Comms Dealer

Lanarkshire-based Provista UK is to deploy and manage a Cisco collaboration solution
at the Glasgow Science Centre helping to improve the prospects of students developing their STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) skills.

The collaboration technology will allow students and teachers to seamlessly connect, communicate and network with scientists from around the world through voice and video.

It will also allow visitors to the Glasgow Science Centre to join seminars as well as share experience and knowledge with experts around the globe.

Provista UK Director Stuart Little said: "There can be no better venue in Glasgow to champion science and STEM learning so are delighted to support GSC in partnership with Cisco.

"As a young but growing Scottish company we know the benefits of having a highly skilled and locally sourced workforce who are at the cutting-edge of STEM knowledge.

"We look forward to working with GSC in the future and enabling the best possible learning environment for the benefit of all who will visit and use the new facilities."

Dr Stephen Breslin, Chief Executive at Glasgow Science Centre, said: "The equipment and technology will allow pupils at the Science Centre to meet and engage with experts working in the STEM industry from anywhere in the world using the telepresence technology.

"It could be an engineer working on an oil rig in the North Sea, a physicist at CERN, a scientist at NASA or a researcher from a university. The possibilities are endless.

"We want to inspire young people to develop an interest in STEM subjects and enable them to pursue rewarding and exciting careers within the industry. This new programme element will help us bring these jobs to life in real time and demonstrate the many varied careers that are available to our young people."

Plantronics has agreed an out of court settlement with Corporate Direct (Europe), trading as Corptel based in Manchester, in connection with claims relating to the sale of non-EU Plantronics products that infringed EU trademark laws.

Details of the settlement remain confidential but the headset maker confirmed that Corptel had cooperated in addressing the claims and affirmed that it bought the goods in the UK believing them to be genuine.

Gigaclear aims to quadruple its customer base using the cloud-based ContactWorld for Service solution from NewVoiceMedia

Gigaclear provides ultra-fast fibre broadband - up to 1,000 Mbps - to rural properties, and has seen a big increase in business over the last year.

NewVoiceMedia offered Gigaclear a solution to help the company cope with its projected rise in call volumes.

NewVoiceMedia's ContactWorld for Service solution with Salesforce integration intelligently routes incoming calls based on Salesforce data, meaning they can be handled by the most appropriate advisor, improving handling time and customer satisfaction.

Real-time reporting, analytics and call recording functionality offer visibility of contact volumes, advisor performance and customer experience.

Keith Floodgate, Head of Customer Care at Gigaclear, stated: "People don't want to wait in queues. We track abandoned calls and the percentage of calls answered and have stringent targets which we now routinely meet.

"With call reporting we can also ensure we always have agents available at peak times, and agents are happier because ContactWorld is delivering calls in a structured, measured way."

  The Chess annual Summer Conference, staged at Manchester's Comedy Store, welcomed 550 people including those from its latest acquisitions Lanway and Pinnacle.

Speakers at the event included Chess founder and CEO David Pollock who spoke about the company's passion for technology, and Jodie Benson from the Princes Trust (one of Chess's chosen charities) who talked about how Chess's passion for fundraising has supported the Trust and what that's meant to her.

The overarching message delivered was for Chess People to reflect on how their Passion and energy can have a positive effect on others.

Pollock commented: "2016 has been an outstanding year for us so far. We've been re-listed as a Sunday Times Best Company to work for and this year were placed 2nd in the whole of the UK, an achievement I class as my proudest to date.

"The success we've achieved over the last few years has been down to our people and their commitment to our business, tirelessly going above and beyond for our customers. I strongly believe that if our people aren't growing we aren't growing.

We're an ambitious organisation with a desire to grow and we challenge ourselves every day to be the best of the best.

"Our conference outlined our ambitions for the rest of the year and how we want to continue to make Chess a great place to be a customer."

Chess also gave away three holidays as part of its ‘Gimme 5' recognition scheme under which employees are awarded a token for good deeds in customer service.

Picking up the prizes were Mel Hoy, Colin Dutton and Dan Savill (pictured with Pollock) who chose to witness the Northern Lights this year as their reward.

Nimans' in-house leasing division has reported a rise in demand for operational leases especially in the education sector.

Nimans is now authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and resellers working in the education sector are taking advantage of the company's capabilities and broad reach of services, according to Tom Maxwell, Head of Dealer Sales.

"Funding for local authority schools has changed following instructions from the Department For Education where they must now include an operating lease," he stated.

"This is where the end user only pays back 90% of the value of the lease in their rentals, so someone has to take a residual value risk, which makes the lease cheaper."

He also noted Nimans can lease on software-based technologies as well as hardware, and on big and small items including headsets and mobile phones.

"Sales aid leasing is fast becoming a major factor in any successful sales strategy," stated Maxwell.

"Adding a lease option with a reputable finance partner to a product can significantly enhance sales and overcome customer's budget restrictions. It's not about selling finance it's a way to win more business."

Ingram Micro has seen an unexpected shift to cloud, says its northern European Cloud Director Apay Obang-Oyway, indicating that as a percentage of partner's business it is hitting 30-40% (up from around 13% at the end of last year), and the distributor is adding new types of partner driven by cloud.

It comes as the distribution giant is upping its game in the cloud market, this week adding Dropbox Business in the UK, with other parts of Europe to follow in the next quarter.

Through the Ingram Micro Cloud Marketplace, channel partners can purchase, configure, and manage Dropbox Business for file sharing and collaboration services, via a single automated platform.

Dropbox itself is probably well known to channels, he agrees, and this global agreement with Ingram Micro is not seen as disruptive, but the way firms can now collaborate securely makes it a logical step from the use of Office365, especially when looking at organisation working over multiple devices.

