Comms Dealer

The Twin Town Challenge 2016 has almost reached its 100 car limit and STL Communications MD Brendon Cross, the event organiser, has urged anyone wanting to take part to act fast and register now.

Last year 50 cars costing just £500 invaded France in a fun filled points based challenge to raise money for SpecialEffect. Next year organisers are doubling the event and taking 100 cars with the aim of raising twice as much for the charity.

Registrations are now open for the 2016 Twin Town Challenge which will see 100 cars costing £500 drive from Witney to its twin town of Le Touquet over a bank holiday weekend. Departing from the majestic setting of Blenheim Palace, the cars will travel to Brands Hatch for some driving challenges before heading to the tunnel and a civic reception in Le Touquet. The weekend will also include a visit to the Criox en Ternois circuit, a street party with live bands, a 'money can't buy auction' and a celebration event back at the finish in Oxfordshire .

Organiser Brendon Cross, MD of STL Communications, said: "The 2014 event raised £130,000 for SpecialEffect and made such a huge difference to this small charity. Couple that with the demand from teams to repeat the event, we decided to take 100 cars and raise £250,000 Businesses and groups of individuals can enter a team of up to four people."

SpecialEffect is an Oxfordshire-based charity that puts fun and inclusion back into the lives of people with physical disabilities by helping them to play video games.

Nick Streeter of SpecialEffect commented: "The twin Town Challenge was the biggest ever donation we have ever had and it has enabled us to employ another Occupational therapist, set up an assessment room and to help more people beat their physical disabilities to enjoy video games."

Sponsors for the 2016 event already include Gamma, Oak, Bridle and Focus who have given generously so that all the costs are covered, meaning that every penny given by the teams goes straight to the charity.

Cross added: "I am grateful to some of STL's friends and supporters for their very valuable support in sponsoring the 2016 event."

The Twin Town Challenge 2016 will take place from 27th to 30th May 2016. With places limited to 100 cars, businesses and individuals are being encouraged to register at www.twintown16.co.uk in order to guarantee a place on the starting grid.

To find out more visit www.twintown16.co.uk or contact the organisers on 01993 220666

We are delighted to announce the finalists for the 2015 Comms National Awards.

"The judges have deliberated long and hard to select this year's shortlist and we owe a debt of gratitude to them for the hard work and diligence they have demonstrated throughout the process," said Comms Dealer Editorial Director Nigel Sergent.

"The volume of entries this year was unprecedented - 30% up on last year - which demonstrates the esteem in which the Comms National Awards are held. The judges were also impressed with the quality of the award entries which seem to improve year on year. Those who did not make the shortlist it will be disappointed, but they will compensated by the fact that the standards were so high."

The finalists will now assemble at the imposing Grand Connaught Rooms in London's Covent Garden for the glittering 2015 Comms National Awards ceremony, sponsored by Nine Wholesale, where the winners and highly commended entries will be unveiled.

To book your table at the industry night of the year contact Simon Turton on 01895 454603 or 07759 731134 or vial email sturton@bpl-business.com

COMMS NATIONAL AWARDS 2015 SHORTLIST

VENDOR AWARDS

Network Category

Best Mobile Network Provider

O2

VODAFONE

Best Fixed Line Network Provider

BT WHOLESALE

ENTANET

GAMMA

GCI

VIRTUAL 1

VOICEFLEX

Service Provider Category under £10m

Best Wholesale Service Provider (under £10m t/o)

CHANNEL TELECOM

FIDELITY GROUP

GENIUS NETWORKS

MARSTONS TELECOMS

VAIONI

VOICEFLEX

VOICEHOST

ZEST 4

Service Provider Category over £10m

Best Wholesale Service Provider (above £10m t/o)

CHESS PARTNER SERVICES

DAISY WHOLESALE

ENTANET

GCI CHANNEL SOLUTIONS

HIGHNET

NIMANS NETWORK SERVICES

VIATEL

VIRTUAL 1

Best ISP

ECLIPSE

ENTANET

GAMMA

HIGHNET

SPITFIRE

VENUS

ZEN INTERNET

Mobile Data Category (Sponsored by O2)

