Comms Dealer

Agilitas has expanded its scope of work with independent IT group SCC to include a wider range of technical skills training for its field-based engineering teams.

The deal involves Agilitas creating and delivering a range of course content focused around the needs of SCC customers and engineering teams.

SCC was previously hosting its own internal training courses, however they were finding these covered too small a range of requirements for existing customers, so approached Agilitas for a solution to support expansion into new markets, grow existing client accounts and win new customers, with minimal upfront cost and risk.

The training enables SCC to use their own engineers, rather than relying on outsourced engineers.

Darren Heatley, Distributed Services Manager at SCC, commented: "With the legacy and current product training Agilitas is able to provide, in addition to the creation of bespoke course content, we have been able to ensure our engineers have the skills required to meet the needs of new customers and the growing requirements of existing ones."

Shaun Lynn, CEO of Agilitas, added: "By outsourcing training to Agilitas, we're helping SCC to expand its service portfolio into new markets, across server, storage and networking technologies.

"Course material is being delivered using a combination of classroom and lab delivery, with the emphasis around hands-on methodology. This approach is set to provide SCC engineers with the necessary skills to transfer the knowledge they've gained to deliver resolutions in real-life technical environments for customers."

Purple (formerly known as Purple WiFi) has introduced a new partner programme to enable partners to gain easy entry into a range of customers, including enterprise targets.

The programme promises new recurring revenue streams and access to budgets outside of IT and a gateway to analytics.

Purple's capability channel programme gives partners the option to choose between two tiers of partnership - selling Purple as an Authorised Reseller, or becoming a Certified Partner.

Both Authorised Resellers and Certified Partners can access Purple's reseller portal and all of the tools they need to take Purple to market. However, partners that choose to become certified will receive additional training, deal registration, discounts for registered opportunities and account management support.

Purple also offers various white label options.

Gavin Wheeldon, CEO of Purple, stated: "Authorised partners can continue to sell our products. However, if a partner chooses to become certified and goes through our simple online training process, they will experience another level of support."

Provider of cloud-based telephone analytics IOVOX has introduced IOVOX Insights, a new solution that allows service providers to turn their customers' static call data into visual and actionable information.

With IOVOX Insights, service providers can enable customers of all sizes to improve efficiency, deliver better customer service, and ultimately become more profitable, claims the firm.

"Traditional phone bills don't tell a story of business performance," said Ryan Gallagher, Founder and CEO of IOVOX.

"This can be debilitating if your business relies on phone leads. But once a business realises they are missing 20 per cent or more of their calls during certain periods of the day, they immediately recognise the value of dynamic and interactive analytics. IOVOX Insights enables service providers to lock in existing revenue while creating a foundation for upsell."

IOVOX Insights is configurable for multiple go-to-market strategies, including an integrated single sign on option that increases engagement between business customers and their existing SP portal. The Insights solution can also enable tracking and visualisation of many data points.

Among other cloud platforms, IOVOX Insights offers integration with BroadSoft.

Unify, the communications brand of Atos, has unveiled an enhanced version of its product OpenScape Enterprise.

The key aspects of OpenScape Enterprise v9 include new features and updates across all OpenScape applications and a more responsive design for OpenScape UC on both desktop and mobile.

"The accelerating on-demand nature of today's business creates an expectation for immediate access to services, people and information, yet addressing the human element of collaboration is also critical to an organisation's success," said Peter Kuerpick, Executive Vice President, Product House, Unify.

"OpenScape Enterprise v9 addresses both. It provides the security, reliability and scalability required for the enterprise, and brings users and content together to help them stay connected, be responsive and collaborate seamlessly."

3CX, developer of the software-based PBX 3CX Phone System, has collected an award from Frost & Sullivan for its 'high-quality, software-based Unified Communications solution'.

Frost & Sullivan said that the software-based 3CX Phone System 'excelled in terms of user features, architectural flexibility, ease of use and management', in the award analysis.

Elka Popova, Program Director and Senior Fellow, Connected Work Digital Transformation, Frost & Sullivan said: "Today, market evolution is driven by customer need to lower communications infrastructure costs and improve business agility.

"With its compelling functionality and lower total cost of ownership (TCO), 3CX has earned Frost & Sullivan's recognition as the price/performance value leader in the unified communications market.

