Comms Dealer

Core Telecom's MD Paul Turner is taking part in a gruelling seven day cycling event to raise money for Dreams & Wishes charity.

He will be cycling a total of 750km over 7 days from Barcelona to Anglet Basque Coast in France as part of the Haute Route cycling event.

The event is one of the toughest cyclosportives in the world for amateur road cyclists and will see over 600 riders take part.

"Dreams & Wishes do some fantastic work, so it is the perfect opportunity to raise both money and awareness for the charity in an event like this," Turner said.

"The event has been hard work but very enjoyable. The terrain is extremely challenging but there's nothing more rewarding than completing each stage and knowing you're doing something that will help many others."

Dreams & Wishes are a children's charity working to fulfil the dreams of seriously ill children.

CommScope, a specialist in infrastructure solutions for communications networks, has named William O'Connell as Managing Director, Northern Europe.

He moves up from his role as CommScope's EMEA Technical Director for its Enterprise Solutions division, where he successfully drove the technical support for enterprise customers throughout Europe, Middle East and Africa.

In his new role he will be responsible for developing, driving and implementing the enterprise sales and channel strategy in Northern Europe.

Based in London, will report directly to Koen ter Linde, Vice President, Enterprise Sales Europe.

Koen ter Linde commented: "We are delighted to promote William to this new role. He has a long and proven history of success in sales and technical roles, with a wealth of experience in leadership, combined with a sound understanding of the market dynamics, specifically related to data centres, fibre, networking and security."

Videonations has launched a one click conferencing presentation solution called Barco 'ClickShare', a tool that negates what can be a complicated set-up process when sharing documents.

Barco certified Gold partner, Videonations, says 'ClickShare' can revolutionise meeting room presentations and speed up the decision-making process.

Videonations MD, Ian Carter - whose company is part of the Nycomm Group that features Nimans - explained: "There's nothing more frustrating than entering a meeting room and having to find the right cable that connects your laptop to the presentation system.

"When your laptop is finally connected you then face the next challenge - a stretched or squashed image of your laptop screen. Problems with aspect ration can be common and cause unnecessary stress during those final moments leading up to a presentation.

"But Barco's ClickShare makes connecting to a presentation system as simple as clicking a button. Not only is it simple for the presenter but it's just as easy for meeting participants to connect and get involved more actively."

A standard set-up consists of four USB-powered devices, a storage basket and a base unit.

"This one click wonder not only helps the presenter get the presentation on-screen in a second, but it also allows the other people in the meeting to participate in a much more intuitive and rewarding way," added Carter.

"The result is enhanced confidence, leading to better presentations."

IT Europa is to stage the European IT & Software Excellence Awards 2014 in London on 26 March 2014.

Now in their fifth year, the European IT & Software Excellence Awards have been designed to recognise and reward excellence in European software development and IT and Telecoms solutions provision. The awards will bring together leading ISVs, Solution Providers and Systems Integrators from across Europe to demonstrate their ability to provide industry-leading IT solutions for their customers.

The awards are split into three sections. The first set of awards is for Systems Integrators and Solution VARs and acknowledges their skill and endeavour in delivering world class IT solutions for their customers. The second set of awards, exclusively for Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) and software developers, highlights the applications that they have developed and delivered for their customers. The final set of awards, for suppliers, highlights those vendors, distributors and service providers who best support their channel partners to deliver excellence.

2014 Award Categories:
Solution Provider Categories
• SME Solution of the Year
• Enterprise Solution of the Year
• Datacentre Solution of the Year
• Vertical Solution of the Year
• Public Sector and Utilities Solution of the Year
• Managed Service Solution of the Year
• Mobility/Communications Solution of the Year
• Storage/Information Management Solution of the Year
• Big Data Business Intelligence and Analytics Solution of the Year
• Networking Solution of the Year
• Security Solution of the Year
ISV Categories
• Relationship Management Solution
• ERP /Supply Chain Management Solution
• Information & Document Management Solution
• Big Data, Business Intelligence and Analytics Solution
• Communications/Mobility Solution
• Vertical Market Solution
• Government Solution
• SaaS Solution
• Software Innovation Solution of the Year
Supplier Categories
• Hardware Vendor of the Year
• Software Vendor of the Year
• Service Provider of the Year
• Distributor of the Year
• Finance/Support Services Provider of the Year

"With the complexity of technology continuing to increase and new cloud-based and hybrid delivery models emerging, the role played by ISVs, solution providers and integrators in delivering real solutions to end-customers is becoming increasingly important," says Alan Norman, Managing Director of IT Europa.

"The European IT & Software Excellence Awards were the first pan-European awards to recognise excellence in the creation and delivery of real solutions and are intended to encourage the development of partnerships between vendors and solution providers across the IT and Telecoms industries."

IT & Software Excellence Awards winners will be presented with their awards at the European IT & Software Excellence Awards Dinner on 26 March 2014 at The Lancaster London Hotel, London.

Organisations wishing to enter the European IT & Software Excellence Awards or interested in sponsorship opportunities can find further information at: www.iteawards.com . The closing date for entries is 17 January 2014. The Awards dinner is co-located with the European ISV Convention 2014 (www.isvconvention.com ) which will be staged during the day on 26 March 2014.

Akixi is providing its hosted call management service to Gamma's channel partner community for use with Gamma's hosted telephony service, Horizon.

