Comms Dealer

NEC has launched new Express5800 servers for mission critical systems and processing Big Data.

The global release of a new Express5800/A2000 Series of enterprise servers for Windows and Linux operating systems incorporate the Intel Xeon Processor E7 v3 Family (up to 18 CPU cores).
 
They enhance memory controller features, memory sparing functions and memory mirroring functions (Address Based Memory Mirroring, which enables efficient use of memory space), making them suited for the growing needs of Big Data processing and sophisticated social infrastructure, while providing reliable and stable system operations, said the firm.
 
"In recent years, there is an increasing demand for reliable, high-performance, non-stop processing of enormous amounts of data for the IT infrastructure that supports, for example, security systems for social infrastructure, banking systems and management systems for business operations," said omoyasu Nishimura, General Manager, IT Platform Division, NEC.

"There is also a growing need for Big Data processing in order to forecast market trends and to analyse customer profiles. In order to respond to these demands the importance of memory space that can perform real-time processing with high reliability is rapidly increasing."

Professional recruitment firms now have 20% more vacancies on their books than this time last year, according to new survey data from the Association of Professional Staffing Companies (APSCo).

This annual increase has been recorded despite reports that UK economic growth slowed to 0.3% in the three months to March 2015.

APSCo's data coincides with the latest ONS figures, which show that the number of people in work has increased by 248,000 in the three months to February, driving UK employment to a record-high of 31.05 million.

Clive Jefferys, Managing Director of Telecoms Recruiter JMA Network, observed: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it! Politicians of all persuasions should take heed of this benign employment climate and resist the temptation to start meddling with economic policy."

Voiceflex has launched a new combined voice and data product to the channel that delivers a dedicated voice and high availability connection service under a service level agreement. 

This new service combines Voiceflex's voice and SIP Trunking service.

Paul Taylor, Sales Director, commented: "The new addition to our Business Connect portfolio will help our partners to take advantage of the ever-increasing and demanding communications market. 

"Pricing is less than the equivalent ISDN pricing and has all the features associated with SIP. Plus, it takes out all the hassle of the application making it easier to sell."?

A new product guide designed to help resellers put a 'spring into their sales success' has been introduced by Nimans.

The 24-page 'spring New Products' guide provides an overview of the latest solutions and services available from the distributor.

Traditional systems, headsets, conferencing and telephones are showcased alongside newer areas of business such as hosted, hospitality, IT peripherals and networking. Special offers and events are also highlighted.

Head of Dealer Sales, Tom Maxwell, said: "The comms world continues to evolve and this new guide encapsulates some of the many ways Nimans is expanding its range of products and services to the reseller channel."

Zen Internet has launched a new range of broadband products to the channel two months ahead of schedule.

The new range of copper broadband and telephone bundles, designed to improve connectivity for customers at reduced costs, will be available through the company's Partner Portal from May 6th.

Stephen Warburton, MD for Indirect Markets at Zen, said: "We initially anticipated these products wouldn't be available until later in the year, so we're thrilled to be able to announce their launch two months earlier than first expected.

"We opted to prioritise this work based on feedback we received at our partner event in November. Doing this has enabled us to bring these products to market in a short period of time. Now, Partners can begin to benefit from a new range of broadband products at significantly lower prices than they're used to."

The new products combine ''competitive pricing' with a choice of download limits to suit customers' varying monthly usage.

They include an entry-level package for low usage customers and two unlimited usage packages to support those who indulge in rich media and cloud-based applications.

IT veteran Tom Kelly has joined Agilitas as Chairman. He brings over 30 years ICT, MBO and private equity expertise and will leverage his experience to ensure that Agilitas' growth plans remain on track, working closely with CEO Shaun Lynn.

Kelly is perhaps best known for his ten year stint at the vanguard of IT firm Logicalis' drive to become a leading systems integrator and managed services provider.

Lynn said: "We have ambitious growth plans and to have someone who has been there and done it to the extent Tom has is great news for both Agilitas and our customers.

"Tom has a first class reputation and an impeccable track record in the industry and I look forward to continue working closely with him as we look to expand our services proposition."

