Comms Dealer

Hospitality sector specialist Solution Builders Limited (SBL) is gearing up to stage an end user Smart Connections event (Corinthia Hotel, London, July 24th) to showcase existing and emerging hotel technologies alongside partners HOSPA, Alcatel-Lucent, FCS, Mitel, Motorola, Splicecom and Vtech.

Established in 2006 by MD John Owen, SBL is now one of the UK's leading suppliers to the hospitality sector, which, according to Owen, has proved especially resilient to the general economic downturn.

"This is particularly true for London where there continues to be over-demand for hotel beds and consequently new hotel openings are increasing in frequency," he said.

"Guests are demanding more and more in terms of technology and general amenities, creating opportunities for improved telephone systems, WiFi networks and infrastructure solutions.

"Smart Connections aims to be a fun and educational experience for hotel owners, general managers and IT directors who understand that customer service is paramount to the success of their business."

The PC market continued to suffer slow shipment growth in top countries across regions in May, according to the IDC Monthly PC Tracker.

April shipment growth had improved slightly from March in Latin America and EMEA, but May growth has come in slower than April for each of these markets except India and UK.

IDC's quarterly PC forecast from May projected worldwide PC shipment declines of -11.7% in the second quarter of 2012 (2Q13), -4.7% in the third quarter, and -1.6% in the fourth quarter, resulting in total annual growth of -7.8% for 2013. This follows a decline of -13.3% in the first quarter of 2013 and -4.0% for all of 2012. The results for May are behind pace for achieving the projected 2Q13 growth rates, although stronger June results could still make up most if not all of the difference.

"The expectation for the second quarter was not all that high, showing only minor improvement from the first quarter. But the May results reflect deteriorating conditions rather than improvement and the market will probably fall short of projections," said Loren Loverde, Program Vice President, Worldwide PC Trackers at IDC.

"We still expect an improvement in the second half of the year as more new products are launched and we get into the back-to-school and holiday seasons. But the market will likely remain cautious about the second half of 2013."

Huawei has signed a deal with French integrator Bull for a new enterprise services partnership covering Europe designed to enhance the delivery and in?field management of Huawei's technologies in the region.

Under the partnership, Bull will provide local implementation and support to Huawei's enterprise IT customers and technology reseller partners in Western Europe.

Bull will contribute onsite?deployment, field maintenance and logistics management and support across several countries, including France, Germany, the Netherlands and the UK. The agreement covers enterprise ICT solutions including cloud computing, network and storage, where Huawei has a key focus on the healthcare, public sector and industry vertical sectors.

Commenting on the agreement, Han Xiao, President of Huawei Enterprise Services, says: "The collaboration between Bull and Huawei offers many benefits, both for our end customers and for our service partners. This is another major step forward for Huawei's service capabilities in the enterprise market in Western Europe."

Philippe Miltin, Executive VP of Computing Solutions at BULL, added: "Bull and Huawei's skills and capabilities are complementary. Enterprise customers in Western Europe will benefit from a combination of ICT from Huawei supported by implementation and in?life service from Bull."

Ericsson has broadened its broadcast services portfolio and boosted its capabilities in the TV industry following a stated intention to acquire Red Bee Media, a high profile media services company based in the UK.

The acquisition supports Ericsson's strategy to grow in the broadcast services market while leveraging its technology and services strength to help broadcasters and content owners address the convergence of video and mobility.

The deal brings 1,500 highly-skilled employees, as well as media services and operations facilities in the UK, France, Germany, Spain and Australia.

Ericsson's broadcast services business started in 2007 and expanded in 2012 with the acquisition of Technicolor's Broadcast Services Division.

With 1,240 of Red Bee Media employees being based in the UK, Ericsson's UK business would grow to around 4,000 employees and with more than one third working in the media services business, the UK will become a global media hub for Ericsson.

Since its foundation in 2005, Red Bee Media has established itself as a strong and diverse business with a growing number of customers around the world.

It provides a range of media services; from media asset management to playout and digital video publishing, metadata services, multilingual access services and creative services to major broadcasters and broadband platforms.

The Television and Media industry is undergoing an unprecedented transformation driven by consumers' appetite for rich, interactive, anytime, anywhere entertainment.

The confluence of communications, broadband and media technologies and the use of IP and mobile networks to generate and deliver such experiences is creating new opportunities in the ecosystem.

