Comms Dealer

Jabra's Q1 2013 partner incentive scheme came to fruition last month when the vendor's top performing partners were treated to a day of horse racing and full hospitality at Royal Ascot.

Winners included Kelway, Dell, Amillan and Computacenter and collectively the troupe lapped up a Pimms and champagne reception, four-course lunch, afternoon tea and a funded racecard.

Event host Robert Stockford, National Sales Manager, Distribution & Reseller at Jabra, said: "Although some people had a flair for backing a winner, some of us weren't so able to spot a thoroughbred on the day!"

Jonathan Sharp, Sales & Marketing Director from Britannic Technologies, enthused: "The Jabra Ascot Incentive was a fantastic day. It is always great to get recognised and rewarded for success. I could not have asked for more.

"Such networking events are so important in gauging the current market situation and identifying opportunities for collaboration and development. The day was topped off by picking out a winner in the last race!"

Tim Breslin, Practice Manager, Enterprise Architecture, Global Services at Dell, added: "The day was a classic blend of frivolity, networking, champagne and strawberries. An amazing opportunity to not only build on our relationship with the Jabra management team, but also listen to other partners' successes and plans for the future."

Consumers want a more sensible approach to customer service in the contact centre, shunning a wholesale approach in favour of different types and levels of technology involvement depending on the nature of interactions and their seriousness.

That's according to a report commissioned by Avaya and Sabio which surveyed 2,000 UK consumers. 
 
The results show that businesses are missing an opportunity to gain competitive advantage through their strategic approach to customer service. Consumers want more stringent technology and automation for more sensitive interactions, but not for all of them. For example, 81% said they are comfortable using Interactive Voice Response (IVR) when dealing with financial matters, while 55% of respondents would be happy using voice biometric technology when checking their account balance. But only a minority (35%) see biometrics as an option for more general and less sensitive tasks such as renewing car insurance.
 
Similarly, while consumers' enthusiasm for self-service and new media remains strong, they still appreciate personal interactions with agents to get the appropriate support and assistance when dealing with more complex services and products.

With 60% of organisations now asking for security details when there is no need, it's hardly surprising that one in two consumers becomes frustrated with call centre agents when there are security or identity problems. Once connected, if the transaction involves payment, only 5% of consumers think speaking to an agent in a UK call centre is secure, and this reduces to just 2% for overseas call centres.
 
As well as highlighting an openness to embrace numerous contact centre technologies, the research also found six insights into consumer feeling about data breaches and the risk of payment and identity security within contact centres.

Simon Culmer, MD, Avaya, said: "There is still a strong role for voice in the contact centre as it offers versatility in solving complex queries and a key gateway for those who are not online - nearly 20% of the UK population. That said, technical solutions to address concerns about fraud and data security are also critical. In essence, UK businesses need to listen to their customers, assess their corporate requirements and look at the demands being placed on them through their customer service channels, and from there determine the right strategy and solutions to meet their customer service needs."
 
Kenneth Hitchen, founding director at Sabio, added: "Organisations are clearly experiencing real friction between their demanding compliance processes and an ongoing commitment to providing consumers with a positive customer experience. The good news is that the two goals aren't mutually incompatible. Applied correctly, technology can help organisations tick both boxes."

These six insights are:
• We're only human: consumers show definite preference for brands that make it easier for them to go through identification and verification when making payments
• Work-arounds: consumers regularly jeopardise their own personal data security to make their lives easier
• B+ for effort: consumers try hard to take care of their personal data
• Alias-mania: consumers often try to hide their true identities when dealing with businesses
• The long number: consumers are worried about sharing their personal and payments data verbally over the phone
• Who's to blame?: consumers are aware that they need to protect themselves from fraud, but feel that organisations (merchants and acquiring banks particularly) should shoulder more responsibility and are the weak link

IT Europa is to stage the seventh annual European ISV Convention on 26 March 2014 in London. The event will bring together leading Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) with hardware, software and service organisations to explore and address the issues affecting the development of the IT Industry in Europe and to develop and strengthen partnerships aimed at supporting solution-based sales.

Over recent years ISVs have been very much the driving force behind growth within the IT and Telecoms markets. This seems set to continue over the next 4 years with IDC predicting average annual growth rates of 6.3 % through to 2017 - almost twice the rate of growth in IT spending as a whole.

The European ISV Convention 2014 which has been designed to build upon the success of the six previous conventions, which have been staged in Brussels, Frankfurt, London and Berlin, is expected to again attract leading ISVs from all over Europe.

The convention will feature a high-level conference programme with leading industry speakers on topics that include the challenges and opportunities facing ISVs in Europe.

