Comms Dealer

Nimans Business Manager Scott Baron and best pal Craig Hoyland walked 34 miles from soccer ground Anfield in Liverpool to Manchester's Old Trafford stadium in aid of Beating Bowel Cancer and the Blue Apple Heroes war veterans' charities.

The walk was one of 12 fund raising challenges set by Baron including cycling around Anglesey, a 10km army obstacle course and completing the Three Peaks mountain adventure.

"This year I'm going to push myself and friends to the limit," he said.

Pictured (l-r): Craig Hoyland and Scott Baron

Lyceum Capital has become the majority shareholder in Timico having invested more than £50m in the company. Lyceum Partners Simon Hitchcock and Geoff Neville join Timico as Non-Execs. Timico's founder, Tim Radford, remains on the board as a Non-Exec. The deal enables Timico to accelerate its growth plans in the IT services space and invest in systems, people and capabilities.

The war chest will also fund fund acquisitions.

Timico has reinvented itself as an end-to-end managed cloud service provider following a business restructure led by CEO Ben Marnham who joined the firm last September.

Marnham and other members of the management team have also invested in a share of the company.

"Working with Lyceum Capital is a logical next step in Timico's evolution, building on the foundations laid by Tim and the team over the last few years," said Marnham.

"Lyceum have proven expertise in our sector and we share a similar vision of Timico's future within it."

Hitchcock added: "Timico has a well defined strategy to take the business to the next stage in its development as a managed cloud service provider."

The service experienced by comms sector customers is improving, but the industry still ranks as the lowest in the UK Customer Satisfaction Index published by The Institute of Customer Service. 

The report gives the UK’s telecoms industry an overall customer satisfaction rating of 73.6 out of 100, one point higher than January 2016.

But telecoms has the highest proportion of customers experiencing a problem, 20%, compared to the UK average of 13%. 

The most common problems are quality or reliability of goods and services, reported by 46% of customers.

Customers also said they had to expend more effort in dealing with organisations than they did a year ago. 

Along with national public services, telecoms has the highest customer effort of all sectors.

Jo Causon, CEO of The Institute of Customer Service, said: "Generally speaking, it’s been a great year for customer service in the telecoms sector, with consumers telling us that businesses are improving overall experiences by getting things right first time and dealing with complaints faster and more efficiently.

"However, these factors do not necessarily translate into customer loyalty and recommendation. Just being ‘good’ is no longer good enough, and organisations should think about how they can deliver outstanding service at all times."

"Added to that, better consistency is needed across different channels. Engagement through digital methods such as email, text, apps and webchat functions have all increased in the last year, and these are the channels through which it’s most difficult for customer service staff to show empathy. 

"Organisations therefore need to make sure that their staff are highly engaged and highly skilled, as every customer interaction, regardless of the channel it’s on, counts towards business performance."

Adept has added £5m annual revenue with the acquisition of OurIT Group.

Adept CEO Ian Fishwick said: "The addition of OurIT gives us 500 IT clients in London and South East and around 50 staff based at offices in Bevis Marks, London, Chingford and St Neots.

"We can now offer IT as a service from two data centres in Milton Keynes and Maidstone. Our enhanced expertise in Microsoft, Apple and VM Ware positions us well for the future."

Adept also announced an increased bank facility of £30m (up from £15m). Advisors on the deal were Evolution Capital and Cripps.

The new and unified Dell EMC Partner Programme has gone live, aiming to reward those channels who drive new business, create service sales (inclusive of consulting, deployment, support and education services), do training and sell the full portfolio.

The new program tiers which are designed to 'elevate Dell EMC Partners over competitors' and offer ways to level-up, are Titanium, Platinum and Gold, as well as a new status level within the Titanium Tier, Titanium Black by invitation only.

While it says that two-tier is a 'key component to help our partners deliver for their customers and Dell EMC is investing to grow this business', it says it plans to consolidate the list of distribution partners in the new program, and partner more closely with key global distribution partners who are 'placing bets on the company'.

Dell EMC will therefore maintain a smaller set of local distribution partners by country.

The distribution program offers base rebates, growth accelerators based on targeted partners and lines of business and services rebates.

In addition, earned quarterly market development funds (MDF) can be spent on activities such as enablement, demand generation and headcount. 

All distribution partners that are authorised by Dell EMC will be granted status as an Authorised Distributor, which each will maintain by meeting annual minimum revenue, services penetration rates and training competencies requirements

Michael Collins, Senior Vice President, Channel, Dell EMC EMEA, said: "We are truly providing the means and the opportunity along with the recognition and profitability that our partners want and deserve. We're 'all in' with our partners and invested in their success."

Data management specialist Informatica has lifted the veil on a new global channel partner programme in a bid to extend its cloud and data management offerings to a wider range of customers and market segments.
 
