Comms Dealer

Entanet is close to realising its growth target, reporting year-on-year revenue growth of over 12% to a forecasted £36m in its 20th year of operation.

The connectivity wholesaler continued to grow organically in 2016, a year that saw the launch of a new synergi partner portal, the creation of an apprenticeship scheme, the award of a quality management accreditation as well as netting four industry gongs.

In February 2014 mid-market equity investor Mobeus Equity Partners made an initial £6m investment to support a £14m management buyout led by CEO Elsa Chen.
"The success of Entanet is wholly dependent on the success of our partners," she said.

"We recognise that resellers need to have confidence, not only in the quality of the services that their suppliers deliver, but also that they understand what's important in providing connectivity solutions and appreciate the challenges that resellers face today.

"We're looking forward to 2017 with eager anticipation. We plan to launch several new products and initiatives to help partners differentiate themselves, enter new markets and win more business.

"The technology and the market is moving even faster now and this is an exciting time for resellers who can identify and capture opportunities."

Opus Telecoms has relocated to new offices in Reigate and closed its bases in Wimbledon and Sevenoaks. The central London and Hitchin sales offices remain operational.

The consolidation enables Opus to host customer seminars and workshops, and streamline collaboration between directors and staff.

The board sees the move as a key step in Opus growing its turnover to £20m by 2020.

Opus MD Michael O'Donnell said: "The Opus group has grown considerably over the past few years and as our portfolio and size of customers grow it is important that we are in a position to continue to deliver the service our customers expect. The consolidation of our offices will enable us to do this."

Opus was founded in 1992 and is a Mitel Gold Reseller partner, holds two Gamma Platinum Partner accreditations and is a Microsoft Certified Partner.

More than 100 partners have been accredited in the first phase of Vodafone UK's new enterprise programme, which comes into effect on 1st January 2017.

The new Vodafone Partner Programme elevates partner capabilities and operational standards for delivering customer service excellence across Vodafone's Total Communications solutions.

For the first time, pPartners have been able to achieve Vodafone certification across the Vodafone fixed, mobile, converged and cloud portfolio of technologies.

Nick Birtwistle, Director of Partners and Strategic Alliances at Vodafone UK, said: "From unified communications to the Internet of Things, digital technologies are enhancing the way businesses and public services work.

"This is driving transformation in the design and delivery of communications infrastructure and services, and demand for converged solutions.

"We have designed our new programme to equip our partners with training and support around our portfolio of technologies. We believe this will help them to take a leading position in this new era of communications.

"We will continue to work with the many others who are aiming to qualify for the programme ahead of our second accreditation date in June."

Moving away from traditional tiered partner models, the new programme recognises partners with four new status categories - Total Communications, Advanced, Specialist and Approved.

To achieve accreditation partners are required to pass an assessment and make a committed investment to skills and training.

Gamma partners are set to be better informed about the company's products and services following the launch of Gamma Academy, an online interactive training hub with video tutorials, eLearning courses, knowledge-base content and product guides.

The Academy is linked to the Gamma Portal meaning that it can identify (based on who has logged on and the products being specified) what training should be undertaken and at what level for individuals.

A search function helps users to find relevant training programmes and enables line managers to create learning plans for team members, view their activity and monitor progress.

Jo Shuttleworth, Head of Service Development, said: "We spent a lot of time talking to partners about how we can help them provide an optimised service for their customers.

"Training consistently comes up as a key topic so we designed the Academy with them in mind.

"The content is in bite-sized chunks, with an integrated knowledge-base to help keep partners up to speed with our new portal and product developments, as well as provide a base layer of understanding for new starters or partners needing a refresh on their telecoms knowledge."

Mitel's big push into the mobile arena has ended with the divestiture of its mobile division to the parent company of Xura for $350 million in cash, a $35m non-interest bearing promissory note and an equity interest in Sierra Private Investments (the limited partnership that will own both Xura and the mobile division).

Mitel said the move reflects a decision to refocus the company exclusively on the UCC market and cloud-based solutions.

"In a period of rapid change and massive technology transitions, scale and focus are key to driving growth and shareholder return," stated Rich McBee, CEO of Mitel.

"This transaction will allow Mitel to achieve these goals. It also enables us to intensify our focus and capital in expanding our position in the enterprise market as it prepares for the large scale digital transformation of premise-based systems to the cloud."

McBee believes that Mitel shares are 'substantially undervalued' and, as a result, he intends to implement a share buyback programme in conjunction with a full evaluation of Mitel's capital structure.

"We are working with our Board and financial advisors and will announce details in the near-term," he added.

The sale of the Mobile division is expected to close in the first quarter of 2017.

The cash proceeds from the sale will be used to pay down Mitel's existing credit facility, reducing the company's gross leverage ratio from 3.3x to 1.8x, and net leverage to 1.3x on a proforma basis.

As a result of the divestiture, Mitel expects to record a significant write-down of goodwill relating to the transaction in the fourth quarter of 2016.

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."