Comms Dealer

Worcestershire-based telecommunications firm Armstrong Bell has provided a new telephone system to South Bromsgrove School, improving connectivity across the school and enabling it to exploit new technologies.

Replacing a costly and inflexible ISDN system, Armstrong Bell supplied and installed a hosted VoIP solution complete with a package of features and benefits to support the school's internal and external communications.

With 150 staff and 1,300 students, the school required a local supplier that could provide a system that was easily adaptable, would provide advanced call handling features and one that would exploit the school's existing high-speed broadband connection.

Janet Lines, facilities manager at South Bromsgrove School, said: "Phones are an important service that we have to have, and our old ISDN system was archaic. Every time we wanted to make a change, such as someone's name on the system, we had to have people come in to do it, making maintenance of the system slow and expensive. We needed something that would allow us to make use of our high-speed internet connection, introduce voicemail for all staff and allow us to use headsets - something our previous system didn't support."

The system has put control of the phones back in the school's hands through an online portal. The addition of an auto attendant allows messages to be put onto an automated system, passing information to pupils and parents when they call. Phones can also be moved across the site, allowing for a phone to be set up wherever there is access to a data point. Integration with Microsoft Outlook allows for users to make calls directly from their computers.

William Copley, MD at Armstrong Bell, said: "Being local to the school really gave us an edge. We were able to visit the school, provide training and support, and demonstrate the system to them before they committed.

"Our team worked closely with the school's facilities and network managers to provide a smooth transition to the new system, keeping downtime to a minimum. A team of three Armstrong Bell engineers installed the system out of school time and we provided a full day of training for staff on the first day back."

After claiming a successful initial launch of the MatrixCube in Belgium this past year, Minkels is extending it to the Netherlands.

The Dutch market launch will then be followed by other countries including Switzerland, France, the United Kingdom and global export regions.

The Minkels MatrixCube is an modular data centre solution with racks, cooling, Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS), Power Distribution Units (PDUs), cable management and monitoring systems.

Minkels' customer research showed that not all companies are ready for outsourcing their IT infrastructure. Many of them prefer to keep their IT infrastructure, in whole or in part, within their own organisation.

This is the reason that Minkels and its parent company Legrand have developed the MatrixCube - aimed to be a turnkey and reliable mini data centre that is easy to set up. This mini data centre solution is now available in Belgium and the Netherlands, with other countries to follow in Europe and beyond.

"The new fully integrated solution meets the needs of small and medium sized companies that want to keep their IT infrastructure within the four walls of their organisation," says Vincent Liebe, Marketing Manager at Minkels.

"The MatrixCube is also well-suited for companies that want to keep parts of their hybrid IT infrastructure in-house, or some of it in the cloud.

"We will first introduce the MatrixCube to the Dutch market, followed by other countries where Minkels is active, including Switzerland and the United Kingdom. After that, we will introduce the MatrixCube globally depending on customer demand."

Distributor Avnet has signed an exclusive distribution agreement with Broadcom to cover EMEA.

Under the new agreement, Avnet will serve as the exclusive broadline distributor for Broadcom in the Americas and EMEA regions and will also continue its franchise in Asia.

It gives Avnet access to Broadcom's range of analogue and digital semiconductor connectivity solutions, primarily in wired infrastructure, wireless communications, enterprise storage and industrial markets.

"As the technology industry continues to globalise, the ability to serve customers and suppliers wherever they do business is critical," said Lynn Torrel, senior vice president, semiconductor business development, worldwide.

"What Avnet can also bring them is the scale and scope their customers need to get to market faster - it provides true differentiation."

SSE Enterprise Telecoms has announced that its network services are now available at a further 30 BT exchanges located across the UK.

This latest expansion adds to SSE Enterprise Telecoms' existing 13,700km, 232 Point of Presence (PoP) UK-wide fibre network, and is part of the operator's ongoing commitment to offer a networking alternative to enterprises located in all of the UK's key business districts.

Dubbed 'Edge 2', the latest initiative provides businesses located in a further 50,000 prime business postcodes with easy access to SSE Enterprise Telecoms' network.

Edge 2 is the second phase of SSE Enterprise Telecom's 'Project Edge' network expansion programme.

"In 2015, we experienced a 250 percent increase in orders of our Ethernet services, demonstrating the success of our ongoing network expansion," said Colin Sempill, Managing Director, SSE Enterprise Telecoms.

"With 30 new exchanges now live as part of Edge 2, and more to come within the next few months, organisations can now benefit from even greater access to our high quality Ethernet services, regardless of where they are in the country."

