Comms Dealer

Fibre infrastructure provider CityFibre says it is on track to complete the installation of Edinburgh’s new 150km ultra-fast network by the end of September this year, transforming the Scottish capital into the UK’s largest Gigabit City.

Construction has been delivered at spectacular speed, with CityFibre employing over 150 engineers and workers at the project’s peak. It has taken just 12 months to install over 100km (62 miles) of pure fibre infrastructure throughout the Scottish capital, taking the current total to 126km since launch.

Upon completion, the 150km network will provide a future-proof alternative to the city’s capacity-constrained copper network, whilst offering connectivity at gigabit speeds (50-100 times faster than the UK average) to around 7000 businesses. It will also reach over 300 public sector sites including schools, libraries and office buildings.

James McClafferty, CityFibre’s Head of Regional Development in Scotland, said: "Reaching 100km is a significant milestone for the project, which has been a truly collaborative process, working with our partners, Commsworld.\"

CEO of Commsworld, Ricky Nicol, said: "Edinburgh is asserting itself as a leading digital city on a global scale - and to be a part of that is particularly exciting. CityFibre has delivered on its promises – and has given Edinburgh a highly enviable cutting edge network infrastructure, far exceeding the capabilities available prior to its work.  

"It has to be said, the response from a broad spectrum of the business community has been incredible – they have embraced the project and understood its transformational potential right from the start.\"

Amongst the most recent businesses to be connected to Edinburgh’s Gigabit City network is Edinburgh’s Festival Theatre. As a result, it is now able to offer ultrafast WiFi to guests and conference attendees.

Iain Ross, Director of Finance and HR at The Festival and King’s Theatres, said: "When faced with the failure of our original supplier to provide a dedicated fibre network to allow us to host a major conference at the Festival Theatre, we turned to CityFibre and Commsworld who have delivered impeccably across all areas.\"

Picture shows (left to right): Iain Ross (Festival Theatre), James McClafferty (City Fibre) and Ricky Nicol (Commsworld).

Leeds-based business Diva Telecom is celebrating 10 years in business with a promise to deliver a world-class portfolio of products designed to help organisations from start-ups to major enterprises raise their game and compete in the global marketplace in the wake of Brexit.

Managing director Erica Lewis set up the business in July 2006, the same year that BT opened up its exchanges to rivals to give the UK a more competitive broadband market. Infrastructure provider CityFibre chose Diva as one of its launch partners for services running on its pure fibre network, which will transform Leeds into one of the UK’s first Gigabit Cities and deliver even more resilient and ultrafast connection speeds.

"I’ve been in the telecoms industry for 30 years and witnessed many major changes over the years from the demise of Telex, the rise and fall of fax machines, and the rise and rise of mobile communications,\" said Erica, who now heads a team of 11 managing clients ranging from Coca-Cola, Maersk, Toshiba, and Panasonic to small businesses and primary schools across the city region.

"CityFibre’s selection of Diva as a launch partner demonstrates their confidence in our ability to deliver for the city’s businesses and we’re tremendously proud to be working with them.\"

Diva Telecom handles more than 12 million calls monthly for its clients, with inbound international numbers its biggest selling service; demonstrating the region’s appetite for global trade.

"We are seeing increased demand now from organisations of all sizes and across all industry sectors for digital services that offer better scalability, resilience and most importantly, better cost efficiencies.

"Much of our success and growth has been down to our boutique portfolio of products including our in-house designed SMS and audio conferencing services. Customer service, our knowledgeable team, a consultative approach and competitive pricing have all played a part in helping the business achieve year on year growth of 20-25 per cent,\" added Lewis.

Metronet (UK) has launched a wholesale wireless platform aiming to give channel partners a real alternative to traditional ground based fibre connectivity.

Metronet is promising reduced lead times, quicker revenue and no excess install charges. The company hopes the platform will reseller customers access to wireless connectivity in half the time than traditional fibre connectivity.

Tony Hughes, Metronet (UK)’s Sales Director said: "This is a great time of growth for Metronet (UK), having seen 33% revenue growth in the past 12 months we know we are on the right path. Our channel offering is a big part of our business and we now see over 60% of new business come through our channel partners. Our wholesale platform will push this even further, we are currently in the process of on-boarding partners to the platform and look forward to welcoming many more.\"  

Metronet (UK) has a strong background of working with channel partners and has established a solid referral and reseller platform working with over 220 partners across the UK. The wholesale platform will open up for these partners and will welcome new partnerships across the UK.

RingCentral UK has announced the availability of enterprise-grade room video conferencing with the introduction of RingCentral Rooms.
The cloud technology specialist says its key objective is to help organisations overcome the pain points of complex, difficult to use, and costly, fixed infrastructure systems associated with traditional telepresence-type set-ups.

