Comms Dealer

Westcon Convergence has bolseterd its marketing team by recruiting two new staff - Yan Zhang and Emma Shaw.

Zhang, wh has been appointed Marketing Manager for UK and Ireland, said: "This is such a dynamic industry to be in and I am delighted to be a part of it. My focus is leading Westcon's UK marketing and driving partner enablement."

Shaw joins Westcon with a background in online marketing as Marketing Programme Manager. She will be responsible for driving a brand new marketing services programme that provides vendors and partners with strategic integrated marketing programmes.

Westcon's European Channel Marketing Director, Runa Macleod, said: "The appointments of Yan and Emma will continue to develop our channel marketing support with new results focused programmes and initiatives to deliver ROI to partners."

TDAzlan-SDG, the enterprise division of Tech Data, has appointed Gareth Hansford as UK Managing Director.

Hansford brings more than 30 years of experience in the IT industry to the role and most recently led the software channels business for IBM across Europe, prior to which he led distribution for IBM across the European region. He has also spent a number of years as Managing Director of Lenovo's UK and Ireland operations and as head of IBM's software business.

Peter Hubbard, Managing Director of Computer 2000, UK and Ireland , stated: "In joining the UK's leadership team, Gareth adds great enterprise expertise. In all of his previous roles, Gareth has worked closely with channel partners on the development of new business and profit opportunities, and he will be a key player in driving our future."

Hansford said: "We'll be looking to develop even closer and more productive partnerships as we enter this new and exciting phase in the development of the Azlan-SDG business."

Colt has announced a UK franchise agreement with SAS Global Communications (SAS), an international provider of managed network and professional services.

The franchise agreement enables SAS to move into the cloud services market, offering the Colt Ceano portfolio of cloud based services to complement its existing offerings, which includes professional services, proactive network monitoring, and predictive helpdesk services.

As part of Colt's franchise network, SAS will have access to Colt's dedicated account team, training programme, technical consultants and commercial experts.

"This agreement is important to SAS and forms a key part of our business strategy for the next three years," said Charles Davis, CEO for SAS Global Communications.

"One of our goals is to develop new and distinct channels to market that will both complement existing partner relationships and enhance SAS's overall value proposition for customers. By adding the Colt portfolio to our own, we increase the quality and diversity of managed services we are able to deliver to our customers. This builds on our strategy to move into the cloud services market and our recent acquisition of the software development company Trigger means that we have the skills and capability to take Colt Ceano to market."

Colt is targeting a limited number of specialist value added resellers (VARs) to join its franchise partner programme in each of its European markets. Colt has already recruited franchise partners in France, Spain, Germany and Belgium, which has successfully extended the Colt brand across a wider network of VARs.

Telecoms, broadband and hosting company ICUK has unveiled version 11 of its control panel, incorporating a more responsive design as well as retina ready images and a new reseller homepage.

According to the firm responsive design means that every user on every device will get the same user experience whether they're on a tablet, a smartphone or a laptop, with the page resizing to fit your screen, without the need to zoom or resize pages.

The homepage now features drag and drop widgets allowing customers to arrange their homepage according to their own requirements and priorities. Customers can make use of a bookmarks tool which will enable them to bookmark pages within the panel which are easy to access from the homepage. In addition, it's now easier than ever to redesign your own control panel, or choose from an extended supply of ready made templates and add a company logo, to take full advantage of the white label solutions.

Paul Barnett, one of ICUK's directors said: "For ICUK resellers, the new panel means they will now be able to access information about their customers, or accounts while they're on the go, so they're not limited to working from home or a laptop to run their reseller business. We've applied our .simple strategy, and aimed to make it as easy as possible for all of our customers and resellers to keep on top of their accounts no matter where they are."

Azlan SDG, the value-added enterprise division of Computer 2000, is to distribute Avaya's full suite of business collaboration and communications solutions in the UK following the extension of an existing agreement between Tech Data Europe and Avaya.

Azlan SDG will be providing channel development and enhanced support services on Avaya's full range of telephony, unified and visual communications solutions including Radvision, as well as the Avaya Networking portfolio for IP, wireless and next-generation networks.

Paul Eccleston, MD EMEA at Azlan SDG, stated: "The addition of Avaya to the Azlan SDG portfolio opens up new potential for the channel to address the business communications needs of customers who wish to take advantage of the excellent performance, quality and innovation that Avaya solutions deliver. It will enable us to make use of both our solution building capability and our partner network to develop new opportunities for growth."

Thomas Veit, Senior Director, EMEA Distribution Channel at Avaya, commented: "The integration of the SDG business division into Azlan in the UK created an opportunity to extend Azlan into this territory. The joint Azlan SDG business has all the key skill sets we are looking for to drive the UK business into further growth."

Azlan SDG is preparing a full support and on-boarding programme and will be running a number of workshops and training sessions for both established and new Avaya partners.

Kcom, part of the KCOM Group, has signed a five year contract with Leeds United to help them manage ticket demands from their fans.

The communications business has upgraded the club's contact centre with the latest Avaya technology, allowing them to handle a higher number of ticket sales and enquiries.

