Comms Dealer

Oracle has extended its Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN) into the cloud and enabled lower entry points as part of a drive to pick up new partners, particularly new types of partners coming from cloud.

"Cloud is our top priority and we are aligning our resources to that strategic initiative," said Shawn Price, senior vice president, Cloud, Oracle.

New cloud designations aim to complement existing OPN program levels to provide tiers of recognition and progressive level benefits.

In addition, Oracle launched a new entry point into the OPN program called the Cloud Registered level whose members can resell Oracle Cloud Platform solutions, including Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) solutions; they have access to the OPN Cloud Business Builder for sales, marketing and technical training and resources, as well as OPN branding.

Simon Hill, UK&I Alliances director, told IT Europa: "These are exciting times - from an Oracle perspective - the integrated cloud strategy puts us in a strong position against the likes of AWS and Azure etc."

Oracle initially saw cloud traction in enterprise,; now that it has an integrated stack, he says: "We are seeing partners talking to us about the Platform as a Service. They have lots of expertise and tools here, and they can see where their entry point is. A lot of technology partners are coming in as PaaS. The IaaS is interesting for hosting provider, MSPs etc."

Irish distributor Data Solutions is looking to triple its business to £60 million with a new office in the UK.

It is working with enterprise computing company Nutanix which also has its eye on this market.

Data Solutions specialises in data centres, security and unified communications. The company, which has achieved steady year-on-year growth over the past 25 years in the UK and Ireland, will hire 10 new positions in its Reading office by 2018 to coincide with the expansion.

It expects its UK operations to grow to the same size as its Irish business by then, targeting £30 million in revenues in Ireland in the same year.

To lead the UK expansion, the IT solutions distributor has appointed Sean Fane as UK managing director for the company.

He brings more than 20 years sales and business experience in the UK, including an executive role at IQ-Sys, the leading UK distributor in the virtualisation market.

Michael O'Hara, Group MD, Data Solutions, said: "We've achieved exponential growth for our vendors in the Irish market over the past few years through a strong, value-based business model and this approach in the UK market will deliver strong results.

"We look forward to enabling resellers to take advantage of the opportunities with this fast-growing technology and bolstering our UK presence with Nutanix."

ShoreTel's transformation journey as a global UC&C provider is increasingly cloud focused and its gaze has fallen on European expansion with the acquisition of contact centre provider Corvisa.

Mark Roberts, CMO at ShoreTel, said: "I see a modification in the way we are thinking about channels and how they make their money from the interaction and services. It is the same with unified communications. Our last quarter results showed this as we did well on revenue and beat the earnings forecasts.

"It is a cloudy world. If you are not moving your customer base, someone will do it for you. We spend a lot of time with partners and the programme is now structured to be neutral between cloud, hybrid and on premise. We have seen a lot of take-up there under the new points scheme because it is seen as balanced - it has normalised the behaviour in channel."

Cloud is in a strong growth phase - analysts talk of mid-20%. Driving that in EMEA is something recent for ShoreTel - in the last six months or so. "The North America cloud is growing great for us, and more than anything it is a question of keeping up with the market. Making sure the right bets are placed - which in a high growth era is not that easy."

All the case studies and collateral is geared to cloud as that is where the growth is, he adds.

"We are increasing the focus on the European market with the acquisition of Corvisa. We find that there is a lot of expertise in EMEA around contact centres, which perhaps does not seem to be there in the rest of the world.

"Corvisa gives us a stand-alone contact centre which doesn't need to run on ShoreTel switches - it can run on anybody's. That allows us to massively expand the opportunities and get a footprint in those larger deals that were previously denied. The Corvisa systems is highly customisable, with a SDK and APIs so that you can do authorisations etc. We also got SIP trunking."

In some ways, customers are ahead of channels in making the move to cloud, he suggested. "I've not seen a difference here between Europe and the US. I have seen conversation where the customer indicated they want to go cloud and the partner is still offering an on-premise solution. If you don't sell me a solution, I'll go elsewhere."

The two primary requirements for unified comms was compatibility with existing apps and integration - it is not total cost of ownership or ROI or price. "I think the channel partner that can have that conversation will do well in the long run. It means we can add a number of new partners who get cloud."

Network services provider Convergence Group has acquired Networks First, a privately-owned IT managed services and network support business.

The acquisition strengthens Convergence Group's ability to provide an end-to-end connectivity solution across both the LAN and WAN. Both Convergence Group and Networks First are headquartered in the West Midlands and serve the channel partner community.

The combined organisation now boasts a portfolio of managed network services, network security expertise, multi-vendor network support, engineering and project services for LAN and WAN.

Neal Harrison, Managing Director at Convergence Group, said: "Our partners and customers will benefit from more choice and have a simpler way of meeting all of their network connectivity needs in one place." 

Networks First MD Tom Mulvaney added: "This brings together two successful companies in non-competing but related sectors, with great people under entrepreneurial leadership.

"We're looking forward to working with our new colleagues to grow the combined business, build on our strengths and secure more opportunities for our partners and people."

Swyx closed the year with a year-on-year sales increase of 40% (33m euros revenue) and added 40 new international cloud partners.

Growth in international sales markets such as the UK, Netherlands, Northern Europe and other regions augmented Swyx's strong performance in Germany, its core market.

