Comms Dealer

Researcher Information Services Group says that the value of public sector outsourcing in EMEA fell 23% in the first half of 2013 but easily surpassed its average during the previous five years.

The 2Q13 EMEA ISG Outsourcing Index, which measures outsourcing contracts with an Annual Contract Value (ACV) of €4m or more, recorded one of the strongest first half performances in the Public Sector to date, with government outsourcing accounting for 41% of all contracts awarded in the region. Public sector outsourcing ACV totalled €2.4bn for the first half of 2013, a decline from €3.1bn in the first half of 2012.

Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) specialist LogRhythm has launched Mission Possible, a new incentive and reward scheme aimed at its EMEA channel.

Also, the company has announced the launch of REACH, a new customer-centric content marketing platform for its partners across the EMEA region.

Mission Possible initiative will be offered to channel partners at all three levels of distinction (Platinum, Gold and Silver) and aim at rewarding those partners who help win the new business opportunities, it says.

The partners then will get the access to the online portal free of charge where they might log the new wins. Once approved by LogRhythm, resellers can build their points.

Additionally, REACH will be also available free of charge to all of LogRhythm's partners. This platform can be customised to include individual logos and contact details while leveraging the LogRhythm's brand, as it says. The platform will offer toolkits for co-branded marketing campaigns, including emails, web banners and direct mailers.

"With the security landscape as complex as it is today, there has never been a more critical time to strengthen our relationships with capable partners and major industry players who have great expertise in the space, and to help them grow with us," said Stuart Quinsey, Director EMEA Channels at LogRhythm.

European distributor Hammer has introduced a 'registered disk partner' scheme for its customers in collaboration with four vendors (HGST, Seagate, Toshiba and Western Digital).

The new programme has been designed to support customers and complement Hammer's disk portfolio. In exchange, the prospective partners will be offered an access to replacement drives, full integration and configuration services, early product and market updates, engineering and 'design-in' consultancy, priority stock allocation and more, it says.

Hammer will also launch a dedicated Hammer disk Twitter page and a YouTube channel.

"As a focused disk distributor in Europe, and with the growing diversity of both HDD and SSD products being released to suit different applications, we recognised the need to enhance the information flow to our partners," stated Nick Powling, General Manager for Disk at Hammer.

At present, Hammer offers over 1,000 models of disk drive and says it has managed to ship over 10,000 petabytes of disk capacity since the company's foundation in 1991.

Global insurance IT spending is forecast to hit $100bn (€75.4bn) by 2017 as insurers shift from cost-cutting to new revenue growth, according to a market consultancy Ovum.

For the last five years the market saw substantial IT budgets cuts due an economic slowdown and now the insurers are ready to invest in IT again, the study says.

Ovum expects that the overall global insurance IT budgets will now grow at 6.5% compound annual growth rate (CAGR).

Asia-Pacific currently represents the most rapid growth and is expected to overtake Europe, the second-largest regional market.

In Europe life insurers are aiming at reduction of their operating costs, which leads the IT investments in legacy system modernisation, online channels and fraud detection systems.

The Ovum's study indicates that a continued expansion of IT budgets in support of consolidation/transformation and core system replacement projects will see an annual spend of $5bn (€3.8bn) by 2017.

Charles Juniper, senior insurance analyst, financial services technology, Ovum, stated: "The sharp decline in new business growth across all life insurance markets following the global slowdown led most insurers to rapidly and significantly cut their IT budgets. However, accelerating year-on-year growth in 2013 following some cautious expansion from 2011 confirms that life insurers are now moving from a cost-cutting mindset toward reinvestment in strategic IT projects."

Independent managed communications provider Foehn has released a series of new videos designed to to help businesses better understand the many facets of Open Source Communications.

Open Source has become popular among companies and other organisations such as charities and those in the public sector, and many are already aware of its benefits to their business operations.

However, some businesses remain oblivious to Open Source and others are only just waking up to the possibilities of non-proprietary IT and VoIP telephony routes for them such as Asterisk.

In a series of 11 new videos, viewable on YouTube, Foehn's experts outline Open Source, what it is, how it works, who is using it, the advantages it offers over proprietary software and systems, tips to consider when looking at Open Source for Communications and advice when looking at Open Source Telephony. 

