Comms Dealer

Excell Group's acquisition of London-based City Voice and Data and City AVS adds considerable audio and video conferencing expertise to the business and boosts revenues to over £30m.

The Group will take on both teams of field engineers and ICT consultants and a London-based service desk.

The existing senior management team will continue to run the business, led by directors Robert Boyne and Alex Smith who will report into the Excell Group board.

Darren Strowger, Chairman of Excell Group, said: "The acquisition provides a strong foundation for Excell Group in the audio visual space, and is a great strategic fit for the evolution of our business, helping drive further cross selling opportunities within our enlarged base while also providing City Voice and City AVS customers with direct access to the Group's full portfolio of products and services."

Excell Group's Finance Director Edward Pettit (who heads up the acquisition strategy) said: "We are continuing to pursue our acquisition strategy with intensity.

"The Group has strong cash reserves, meaning we are well placed to quickly capitalise on other opportunities in the near future."

Robert Boyne, co-director of both City Voice and City AVS, added: "The acquisition marks an exciting time for the teams. Excell Group will allow us to continue nurturing our expertise and resource, while also significantly growing our offering."

The acquisition follows last year's purchase of the Resource Utilities and Green Mobile customer bases.

Fidelity Energy has unveiled its new price comparison portal for ICT resellers looking to add energy services to their portfolio.

The new portal allows reseller teams to compare 14 energy suppliers instantly, add their mark-up and send directly to customers.

Rob Baldacci, Managing Director at Peterborough-based GreenCity Solutions, says the portal has already given his business an edge over the big power firms.

"Selling energy is simple and transactional and because we are dealing with existing customers we have already developed a trust relationship which puts us ahead of faceless energy brokers and companies," he said.

"Adding energy to our portfolio with Fidelity made perfect sense, we can now offer our customers a fuller range of utility services.

"We know that our customers are being poorly served by their energy providers and are not being offered the best rates, sometimes paying up to 60% above the market rate.

"Following recent acquisitions we can support our communications s solutions with a nationally based, expert team of technicians and engineers and the addition of energy to the mix means our offering is rounded and thorough."

Sean Dixon, Partner Account Manager at Fidelity Energy, ADDED: "GreenCity haS been on the energy journey since the start of the year.

"Its team has grasped Fidelity's simple energy proposition and added this to its customer offering.

"Greencity's success has been due to their longstanding customer relationships that have taken years to build and are now realising an additional revenue stream with Fidelity Energy."

Distributor ALSO Group closed the first half of 2016 with a consolidated profit of €27.8m and improved its profit by around 14% compared to last year.

Profit before tax (EBT) climbed by about 12% to €40.3m. Sales increased over the same period by almost three percent to €3.771bn.

"We were able to increase earnings and significantly outpace sales. And this despite continued high investments in our future. Both in Poland and in Benelux, we are expanding our presence. We are still expanding, "said Gustavo Möller-Hergt, CEO of ALSO Holding AG.

The Central European market segment recorded a slight declining sales of 2% to €2.304bn but with a 'significantly improved' EBT margin of 0.9%.

This is partly due to measures to stabilise earnings at ALSO Switzerland and ALSO France.

Business development in Germany was above average in the first half, it says. 

The previous year's figures for the segments have been adjusted because ALSO International B.V. and ALSO Nederland B.V. (Benelux) are new to the Northern/Eastern Europe region and no longer belong to the Central Europe segment.

In Northern/Eastern Europe, sales increased by 11% to €1.467bn, while the EBT margin declined to 0.4% from 1.2%. This is mainly due to start-up investments in Poland and Benelux.

In addition, cost-reducing investments were carried out in a warehouse in Finland.

International expansion remains a central component of the growth strategy of ALSO. In the past six months, ALSO opened up in Slovenia and Belgium.

The subsidiary ALSO Polska founded twelve months ago is also in a build-up phase while a new warehouse was opened In Pirkkala/Finland. 

The business expansion was also supported by new strategic partnerships and collaborations, it says.

Microsoft is working with ALSO on expansion of 'Workplace as a Service' while working with Logicom offers ALSO customers in southern Europe and the Middle East a cloud-based software service.

Entanet has called on Ofcom to make Openreach focus more on quality of service, believing that the regulator's plans to make Openreach a distinct company within the BT Group don't go far enough.

Neil Watson, Entanet's Head of Service, said: "Ofcom's chief executive, Sharon White, said that splitting Openreach off from BT completely - as we and many others in the industry have called for because we believe it's the only way to ensure free and fair competition - would take too long. 

"This sounds like a bit of a cop-out. It remains to be seen just how ‘independent' Openreach becomes while it is still a division within the BT Group.

"If there are improvements to responsiveness and service levels, it will be most welcome. But that's a big ‘if' in our view. We don't see how this organisational change will make Openreach perform better. It will still be part of BT, within the walls of the larger organisation.

"Until it is completely outside and independent of BT, we don't believe it can ever deliver truly fair and balanced service levels to the industry and to the UK's businesses and consumers."
 
Watson dismissed the claim that it would take too long and be too complicated to divest Openreach from BT due to land and pension arrangements as little more than excuses. "Ofcom is effectively saying that BT and Openreach can never be separated. We don't accept that. The commercial world faces challenges like this all the time. Of course it could be made to work. Where there is a will, there is a way."