Under the umbrella theme of 'Innovation, Intelligence and Integration - driving better business outcomes', presentations will cover such areas as managing information across Hybrid IT, Mobile and M2M environments, harnessing advances in business analytics to deliver better business outcomes, collaboration, cloud computing and the impact of new business models on the future of application development and delivery.

"In what remains a tough economic climate, customers are looking to ensure that they derive real value and business benefits from any new investment in IT. Applications continue to drive growth, but ISVs are having to adapt to new business models, emerging technologies (in such areas as Big Data and Business Intelligence) and adopt more collaborative marketing techniques to stay ahead of the competition and deliver better business outcomes," says Alan Norman, Managing Director of IT Europa.

"The European ISV Convention 2014 provides a unique opportunity for Europe's ISV community to come together to address the issues affecting the development of the software applications industry. It also provides a framework within which major hardware and software vendors, as well as service providers and system integrators, can meet and engage with the directors and decision makers of Europe's most significant ISVs and Solution Providers to create business opportunities."

The European ISV Convention 2014 will take place at the Lancaster London Hotel, London, on 26 March 2014.

www.isvconvention.com

A new cloud-based personal video collaboration application has been designed to enable home workers to collaborate more effectively.

Research commissioned by UCi2i, based on a poll of 1,000 office employees in the UK, found that 94 per cent of workers feel they work better working from home, despite stating they were not equipped with the appropriate technology to communicate with fellow colleagues (85%).

"Working from home is on the rise as employers begin to meet the demand of staff who expect collaborative technologies and flexible working," said Michael Grant, Founder and Managing Director of UCi2i.

"However, this research highlights how far behind employee needs we are. The results show the need for companies of all sizes to seriously consider investing in video conferencing to support this shift. This reflects our mission to develop a tool that allows any employee - whether in the office, on the move, or working from home - to collaborate with one another instantly and effortlessly, without limitations."

In a bid to match employee needs with the appropriate technology UCi2i has developed V-Book, an interoperable personal video collaboration workspace for business quality video communications designed for non-technical users.

V-Book has been in beta for some months and UCi2i's R&D efforts were recognised by the UK Government when the Technology Strategy Board awarded the firm a £250,000 innovation grant at the beginning of 2013.

Grant commented: "V-Book defines our company-wide ambition to make video conferencing as easy as picking up the phone - available all the time, anywhere, between anyone and on any device."

Infonetics Research forecasts a solid outlook for network equipment spending, driven by the demands placed on network infrastructure. But not all is well, says the firm, highlighting a disconnect between the growth in network usage and enterprise budgets.

"Cost containment is one of the top priorities over the next year," said Matthias Machowinski, directing analyst for enterprise networks and video at Infonetics Research. "Vendors that can solve this challenge are best positioned to take share in this $27-billion-a-year market."

On average, respondents to Infonetics research spent around $2m each on networking equipment in 2012, with the top networking-related initiatives over the next 12 months said to be beefing up security, adoption of cloud architectures/services, virtualisation of IT infrastructure and cost containment.

Respondents plan to slightly throttle WLAN expenditures this year, and correspondingly increasing router and switch outlays with company headquarters the top investment focus, but those surveyed intend to ramp branch office spending as they seek new opportunities for post-recession growth.

Survey respondents rate Cisco the top networking manufacturer overall, but the big IT suppliers - IBM, HP and Dell - have beefed up their networking capabilities and are battling for the second position, according to the research.

Citrix has named Arrow as its first pan-European distributor as it aims to grow the European channel for SaaS solutions.

As part of the distributor agreement, Citrix SaaS products will be available on the ArrowSphere cloud services platform allowing Arrow resellers to market and sell Citrix SaaS products through their existing web store or the ArrowSphere white-label webstore functionality.

The ArrowSphere webstore platform, which was launched by Arrow in July 2012, is currently live in the UK, France, Spain, Germany and Denmark, with more countries planned.

"As the way we work continues to change, people need simple solutions to enable them to get more done, more efficiently," says Robert Gratzl, vice president and general manager EMEA for Citrix's SaaS products. "Our agreement with Arrow is an important step in extending our pan-European reach and helping our customers embrace mobile workstyles and new ways of working."

This collaboration is a further step in the expansion and implementation of the Citrix SaaS Advisor (CSSA) programme launched in May, offering a local and regional approach with strategic partners to deliver Citrix SaaS applications.

Channel success is all about the power of partnership and 'Backing the Winners' according to Andrew Doyle, MD for Jabra Business Solutions UK&I, who hosted the vendor's Partner Forum staged at The Harte and Garter Hotel in Windsor.