The new contact centre facility is fully operational and has the ability to record and monitor calls so that Leeds United can measure volumes and quality of calls as well as plan around their peak call times.

Leeds United home ground, Elland Road, has the capacity to hold over 37,000 people. With 23 home league matches every season the number of calls per day can rise up to 700, which means having a dynamic contact centre that can manage large amounts of calls is essential.

Stephen Long, Managing Director at Kcom, said: "We understand how important it is to have a fully functional and reliable contact centre so that fans can easily get in touch to get their tickets for the next game."

Integra ICT has been selected by Siemens Enterprise Communications to promote its next-generation unified communications (UC) product suite to mid-tier organisations.

A European report undertaken by GE Capital has confirmed that mid market companies in the UK employ more than 1.1 million people and are responsible for over a third of private sector GDP.

According to a mid market report compiled by Ofcom, many mid market companies are not maximizing the effectiveness of their existing communications services, which is impacting overall efficiency and performance.

Siemens' new mid market UC offering, OpenScape Business and OpenScape Enterprise Express, has been developed to satisfy a growing demand for anywhere working and bring your own device (BYOD) initiatives, both of which are widely offered by mid market companies to facilitate flexible working practices such as home working.

Siemens' next-generation UC solution is based on SIP technology, a signalling communications protocol used for controlling multimedia communications over IP networks. It synchronises different communications channels (voice, video, text, chat, email, social media and so forth) to provide businesses with a fully integrated communications solution and makes use of existing equipment such as handsets or cards.

It also manages these different channels and devices (laptops, Smartphones, Tablets) in real-time and seamlessly interfaces with commonly used applications (Microsoft Exchange, Google+ or hosted email services), giving onsite and virtual workers an easy and flexible way to manage their communications requirements.

Pas Ruggiero, CEO of Integra ICT, said: "We are pleased to be involved in this campaign. We have extensive experience of Siemens' product portfolio and a good relationship with their technical and support teams. It has always been our ethos to work in partnership with clients to implement systems and networks that are right for their specific needs. The different package options available with OpenScape will help ensure our clients' transition to IP telephony is a simple and straightforward process."

Quarterly data from IT recruitment site CWJobs.co.uk has shown that in the second quarter of 2013 both permanent (0.7%) and contract (1.3%) IT jobs have shown growth across all UK regions.

While London's 'Tech City' initiative is proving successful, and driving established companies and start-ups to set up in the East London area, this new data indicates that other clusters of technologies firms in the UK could be driving nationwide growth.

Year-on-year, vacancies in London have seen modest growth with 9,886 job vacancies posted in the quarter, a rise of 2.4% on the year. Vacancies across Scotland (7.9%), Southern England (4.6%) and the West and Wales (3.1%) are leading regional growth, providing opportunities for professionals working outside of the capital city.

In the west, Bristol has been positioned as a computer gaming hub, whilst Cambridge's "Silicon Fen" is acclaimed to be roots of many of Britain's most influential technology companies. Meanwhile, Scotland has been making it's name as a technology start-up capital[1], being home to a number of budding companies which are making moves to become influential industry players, such as SkyScanner, the fast growing online airfare tracker.

Richard Nott, Website Director, CWJobs, stated: "As investment in technology firms increases, there is less need for professionals to be based in the capital city, giving professionals the opportunity to work across many different regions. This is good news for the industry and for the prospects of IT professionals across the UK who may no longer need to consider re-locating to get the best jobs. As IT's position as an inherently 'networked industry' grows, it's likely this trend will continue."

TalkTalk Business has chosen KEMP Technologies as its exclusive load balancing partner for Microsoft Lync deployments. Microsoft-approved KEMP LoadMaster appliances will now be supplied with all TalkTalk Business Lync systems to ensure high-performance and availability of integrated voice and data services IM, video, web conferencing and collaboration.

By adding hardware load balancing, traffic can be shared across Lync servers and will automatically re-route and reconnect users to other functioning servers, if a server becomes slow or inaccessible. This will guarantee application uptime and optimise user experience, says TTB.

"There is increasing interest in Microsoft Lync solutions and we see hardware load balancing as a key component for enterprise-scale deployments to ensure the highest levels of performance and resilience," said Paul Rodgerson, Lync product manager at TalkTalk Business, which holds the Microsoft Communications competency for deploying Microsoft Lync. "KEMP was an obvious partner for us, as its hardware and virtual appliances are Microsoft approved for use with Lync, offering excellent price and performance."

Channel Telecom recently held a roundtable dinner event in Edinburgh for its partners to get feedback on the latest additions to the product portfolio now being offered by the fast growing provider of business network services. The prestigious dinner was held at the Michelin stared Castle Terrace restaurant.

Hosted by Matt Donaldson, Channel Manager and Steve Yates, Partner Account Manager, the roundtable dinner provided Scottish partners with an opportunity to discuss latest developments in the company's service portfolio including hosted telephony, SIP and data services. The roundtable dinner is the latest in a series of consultation events that Channel Telecom conducts with its partner community throughout the year.