Comms Dealer

Interoute has launched a cloud hosted contact centre add-on for hosted Microsoft Skype for Business and Microsoft Lync.

"Interoute Hosted Contact Centre helps companies enhance their call or contact centre services by leveraging the features of the popular Microsoft enterprise collaboration suite using Interoute's global and private networked cloud," said Mark Lewis, VP for Communications & Connectivity at Interoute.

Interoute's solution offers organisations with remote and office based users secure access to Microsoft certified SIP trunking with global telephony routing and call recording; natively integrated extension to Skype for Business and Lync with per agent pricing; the Lync/Skype for Business presence mechanism to instantly see if a relevant in-house expert is online and available; IM routing for chat support with the ability to mix and move between chat and voice sessions; and standardised call flows to meet typical customer requirements.

"Contact centres have tended to be stuck behind the times when it comes to integrating with the collaborative ways people today communicate within a business," added Lewis.

"Interoute's offering turns this on its head, saving time for IT teams and putting users in control."

In a Q1 2016 trading update (ended 31st October 2015) Softcat has reported revenues for the period up 14% on the prior year to £141m, compared to £124m in Q1 2015, with period-on-period growth evident in both customer numbers and revenue per customer.

Gross profit margin was broadly in line with the 2015 financial year, and business mix across solutions offerings and customer segments remained stable.

Martin Hellawell, Chief Executive Officer, commented: "The company's performance over the first quarter provides a firm foundation on which to begin life as a public company.

"The team has worked incredibly hard against the backdrop of the completion of our IPO and I would like to thank them for continuing to focus on the business despite this significant additional undertaking.

"I would like to welcome our new investors to Softcat, and thank the shareholders who have supported the company and its growth to this point."

Softcat admitted its ordinary shares to the Official List of the FCA and to trading on the main market of the London Stock Exchange on 18th November 2015.

According to a new report by Frost & Sullivan the European MPLS/IP VPN market earned revenues of more than $7.02bn in 2014 and estimates this to reach $14.63bn in 2020 at a compound annual growth rate of 13%.

"MPLS has higher flexibility and scalability than other networking technologies," said Frost & Sullivan Digital Transformation Research Analyst Shuba Ramkumar.

"With MPLS, it is easier for customers to add new sites to their existing networks thereby enabling any-to-any connectivity.

"Additionally, as MPLS/Internet protocol virtual private network (IP VPN) services are fully managed by the service provider, enterprises do not have to deal with the challenges of routing and managing complex networks.

"With customers migrating to MPLS VPNs, focus is increasing on tools that monitor network and application performance.

"These tools are critical for successful MPLS/IP VPN implementation as customers seek greater transparency over the applications they wish to run on the network."

Although MPLS/IP VPN has proved a winning combination, the economic advantage offered by standalone IP VPN, along with the opportunity it provides to enable additional security, is expected to emerge as a competitive threat to MPLS VPN, noted Ramkumar.

"In locations where Ethernet is available, it is emerging as a viable option for enterprises' any-to-any connectivity needs," added Ramkumar.

"Nevertheless, the ability of MPLS/IP VPNs to function using any kind of access technology, unlike virtual private local area network (LAN) services (VPLS) that require Ethernet in all locations, has been crucial in reducing the effect of VPLS on MPLS revenues. MPLS and VPLS will continue to co-exist in enterprise wide area network (WAN)."

Meanwhile, enterprises have been accelerating the migration of mission-critical applications to the cloud, and this is intensifying the demand for MPLS/IP VPN connections.

Service providers are capitalising on the growing need for secure cloud connectivity by building secure MPLS-based network connections into internal or third-party data centres.

"Secure access to cloud services is central to ensuring reliable cloud environments," added Ramkumar. "Being a managed private network, MPLS/IP VPN is the preferred mode of cloud connectivity for enterprises."

Outsourcery has been formally accepted onto the seventh round of G-Cloud, the procurement framework established to simplify the public sector's move to cloud services and ensure best value from suppliers.