Kelly added: "Agilitas is the IT industry's best kept secret and part of my role as Chairman is to maximise the relationships I have built up over the years by introducing Agilitas to those people I know can benefit from its best of breed services.

"What I've learnt over the years is people buy from people regardless of the industry you are in."

Kelly was also involved in helping to facilitate the successful MBO earlier in the year. Led by Lynn and members of the management team, Agilitas IT Solutions superseded the previous company ACAL Enterprise Solutions.  

The change of ownership enables the company to pursue its own independent growth strategy and to control the development of its services portfolio in line with both market and customer demands.

Kelly added: "Cloud services are fast becoming a huge enabler of change within the IT channel as the major vendors, distributors and resellers jostle for market share.

"Agilitas is positioned to support this change as the consolidation of services to the cloud also drives a bigger demand for organisations to centralise their spares inventory, and this is where Agilitas comes in."

Lynn noted: "For many years we have delivered Inventory Management Services for some of Europe's leading OEMs and service providers.

"During that time we have expanded our services portfolio in line with customer demand and will continue to do so.

"However, with the addition of Tom, we have someone who is already driving us forward in getting ahead of the curve."

CIOs and CTOs control the digital strategy in 60 per cent of organisations, according to Claranet's latest Innovation in European IT research report.

According to Claranet this is a 'huge opportunity' for IT leaders to take a major role in the future direction of their companies, provided that they are able to balance available resources between innovation and maintain existing service support.

With innovation taking up just 9% of an IT department's time, there is a danger that this opportunity could be lost to just keeping the lights on.

Commenting on the research, Michel Robert, Managing Director of Claranet UK said: "IT leaders have faced challenges from many angles in recent years.

"Constrained budgets have provided limited room for manoeuvre and the relative easy access of cloud computing, has given different parts of a business the ability to procure their own services and applications.

"Given the mission critical nature of IT to business success, this has increased the pressure on IT leaders to become more responsive to business requirements by gaining a better understanding of the key drivers to future success.

"The CIO/CTO needs to really help determine and deliver against the strategy of the business by providing great service today and focusing on innovation - a challenging thing to do.

"That digital strategy is the preserve of IT in the majority of situations is proof of the confidence that CEO's have in the IT department to lead business change."

The pan-European research report, which surveyed 900 IT decision-makers from the UK, France, Germany, Spain, Portugal and the Benelux, from a range of mid-market organisations, examined trends in IT service provider adoption and asked IT leaders to forecast how their needs would change by 2020.

When asked: 'Which person is responsible for your organisation's digital strategy?' 31% stated that the CIO took the role and 29% stated the CTO. 15% said that the CEO was responsible and only 6% has a dedicated Chief Digital Officer in post.

Michel added: "The strong position in which IT leaders find themselves to guide the future of their businesses, combined with the fact that budgets are set to increase quite significantly in some countries over the next years, means that we can expect to see new levels of innovation across all sectors in Europe.

"In particular, managed services providers (MSP), like Claranet, are well placed to support the CIO/CTO in both the delivery of services today, but also the required innovation. MSPs can really help."

Phoenix has been selected as preferred supplier for Cegedim Rx, a key provider of computer software solutions and services to the UK pharmacy market.

The three-year contract will see Phoenix deliver a fully outsourced and tailored managed hardware support services to 3,500 of Cegedim Rx's customers across 4,000 pharmacies and retail outlets across the UK.

As part of the contract, Phoenix will deliver a break fix service, service desk, remote support and logistics management.

Steve Vaughan, Chief Executive of Phoenix, said: "With Cegedim Rx we recognised some initial challenges and therefore recommended a more tailored approach which aims to deliver services and solutions designed to empower Cegedim Rx's customers, to improve and optimise day-to-day operational tasks, reduce risk and control costs.

"We have seen a strong pipeline of contract wins in the first few months of 2015 and I look forward to replicating this success going forward."

Phoenix has a longstanding relationship with Cegedim Rx's sister company, INPS, for over 15 years, delivering a dedicated service desk and supporting hardware and applications to increase infrastructure resilience and IT security across the business.