A new partnership between TeleWare and global system integrator Cisilion will initially focus on offering added value to Microsoft Office 365 and Skype for Business users with a range of enhancements, targeting finance, legal and insurance businesses.

The enhancements include Intelligent Number, a single number that users can access on any device anywhere in the world, regardless of mobile signal or Wi-Fi connection.

Users will also be able to add enterprise class voicemail, audio conferencing, IVR and voice recording to Skype for Business.

TeleWare CEO Steve Haworth said: "The strength of this partnership is the combination of TeleWare's product offering alongside Cisilion's strength in the finance, legal and insurance sectors."

Venus Business Communications is launching 10 gigabits per second connectivity at London's Media Production Show.

"Our 10 gigabit per second service will transform the industry's working environment making it much more efficient to transfer and share projects online at thousands of megabits per second," said Brian Iddon, Venus Business Communications Director.

"Our local field survey team aim to reduce installations times by a month and we recognise that reliability is key and the industry needs peace of mind.

"It's important to have local engineers that can respond rapidly and effectively to keep the network up and running in addition to an account management team that delivers the support the industry needs."

The Venus network is proving popular with over 1,000 customers in London enjoying high speed connectivity transferring half a terabyte of data a day.

Glamorgan Telecom MD Kelly Bolderson scooped the IOD Wales Young Director of the Year award.

Under her leadership the company has grown its client base by 22% and a number of new processes have been implemented including the introduction of an emergency engineering team and a 24-hour online help service.

She said: "We've already achieved so much but there are exciting plans in place for future growth. This is just the start of our journey."

Full profile in the June issue of Comms Dealer

KCOM's existing partner and reseller base will now be overseen by incoming Partner Manager Ben Johns (pictured).

He brings 20-plus years of industry experience and joins from Viatel where he was Account Director. Previous jobs include the Business Development Manager role at O2 Wholesale.

"With a wealth of experience across the corporate, business to business and wholesale arenas, Ben will be a real asset to our team," said Henry West, Head of Channel Sales.

Independent lender Henry Howard Finance has agreed a £51m asset finance facility under the British Business Bank's ENABLE Funding programme.

The facility, which is 50% guaranteed by the European Investment Fund, will allow Henry Howard to extend its asset finance funding to a larger portfolio of smaller UK businesses.

Henry Howard, backed by investor Cabot Square Capital and based in Newport, is the first South Wales-based lender to become a partner of the British Business Bank.

It has been providing finance to small businesses for over 20 years and last year it saw its lending grow to more than £70m from £40m. It aims to continue its expansion throughout 2016.

Business Secretary Sajid Javid said: "Every growing business needs to invest in the right tools to get the job done, whether that's upgraded laptops or new delivery trucks.

"This £51 million facility backed by the British Business Bank's ENABLE Funding programme and the EIF will allow small firms to get new equipment without taking a big hit to their cashflow.

"This means they can continue to grow, create jobs and benefit local communities across Wales and the rest of the UK."
 
Mark Crook, co-founder and COO at Henry Howard Finance, added: "Access to asset finance is a major barrier to growth for many small businesses. We hope the new facility will remove this barrier and allow more SMEs to grow and prosper."

Keith Morgan, British Business Bank CEO, commented: "This is the third transaction in our ENABLE Funding programme which has now provided a total of £202m to non-bank asset finance providers."

The ENABLE Funding programme is delivered by British Business Bank Financial Services, a subsidiary of British Business Bank, on behalf of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

Equity Networks has kicked off a buy and build campaign with the acquisition of Cookham Dean-based Centric Systems and its hosted VoIP and connectivity sister company Centricomms for an undisclosed sum. "This is the first of a number of planned acquisitions, all based around a robust recurring revenue model," said Marcos Reid, Director and co-owner, Equity Networks.

"Cloud services are the perfect platform on which to build, and with both comms and IT within the same group the only way is up."

The deal was prompted by a growing number of enquiries from small business customers asking Equity Networks to help them move to the cloud.

"Microsoft Office 365 and cloud storage kept coming up in meetings," explained Reid. "It was clear that clients saw us as an ICT company, not just a comms organisation.

"We were also installing a lot of dedicated fibre Internet connections which was taking us into router and firewall territory, work that we had to sub-contract out.

"We had collaborated with Centric Systems on a couple of projects and were blown away by its technical capabilities.

"Then its owner, Abbos Azad, told us he was looking for an exit. It seemed a perfect fit.

"We are now busy building both companies and cross selling into each other's customer bases and making efficiency savings at the same time."