Comms Dealer

New tools introduced by BNP Paribas Leasing Solutions will simplify the sales process for its partner network operating in the IT, telecoms and office equipment market, claims the firm.

"The Lease Offers app enables users to submit, track and edit credit applications in real-time, helping our partners to more speedily close sales opportunities," said Tristan Watkins, UK CEO.

Another tool, called SalesAid, has been designed for the more complex needs of the farm, construction, materials handling and commercial vehicle sectors, explained Watkins.

"It can calculate quotes immediately and sync with the company's core lease management system in real-time," he added. "This in turn allows partners to obtain a credit decision and generate electronic documentation."

The SalesAid app is available to download from the Apple store.

An e-signature service that removes the need to send paper contracts to customers for signing has also been introduced. "Called LeasEsign, the services renders the process paperless, leaving no room for human error, and is accessible from any desktop or touch-screen device, for all markets," said Watkins.

"Each new tool is designed to provide fast, 24-hour access to important sales information whether in the office or between meetings.

"Users can check their sales pipeline at any stage, and build better relationships with new and existing clients."

Newly appointed global co-Presidents Paul Constantine and Tony Sorrentino will bring a holistic and channel-focused dimension to ScanSource's Worldwide Barcode, Networking and Security operations.

The roles build on their current positions as President of the ScanSource POS and Barcode business unit and President of the ScanSource Networking and Security business unit in the US respectively.

The pair will report to Mike Baur, CEO.

Meanwhile, Buck Baker, who formerly served as President of Worldwide Barcode and Security, has been named President of Worldwide Communications and Services, responsible for the worldwide leadership and management of the ScanSource Catalyst and ScanSource Communications business units in the US, Europe and Latin America, in addition to the company's services offerings.

Mike Ferney, formerly President of Worldwide Communications and Services, has been named Innovation Architect for ScanSource, a newly created role.

"We are fortunate to have an established team of leaders at ScanSource," stated Baur. "Their level of experience, knowledge of the business, and depth of relationships are instrumental to the continued growth and success of the company."

Distributor Exertis has sealed a supplier deal with Alcatel to market its full range of mobiles, tablets and wearables to UK retailers and resellers.

Exertis Mobile Director Simon Woodman said: "We have the opportunity to help our customers target segments of the market where other manufacturers have pulled out, by providing products that particularly appeal to millennial and Gen Z consumers."

Alcatel's products include a range of tablets (PLUS10 and PIXI 4), phones (IDOL, POP and PIXI) and wearables (GO WATCH).

"Continuity style features are becoming increasingly important in today's mobile market," added Woodman. "Alcatel's multi-purpose devices fit with our strategy to offer our customers a mobile ecosystem."

Distributor Cloud Telephones has announced that its reseller partners have now deployed more than 3,000 seats of Gamma's Horizon hosted VoIP service in the UK.
 
With each seat producing recurring month income for resellers, the current installed base can be expected to generate well over £1m in revenues in the current calendar year.

"Cloud Telephones recently recorded its first month in which billing for the services totalled more than £100,000 and it confidently expects to add a further 2000 seats before the end of 2016 and to double  the installed base by the end of its financial year in April 2017.
 
The growth is being driven by the increasing popularity of hosted services and the availability of higher-speed broadband, said John Carter, Managing Director of Cloud Telephones.
 
"The wider availability and affordability of highs-speed broadband has encouraged more businesses to look at which elements of their ICT they can move to the cloud," he added.

"VoIP is one of the first services they will adopt as it delivers tangible benefits in the form of greater flexibility and manageability, the opportunity to improve customer and employee experiences, and reduced costs.

"Business customers are getting used to online and hosted services quickly and this is good news for channel partners as it brings in recurring monthly income.

"That recurring revenue will keep growing and provide an increasingly firm foundation on which they can build solid, sustainable businesses."

Nimans hosted its own version of the Great British Bake Off in association with Macmillan's World's Biggest Coffee Morning, cooking up a range of baked goodies that raised over £300 for Macmillan.

A homeless charity was given the left over cakes and tinned food. "At Nimans we have all the ingredients for success and the cake day went down a treat," stated the distributor's Investors In People Manager Sue Goldfine.

Jane Aikman has joined KCOM Group as Chief Financial Officer. Previous roles include a stint as Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer for Phoenix IT Group up until its acquisition and merger with Daisy Group.