Two directors of Telecoms World, Sam Diamond and Neil Barrall (pictured), have completed the Bikeathon, cycling 26 miles around London in aid of Bloodwise, a non profit organisation dedicated to Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research.

The aim was to raise £200 for the charity, but thanks to the support of Telecoms World clients and staff they raised £1,170.

Barrall, a dedicated supporter of Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research, said: "I want to say a big thank you to everyone
who kindly donated. Sam and I rode the Bikeathon in memory of my father, Anthony Barrall. It means a lot to us that we can give back to the people who are dedicating their lives to beating blood cancer."

Over 1,200 people took part in the event raising an estimated £150,000 for Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research.

ITSPA has welcomed Ofcom's proposals for an increasingly independent Openreach, but called for a greater focus on measures to ensure Openreach's performance improves to a level that the communications industry and the UK needs.
 
Eli Katz, Chair of ITSPA, stated: "Members of ITSPA are pleased that Ofcom has proposed an increasingly independent Openreach, but has avoided full structural separation of Openreach from BT.

"In ITSPA's opinion, full separation would have been unlikely to address our key concerns around performance and could have created more difficulties than it would have solved.
 
"It is now essential that Ofcom continues to work on tough performance rules for Openreach, setting out minimum requirements on fault repairs and line installation.

"We look forward to further details on performance requirements being published later this year and to improved measures for closely monitoring Openreach's performance."
 
Commenting on Ofcom's update on its other ongoing work streams, Katz added: "ITSPA has already expressed concerns on Ofcom's proposals around a scheme for automatic compensation for customers of telecoms companies, and has highlighted the need for very careful implementation of this system to ensure that the competitiveness of the UK telecoms industry, and the presence of smaller communications providers in the market, is preserved.

"Additionally, we look forward to the publication of Ofcom's proposals on landline switching and urge Ofcom to include reform of the system for fixed number porting as part of this."

Solar Communications has acquired Essex-based Response Data Communications (RDC) for an undisclosed sum.

Solar is ShoreTel's largest partner outside of North America, while RDC is a ShoreTel Circle of Excellence Gold Partner and holds the vendor's Cloud Business Excellence 2016 award.

The acquisition adds a software defined (SD)-WAN platform and partnerships with Pure Storage, Rubrik, Nimble Storage, Balabit and Palo Alto, all boosting Solar's ambition in the cloud and managed services SME market.

RDC's MD Jason Evans and the business's employees will remain with the organisation.

John Whitty, CEO of Solar Communications, said: "RDC is a capable and exciting business with a talented team.

"Itsccombination with Solar will provide added depth to the business-enhancing services provided to both sets of customers.

"Following our acquisition of Armstrong Telecommunications in 2013, Solar has established the platform, people and services for growing the business organically. 

"Over the last 12 months the business has transitioned from its place as a telephone system reseller in the UK, into a fully managed service provider being at the heart of all ICT operations for its customers.

"This transformation has been enabled by the development of our managed services portfolio coupled with the strategic acquisitions, as well as the procurement and development of new technical services and product sets."

Evans, former owner and MD of RDC, added: "The time was right to take the next step.

"The introduction of Solar's telecommunications, WAN, cloud and managed services will allow us to provide a more comprehensive offering."

Pictured l-r: Jason Evans and John Whitty 

Ofcom's ruling to give Openreach greater independence and autonomy is a 'fantastic opportunity' for new broadband solution providers to make their voices heard, according to Jaime Fink, co-founder at Mimosa.
 
He noted that despite today's ruling the infrastructure problems facing the UK market that prevent the rollout of a nationwide next-generation broadband network still remain.

"This ensures that Openreach takes its strategies in new bold directions for the benefit of the UK marketplace," he said.

"Openreach must look at new technologies that can enable it to profitably deliver a sustainable broadband network.

"The company will have its eyes on the US where new market challengers, such as Google and Facebook, are selecting alternative broadband solutions like fixed wireless, to better connect their customers.

"The technology can deliver fibre-like broadband connectivity in any environment without the cost or disruption of its cabled alternatives."

Following Ofcom's proposals to make Openreach a distinct company within the BT Group Adept Telecom CEO Ian Fishwick said full separation was never an option given the complications of pension fund obligations.

"There are probably more ex-employees than employees and most worked before Openreach even existed," he said.

"So if you break off Openreach how do you decide what portion of the pension issue it takes with it?

"Many have been under the false impression that Openreach was a separate company with its own financial accounts. It never has been and it is amazing Ofcom has allowed this for so long.

"Perhaps the biggest issue is how the cash generated from Openreach's profits is used. Should BT be allowed to treat it as Group cash and fund areas like football TV rights, or should Openreach be forced to only spend its own cash on improving the UK's infrastructure? I sit firmly in the latter camp.

"Whether anything changes depends entirely on how this will be enforced. The devil is in the detail."

Ofcom's proposals to make Openreach a distinct company within the BT Group do not address the regulator's objective to reduce the country's dependence on Openreach and encourage essential investment in fibre, according to Mark Collins, Director Strategy & Policy at CityFibre.

"While correctly identifying Openreach as the principal source of the industry's dysfunction, it is hypocritical of Ofcom to focus on a restructured Openreach as a panacea," he said.

"Further debate and navel-gazing as to the appropriate structure of BT will continue to create a period of uncertainty at a time when the industry needs clarity, direction and competitive investment.

"Openreach has a critical role to play, but it is not prudent to entrust them with sole responsibility for our digital future."