New services are expanding and re-defining the way consumers experience entertainment, placing new economic and creativity demands on businesses - whether they be broadcasters, telcos or other media companies - worldwide.

According to the Ericsson Mobility Report June 2013 release, video is the single biggest contributor to traffic in mobile networks and this is expected to grow 60 per cent annually until the end of 2018.

"Ericsson is making a step change to our business, cementing our commitment to TV and broadcast services and continuing a journey we started in 2007," says Magnus Mandersson, Executive Vice President and Head of Business Unit Global Services, Ericsson.

"We can create value for broadcasters by making digital content more accessible, enabling monetisation of TV content more efficiently. Video traffic shows very strong uptake in the mobile networks and Ericsson can address the need of both broadcasters and telecom operators through our technology expertise and services capabilities."

Ericsson's core capabilities in hardware, software, systems integration and management/operations services have been deployed worldwide in the communications and broadband businesses to create success for many players.

Ericsson provides technology solutions for content acquisition, exchange, distribution, delivery and the provisioning of multi-screen entertainment experiences.

The closing of the acquisition is subject to approval from relevant regulatory authorities and other contractual conditions. After completion, Red Bee Media will be incorporated into Ericsson's Business Unit Global Services.

Six Degrees Group has provided the hosting infrastructure that underpins a new ecommerce platform launched by transport services organisation Arriva, which caters for over 770 million passengers every year.

Six Degrees worked closely with Freestyle Interactive to develop a solution that matched Arriva bus's requirements, designing a tailored dual-site private cloud solution.

The ecommerce platform on Arriva bus's website ensures passengers have access to ticket purchasing facilities on the go as well as up-to-the-minute service information and route details.

The ecommerce site designed by digital communications agency Freestyle Interactive works on a number of devices including iPhone, Android and BlackBerry. For Arriva bus, the update to the online ticketing facility is mission critical to its operations and reflects the increasing number of passengers who demand convenience as well as real-time access to bus information from mobile devices.

The private cloud solution is hosted on a dedicated rack in Six Degrees' proprietary tier 4 data centre facility. To keep the website highly available and resilient, especially where payment data is concerned, the solution employs dual-site technology to cut the risk of potential downtime by mirroring the deployment on a secondary cloud platform in a geographically diverse location. Crucially, the solution allows for short-term bursts and long-term expansion as website traffic increases over time and as passengers access service information around the clock.

Campbell Williams, group strategy and marketing director, Six Degrees Group, said: "When designing any website function it is important to develop a suitable hosting platform that takes into account the current and anticipated requirements of the website concerned. With 770 million passengers a year, it's likely that the traffic to Arriva bus's website is going to increase significantly so this solution needed to have the potential to scale up.

"Working with Freestyle Interactive it was possible to build a solution that is not only designed with future growth in mind, but also boasts inbuilt resilience, giving Arriva bus piece of mind that its website can deliver great customer service."

Cirrus has added to its commercial team with the appointment of Peter Cresswell, a seasoned professional with over five years telecoms and software experience, including a four year stint at Union Street Technologies where he became Support Team Manager.

Cresswell went on to become the Operations Manager for a small telecoms reseller before moving to Cirrus parent company Direct Response. His role has now been expanded as he takes responsibility for managing the billing and commercial relationship with Cirrus' partners and resellers.

Cresswell commented: "I'm looking forward to working with our industry partners to look at how we can further improve our offering to suit their needs."

ShoreTel has entered into a technical partnership with the Williams F1 Team to provide a unified communications and collaboration platform across its enterprise.

The partnership will see ShoreTel become an Official Technical Supplier for the UK-based team from the forthcoming British Grand Prix at Silverstone, at which Williams will be commemorating its 600th Formula One race participation.

Through the partnership, ShoreTel will provide its UC solutions across the full breadth of the Williams organisation, including the Formula One team and Williams Advanced Engineering, as well as integrating communications within the team's on-track activities at races around the world.

ShoreTel's business communications solution will also extend to Williams' Technology Centre in Qatarn.

The technology ShoreTel will provide as part of the contract includes ShoreTel IP-PBX, ShoreTel Mobility client licenses to extend UC applications to mobile devices, Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications (DECT) handsets, conferencing services, and ShoreTel Enterprise Contact Centre (ECC) with multi-media, providing a complete end-to-end solution whether onsite or remotely.

"This exciting new partnership with the Williams F1 Team," said Adrian Hipkiss, ShoreTel's EMEA vice president and managing director.

