Comms Dealer

Ericsson-LG distributor Pragma unveiled iPECS Cloud to partners during its annual conference held at Whittlebury Hall near Silverstone on February 4th. The launch comes at a time when Ericsson-LG's confidence in the UK market has soared to a ten year high.

The Pragma-Ericsson-LG partnership is paying dividends with a 30% rise in sales of on-premise systems last year and significant advances made into the mid-market and larger enterprise space; and in a show of bullish ambition the vendor is eyeing third place in the UK vendor league having moved up to fifth position in MZA's latest market report.

Will Morey, Director and co-founder of Pragma, stated: "Cloud evangelists say that the PBX is dead and cloud is the only option. We all know that isn't true.

"But cloud is showing healthy growth and our partners expect an increasing proportion of their customer base to move to the cloud over the next few years.

"So we've made significant investments in taking iPECS-CM and turning the product into a fully virtualised feature rich and reseller friendly cloud platform."

iPECS Cloud has four engagements models: Dealer, reseller, VSP and full service provider. Everything is wrapped into a portal with four levels of access.

Ericsson-LG has a clear roadmap to develop new features, functionality and capabilities for iPECS Cloud with version two planned for release in May, version three in September and another next year.

"Every step of the way Ericsson-LG ensured that iPECS Cloud upholds a reseller-centric business model with a strong commercial proposition, simple deployment and bundles for leasing propositions," added Morey.

"Proprietary and feature rich functionality is also key. All on-premise kit is cloud-ready, so customers can move to the cloud 'as and when', and partners can build up these future upgrade opportunities."

Pragma partner Lily Comms MD Chris Morrisey welcomed news of Ericsson-LG's progress. "With the launch of iPECS Cloud we are able to offer our prospective and current clients a choice of on-premise, hybrid or cloud communication systems without sacrificing features, all under the Ericsson-LG brand," he stated.

"No longer is Ericsson-LG a telephony manufacturer, it is a communications provider focused on applications and software in addition to the base proposition which is telephony.

"This aligns with how we are positioning ourselves in the market, not as a telephony provider, but a communication solutions specialist."

Azlan has appointed Mark Robinson as Marketing Manager for its Enterprise Software and Technology and Services practices.

He joins from Microsoft where he spent 18 months as part of the OEM Partner Marketing team.

Previous roles include stints a HP in PC systems marketing and prior to that two years at channel marketing agency Outbound.

Sara Gemmell, Azlan UK Marketing Director, said: "We are placing more focused investment on solutions marketing and taking a progressive approach with partners, helping them to promote their capabilities and generate qualified end user leads.

"Mark is a valuable addition to our team and will be working closely with vendors and resellers to provide the focus and support needed to deliver positive results."

Since 2000 when the first camera phone was introduced the number of mobile users has quintupled.

By 2020, there will be 5.5 billion mobile users, representing 70% of the global population, according to the release of the Cisco Visual Networking Index (VNI) Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast (2015 to 2020).

The adoption of mobile devices, increased mobile coverage, and demand for mobile content are driving user growth two times faster than the global population over the next five years.

This surge of mobile users, smart devices, mobile video, and 4G networks will increase mobile data traffic eight-fold over the next five years.

Smart mobile devices and connections are projected to represent 72% of total mobile devices and connections by 2020 - up from 36% in 2015.

Smart devices are forecast to generate 98% of mobile data traffic by 2020. From an individual device perspective, smartphones are dominating mobile traffic. They will account for 81% of total mobile traffic by 2020 - up from 76% in 2015.

The proliferation of mobile phones, including 'phablets' (a hybrid blend of smartphone and tablet features), is increasing so rapidly that more people will have mobile phones (5.4 billion) than electricity (5.3 billion), running water (3.5 billion) and cars (2.8 billion) by 2020.

Mobile video will have the highest growth rate of any mobile application. Consumer and business users' demand for higher video resolution, more bandwidth, and processing speed will increase the use of 4G connected devices. 4G connectivity share is projected to surpass 2G by 2018 and 3G by 2020.

