Comms Dealer

A new SIM-only deal introduced by True Telecom provides 1GB data, unlimited minutes and texts for under £15 per month, a launch that marks the firm's move into the consumer mobile market and is exclusive for existing True Telecom customers. 

True Telecom customers gain exclusive access to 4G tariffs with new 24-month contract deals suitable for customers who might want to keep their existing phone but add a bundle of 4G data, minutes and texts.

The company has built in features in the SIM only tariff including the ability to cap monthly spend to avoid bill shock. 

Stuart Griffiths, CEO, said: "Offering True Telecom customers this 4G data deal is a great way to start our journey towards establishing ourselves as a major player in consumer mobile. These deals are a thank you from us to loyal True Telecom customers."

Over 200 resellers have signed up to Union Street's NGCS Compliance Service designed to help them prepare for new non-geographic call services (NGCS) regulations.

Resellers using the service can outsource much of the time billing related preparation work to Union Street. This includes adding new NGCS dial codes (now service charges), price points and a default consumer tariff to the reseller's aBILLity billing platform, replacing the obsolete ones in compliance with the regulations.

According to Union Street, this will help its reseller clients overcome the challenges associated with the requirement for unbundling call charges for consumers (as opposed to businesses) into separate service and access charges.

This requirement has meant that all resellers, including those that deal exclusively with business customers, will need to update their billing platforms with thousands of new service charges which must map to one of 80 industry agreed price points.

Failure to do so will cause resellers to fall out of step with terminating CPs that use the new service charges further up the supply chain. This in turn could lead to losses in revenue on calls made to non-geographic numbers.

Vincent Disneur, Head of Sales, said: "We are hoping that our clients are comfortable with the NCGS changes. Over the last few months we have sent out several e-casts, press releases, a white paper and an online video to help our clients understand the new rules.

"We have also developed a new version of aBILLity to make it easy to manage the new pricing structures.

"We are encouraged by the fact that so many of our clients have opted for our NGCS Compliance Service as it provides a cost-effective means for them to comply with the new regulations, while outsourcing much of the hard work to our consultancy teams."

3CX WebMeeting v8 - the latest release from 3CX, developer of next generation software-based PBX 3CX Phone System for Windows - is now completely WebRTC based and available in three editions.
 
3CX WebMeeting offers unlimited user licensing, meaning that all company employees can use unlimited video conferencing for one yearly price per company, starting at €475 per year.
 
3CX is one of the first developers to harness WebRTC technology within multi party video conferencing, creating a plugin-free and clientless web conferencing solution for businesses.

3CX Webmeeting v8 adds traditional video conferencing features such as recording, remote control/assistance and screen sharing with the difference that it's all based on WebRTC.

The new and improved Version 8 is launched following the success of the integrated version of 3CX WebMeeting in August 2014 and the on-premise version of 3CX WebMeeting Server in February 2015.
 
Nick Galea, CEO of 3CX said: "3CX's innovative use of WebRTC allows us to deliver plugin-free video conferencing for all. Video conferencing has been plagued by proprietary standards, high pricing and subsequently adoption has been limited. 3CX changes all that."

According to the latest IDC study on tablets in enterprises, a large and increasing share of tablets deployed across UK, French, and German companies are the only devices that employees are equipped with to perform their business activities.

"The majority of tablet users in enterprises currently have at least another device to perform their business activities," said Marta Fiorentini, senior research analyst, IDC EMEA Personal Computing.

"Additional devices are usually desktop or portable PCs, smartphones, workstations, or, depending on the employee's role, specialised handheld or point of sale (POS) devices.

"However, a large share of tablets is already used by employees as their only work tool, either replacing traditional client devices or for functions previously not supported by any computing device.

"As digitalisation transforms business processes and tablets are optimised for business functions from both a hardware and application standpoint, we can only expect an increase in the share of standalone tablets, as confirmed by the purchase intentions of the study respondents."

According to the study, tablets are the only business device for 40% of users. This percentage, however, increases significantly for 2-in-1s or convertibles, as these hybrid products are deployed to replace portable and desktop PCs thanks to the option of being used with a keyboard.

This has been observed across the vast majority of user groups since the keyboard functionality eliminates the need for an additional device dedicated to productivity tasks.

The study also shows that hybrids - in either the detachable or convertible form factor - are usually purchased with larger screen sizes than tablet slates.

Indeed, while just over 10% of all slates have a screen size larger than 11in., the current percentage for hybrids is almost 30% and this is expected to surpass 50% over the next couple of years, reinforcing the assumption that 2-in-1s and convertibles can be a replacement for portable PCs.

