Comms Dealer

Voiceflex's search for a UC hosted offering is over following the firm's adoption of GENBAND's NUVIA application. 

"While it's imperative for us to offer value-added business services like WebRTC and collaboration we can't sacrifice performance for features," said Voiceflex Sales & Marketing Director Paul Taylor.

"When we started looking at a potential hosted provider we set our expectations high and we did see some great products. I am delighted to have GENBAND on board."

GENBAND's Nuvia UCaaS solution is backed by its carrier-grade technology and helps businesses of any size cost-effectively replace legacy assets with business-class cloud-based unified communications solutions.
 
GENBAND's route to market with NUVIA is via service providers only, while Voiceflex reaffirmed its commitment to the channel only model.
 

Five of Cisco's UK partners have been commended by the vendor at its annual London Partner Forum, where the top performers collected their awards in the following categories:

Cisco Innovation in Revenue Marketing - Cisilion
Cisco Partner Plus Partner - Natilik
Cisco Commercial Customer Case Study - Modern Networks
Cisco Rising Star Commercial Partner - avsnet
Cisco Cross Architecture Commercial Partner - Capita IT Enterprise Services

The Cisco Partner Forum this year focused on how digitisation will redefine industries and generate new customer opportunities for the channel. England Rugby World Cup winner, Will Greenwood, was the guest speaker, discussing how the partner community can embrace a winning state of mind.
 
"It's been a fantastic 12 months once again working with so many well-respected and industry-leading channel partners and distributors," said Richard Roberts, Managing Director, Partner & Commercial Sales, UK and Ireland, Cisco.

"This year's winners rank highly on this list, and it's our true pleasure to recognise their commitment to innovation, excellence and the quality of execution as Cisco award winners."

Wetherby-based Oriium has appointed a Sales Director, Steve Maltby, and a Financial Director, Katy Hogg.
 
Maltby has much sales experience with global corporations, government organisations and the NHS, and joins from EMIS.
 
Hogg's experience includes stints at PricewaterhouseCoopers and Wolseley.

Oriium is also recruiting a marketing team.

The recruitment drive follows Ryan McCarry's appointment as chairman in June, who bought a 15% stake in the business.
 
The business currently employs a team of 35, initially launching with just two founding members of staff, and re-located to larger premises in Wetherby at the end of last year.
 
Chris Kiaie, MD, said: "Katy and Steve join Oriium from large corporates and bring a wealth of experience. These roles are crucial as we push on with our continued growth this year."
 
Hogg added: "Oriium is growing rapidly and has impressive credentials. This a great opportunity to take a relatively young company into an important development phase."
 
Maltby said: "The new roles are a real chance to make a difference to the business and I am looking forward to the many opportunities that we are already exploring with major global partners."

Commsworld has successfully delivered Internet connectivity to major sporting events and festivals in Scotland over the summer in collaboration with SSE Enterprise Telecoms.

While demand for bandwidth has grown, so too has the installed-base of Commsworld's Fluency network which it acquired in 2012.

To guarantee its customers had access to fast and reliable Internet access Commsworld called on SSE Enterprise Telecoms to increase the capacity of its optical wavelengths quickly, without compromising the quality of the service.

The Fluency network now boasts greater capacity on its national routes between Edinburgh, London and Manchester. This extra capacity not only accommodates organic growth, it also enables Commsworld to cope with peaks in demand from major events without risking network congestion.

"We have experienced rapid growth in recent years and now supply internet access to a number of leading events across Scotland and beyond," said Charlie Boisseau, CTO of Commsworld. "Supplying significant bandwidth requirements to festivals and other popular sporting events means that we need flexible optical backhaul providers on-board that can allow us to meet huge peaks in demand without causing network congestion.

"Having worked closely with SSE Enterprise Telecoms for many years we were confident that scaling our optical network as and when needed would be quick and painless."

Colin Sempill, MD of SSE Enterprise Telecoms, said: "The summer can be a busy time for any company that counts major sporting events and festivals as clients.

"With our agile network in place, Commsworld can easily accommodate peaks in demand for its services."

Sennheiser has unveiled a new headset solution providing users of its CIRCLE and CENTURY wired headsets with increased mobility and flexibility.

The new headset solution, which is certified for Skype for Business, consists of Sennheiser's new USB-ED CC 01 MS adapter cable in combination with Sennheiser's CIRCLE and CENTURY headset variants.

