Comms Dealer

The Magnetic North brand has changed direction and gone West following its acquisition in November 2015 by West Corporation, a global provider of communication and network infrastructure solutions.

The integration of Magnetic North's cloud-based contact centre solution into West's UC services portfolio strengthens the company's ability to offer seamless multi-channel communications.

Enda Kenneally, West's VP of Sales and Business Development for Unified Communications Services, said: "We have a product portfolio that meets a growing market need for a fully integrated cloud-based contact centre and UC solution. As a single entity with combined experience and expertise, we look forward to bringing solutions with increased resilience, manageability and scalability.

"We are approaching a tipping point as enterprises of every size turn to cloud to overcome the limitations of their legacy systems and West will be working with its channel partners to respond to this market opportunity."

Ingram Micro UK has rolled out a number of new channel programmes including IM+, a platform that rewards resellers with points and prizes in exchange for attending training, buying selected products or meeting set targets.

Vendor partners will also be able to host their own incentive programmes on the platform making it easier for customers to track their performance.

Last month also saw the launch of Ingram Micro's new publication, Ingram Micro Advisor, a digital resource that provides marketing tips, cloud updates, vertical solutions and more. The second edition will be released in December and is supported by a new website which will provide additional content in the form of blogs, articles and white papers.

Matt Sanderson, Company Chief Executive, Ingram Micro UK&I, said: "The launch of both IM+ and Ingram Micro Advisor are part of a longer term strategy to help, inform, support and reward our resellers."

A report by Scottish Rural Action (SRA) has criticised Community Broadband Scotland (CBS), a government initiative led by Highlands and Islands Enterprise for its sole reliance on BT-partnered programmes.

And Charlie Boisseau, Chief Technology Officer at Commsworld, believes the mission to provide superfast broadband to 100% of properties by 2020 is, at this stage, a 'pipe dream'.

He said: "It would be difficult to disagree that the government has failed in its mission to provide broadband.

"Whether any one party can be blamed for this shortfall is open to discussion but if any progress is to be made in providing everyone with 'superfast broadband' the government must open the building of network infrastructures to more companies."

The Edinburgh-based telecommunications company, which criticised the decision not to split BT and Openreach earlier this year, hopes to see further attention paid to the rapidly advancing capabilities of smaller service providers.

Boisseau added: "Even with significant government subsidies rural areas are of little to no interest to tier one providers like Openreach who stand to gain little from what is, comparative to city infrastructure projects, a lot of work.

"Although these projects are of vital political and local importance, the biggest providers will always leave the highlanders and islanders to last. That is if they pay them much heed at all.

"While larger companies may offer a cheaper service for the provision of broadband in the main it is our view that the use of smaller companies to 'fill in the gaps' they leave behind could establish a network that is a lot closer to meeting the Government's ambitious aims than the system currently in place.

"For this to work though, they must stop merely paying lip service to smaller providers and throw all their resources into getting companies of various sizes working on making Scotland a more connected country."

Organisations need to move faster to prepare for the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) according to Annodata.

With more than 9 in 10 organisations reporting a data breach in the last five years, businesses need to rapidly put measures in place to prevent the loss of Personal Identifiable Information (PII), especially with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) set to transform cyber security regulation in Europe with significant financial and legal (not to mention reputational) implications.

A recent report from Lloyd's on what European businesses are doing to tackle cyber security shows that 92% of organisations have suffered a data breach in the last five years, highlighting the increasing threat of data loss within organisations.

Furthermore, 57% of businesses surveyed stated that they know 'little' or 'nothing' about the GDPR, despite the serious financial (with costs of up to 4% of revenue) and legal repercussion of not complying with the regulations.

"With the introduction of the GDPR fast approaching, organisations must ensure they maintain strict control over their sensitive data, this includes securing their partners and automating their mailrooms," said Joe Doye, Marketing Director of Annodata.

"In light of the mounting threats organisations face in today's security landscape and with the deadline for compliance with the GDPR rapidly approaching, it's vital for organisations to address the possibility of data leakage and security breaches so these pressures can be tackled effectively.

"Printer technology has advanced with the help of smartphones and tablets, leading to staff breaking free from their desktop computers.

"These mobile devices are now fully integrated within the IT estate of many organisations, affording broad functionality such as the ability to print from mobile devices and to scan to email and network drives.

"Although this new usability brings big benefits, new areas of vulnerability rise in parallel. As a result, it's vital that organisations ensure they pay close attention to the security posture of their devices, data, network and internet-enabled printers."

SBL Group and Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise (ALE) have formed a channel training partnership that sees SBL provide engineer training on Alcatel-Lucent OmniPCX Office and OmniPCX Enterprise to ALE channel partners.

SBL will launch the new SBL Academy in October 2016, kicking off with an OmniPCX Enterprise Starter course.

"We are seeing an increased demand and interest for UK training on the Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise portfolio with a solid engineer led framework," said Peter Tebbutt, UK&I Managing Director for Alcatel Lucent Enterprise.

"The new SBL Group management team have focused on driving the business forward, especially in the areas of customer care and professional services. This new initiative will enable them to optimize the investment they have made whilst also enabling Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise to offer increased local training services for UK and international partners."