4G will represent more than 70% of all mobile traffic, and 4G connections will generate nearly six times more traffic per month than non-4G connections by 2020.

"With the ever-increasing billions of people and things that are being connected, mobility is the predominant medium that's enabling today's global digitisation transformation," said Doug Webster, vice president of service provider marketing, Cisco.

"Future mobile innovations in cellular, such as 5G and Wi-Fi solutions, will be needed to further address new scale requirements, security concerns, and user demands.

"IoT advancements will continue to fuel tangible benefits for people, businesses, and societies."

F-SECURE SIGNS SYNAXON UK RESELLERS
February 8, 2016
F-Secure has signed with the Synaxon reseller group in the UK to offer system, endpoint and network protection suites as well as management and control and enterprise cyber security solutions and the Freedome VPN solution, All F-Secure solutions are now available to order via EGIS, either as boxed or for electronic software download.

Mike Barron, UK channel director at Synaxon, says: "This is a really great new signing for Synaxon UK and its members. The agreement with F-Secure will give our members access to a fantastic range of online security and protection solutions and, with the forthcoming SENSE range, F-Secure will be one of the first vendors to offer a complete range of privacy and protection offerings for the entire home."

F-Secure says it is also one of the first vendors to move into the potentially lucrative area of smart home security. Olli Bliss, head of partner sales at F-Secure, stated: "F-Secure is pleased to be working with Synaxon UK. As online protection and privacy becomes even more important in businesses and in the home, we see genuine potential for growth with partners. Synaxon can help us reach further into the channel and we'll be making sure its members have every opportunity to maximise the potential of our full range of protection solutions."

ACRONIS IN CLOUD PARTNER PUSH
February 8, 2016
An extension of the Acronis Global Partner Program, the Acronis Partner Program for Cloud is aimed at building cloud data protection services revenue with a subscription model for service providers, distributors and cloud resellers. The program provides solutions, resources, programs and incentives to help Acronis partners profit from the huge market growth predicted for cloud data protection services, which include backup, disaster recovery and file sync and share. According to IDC, the Data Protection & Disaster Recovery software market will grow to $8.1bn by 2019.

The Acronis Partner Program for Cloud supports any deployment model, it says, including service provider-hosted, Acronis-hosted and hybrid, and any business model with licensing flexibility. This includes turnkey cloud data protection services with minimal integration as well as offerings that are more deeply integrated into partner technology and services portfolios.

Multiple channel tiers aim to distinguish and reward a partner's sales performance, certification commitment and marketing collaboration. Incentives include stackable profit margins, incremental margins for deal registration, rebates and incremental accelerators. The program also features simplified partner on-boarding, free web-based sales tools and enablement programs, technical training, marketing programs and demand generation support, as well as co-op and market development fund programs, it says.

"The end users that we service need an easy and reliable backup and recovery solution combined with the knowledge and support we can deliver as a service provider," Charles Grau, vice president, IT and Operations at United Data Technologies (UDT). "The new Acronis Partner Program for Cloud allows us to build on our growing Acronis Cloud business by rapidly bringing proven data protection services to market in a way they easily plugs into our technology environment and existing business model."

For service providers and cloud resellers, Acronis delivers a multi-tenant, multi-tiered cloud architecture across infrastructure and data centres, operations and storage. Acronis Cloud solutions provide automation of services and complete control of provisioning, billing, monitoring and management, offering partners scalable solutions that can support millions of end users.

Wholesale comms provider Zest4 has expanded its Channel Sales Management team with the appointment of Ben Ofosu.

He brings seven years account management experience in the IT and telecoms industry and previous roles include stints at YES Telecom, Vodafone and Nimans Network Services.

"Ben's industry experience will help Zest4 to achieve growth by enabling resellers to access complete Unified Communication solutions, including M2M, mobile, hosted telephony, broadband and IT solutions," said Operations & Business Development Director, Mandy Fazelynia.