"It is well positioned to capture growing customer demand for innovative solutions that provide a competitive edge while reducing the burden on internal resources. Through a strong value proposition, 3CX is better able to address changing market requirements and increasing competitive pressures than other market participants."

Nick Galea, CEO, 3CX, said: "Frost & Sullivan has recognised 3CX for its growing importance in the UC market, in terms of its large and fast growing installed base and technology.

"There is a clear trend towards software-based PBXs, and Frost & Sullivan has acknowledged that the features we provide are on the cusp of industry trends."

Cisco has stated its intent to acquire CliQr Technologies, the provider of an application-defined cloud orchestration platform to model, deploy and manage applications across bare metal, virtualised and container environments.

The acquisition will provide a complete solution to customers and help simplify and accelerate private, public and hybrid cloud deployments.

CliQr already integrates with Cisco ACI to enable application portability for on-premise and cloud environments and moving forward, Cisco will continue to integrate CliQr across its data centre portfolio.

Together, CliQr and Cisco will make it simpler for customers to automate and manage application policies across the entire data centre stack.

"Customers today have to manage a massive number of complex and different applications across many clouds," said Rob Salvagno, vice president, Cisco Corporate Development. "With CliQr, Cisco will be able to help our customers realise the promise of the cloud and easily manage the lifecycle of their applications on any hybrid cloud environment."

The CliQr team will join Cisco's Insieme Business Unit reporting to Prem Jain, senior vice president and general manager. Under the terms of the agreement Cisco will pay $260m in cash and assumed equity awards, plus retention based incentives.

The acquisition is expected to close in the third quarter of fiscal year 2016, subject to customary closing conditions.

Snow Software has launched a global partner programme, reflecting the company's international growth which was 90% year-on-year in 2015.

Snow Software's partners include large global systems integrators and local Software Asset Management specialists.

Partners now operate under a three tier programme which recognises excellence and expertise for helping customers with their SAM requirements.

The programme is available to systems integrators, outsourcers, business consultancies, resellers and SAM consultancies. It covers both on-premise license sales and own-brand Managed SAM Services.

Jan Gottlander, Group Vice President, Snow Software, commented: "Demand for software asset management, in particular cloud-based, is not limited to a region or market, it's a global opportunity for both Snow and our partners.

"We recognise that enabling that growth for our partners around the world and offering a consistent experience is crucial in meeting demand and securing the future success of Snow's partners."

Akixi has exceeded 1,600 deployed sites globally, with customers based in Europe, USA, Mexico and South Africa.

Managing Director Bart Delgado said "We are consistently growing from month to month as a result of our offering of 200-plus real-time call statistics, dials, graphs and wallboards.

"Our service providers continue to grow and we meet the demand for a reliable and efficient call reporting and call management service.

"The Polycom VVX Integration has been positively received by our customers as this now gives them an additional option of where they can conveniently monitor and manage their calls."

Reading-based Wirebird, acquired by Timico Technology Group in 2015, is rebranding as Timico Technology Services.

The rebrand is a response to increasing demand in the market from customers requiring end-to-end voice and data solutions, complete with a managed services offering.

Nabeil Samara, Managing Director, Timico Technology Services, said: "The rebrand is a natural step for us to take. We have been working closely with Timico and have noticed a significant increase in customers wanting an all-encompassing service wrap around.

Our portfolios of managed networks, UC and managed IT services are a natural fit, and the last year has demonstrated organic growth for both of us. We are now in a position to present our customers with a holistic end-to-end solution.

"Essentially it is business as usual, but now customers have the advantage of accessing specialist skillsets and solutions from Timico Technology Group."

Tim Radford, CEIO at Timico Technology Group, said: "The Wirebird team have quickly become an integral part of the group and I am excited by the prospect of what they, as Timico Technology Services, will go on to achieve."

Mitel CEO Richard McBee attributes record Q4 revenues to a solid performance across the entire business.

In its financial results for the quarter ended December 31st 2015, the vendor reported a 44% leap in cloud business and a significant rise in mobile segment revenues.

Overall revenues of $335.7m were reported, exceeding estimates of $332.4m.

"The results were particularly impressive in our strategic growth pillars of cloud and mobile," said McBee. "Our cloud business continued to fuel recurring revenue growth which increased 24% on a year-over-year basis. 

"In mobile, we reported 73% year-over-year growth and expanded gross margins. These results lay the foundation for Mitel's ongoing transformation as the market migrates to next generation solutions."