Comms Dealer

Core has kicked off the new year with a brace of boardroom appointments, instating Eamon McGann as COO and Lloyd Carnie as CTO.

McGann has worked at Core for 21 years, leading the Operations and Technical units and the team that delivered the first UK SharePoint project in 2001.

Carnie co-founded Parative, an IT infrastructure migration business that was acquired by Core in 2013.

As Cloud Services Director he was instrumental in large Microsoft Office 365 deployments and the development of Core's Aurora platform. In his new role Carnie will focus on Core's R&D investment.

"These new roles will ensure that Core is able to bring the most appropriate and innovative solutions to bear to meet our customer's needs," said Conor Callanan, CEO.

Incoming Peach Technologies Chairman Ian Brown (pictured) says he is focused on intensifying the company's organic and acquisition strategy alongside CEO Darren Scott-Healey who aims to become a dominant force in the SME sector. Scott-Healey says that Brown's considerable industry experience and leadership know-how will be pivotal in achieving their joint objectives.

"I have known Ian for some time and very much value his considerable business skills," he said. "I am confident about our ability to work together to develop Peach into one of the leading IT and telecoms providers for SMEs in the country."

Brown confirmed that there will be no reshaping of the business and said that following his appointment there will be a stronger emphasis on Peach's proven business plan.

"I am very much looking forward to partnering with Darren and his team at Peach as we seek to expand and develop the business through aggressive organic growth and making targeted acquisitions in the coming years," he stated.

Brown is a prominent and much lauded entrepreneur, investor, chairman and outstanding leader who has earned a solid reputation for innovating and growing businesses during his 30 year career in the technology, software, comms and IT services sectors.

He established Axell Wireless in 2007 and turned the company into a world leading manufacturer of wireless coverage and management solutions exporting products to over 150 countries and operating from a network of 16 worldwide offices. Axell was acquired by Cobham for £85m in 2013.

Prior to Axell he was CEO of Redstone, a circa £100m LSE quoted telecoms services provider where he led the rescue and transformation of the group.

In 1995 he created Fastnet Group, a specialist network communications and IT solutions company that was sold in 2000 returning PE investors 10 x money.

Brown is currently Executive Chairman of SecureData, a UK cyber security services and solutions provider backed by August Equity.

Whiteley-based Peach was formed in 2006 and provides cloud, IT, connectivity and telecoms services. It regularly features in the Sunday Times Tech Track and the Deloitte UK Technology Fast 50 league tables.

To mark its tenth anniversary Peach Technologies recently invested £2.5m in its new Whiteley HQ and kicked off a rebranding exercise.

Analysis
Ian Brown's link up with Darren Scott Healey will significantly boost an already empowered Peach Technologies, adding unrivalled leadership clout, business acumen and entrepreneurial flair. The appointment also signals Darren Scott-Healey's clarity of strategic vision, strength of ambition and ability to match key people to his business plan to ensure that Peach realises its long-term intentions in the SME sector. Brown is a consummate deal maker well known in the city for building growth and enhancing value. We see a bright future in 2017 and beyond for this boardroom tie up.

www.peachtechnologies.co.uk.

Peterborough-based GreenCity Solutions is to invest £1.5m into its home town in a bid to get more local businesses connected to the Gigabit CityFibre network.

Constructed by CityFibre two years ago the 120km pure fibre network connects hundreds of businesses and public sector sites throughout the city.

Rob Baldacci, Owner of GreenCity Solutions, said: "Since the launch of CityFibre's network in Peterborough we have connected more than 200 businesses, enabling them to communicate faster with their customers, improve productivity and reduce costs.

"The Gigabit City project has been the catalyst for local businesses to expand, take on new team members and be more positive about their growth targets.

"Using CityFibre's ultra-fast network enables us to deliver all business communications needs over infrastructure that offers ultra-low latency, gigabit speeds and true reliability."

This investment also gives GreenCity an opportunity to open CityFibre's infrastructure up to more local resellers, giving them an alternative to leased lines and FTTC.

Tom O'Hagan is calling on resellers to up their game in 2017 and become trusted advisors to British companies in danger of missing out on the digital revolution.

The Virtual1 CEO believes UK businesses are embroiled in a digital arms race, where innovation, driving down costs and increasing speed to market are critical to success.

"This drive represents significant opportunities for the channel. Investment propositions have not been easier than they are now, with 'As a Service' models removing CAPEX objections. Those UK businesses who fail to innovate and invest will be left behind, and ICT resellers are ideally placed to become their trusted advisors."

O'Hagan says Virtual1 is significantly investing in its network and services models to ensure partners have the tools they need to capitalise on these opportunities.

"2017 is going to be a highly significant year for Virtual1 and our partners. Over the last 12 months we have been working away quietly to implement one of the UK's most advanced networks, fully software defined.

"We have automated provisioning and change management throughout, and in Q1 of 2017, we will start to open up this control to our partners, allowing them to implement configuration changes directly to their client's solutions. Our partners will truly become the masters of their own service experience."

O'Hagan is also claiming an industry first by adding MPLS ordering to Virtual1's 1Portal from February.
"This will dramatically streamline the quote and order processes for our partners," he added.