It enables a smooth and cost-effective transition to Unified Communications environments and ensures increased mobility and flexibility for contact centre, office and hot desking employees.

"By complementing their existing CIRCLE and CENTURY headsets with Sennheiser's new adapter cable, organisations can now simplify their transition to a Unified Communications solution and maximise their return on previous investments," said Lars Riis Rasmussen, Vice President of Sales and Marketing, EMEA, at Sennheiser Communications.

Giovanni Mezgec, General Manager of Applications and Services Marketing at Microsoft, added: "The introduction of the latest certified headset solution will make life easier for many Skype for Business users. In addition, Sennheiser's sound quality and wearing comfort will provide our mutual customers with a rich communication experience."

Version 3 of MyPhones.com's Altos Phone Buddy incorporates a range of new productivity and contact features based on the Altos hosted platform on Windows PCs and laptops.

Altos Phone Buddy is a free application for all Altos subscribers who use Windows-based office systems. The app runs in the background, providing easy access to the Altos user portal, as well as screen popups when new calls, voicemails or faxes arrive.

"The original Altos Phone Buddy showed you who was calling, let you listen to voicemails and read faxes, and made it easier to log in to the user portal," said Simon Gregory, Technical Director and software engineer with MyPhones.com.

"We've brought Altos Phone Buddy right up to date, compatible with the latest versions of Windows and with modern presence and text-based communication features.

"Altos Phone Buddy 3 harnesses the power of the Altos platform, giving end users direct access to useful features in the portal, such as contact directories, better integration with external CRM services, and new ways to contact people - without having to log on to the portal or remember fiddly handset codes."

Additional communications features in Altos Phone Buddy 3 include text messaging, email, alerts and instant messaging chat sessions, as well as the ability to leave voicemail messages or make calls with Click-2-Talk and Clipboard Dialling.

The new presence feature shows if an end user is online and allows them to set their status to indicate whether they are available, busy or away from their desk.

A new floating dashboard allows users to keep the whole of Altos Phone Buddy 3 positioned on their PC or laptop screen.

The dashboard shows the day's phone activity: the calls that need to be returned, the voicemails waiting to be heard and the texts and alerts to be read.

It enables users to quickly to update their presence, access their telephone directories and make calls, and to divert their handset to voicemail or to another number.

"Altos Phone Buddy 3 has generated a lot of interest among the resellers we have shown it to during the testing phase," said Simon Gregory. "We are looking forward to more feedback now the application has been released to help us enhance it still further."

Trovus, a Logicalis company and provider of analytics dashboard solutions, has formed a strategic partnership with international business analytics firm SAS, joining its Alliance programme.

Ed Charvet, Head of Information Insights Business Unit at Logicalis, and formerly managing director of Trovus, said: "In many organisations, responsibility for data is still unclear. The tug of war between IT and line of business leaders is a common experience. Trovus and Logicalis talk the language of both. We can engage all stakeholders, ensure the seamless integration of data throughout the business, and help business leaders mine data insights.

"It's a top to bottom approach that maximises the effectiveness of a data strategy, allowing organisations to quickly identify and action the insights that enable transformation and create competitive advantage."

Richard Bradbury, SAS' Alliances Director in the UK, added: "When searching for partners we look for companies with both the right level of expertise and a fundamental understanding of analytics that will help end users create better, more informed business decisions. 

"Logicalis' global market reach and heritage in retail, financial, public and professional services are also industries for which SAS is committed to developing sector specific solutions."

Managed services company IT Specialists (ITS) has secured a contract to provide financial mutual Wesleyan and its team of financial advisers with IT support and services, whether they are working from home or travelling up and down the country.

Peter Wren, Head of IT at Wesleyan, said: "With a team of 400 financial consultants across the UK, it is vital they have access to IT support wherever they are in the country. This partnership with ITS enables us to provide a level of cover and support that will benefit both our staff and customers."

Matt Kingswood, Head of UK operations at ITS, added: "Nationwide IT support is highly important to information-based businesses such as Wesleyan, where loss of data would have a significant and negative business impact.

"We are delighted to support Wesleyan's remote workers with our break-fix service whereby we troubleshoot issues with laptops and other hardware."

"Our services are designed to fill the IT management overhead gap many SMEs experience. We can effectively cover the hours the business demands, support multiple locations and provide the skills necessary for comprehensive IT support.