The UC firm also increased employee numbers across several fields including development, sales, support and project management.

During the financial year Swyx released various new clients and products including the Mac OS and iOS-client and the Swyx Connector for Skype for Business.

Dr Ralf Ebbinghaus, CEO at Swyx, stated: "In the current year we will continue on our sustainable growth path. Our UC solution will have an even greater impact on the market and continue to support SMEs on their way towards the digitalisation of all communication channels and future-proofed corporate communications."

telent Technology Services has teamed up with Unify to offer the OpenScape Voice solution as part of its new telentConnect service, in addition to rolling out OpenScape Voice across its own operations in the UK and Ireland.

Over the next few months Unify will provision OpenScape Voice to multiple telent office sites, enabling its employees to reap the benefits of collaboration whether office-based, mobile or both.

The OpenScape Voice is a carrier-grade native SIP-based platform that is scalable up to 100,000 users per system, plus a virtually unlimited number of users when OpenScape Voice systems are networked.

Andy Gifford, Head of Enterprise, telent, said: "telent and Unify have worked together for a number of years and we believe that telentConnect with OpenScape Voice will develop this partnership further.

"As a technology business, it is important that we look at ways to leverage UC to collaborate more effectively with each other and our customers, and this platform allows us to do that."

Barry Tuffs, Vice President for UK and Ireland Channels at Unify, added: "This is a natural step for telent given its continued business growth. We've had a great, long-standing relationship with telent over the past decade and we look forward to working together to bring modern communications to businesses across the UK and Ireland."

Matthew Parker (pictured) is to lead IP Solutions as CEO following investment from Livingbridge. His appointment signals IP Solutions' growth ambitions.

Parker's previous experience includes 10 years as a member of the leadership team at StepStone, the European online recruitment portal.

He was part of the team that delivered a 100m euro return to shareholders when Axel Springer acquired StepStone ASA in 2009.

He then led a management buy-out of the Solutions business, became CEO, and led the transformation of the business now called Lumesse.

"Taking IP Solutions to the next level following the investment by Livingbridge is a fantastic opportunity and I am looking forward to leading the business on this journey," said Parker.

IP Solutions' Chairman Andy Lockwood added: "Matthew brings the qualities of a professional, experienced leader combined with rapid growth in the technology sector that will add real value to our next phase of growth."

Azzurri has achieved the Government's Cyber Essentials Plus accreditation for a second year.

Azzurri achieved reaccreditation of the more advanced Cyber Essentials Plus certification, which means that the security and robustness of company's platform and internet facing applications have been independently tested and verified by an external certification body. This involved investigations inside the network, vulnerability scanning, remote access capability and penetration testing.

The Cyber Essentials Scheme was launched by the UK Government in 2014, and recognises the achievement of government-endorsed standards of cyber hygiene which can significantly reduce organisations' vulnerability. Adherence to the scheme is an essential certification for any public sector ICT supplier.

"It's another string to our bow to have achieved this accreditation once more, and it gives public sector organisations the guarantee that our security credentials meet Government standards," said Chris Jagusz, CEO of Azzurri Communications.

"Our public sector customers quite rightly consider robust security and cyber-crime detection mechanisms as more than a simple tick in the box. It has become a 'do or die' requirement that all their suppliers must demonstrate."

Provider of cloud-based telephone analytics IOVOX has formed a channel partnership with cloud aggregator Cobweb Solutions.

"IOVOX offers clear marketing attribution and telephone performance data, one of the key insights for a business in interacting and transacting successfully with the market," said Ash Patel, Director of Transformation, Cobweb.

"Our goal is to build enduring commercial relationships with an ecosystem of channel partners, and we do that by bringing them services that they can offer customers at an affordable price, while being able to still add value to the offering.

"This partnership with IOVOX is consistent with our vision, and we're confident our business customers will quickly see the value of IOVOX analytics."

IOVOX's intelligent phone numbers deliver real-time analytics on calls and text messages for hundreds of thousands of small businesses in 32 countries.

Unique, local IOVOX phone numbers supply data to an easy-to-read dashboard that reveals which ads are working and which ones aren't, whether businesses are missing important phone calls, whether calls come from existing customers or new ones, which geographical area most calls come from and much more.

Overall, IOVOX's intelligent phone numbers help small businesses increase calls, chart progress from new regions, and pinpoint their most effective advertising environments.

Carl Di Cicco, Managing Director of IOVOX, stated: "Cobweb already enables channel partners to build a sustainable cloud business model. As businesses continue to rely heavily on telephone systems, IOVOX analytics was a natural addition to the portfolio."

Ian Davey has been appointed Sales Director of distributor Mayflex, joining from Ingram Micro where he worked for 10 years as a Senior National Account Manager, then as Head of Sales and General Manager, and most recently as Sales Director with responsibility for over £800m of sales.

Andrew Percival, Mayflex Group Managing Director, commented: "The appointment of Ian follows a prolonged period of recruitment within Mayflex across all levels of the business, which has been necessary to continue initiatives for growth and ensuring our customers receive the levels of service they have become accustomed to.

"Ian has a wealth of experience, qualities and skills which are vital to assist Mayflex with the projected growth over the next financial year."

Davey added: "Having an energetic and motivated team on-board who are committed to further accelerating the business is key when achieving our 2016 goals and beyond."