Comms Dealer

Jola has taken its list of standard features for Premium Broadsoft seats to over 50 with the addition of UC-Business, Integrator and Auto Attendant.

Andrew Dickinson, MD, Jola commented: "We have thousands of end-users on JolaPhone and most of them want advanced hunt groups, multiple devices on a single licence, screen-pop and click-to-dial. Furthermore, the stigma around having an automated attendant has gone away.

"SMEs know they can handle calls more efficiently, appear bigger and more professional. Previously, only larger corporates could afford systems with such features."

Dublin has been ranked in third place in a list of the top cities in the world for attracting foreign direct investment (FDI), displacing Hong Kong to move up one place in the Financial Times' magazine's 'global cities of the future' rankings, coming in behind Singapore and London.

The bi-annual index looks at the success of individual cities and their government in attracting overseas investment.

The Irish capital was placed third in both the economic potential and business friendliness sub-categories as foreign direct investment into the Republic rose by 4% in 2015, a year in which the number of FDI projects into Europe fell by nearly 9% and a wave of Brexit-inspired uncertainty hit London.

Shanghai, New York, Hong Kong, Amsterdam, Dubai, Paris and San Francisco round out the top ten cities overall for foreign direct investment.

According to the report, Singapore is far and above the best city for FDI globally with 1,907 inward projects reported between 2011 and 2015, the highest number of investments of all locations reviewed.

According to the report, global foreign direct investment has been steadily declining after reaching a high in 2011 when 15,000 projects were recorded. Last year, 12,882 FDI-linked ventures were reported worldwide. China was home to six of the top ten emerging market cities globally.

Worldwide shipments of 3D printers rose +25% in the first three quarters of 2016 thanks again to shipments of low priced personal/desktop 3D printers, according to figures from researcher Context.

This represents a 27% year-on-year growth for this sub-category compared to a decline in shipments of -12% YTD in the Industrial/Professional segment which saw only 7,726 units shipped through the first three quarters of 2016.

While the market is still largely defined by the shipment of Industrial/Professional printers - which accounted for 78% of the global revenues - the market is settling into two distinctive segments says Context.

Claranet has acquired Brazilian cloud services provider CredibiliT Tecnologia, which was founded in 2009 and pursues a public cloud adoption strategy and is one of two providers with AWS Premier Consulting Partner status in Brazil.

CredibiliT has also created an Azure practice and reached Silver Cloud Platform competency.

It has an annual turnover of circa £7.5m, employs 40 staff and serves 100 clients from a wide of sectors including Pepsico, Webmotors, Smiles, Editora Abril and TV Globo.
 
The Claranet Group has grown steadily in Europe, both organically and by acquisition. The Group has annual revenues of over £215m, employs more than 1,250 staff and works with over 5,800 customers across the UK, France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, The Netherlands and Brazil.
 
Charles Nasser, founder and CEO of the Claranet Group, said: "Brazil is an exciting high growth market. Despite operating platforms for our clients globally for many years, this is our first acquisition outside of Europe. The combination of CredibiliT and Claranet will create a stronger competitor in the Brazilian market and establish new avenues for growth."
 
Daniel Galante (CEO) and André Guerra (CFO), both founders of CredibiliT, will stay in the enlarged business as key senior executives of Claranet in Brazil.

Onecom has been awarded Mitel Gold Partner status.

Nick Aikman, Channel Sales Director at Mitel, said: "Onecom's knowledge of Mitel technology is matched by its long and successful track record in helping organisations of all sizes benefit from Mitel unified communications solutions."

Darren Ridge, Onecom CEO, added: "I am delighted that our expertise has been recognised with this Gold award."

Alongside its headquarters in Whiteley, Hampshire, Onecom has centres in London, Cambridge, Shoeburyness, Cardiff, Southampton, Plymouth, Leeds, Telford, Norwich and Brighton.

Security firm Sophos has appointed Vin Murria to its board of directors as a non-executive director and a member of the nominations and remuneration committees.

Murria brings more than 25 years experience in building technology companies in the UK, working with both private and publically listed companies in the software sector.

She was the founder and CEO at Advanced Computer Software for seven years until it was sold to Vista Equity Partners in 2015.

Prior to that Murria was CEOof Computer Software Group which was backed by HG Capital and then acquired Hellman & Friedman in 2007.

Her earlier career includes 15 years with Kewill Systems where she was CEO before leaving in 2002.

And she was named Cisco's Woman of the Year and Tech Entrepreneur of the Year in 2012.

Peter Gyenes, Chairman of Sophos, said: "Vin is a successful entrepreneur with a strong background in building and advising technology-based companies and growing shareholder value.

"Her deep understanding of this market and significant UK listed company experience will be of great benefit to the board as Sophos continues to execute on its strategy."

Murria is currently a non-executive director for Softcat and Zoopla Property Group, and she is a partner at Elderstreet Investments.

Previously, she has held non-executive director positions for Chime Communications, Greenko Group and Concateno.

Managed IT services firm GCI has acquired Herts-based Freedom Communications for an undisclosed sum, GCI's fifth acquisition in under 12 months. GCI CEO Adrian Thirkill stated: "Our acquisition of Freedom is another steady step in our journey to deliver progressive and cost efficient managed services to all our customers.

