Comms Dealer

In response to the new increased fibre tax rates from the Valuation Office Agency, ISPA Chair James Blessing stated:

"ISPA is extremely disappointed that the Valuation Office Agency has decided to significantly increase rateable values hitting companies that delivering superfast broadband hard.

"The Government rightly wants the UK to continually improve its digital infrastructure and our members are investing heavily in their networks.

"Significantly raising rates in this way is only going to put up barriers to investment and make bills more expensive to consumers and businesses.

"Brexit means the UK needs to show it is open for business, for Government to meet this challenge it needs to create a better environment for investment based on certainty and stability."

Internet service provider hSo has unveiled its new ‘Ethernet pricing powertool' that enables channel partners to view quotes for a range of connection speeds, contract lengths and carriers, with just one request.

"Connectivity buyers are often unsure about their options and uncertain about how much bandwidth they can afford," commented Avner Peleg, hSo's Customer Development Director.

"hSo:compare MultiQuote addresses this problem by lifting the lid on Ethernet circuit availability and pricing. hSo's channel partners will now be able to see hundreds of connectivity options on one screen.

"This will make it simple for our partners to give appropriate advice and provide their customers with pricing."

When using the tool, users can click on any price to be shown details of the underlying carrier and alternative quotes based on using alternative carriers' circuits.

"Typically, channel partners just want our best price, so that's what our tool shows by default," said Peleg, "However, some partners' clients may prefer to use a different carrier, to improve network resilience or to increase the chances of meeting a challenging delivery timescale.

"Whatever the situation, hSo:compare MultiQuote gives partners the facts they need to accommodate clients' preferences and identify the most appropriate connectivity options, within seconds."

hSo:compare MultiQuote was created by hSo's in-house software development team. It builds upon an existing Ethernet pricing tool first introduced in 2009 that compares pricing from national carriers.

Sennheiser has unveiled its 'Rolls Royce' of business headsets to address knowledge workers who need peace and quiet when talking on their desk phone or mobile in open plan offices.

The business-grade MB 660 Series is designed specifically for knowledge workers in noisy open offices. The solution features adaptive ANC (active noise cancellation), UC certified communication abilities to ensure crystal clear speech during voice calls and Sennheiser's superior audio quality for music and multimedia enjoyment.

Uniquely, the MB 660 does not have a boom mic - the headset cups contain three digital microphone arrays to deliver superior voice quality - regardless of how noisy the environment is. Sennheiser says battery life is 30 hours.

"Today's open office environments have been shaped to facilitate fast, flexible collaboration. But there will always be times when we need to reclaim space for ourselves - either to fully concentrate, communicate and collaborate in mobile work environments or simply to relax while listening to music," said Andreas Bach, President at Sennheiser Communications A/S.

"With MB 660, we can now upgrade the work experience for office workers, help them take control of their environment and create a disruption-free workspace for increased productivity and well-being."

The product will roll out to the UK channel via UK distributors Corporate Telecom, Duplex, Nimans, Tech Data, Westcoast and Westcon.

Converged Communication Solutions has snapped up Aberdeen-based IT provider Century Business Systems (CBS), its first acquisition.

The deal, valued at circa £500k, strengthens Converged's in-house service operation.

CBS was established in 1999 by Brian West and Kevin Sinclair and supplies computer hardware, software and technical support to businesses across north-east Scotland.

The firm's entire team will transfer to Converged and relocate to its premises, increasing the workforce at Converged to over 25.

Neil Christie, MD at Converged, said: "This is a notable move for us. To date, we have grown and expanded naturally, so our first acquisition is a major step.

"Brian and Kevin, supported by a talented team, have built a strong business and its integration into Converged will enrich the service that we offer to clients.

"Purchasing new premises, expanding our connectivity network and increasing our skilled technical support team illustrate our commitment to the north east and ensuring that businesses have access to a range of network connections to operate efficiently in it."

Channel M&A and finance specialist Knight Corporate Finance sponsored the 'Corporate Challenge' at this year's annual English Half Marathon in Warrington and netted £800 for Comms Dealer charity Sparks.

Other industry teams participating included VoIP hardware distributor ProVu.

"It was a privilege to be involved in such an amazing event and congrats to all the industry teams that took part," said Knight CF Director Paul Billingham.