Outsourcery has added new services across the Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and Specialist Cloud Services (SCS) lots on the framework.

These new services bring additional capability and will enable public sector bodies to take advantage of hybrid cloud models and access the full suite of Outsourcery's cloud-based Unified Communications and infrastructure services.

These include Skype for Business, Microsoft Office 365, end-to-end cloud migration services and Outsourcery's highly-resilient, enterprise-grade IaaS solution to help organisations to quickly test and deploy their applications.

Piers Linney, co-CEO of Outsourcery, commented: "The public sector is making good headway in its move to cloud services, helped, in no small part, by procurement frameworks like G-Cloud.

"At the last count, the framework had amassed more than £800 million in sales since it was established in April 2012, which is a significant achievement. In opening up the Digital Marketplace to SME cloud providers, G-Cloud has gone a long way to driving competition and innovation in public sector IT procurement, delivering better value for taxpayers' money and improved services.

"There is, however, work yet to be done to support the public sector's move to cloud. As budget restrictions continue to bite, cloud offers a viable solution to help public sector organisations streamline their IT and only pay for what they need."

Maintel has been appointed as a supplier on the Government's Digital Marketplace G-Cloud 7 framework, securing a place on the Software-as-a-Service lot for Maintel Cloud.

Maintel Cloud, powered by Mitel, is a flexible and scalable cloud-based communications service enabling organisatIons to achieve successful business transformation.

Maintel Cloud offers a number of communications features including unified communications (IP telephony, instant messaging, presence and desktop video), mobility, teleworking, collaboration (audio, video and web conferencing) and contact centre functionality.

Eddie Buxton, CEO of Maintel Group said: "Earlier this year Maintel was selected as a supplier in the Government's Network Services framework and our inclusion in the G-Cloud 7 framework is another endorsement of our dedication to delivering business transformation in the public sector.

"Being recognised as a supplier for cloud services will give us the opportunity to extend our existing relationship with the public sector. We are delighted to be playing an important role in the drive to transform public sector IT."

Zynstra has rolled out a new range of cloud managed server appliance products that the firm says can bring TCO savings of up to 60%.

Organisations with single or multiple sites can access hyper converged server technology delivered as-a-service and managed from the cloud.

Zynstra's technology has been designed for the IT Service Provider, enabling them to deploy, maintain and manage any number of customer's on-site servers centrally from the cloud, coupled with an economic model that delivers the recurring revenue that customers and service providers are looking for.

"As an established fully managed cloud provider, we recognised that a full cloud Hosted solution was not always the best fit for some of our customers," said Jim Weston, Director of Infrastructure Services at Castle Computer Services, a UK based IT Service Provider.

"We felt there was a gap in our portfolio between locally hosted on-premise and fully hosted solutions.

"Zynstra provides a hybrid solution that not only completes our portfolio but provides the ideal solution for many of our valued customers."

Zynstra's four new cloud managed server appliances run on HPE's Proliant Gen9 hardware and deliver modular and integrated storage, compute, and network capabilities.

"Our partners frequently need to manage servers, on one or many sites, that can't be moved to large centrally hosted data centers for reasons of security, performance, cost, or control," said Nick East, CEO and founder, Zynstra.

"We make it possible for them to offer a secure and reliable as-a-service solution to their customers, with recurring revenue, cloud integration, and cloud management."

Plantronics has started a legal action in the English High Court against Manchester-based Digiphone and two of its directors, Thang Phan and Thaison Ngan, in their personal capacities. The claim relates to sales by Digiphone of unauthorised non-European Plantronics headsets bearing counterfeit labels and packaging.

According to the claim, Plantronics first became aware of Digiphone's dealings back in January 2013 and as a result undertook investigations lasting more than 18 months, with a number of test purchases confirming Plantronics' initial suspicions.

The parties have been unable to resolve their differences and the dispute is now heading to the courts.

"We are keen to ensure a level playing field for all our resellers," stated Paul Dunne, Head of UK & Ireland Channels, Plantronics.

