Comms Dealer

Nimans has staged its second annual X Factor-style talent contest for staff who performed a variety of acts including singers, poets, actors, a Greek-style dancer, rap duo, guitarist and a rock band.

Investors In People Manager, Sue Goldfine (pictured), and Dealer Sales Account Manager, Carl Foster, were voted the overall winners for their rendition of The Lion And Albert poem.

Event organiser Mat Weall said: "It's fair to say that some of the acts are better suited to their day jobs, but the contest proved that Nimans is awash with talent in areas other than communications supply."

Konftel has developed a trio of new audio conferencing devices that boast HD voice quality for enhanced 'life-like' meeting room experiences.

The new Konftel 300Mx features HD Voice quality audio for mobile conference calls anywhere.

Users insert a SIM card and start meetings immediately. The mobile conference phone also complements PC and web-based meetings due to its USB connection.

Konftel's new 55Wx speaker phone is another development delivering Unified Communications. The device works with all the leading collaboration suites, complemented by touch screen functionality.

Konftel has also developed an IP DECT base station that gives users wireless connectivity combined with OmniSound audio quality in any SIP environment.

Ombudsman Services is to provide a complaints handling scheme for members of the Internet Services Providers' Association and the Internet Telephony Services Providers' Association (and their customers), replacing the Communications and Internet Services Adjudication Scheme (CISAS) which becomes obsolete once currently logged complaints are resolved.

Chief Ombudsman Lewis Shand Smith said: "Ombudsman Services' roots began with resolving telecommunication complaints.

"We will help ITSPA and ISPA to improve their customer service models, as well as offer customers our free and impartial resolution service should they encounter a problem with Internet telephony products or services."

ITSPA Chair, Eli Katz, added: "All communications providers must, under law, provide their customers with access to an independent dispute resolution scheme. By working with Ombudsman Services we ensure that our members are compliant."

A new reseller portal introduced by Jola Cloud Solutions has simplified the ordering process, enabling resellers to build multi-product offerings without the need to re-enter data or dip into other parts of the system to complete the order.

Adrian Sunderland, CTO, said: "When a single order involves many products the journey may not be easy for resellers to create multi-product offerings.

"We want to encourage our resellers to order all their customers' requirements from us so once they have entered the delivery details Jola partners can build the entire solution.

"Resellers can save and return to part-built orders, add orders to existing sites and view orders in progress."

Jola provides connectivity and Broadsoft packages, and with 100-plus partners a self-service portal has not come a moment too soon, according to Sales Director Lee Broxson.

"Our partners are ordering hundreds of Broadsoft seats, leased lines and mobile SIMs every month and making this process easy and low-touch, save administration costs and cut-out translation errors," he stated.

Node4's just-opened London office at New Broad Street enables the company to cosy up to customers and channel partners in the south east.

As well as strengthening Node4's regional presence and vertical sector capability, the new office will consolidate assets following its acquisition of Premier IT Networks.

Paul Bryce, Business Development Director, commented: "The opening of a London office delivers on our strategy to build a truly national presence.

"We are positioned to offer localised customer support and technical expertise across the region."

Voyager Networks is targeting the mid-market contact centre space having joined forces with Enghouse Interactive as a Silver Partner in its EMEA channel programme.

Voyager Networks will offer the Enghouse Interactive Communications Centre (EICC) and the Quality Management Suite (QMS).

Peter Howells, Director, Voyager Networks, said: "We have a strong horizontal capability in networks, network security and the overlying collaborative application layer coupled with a vertical footprint in the housing, academies and construction sectors.

"Partnering with Enghouse strengthens our presence and capability in these markets."

Nimans is holding a series of two-day engineering courses offering Samsung WLAN training programmes that include site surveys, protocols, system troubleshooting and software.

Nimans says the WLAN market grew by up to 30% last year, with the £250m UK sector accelerating much faster than the PBX arena.

Samsung's WLAN solution has been developed from the ground up based on making adoption simple, and features just two main components - Access Points and their Controllers.

Paul Burn, Nimans' Head of Category Sales, said reseller support resources have now been tripled by the distributor to cater for the continued high demand.