Pan-EMEA distribution firm Nuvias Group has acquired UK-based UC distributor Siphon Networks in a deal that promises to extend Siphon's influence in the UK and across the continent. Post-acquisition it's business as usual for Siphon which will continue to be led by Steve Harris (pictured) who remains MD.

"We will protect what has already been built by Siphon," confirmed Nuvias Group CEO Paul Eccleston. "We will enhance it through the other capabilities in the Nuvias Group, and we will expand it across EMEA.

"Siphon's service and solutions capabilities for the channel are aligned with the Nuvias Group's philosophy and strategy. Siphon is also complementary to the cyber security, advanced networking and UC capabilities of Wick Hill and Zycko, the existing businesses in the Group."

Harris added: "This enables us to accelerate our growth plans and expand geographically in the UK and EMEA as part of a much larger organisation which shares our core beliefs and dedication to high service levels, and has the resources to help us realise our goals."

Siphon began its commercial life in 2009 when Harris co-founded the company with a £50k investment in the midst of a global financial crisis.

In May last year Siphon received a £1.5m investment from Finance Wales to boost its presence in the UK and Europe.

It currently generates approximately £20m turnover, has offices in the UK and Benelux, circa 50 staff, and works with vendors including Polycom, Oracle and Broadsoft.

In autumn 2015 Siphon was ranked 23rd fastest growing technology company in the UK and one of the fastest growing technology companies in EMEA by Deloitte.

Microsoft says it is boosting European cloud investment to $3bn as it adds a number of initiatives, including plans to bring Microsoft Cloud to France.

CEO Satya Nadella said that Microsoft has more than doubled its cloud capacity in Europe in the past year, noting that the company has invested over $3bn across Europe to date.

"We continue to invest heavily in cloud infrastructure to meet the growing demand from European customers and partners," said Nadella.

"Building a global, trusted, intelligent cloud platform is core to our mission to empower every person and organisation on the planet to achieve more. There's never been a better time for organisations across Europe to seize new growth and opportunity with the Microsoft Cloud."

Microsoft intends to deliver the Microsoft Cloud from data centres in France, starting in 2017 with Microsoft Azure, Office 365 and Dynamics 365 from multiple locations in France.

Microsoft Cloud services are already available from data centres in the United Kingdom (Microsoft Azure and Office 365) and Germany (Microsoft Azure with Office 365 planned for early 2017), with the latter offering a new model in Europe where access to customer data is controlled by a data trustee, T-Systems International, an independent German company and subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom.

The collective investments, including hubs in the Netherlands and Ireland, which continue to expand, together with locations in Austria and Finland, aim to enable Microsoft to meet anticipated customer demand in Europe.

 Huddersfield-based VoIP distributor ProVu has added two new apprentices to its Technical Support Team.

The company has now taken on five apprentices following a link up with a local college's apprenticeship scheme in early 2015.

New recruits William Dobson and Jordan Carr will undertake a two year course in IT, software, web and telecoms.

MD Darren Garland said: "So far our apprenticeship scheme has proved to be of great benefit to the company as we can help our apprentices identify their strengths and place them most appropriately according to their skills and the company's needs.

"We welcome our new recruits and look forward to seeing them develop their skills which will undoubtedly make a positive impact to the team.

"As we continue to grow year on year, it is vital that our team grows to reflect this. Through apprenticeships, we can nurture our own and help our staff to reach their full potential."

Team Virtual1 has completed the 2016 Windsor Park Spartan Race in aid of charity Restless Development.

The 20-strong group tackled the five mile Sprint race which includes over 20 obstacles (jumping through fire, wading through mud and crawling under barbed wire etc) in a bid to raise over £5k towards Virtual1's charity target.

Team member and CEO Tom O'Hagan said: "Virtual1 is a young, vibrant company, with a set of employees to match. Each day we face the 'it cannot be done' in our business lives, so tackling the Spartan Race was an obvious choice for us.

"The team wasn't made up solely of fitness enthusiasts, but the whole group worked to get everyone round the course, which is the way we approach our everyday business."

"We smashed our £5,000 target, with over £7,000 raised to date, which is a magnificent achievement and one which will benefit Restless Development greatly."

Telecoms firm NGC Networks has achieved £4.5m turnover after a strong performance across its products and services.

This year's results are up £0.5m on last year and the Wakefield-based business, which employs 30 staff, plans to hit £5m turnover in 2017.

NGC Networks provides business telecommunications and internet connectivity solutions to companies across the North of England.

Managed by directors Nikki Guest and Dean Harrop, the business has maintained profitability and attracted new clients both in the Yorkshire region and beyond.

These include Bradford-based mail order business Freeman Grattan Holdings, The Family Fund in York and First Choice Catering in Cannock, Staffordshire.

Harrop said: "We have enjoyed significant growth as a result of building our work with existing clients as well winning new ones.

"In addition, we have consolidated our position in some key sectors including education and health where we provide our bespoke telephony and internet solutions to a range of academies, schools and medical centres across Yorkshire."

NGC's network services division has seen considerable growth in the last 12 months - it is now routing 4.5m calls per month on behalf of clients, up from 1.7m a year ago.

NGC Networks is currently recruiting for various positions at its Calder Park offices.