The company is focused on building a strategic network of VAD and VAR channel partners via a two-tier programme designed to bring to market its Intelligent Data Platform.
 
"The move to the cloud is one of the most fundamental business model shifts of the 21st century," stated Rodney Foreman, SVP, Partner Ecosystem. "For Informatica, that means further extending our go-to-market strategy and finding ways of getting closer to our customers, through a broader number of touch points.

"Our channel programme is a crucial part of our vision for the future and will be central to our ability to grow the business and better meet the evolving needs of our customers."
 
Informatica recently announced a distribution agreement with Arrow. The company also expanded its distribution agreement with Avnet to include the United States and Canada.

Avnet is also a distributor for Informatica in EMEA, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore.

Howard Goldberg, president of Arrow's enterprise computing solutions business in the Americas, added: "Big data, and the ability to cost-effectively analyse and monetise data, are rapidly evolving into a must-have for businesses of all types and sizes.

"We are in the era of digital transformation, and data is playing a critical role in accelerating this transformation."

Sophos has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the commercial software products business of Invincea, a developer of patented next-generation malware protection, from its existing shareholders for $100m plus a $20m earn-out.

Invincea has a strong presence in the US, particularly in the government, healthcare and financial services sectors.

The Invincea endpoint security portfolio prevents, detects and remediates zero-day and sophisticated attacks, and combines neural-network based machine learning and behavioural monitoring to enhance detection through artificial intelligence and stop evasive malware before damage occurs.

Sophos Chief Executive Officer, Kris Hagerman, commented: "Invincea will strengthen Sophos' next-gen endpoint protection with complementary predictive defenses that we believe will become increasingly important to the future of endpoint protection and allow us to take full advantage of this significant new growth opportunity."

The value of the gross assets of Invincea as at 31 March 2016 was $15.7 million. In the 12 months to 31 March 2016, Invincea recorded billings of $13.4 million, revenue of $9.8 million and a loss before tax of $11.8 million.

Claranet has expanded its footprint in The Netherlands with the acquisition of Rely, an IT provider for the Dutch notarial sector.

With the new acquisition, Claranet continues its growth strategy and doubles its size in The Netherlands.

Rely offers a range of IT infrastructure services, including public and private cloud solutions and application management services.

The firm has 50 staff and an annual turnover of 6m euros.

As well as being a primary IT partner for notary organisations, with more than 2,000 notary seats, it also manages more than 3,500 seats in other types of organisations, including those in the media, cultural, and financial services sectors.

Rely will be absorbed in full into Claranet and the company's founder, René Fouraschen, will remain in the enlarged business as Business Development Director in the region.

Fouraschen said: "Being part of a larger organisation with a similar focus on providing the total IT package gives us several advantages. It gives us the opportunity to grow quicker and gain more customers, enabling us to develop effective economies of scale."

Avnet Technology Solutions' training division, Avnet Academy, is expanding its education portfolio to include training courses for Lenovo's System x and Flex products.

Stephen Ennis, Director Education Services at Avnet Technology Solutions EMEA, said: "We're providing our partners with tools and knowledge so they can offer training for end customers to accelerate their careers.

"With our Lenovo training path, we will help guide IT professionals to ensure they have the skills, certifications and tools needed to handle real-world, next-generation technology environments."

Has your technical team got an idea around cyber security, data collection, mining or analytics to tackle modern slavery, or security innovation?

If so you could be in line for a £10,000 windfall and six months of technical expertise from BT and TechHub, the global community for technology start-ups.

BT has teamed up with the Government's Cabinet Office and TechHub to find small companies with big ideas that can help tackle the nation's security challenges. 'securing the Nation' is the latest in a series of competitions aimed at supporting the UK's best digital talent, helping them to turn their ideas into reality.

Colm O'Neill (pictured), Managing Director, BT Major and Public Sector, told Comms Dealer: "We want SMEs to join us at the front-line of security to help deliver imaginative and effective digital products and services that can keep our nation one step ahead.

"If your business thrives on innovation and has the skills and knowledge to take on this challenge we'd love to hear your ideas. This is a unique chance to contribute towards the nation's security by getting your ideas off the ground with the support of BT and TechHub."

There are three categories in the competition namely: Cyber Security; Data collection, mining and analytics; and Digital innovation.

"We're looking for cyber security solutions that can help to keep data secure and protect critical national infrastructure for both the public sector and businesses," continued O'Neil.

"We're also looking for SMEs with the digital technology experience to help the Police and the Home Office tackle modern slavery and human trafficking. And finally we're looking for innovation in disruptive digital and communication services to help make the UK a safer place to live and do business."

Entries can be made up to March 3rd 2017. For more details on how to enter see: www.btplc.com/btinfinitylab/securingthenation