a unified approach.

"We are very much looking forward to playing a front line role in helping resellers embrace the new name and capitalise on the many market opportunities it creates, inspired by the technology it represents.

"This is the dawning of a new era for the brand and we are all excited by the potential that exists, with Nimans now the only distributor in the UK.

"Unify gives everyone a great platform to build on the heritage and reputation of Siemens Enterprise Communications. It's a new chapter in the history of one of the most famous and powerful names in the communications world."

The name Siemens Enterprise Communications doesn't trip off the tongue so perhaps a rebrand has been long overdue. Now the wait's over and the vendor will operate under the Unify banner, paving the way for the firm to build its future based on unifying business and innovation.

The rebrand was revealed this afternoon during a live global online launch event during which the vendor also launched its mission to transform business comms in line with new ways of working, communicating and collaborating.

The new company builds on a heritage of nearly 170 years of innovation and has set out to change the way companies communicate and collaborate, helping them spend less time orchestrating work and more time doing it.

The Unify brand and vision were revealed today at events in Munich and New York City and on a live global webcast.

Unify said significant forces were reshaping the communications and IT industries like the consumerisation of IT, bring your own device (BYOD), the role of millennials and the impact of 'anywhere workers', essentially defining a new way to work.

The launch of the new brand builds upon significant momentum and market recognition gained from the company's unveiling of Project Ansible in June 2013. Project Ansible is a new communications and collaboration platform that leverages secure, dynamic collaboration, universal content aggregation, and a consumer-like, single-pane-of-glass experience that drives adoption and seamless integration into business processes to enhance business performance.

"Unify is positioned to lead our customers and the industry toward the emergence of a new way to work that will transform how enterprises communicate and collaborate, where technology will amplify the collective effort of information workers, energize teams and processes, and enhance business performance," said Hamid Akhavan, CEO, Unify.

"Our Siemens history is rich and the connection to our heritage as market innovators remains strong. Our new brand brings to life our vision, backed by dedicated employees around the world, a strong partner community, and an unwavering commitment to help our customers and more than 45 million users find positive returns on their technology investments. Our customers are incredible, our history is enviable, and our future as Unify is unstoppable."

Jacob Morgan, author of The Collaborative Organization and principal of Chess Media Group also commented on the announcement today: "Unify has the vision to address the needs of how we work today. Businesses of all sizes need to make it easier for their global employees and partners to put context to the information and data that flows through organizations while delivering a consumer-like experience anywhere, anytime, and on any device. This new way to work is now a strategic imperative and Unify is taking the leadership position."

Unify's brand launch included a two-hour web-streamed broadcast of original content, hosted by Baratunde Thurston, a well-known social media enthusiast and co-founder and CEO of Cultivated Wit, and Nicole Duft, industry analyst and senior vice president at Pierre-Audoin Consultants (PAC).

The Munich event was held in front of more than 1,000 employees of Unify and guests and was connected to a Unify social media command center in New York City. Unify employees gathered at nearly 60 different offices in 33 countries around the world to view the broadcast and celebrate the company's new brand unveiling.

In addition to in-person events and the global webcast, Unify said it had launched a broad awareness campaign in support of its new brand and vision. The campaign combines online and traditional print advertising across business, trade and industry publications in key markets including Germany, the United States, Great Britain and in Brazil.

In addition to re-introducing the business as Unify, the company outlined additional details about Project Ansible, a secure and engaging communications and collaboration platform first debuted to wide acclaim from customers and analysts in June 2013.

Based on strong interest from customers, partners and carriers, Unify announced that it has accelerated the timeline of the platform with customer deliveries expected to begin in July 2014. The platform will be first available as a cloud-based, SAAS (software as a service) offering that would complement OpenScape solutions from Unify, and corporate telephone systems from peer competitors.

Unify was recently named an Enterprise Trusted Advisor by customers and IT professionals according to an annual industry-wide study conducted by Nemertes Research. Unify was ranked third out of an elite list of only 12 companies named as trusted advisors that were selected from the 150 technology companies surveyed, according to Nemertes.