"We are joining forces with a company that shares our forward-thinking vision and one that also thrives on delivering state-of-the-art technology. This new partnership allows us to demonstrate our telephony solutions with one of the world's leading engineering companies, whose day-to-day operations, both at the factory and at 19 Formula One races around the world, rely on brilliantly simple unified communications."

Claire Williams, deputy team principal and commercial director at Williams, added: "Williams is a diverse and multi-disciplined engineering business which relies on high quality, mission critical communications, so this new partnership with ShoreTel is one which will benefit not only the Formula One team but every area of our business as we continue to diversify and expand into new areas."

MDNX acquired Griffin in August last year and has invested heavily to boost the development of its network, systems and product range. We caught up with Head of Sales Lee Broxson and Head of Marketing Cherie Howlett who gave us the heads up on the firm's next growth phase.

Following the acquisition Griffin has now integrated its networks and is busy migrating partners across to an enhanced quoting, ordering and support platform called MATRIX. Furthermore, Griffin partners will soon have access a wider range of connectivity products including DSL, FTTC and Ethernet. "Our customers will be able to quote services from all of the major carriers and diagnose and repair faults," explained Broxson. "The system includes a monitoring portal that can be extended to end users to track usage and help diagnose issues. Users can also view their order inventory and invoices online. The feedback we have received so far has been positive. Partners have been impressed with the quick Ethernet quoting functionality from multiple carriers and the simplicity of the automated ordering process."

Broxson predicts a significant rise in demand for faster and more reliable connectivity in 2013. Prices will continue to fall and resellers will need a supplier that can provide a competitively priced, wide choice of connectivity with a smooth order delivery process. "As SMBs take advantage of Ethernet's faster speeds and competitive pricing, ADSL in the business market will give way to Ethernet and the cloud will finally start to take off," stated Broxson. "Our aim is to take our channel as smoothly and profitably as possible through this process."

Griffin has been trading for over 20 years and achieved significant growth over the last eight years by building a successful channel of resellers. With a 15-plus year stint at Griffin under his belt Broxson has witnessed much change but, he noted, the organisation's ethos remains the same. "Our job is to make it easy and profitable for resellers to buy a wide range of connectivity and data network solutions at the best possible pricing from one integrator," he stated. "We understand that our channel pays our wages and that we only achieve success when they are successful, so we work hard to get the best rates we can from the carriers, invest in automated systems and strive to provide the best possible service. We don't always get it right but we listen to our customers to understand the difficulties they face and implement solutions quickly."

Broxson made particular note of Griffin's sales and marketing programmes, all designed to help resellers identify and close connectivity and data network solutions within their base. "We have been around long enough to know how to identify the quick wins and how to avoid the common pitfalls and we share this knowledge with our channel," he said. "We run two programmes, The Ethernet Sales Generator and The Data Revenue Generator. One is a five step programme and the other a six step scheme taking resellers from a standing start to making Ethernet and MPLS networks a valid and profitable revenue stream. To kick start our programmes we run nationwide events."

Howlett joined Griffin over eight years ago and she continues to be instrumental in developing the sales and marketing programmes that prove pivotal in driving revenue growth throughout the Griffin partner base. "We help our resellers upgrade their broadband customers to faster circuits when they need to, leading to complex data networks when end users are ready," she said. "There is no doubt in my mind that Ethernet is the new breakthrough product of this decade. In just a couple of years we have gone from selling no Ethernet circuits to over 150 a month. End users are demanding faster, more reliable connectivity to the Internet and to the cloud and new carriers have entered the market improving coverage and driving down prices.

"The recent introductions of innovative new Ethernet products like EFM and FTTC Ethernet have further fuelled demand. End users will soon be able to buy a symmetrical 20Mb product almost anywhere in the UK for under £200 a month and have it delivered in weeks rather than months. We can help our resellers with an efficient process of identifying and closing these opportunities without spending a fortune on marketing."

According to Howlett, she is set to motivate the market further as Griffin prepares for its next growth phase. "We are gearing up for growth," she said. "Once all of our partners have access to our new ordering platform our mission is to help them upsell their DSL bases to Ethernet and upgrade their Ethernet partners to private networks. We are working on launching key products in demand from our customers such as TTB FTTC Ethernet, VoIP, QoS and advanced monitoring and security add-ons. We have more training events in the pipeline and will continue to roll out our two sales and marketing programmes to help our channel benefit from the current boom for faster more reliable Ethernet."•

HIPCOM was established in 2005 as a pioneering wholesale cloud comms provider and successfully negotiated those early bumps in the hosted road. Now, the company has smoothed a pathway for partners to offer an alternative platform to MS Lync.

