Comms Dealer

Intermedia has strengthened its channel offering with additions to its back-up and file sharing service, following feedback from 6,000-plus channel partners.

According to Intermedia the new SecuriSync offering will offer up-selling opportunities for resellers and enable them to add high-margin backup services that have traditionally been denied.

Updates include a suite of back-up capabilities, including real-time cloud file backup, to cater for resellers constrained by the pricing models of providers such as Dropbox and Box; and integration of enterprise grade data back-up for restore and retention capabilities.

Instead of deploying multiple vendors for different aspects of file management, businesses now only need a single tool for using, managing and protecting user files, noted the firm.

"As users embrace file sharing and mobile devices, the deficiencies of traditional back-up have grown clear," said Michael Gold, CEO of Intermedia.

"That's why businesses have opted for two separate providers-one for backing up files and another for sharing and managing them.

"SecuriSync now bridges this gap with a single, cost-effective tool for using, managing and protecting user files."

Claranet has partnered with Action for Children, the charity that helps disadvantaged children and young adults deal with issues such as neglect and abuse.

The charity is run out of six core offices that co-ordinate and support approximately 600 services, offering support and care across the UK.

By outsourcing its network requirements to Claranet, Action for Children has seen significant time and cost savings, as well as improvements to network efficiency and IT support.

With improved network connectivity, it has freed up its staff and volunteers so that they can focus on their primary roles - helping to care for and support children and young adults.

Channel Telecom's top 15 partners were treated to five star luxury during a 'thank you' skiing trip to Les Trois Vallees in the Alps.

The three night, four day stay in the heart of Meribel is the company's third such trip and included a programme of skiing, snowboarding, an outdoor heated pool, slope-side sauna, along with mild carousing at La Follie Douce, a mountain top bar.

Channel Telecom MD Clifford Norton said: "We wanted to treat our most successful partners for their hard work. Each year this trip gets bigger and better. This year the party grew to 15, next year we may be taking 20."

A cloud brokerage platform launched by NEC enables ICT service providers to offer SMB and enterprise customers business applications from the cloud via their own privately labeled one-stop marketplace.

Cloud Store is the latest expansion of NEC's services portfolio and builds on the vendor's previous cloud brokerage offerings first developed in 2009.

The new platform can be fully branded by NEC's channel partners, is managed by NEC in a Tier 3 data centre with all registering, ordering and billing capabilities included.

Cloud Store contains a growing catalogue of ready-to-use business applications including collaboration, security and productivity enhancing applications such as Microsoft Office 365.

"We see a great opportunity for our channel partners, integrators and service providers to expand their offering with cloud applications," said Paul Kievit, President and Head of NEC Enterprise Solutions in EMEA.

"Cloud Store enables them to compete with telco-OTT players without the need to invest in commercial negotiations with ISVs, application vendor boarding and the technical integration of marketplace settlement.

"NEC provides all of this off-the-shelf and ready-to-use. The low investment levels and flexible set-up of this open revenue sharing model make it an attractive proposition for even small sized ICT resellers."

Global smartphone sales hit 1.3 billion units in 2015, with an average price drop of 6% and overall market revenues stalling at $115bn.

Market forecaster GfK says smartphone growth in China is driving global demand while the emerging APAC and MEA regions continue as growth powerhouses.

GfK forecasts global smartphone demand to increase
7% in 2016.

In the full year 2015, 1.3 billion smartphone units were sold, an increase of 7% year-on-year.

However, this unit growth was partially offset by a decline in global average selling price (ASP) of 2% year-on-year, which caused revenues to increase on a slightly lower level of only 5% year-on-year to $399bn, says GfK.

Kevin Walsh, Director of Trends and Forecasting at GfK, stated: "Despite a record fourth quarter and a strong performance in 2015 in general, there are mixed results across countries.

"Local factors, rather than regional and industry trends, are increasingly driving markets. Diverging economic trends, device saturation, mass market adoption, politics, social change and even sport have an impact on smartphone demand and prices at country level."

Tech Data Europe has agreed a new Europe-wide agreement with Quanta Cloud Technology (QCT), a provider of hardware and integrated systems to cloud data centres.

Through the agreement, reseller partners across Tech Data Europe's footprint now have access to QCT's range of cloud data centre solutions, including servers, storage, network switches and integrated rack systems.

QCT is a subsidiary of Quanta Computer, a Fortune Global 500 technology engineering and manufacturing company.

