Comms Dealer

Network Rail is to invest £1.9bn to upgrade its telecoms infrastructure and roll out high-speed mobile broadband across the busiest parts of Britain's rail network.

By 2019, 70% of train passengers should have access to the faster technology, leaving rail users and business travellers who rely on the backbone of Britain's transport network to struggle with inadequate mobile broadband for the next six years.

Mobile Data and broadband expert Nigel Bramwell, CEO of Voiamo, the company behind MobiData, can explain how rail travellers will need a practical solution to this broadband issue and can show how passengers can stay fully connected to their smartphone, laptop or tablet and beat the broadband block when on the train.

Nigel Bramwell, CEO of MobiData, said: "For anyone who wants to get their gigabytes on the go and stay connected to their digital life while using the rail network it can be frustrating when you're sharing a dial-up connection with 100 people.

"Rail use in the UK has doubled in the last decade and while we wait for this much needed upgrade, passengers demanding mobile broadband services need a new way of bridging their personal data gap on the railways."

Education sector specialist The National Business Network (TNBN) has bagged Mega Comms for an undisclosed sum.

Although far from a trial run, the acquisition has armed TNBN with the insight and hands-on experience to pursue more acquisitions, according to Michael Hardy, Director of Communications at the company.

"This acquisition has given us a real understanding of how to buy other telephone companies which is something we shall look into over the next couple of years," he said.

During the past year TNBN has expanded by 50% and secured many big council contracts for schools that require major cable reconstruction following building works completed over the summer term. "It's so busy we needed to hire teams of skilled engineers to help us," added Hardy.

TNBN has come along way since its inception 10 years ago as a telecoms dealer operating from the back room of a council flat.

Speaking from offices in Stockley Business Park, Uxbridge (also home to Apple UK, Hasbro, Adobe and Activision), Hardy added: "We now own our phone, broadband and engineering telephone company and aim to continue winning major deals over the big networks." 

He attributes the organisation's success, in no small part, to a policy of personal one-to-one service supported by transparency across every order.

"All of our customers know our staff by name and they all have our mobile numbers should they need help," added Hardy. "Everything is simplified for the customer."

Paul Whiting, President of Global Sales for Sennheiser electronic GmbH & Co, has been awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Buckinghamshire New University.
 
The award was made in recognition of the contribution Whiting personally and Sennheiser UK have made to the University's School of Applied Production & New Media.           
                                               
Whiting was among a distinguished gathering of individuals being honoured at Bucks New University's graduation ceremonies held at Wycombe Swan Theatre during the week of 9-13 September.
 
"I am proud and honoured to receive this award in recognition of my years of involvement in the audio industry," says Whiting. "At Sennheiser, we believe in the investment into education - this is where the future audio specialists are born, it is a great business to be involved in."
 
The School of Applied Production & New Media at Bucks New University covers a wide range of technology and production-based disciplines. It has a strong focus on developing the skills and knowledge synonymous with the creative industries, and has benefited from a large amount of support from Sennheiser.
 
In addition to the supply of audio equipment, scholarships, bursaries, paid internships, industry master classes and long-term equipment loans, Sennheiser UK also provides the University with contract and consultancy work which includes developing media assets for online delivery and viral marketing applications.

Professor Ruth Farwell, Vice Chancellor of Buckinghamshire New University, said: "Paul is among a celebrated group of honorary awardees, who are chosen in recognition of their outstanding achievements in their fields, and because they are an inspiration to our graduating students."
 
Two students who have directly benefited over the past year are Jamie Leeming and Gemma Robinson, who both graduated in September. Both received Sennheiser sponsorship and were lucky to be given internship placements within Sennheiser UK's marketing department.
 

Aastra has been named by MZA as the leading supplier brand of DECT handsets to businesses in the EMEA region in 2012.

In its shipment review, independent telecoms and IT analysts, MZA assesses the multi cellular cordless PBX market by handset volume and reveals that Aastra sold more DECT handsets to the enterprise market than any other vendor.