As a hosted provider from the outset HIPCOM braved the technological storms, overcame the early challenges and developed a magic touch that empowers partners to provide an alternative path to Microsoft with a true enterprise voice feature set unveiled at its inaugural partner event in London last month. According to Robert Murdoch, Sales Director, these developments mark the next chapter in HIPCOM's history and a new era for partners who take advantage of the company's open platform. The firm provides two voice paths, namely traditional (MobileOffice), MS UC (BYON Lync) and the just launched UCOffice path. "Resellers and customers can choose the right path to meet their needs, or all of them if appropriate," said Murdoch.

Paul Aabryn, Strategy Director and co-founder, outlined plans for the new OpenCloud comms platform which forms the basis for UCOffice Desktop, a new application that brings benefits such as IM, presence, voicemail, drag and drop collaboration, a soft client for HD voice and a useful toolbar that provides easy access to these new UC capabilities. The mobile component is also a big driver with BYOD and smartphones at the forefront of HIPCOM's thinking. In line with these trends the company also unveiled its mobility solution, UCOffice Smartphone, which boasts similar features to its Desktop counterpart along with collaboration and personal conferencing while its easy use of browser technology is particularly notable.

HIPCOM's customers include Tier 1 carriers, ISPs and lines and minutes resellers. The company now serves 5,000 businesses via its partner network and boasts a churn rate of less than one per cent. It's single open platform is designed for multiple markets that are ripe for hosted PBX and SIP trunking solutions. And under the banners of UCBusiness (a corporate messaging tool) and UCTeam (which combines elements of the UCOffice Desktop and Smartphone applications), supported by new bundled pricing options and extra sales incentives, HIPCOM expects to see its subscriber numbers double again in 2013, continuing last year's growth pattern.

"Our alternative to MS Lync is a huge launch for us," stated Aabryn, who also told the 80-plus delegates that Lync is not yet confidently perceived as a replacement for enterprise voice. "Voice is key to enterprise UC solutions. We need to push this point hard," he added.

Mike Wilkinson, Senior Director Global Solutions Marketing at BroadSoft, outlined trends in hosted that play into the hands of resellers. "Hosted is not just about winning big deals," he said. "It's a market trend that moves away from CPE, driven by UC and customer demand for integrated fixed and mobile telephony and a familiar application to access voice, video, messaging and web collaboration. A strong mobility component is a key requirement for end users looking for the benefits of hosted."

In a masterstroke of strategic planning the acquisition last year of the intellectual property of Atreus Systems, a supplier of VoIP and advanced IP service provisioning software, provides HIPCOM partners with a competitive edge, claims the firm. "Service orchestration is essential and not a nice-to-have," added James Brind, Technical Director and co-founder. "With the IPR we are the masters of our own destiny. Atreus was developed from the ground up to grease the wheels of our alternative technology. We are putting resellers in a position to capitalise on the market shift to hosted communications."

Although crucial to HIPCOM's go-to-market strategy and a significant stand-out factor for partners, the automated delivery of hosted services is just part of the bigger picture. More widely, HIPCOM has established a new product release roadmap and rebuilt its partner portal from the ground up as a more user friendly tool based on a simple dashboard that offers, among various enhancements, the contextual return of search results on a single page, one click navigation and the visual representation of services and devices.

Due for release in September the portal will also offer enterprises a self-management capability, giving them greater control and visibility over their cloud-based services. "We wanted to deliver an environment where partners can choose the products they want and self-determine how they go to market," added Brind. "We focused on the user experience and engaging more closely with customers via the portal."

The menu of products and services is set to whet appetites further with news of a restructured product roadmap that will see new launches served up in the third month of every quarter. This month does not disappoint with the roll out of UCOffice Desktop, UCOffice Smartphone, among other new components of the expanding kit bag. Nor is that all, to motivate the market HIPCOM's points-based incentive scheme becomes more attractive with double points allocated to all UC add-ons in Q3. The ultimate prize is a trip to New York for 30 top performing partners. HIPCOM's expanded professional services arm ensures that the scheme is available to all resellers. "The partner enablement team includes a nationwide network of installers and trainers who will support our partners," added Brind.•

Stripe 21 is making great gains with its Cisco powered SIP-ISDN hybrid service, according to Managing Director Stephen North.