The 'Akixi for Horizon' service is available as a pay as you go monthly charge and allows Gamma's channel partners to offer their Horizon customers Akixi subscriptions, increasing monthly billing charges for valuable recurring revenue and keeping customers sticky with additional value-added services, including wallboard displays.
 
Chris Shaw, Product Manager for Gamma said: "Akixi for Horizon provides our channel partners with an additional service offering, allowing our partners to provide a dedicated real time tool for management information against which key decisions can be made. As a result, customers will now be able to optimise their Horizon Hosted IP Telephony service to meet business requirements, whilst at the same time our partners can generate valuable additional revenue."
 
Bart Delgado, Managing Director of Akixi, added: "To be chosen to supply reporting services for Gamma's Horizon Hosted IP Telephony platform is a terrific endorsement of our technology and its effectiveness. We look forward to working with Gamma's channel to promote Akixi for Horizon to their customer base."
 

Red Box Recorders, the global provider of voice and data recording solutions, has appointed Obi Meka as Pre Sales Engineer.

Based in Dubai, he will be responsible for providing local support to a network of resellers as part of Red Box's expansion plans within the Middle East region.
 
Lee Jones, CEO of Red Box Recorders commented: "We are committed to expanding our presence in the Middle East, Asia Pacific and North America as part of our ongoing growth strategy. Therefore, we are looking to boost our sales and technical resources in these regions to enhance the service and support we can provide to resellers and customers."

Spectralink has renamed its DECT product line from Kirk to the Spectralink 7000 portfolio, aligning the suite with the firm's wider portfolio including the Spectralink 6000 (900 MHz), and 8000 (Wi-Fi) Portfolios, which will also have minor product name changes to maintain consistency.
 
"In order to grow the company at the pace we have in mind, we decided we needed one unitary brand to build awareness. This will support our ambitious plans for expansion and diversification over the coming years," said Sten Dyrmose, CEO at Spectralink.
 
"Our decision was backed up by feedback from customers and market research, which reassured us that this move will simplify the buying process and further build customer loyalty."

Cloud technology provider Ultra Communications has formed a partnership with charitable organisation, The Volunteer Call Centre (VCC), set up to enable people with travel difficulties, disabilities or lack of skills to get trained with the professional skills required to work within the customer service arena.

The VCC business objective is to provide free training to disadvantaged individuals and then progress them into full-time employment within 6 months.

VCC Operations Manager, Jade Smith, commented: "Our model means that we are up to 70% less expensive than traditional UK or off-shore outsource companies, offering UK based people access to employment opportunities that they may not have traditionally been considered for."

Kaspersky Lab has announced it will open a new office in London this year to better position its business in the UK and European market. The company has also announced a few changes to its management, it says.

Malcolm Tuck, a UK Managing Director, has been appointed as its new Director of Strategic Alliance for Europe and will be responsible for partnerships with SIs, outsources and European partners. He will report to European Managing Director, Alexander Moiseev, the company says.
Tuck's position of the UK Managing Director will now go to Kirill Slavin who joined the company this month. Prior to this, he held senior global positions at large organisations such as PepsiCo, Deloitte & Touche and Rinaco Plus.

The new London office is expected to accommodate around 100 UK employees, as well as UK-based European and global functions.
It is planned that the UK sales and marketing teams will be the first to move, followed by other teams over the next two years.

"UK growth and increased presence is a key focus for the business. The move to make the UK operation more prominent is testament to the importance the company places on the UK and European markets. Over the course of the two-year relocation period, we will fully support our employees through the adjustment and are confident that at the same time, current business will remain unaffected. We are confident that having UK, European and global functions in one dynamic new office will aid synergy and integration across the business, resulting in an all-round better customer experience," comments Moiseev.

Ericsson is planning to invest approximately SEK7bn (€1.03bn) in the coming five years to build three global ICT Centres. Two will be located in Sweden, in Stockholm and Linköping, while the third one, in North America, will be located in Canada, in Montreal, Quebec.

The centres will be located close to Ericsson's main R&D hubs and will be the new platform for more than 24,000 Ericsson R&D engineers around the world, supporting their "lean and agile" ways of working. 

Ericsson's customers will also be able to connect remotely for interoperability testing, trials and will have early access to innovation on new business services in real-time from the comfort of their locations, it says.

The three centres combined will be up to 120,000 square meters, approximately the size of 14 football fields. The new centres will house the company's complete portfolio, enabling the R&D organization to develop and verify solutions, creating the foundation for the next generation technology and cloud-based services, it says.

Hans Vestberg, President and CEO, Ericsson, says: "The new ICT Centres are examples of Ericsson's passion for driving the development of the industry. Great ideas come from collaboration, and at these centres we will push the boundaries of possibility on next generation technology and services. Flexibility enabled by new ways of working will realize innovation faster to the market and to our customers."

The centres will have a leading-edge design, he says, built in a modular and scalable way, securing an efficient use of resources and space adaptable to the business needs. Ericsson estimates that the combination of architecture, design and locations will reduce energy consumption up to 40%. This significant reduction in carbon footprint is instrumental in Ericsson's vision of a more sustainable future.

The two in Sweden will begin initial operations from end of 2013 and from end of 2014 respectively and the North American one from early 2015.

The new hardware design building in Stockholm, Sweden, will provide similar benefits as the global ICT Centres in use of equipment and energy savings. It will enable R&D hardware design activities in Stockholm to consolidate into one modern creative environment.

Ericsson has its biggest R&D hub located in Sweden with more than 9,000 employees. Other bigger R&D sites are in China, US, Canada and Hungary.