In spite of the cannibalisation effect on traditional client device markets, standalone commercial tablets are also creating a huge opportunity for device makers.

"Tablets are already used by waiters instead of pen and paper, by doctors and nurses to replace paper-based files, or by pilots as a substitute for bulky manuals," Fiorentini said.

"These are only a few examples, and this is where the growth opportunity lies. IDC calculated that in 2014 this incremental market accounted for almost 6% of tablets used as standalone in the U.K., France, and Germany. We expect this percentage to increase quickly in these three countries and exceed 20% over the next 24 months."

Wetherby-based tech firm Oriium is focused on a growth push following the sale of a 16% stake in the business and the appointment of Ryan McCarry as Chairman.

Oriium provides data management and infrastructure consultancy including managed and hosted services (Cloud Dynamix).

For the last two years, the channel-only company has been ranked as one of Deloitte UK's top 50 fast-growing technology businesses.
 
McCarry aims to raise Oriium's profile as a channel solutions provider and he will oversee acquisitions and growth strategies that he hopes will generate revenues of £10m-plus within three years.

McCarry previously founded Sleek Networks, the Internet infrastructure provider that was acquired by Adapt in 2013. Following the acquisition, he spent 18 months as part of the Adapt executive team.
 
Oriium was established in 2007 by Chris Kiaie. The company currently employs a team of 35, initially launching with just two founding members of staff, and re-located to larger premises at in Wetherby at the end of last year.
 
McCarry said: "Given the growth of the business and success that Chris has created to date, I believe that Oriium will be the go-to provider to the channel market in the UK."

Kiaie added: "Oriium is at an exciting stage in its development and we are pleased to have Ryan on board as chairman. His experience and roles to date have given him the attributes to help shape high quality businesses that meet and exceed customer expectations."
 
This news follows the recent announcement that Oriium has been appointed as the sole UK and Ireland distributor for Imation Nexsan Technologies, a specialist in enterprise class storage platforms.

Surrey-based Meridian Options Systems Support has been snapped up by Network Communications Group (NCG) in a cash deal.

Meridian provides telephone systems and service support to many household names and government bodies primarily in the south east region.

The Meridian Options brand will continue to operate independently for the time being but becomes part of the operating group as a direct subsidiary of NCG.

Its Surrey office will close and the operations will move to NCG's Nicholas House premises in Enfield. Meridian Options owner Andrew Robinson will retire from the industry.

"All other key staff will come on board to look after the day-to-day running of Meridian customers, working closely with our team to upgrade the supported base and sell new products onto their customers," said Graham Powling, Group MD at NCG.

Advanced Health & Care, a supplier of IT solutions for the health and care sectors, has signed a strategic partnership agreement with Cloudhouse, the cloud application virtualisation technology developer.

The partnership provides organisations with the ability to deploy Advanced's solutions in the cloud, enabling cost-efficiencies and economies of scale without the risk of migrating data between multiple platforms.

Running software within a virtualised setting reduces reliance on remote desktops, increases flexibility of deployment and gives users the ability to access the software anytime and from anywhere.

Compatibility issues are also removed, said the firm, ensuring uninterrupted performance regardless of any conflicts across the environment in which the solution runs and the ability to 'click and run' applications irrespective of desktop configuration.

Jim Chase, MD, Advanced Health & Care, said: "This partnership will provide our customers with increased agility, flexibility and accessibility of our solutions, without them needing to allocate time and cost into redeveloping their existing IT infrastructure.

"Organisations will benefit from up-to-date and reliable software available within any environment. This is important in the health and care setting where patient records increasingly need to be stored and accessed electronically in real-time."

Advanced Health & Care's solutions support 1,800 'out of hospital', community care provider organisations in the NHS, local government, third-sector and private sector across Europe, Australia, New Zealand and the Middle East.

Impartner has extended its reach into EMEA to meet increased market demand for indirect sales channel solutions. 

The SaaS Partner Relationship Management (PRM) technology company has introduced Impartner PRM, a partner portal solution that can be deployed in 30 days.

The company also named Philippe Ortodoro as Senior VP of EMEA to build a region-wide network of partners.
 
"This expansion is a key part of our strategy to increase our investment and support growing demand, both from partners who would like to sell our products through the channel and from end users looking to differentiate their business with an enterprise-grade PRM solution," said Impartner CEO Joe Wang. 