Two other videos produced by Foehn focus on how two companies - Theatre Sites and White Bros - undertook research to find Open Source Asterisk solutions for their businesses.

"Even for the most experienced IT managers it can be daunting," said James Passingham, CEO of Foehn. "Most people know there are advantages and benefits to using open source, but they don't necessarily know how to go about using open source communications for an IP telephony project.

"Like many technologies that eventually become mainstream, it isn't important to have an in-depth knowledge, but it can be useful to have an overview of what it's all about, how it's different and how it can benefit your organisation.

"This is why we've produced this series of videos, to help people understand Open Source Communications without going too much into the technical aspects of it. Hopefully it will give them sufficient information to make up their own minds about whether or not it's appropriate for their business."

Nimans has boosted its range of nuisance call blocking phones from BT with three new arrivals.

The BT6500 is one of Nimans' best sellers and has now been joined by the BT7600 Nuisance Call Blocker, the BT4000 Big Button and the BT4500 Big Button devices.

All will allow customers to block up to 80 per cent of unwanted calls by allowing them to block calls from unknown caller ID and international, withheld and specific numbers.

The BT4000 and BT4500 Big Button phones have distinct features that make them easy to use for any customer, including large buttons, a sound boost feature, hearing aid compatibility, easy to read screen and slow playback of messages.

Nuisance calls are a growing concern in the UK. Latest research from Ofcom shows that consumers received on average two nuisance calls per week.

With the BT7600 Nuisance Call Blocker friends and family can still get through, even when Do Not Disturb is switched on, by saving them as VIP contacts within the phone memory.

Andy Winfield, Nimans' Purchasing Director, says the latest models are a further boost in the battle to minimise nuisance calling. "The original BT6500 is still literally flying out the door with thousands sold from us each month. We expect demand to be equally as strong for the new additions which are another potent weapon in a reseller's sales armoury."

Headset specialist Sennheiser Communications has appointed Michael Waterworth as Distribution Sales Manager. In his new role Michael will work closely with Sennheiser UK's distribution partners to educate the channel on the benefits and margin opportunities of Sennheiser headsets.

Waterworth was previously Corporate Sales Manager for Sennheiser in the north of the UK. He has considerable expertise in managing channel relationships in the telecoms sector and in his new role will report to Steve Bailey, Business Area Manager, for Sennheiser UK Telecoms.

Sennheiser has a channel-only model through its distribution partners Nimans, Corptel UK, Go2, Westcoast and Triade. Sennheiser can offer the channel traditional telephony headsets as well as UC optimised headsets for both wireless and wired applications.

Bailey said: "Moving Michael to head distribution sales utilises the talents of an experienced member of the Sennheiser team to support our distributors. The channel strategy we follow provides our Sennheiser resellers with the best of both worlds - direct support from Sennheiser when required, complemented by efficient distribution and additional services from our distribution partners. Michael's experience will ensure effective relationships with our distribution partners."

Leading business communications provider, Chess Telecom, has become the latest partner to launch live services based on Content Guru's NGware platform, with the launch of its new offering, Chess Cloud.

Award-winning communications provider and established channel presence, Chess Telecom, has made a decisive move with its first cloud-based voice proposition for the UK SME and channel market. Building on the proven technology foundation of Content Guru's NGware platform, Chess Cloud is set to occupy a prominent position in the Chess Telecom product portfolio, complementing the business's existing on-premise and line rental offerings with a wide range of PBX functionality from the cloud.

Central to the Chess Cloud offering is Chess PBX, a suite of features designed to deliver customers the equivalent functionality of an enterprise-grade PBX in the cloud. Standard PBX replacement features of the Chess Cloud proposition include a variety of intelligent routing options and customisable IVR, in addition to one-click disaster recovery for seamless business continuity. Chess PBX users will also have the option to personalise their solutions with a range of value-added products, from cloud-based call recording and storage, to contact centre functionality complete with ACD and skills-based routing.

The decision to position Chess Cloud as a PBX proposition alongside the organisation's existing on-premise offerings was a deliberate one, explains Chess CEO, Dave Pollock, as the business seeks to diversify from its traditional CPE portfolio.

