Comms Dealer

The appointment of Kevin Matthews (pictured) by Exertis to the newly created role of Enterprise Sales Director signifies the distributor's growing interest and investment in bigger business. He reports to Sales and Commercial Director UK&I Phil Brown.

Matthews moves from Fujitsu where he was UK Sales Director for the Technology Products Group responsible for implementing a new sales strategy and consolidating the number of distribution partners.

Before joining Fujitsu Matthews spent 16 years at Hewlett-Packard, ultimately leading its enterprise channel business and accelerating the sale of HP enterprise products via successful initiatives and strong customer engagement.

"Kevin has extensive sales experience in the channel particularly in the enterprise sector and has built strong business relationships with major accounts," said Brown.

Matthews added: "My responsibilities include driving engagement with key value added resellers, ensuring that sales opportunities are maximised with the Exertis' growing enterprise portfolio."

Openreach has appointed Sir Brendan Barber and Edward Astle as independent members of a newly formed Board to oversee strategy, investment and service delivery.

Barber was formerly General Secretary of the Trades Union Congress and current chair of Acas, while Astle is a former Board member of National Grid.

The newcomers attended the inaugural meeting of the Openreach Board on 31st January 2017, chaired by Mike McTighe who was appointed independent Chairman of Openreach in December 2016.

A fourth independent non-executive is due to be announced with a specific focus on customer service.

McTighe said: "I understand that customers sometimes feel let down by Openreach because we haven't always delivered the service they expect or that we hope to provide.

"We have made a lot of progress since Clive Selley joined as CEO a year ago - for example on halving the number of missed appointments, making our fibre network available to millions more people and accelerating our plan to introduce a new generation of ultrafast technology.

"But we need to do more to re-build trust and credibility. This will be the Board's focus."

Clive Selley, Openreach Chief Executive; Clare Sadlier, Openreach Chief Finance Officer; and Simon Lowth, BT Group Finance Director will also join the Openreach Board.

Openreach will also establish committees to help boost operational standards. In particular, a new Openreach Board Audit, Risk and Compliance Committee (OBARCC) will hold the business to account and regularly hear representations from customers, as well as conducting an annual review of Openreach compliance and publish its findings.

Spitfire formally welcomed new supplier partner Virgin Media Business at its annual channel partner conference staged in Westminster.

Other talking points on the day included developments in FTTC Ethernet and FTTP Broadband, SIP trunks, on-net connectivity to AWS and Microsoft and telephony compliance regulations.
 
Spitfire used the occasion to demonstrate a new web ordering system allowing authorised partners to place orders online quickly and simply.

Breakout sessions following the main presentations gave partners the opportunity to see demonstrations of Spitfire's SIP Communicator hosted telephony service and the 3CX v15 telephony platform. Staff were also on hand to discuss MPLS networks and Virgin Media Business services.

Nick Goodenough, Partner Service Manager, commented: "We were pleased to welcome a very large section of our 400 channel partners to our annual conference.

"The event allowed us to brief partners on the important developments we have planned for our voice and data services in 2017. We were also able to introduce colleagues from Virgin Media Business who outlined the benefits of Virgin's national fibre network. The event always provides partners with an excellent opportunity to network with their peers."

A competition launched by BT invites new ideas from SMEs aimed at better securing the UK's infrastructure, public sector and business data.

'BT SME Award 2017: Securing the Nation' will give SMEs the chance to showcase their new technology and product ideas within three award categories: Cyber Security; Data collection, mining and analytics; and Digital Innovation.

The winning entrants are expected to demonstrate how their new ideas will address key challenges in securing data for businesses and public sector organisations.

Shortlisted finalists will be invited to the BT Tower in London on the 4th of April to pitch their ideas to a Dragons' Den style judging panel of experts spanning security, innovation, defence and other public services.

Among the panel will be CEO of BT Security, Mark Hughes; BT's MD of Research & Innovation, Tim Whitley; Met Police Detective Superintendent, Caroline Barker; and Technical Director of the National Cyber Security Centre, Ian Levy.

There is a total prize pot of £30,000 across all three categories.

Ben Gummer, Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General, said: "Small and medium-sized businesses make a huge contribution to our economy and account for over 99% of all private sector businesses. Entrepreneurs, risk-takers, family businesses and start-ups have created more than 2.7 million jobs and launched almost a million new businesses since 2010.

"But there is more we can do - which is why the Government is committed to spending £1 in every £3 with small businesses by 2020. By doing so, we will harness the knowledge, skills and experience of our SMEs and use them to improve our public services."

TalkTalk chief exec Dido Harding is to stand down in May after seven years in the job, paving the way for the return of company founder Sir Charles Dunstone who moves into the position of Executive Chairman when he leaves the Chair of Dixons Carphone role on 1st May.

It is reported that Baroness Harding will be replaced by MD Tristia Harrison. 

In October the company was fined £400k for glitches in website security.

ShoreTel's global expansion campaign is accelerating with the UK launch of ShoreTel Connect CLOUD and ShoreTel Connect Contact Center for CLOUD solutions. The UK data centre is production ready and the launch follows the introduction of cloud-based solutions as a partner managed service in the UK in 2015.

The move also signifies a big step forward in the vendor's transition from a maker of products to a globally focused software and services business.

ShoreTel Connect CLOUD has been available to US customers for 15 months and, according to Don Joos (pictured), president and CEO, the time is right to expand into more theatres.