Barclays has injected £100m into fast growth technology companies following the launch of a fund to back some of the most innovative UK technology businesses with lending of up to £5m repayable over three years.

Because fast growing technology firms develop more rapidly than the 15 year average of traditional businesses, they stand to benefit from new access to debt finance as an alternative to selling equity.

This will also allow leading entrepreneurs to retain control of their company's development and concentrate on accelerated growth, said the firm.

A recent report by Barclays showed that UK technology businesses are expected to grow four times faster than GDP in 2015.

Launching the new fund during a visit to high-growth technology firms in Cambridge, Ashok Vaswani, Chief Executive of Barclays Personal and Corporate Banking, said: "This new fund offers a welcome boost to growing UK technology firms and will provide a catalyst for their development into larger companies.

"We identified a significant gap in the traditional way technology businesses were financed, and with this new drive we will be truly able to support businesses right from their inception, to becoming major global players.

"Entrepreneurs and SMEs are the life blood of the UK economy and the technology sector is an incredible incubator for many of these talented individuals and businesses.

"The rapid growth we've seen in the UK rivals the activity and dynamism of Silicon Valley with record levels of investment from the US into London-based technology firms in particular."

Sean Duffy, Managing Director, Barclays' Technology, Media and Telecoms team, added: "Fast-growth technology companies in the US have long been able to access debt finance early in the life cycle, and some of the most successful US technology firms, including Facebook and Google, have grown their businesses with help from this type of funding.

"We believe it is important for fast-growth technology companies in the UK to be able to access a similar range of financing solutions, including early-stage debt funding, which together with existing equity investment can provide businesses with a more efficient capital structure."

Adept Telecom has acquired Avaya reseller Centrix. The deal is structured with an initial consideration of £7 million plus the adjusted cash balance of Centrix, payable in cash at completion.

Centrix provides UC and managed service solutions that fit with the demands of Adept's existing and targeted enterprise and public sector customer base.

Approximately 80% of Centrix' revenue is generated from recurring revenue streams.

With over 300 Avaya solutions in the UK and across the world Centrix has one of the largest customer bases backed by specialist knowledge of the Avaya Aura solution in particular.

Centrix offers smart building technology via the Medusa product, which is five products rolled in to one. Medusa is a bandwidth shaper/slicer, a firewall, a switch, a reporting engine and a billing engine.

Medusa allows multi-tenanted buildings to take one or more internet connection and to share those connections to multiple businesses and then to report and bill those end users independently for their usage.

Centrix provides high end communication solutions to larger enterprise customers, particularly in the public sector, business centre and healthcare sectors which account for approximately 70% of Centrix total revenue.

It is anticipated that the proportion of revenue derived from public sector and healthcare customers for the AdEPT Group will more than double as a result of the acquisition.

Centrix will retain its current presence and customer service operation in Hook, Hampshire.

The vendors of Centrix are to be retained in their current capacity within the business for a period of at least 12 months post-acquisition.

The audited accounts of Centrix for the year ended 31 December 2014 reported turnover, operating profit and profit before tax of £8.75m, £2.26m and £2.26m respectively.

Initial consideration of £7 million plus the cash balance of Centrix at completion is payable in cash. Further consideration of up to £3.5 million may be payable in cash dependent upon the trading performance of Centrix post-acquisition.

The total consideration will be funded out of AdEPT's existing bank facilities which were renewed and extended on 23 April 2015.

Ian Fishwick, Chief Executive of Adept, said: "Centrix is an excellent fit because, like Adept, it is asset-light, complements and builds upon Adept's existing expertise and skills, and further extends its offering in the unified communications space.

"Centrix has a high level of recurring revenue and offers a well-developed customer base with long-term relationships across a range of medium and large enterprises, including the related vertical markets of public sector and healthcare. The acquisition is expected to be earnings enhancing from completion."

Evolution Capital acted as exclusive corporate finance advisors to Adept Telecom Telecom.  "We are pleased to have used our significant experience in the telecoms sector to play a part in this exciting transaction,\" said Nigel Cook, MD, Evolution Capital.