RingCentral Rooms uses a web conferencing platform to connect meeting room hardware, such as screens, cameras and speakers, with external and internal users, as well as with other rooms. This is said to enable seamless participation with other RingCentral Meetings with people joining from mobile, tablets, desktops, or IP desk phones.
 
Sahil Rekhi, Managing Director, EMEA at RingCentral, says: "Currently, there simply isn’t a reliable and cost-effective way for companies to deliver a professional room conferencing environment. We’ve launched RingCentral Rooms to fill this gap in the UK market, giving our RingCentral Office® customers the smoothest solution available.\"

Registrations are flooding in for The Managed Services and Hosting Summit, which will take place at 155 Bishopsgate, London, on 21 September 2016.

The growth in the sector means new opportunities for existing MSPs and new entrants, and the high proportion of CEOs attending (70%) is not unexpected, say organisers IT Europa and Angel Business Communications.

The event has also already attracted a very strong line-up of more than 20 sponsors including many of the industry’s most innovative vendors and service providers. FalconStor, LOGICnow (now part of SolarWinds MSP), Schneider Electric and Sinefa have been confirmed as Platinum-level sponsors; Autotask, ESET, Ingram Micro and Kaseya as Gold; and ConnectWise, Digital Realty, Exponential-E, Infrascale, Intronis/Barracuda, LogicMonitor, Mimecast, RingCentral, StorageCraft, Volta, Webroot and WellData as Silver.

Now in its sixth year, the Managed Services and Hosting Summit 2016 will focus on how the market is changing and what it will take for MSPs to succeed in this brave new digital world. Under the theme of 'The Digital Dividend – The Role of Managed Services in a Digital World’, this year’s event will examine the rapid changes taking place currently in the industry and among IT customers. The way companies are buying IT is changing, creating threats and opportunities for existing MSPs and new market entrants alike, just as IT models themselves are undergoing fundamental change.

The strong speaker line-up will feature Mark Paine of Gartner addressing the question 'Where Next for MSPs?’.

"Value Added Resellers and other suppliers who have transitioned their business to Managed Service Provision are only at the start of their journey,\" he said.

"Customers will lead them in to the world of enterprise cloud applications, integration and software development as they become participants in the digital business ecosystem. This session will explore the reasons why customers will demand more from MSPs and give advice on how to transform to the new world.\"

In another keynote, 'The Age of the Customer’, Tiffani Bova, Salesforce's Global Customer Growth and Innovation Evangelist (and former Gartner VP, Distinguished Analyst and Research Fellow) will address how companies of all sizes can create new business practices that leverage technology to strengthen customer relationships and accelerate sales and growth. Attendees will hear actionable takeaways on how to create a customer-centric business and long-lasting brand loyalty.

The UK Managed Services & Hosting Summit 2016 is a management-level event designed to help channel organisations identify opportunities arising from the increasing demand for managed and hosted services and to develop and strengthen partnerships aimed at supporting sales. The event is jointly staged by IT Europa and Angel Business Communications. MSPs, resellers and integrators wishing to attend the convention and vendors, distributors or service providers interested in sponsorship opportunities can find further information at: www.mshsummit.com

Guest Wi-Fi specialist Cloud4Wi has announced the Volare Partner Programme, which claims to help solution providers, service providers, and system integrators seize the enormous business opportunity for personalised customer engagement using guest Wi-Fi networks.

The Volare platform uses an over-the-top (OTT) architecture to enable partners to secure high value targets like retail brands, restaurant chains, and shopping malls by leveraging existing Wi-Fi networks. According to Cloud4Wi, the solution will enable businesses to provide superior on-site mobile experiences, while gaining valuable insights into who customers are and how they behave.

"Partners are at the core of our business,\" said Andrea Calcagno, Cloud4Wi CEO and co-founder. "We’ve introduced this new partner programme to make sure our partners are set up for success, enabling them with a new profit opportunity on top of their Wi-Fi services.\"

According to Maravedis Research, it’s forecasted that 100M access points will offer guest Wi-Fi services by 2020, producing more than $25B in annual software licensing revenue. This represents a huge opportunity for partners already selling Wi-Fi as part of their portfolio.

"We’re delighted to participate in the revamped Volare Partner Program,\" said Scott Pedersen, VP, Network Architecture, Pomeroy. "OTT guest Wi-Fi services are a rapidly growing market that addresses both existing and new Wi-Fi customers. The Volare Partner Program includes all the tools we need to take advantage of this burgeoning market opportunity.\"

Technology dealmaker GP Bullhound, which provides independent strategic advice to the UK’s top  technology entrepreneurs, companies and investors, has named Metronet (UKas one of the top 10 telecoms companies within the tech ecosystem in the North of England.

The report has been put together to showcase the region’s most valuable businesses, the growing companies and the exciting, upcoming start-ups. The research follows on from GP Bullhound’s Northern Tech Tour, held in collaboration with Bloomberg, which brought a selection of leading tech investors from across Europe to Leeds and Manchester for two days of presentations from 23 local technology companies.