Best Mobile/Mobile Data Wholesale Service Provider

2CIRCLES

ARKESSA

COMMS 365

PANGEA

PLAN

WIRELESS LOGIC

Telephony Category

Best SME On Premise System

3CX

ERICSSON LG

GCI CHANNEL SOLUTIONS

PANASONIC

SNOM

Best Enterprise On Premise System

3CX

ERICSSON LG

IP CORTEX

Best End Point or Device

ERICSSON LG

JABRA

SENNHEISER

Best Hosted Platform

BT WHOLESALE

CONTENT GURU

DAISY WHOLESALE

GAMMA

IP CORTEX

MYPHONES

SPITFIRE

THE VOICE FACTORY

Software & Application Category (sponsored by Spitfire)

Best Call Management Solution

BCS GLOBAL

CONTENT GURU

ENGHOUSE INTERACTIVE

IP CORTEX

TOLLRING

XARIOS

Best Billing Platform

ANVIL

EBILLZ

INFORM BILLING

PLAN

TMS

UNION STREET

Support Category (sponsored by Voiceflex)

Best Convergence Distributor

EXERTIS

NIMANS

PRAGMA

PROVU

SIPHON NETWORKS LTD

WESTCON UC

Best Mobile Distributor

DAISY DISTRIBUTION

PLAN

TECH DATA

TOTAL

Best Installer/Maintainer

AGILITAS

COMMSCARE

EXERTIS

RESELLER AWARDS

Contact Centre Category

Best SME Contact Centre Solution

ANTHEUS TELECOM

BDR VOICE & DATA

FRONTIER VOICE & DATA

IP SOLUTIONS

TRUE TELECOM

Best Enterprise Contact Centre Solution

ANTHEUS TELECOM

BDR VOICE & DATA

BRITANNIC TECHNOLOGIES

CALLSTREAM

COGNIA

IP INTEGRATION

Vertical Market Category (sponsored by Union St)

Best SME Vertical Market Solution

CHARTERHOUSE VOICE & DATA

CLOUDSOURCE TECHNOLOGIES

ECLIPSE INTERNET

GHM COMMUNICATIONS

GREENFIELDS

INCOM

SOLUTION IP

Best Enterprise Vertical Market Solution

CHARTERHOUSE VOICE & DATA

CISILION

CONTENT GURU

EXCELL GROUP

FOCUS

NG BAILEY

QDOS

Mobile Solutions Category (sponsored by O2)

Best SME Mobile/Mobile Data Solution

COMMS 365

EXSEL

iDATA

SAS

Best Enterprise Mobile/Mobile Data Solution

ASL

COMMS 365

COMMS SOLVE

EXCELL GROUP

PANGEA

SAS

Hosted Category

Best SME Hosted Solution

ETHOS

GREENFIELDS

INFINITY IT SOLUTIONS

LA CONNECT

LILY COMMS

Best Enterprise Hosted Solution

ANNODATA

CALLSTREAM

INFINITY IT SOLUTIONS

Unified Comms Category (sponsored by Jabra)

Best SME UC Solution

EXSEL

FREEDOM

INCOM

LILY COMMS

MIDLAND NETWORKS

MPS

SOLAR COMMUNICATIONS

Best Enterprise UC Solution

AZZURRI

CHARTERHOUSE VOICE & DATA

CISILION

FREEDOM

INTERCITY TECHNOLOGY

SOUTHERN COMMUNICATIONS

Special Awards

Nine Customer Service Award

ICA

IP SOLUTIONS

LILY COMMS

PSU TECHNOLOGY GROUP

GCI MD John Whitty has moved to Solar Communications as CEO and will leverage his 30 years industry experience to develop the company's portfolio and technical expertise and drive transformational growth. Whitty led GCI during its transformation from a traditional comms provider to become a provider of cloud, hosted voice and connectivity managed services.

At Solar Communications Whitty is charged with replicating GCI's transformation by driving operational effectiveness and developing the company's market proposition.

He said: "The Solar board has provided a clear mandate of obtaining growth and service excellence. Given its significant, existing client base and dedication to service, Solar now has an excellent opportunity to become the service provider of choice for all client communications and ICT requirements."

Mark Colquhoun, founder and majority shareholder of Solar Communications, will be a director on the board and focus on the strategic growth through acquisitions, sourcing new business opportunities and key partnerships.

Colquhoun said: "John has a proven ability to drive transformational growth, with the kind of operational leadership experience that we need to realise Solar's ambitious plans."

