Comms Dealer

Red Box Recorders has appointed its first reseller in Oman following an agreement with Mideast Data Systems (MDS), part of the Midis Group.

Under the new arrangement, Red Box will become MDS' preferred partner providing advanced voice and data recording for unified communications solutions that are already used by some of the leading public and private sector organisations within the country.

Lee Jones, CEO of Red Box Recorders said: "We are committed to strengthening and growing our reseller network, which now exceeds more than 200 partners worldwide. Therefore, we are teaming up with likeminded and leading technology businesses such as MDS Oman to provide local sales and technical support."

NTT Com Security AG, a provider of global information security and risk management solutions, has confirmed that Integralis has formally changed its name to NTT Com Security after the initial intention was announced earlier in June this year.

This latest move is a 'natural progression' for NTT Com Security to bring both the previous Integralis and Secode organisations within one corporate structure. The name change reflects NTT Com Security's intention to continue expanding its security capabilities to service global customers, which will mean ongoing investment into products, platforms, services as well as improved career opportunities for its employees.

Simon Church, CEO at NTT Com Security, said: "The name change makes good business sense and better aligns us to one of the world's largest companies and biggest brands. We remain 100% focused on information security and risk management and while other acquisitions throughout our industry have lost some of their identity and expertise, we continue to have the opportunity to become our industry's next powerhouse.

"As NTT Com Security, we are able to engage with customers at all levels across the globe to deliver a clear and consistent message that represents the core of the business and the value we can bring to our customers."

Audio device manufacturer Jabra has revealed new customer cashback offers for quarter four 2013, giving customers money back when they purchase selected Jabra devices. The incentive can be utilised by all authorised partners registered to the Jabra WIN Partner Programme and allows them to offer the cashback promotion to their end customers in the easiest way possible.

Andrew Doyle, Managing Director, UK & Ireland Business Solutions said: "The Jabra Q4 Cashback incentive provides our valued partner community with an easy way to gain incremental revenue and further develop their headset category."

Cisco and IT solutions and implementation partner Dimension Data have joined forces to provide the IT infrastructure for WWF's Living Planet Centre - a sustainable new building which will be the headquarters for WWF employees and an education centre for visitors. The partnership will encourage WWF to adopt sustainable IT, helping to reduce its environmental footprint.

The Living Planet Centre - situated in Woking - will open its doors to the public on 1st November 2013, and showcases the latest in sustainable design, technology and construction. Cisco is providing the end-to-end IT infrastructure incorporating some of the technology used to power the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

In turn, Dimension Data is offering its expertise and services to implement the Centre's infrastructure. The technology design will support WWF's sustainability goals, which include smarter working and more efficient energy management.

The network will be the platform to connect to the datacentre built on the Cisco Unified Computing System, and will help increase the efficiency and utilisation of network and server resources. Combined with the ground source cooling and heating function in the Centre, this will be powered by 100% renewable energy.

David Southern, Head of IT at WWF-UK "The combination of Cisco's borderless network solution, unified communications and video conferencing will allow WWF staff to work in a way we have long envisaged. Our people will be able to connect, collaborate and communicate more effectively from any location and at any time - this flexible and reliable technology will help ensure that WWF will continue to be able to deliver our strategy and objectives, helping to safeguard the natural world."

Zen Internet has staged fourth fourthannual partner event and awards at The Belfry in the West Midlands.

The day opened with Richard Tang, Zen's Founder and Managing Director taking Partners through the company strategy. Guest speaker Matthew Townend, Director of illume Consulting, provided insights into opportunities in the UK voice market.

Partners were able to customise their day by choosing to attend two of five elective workshop sessions.

The awards were presented by Richard Tang, Stephen Warburton and Deborah Wrigley, Channel Sales Manager to recognise the contribution that Zen's Partners make to the business and reward top performers.