"We are still at the very early stages of the WLAN journey and it's really captured the imagination of our customers," he said.

"Ever-increasing reliance on smartphones, tablets and watches is driving growth. Some 45 million devices were manufactured for the UK market last year with WiFi a key connectivity component."

He added: "We've already created a massive response and more exciting times are ahead. There's unlimited potential for resellers and we're here to help them every step of the way as part of our comprehensive WLAN portfolio."

Six Degrees Group (6DG) has been selected by Cintra HR and Payroll Services to host its integrated HR and Payroll product Cintra iQ, saving it thousands in security costs.

In line with the launch of Cintra iQ, Cintra required a new hosting provider with full disaster recovery that would be more effective than their existing on-premise solution.

By hosting the new product in the cloud, Cintra decided they could provide customers with improved 'mix and match' capabilities, as such a solution would allow simultaneous log-in to one centralised platform.

Carsten Staehr, CEO of Cintra, commented: With our launch of Cintra iQ SaaS we conducted research into the optimum hosting solution. It needed to be cost effective and flexible but more importantly tick all the boxes in relation to compliance, data protection, disaster recovery and business continuity.

"HR and Payroll data is highly sensitive, so these issues are of paramount importance to us and our clients. Another key factor in our decision was the guarantee that the solution was, and always would be, hosted in the UK."

Six Degrees Group's (6DG) growth ambitions have been boosted by a £12m organic investment programme.

The additional capital investment comes six months after funds managed by Charlesbank Capital Partners acquired 6DG with the goal of building the UK's largest mid-market managed services provider.

With plans to recruit 50 people 6DG will be building and developing its sales, marketing and customer service teams, among others, to service its growing customer and partner base.

The £12m investment for growth is a purely organic play designed to complement 6DG's ongoing ambitious acquisition agenda.

Alastair Mills, CEO of 6DG, commented: "We want to own the mid-market. We now employ 400 people, have over 2,000 customers and own a comprehensive technology infrastructure. Now we are making a recruitment investment as we look to bring the best talent in our industry to fuel our future growth."

Channel investment company MXC Capital has agreed to cornerstone a placing of new ordinary shares in Castle Street Investments (CSI), an AIM quoted cash shell, in conjunction with CSI's proposed acquisition of Selection Services Investments, a provider of IT solutions and cloud services.

This acquisition kicks off a buy and build in the IT solutions and cloud services sector supported by organic growth.

Selection is an established business with £35 million of revenues, 65% of which are recurring. The acquisition represents a platform acquisition to start a buy and build in the IT solutions and cloud services sector, with a focus on the fragmented smaller end of the market.

MXC is investing £12.9 million out of a total placing of £30 million, amounting to 24.9% of the enlarged share capital of CSI.

The Placing was more than 2x oversubscribed and supported by high quality institutional investors.

In addition, MXC has been granted, subject to certain vesting conditions, evergreen warrants over 5% of the enlarged share capital of CSI at a price of 30 pence per CSI share, with subsequent adjustment to reflect any further equity issues.

CSI will acquire Selection on a debt free basis and will have £16.5 million of available cash resources and terms agreed on a debt facility of £7 million to support its strategy.

Peter Rigg, Chairman of MXC, said: "I am delighted to announce the second IPO led by MXC. The experience and skills of MXC in the sector will again be at the disposal of the Board of CSI in creating shareholder value. The transaction demonstrates the MXC model at work - identifying the opportunity, advising on the transaction, securing the funding - in this case twice over subscribed - and then adding the operational management experience to drive the buy and build opportunity. It's a good start to the year for us."

Following the Re-Admission of CSI to trading on AIM MXC will have a portfolio of six quoted investments and five private investments.

The Transaction is conditional upon the passing of resolutions by shareholders of CSI at a general meeting to be held on 20 January 2016, with admission of the enlarged share capital to trading on AIM expected on 21 January 2016.

Selection reported EBITDA of £3.3 million in the year ended 30 June 2015 and, as result of its capital structure (including bank debt and loan notes as is typical of a private equity owned business), a loss before tax of £1 million.

As at 30 June 2015, it had net liabilities of £24.9 million which included net debt of £20.4 million.