"This geographical expansion better positions us to serve the needs of global customers of all types and sizes, while helping to drive cloud growth in EMEA," said Joos. "Our channel is ready and excited to offer Connect CLOUD to their customers."

ShoreTel can now provide UC ready-made 'as-a-service' with 'clear and simple' customer pricing, enabling a wider range of businesses of all sizes to benefit from voice, video, mobile, conferencing, messaging and contact centre communication services.

These new UC cloud services are sold through ShoreTel cloud partners who can also offer their customers a range of professional services for more complex environments.

Adrian Hipkiss, EMEA VP and MD of ShoreTel, added: "Our aim is to make cloud-based unified communications simple for customers with a no risk pathway to cloud-based purely on their requirements and needs.

"This may include some elements that are not yet suited to a cloud-only approach. ShoreTel remains committed to providing choice and flexibility, so ShoreTel Connect CLOUD and ShoreTel Connect Contact Center for CLOUD are welcome additions to support a wider range of customer communication requirements.

"The ShoreTel Connect client app makes collaboration simple and consistent across various deployment types. With one click, users can easily escalate a conversation from an IM to a call, to an online meeting, and then to a web desk-top share and video.

"Browser-based, the app allows seamless collaboration among internal teams, while also enabling external users to engage and collaborate in the same experience without the need for plug-ins, multiple application windows, passwords or complex set-up."

Proofpoint has named Nik Churchley as its new Director of EMEA Channel Sales. He has held similar roles at FireEye, Verisign and RSA Security with a particular focus on security and networking across cloud and managed service environments.

In his new role, Churchley will lead Proofpoint's relationships with partners, distributors and vendor organisations across Europe and the Middle East, with an emphasis on new business sales within the region.

Proofpoint specialises in protecting organisations against email, social and mobile threats. 

The company claims more than 3,000 enterprise customers including many of the world's largest companies, with over 100 million end users.

Several companies have set up a consortium to work on how blockchain can be used to secure and improve Internet of Things applications, as sectors beyond finance seek to benefit from bitcoin's underlying technology.

The group, which includes Cisco, Bosch, BNY Mellon, Foxconn and Gemalto will collaborate to develop a shared blockchain IoT protocol.

Europe is the most malware-impacted continent says a new study into cybersecurity by Malwarebytes.

Examining data from more than 200 countries and almost one billion total malware detections/incidences between June 2016 and November 2016, it found that Ransomware became a favourite attack methodology used against businesses in the US and Europe, and that ad fraud has also emerged as a primary threat, at times outpacing ransomware.

Europe saw 20% more infections than North America and 17 times more than Oceania.

The countries hit hardest by malware in Europe are France, the UK, and Spain - although the Vatican City saw the steepest rise with a 1,200% increase in all malware.

The UK saw almost twice as many incidents as Russia, and Russia was not in the top 10 of countries hit by ransomware, despite its size and population.

To better understand just how drastically the threat landscape evolved in 2016, Malwarebytes examined data taken from Windows and Android devices running Malwarebytes in more than 200 countries.

Both corporate and consumer environments were studied and data was collected from June 2016 through November 2016.

In the six months studied, nearly 1 billion total malware detections/incidences were reported. Data was also obtained from Malwarebytes' internal honeypots and collection efforts to identify malware distribution, not only infection.

"To protect users from cybercriminals, we need to intimately understand their methodologies and tactics," said Marcin Kleczynski, Malwarebytes CEO.

"Our findings demonstrate that the frequency and variety of new cyberattacks has crashed into people and businesses at an alarming rate.

"The last year involved an onslaught of ransomware, a surge of pernicious ad fraud and new, dangerous uses for botnets.

"These threats have the potential to erode many of the gains that computing is providing global society. Both consumers and businesses need to better understand how these new attack methodologies may impact them."

Like vultures, elements of the press and a section of Avaya's rivals circled low above the vendor when it filed voluntary petitions under Chapter 11 of the US Bankruptcy Code. With the scent of blood strong in their noses they sniffed an opportunity and grasped at it with both talons.

Naturally, outright opportunists do not baulk when it comes to stirring things up to grab a sensational headline or unsteady the ground beneath resellers loyal to their troubled brands.

Ironically for the disrupters, perhaps in its perceived 'death throes' Avaya has pursued a course of action that, if anything, will breathe new life into the business which, by the way, is profitable.

No doubt there is uncertainty in the market following the move and investments in its technology may be brought into question. But is Avaya's future any less certain than the day before it decisively set about sorting out the restructuring of its debt?

For years speculation and rumours have created a storm of uncertainty around Avaya, but the business continued to do well and retained the loyalty of a staunch band of resellers and customers.

Even with the dial turned up on the hype around Avaya's Chapter 11 move, we can only see the vendor ringing up more of the same as it evaluates its options in terms of selling off assets and securing new funding, while repositioning as a software-focused company and achieving the flexibility to invest in innovation and growth.

Adept Telecom CEO Ian Fishwick noted, 'Avaya will continue as a brand and as a business. US companies that successfully entered and emerged from Chapter 11 include General Motors, American Airlines, Texaco, Macy's and Bloomingdale's'.

So, you don't need to be Mystic Meg to predict where all this is likely to end up. For the industry's sake, Chapter 11 will hopefully signify the turning of a new page and the start of another episode in Avaya's ongoing story.