"This allows the business to focus on its core competencies rather than on troubleshooting issues or managing a server infrastructure in the cloud."

Despite the Government's Cloud First strategy only 2% of public sector IT managers see their sector as highly pro-cloud according to research by UK cloud services provider Redcentric.

Technology obsolescence is what is really driving over half of the public sector to move to the cloud and three quarters of public sector IT managers claim that they are only taking their first tentative steps on their cloud journey, suggesting that they need to become more confident about their cloud approach and ensure they are taking the right route.

The findings of the research, conducted by Vanson Bourne, suggest that the public sector's tentativeness in adopting the cloud could be due to not fully understanding the benefits it can deliver.

The public sector's most common approach to cloud adoption, cited by 40%, was using standardised 'off the shelf' services offered by cloud providers, compared to around half of private sector respondents saying that they prefer tailor-made cloud packages to suit their individual IT needs.

Off the shelf cloud email services was by far the most common 'first use' of cloud in the public sector - for 46% of respondents.

'Gaining internal sponsorship' was the most common reason for a delayed cloud journey, for 40% of respondents.

An uncertain perception of cloud in the public sector appears to hold their journey back and could be the reason why many organisations in the sector are still in their early cloud stages, despite initiatives like G-Cloud being in place for three years.

Nine out of ten IT managers in the public sector say that the biggest concern in cloud adoption is integrating cloud services, showing this to be another predominant reason why the public sector may hesitate in implementing the cloud or prefer an off the shelf approach.

The public sector's most common diversion to their cloud journey - for 38% - is internal cost-cutting, despite this also being their top reason for moving to the cloud in the first place. This shows that despite much of the public sector moving to the cloud to reduce costs, further cost-cutting actually halts the cloud journey, showing that the sector's frugality could in fact work as a cloud hindrance.

The most popular ultimate cloud destination for the public sector, stated by a third, was 'a pick and mix' of cloud services for specific applications, suggesting that the public sector are most likely to cherry pick services in the cloud rather than moving their entire IT estate. Therefore, many public sector IT decision makers see the need to select specific cloud services to suit different areas of the IT environment.

Data sovereignty is the public sector's top cloud concern, with 54% saying that the most important service related factor when moving to the cloud is knowing where their data is held.

Andy Mills, Group Sales Director at Redcentric commented on the findings: "The public sector is under extra pressure to acquire the right cloud solution, as many organisations are currently using outdated technology and are pressed with adopting the cloud quickly.

"To make the journey efficiently, IT managers must ensure that they determine what they want from a cloud provider so that it best suits their needs. Due diligence is key, make sure that you check the references of cloud providers that you are considering, to ensure you select a reputable vendor.

"It is vital that IT departments engage the wider organisation at the start of their cloud journey to reduce the disconnect that we've observed between IT and service owners.

"This can often lead to costly delays. Every organisation is unique and therefore has a different set of cloud requirements that can be met by tailored solutions.

"By working across the organisation, understanding the breadth of options available to them and choosing a solution that is the right fit, public sector organisations can conduct their cloud journey with far more confidence of success."

Redcentric interviewed 200 IT decision makers from the public and private sector in spring 2015. All respondents had either adopted a cloud strategy or were planning to in the near future.

Network security firm ANSecurity has partnered with PulseSecure, a new company formed out of Juniper Networks to develop and market its SSL-VPN, security, and network access control solutions (formerly known as Junos Pulse).

Pulse Secure also acquired MobileSpaces a provider of mobile security solutions for iOS and Android operating systems.

David Hood, MD of ANSecurity, said: "The team at PulseSecure are putting so much investment behind the development of their technology and we're excited to see what's going to happen with it over the next few years.

"Prior to the formation of Pulse Secure, we sold Junos Pulse as an Elite Juniper Partner for many years, and we have delivered that technology to a number of clients across numerous sectors. It's that knowledge of how these systems can be deployed for our clients that makes a partnership so beneficial for both ANSecurity and PulseSecure."

John Mitchell, PulseSecure EMEA Partner Director, added: "ANSecurity has a long history of delivering the remote access security solutions that Pulse Secure provides.

"We are continuing to build out the product portfolio in order to help our customers meet their changing security requirements as a result of the cloud, mobile and Internet of Things."