Ofosu added: "The role will also enable me to further enhance my own skills and experience, which will help me to build strong and long-lasting relationships for Zest4 for the future."

BroadSoft has acquired Transera, a provider of cloud-based contact centre software for SMBs and large enterprises.

Its offering will be seamlessly integrated with BroadSoft's BroadWorks and BroadCloud solutions. 

Michael Tessler, CEO, BroadSoft, said: "The multi-billion dollar contact centre market is ripe for cloud disruption, and we now offer service providers a single stack solution with the flexibility to scale from SMB to large enterprise."

Prem Uppaluru, Chairman and CEO of Transera, will assume the role of General Manager and Vice President of BroadSoft Cloud Contact Center.

Uppaluru said: "Cloud is rewriting the rules when it comes to how businesses can deliver a superior customer engagement experience through simplicity, on-demand scalability, and advanced analytics."

Welsh IT company SA1 Solutions has set up a comms arm to become a single source IT and telecoms provider.

Sister company SA1 Telecoms was established in response to demand for a reliable telecoms provider that has an understanding of business communication systems.

SA1 Telecoms offers a range of services to businesses, including telephone systems, VoIP (voice over internet protocol), mobiles, leased lines and fixed lines.

SA1 Solutions, recently celebrated its tenth anniversary.

Simon Ahearne, MD of SA1 Solutions and the new SA1 Telecoms, said:
"Through building trust with customers using SA1 Solutions' services, the realisation emerged that there was a gap in the market for our customers who wanted efficient telecoms services to run alongside their IT and communication systems. We saw the opportunity for SA1 Telecoms and ran with it."

"Our business philosophy is to listen to the customer. By doing this, we have been able to start a new business and already have a number of potential clients enquiring about our services and business packages.

"We want our customers to see us as the one-stop-shop for business communication, so they can continue to focus on what really matters to their business without worrying about connectivity problems."

Club Doncaster has opted for Green 4 Solutions to handle its core customer relationship management (CRM) operations and email marketing services.

Club Doncaster incorporates Doncaster Rovers Football Club, Doncaster Rugby League Club and Club Doncaster Foundation and Sports College to provide members a host of leisure and entertainment facilities - creating a better Doncaster.

The decision to appoint Green 4 and the Go Solution was based on its functionality, ease of set up and integration capabilities across each sector.

Club Doncaster Marketing and Communications Manager Ryan Murrant said: "CRM is massively important for Club Doncaster as we look to take our fan engagement and marketing communications to the next level.

"The investment from our owners into the CRM allows Club Doncaster Foundation and Sports College, Doncaster Rugby League Club and Doncaster Rovers Football Club to reach out to our supporters and sponsors in a way we have never been able to before, and we thank them for that."

Wholesale data and voice communications provider Entanet is celebrating 20 years in business this month.

The company has grown into a £32m business with over 100 staff, with its own national MPLS network and an established community of channel partners.

Entanet is planning further significant investment in its communications network and intends to work more closely with its partners to deliver the fast, reliable and flexible connectivity services.

The company will continue to be completely channel-focused, providing its resale and wholesale partners with broadband, Ethernet and leased line connectivity, IP VPN solutions, VoIP and traditional telecoms and hosting and colocation services.

Entanet's CEO Elsa Chen said: "Over the last two decades we have seen significant advances in the communications industry and fundamental changes to the use and adoption of technology.

"Throughout this time, connectivity has become absolutely critical to the operations of almost every commercial and public sector organisation. The dependence can only increase and as it does, Entanet will continue to invest in and to develop its services to meet the needs of its partners and their customers.

"We have always needed to be agile and responsive while looking forward to take advantage of new opportunities and we'll continue to take that approach.

"We have also continued in our firm commitment and dedication to the channel and that won't change. Entanet wouldn't be celebrating this milestone without the ongoing support of its channel partners, and so we're proud to give them the same commitment in return."

Entanet indicated that a number of channel initiatives will be launched this year.

