Comms Dealer

The man at the centre of True Telecom's reinvigorated channel building campaign brings 35 years sales experience in the telecoms sector including senior management positions at BT Wholesale and BT Global Services where he was responsible for securing, managing and growing channel partners.

Incoming Head of Channel Sales Mark De Koster said: "My decades of channel experience will allow me to build and strengthen the True Telecom brand as a key channel player in the coming months."

Stuart Griffiths, CEO, added: "With Mark now a part of the team we can truly focus our efforts on dominating the channel. Mark's wealth of expertise will be invaluable when working with our new and existing partners, giving us an edge in terms of sales strategy."

8x8 Solutions has partnered with Entanet to give customers access to business grade connectivity that ensures reliable and high quality VoIP connections.

The partnership gives 8x8 Solutions' user base access to Entanet's own fully resilient national next generation network.

The infrastructure will provide robust connections and has multiple fail over routes to ensure continuity of service.

"Whether businesses operate from one single site or are based in multiple offices around the country, this partnership will allow them access to cost effective business class connectivity," said Kevin Scott-Cowell, CEO of 8x8 Solutions. "We are looking forward to bringing on board the skillset Entanet can offer our channel partners and customers."

Customers are able to choose between a variety of products. Options available include Ethernet in the First Mile (EFM), Generic Ethernet Access (GEA), IP VPN and Leased Lines.

Stephen Barclay, Sales Director at Entanet, added: "It's great to work with partners that are as passionate about their product as we are about ours.

"Working with 8x8 will be a great fit for us and we're looking forward to providing its partners and customers with connectivity for every eventuality."

Sennheiser has acquired several business units of Professional Audio Ltd (PAL) in Ireland.

Sennheiser already employs over 300 people at its manufacturing plant in Tullamore, where it produces headphones, headphone capsules, audiology products, studio monitors and products for the integrated systems sector.

"Ireland is an important market for us and we want to make sure that our customers there continue to be well supported," said Daniel Sennheiser, Sennheiser's CEO.

"Drawing business for this territory directly into our global operation means that we are able to offer the same level of service that we offer everywhere else in the world. At the same time, keeping key members of the existing team provides both consistency and familiarity."

PAL's Gerry Forde added: "PAL has worked with Sennheiser in Ireland for more than 25 years and we have enjoyed building the Sennheiser brand during this time. This latest development is a testament to Sennheiser's vision and commitment to Ireland."

Nimble Storage has extended its distribution agreement with Avnet from America to Europe.

Avnet is to offer the Nimble Adaptive Flash platform, along with SmartStack integrated infrastructure solutions to partners across the UK, Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Switzerland and Turkey.

The Nimble Adaptive Flash platform is used by more than 6,200 customers in over 50 countries.

In contrast to legacy and flash-only storage architectures and systems that are deployed and managed in disparate silos to support applications based on their unique characteristics and requirements, the Nimble Adaptive Flash platform offers a single storage architecture that dynamically caters to the needs of enterprise-wide workloads across performance, capacity, and data protection.

Nimble SmartStack integrated infrastructure solutions, based on Cisco UCS and Nimble CS-Series arrays, aim to offer enterprise customers an end-to-end tested and pre-validated reference architecture.

"We're experiencing strong demand and a rapid pace of customer adoption for SmartStack integrated infrastructure solutions, doubling customer implementations on a year-over-year basis," said Clare Loveridge, VP of sales for EMEA at Nimble Storage.

"We attribute some of this growth to the strength of the partnership we've had in place with Avnet over the past two years in North America."

Arrow Electronics is to provide cyber security solutions on a broader scale to the channel across Europe following a distribution agreement with FireEye.

"Cyber security solutions are a necessity for partners at the forefront of advising customers about their security or risk position," said Nik Churchley, Director of Channel Sales for EMEA at FireEye.

"In recent years we have seen a substantial increase in cyber threats across Europe against all types and sizes of businesses, and Arrow provides FireEye with broader reach into the channel to address this trend."

Under this new agreement, Arrow and FireEye will work together to solidify existing markets and enter new territories to access high growth sectors. 

Jesper Trolle, VP Sales, Marketing and Services, Arrow ECS EMEA, added. "FireEye's solutions will complement our approach to offer customers a complete security solution independent from the environment where it is needed."

Legacy technology is restricting the creation, targeting and distribution of revenue generating digital services, according to the results of a study of operator viewpoints conducted by Openet.

While operators want to target customers with personalised and relevant offers in real-time to drive upsell opportunities, they are let down by the inflexibility of existing systems, claimed the researchers.

The survey highlights the frustrations faced by operators who recognise the need for more real-time functions, better customer engagement and faster product development, but who cite a lack of BSS agility as their biggest barrier.

Operators now view VoIP and messaging OTTs as their fiercest competition in maximising the effectiveness of digital services, but 57 per cent of operators feel quite well prepared for the battle, citing their network as their key area of competitive advantage.

More than half the operators surveyed have tried to leverage real-time data to create targeted customer offers and services. However, the majority (70 per cent) confessed that they are either worse, or much worse, than OTTs at personalised customer engagement.