Unify was recently named to the Leaders Quadrant in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Corporate Telephony. Unify was also recognised as a Leader in the Gartner MarketScape for Unified Communications for the SMB Market, Western Europe.

Unify (then Siemens Enterprise Communications) was formed as a joint venture by The Gores Group and Siemens AG in 2008. The company said today's relaunch under a new brand did not signal a change in the ownership of the company, nor its management structure.

Avaya has rolled out enhancements to its portfolio including a set of new software and cloud-based services.

These developments continue the vendor's shift from a telecoms company to a provider of mobile, open, scalable collaboration and communications solutions, claimed the firm, and forms part of the $2.5bn investment in R&D made by Avaya during the past six years to reshape its portfolio.

Avaya Aura Collaboration Environment is a new software platform that simplifies the complexity of embedding collaboration and communications capabilities into business applications.

New social, mobile or cloud-based collaboration capabilities can be added to business applications or processes generally without the cost and time previously required.

The cornerstone of Avaya's mid-market business collaboration portfolio, Avaya IP Office 9.0, offers increased scale, flexible deployment options, simplified management, and support for enterprise branch deployments.

With new virtualisation capabilities, a collaboration and communication solution can typically be set up in under an hour, said the firm.

Avaya Messaging Service (AMS) enables real-time mobile collaboration and communications via the cloud for any size business using any vendor's platform.

SMS/text messages have typically operated as an application independent of enterprise communications - usually sent from one mobile device to another mobile device. Avaya Messaging Service extends SMS messages to and from smartphones, tablets, notebooks and desktop devices, thereby enabling one number communications via text messaging.

The engine behind enterprise communications and collaboration, Avaya Aura users can now easily support both cloud and virtualised environments with the addition of multi-tenancy and enhanced virtualisation capabilities.

Additionally, customers can now support up to 10 different mobile devices from a single phone number, enabling people to connect on a wide variety of devices quickly and easily.

Kevin Kennedy, CEO and president, Avaya, said: "Today, teams are located all over the globe, trying to work on a variety of devices as they move between meetings or connecting flights.

"It has never been harder to physically come together, and at the same time expectations have never been higher. Avaya's simple, intuitive software and cloud-based services are designed to be effective, efficient and transparent so people can focus on the task at hand and not the barriers that are too often present in today's business technology."

3CX is to incorporate a web conferencing solution into its VoIP phone system following the acquisition of Italy-based e-works, a developer of video conferencing software.

"Customers are demanding web conferencing to be integrated with their PBX," said Nick Galea, 3CX CEO. "They don't want to be burdened with the extra learning curve and licensing of separate conferencing services. They want a seamlessly integrated and complete Unified Communications solution."

3CX's web conferencing server technology will be fully supporting the new WebRTC standard allowing participants to take part in conferences without having to install any client software at all.

"This feature allows 3CX to leapfrog the existing proprietary, client-heavy web conferencing solutions," added Galea.

Nimans has linked up with Canada-based Phybridge to provide resellers with a switch that enables them to ease and speed the migration of customers from TDM to IP telephony, according to Andy Winfield, Purchasing Director at Nimans.

The products deliver Ethernet and Power over Ethernet over a single pair of wire or CW1308 cabling with four times the reach of traditional POE switches.

They are designed to allow businesses to maximise their existing voice infrastructure and transform it into an IP path with power for IP telephony.

"Phybridge technology eliminates many of the local area network barriers and costs associated with IP telephony migration in areas such as IP telephony, converged networks, unified comms and public safety," said Winfield.

"Quality of service, voice continuity, elimination of risk and disruption, a secure network and a lower total cost of ownership are some of the benefits."

More than 500,000 users globally use Phybridge switches such as its PoLRE (Power over Long Reach Ethernet) switch family. The switches have been certified with many household name IP telephony vendors including Aastra, Avaya, Broadsoft, Mitel and NEC.

Viv Singh, Senior VP for Phybridge, commented: "Phybridge technology has been deployed throughout Europe including embassies for one of the largest governments in the world.

"The launch of the PoLRE solution will help fuel further general interest and demand from EMEA customers and channel partners."