Entanet has rolled out its first apprenticeship scheme in conjunction with the Telford College of Arts and Technology (TCAT).

The scheme has resulted in the recruitment of four apprentices across the core business areas of Customer Services and Technical Support.

Tim Roberts, HR Manager at Entanet, said: "We chose TCAT as our apprenticeship partner because of its local reputation and flexibility in tailoring the Customer Services and IT Professional Competence courses to our needs.

"The four candidates that we've hired have settled in well and demonstrated great skill in learning what each of their roles entails. We're committed to promoting from within and foresee that each of these individuals will build great careers with Entanet."

Chief Executive of Entanet, Elsa Chen, added: "The introduction of our apprenticeship scheme complements our previously established programme of undergraduate placement and demonstrates our commitment to finding and keeping the best young talent in the local area.

"We've been located in Telford for the last 20 years and have no plans to change that as we're committed to investing in the local economy. As a technology business with a pioneering spirit, we recognise that the best way for us to secure our future with the best is to attract them early in their careers."

Roberts added: "We'll be investing in our apprentices, Daniel Saxon (18), Oliver Ginger (18), Jak Mason (18) and Hannah Jinks (17), helping them to achieve both Level 2 and Level 3 in their respective qualifications. Both Customer Services and Technical Support are core teams in our business but there's significant potential for each of them to progress into different roles once they've achieved their qualifications."

Solar Communications has bagged Burnley-based Denwa for an undisclosed price tag, its second big buy since swooping on Response Data Communications (RDC) in July. Following the deal Mitel has awarded Gold Solutions Partner status to the Solar Group, building on its Gold Cloud Solutions accreditation and strengthening its capabilities in the mid-market.

Solar CEO John Whitty said: "We have spent the last 12 months focusing on an investment plan that ensures our business processes and systems can support our appetite for growth and development, and Denwa is a proven service-focused business with a strong reputation in serving SMB and mid-market business customers."

Denwa's founder and MD Rob Scott will leave the business on completion of the transfer.

He said: "The Denwa team spent the last 12 years building and developing a strong company and service offering and have had the pleasure of working with some great customers. With Solar's portfolio and service culture the business will go from strength to strength."

Solar has offices in Salford, Chippenham, and Harlow, and is on a mission to bolster its managed services offering.

Solar Communications has on-boarded 30-plus year of comms and IT experience with the appointment of Paul Ceaser as Director of Operations with a remit to head up all aspects of Solar's customer services, one of the largest divisions of the business.

Previous positions include CTO in the Royal Corps of Signals, Director of Voice at GCI, and latterly CTO at 7 Technologies Group.

Solar's CEO John Whitty said: "Not only is Paul a proven customer-focused leader, he knows the importance of service and communication in the most mission critical of environments.

"It is no longer enough to focus on products and innovation, customer experience is now a true differentiator in a competitive marketplace."

US-based hosting giant GoDaddy is buying Host Europe Group for $1.82bn, including debt, as it seeks to expand into Europe with the delivery of a broader range of cloud-based products.

Host Europe is a large privately-owned web services provider and operates brands such as 123Reg, Domain Factory, Heart Internet and Host Europe.

GoDaddy also says it will explore strategic alternatives for Host Europe's PlusServer managed hosting business, including a possible sale.

Peach Technologies has relocated to 'wacky' new offices, a move that also marks the firm's tenth anniversary and coincides with a rebrand.

The company's £2.5m investment in its Whitley HQ, a 15,000 square foot working environment, was designed to encourage employees to maximise their career potential while also promoting a fun and friendly place to work, said the firm.

The building features an oval jungle boardroom, library quiet zone for staff learning, coffee shop meeting room, private working zones and 'chilled' working zones to empower co-operation between departments.

The Peach team also have access to free breakfasts and fruit, and Xboxes and pool tables housed in an American diner style kitchen.

Pictured: CEO Darren Scott-Healey opens the doors with the Mayor of Winchester

Zest4 has added new pre-Ethernet and pop-up office solutions to its portfolio, a move that supports its roll out of M2M offerings.

"Pre-Ethernet solutions give partners the opportunity to provide reliable enterprise grade connectivity to customers whose businesses operate away from permanent premises or who offer a service that's based out on the road," said Anton Le Saux, Zest4's Head of M2M and IoT.

"Festivals, temporary retail outlets, kiosks, digital road signage and pop up offices are just some of the business types that rely on technology but often struggle to stay connected."

Zest4 supplies a range of enterprise grade routers and mobile tariffs with 4G broadband connectivity and the ability to connect to any network.

Le Saux added: "One of the challenges resellers have is the networks wanting to tie customers into long-term contracts when they take out a new SIM.

"Zest4 now has the ability to offer SIMs with flexible data that means a customer can consume as much as they need while they need it and then drop down to a bare minimum to ensure they have cover for failover."

Mandy Fazelynia, Zest4's Operations and Business Development Director, added: "We have had personal experience of using enterprise grade routers during our recent office move and they were critical in ensuring we could operate as usual despite a long wait for our fixed line to be installed.

"Pre-Ethernet solutions offer businesses the connectivity that they need to succeed."