Ben Marnham, Chairman of Solar Communications, added: "John's experience of growing businesses through organic and inorganic means, combined with his technical heritage, further strengthens our ability to execute on our strategic plan of building an exceptional managed services provider."

John Whitty began his career as an engineer in the British Army and has held various senior technical posts since then, including CTO at Pipex during an acquisitive and organic growth period prior to its disposal to TalkTalk and private equity acquirers. Whitty has an MSc in Data Communications.

Enterprise data security company Vormetric has appointed Chris Smith as EMEA Director of Channels.

Joining from Fortinet, and reporting directly to the company's vice president and general manager EMEA, Louise Bulman, he will have responsibility for overseeing all of Vormetric's EMEA channel activities.

Smith will be in charge of developing and driving Vormetric's existing channel programme in the region, with a focus on new partner recruitment and establishing solid go to market plans with existing and new partners across the UK and Europe.

"The relationships we share with our channel partners are of the utmost importance and vital to the continued success of our business," said Bulman. "As an all-channel company, the distributors and resellers we work with are the ones we rely on to bring our products to market and, crucially, close business deals every single day."

Smith previously served as head of Channel UK and Ireland at Kaspersky Lab and, before that, director channels Northern Europe at McAfee Security.

"Whether tokenisation, application encryption, cloud encryption gateway or third party key management and Teradata encryption solutions, Vormetric tackles today's most pressing data security challenges head-on," said Smith.

Former MD of audio conferencing company Worldwide Group Paul Bailey is in a stable condition in hospital following a crash during a charity motor show in Hal Farrug, Malta, which also left 26 spectators injured.

Bailey's £750,000 Porsche Spyder span out of control and ploughed through the safety barrier into the crowd. 

Bailey, 55, and his wife Selena each owned 45% of the private shares in Worldwide Group Holdings and sold the business to Daisy in 2012 for £28m.

Lynchwood-based Worldwide Group was founded in 2001 and reported revenues of £36.4m and EBITDA of £4m in 2011, before its acquisition.

Bailey also made the headlines when he became the first person to own the 'Holy Trinity of hypercars' - the McLaren P1, LaFerrari and Porsche 918.

Mitel has bolstered its sales operations in EMEA with the appointment of two new sales executives.

The appointments come as Mitel expands its cloud and integrated real-time communications offering across Western Europe.

Wolfram Fischer joins the vendor as Senior Vice President for EMEA, moving from Aruba Networks EMEA.

In a previous role he managed EMEA and APAC for Siemens Enterprise Communications; and worked at HP heading up the Professional Services Unit in EMEA, managing the Enterprise Hardware and Service Business in Germany and was worldwide head of sales for the HP Services Unit.

Mitel has also appointed Christian Fron as Vice President of Sales for the DACH region having previously been Managing Director of DeTeWe. Fron's role will supplement the existing sales leads in EMEA.

These appointments coincide with the simplication of Mitel's Western Europe sales structure.

Graham Bevington, Mitel's Chief Sales Officer, said: "We see the business communications market in EMEA as being on the verge of a technology revolution, as enterprises and carriers start to adopt new cloud-based and mobile services to drive their business.

"With over 25 years of experience, Wolfram Fischer and Christian Fron were selected based on their knowledge and expertise in the industry. They are the right choice to shape Mitel's transformation to real-time cloud and mobile solution providers."

Fischer said: "Mitel is primed to embrace the next evolution of real-time communications."

Fron added: "Moving to a DACH regional structure simplifies and leverages Mitel's best practice across the German speaking markets, ensuring our partners and customers have immediate access to the right specialists regardless of geography, and a more effective support network around developments in future technology trends."

Swyx telephony functions are now available for Skype for Business, meaning that all SwyxWare users who rely on Skype for Business (formerly Microsoft Lync) or Office 365 for messaging and collaboration can now take advantage of Swyx's enterprise telephony functions using Swyx Connector for Skype.

As an important part of the Swyx Client product family, the Swyx Connector for Skype offers access to a range of voice telephony features via Swyx and/or SIP phones using a common UC interface.

In addition, Skype licenses for basic and professional users can be replaced in favour of Swyx's more competitive pricing model.

The direct dialling out of Skype for Business, the synchronisation of presence information with SwyxWare and the access to the Skype Directory, are some of the key features included in the new client.

