Comms Dealer

EE has launched a series of initiatives in the north east to boost the online skills of communities and small businesses across the region. 

The initiatives support the kick off of Go ON North East, a programme that aims to 'super charge' digital skills activity across the region, led by Go ON UK,  the cross-sector charity established by Baroness Lane-Fox.

Research has revealed that 500,000 adults in the North East lack basic online skills. Go ON UK and its founder partners, including EE, are aiming to reduce this figure by 25 per cent in the next 12 months.

EE CEO Olaf Swantee said: "Digital exclusion is a serious issue. Research shows that being online has significant benefits for people; from improving educational outcomes of young people to countering social isolation and depression among the elderly. By improving the UK's digital infrastructure and sharing the magic of technology, we can help people get more from the digital world."

ClearOne's CONVERGE USB, a recent addition to RGB Communications' pro AV distribution portfolio, has been designed to more easily bring high-quality audio from UC applications running on desktops or laptops into a ClearOne pro audio environment.
 
"It may be a small box but, the CONVERGE USB is a pro audio solution that provides secure plug and play USB connectivity for UC applications such as Microsoft Lync, Skype, Google+ Hangouts, IBM Sametime and Cisco WebEx, running on both Microsoft and Apple desktops and laptops," said Gordon Innocent, RGB's Chairman.
 
Following a simple upgrade the CONVERGE USB can be retro-fitted to any installed CONVERGE system and also connects with ClearOne's range of COLLABORATE desktop and room video conferencing solutions.
 
The CONVERGE USB can also serve as an E-bus extender as each unit can relay the signal for another 60 metres without degradation.
 
"The CONVERGE USB means that when you want to share audio, from a desktop or laptop, in a conference room you no longer have to resort to the rather clunky method of using your headset ports and then having to fiddle with audio levels," added Innocent.

"Now you can simply plug in the CONVERGE USB and because the audio stays in the digital domain you have access to the highest quality pro AV audio."

Open ports continue to be the gateway to riches for unscrupulous fraudsters, warned Paul Taylor, Sales Director, Voiceflex.

"Fraud accounts for 2% of calls worldwide or $20 billion a year, but the main issue is that its always someone else's fault," he said. "The end user blames the telecoms reseller for not securing the telephony system and the telecoms reseller blames the IT company for not securing the network."

Aiming to blow the final whistle on this 'blame game' Voiceflex has launched an additional fraud prevention tool.

"Voiceflex fraud application is already immense," said Taylor. "From a platform perspective we check a myriad of combinations between IP address, destinations dialled, length of calls, frequency of calls and more, and in most instances we close down fraud at the onset before a successful call is made.

"We back this up with our fraud alerting and fraud suspension for any compromised systems that slip through the net."

He also noted that just because the SIP trunks are closed down due to fraudulent activity doesn't always mean the fraud stops. "If you have ISDN circuits connected calls can still be made if the router and/or telephony system has been comprised," warned Taylor.

"For every new SIP or hosted connection to our network we carry out an open port analysis test, if ports have been left open we advise the channel partner of the risk of the leaving the ports open, this service is free of charge.

"If our channel partner is not in charge of the IT network they can then advise their customer of the potential risk and the blame game is over before it has begun."

Plantronics' Voyager Legend CS, the latest addition to the Voyager headset line, has been launched through the channel.
 
"With the CS we are addressing office workers who spend an increasing amount of time collaborating on conference calls on their desk phone or mobile phone and need better mobility by being hands free," said Richard Rogers, Head of Europe & Africa B2B Marketing, Plantronics.

"Today's workforce needs a modern communications solution that moves throughout the day with them, from the office to the coffee shop to the car with the kids."
 
The Voyager Legend CS comes with Plantronics' Bluetooth headset as well as a charging dock that connects to the desk phone.

The optional HL10 Lifter or EHS cable (sold separately) allows for remote call control with the desk phone at the push of a button. It can also be customised to match any work style using accessories like a portable charging case and USB adapter for PC connectivity.
 

The stage is set for Chess CEO David Pollock to perform a long-awaited stand-up comedy routine in aid of The Christie and Prostate Cancer UK charities on 2nd October 2013 at The Comedy Store on Deansgate Locks.

Critically acclaimed comedian Justin Moorhouse has been confirmed as the headline act for Funny Business North West, the stand up comedy event that will see eight business heavyweights swap board reports for banter as they battle it out on stage to see who will be crowned the funniest.

Judging the acts will be Don Ward, founder of The Comedy Store, Alistair McGeorge CEO of headline sponsor New Look and Jason Cooke, funnyman behind hit BBC sitcom, Hebburn.

Taking part in the gruelling challenge are Deloitte UK executive member Sharon Thorne, Christie CEO Caroline Shaw, Elaine Birchall of PZ Cussons, Urban Splash Chairman Tom Bloxham, DX Group CEO Petar Cvetkovic, Richard Duerr of Duerr's Jam and senior independent director of Fenner Plc, Vanda Murray.

With under one week to go, nerves are clearly building up. Pollock said: "When I agreed to this challenge, I was nervous but thought that would ease with practice and help from my comedy mentor. How wrong I was, even with a couple of warm up gigs behind me I still terrified. I'm passionate about fundraising and have done some crazy things in my time but the comedy store Wednesday night has got me real twitchy."