"The addition of Quanta Cloud Technology to our vendor portfolio gives our customers access to a range of flexible and scalable solutions for the data centre environment," said Michael Urban, senior vice president, Broadline, Services, CE, and Procurement at Tech Data Europe.

"QCT's products not only enable our reseller partners to provide tailored solutions to address the needs of systems integrators, but also to diversify and expand their current offering in the cloud and data centre infrastructure fields."

US-listed Mobile TeleSystems PJSC, a telco in Russia and the CIS has partnered with BT, Deutsche Telekom, Reliance Jio Infocomm, Millicom, Orange, Rogers, TeliaSonera and TIM in a new Partnering Operator Alliance aiming to bring innovative products and services to customers around the world.

Vasyl Latsanych, Chief Marketing Officer of MTS Group, said: "These companies can reach a potential base of around one billion customers in more than 80 countries around the world.

"We believe in the positive synergy that this alliance brings to the global market.

"The joint forces of industry leaders create additional value for our customers and give us a chance to provide the latest innovations, best services, products and client experience.

"We are proud to represent Russia and CIS countries in the alliance and we are sure that it is wise to face global market challenges in an alliance of reliable partners from all over the world."

The Alliance focuses on exchanging best practices on how to bring partner propositions to the market, on joint efforts in partner scouting and will also exchange knowledge about upcoming trends and services amongst the group.

The alliance is an open network of like-minded operators worldwide with complementary geographical footprints. It is covering all relevant product categories within an operator's business, mobile as well as fixed, B2C as well as B2B. The Alliance will be expanding to additional operators soon, it says.

Avnet has picked up the Juniper Networks Distributor of the Year UK award for the second year running, and has been crowned EMEA Distributor of the Year 2015.
 
Anthony Webb, MD Partner and Commercial Sales UK&I at Juniper Networks, said: "Avnet has delivered a solid performance during the past year and has demonstrated continual commitment driving programmes that support our mutual business priorities. The collaboration between our organisations has become stronger."
 
Christian Curtis, Sales Director, Avnet Technology Solutions, UK, added: "We've made significant investments in our security and networking business over the past year, and the success we've achieved with strategic partners such as Juniper Networks shows we are on the right track."

ITSPA has accepted the proposed revisions made to the Investigatory Powers Bill as a useful next step in the process of passing the legislation.

The changes, published today follow on from three recent parliamentary committee reports which called for improvements to ensure that the Bill was fit for purpose.
 
Eli Katz, the Chair of ITSPA stated: "While ITSPA generally accepted the main principles of the Bill on its original draft publication in November, we did agree with the three Parliamentary Committee reports that more needed to be done to ensure the balance and proportionality around security, privacy and feasibility were maintained.

"The devil will be in the detail but we welcome some of the changes that have been included to help in resolve some of the concerns.
 
"Specifically, the addition of six codes of practice to set out how security services will use powers in the Bill is a welcome inclusion. Additionally, the clarification that a pragmatic approach to encryption, whereby communications providers will only be required to decrypt communications that they have added themselves and only when practicable, is welcome. What happens in practice still remains to be seen."
 
In principle, noted Katz, ITSPA has always understood the reasoning behind the proposed Bill and in many circumstances there will be no changes to what our members currently do to assist law enforcement agencies in tackling crime.

ITSPA has welcomed the principles of developing stronger oversight mechanisms and streamlining the current legal powers, which have become extremely complicated and unwieldy for communications providers to understand.
 
Katz added: "The Home Office's approach to this Bill has been much improved since its predecessor in 2012 and they have generally communicated with industry in an effective manner.

"We do now urge Government to continue that engagement process to address remaining areas of ambiguity in the Bill and stress the need for enough Parliamentary time to ensure the legislation is reviewed properly."
 

Ingram Micro has reported worldwide Q4 sales of $11.3bn, down 19% in dollars and down 13% on a currency neutral basis, when compared to worldwide sales of $14bn in the 2014 fourth quarter.

"We had a solid close to a strong year of execution, and we are pleased with the progress we are making against our strategic initiatives," said Alain Monié, Ingram Micro CEO.

"We are excited about our pending transaction to join HNA Group, as we will have the opportunity to better serve our vendor and customer partners and help them achieve their business objectives.

"Upon the closing of the transaction we expect to have the ability to accelerate our investments, both organically and through M&A, to enhance and add to our capabilities in high value IT solutions, mobility lifecycle services, commerce and fulfillment solutions and cloud, while also continuing to extend our geographic reach."