North found a new direction in 2002 when he realised the potential of his team's ability to deploy Quality of Service over broadband as a Cisco managed service. He then established Stripe 21 in 2006 with a vision to bring a more robust outlook on the use of bandwidth and disrupt the status quo. "We saw this as essential for the replacement of ISDN services with SIP because ISDN has always been delivered as a managed service with guaranteed QoS," he explained. "Therefore any replacement must also be a managed service with the same guarantees, but better and cheaper. When BT launched Datastream in 2002 it enabled us to packet switch VoIP over broadband. This launched the Cisco powered Quality of Service portfolio we have today."

New investment in 2008 from Barclays under the DTI scheme and private equity investment enabled Stripe 21 to double its revenue consistently quarter on quarter for the next eight consecutive quarters, and key to this growth is its channel strategy. "The channel is the way forward for us," added North. "I predict significant growth in our QoS guaranteed voice services via the reseller channel. This includes hosted PBX, ISDN, SIP and hybrid services. Wide Area Networks are also a significant growth area, while our hybrid service delivers both ISDN and SIP ports to the end user, representing an easy win for the reseller channel. Resellers can increase margin by 40 per cent just by ordering new ISDN services from our online portal. We aim to develop key partnerships and offer personal support to our resellers and their clients."

The Stripe 21 management team launched their converged IP services business on the back of BT's 21CN. Through its reseller base Stripe 21 supplies voice, data and Internet services to many household name blue chip companies. The firm has seen particular success in the media and recruitment sectors where low costs and high availability are mandatory, and is increasingly sought after by call centres with FSA compliance requirements. "We can deliver multiple guaranteed services over a single connection," noted North. "Delivering multiple services over a single connection is a great way to save money."

The name Stripe 21 comes from a combination of clever planning and the imagination of an eight year old boy. One component of the name derives from RIPE NCC (the global Internet registry for Internet routable IP addresses that all ISPs belong to), and the combination of numbers and letters also meant that North could register various URLs without compromising the name. He added: "When I started the company I asked my son to come up with a name. I pointed out we have Orange Mobile, Purple IP and Pink Telecom, and he replied, 'You should call it Stripey dad!'. I thought that's not a bad idea."

North habitually follows a policy of involving others in making big decisions. The company's culture favours open communication between all levels with an open forum every month and a broad agenda. "We also hold a monthly technical forum where we structure and formulate new services and set out plans to upgrade existing clients," commented North. "These meetings also help us to maintain our standards and we hold separate strategy meetings for the tech' team where they agree targets and deadlines that are realistic and achievable."

Stripe 21's white label services enable channel partners to migrate to a revenue-based business model rather than an isolated one-off hardware margin. "We can deliver ISDN, SIP or our new hybrid service to enable savings of up to 40 per cent on legacy ISDN, but with no PABX upgrade and no compromise on quality," added North.

Despite such enabling technology North highlighted that many end users have ended up with Internet-based voice services that are not guaranteed and are as reliable as Skype, Vonage and any other Internet-based VoIP service. "These are excellent products with a valid place in the market but they are absolutely not a replacement for the quality, security and reliability of ISDN," he said. "This can become a nightmare for resellers and end users, but a Quality of Service guarantee solves this problem. Our Cisco managed service is also widely deployed under white label to many major hosted PABX suppliers. Some installations exceed 100 SIP extensions per site on ADSL with excellent quality, security and reliability."

The customer benefit is a lower cost of ownership as many traditional telco services are delivered over the converged IP infrastructure, reducing overall costs, explained North. "Many dealers and resellers have clients who would benefit from this technology which is more secure, faster and cheaper than upgrading legacy equipment and services," he added. "The purpose of Stripe 21 is to leverage IP technology to drive down connectivity costs and provide the channel with a financial case for change. This enables RoI proposals and strategies to help increase sales for core channel partner products."

Much is made of the adoption of cheaper SIP connectivity and it has its place in the market, believes North. "But SIP providers have to guarantee up to 30 concurrent calls on a single connection to provide a realistic challenge to ISDN," he added. "Customers expect a fully managed service with a QoS guarantee. Resellers can now migrate their clients to a secure, reliable, fully managed ISDN30e service and slip in simultaneous SIP connectivity. The service future proofs customers for easy migration to SIP as the service is ready and waiting, putting the margin back into ISDN line rental for resellers."•