Gamma has released more details around its planned launch of a business mobile service in the first half of 2016, using the core mobile network infrastructure that it acquired in 2014 and has since expanded.

This core contains all the functionality of a mobile network and is based on the latest Ericsson software build, including 4G, and is capable of supporting emerging technologies such as Voice over WiFi and VoLTE.

The new service gives channel partners the same levels of customer ownership and control they have over fixed-line services.

Gamma has selected Three to provide the primary radio access in the UK with separate roaming agreements also now in place.

The new service will include 4G as standard on all tariffs, as well as improved data monitoring with near real-time mediation and billing and more flexible data usage alerts.

With this new capability Gamma believes it is well placed to help the channel provide increasing converged fixed and mobile services to the UK business market.

Rob Davis, Head of Converged Products at Gamma, commented: "We have full control of the mobile service in addition to the control we already have over our fixed voice and data network.

"With the ability to work with multiple large carriers coupled with the flexibility of being a channel focused provider, we believe the new Gamma Mobile proposition gives our channel partners the best of both worlds.

"We recognise the importance of mobility in an increasingly converged world and see this new service as a core component and the foundation for Gamma's converged offering moving forward, enabling us to take our portfolio of voice, data and mobile solutions to the next level."

An annual survey of the top 500 Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) in Europe shows some major changes due to substantial growth in some areas, consolidation and changing market conditions.

After a slow rise of 5% in the previous year, it looks like ISV fortunes have turned around strongly in 2015, based on early figures.

The latest database report by IT Europa, ISVs in Europe - the top 500, shows a shake-up at the top of the list of individual companies, with three newcomers to the top ten.

There has also been a big jump in those reporting that they offer Software-as-a-Service (SaaS).

In 2016, nearly 90% of ISVs said they offer SaaS, an increase of over 60% from 2014. But it is not all packages and cloud; bespoke software development is also on the rise with just under 60% offering it.

Companies from 35 European countries are featured within the report. The 10 largest geographic markets in terms of companies profiled are: UK (135 companies), France (76), Germany (63), Finland (20), Netherlands (17), Switzerland (17), Italy (15), Denmark (14) Sweden (13) and Spain (11). While the UK market experienced an average revenue increase of around 5%, the picture across Europe was patchy, with strong growth in some central and eastern parts, as well as Norway with double digit growth, but parts of Benelux actually saw reduced ISV sales.

Part of the ISV growth story comes from greater confidence in the vertical market sectors, especially in banking and finance. The study reveals that over half of all the firms cater for Bank/Finance/Insurance (54.8% of companies), followed by Public Sector (45.2%) and Retail (40.6%). Compared to 2014, in 2016 the number of ISVs catering to the Banking vertical market has increased by nearly 5%, among the highest indicators of changing verticals.

ISVs are still mainly providing their own software solutions, followed by providing services (this includes SaaS), then other software (which includes third party software) and finally a number are still involved in supplying hardware, where the proportion has actually risen. In the list of the most common type of third party software being sold, the names which came up most often were Oracle, Microsoft, IBM and SAP, primarily in the areas of ERP, BI and CRM.

In terms of the type of applications, data handling is on the rise, with two thirds of the ISVs working in areas of business intelligence and data management, followed by Mobility (55%) and ERP (47%). Some other notable horizontal markets which scored well with ISVs are Human Resources Management, Asset Management, Business Process Management and Automation. Among those finding less interest is Project Management.

"It is good to see the European software industry grasping the SaaS and Cloud opportunity, but there are several new challenges that will need to be embraced for the sector to continue driving IT growth in Europe," said Alan Norman, Managing Director of IT Europa.

"The nature of those challenges and the role that software will play in addressing them will be a major subject for debate at the European Software & Solutions Summit 2016 (www.eusss.com ) which takes place in London in April."

The ISVs in Europe - the top 500 database report spans 35 countries. The company profiles include sales figures for each company in local currency and US dollars.

www.iteuropa.com