Winners included:
Wholesale Partner of the Year won by Nexus Telecommunications
Reseller Partner of the Year won by RivaNET
Rising Star won by Chalvington Communications
Solution Sale Partner of the Year won by Cellpipe
New Partner of the Year - Odyn Systems

Cloud computing is the most valuable skill for IT professionals to have in terms of career path and advancement, according to new research from recruitment specialist Robert Half Technology.

Thirty-nine per cent of IT directors said that cloud computing is the most valuable skill for IT professionals to have, followed by security (37%), project management (33%), virtualization (29%), network administration and engineering (27%), mobile and application development (27%), database management (24%), C# development (15%), business intelligence (14%) and Java development (13%).

The rise in adoption of cloud computing initiatives is driving organisations to employ greater numbers of cloud experts, found the research.

Almost half (41%) of IT directors said that they would hire additional staff to support cloud initiatives. Of these, permanent employees would make up 17% of new hires, while contractors or interims would make up 24%. An equal number (41%) of IT directors said that their cloud initiatives were fully staffed. Just 18% said that they did not have cloud initiatives in place, suggesting that the vast majority of companies (82%) have undertaken or will undertake cloud projects.

As well as hiring new cloud experts, IT directors are investing in training and education to bring their current teams up to speed. Almost half (49%) say that they deliver in-house training and development, while a third (32%) invest in external training courses and 30% provide webinar and e-learning. A quarter of companies deliver on-the-job training while a fifth (20%) rely on previous experience in another company.

Phil Sheridan, UK Managing Director, Robert Half Technology said: "The fact that so many companies are investing in cloud initiatives as well as training for their teams means that there are rich opportunities and a clear career path for IT professionals with cloud skills.

"With such a high proportion of companies planning to hire additional staff in this area, it's clearly a good time to focus on cloud skills as well as security around cloud initiatives and across the technology function. However, project management and virtualisation skills are also highly valued by IT directors so these are worth focusing on too."

VCOMM has rolled out a white labelled engineering services and technical support portfolio designed to help resellers and service providers deliver a range of new Unified Communication products and solutions.

The portfolio offers support services ranging from training, field engineering, 24/7/365 technical support and four hour emergency on-site engineering support and spares management. V

COMM's engineering services are provided as part of a platform purchase or on an ad-hoc basis and include design services, installation services and ad-hoc services. VCOMM's technical capabilities are provided by a team of skilled VoIP engineers who have real-world experience and certification across a wide range of vendor systems and services, said the firm.

Steve Harris, Managing Director of VCOMM Distribution, said: "Since completing the operational integration of VCOMM and SIPHON, we have been able to provide a set of services to VCOMM customers that reflect the principles we established in SIPHON.

"Our customers want more from distribution and want us to support them in driving innovation and new services to their end customers. They also want the peace of mind that they can rely on us to help them design, deliver, deploy and then support the products we sell which we can now promise them."

Airtime provider Daisy Distribution has announced the winners of its competition run in partnership with BlackBerry offering a VIP trip to the Abu Dhabi Formula One Grand Prix (1st-4th November).

The lucky winners were Dave Webster and Stuart Mico, joint owners of Midland Communications, who were drawn at random from the qualifying entrants of the competition.

The winners will fly out to the UAE courtesy of Etihad Airways and will receive; 5 star accommodation for four nights; three day hospitality race access including Golden Circle entry to the post-race concert with the teams and drivers; a team gift pack; and premium passes to the Yas Island theme parks.

Stuart Mico said upon winning the competition: "We're both extremely excited to go to Abu Dhabi as it's somewhere we've never been before. Rewards like this justify all the hard work and effort all our staff put in to ensure we achieve our accreditations."

To have entered the prize draw, Daisy Distribution's partners needed to acquire 'tickets' that could only be earned through the purchase of a BlackBerry 10 smartphone - including the BlackBerry Q10, BlackBerry Z10 and BlackBerry Q5 - between 20th August and 26th September.