Key distribution, Gold and Silver resellers and strategic alliance partners converged on the forum to hear current and future market predictions as well as presentations on market opportunities and Jabra's strategies, followed by a themed evening of entertainment and networking at Windsor Racecourse under the banner of 'Backing the Winners'.

Doyle said: "It's fantastic to get so many of our channel partners together for a day of business and pleasure. The presentations are the ideal way to highlight our commitment to supporting and growing their audio devices category by providing content and new insights. However, the evening creates the perfect setting for bringing people together to relax, share ideas and just have some fun."

Ioan MacRae, General Manager for Westcon Convergence, also gave the event a thumbs up. He enthused: "The 2013 Jabra UK Partner Forum provided an opportunity to network with our mutual partners, develop new relationships and continue on build on the partnership we have with Jabra."

The delegate listed included representatives from partners such as BT, Dimension Data, Cisco and Nycomm.

Lakeside Software, provider of Big Data analytics, has appointed Centralis, application and desktop delivery consultancy, as its Gold Partner.

Centralis uses Lakeside's SysTrack, a data analytics platform that gathers information about the desktop environment, within its Desktop Discovery and Transformation services and offers it for its Support and Managed Services customers.

Also, as a Gold Solution Partner, Centralis holds Lakeside's highest level of reseller accreditation.

Centralis specialises in desktop transformation and virtualisation and provides VDI (virtualised desktop infrastructure), windows 7/8 migration and BYOD projects. It also delivers a SysTrack implementation service and helps companies develop customise dashboards, it says.

"Desktop discovery is critical to the success of a transformation programme. The SysTrack data analytics platform provides us with key data to help customers reduce the cost and risk of desktop projects," commented Ewen Anderson, Chief Executive Officer, Centralis.

Predicting and reducing churn, promoting loyalty, up-selling and cross-selling offers, and personalising services are all key areas where telcos can leverage Big Data analytics for business benefit, according to Ovum.

Yet, one of the major reasons why this hasn't occurred is because of a traditional stumbling block - telco organisational and data structures, claims the think tank.

In new research investigating how telcos can monetise customer data, Ovum reveals that a well executed Big Data analytics project requires flexible business structures and logical processes, not siloed structures with artificial constraints like internal politics that have been defined by the network domains.

In order to succeed, telcos also need to become more data-centric and take lessons from the leaner and more agile data analytics models that are currently being pursued by over-the-top operators.

Only once this issue has been resolved will telcos be able to effectively monetise the increased volume, variety, velocity, and value of the network, subscriber, and business data that they collect as part of their businesses.

"The proliferation of smart devices and services has led to a considerable increase in the number of customer-telco interactions," said Clare McCarthy, head of Ovum's Telco Operations practice.

"This is happening through multiple channels, which is forcing telcos to sharpen their focus. As a result, mining a greater volume and variety of data, and doing so in realtime, is becoming a powerful competitive advantage for telcos."

However, according to the research, many telcos still lack the necessary data management and analytics skills in-house to make their data work for them. As data scientists are in high demand and short supply, this area is ripe for vendor support, either with pre-integrated solutions or hosted services.

Telcos are generally turning to one of four sources for their Big Data analytics needs, according to Ovum: Their existing OSS/BSS providers, trusted IT vendors, telco analytics specialists, or incumbent network equipment providers.

Each carries its own particular competencies and strengths in vying for a share of a Big Data analytics market that Ovum forecasts will be worth US$7.7bn in 2018.

"Transforming ingrained operating models and business processes is a difficult task for telcos, and many are not entirely sure what they are transforming towards. Therefore, choosing a business intelligence and analytics solution and partner will be one of the most important strategic decisions that they face in the next year," added McCarthy.

Entagroup sister companies, Entanet and Entatech, battled it out once again at the weekend in the annual Severn Hospice Dragon Boat Race. The group raised over £2,000 in aid of the local, worthy charity.
 
The event, held at the Pengwern Boat Club in Shrewsbury, was declared another big success. After earlier heats, distributor Entatech, dressed as sailors, and wholesale communications provider Entanet, who came as pirates, rallied together their teams of 16 rowers and a drummer and took to the river in friendly rivalry.
 
It was neck and neck for much of the race but victory went to the Entatech team finishing two seconds ahead of Entanet.
 
Entanet's Head of Marketing Darren Farnden said: "Both companies have had an excellent day out as always in support of the Severn Hospice. It's an excellent way to raise money for such a worthy local charity as well as offering both Entanet and Entatech teams a great opportunity to compete against each other."
 
The Severn Hospice was established in 1989 and provides palliative care for sufferers of long-term and terminal illnesses and support to their families.