Picture shows the Knight CF runners Sam Davies, Tom Jones (in the Knight costume), Rupert Mayo and Paul Billingham.

BT's Adastral Park technology and research campus (based near Ipswich) is home to a new higher education ICT training institute named after computing pioneer Tommy Flowers (pictured).

The institute will focus on bringing ICT sector organisations together with academic researchers to solve some of the challenges facing UK businesses, exploring areas such as cyber security, Big Data, autonomics and converged networks.

Dr Tim Whitley, Head of Research for BT and MD of Adastral Park, said: "This institute will bridge the gap between industrial research and the fantastic talent that exists in the academic sector.

"It's appropriate that it is named after Tommy Flowers, a true pioneer of computing and communications technology, who brought together the best of industry and academia to create the world's first Electronic Programmable Computer."

A charity walk organised by Watford-based Telecom Resource raised over £3,000 in aid of Watford Workshop, an organisation that helps disabled and disadvantaged people to gain work experience, skills and employment.

The 5km walk featured Telecom Ted and other Telecom Resource employees who caught the attention of passers by and met with strong demand for selfies near local landmarks.

Entanet is bringing its partner and end user management portals together in its new ?synergi portal which has been re?written and re-platformed to work on desktop and mobile devices. Partners can also white­ label the management interface.

"We are always working to make improvements for customers and while the emphasis will always be on personal service, partners also value having direct access to core functions such as availability checking and ordering, and to information about connections and traffic," said Darren Farnden, Head of Marketing at Entanet.

"This is very important now, especially to resellers who are growing their customer base and their partnership with Entanet. It is also important for them to be able to have access to the full capabilities of the portal, 24/7/365 and on any kind of device."

"The new synergi gives them - and their customers - much more visibility and control. They can see exactly what is happening, which means they can work with our team in a completely open way to maximise service levels for customers."

The new synergi combines into one interface a number of tools that were previously available to partners and customers. Resellers can only see information about their own connections and general network performance. A simple permission-based system allows resellers to control who can see information about orders, accounts and connections.

The initial release of the new synergi will provide all core features, including the ability to manage portal users and permissions, create and view customer records, check single DSL and EFM availability using CLI and address matching, create and view orders, re­grade connections, log faults and complaints, view and download commission records, access detailed reports on all connections, access the Entanet knowledge base, and the ability to receive NOC, operational and commercial alerts.

Additional functionality is being released on a phased basis over the coming months. This will include the white-label capability, support for VoIP and SIP ordering, real-time agent interaction, enhanced tools for providing feedback to Entanet, and integration of ebilling and VoIP user portals. Entanet expects to make the full release available to all partners in early November.

Exponential-e has been accepted on to the G-Cloud 8 framework, approved to deliver IaaS, PaaS, SaaS and other cloud services.

"The cloud plays an integral role in enabling the public sector to achieve its vision for becoming digital by default," said explained David Lozdan, Head of Public Sector at Exponential-e.

"Yet despite total spending on the G-Cloud reaching £1.2 billion since its launch in 2012, less than half of that figure has been invested in cloud computing services.

"We want to support the public sector in transitioning towards modern, cost effective cloud architectures that provide the backbone for the digital transformation of public services.

"With public spending experiencing cuts of 8.3% since 2010, the G-Cloud framework sets out to deliver better public services for less cost and to implement technologies that increase public sector productivity.

"We want to ensure that government departments develop an effective approach to the cloud, which allows them to benefit from shorter procurement cycles and quicker deployment to achieve efficiency savings and support the rapid deployment of new online services."

The largest system produced by Panasonic has been unveiled, scaling from 50 to 2,000 users across 32 sites. The KX-NSX comes in two versions and can manage multiple devices simultaneously and route office calls to a mobile using a single number.

The system features collaborative functions between multiple devices, presence management, audio, text or video chat and synchronisation with Outlook Calendar.

"We recognise that today's workforce is increasingly mobile and fragmented," explains Carlos Osuna, Panasonic Marketing Manager for Communication Solutions.

"The KX-NSX is a flexible system that can be adapted to different situations and environments and one that's capable of meeting the demands and expectations of customers whenever and wherever they arise.

"The KX-NSX is our largest system to date and makes our communication server technology suitable for virtually any business, regardless of its size."