Comms Dealer

BT Business Partner Sales has launched Microsoft Office 365 Small Business Premium in a move that brings enhanced capabilities to mobile workers.

Benefits include business class email, calendars and contacts that synchronise between different devices, the ability to share and work on files and hold web conferences, work from virtually any device wherever they are and have Office installed on up to five PCs or Mac.

Martin Clarke, BT General Manager, stated: "Partners will benefit from selling this product and with BT customers also get 24/7 technical support and a service guarantee; and if they take broadband or mobile too they can stay connected to Office 365 at over five million BT Wi-Fi hotspots."

Communicate Better has snapped up Hull-based TTS Communications for an undisclosed sum. The move is Communicate Better's second acquisition this year and forms part of its strategy to double turnover for the third year running. The acquisition extends Communicate Better's geographical coverage across East Yorkshire and Humberside and brings cross selling opportunities.

The company will now be able to supply a wider range of mobile, IT and vehicle telematics services to the TTS Communications customer base.

TTS will become part of the Communicate Better group but will continue to operate under the TTS Communications name,with all management and employees remaining in position.

Wayne Cartwright, CEO of Communicate Better, said: "The acquisition spreads our reach across the north of England and represents a 10% increase in our turnover, with the potential to grow the business substantially.

"We are looking at a couple more acquisition targets and hope to complete a further purchase before the end of the year which will significantly contribute to our year-on-year growth figures."

Channel-only SIP trunk service provider VoIP.co.uk has kicked off a partner hunt in a bid to recruit more IT and telecom channel resellers.

The firm is targeting resellers who want to extend their portfolio with the adoption of SIP trunks and those resellers disaffected with their current SIP service.

"It's fair to say that many channel partners have had a mixed experience with SIP and VoIP in the past but when deployed correctly you get better reliability and features than you would with traditional ISDN," according to Adam Crisp, Managing Director.

Stephen Dykes, Channel Sales Manager, added: "The way we see it is that any VoIP deployment has three core components - the LAN, the connectivity and the core platform. Our partners take care of their customers' LAN requirements and we take responsibility for the rest."

VoIP.co.uk's portfolio includes Direct Access Circuits that have been designed as an ISDN replacement service, plus its PCI compliant SIP trunk service, SIP Encrypt.

Partners also have access to VoIP.co.uk's Enhanced SIP trunks that can be delivered over any IP connection.

"VoIP.co.uk operates a feature-rich business-grade VoIP network and provides consultancy and technical services," added Crisp.

"Our technology has been built from the ground up by our in-house technicians and engineers, enabling us to be more innovative and flexible with the solutions we deploy."

Crisp also pointed out that the company is heavily involved with IETF working groups and interoperability events, and has worked with large-scale Avaya IP Office and Cisco CallManager deployments around the world and is regularly called on to provide telecoms consultancy to large global organisations.

Red Box Recorders has linked up with Mitel to integrate its voice and data recording solution with the vendor's contact centre communications system.

The latest version of the Mitel MiContact Center Enterprise Edition is designed to operate seamlessly with the Red Box Quantify Recording Suite and enable the quick and easy retrieval of calls.
 
A Third Party Call Recording Connector has been developed to link Red Box's software solution with Mitel MiContact Center Enterprise Edition to provide direct access to call recordings from within the system's historical lifecycle reports.

Red Box utilised the Mitel Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) Developer Toolkit to integrate the technology to deliver enhanced functionality and support the needs of contact centre owners and operators.
 
Chris Courneya, Vice President and General Manager of Mitel Contact Center, said: "Business contact centres increasingly represent the front line for customer engagement, satisfaction and loyalty. This integration with Red Box enables us to further enhance our contact centre capabilities and  deliver a high-performance and efficient  solution for customers."
 
Lee Jones, CEO of Red Box Recorders, added: "Contact centres are looking for simple and flexible tools to gain competitive advantage by achieving a wide range of business and operational benefits including mitigating risk, enhancing customer satisfaction and loyalty, increasing productivity, reducing costs and ensuring legislative compliance."

Congtrats to O2 Wholesale staff who took part in a triathlon as part of the 'Human Race' which runs sporting events throughout the UK.