"Fast-growing cloud resellers are not our traditional type of partner," said Obang-Oyway.

"Looking at our top ten partners, there are some new faces. Looking back 3-5 years, we hardly knew them."

The cloud ecosystem which he is building will sell the wider portfolio of products, and will support the regulatory environment and services but it is also asking for help.

"It's a different conversation we have with their leaders, however," added Obang-Oyway. "The partners want to know a lot more on transforming their own businesses. We're having discussions on strategy, and they want to be more competitive in marketing and using social media."

Arrow has expanded its deal with CTERA Networks in Germany, France and Benelux to include the UK.

This expanded agreement provides cloud-based solutions to UK solution providers who are seeking solutions for file storage, collaboration and data protection.

The CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform is a private cloud IT-as-a-Service platform for storing, syncing, sharing, protecting and governing data across endpoints, remote offices and servers.

This private approach to enterprise file management and data protection is especially important in the the UK market as data privacy and security are paramount, it says.

"Data privacy and security have never been more important to European enterprises as they are challenged to deliver new, modern solutions to store, share and protect files," said David Darmon, VP of sales, Europe for CTERA.

"Arrow and its channel are now poised to take advantage of the excellent revenue potential of the cloud by providing a single platform that enables enterprises to address storage, collaboration and data protection use cases entirely on their terms."

Symantec is set to buy Blue Coat, which had itself planned an IPO, for $4.65bn in cash.

With Blue Coat having posted revenue of $755m in the 12 months ending April, Symantec is paying 6.2x trailing sales.

Blue Coat CEO Greg Clark will become Symantec's CEO once the deal closes.

Symantec announced in April Michael Brown will be stepping down as CEO once a successor is found.

As part of the deal, PE firm Silver Lake is doubling its Symantec investment to $1bn via 2% convertible notes due 2021, and Blue Coat majority owner Bain is reinvesting $750m in the post-merger company via convertible notes on the same terms. Bain MD David Humphrey will join Symantec's board.

The deal is expected to close in Q3 and be financed via cash on hand and $2.8bn in debt.

With Bain having acquired Blue Coat for $2.4bn last year, the firm appears to be reaping a 90%+ return.

Thanks partly to $150m/year in expected cost synergies, Symantec now expects FY18 (ends March '18) EPS of $1.70-$1.80 (compares with a current FY18 EPS consensus of $1.39).

The company still plans to return the $1.3bn left to be spent on its $5.5bn capital return program by the end of FY17.

Struggling cloud provider Outsourcery has requested a temporary suspension of trading on AIM stating it is no longer able to present its results for 2015 by the deadline of the end of June. In a statement the company confirmed that it is in talks with third parties for the sale of assets, but the potential proceeds from these current proposals will potentially leave no or limited value for shareholders.

In April the company warned it needed short-term working capital, and it was investigating alternatives to raise money, including a fundraising, restructuring and the sale of non-core assets.

Later that month, Outsourcery reached an agreement with its principal secured lender, mobile giant Vodafone Group, for the terms of a new conditional drawdown working capital facility to provide it with funding while it realised its assets.

Outsourcery said Friday it has progressed with restructuring, including talks with third parties about the sale of business assets. It said it continues to carefully evaluate the approaches for the assets, as well as other options to strengthen its immediate and long-term financial position.

It said that the talks have had 'no material adverse impact' on its current business activity, as it has secured new contracts and continued with further project development.

Additionally, Outsourcery said it has opted to change its year end date to March 31st and extend its latest accounting period to the 15 months to end-March.

In May 2013 Outsourcery's co-CEO Piers Linney of Dragons' Den fame floated his tech firm on AIM with a market capitalisation of £34.6m, but the company's market value has since slumped.

At the time Linney said: "We have invested in and developed an enterprise-grade platform for growth.

"We aim to exploit the opportunities we are seeing at this exciting time in our development and see this fundraising as a great endorsement of our business model, technology platform and growth prospects."

The increasing popularity of managed service delivery models is fuelling European communications reseller sales of data and communications networks and everything from security to mobility and video conferencing solutions with 67.5% of resellers now offering managed service solutions.

Yet the market remains highly regionalised and fragmented with 95.2% of communication resellers providing solutions only within their own or neighbouring countries.

These are among the trends emerging from European Communication Resellers - the Top 750, a new database report from IT Europa.

The European Communication Resellers - the Top 750 report provides detailed profiles of the leading 750 European Communication Resellers across 36 countries.

Between them the companies post sales of €25.39 billion ($26.88 billion) and employ 122,742. In terms of activities, 88% of companies are providing Data Communications/Networks solutions; 84% are providing Telephony/VoIP; 66% providing Security solutions; 61% are offering Mobility; and 57% are providing Video Communications/ Videoconferencing.

Sales operations span a number of vertical market sectors the most common being the Public Sector (44.7%), Bank/Finance/Insurance (37.5%) and Manufacturing/Industry Vertical Market (33.3%).

The largest geographic markets covered in terms of companies profiled within the report are: UK (251 companies), Germany (51), Netherlands (51), Russian Federation (41), France (38), Spain (37), Italy (31), Switzerland (28), Turkey (24), Poland (23) and Sweden (23).

"It is good to see the European communication reseller community grasping the managed services opportunity, but there are several other challenges that will need to be addressed for the sector to achieve its full potential," said Alan Norman, Managing Director of IT Europa.

"A lack of standards in such growth areas as IoT and national differences in terms of regulations will limit the potential for pan European growth. While recent agreements in areas such as roaming charges should help, these gains could be very swiftly undermined by potential political/economic events - for example Brexit."