"With the launch of Impartner PRM, we expect the market opportunity to accelerate. Impartner PRM uses a three-step process that makes choosing, purchasing, and implementing a PRM system simple and quick. It removes the barriers that have kept companies from transforming their partner portals and igniting their indirect channel sales."
 
Principal analyst with Forrester Research, Tim Harmon, said: "Partners regularly report to Forrester that the 'transacting business' element of their vendor relationships is the most burdensome to them and is the one thing that causes them to shift their investments and wallet share to other vendors.

"Given that partners closely associate ease of doing business with your channel IT systems, if your partner loyalty is waning, it's time to reinvest in a more robust, modern PRM capability."
 
In EMEA, Impartner's solutions will be sold primarily through partners. 

"Impartner is looking for a set of highly qualified partners to help us deliver our software to companies who want to ignite their sales through indirect channels," added Ortodoro.

Judges at the Skills for Business awards praised Pennine Telecom for its 'sustained commitment' to staff as they presented two trophies to the Bury-based data and telecommunications specialist.

The company's Ben Howarth fought off stiff competition to be named Apprentice of the Year while Pennine itself was presented with the Manufacturing & Engineering Skills for Business award.

The awards, which reached their climax last night at a ceremony hosted by comic Justin Moorhouse, are designed to recognise Greater Manchester businesses who invest in the training and development of their staff as well as schools and learning providers who provide quality training and individuals who have excelled through developing their skills.

The independent judging panel recognised Pennine's 'sustained commitment' to employees and its 'Train & Retain' recruitment policy.

The group has seen turnover rise year-on-year by 25% and profitability by 27% .

"Judges chose Ben as the Apprentice of the Year due to the big impact he has had on the business at the age of just 22, with mobile sales increasing by 31% in 2014.

"Ben is also a successful Apprentice Ambassador, and works with Bury College and Pennine Telecom's HR Department in presenting a positive outlook on the Apprentice Programme. He has continuously grasped the challenges before him with both hands, which has driven sales for the company and proven him to be an outstanding member of the team."

As well as the two awards Pennine's pre-sales technical engineer Andy Goodman was also shortlisted for the Learning & Skills Champion title.

Ann Barnes, Pennine's HR & Business Support Manager said: "It's fantastic to see the commitment we have made to the development of our staff through 'Train & Retain' being championed by the Skills for Business judging team," she commented.

"We cherish such accolades although we never lose sight of the fact that it is the positive day-to-day impact upon of our personnel development programmes that mark us out as a winner in business."

Pictured: Ben Howarth receives his Apprentice of the Year award from Marie Gilluley, Chair of Greater Manchester Colleges Group, and Skills for Business awards host Justin Moorhouse.

Gamma has extended its connectivity portfolio with the launch of a new MPLS-based wide area networking service aimed at businesses with multiple sites and those looking to converge existing data and telephony networks. Called Converged Private Networks (CPN) the service is fully integrated with Gamma's IP voice products (Gamma SIP Trunks and Horizon cloud PBX), and gives resellers access to a purpose-built combined voice and data network.

According to Gamma, privately connecting multiple sites increases the addressable market and margin opportunity for channel partners selling voice and data solutions.

A single point of contact for both the data and IP voice (including porting) throughout the sales and implementation process, as well as in-life, will also help reduce complexity for channel partners, said the firm.

"With most businesses looking to consolidate their data and voice networks on the back of refreshing their existing WANs, this converged approach offers differentiation by making it easier to do business compared to managing different upstream suppliers for voice and data," said James Bushell, Head of Product Lines at Gamma.

"CPN includes a choice of access including carrier diversity to suit all locations and budgets, criticality and availability.

"Central to the quality proposition is the prioritisation of voice and key business applications using QoS mechanisms.

"It also provides resilient cloud-based Internet access secured by the latest next-generation firewalls built in high availability mode as standard.

"All customer premise routers are supported with a four hour onsite engineer support contract as standard, with both channel partners and end users given access to a monitoring tool to track the performance and availability."

Bushell highlighted the 400,000-plus MPLS solutions live in the UK and noted that customers are coming out of contract every month.

"There's a real opportunity for resellers to address the customer need for a better deal in terms of cost, performance and quality," he added.

Philip Donigan, Sales Director at STL Communications, commented. "Gamma's new MPLS IP VPN service is a timely entrant into what has been a static market.

"As most of the opportunities that we tender for involve the consolidation of legacy voice networks, working with a provider that understands the complexity of voice will give us an edge."