Mobility is a key part of Aastra's strategy and the organisation this year the vendor introduced High Definition (HD) audio quality to 'corridor warriors', enabling DECT customers to reap the benefits of the CAT-iq (Cordless Advanced Technology - Internet and quality)standard. This is a new standard for IP and voice services in the next generation cordless network which provides crystal clear sound.

Pierre-Alexandre Fuhrmann, Vice-President Global R&D at Aastra, said: "By offering a comprehensive range of competitively priced DECT solutions, our sales volumes have increased this year and it's great to see MZA's report which sets our growth in context within the market."

Stephanie Watson, General Manager of MZA added: "DECT has unique benefits which will see it keep its place in terms of wireless business communications. Its strong vertical application solutions, including messaging and alarming features combined with high quality reliable voice, address real needs in business."

The importance of the contact centre's function as brand ambassador has been overlooked by management for years. However, this is about to change as more and more companies are realising that the battle to win and maintain customers is fought by contact centre agents every day, according to Jabra.

"We recognise the trend and appreciate the significant role of the contact centre," says Andrew Doyle, Managing Director, Jabra Business Solutions, UK & Ireland.

"We believe that contact centre agents are major contributors in safeguarding brand perception and by making this value-add tangible, it will clearly demonstrate their role as brand ambassadors alongside their Marketing colleagues."

According to Sarah Stealey Reed, Content Director at International Customer Manager Institute (ICMI), we will see a shift towards contact centres becoming much more of a customer experience and knowledge centre, playing an important role as brand guardian.

Stealey Reed commented: "When customers finally communicate with the contact centre it is because they literally have reached the end of the line. So, that interaction with the agent needs to be fantastic or this might very well be the last time you will ever hear from that customer again."

Companies are no longer being defined by their products, but by the way that customers experience them. And now that the customers have so many options of brands and products to choose from that experience is vital. "That is why call centre agents are becoming much more like brand ambassadors," added Stealey Reed.

Ahead of the iPhone 5S/5C launches, the iPhone managed to take share (on a Y/Y basis) in the US, Europe, and Japan, according to Kantar Woldpanel's latest data.

Kantar estimates the iPhone had a 39.3% share of U.S. smartphone sales in the June-August timeframe, +540 bps Y/Y. In the EU5, where the iPhone has been losing ground to Android, its share rose 200 bps to 16.1%, and in Japan, it rose to 48.6% prior to the start of NTT DoCoMo's 5S/5C sales.

The UK (27.5%) is Apple's strongest major European market.Android respectively had US, EU5, and Japanese shares of 55.1% (-560 bps), 70.1% (+130 bps), and 46.7%. It's still taking share from the iPhone in China ahead of an expected China Mobile iPhone deal. Android's Chinese share rose 920 bps to 72.4%, while the iPhone's fell 270 bps to 20.8%.

Europe is turning out to be a bright spot for Windows Phone: Kantar estimates Microsoft's OS had a 9.2% share in the EU5, +420 bps Y/Y. Nokia's Lumia 925 and 1020 launches, along with strong demand for the low-end 520, likely helped. But WP only had a 3% share in the U.S., and a 2.1% share in China.

Choose-Your-Own-Device (CYOD) is widely regarded as the most appropriate strategy for meeting organisations' communications needs in both practice and reality, according to an independent study of ICT decision makers conducted by Shape the Future and commissioned by Azzurri Communications.

Commissioned as a follow up to an equivalent 2012 study, Azzurri set out to learn how the perception and deployment of different device-ownership strategies were evolving within UK organisations. In particular the research investigated changing attitudes towards the three core policies for employees using a single mobile device for personal and business use:

Organisation-owned or Don't Bring Your Own Device (DBYOD): Whereby device choice and ownership is strictly controlled by the employer (the traditional corporate set up)

BYOD or Bring Your Own Device: A mobile device policy that allows employees to connect their personal smartphones and/or tablets to the organisation's network

CYOD: Where the organisation owns the SIM/contract, but lets employees choose their own device

While BYOD has garnered a lot of hype and column inches in recent years, Azzurri has found that significant adoption is yet to take place. While token adoption of BYOD, where fewer than 10% of employees can connect their private devices to the network, has increased considerably in popularity in the last year (growing from 43% to 58%), companywide adoption of BYOD (where 75% or more of employees are included) is faring rather poorly. Deployment of companywide BYOD has grown at half the rate of CYOD (BYOD increased by 6% while CYOD grew by 12%).

