Comms Dealer

Software industry veteran and bestselling author Hans Peter Bech is to deliver a keynote on 'How to build a successful software business' at this year's Comms Vision Convention.

Consumption of tele and data communication has exploded across all industries and the prices for basic services continue to decline," he said. "Meanwhile, pure play software innovators are offering OTT (over-the-top) value added services. So how do the telco vendors and their channel partners get a share of a market that grows in value rather than be shackled by obsolescence, commoditisation and price competition?"

While the volume of tele and data communication is increasing rapidly the market doesn't want to deal with the basic details, according to Comms Vision Content Director Paul Cunningham. "That means that ICT channel partners must become software and service focused companies that add substantial more value than just marking up the vendors' offerings," he added. "They must develop new value propositions and learn to master new business models.

"Hans has been active as a business developer in the ICT industry for more than 35 years and has been successfully involved with the shift from hardware to software to services. He will give his insight on what it takes to make this transition and land securely on both feet."

Bech will also be on the panel discussing the transformation from a 'mark-up' to a 'software and value-add' business and the conference attendees will receive a copy of his recent bestseller 'Building Successful Partner Channels: in the software industry'.

Nimans teamed-up with router manufacturer DrayTek to jointly stage a pizza-filled fun day that also underscored the importance of business continuity amid instances of network outages most commonly caused by ISP issues, line failures such as a power cut, hardware failure and network congestion.

"Business continuity is essential in today's modern world with ever greater reliance on the cloud, VoIP, remote working, point of sale transactions and general communication," stated Julian Hubble, DrayTek's Sales and Marketing Manager.

"Business continuity is an area all resellers should be embracing to reassure their customers and drive their own revenues."

Hubble highlighted the Vigor 2860 multi WAN, the firm's most popular wireless router, which attaches to all types of broadband such as DSL and VDSL. One version of the router accepts a SIM card or connects directly to a mobile phone to create a hot spot.

Judith Addison, Nimans' Solutions Business Manager (Networking), added: "The staff fun day was a great way of raising awareness and reinforcing key messages."

Chess's annual festival (Chesstival) raised over £2,500 for charity and welcomed for the first time Scotland-based staff and their family members.

Attendees of the Scottish Chesstival, held at Paisley Rugby Club and coloured up by a Hawaiian theme, raised over £250 for the Red Cross. Chess Digital MD Alan Cassidy said: "Much work went into making this happen for our people. We have such a great mentality within the team."

South of the border staff converged on the telco's Alderley Edge HQ along with employees from the Burnley office, jointly raising £2,314 in aid of the East Cheshire Hospice.

Chief Executive David Pollock said: "It's in our culture to play our part in the wider community, and the East Cheshire Hospice is close to many peoples' hearts at Chess. Our former Operations Director Julie Wright spent her final days in their care and we will always support the excellent work they do at the Hospice."

Venus Business Communications has launched a new reseller incentive scheme open to all active and new resellers in its partner programme. The winner will get on track behind the wheel of a supercar of their choice.

"Our incentive rewards scheme is an attractive part of our partner programme for resellers that brings friendly competition across the network and celebrates success," said Brian Iddon, Venus Business Communications' Director.

"Since introducing the scheme we have seen a 55% increase in turnover through the channel.

"Our latest incentive is designed to step sales of 10GB circuits up a gear. There is plenty of opportunities in the market and the scheme is weighted so resellers can get themselves into pole position faster by selling this type of circuit in preference to others."

Konftel has launched a free mobile-based app for one touch 'on-the-go' conference calls.

Konftel Unite enables users to join conference calls and online meetings quickly and is targeted at road warriors and remote workers.

Users can dial into conference calls with one click, join sessions in WebEx, Hangout, Scopia and other web meeting applications and also gain a complete overview of their day's events and meetings from multiple calendars simultaneously.

Users can also receive notifications and call alerts, take text and voice notes and share them with others - as well as see who has been invited to a meeting.

The app works seamlessly with traditional Konftel devices.