The local business community has so far been extremely supportive and there are now just 50 tickets left for the show. All remaining tickets for the event plus sponsorship packages can be bought via the Funny Business website or reserved by contacting MC2 on 0161 236 1352.

Small business telecoms and energy provider Unicom has launched the 7th year of its Graduate Management Programme and re-launched its Community Support Scheme across the UK.

Unicom's Graduate Management Programme was launched in 2007 has been responsible for filling many key positions within the company.

During the 12 month programme graduates experience a variety of roles within each of the key departments of the business, giving them the opportunity to gain new skills and obtain a comprehensive understanding of how the company operates before being placed into tailor made positions on completion of the scheme. This year graduates have gone into permanent positions within Correspondence, Marketing, Operations Development and Provisioning.

"The graduate scheme has been invaluable to my understanding of the business. Coming in at a ground floor level really helps us understand the values and challenges of the business before entering our permanent job roles," said Holly Taylor who recently completed the course.

As well as investing in its staff the company has also relaunched its Community Support Scheme, providing financial support for projects aimed at improving the quality of life for the local residents surrounding its offices. Unicom have 12 offices nationwide employing over 500 staff. The scheme is being re-launched, inviting local community projects and charities to apply for up to £500 worth of funding. The first project to benefit from the re-launch will be announced later this year.

"We believe investing in the communities we work in is important, as is investing in high calibre staff." said Chris Earle, CEO of Unicom.

Exclusive Networks Group has confirmed a new package of substantial corporate investment across its international business.

"Our investors have again demonstrated their confidence in the direction of the business and in our strategy for further market scale and share," said Olivier Breittmayer, CEO of Exclusive Networks Group.

"The Group's goal to hit €1bn revenues by 2017 is further assured by successful closure of this funding package worth around €60m.

"It is particularly pleasing to see all our management team reinvesting and participating in the round, further demonstrating a collective belief in the potential of a major value added distribution business strengthening its regional presence."

Data centre and communications specialist Node4 has enhanced and relaunched its Partner Programme in a move designed to expand its channel business via greater incentivisation and support for existing and new partners.

The programme simplifies Node4's service offering and buying process for partners, and its relaunch follows the appointment of Ian Millward as Head of Channel Sales in September.

A key addition to the programme will be a new Partner Portal offering detailed information on Node4's proposition, simple pricing structures and direct contact with Node4's team.

Millward commented: "We truly believe everyone wins when vendors and channel partners work hand in hand as real business partners to properly serve the customers they supply.

"All of the new services and support in the relaunched programme have been designed to make us easy to do business with and to reward our partners for their volume, loyalty and self sufficiency."

Westcon Group's Comstor business unit has signed an agreement with X-IO meaning that Cisco resellers across EMEA have the ability to drive accelerated revenue via access to 'Intelligent Storage Element' technology from X-IO, claimed the distributor.

"As one of the only distributors focused on Cisco technology we're eliminating multiple distractions associated with choosing the right competitive cloud platform," said Russell Blackburn, Senior Director of Data Center Solutions, Comstor EMEA.

"But to accelerate both traditional enterprise data centers and cloud platforms, the infrastructure demands intelligent storage like the X-IO technology."

With a foundation based on reliability, performance and scalability, X-IO's Intelligent Storage Element (ISE), optimises price and operational efficiency.

Solutions focus on both consistent and accelerated performance via hard disk drives (HDD), or real-time hybrid solutions with enterprise SSDs and HDDs.

Roger Walton, Vice President of X-IO EMEA, added: "Data center and cloud infrastructures demand the highest levels of availability and reliability - and effective, intelligent, and flexible storage is key to making that happen."

The global telecoms industry's revenues will remain roughly flat over the next few years, with a decline in spending on voice services counterbalanced by growth in spending on mobile and fixed (broadband) data services, according to global analyst firm Ovum.

In a recent market forecast analysis report, it was found that as growth slows, market realities mean telcos must find ways to serve their existing customers profitability rather than simply growing their customer bases.

Shagun Bali, analyst for Telecoms Technology at Ovum and author of the report said, "Over the next five years, service and tariff innovation will be key revenue-generating strategies, while LTE rollout, network optimisation, and creative approaches to partnerships will become focal points for cost savings. Telcos need to monetise new business models, leverage customer data by investing in analytics, and define their response to over-the-top (OTT) players."

Ovum estimates that telco IT spending will reach $60bn in 2017, growing at a CAGR of 0.6 percent between 2013 and 2017. Growth in telco IT spending will be driven primarily by investments in packaged software and system integration. Spending in emerging markets in Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and Africa (MEA), and South and Central America (SCA) will drive global IT spending.

Bali states that, "Although overall telco IT spending will grow modestly, the trend is for telcos to reduce internal IT spending and increase spending on external IT projects. To control costs, telcos are outsourcing the maintenance of legacy IT and turning to trusted partners, both to implement unified and standards-based systems and software and to provide skills such as those of data scientists for Big Data analytics projects. Consequently, the overall addressable market for vendors will increase."

"The combination of middling profits, high capital requirements, high risk, and uncertain economic growth requires telcos to place their bets carefully, including investing in growing revenue streams and managing customer experience more than ever before. The result is increased opportunities for the IT industry. In the long term, telcos will place more focus than they have before on software to drive innovation," concludes Bali.