"The PBX market has seen radical change in recent years and channel resellers are having to take a long hard look at the way they do business," Pollock observes. "Though on-premise PBX continues to provide a large volume of our sales, every year we are seeing an increasing number of enquiries about the availability of cloud alternatives. It has become clear to us that the trajectory of the current market is trended towards the software-as-a-service model and for businesses such as ours seeking to pursue an ambitious growth strategy, it is absolutely essential to have a rock solid cloud offering with all the latest features."

In order to take full advantage of the cloud opportunity, Chess Telecom needed to design a unique set of services that would complement its existing product portfolio. These services also needed to be appropriate for Chess's broad and varied existing customer base, ranging from medium-sized enterprises of several hundred seats down to SoHo customers with a single user.

It was this set of circumstances, Pollock continues, that led to Chess Telecom's engagement with Content Guru to base their new range of cloud communications services on the NGware cloud platform:

"One of the most attractive features of NGware, and a major influence in our decision to adopt the platform, was its flexibility. NGware's highly customisable administrator interface gives us the freedom to choose how we manage services for customers, enabling us to adopt the system that best suits each individual business. For our SoHo clients, we are able to take away pain by managing everything end-to-end on their behalf, whilst with larger customers we can enable autonomous responsibility for their internal IT teams. This actually gives them more control than they would have had with an on-premise PBX, and at a much lower internal cost because the interfaces are so easy to use."

In addition to selling Chess Cloud directly to customers as a retail offering, Chess has announced plans to roll out a wholesale version of the product across its extensive network of channel partners. Having soft-launched earlier this summer via a series of events hosted at its Cheshire headquarters in Alderley Edge, the Chess Cloud wholesale proposition has already been adopted by more than 20 reseller partners.

This initial success is expected to gather momentum as Chess continues to promote the new proposition across its distribution chain. The business is currently running a series of workshops and webinars to showcase the Chess Cloud propostion, and is encouraging interested resellers to book their place now.

The expertise, channel connections and national presence that this reseller network brings to the table, recognises John Rees (pictured above), Content Guru Commercial Director, are invaluable assets, not only for Chess, but for the NGware platform as a whole.

"We are delighted to be working with a partner of Chess Telecom's calibre and standing," said Rees of the partnership. "When we set out to create our wholesale proposition for the channel, we wanted to build a delivery model that would enable our partners to take our technology and break into markets that we have never been able to address before."

"Chess Telecom's connections and its intimate knowledge of the reseller market make this a dream partnership for us. We look forward to supporting Chess in what we hope will be a long and fruitful partnership, as the Chess Cloud proposition takes NGware into exciting new territory."

Exponential-e has launched an online resource centre offering partners sales, marketing and training tools designed to help them sell the firm's IT services more effectively.

The partner portal also offers self-service access to the latest news, tools, product and service information and resources as well as a means to communicate directly with the team at Exponential-e.

Dave Joplin, Head of Indirect, Exponential-e, said: "Driving growth among our partner base is a top priority and as our service portfolio continues to expand it is important we equip our partners with the tools they need to take advantage of new up-sale and recurring revenue opportunities available. We wanted to make it as easy as possible for partners to do business with us."

Whitepapers, tech reports, video demos and case studies will be updated regularly to offer insight into how network, voice and cloud solutions are developing and being used.

Exponential-e, Channel Marketing Manager, Lindsey Fish added: "The portal will serve as an extension of and will complement Exponential-e's channel marketing, sales and pre-sales teams."

Vcomm has formed a resale partnership with call recording software provider OrecX, enabling the distributor to offer hosted telephony service providers and VARs a fully featured call recording solution.

The agreement includes a full suite of white labelled professional services, and allows VCOMM to offer resellers technical design consultancy, field engineering and technical support.

The solution includes SIPREC standard support, Port Mirroring support, full and selective call recording, live monitoring, multi- hierarchy, PCI compliance and on demand recording. And offers a 'disruptive price level with all engineering required to deploy and support the platform included, claims the firm.

The solutions can be supplied on a per user per month basis and they scale from 100-350 sessions on a single server with clustering to meet higher capacity or resilience requirements, and also offers on-board and network based storage solutions.

The enterprise integration of these solutions provides multi-user hierarchies and configurable user permissions and privileges. PBX integration is included via Port Mirroring or SIPREC and SIP, H.323, SCCP, MGCP and UNIStim Support come as standard.

Managing Director of VCOMM, Steve Harris, said: "There is a clear requirement in the market for this type of solution based on the feedback of our service provider and reseller customers."