Pictured: Chris Romeika (Operations Manager), Geoff Malvisi (Business Development Manager) and Linda Harris (Marketing and Communications Manager) were one of ten O2 teams competing in the event.

"Romeika managed a personal best but all three finished in good time!" said a spokesperson.

Plantronics partner Avtex Solutions has developed the Avtex Smart Forward Agent application to provide users with additional functionality when they use the Voyager Legend UC headset with Microsoft Lync.

By leveraging the contextual information the Legend provides about how close a user is to their PC while wearing it, Avtex Smart Forward Agent can automatically turn the Lync Call Forwarding or Simultaneous Ring features on when the user walks away from their PC.

"Plantronics is excited to see our partners leveraging the broad capabilities of the Voyager Legend UC to bring users an application that enhances the Lync experience beyond audio," said Joe Burton, senior vice president of Technology, Development & Strategy and CTO at Plantronics.

"With users becoming increasingly mobile the Avtex Smart Forward Agent better integrates a user's mobile phone with Lync for a truly unified communications experience."

Nimans has experienced a 35% leap in demand for leasing since the start of the year.

The new financial year, from April, has seen growth continue to climb in the wake of a shortage of credit from banks and other financial institutions.

There are many factors for the rise according to Tom Maxwell, Head of Dealer Sales, who says high acceptance rates is also fuelling popularity.

Nimans has grown leasing by 200% in the last two years and expects these trends to continue. But despite these results Maxwell concedes that too many resellers are still missing out.

He said: "Not everyone is aware of leasing. A lot of resellers should be using leasing but they don't understand the benefits to them and are frightened to broach the subject with their customers. A reseller offering credit is crucial because if they are not then someone else will be. Cash flow is king to both resellers and customers so a line of credit for capital expenditure of any type is a valued commodity.

"Leasing provides resellers with a stronger cash flow often offsetting the price of the kit against the lease and helping to sell additional products on a regular basis keeping the customer's outgoings the same.

"It's a lot more palatable for an end user to buy equipment at hundreds of pounds each month instead of a one-off payment of say £10,000. Generally a reseller will be talking to an IT or comms manager who is really not that interested how equipment gets paid. It's the Financial Director. Resellers should make it as easy as possible for their contact to sell it to their finance boss. With leasing additional equipment can be added in further down the line at no extra rental cost."

Avaya's Senior Vice President for Global Sales Tom Mitchell is to step down on September 30th in a move that the vendor says is part of the 'natural progression of the transformation of Avaya'.

Pierre-Paul Allard, who has been with Avaya as SVP, Global Strategy and Development since May, 2012, will be taking over Global Sales.

In a statement Avaya said, 'By tightly integrating strategy, marketing and sales under a single leadership we will be able to better segment the market, understand the needs of the customers and target new buyers and new audiences for Avaya's technology'.

Mitchell has been credited with aligning the channel and Avaya's sales force in a single direction. At the same time, Allard spent his first year working to improve the form's strategic focus, key alliance partners and strategic marketing efforts.

The statement continued, 'Now we are able to bring together all go-to-market motions and further align our efforts as we move into new markets and new geographies'.

Nimans is to host a series of Samsung technical training courses throughout the year and as an incentive the distributor is offering 10 free training credits worth £1,000
to resellers who purchase a demo kit for the Samsung OfficeServ range.

The session will be held at Samsung's Harlow training centre and will educate resellers on Voicemail, Desktop CTI, Advanced VoIP and Contact Centre applications.

Paul Burn, Nimans' Head of Category Sales, said: "Resellers are coming on board on an almost daily basis. This in turn requires a comprehensive training support programme for new and existing resellers.

"The free training credits that come with the purchase of a demo kit are a great way for resellers to kick-start their training operations."

BT Business Partner Sales rewarded the winners of a recent incentive scheme with tickets to the final night of Robbie Williams' tour at Wembley.

Delegates from CER Associates, Chilli Telecom and Getech were hosted by BT Business Partner Sales Manager Kay Leech, who enthused: "The evening was fantastic and each partner deserved to be there. Roll on the next incentive!"