According to the report, the North boasts eight businesses that have joined the elite $1bn valuation club and is supported by a very strong and tight knit start up community. With these foundations and the presence of globally leading businesses such as Sage and Skyscanner, the Northern tech ecosystem has the potential to be recognised as a Top 5 worldwide technology cluster.

Metronet (UK) is one of GP Bullhound’s top picks within the telecoms services sector along with Ask4, Daisy and Onyx Group, having already been listed in the Top 50 tech companies in the North at the Northern Tech Awards earlier this year.

Hugh Campbell, Managing Partner at GP Bullhound, commented, "The message to tech investors in Europe and the US is clear – world leading tech companies don’t just exist in London. The tech ecosystem that has been established in the region has a proven track record of fast-growth tech success stories and the depth of talent, ideas and funding available is creating real momentum.\"

Lee Perkins, CEO of Metronet (UK) said, "It is great to be highlighted within GP Bullhound’s report.. There is still a lot more success to come for Metronet (UK) and for the North of England and we look forward to being a part of it.\"

Bob Dunnett’s NG Bailey IT Services Division has secured a five-year, £50m+ contract with Fujitsu to support its work to transform the delivery of information and communication technology across the Ministry of Defence (MoD).  

It is hoped the contract will enable greater agility and mobility to service personnel, deliver significant financial savings over the next 10 years and help keep Britain safe.  

NG Bailey will work with Fujitsu to provide core global connectivity services for the next five-years. The new network will underpin the delivery of current and emerging MoD services both in the UK and overseas.

"This is a significant win for NG Bailey,\" said Bob Dunnett, Managing Director of NG Bailey’s IT Services Division. "It is a privilege to work alongside Fujitsu to develop and improve the MoD’s IT infrastructure. The vital role that our partnership will play puts us at the heart of the future UK defence strategy and will ultimately help the MoD defend the UK’s national interests.\"

David Hurcomb, NG Bailey’s CEO, added: "Working hand-in-glove with Fujitsu has already been a pleasure and we are very proud to be applying our expertise to such an important initiative.

"By enhancing the MoD’s communications infrastructure our work will not only realise tremendous cost savings which will be reinvested into defence, it will also make the Ministry more efficient and more effective in its mission to keep Britain safe.\"

News of the deal follows a 7% hike in sales for NG Bailey’s IT Services division. In the last year sales have risen to almost £60m.

"We have been successful in the past couple of years because we have focused on the customer first and the technical solutions second,\" said Dunnett.

"The IT services marketplace has become increasingly complex and it’s easy to get carried away with emerging technologies. Our priority is always to understand what the customer is looking to achieve, and then build innovative and cost-effective solutions that meet those objectives, rather than trying to shoe-horn technology into a solution that doesn’t fit the customer’s needs.\"

Network provider Metronet (UK) has secured a £1million deal with North West based specialist furniture retailer Sofology to connect the retailer’s sites across the UK.  

The 33 multi-site MPLS solution includes both wireless and fibre connectivity, including backup connections at each site. The solution enables Sofology to roll out a revolutionary customer experience at each of their stores.

Metronet (UK) underwent a formal tender process, which included several of the legacy ISPs, and were primarily selected due to ability to deliver the best connectivity solution much faster.

Gavin Nickerson, IT Operations Manager at Sofology said: "We really want to revolutionise the way our customers shop in store and in order to do this we need a robust and reliable internet connection across our stores and HQ. Metronet (UK) are able to deliver exactly what we need, in the time frame we require and with excellent support to back it up.\"

Tony Hughes, Sales Director at Metronet (UK) said: "Sofology is a landmark win for all parties. It truly demonstrates our commitment to both customers and the marketplace. Our technology solutions are simply far faster to install with exceptional resilience, robustness and flexible capacity. We look forward to working with Sofology and seeing how this solution transforms their customer experience and business operations.\"

Mobile solutions specialist CWSI, has signed a strategic alliance with Apple Authorised and Premium Reseller Compu b, to deliver Apple devices and Device Enrolment Programmes to large and medium scale enterprises in the UK.

"With more enterprise customers migrating to Apple technology as their mobile platform, CWSI and Compu b are ideally placed to offer complete solutions combining our hardware, support and training with CWSI’s industry leading mobile device management expertise and systems,\" said Ciaran McCormack, CEO at Compu b.

Ronan Murphy, CEO at CWSI added: "We have been working with Compu b in Ireland and are delighted to be able to deliver the same hardware, software and services solutions to the UK market.

"The partnership will appeal to existing as well as potential Compu b and CWSI customers seeking to build their mobile enterprise on Apple technology. Many companies struggle with DEP (Device Enrolment Programmes) and don’t understand Mobile Device Management (MDM). Together we can provide competitive solutions along with ongoing support to ensure the seamless integration of mobile workers within client businesses to improve efficiency, increase productivity, mitigate risk and add value."