In the survey of 101 operators, large-scale billing transformation projects that take too long, and the problems of trying to adapt legacy systems to cater for digital services were cited as the largest hindrances in the move to digital. 37 per cent see the biggest challenge for operators in 2016 as the need to become more agile, reducing product lifecycles and getting more products and services to market in a shorter time period.

"These findings highlight a real mismatch between positive intentions from the operator community to leverage all the advantages of targeted, real-time offers and the technical realties of making it happen," said Barry Marron, GVP Marketing, Openet. "In an age of virtualised BSS technology, technology need no longer be an inhibitor to digital transformation and customer centricity."

Nimans has joined an army of volunteers helping to transform a derelict Manchester street into a new village as part of a special TV programme.

Nimans has donated cabling, a data cabinet and accessories for the BBC's DIY SOS show which is converting 60 houses into a mini village for army veterans.

The BBC team, led by presenter Nick Knowles, has begun refurbishing homes in Canada Street and New Street in Newton Heath. In the space of just a week, they will become homes for former servicemen and women to live in with their families.

A veteran walk-in centre is also being created on the site which will be run by charity. Some of the houses will become shared properties where unemployed veterans will live while they re-train and learn new skills at a nearby college.

Dozens of local building firms and tradesmen are helping out with the project, including Nimans and its customer CIA 2000, supported by veterans working with charity Walking With The Wounded.

"CIA asked if we could donate some equipment and we were delighted to help such a worthy cause, especially as we have ex-military personnel within our business," said Nimans Chairman Julian Niman.

Presenter Nick Knowles said he came up with the idea for the village when talking to the founder of Walking With The Wounded Ed Parker about empty housing.

He said: "These young men have gone off to different parts of the world and had to see extremely difficult things. They didn't choose to do it, they go and do what they have been asked.

"Having done what we have asked them, they find themselves on the streets. This community is making it happen and housing them. Manchester, and companies such as Nimans and CIA 2000, should be very proud of themselves."

Intermedia has strengthened its channel presence following the appointment of Arrow as a distributor for its range of business applications.

Richard Walters, GM of Intermedia EMEA, said: "Through Arrow's customer network we look forward to enabling and equipping channel partners to grow new revenue streams."

David Fearne, Technical Director, Arrow ECS UK&I, added: "Arrow can start to bring enterprise-grade business applications as a service to the channel."

Jarmila Yu, Intermedia's International Marketing Director, added: "It's vital that SMBs have the freedom to focus on managing and growing their business.

"As a vendor we must do whatever we can to help partners and SMBs capitalise on the opportunities that cloud applications offer.

"Our UK brand campaign, newly enhanced channel partner programme and strategic channel relationships, such as the agreement with Arrow, bring this to life."

Talk Straight Group has separated out its wholesale operation under the new brand name TS Wholesale in a move that signifies the company's growing channel presence during the past 12 months.

Talk Straight provides the B2B market with connectivity, mobile, content filtering and network protection to over 1,000 schools under the Schools Broadband name.

Dave Tindall, MD, said: "The company is going from strength to strength and the separation of our wholesale division is part of a long-term strategy.

"Having invested heavily in a new carrier grade network now is the right time to increase the focus on our wholesale division."

Heading up the new division is Clive Stone who boasts much industry experience and has a clear strategy for TS Wholesale, aiming to attract talent from a global stage by building on existing networks and products and reaching out to new audiences.

He stated: "Letting customers understand what your capabilities are, together with understanding their requirements is a simple formula that has always worked well for me and my customers - and one that I intend to use to take TS Wholesale to the next level."

For the past four years Stone has been busy providing connectivity throughout the world for various international networking companies.

He also helped to establish the IX Manchester Steering Group for Network Operators in the UK, which with the help of the Steering Committee and LINX, continues to gain strength.

Lily Comms has treated its target-busting over-achievers to an all-expenses paid trip to Ibiza following the conclusion of a three month cross-company sales incentive scheme.

The scheme was designed to drive sales of the iPECS UCP communications system with targets set for direct sales from internal and external sales teams, upgrades to existing hardware generated by client services and sales from referrals gathered by the operations team.

The £750k target of was smashed with the final sales for the iPECS UCP coming in at £1.075m for the incentive period.

The best performing employees from each department enjoyed a VIP weekend on the Balearic Island with activities including a trip aboard a private yacht and fine dining at an exclusive island restaurant.

Lily Comms is on course to double turnover after expanding its operation into London and boosting staff numbers across all departments.

MD Chris Morrisey said: "We wanted to involve all departments within the business in the incentive and not just the sales team.

"There was a two-fold reason for this: Firstly, we treat the company very much like a family. No one area is more or less important than the other. We wanted to give everyone the opportunity to be involved.

"Secondly, it was an opportunity to develop lead generation techniques in areas we have previously not focused on."

Co-owner Adrian Jackson added: "The whole project was a great success and the staff who went on the trip really earned it. We are already planning our next incentive."