Also available in the Connector for Skype is choice of hot-keys, call handling (select, call transfer, hold, routing / forwarding, CLIR, call-waiting setting) and retrieval of voice mail.

"With the Swyx Connector for Skype, we have created the framework for a consistent user experience of Skype and Swyx applications for ongoing improvement of business processes, said Kai Froese, Director of Product Management at Swyx.

"The easy installation with Swyx for collaboration and telephony and also the support for additional functions such as fax or DECT, especially for the German market, all make the Swyx Connector for Skype attractive in an enterprise environment."

In addition to the Swyx Connector for Skype for Business, the latest SwyxWare release also contains other new enhancements including support for Windows 10 and support for additional third-party applications.

Reading-based Ultima Business Solutions has appointed Scott Dodds as CEO. He replaces former CEO and founder Max McNeill who becomes Chairman, taking on a more strategic role focused on acquisitions, recruitment and overseeing the move to a new HQ.

The shuffle signals the firm's impressive growth ambitions. McNeill stated: "We have taken the business from zero to £100m in just 25 years, and this has been achieved by purely organic growth without outside funding. We aim to hit £150m turnover in two years, breaking through the £200m barrier within five years.

"Ultima has recently made a number of significant investments to create a platform to take us to the next level, and we are positive that Scott will aid, and further strengthen, our future business success."

Dodds left Microsoft earlier this year to take on the role of VMWare's EMEA VP of Channels and Alliances, is set to take the helm at the business from 20 October.

Dodds added: "The relentless focus on delivering customer value through technology supported innovation and services has enabled Ultima to grow into a strong and trusted partner for customers and vendors alike.

"I am looking forward to playing a part in supporting this incredible Ultima team to continue to grow with its customers through the application of innovative technology and services."

Ultima celebrates its 25th anniversary this year and the company is set to launch a new website in the coming weeks, and has recently opened a new city office, five times bigger than its previous premises. The company has 350 employees and has also acquired a business park in Reading which will act as its HQ from 1st April 2016.

McNeill added: "With so much going on and the advent of the cloud, we are perfectly positioned for a significant surge in growth. Scott, with his immense skills, experience and knowledge of the market, is the perfect person to guide us to greater heights."

Avaya has expanded its executive team with the appointment of Morag Lucey as Chief Marketing Officer, with a remit to lead global marketing, including marketing communications and branding. She will report directly to President and CEO Kevin Kennedy.

"Morag is a smart, innovative business partner whose career spans more than 30 years in marketing, channels and general management within the technology and telecommunications space," said Kennedy. "Her proven history of increasing brand impact is exactly what Avaya needs to accelerate our position within the business communications software and services market category."

Lucey has a proven record of executing successful marketing strategy and programs that drive growth, improve and transform global brands, build for operational scale and create initiatives to quickly and efficiently support business momentum.

She comes to Avaya from her position as CEO of VirtualCMO, a marketing consulting firm focused on generating short term profitability and long term stability.

Prior to her CEO role, Lucey held top marketing positions at BAE Systems, serving as CMO, and at Convergys, serving as Senior Vice President of Global Marketing and Product Management.

Lucey said: "Contextual communication between companies and customers, or within the organisation itself, drives engagement, and engagement drives employee and customer satisfaction. I'm excited to be part of the team and look forward to driving Avaya's brand into new and existing markets."

Lucey has prior Avaya experience, having spent five years with the company as Vice President of EMEA Marketing and Vice President of Global Marketing and Channel Management for small and midmarket business solutions.

Hats off to avsnet for collecting Cisco's Rising Star Commercial Partner of the Year award at the networking firm's UK Partner Awards held on 1st October.

Graham Fry, Managing Director at avsnet, said: "avsnet is delighted that Cisco UK has so publicly recognised the value of avsnet's contribution to Cisco's ongoing success. I am particularly proud that Cisco has highlighted our 'exceptional work and quality of execution' and I'd like to thank the whole team at avsnet for their hard work and commitment, enabling us to achieve this.

"More and more businesses are looking for a trusted provider to meet all their collaboration needs and this award, along with our recent Cisco Master Collaboration certification, demonstrates that avsnet is positioned to provide complete ownership of any collaboration platform and the network it resides on."