Significant CYOD policies are now in operation in under one third (31%) of UK organisations as compared to BYOD in only 17.2%.

Organisations are however warming to the idea of employees using a single mobile/work device, yet opinion still remains in favour of corporate provision.

When asked to rate out of 5 whether they support the idea of employees using a single mobile device under a range of different scenarios (with 5 being 'Completely Supported' and 0 being 'strongly Opposed'), organisations still favoured policies in which they owned the device and/or contract. For example, support for a single device 'If the business owns the device' has risen from 3.7 to 4.3.

However support has grown in all scenarios since 2012, including those of a BYOD nature, suggesting that firms are shifting their views in favour of shared ownership. For example, support for a single device 'If the employee owns the device' has risen from 2.8 to 3.3 since last year.

"Despite all the puff and promise of BYOD, the evidence shows that adoption is far lower than the hype would lead us to believe. BYOD promises the world, but in reality most organisations are left paralysed and confused by what BYOD can really offer, so in the end they stick to what they know and avoid large-scale, companywide BYOD deployments," Rufus Grig, CTO, Azzurri Communications.

"While we have found BYOD to be best policy in certain, specific situations (such as in hospitals where consultants usually own their own devices), overwhelmingly our customers find that the hybrid 'Choose Your Own Device' or CYOD approach is the best fit for their needs as it offers the right balance of choice and control.

"CYOD is therefore the best of both worlds; a controlled network environment that still offers employees the benefit of a single work/home device of their choice.

"CYOD is also less of a cultural leap for the organisation, since maintaining ownership of the contract is much closer to the status quo of corporate provision. So aside from the security and monetary risks, BYOD is often a leap too far for many, so it is only natural that they prefer to stick to what they know."

Westcon Convergence and Microsoft have hosted a Lync Recruitment event for channel partners at Microsoft's HQ in Thames Valley Park, Reading.

According to Westcon Lync experienced growth of 140% in the last calendar year.

Dawn Fenton, Sales Director, Unified Communications, Westcon Convergence, said: "It is vital that partners recognise the Lync opportunity and incorporate it into their portfolio.

"If they don't then they will miss on out on revenue to the competition.

"Some channel partners are wary of the solution because it requires multiple hardware products to be deployed and integrated across a network to deliver the true UC experience of the solution.

"This is where Westcon comes into play as the Lync hardware distribution partner of choice who simplifies the design, implementation and support of a multivendor Lync deployment."

Networks First has been awarded the Western European Services Partner of the Year by Huawei at the Huawei Channel Conference on the 19th-20th September in Amsterdam.

The awards are recognised internationally with winners selected in 5 regional categories and 20 local awards.

Leon He, President of Huawei Western Europe Enterprise Business Unit, said: "The Huawei Western European Services Partner of the Year award rewards Huawei's outstanding Services partner for 2013 and acknowledges the initiatives and efforts devoted by the partner to their alliance with Huawei Enterprise.

"The winner of this award must deliver innovative and cost-effective services to Enterprise customers by enabling services as valuable features of Huawei's solutions. Networks First is such a role model and strongly deserves this recognition."

TFM Networks is one of four founding members of a new industry body set up to to provide enterprises with single source solutions for network security, risk management and compliance retention.

Also making up the Continuous Compliance Alliance (CCA) are software specialist Cryptic Solutions, security consultants Razor Thorn and cloud infrastructure firm Vissensa.

FM's MD David Heyes said: "Security is invariably the primary concern for businesses across their IT systems and telecommunications.

"As a founding member of the CCA, TFM is focused on ensuring better security at less cost. No single organisation can specialise in everything and point solutions only take you so far. The CCA is all about specialists working together to deliver practical service-lead solutions that are flexible, highly effective and commercially attractive."

Heyes also noted that membership of the group is open to businesses with the expertise to further strengthen the CCA.