She was also Chief Financial Officer of Infinis, Wilson Bowden and Pressac.

She spent five years in South East Asia with Asia Pulp and Paper Co Limited and three years as an internal audit manager with GEC Alsthom. Aikman qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Ernst & Young.

Bill Halbert, Chief Executive, said: "Jane will bring fresh perspectives to discussions at both a Board and senior leadership level."

Paul Simpson resigned from the company's Board as planned on 30 September 2016. The Group will announce its interim results on 29 November 2016.

Comms365 is targeting the fast growing market for Software Defined Wide Area Networking (SD-WAN) solutions where demand is forecast to drive revenues to circa $6bn in 2020, according to IDC. Meanwhile, Gartner expects 30% of enterprises to be using SD-WAN products in all their branches by 2019.

"The proliferation of data being consumed on a day-to-day basis by businesses is demanding a completely new way of managing networks," stated Comms365 MD Mike van Bunnens.

"Business owners and IT managers need to gain control over their critical and non-critical application traffic streams, utilise the combined bandwidth of dedicated private circuits and broadband access links for cost-efficiency and still deliver the experience their users expect and require."

In response to this market demand Comms365 has added Prism to its cloud portfolio, a SD-WAN application control service.

"Prism provides organisations with a lower total cost of ownership of their WAN while providing the equivalent and enhanced capability of a MPLS network," claimed van Bunnens.

"Legacy, expensive private networks are becoming saturated with cloud-based traffic. And SME businesses are increasingly utilising Software-as-a-Service from cloud-based providers for essential business productivity.

"SD-WAN is rapidly emerging as a new way to design and deploy a WAN, giving end users, network engineers and service providers the ability to adjust, optimise, automate and test their WAN connections through software controls."

More than one in three consumers are deterred from using more apps due to security concerns, reckons research by Rackspace.

The firm calculates that with the UK app economy estimated to be worth £7.1bn in 2016 and £8.8bn in 2017, these concerns could potentially cost the UK £2.bn in 2016, rising to nearly £3.2bn the following year.
 
Highlighting the fears of consumers, the research also showed that a third of those surveyed are concerned about the privacy of their data when using apps.
 
Darren Norfolk, UK MD of Rackspace, said: "Our research shows that security and reliability are the biggest concerns for consumers when using online services.

"Both these issues often boil down to having a robust and scalable infrastructure in place.

"Having access to expertise on how to run the infrastructure and plan for traffic peaks is something that can sometimes be forgotten. Look at Pokemon Go which went down shortly after the app was launched. The technology itself wasn't the problem, it was the fact that the IT team planned for 50 times less traffic than what they eventually received."
 

Children's hospice Julia's House has benefitted from a £1,600 donation made by Dorset-based Micron following a fund raising run in the Bournemouth 10k event by Team Superfast, a group of five Micron staff. They trained for six months prior to the event and smashed their original £750 target.

"The team did us proud and put in a fantastic effort," enthused Jonny White, Group Development Manager. "We're already planning to go bigger and better at next year's event."

Pictured l-r: Nina Thompson, Maxwell Brotherwood, Anna Williams, Gemma Hull and Dan Molyneux.

Six Degrees Group (6DG) has passed the £100m revenue milestone just five years after being founded by CEO Alastair Mills.

The company has grown from five to 500 employees and Mills attributes its stellar growth to a converged technology approach accelerated through solutions such as UCaaS, the expansion of data centre space, growth of cloud platforms and the roll-out of a next generation network.

Acquisitions also played a key role in expanding 6DG's portfolio and expertise. These include the purchase of providers such as Capital Support, Carrenza and Insite.

In the coming months Mills plans to develop application monitoring, managed compliance and security-as-as-service solutions while continuing to expand 6DG's public cloud integration services for Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform.

Mills said: "Six Degrees has achieved a great deal in its first five years with a healthy mix of organic and acquisitive growth.

"For the coming years we will focus on three areas: To be innovative in the solutions we create, to deliver a more personalised service and nurture a great company culture that attracts and develops talented people."

An important element of 6DG's CSR culture is its work with WeSeeHope, a charity that supports children orphaned or isolated by extreme poverty in Southern and Eastern Africa. The company has so far raised almost £400k. It also holds the Investors in People Silver accreditation.