"Until we started this activity, they have faced ever-growing competition from dealers who choose to run the risks of being supplied unauthorised or counterfeit goods by buying from outside the authorised channels.

"Those who prefer to buy through our authorised European distributors don't run such risks. We want the market and our customers to know that we have a zero tolerance attitude to any dealings in illegal or counterfeit Plantronics goods.

"They need to be confident that if it bears our badge, it comes from us, has passed the relevant legislative tests and can be sold legally in the market."

A new cloud-based recording function for Skype for Business launched by TeleWare incorporates compliant voice recording with Interactive Voice Response (IVR) and enterprise class voicemail.

"The solution captures and analyses call data, helping users to gain a deeper insight into their business. The result is improved employee engagement, businesses agility, process efficiency and customer satisfaction," said Steve Haworth, CEO of Teleware Group.

He claims the enhancement addresses some of the limitations of the off-the-shelf offerings. 

"A number of existing customers have come to us looking for a recording solution that they can use within their Skype for Business interface.

"This new offering allows businesses to integrate additional functions to enhance the core product. It is integrated into the existing network infrastructure and requires little investment, making it an easy and cost effective solution to deploy."

According to Haworth the real value of this enhancement is through the analysis of the call data captured.

"This business insight is translated into valuable information that can be used to train and coach staff to provide a better customer experience. Ultimately, improving productivity, increasing revenue and lowering costs," he added.

"TeleWare's analytics solution provides productivity and performance reports, giving complete visibility of the customer journey. "

TeleWare's cloud-based voice recording solution allows customers to record voice calls through their Skype for Business interface. The solution is fully FCA and Dodd-Frank compliant.

Enterprise class voicemail is a device-agnostic application that provides a list of voicemails by contact and time. 

The IVR application enables businesses to offer alternative contact options, including call-back, email and SMS, eliminating caller waiting time and abandoned calls.

Also introduced is an Intelligent Number function, a non-geographic number that travels with, and is associated to the user rather than a device, meaning that the number can be accessed on any device, fixed or mobile, around the globe.

Arkadin, a NTT Communications company that provides Unified Communications and Collaboration services, has been named a launch partner for new Skype for Business meetings and voice services in Office 365.

Arkadin will serve as a key resource for driving the rollout of the new services.

Didier Jaubert, Arkadin's Chief Products and Partnership Officer, said:" As a subsidiary of one of the world's largest telecoms companies, with global voice architecture and integration capabilities, we can help customers reduce the costs and complexity associated with voice deployments.

"Arkadin offers clients a single source for deploying Office 365 as a business class phone system, contact centre and conferencing platform delivered in the cloud."

Bill Haskins, Senior Analyst & Partner at Wainhouse Research, added: "Microsoft's introduction of the new services makes this version of Office 365 the most complete, enterprise-ready release of the productivity suite ever.

"Implementing PSTN conferencing and PBX functionality requires specific expertise to provision, manage, and successfully onboard customers. Arkadin has deep experience and the right skill set required to provide audio, video and web conferencing, telephony, help desk, network and IT expertise."

VoIP distributor ProVu has added three new snom D series models to its portfolio. The snom D375, D710 and D765 models are now in stock and available to order.

ProVu's Sales Director, Ian Godfrey, said: "We have been distributing snom phones for over 10 years now and this latest range builds on its reputation for both innovation and reliability.

"The style and improved functionality of the D series together with competitive pricing makes it an attractive desk phone for business use."

He noted that the range of D models - from the D710 entry level phone to the D765 and D375 executive level phones - offer resellers a solution for all business applications.

"For resellers who are already familiar with the snom range of IP phones, the new D series features a distinct advantage by using a common design, proven firmware and a faster processor that delivers faster operation of the function keys," added Godfrey.

"Through ProVu's reseller portal ProSys, snom resellers can easily add configuration settings to their orders and have phones automatically provisioned to work out of the box."

To date, ProVu has successfully provisioned over 250,000 phones.