Konftel's UK Sales Director, Jeff May, said: "With the Konftel Unite app, users are just a click away from joining a conference call.

"A typical day for many of us includes back-to-back calls and meetings, and it doesn't matter where you are, you're expected to join and be on time. Dialing into conference calls, fumbling between the calendar and dial pad, trying to remember phone numbers and long pass codes is a hassle especially for road warriors and remote workers. That's why we created this free and really convenient mobile app."

Comms Supply has launched a new monitoring solution available via all mobile platforms enabling the company's partners to monitor their Comms Supply Internet connections in real-time, including checking uptime and throughput.
 
Karl Alderton, founder and MD of Comms Supply, said "By using this solution we believe our partners will be able to offer more efficient first line support.

"As long as they have a Wi-Fi or 4G connection engineers can instantly check for any connectivity issues, from latency to high-utilisation causing slowness for the end customer."
 
Comms Supply partners will also be able to use the software to prepare reports that can be presented in customer service reviews.  
 
The new software is available on web, android and IOS. 
 
"Most engineers spend a large part of their working week out on the road so it was vital that our solution was available on mobile devices as well as being clear and simple to use," added Alderton.

Pace Telecom has selected the ISTRA cloud UC platform developed by Centile Telecom Applications.

ISTRA delivers a portfolio of UC and FMC services and supports a range of certified SIP terminals.

Jamie Hughes, CEO at Pace Telecom continues: "Our pre-existing platform was giving us issues with scalability and reliability. The Centile ISTRA platform offers us not only the means to deliver the quality of service our customers were expecting, but also a clear road map allowing us to respond to changing customer requirements with new services."

TeleWare has routed, recorded and analysed a call in real-time through Microsoft's Azure cloud computing platform in a fully encrypted compliant environment in what Microsoft has confirmed is a world first.

TeleWare enhanced its solutions to achieve a seamless call of the same quality as one using physical equipment, overcoming the issue of data packet loss and latency previously associated with using a pure cloud-based system.

This call was carried out with a TeleWare customer rather than a test environment.

TeleWare CTO Rob Corrigil said: "Many had advised that this wasn't possible. We've had to overcome some technical hurdles, but our technology teams have all pulled together with one common goal and achieved the 'impossible'. This is significant as it demonstrates that our overall goal of going 100% cloud is possible."

Steve Haworth, CEO, added: "This milestone has wide reaching implications, not just for us, but for the wider Azure and cloud community. This is a huge accomplishment."

TeleWare's fixed line recording product will be fully migrating onto the cloud with its MVNO product also planned to migrate in the coming quarters.

Managed services provider Claranet has achieved AWS Premier Consulting Partner status, one of only ten services providers in Europe to have gained the distinction.

The AWS Partner Network (APN) is a tiered programme designed to help partners build a successful AWS stream for their business.

Olivier Beaudet, CMO of Claranet, said: "We see AWS as a true enabler of business agility and it forms a critical part of our product roadmap and corporate strategy.

"Being a Premier Partner means that we will be able to work much more closely with AWS to help our customers take advantage of the platform and transform their businesses.

"There is a huge appetite for AWS in the market, but many businesses - particularly those in the mid-market - have historically been locked out because they lack the necessary skills. Partner programmes enable organisations to take advantage of the infrastructure offered by AWS, but with additional services and support."

Sky has entered the business comms market for the first time via launch partner Fluidata to offer a high capacity Ethernet solution.

Sky has formed a SNS Wholesale division that will leverage Fluidata's comms market experience and address up to 95% of businesses in the UK. The ISP will also provide a dedicated support team.

Fluidata MD Piers Daniell said: "Customers choosing to commit to long-term high capacity connections strengthen the growth potential in their businesses.

"Sky's investment in the consumer market means we can push 1Gbs connections as standard and ensure customer connectivity is future-proof."

Graham Sargood, Sky's Director of Telecoms Wholesale, added: "Our investment in a telecoms infrastructure to deliver voice, video and data services to our residential customer base also enables us to serve the business marketplace."

All services will be available with SLA+, Fluidata's standard guarantee of service up-time.