"Freedom's heritage and skills as a UC systems integrator and its focus on transitioning customers from old world to new is aligned with our own growth strategy and is a great fit for us.

"We are backing the big four of UC, cloud, compliance and security, underpinned by next generation infrastructure and networking technologies.

Freedom Communications adds another 40,000-plus Skype for Business seats to GCI's Microsoft UCaaS arm taking it to more than 180,000 Skype for Business seats overall.

Freedom Communications MD commented: "Not only is this great news for our people, but it is also great news for all our customers now gearing to full UC adoption. Exciting times ahead."

Clare Barclay, General Manager at Microsoft UK, stated: "Freedom Communications is of course already well known to us as a Microsoft partner and has a great track record. The collective strengths and learnings across the blended GCI, Outsourcery, Freedom Communications operation means that customers are in a great position to benefit from its expertise in Microsoft Office 365, Skype for Business and Azure.

"The age of digital transformation is upon us, and it is organisations like GCI that will help customers truly reap the benefits."

Another driver for the deal is Freedom Communications' expertise in the public sector where it is listed on nine of the 11 lots of RM1045 Network Services Framework - which the public sector uses to procure Unified Communications and network related services.

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The trading of Alternative Networks shares on AIM has today been cancelled following the completion of its acquisition by Daisy Group.

Each of the non-executive directors of Alternative Networks has resigned as a director with immediate effect.

Alternative Networks shareholders will receive 335 pence in cash for each share held.

The acquisition values Alternative Networks at £184m.

Daisy Group CEO Neil Muller said: "This announcement builds upon our successful acquisition strategy, to enable our customers to take advantage of digital technology in a converging world of business communications and IT. 

"Alternative Networks is one of the largest independent providers of IT managed services and business-to-business communications in the UK and represents a strong and complementary strategic fit with our existing business and operations.

 "Having respected Alternative Networks for many years, we look forward to further enhancing our capability and scale across our chosen markets and we believe the combined group will be well positioned to increase its market share further.\"

Alternative Networks plc Executive Chairman James Murray said: "Alternative Networks faces rising demand from customers to procure, manage and support the complete chain of enterprise IT and communication solutions. 

"The combination with Daisy will ensure that the company is placed to capitalise on future growth opportunities. 

"In particular, the strong complementarity and strategic fit between Daisy and Alternative Networks will ensure our competitiveness and benefit our customers through access to a broader range of unified communications solutions.\"

Vodafone is aiming to secure a larger slice of the UC, cloud and enterprise mobile markets with a new ramped up channel programme.

The mobile giant, which brought fixed line voice and data services into its portfolio via the acquisition of Cable&Wireless over four years ago, has finally delivered an unequivocal 'work with us' message to resellers frustrated by not being able to deliver joined up communications to enterprise customers.

The company has already accredited 100 partners in the first phase of its new Vodafone Partner Programme, which promises upgraded training, market and technology expertise and, for the first time, certification across the Vodafone Fixed, Mobile, Converged and Cloud portfolio of technologies.

Vodafone says the move to highlight partner capabilities has been made to support customer requirements as businesses seek trusted expertise in communications infrastructure and services to support smart working practices and digital transformation initiatives. 

Nick Birtwistle, Director of Partners and Strategic Alliances at Vodafone UK, told Comms Dealer: "The new programme will be a major factor in our growth as all new propositions coming into the channel will use the programme's capabilities and benefits for partners.

"We are continuing to invest in partner enablement tools such as systems and portals to help our partners serve their customers better and make it easy to work with Vodafone.

"The market is changing significantly and digital transformation is becoming ever more important with the adoption of cloud and the Internet of Things among other areas. 

"Combined with customers requiring improved levels of support and looking for trusted partners, and the continuing shift to unified communications from siloed comms, the communications industry has a leading role to play and Vodafone is looking to lead that transformation through the channel."

London-based Virtual1 has kicked off the new year with a £10m investment boost that will spur the firm's growing infrastructure and channel ambitions. The London-based cloud and connectivity service provider secured the cash from BGF (Business Growth Fund) and will invest in additional network infrastructure that will underpin its longer-term growth plans.

Steve Scott, former COO of Bridgehouse Capital, will continue to be Virtual1's Non-Executive Chairman, and Phil Male (formerly Chief Strategy Officer at Cable&Wireless) will join the board as Non-Executive Director following an introduction by BGF.

Virtual1 delivers cloud and connectivity services exclusively to the wholesale market and was founded in 2007 by CEO Tom O'Hagan.

The company featured in the Sunday Times Tech Track 100 for three consecutive years and generated revenue close to £18m in 2015/16.

O'Hagan said: "The funding allows us to accelerate our expansion strategy while retaining control of the business. We are excited about embarking on the next phase of growth."

BGF investor and Virtual1 board member Chris Hodges added: "Virtual1 is led by a strong and ambitious leadership team and growing fast as it continues to capitalise on the increasing demands for cloud and connectivity solutions in the wholesale market."

BGF has invested more than £1bn in UK small and mid-sized companies including unified business communications providers Olive Communications and Maintel, both Virtual1 customers.