Participating partners also had to complete the online BlackBerry 10 eLearning modules to take part, enabling them to be fully equipped with the knowledge and skills needed to successfully sell BlackBerry 10 smartphones.

Julien Parven, Marketing Director at Daisy Distribution, said: "We'd like to thank everyone that took part in the competition, but special congratulations to our lucky winners Dave and Stuart from Midland Communications.

"The promotion proved to be a huge success thanks to it being open to our existing partners, those acquired through the recent MoCo Communications acquisition and any other independent channel partners."

Mobile analyst firm Juniper Research estimates that the number of smartphone shipments exceeded a quarterly record of 250 million in Q3 2013, representing a y-o-y growth of almost 49% from Q3 2012, and q-o-q growth of 10%.

Samsung now accounts for a third of all smartphones shipped with an estimated 85 million smartphones - a record for the company. The company reported a 26% growth in profit, driven by an increase of smartphone sales in both Premium and Economy segments.

The iPhone accounted for one in seven smartphone shipments during Q3 2013, representing a quarterly growth of 8% from Q2 2013.

Juniper's latest research forecasts that Apple and Samsung will continue to dominate the global market, shipping 17% more smartphones in 2018 than were shipped globally by all vendors in 2012.

These top-end players are expected to continue to witness impressive growth next quarter due to seasonality, however Juniper expects a steady decline in growth thereafter especially in maturing markets.

At this point differentiation becomes vital to continued success, and the strategies used to achieve differentiation need to be different for maturing and emerging markets.

Juniper notes that increasingly vendors will be required to anticipate customers 'future needs', while at the same time creating 'new needs' that customers will find desirable. This will become of paramount importance as new customers become a scarce resource and vendor churn becomes a major factor.

Nokia shipped a record 8.8 million Lumia devices and nearly six million Asha smartphones in Q3 2013, together exceeding LG for the second time this year. LG maintained its smartphone shipment pace compared to the previous quarter, shipping another 12 million in Q3 2013, representing a 24% increases year-over-year.

BlackBerry's recent results - which run to a different financial schedule - are expected to see them ship just under four million smartphones in Q3 2013. In the three months to the end of August 2010, BlackBerry clocked up some 12 million smartphone shipments and more than $4.6 billion in revenues; in its most recent quarter, smartphone shipments had fallen to a paltry 3.7 million against revenues of less than $1.6 billion; the costs of sales were now exceeding the revenues earned.

Huawei, ZTE and LG together shipped over 37 million smartphones in Q3 2013, accounting for a combined market share of 15%.

Six Degrees Group raised almost £35,000 for HOPEHIV at its annual charity golf day on September 17th at Foxhills golf course, Surrey.

The event drew in more than 50 IT industry experts who clubbed together and raised over £17,000 for the charity. This sum was then doubled by 6DG, meaning the results came in well above par.

Six Degrees of Hope, the service provider's CSR programme was launched in 2011 to support HOPEHIV.

In the two years since its launch, Six Degrees of Hope has raised more than £125,000 for the organisation.

As part of the scheme, 6DG doubles any funds raised by its employees for Six Degrees of Hope. The golf day finished with dinner and a charity auction. Items offered for auction included a first class trip to Paris, tickets to see England v Argentina at Twickenham and two days of brand consultancy with Mr B & Friends Brand Consultancy.

Alastair Mills, CEO at Six Degrees Group, stated: "Whether our staff are organising formal events, fun quizzes or cycling across the country, at 6DG we are always looking for ways to raise money in the name of Six Degrees of Hope.

"We wanted to build on last year's golf day success by raising even more money this year and we are pleased to have had so many enthusiastic players on board. Several of our staff members have recently returned from a trip to Tanzania, where they volunteered at one of our projects so we know that the amount of money raised by just this one event will help to transform the lives of young people in many communities. We look forward to hearing more about the charity's continued success as a result."