Comms Dealer

IT provider SCC has strengthened its play in the data centre and hosted space following an investment in Fluidata by Rigby Group (which owns SCC).

Th deal signals Rigby Group's 14th piece of M&A activity since hitting the acquisition trail in 2013, and the first in 2015.

The investment is another milestone in the accelerated growth of SCC's services division, with services turnover alone increasing 8% to £148m by the end of September 2014.

SCC witnessed growth of 69% from data centre and cloud services alone last year following a succession of key customer wins including Gist, Aggregate Industries, BOC, IBM, Oxfordshire County Council, CAA and Highways Agency.

Founder and managing director of Fluidata Piers Daniell said: "Collaborating with SCC is good news all round - to our customers, their customers and the market - as together we are able to deliver a wider range of connectivity and data centre services based on our shared values."

SCC CEO James Rigby added: "SCC and Fluidata provides additional services capability and a stable foundation for us to enter the data telecoms market with a full and flexible DCS offering."

Rigby Group is the parent company for a portfolio of privately owned and successful businesses operating across Europe, the Middle East and North Africa.

The £2bn company, owned by Sir Peter Rigby, has interests in the technology, airports, hotels, real estate, financial and aviation sectors.

Abzorb has rolled out a national, fully white labelled PBX maintenance and support package to its channel partners as it moves towards total UC service provision.

The service provider is claiming to turn quotes around in eight hours under a simple two level cover programme.

"We wanted to make this easy so we decided to make the highest level of maintenance cover as standard at no extra cost, with only 24/7 covers as an extra add-on," said Darren Smith, Head of Data Services.

Abzorb is also set to roll out a hosted solution called ZORB IP, promising simple administration for channel partners through its tiered portal system.

"The ZORB IP hosted voice solution will go hand-in-hand with the Abzorb SIP service we suppy alongside BT which enables us to deliver converged voice and data over the same connection," added Smith. 

"In addition, we are planning to add QoS to the voice we supply. This will provide our partners with the ability to sell a true UC product.

"In today's marketplace you can no longer just sell single circuit connectivity, you need to focus on the consultative sell and really maximise the connectivity you supply."

Comms service provider Plan has unveiled an ambitious strategy to ramp up profits for its mobile reseller partners by adding a complete range of communications solutions to its portfolio. The additions include fixed line voice and data connectivity through BT plus the full suite of Microsoft communications apps and software.

The strategy is pinned on a comprehensive overhaul of the Plan partner portal and seven new 'channels' which were revealed to an enthusiastic audience of 350 plus partners at the Plan.Live partner even at Manchester's Media City on March 19th.

In what will be seen as a major challenge to full service channel competitors, the new Plan offerings include fixed line, data and VoIP services, a complete hardware ordering mechanism with free delivery plus mobile broadband, IoT (Internet of Things) and a full suite of Microsoft Apps and Software with a promise to pay the best commission in the UK on Microsoft 365 deals.

Confessing to '30 sleepless nights' preparing for the launch, CEO Dan Craddock said the company had a big war chest to call on plus the skill sets and passion to fund the ambitious rollouts and urged partners to work with him and his team on changing comms provider paradigms.

"We run lots of successful companies around the world and have a massive infrastructure at our disposal, and we want to share our vision for the future with you, our partners, because we could not have achieved the success we have achieved so rapidly without you guys."

At the core of Plan's channel strategy is Version 3 of Plan Portal which has had a 'top to tail' revamp at the front and back-end and aims to offer partners what Operations Director Ched Willard described as 'a seamless user experience with maximum usability, flexibility and performance'.

He said: "The Portal is the tool that connects us together. It has been remodelled over thousands of man hours to give partners full control. The key is customisation and a completely new dashboard experience which users can organise in a way that suits their business."

Plan demonstrated its resolve to cater for the growing demands of partners and the entire business communications needs of the businesses they serve by announcing a range of valued added services all designed to add margin and glue in dealer/customer relationships.

These include a Recycling channel enabling partners to cash-in on end of life smartphones; a Mend channel offering a 72 hour quick fix repairs service for the 35 out of 100 users who managed to 'break' or 'drown' their devices; and a Wallet back-end to the Plan Portal enabling partners to stack up as many channels as they like and administer all customer services.

A mobile version of the portal is also being rolled out to enable partners to react 24-7 to business customer demands (for example, weekend broadband barring, data expenditure etc).

Plan also pledged a support and training programme to help partners get to grips with the new services and portal upgrade.

Plan co-founder Keith Curran said Plan's entry into the Internet of Things and simplification of M2M connectivity orders for partners via the Plan portal was a response to market predictions.

"IoT is a planetary game changer for the mobile industry," he said. "It is forecasted there will be 70 billion M2M connections made worldwide in the next five years at the rate of 130 a second. The market could be worth £14tr dollars. It is a massive untapped opportunity for our partners."

Craddock said Plan has no strategy at present to introduce a wholesale reseller model or enter the consumer market but he did not rule anything out in the future. "We are in this for the long haul and we are open to all ideas," he said.

Union Street has acted swiftly to upgrade its aBILLity software with new functionality, enabling resellers to more easily manage the impact of upcoming regulatory changes to non-geographic call services (NGCS).

In July this year Ofcom will introduce significant new regulations governing the way calls made by consumers (as opposed to businesses) to selected non-geographic number ranges are calculated and charged.

According to Union Street, these regulations represent a challenge for resellers' billing processes, particularly with regard to the requirement for segmenting consumers' call charges into separate service and access charges.

In its latest version of aBILLity, the company has taken steps to make charging consumers for NGCS a straightforward process and will be upgrading its clients over the coming months.

The firm has also introduced consultancy services to give clients the option of outsourcing the work involved in updating dial codes and charge groups to Union Street.

"The new regulations present a number of challenges to resellers with consumer customers," said MD Tony Cook.

"Resellers that deal exclusively with business customers will also be affected by the introduction of new charge groups and dial codes.

"We would advise all resellers to make any necessary enquiries with their suppliers and begin preparations soon to ensure they are ready by the deadline."

CorptelUK has linked up with American headset supplier VXi Corporation to distribute its range of VXi headset and Bluetooth products in the UK and Europe.

CorptelUK MD Paul Baxter commented: "VXi's high-performance products complement our portfolio and support our commitment to provide customers with the latest technologies and innovative solutions."

VXi Corporation Vice President of Sales, Janis Yuskaitis, added: "CorptelUK will play a strong role in introducing VXi solutions to office, enterprise, contact centre and mobile professional headset users in the UKL and Europe.

"VXi is a strategic alliance partner with Cisco, Polycom and Avaya DevConnect, so our product line will be a perfect accompaniment to Corptel's telephone offerings.

"Working with Corptel, we look forward to significantly growing VXi's business overseas."

Blackburn-based Unified World has been named Lancashire's first Vodafone Solutions Pioneer accredited company.

The accreditation recognises Unified World's technical support in supplying, installing and maintaining a range of Vodafone products including One Net.

Neil Jones, Managing Director for Unified World, said: "While we work independently with all the major mobile brands, its fantastic news to receive this accreditation from Vodafone as recognition of our technical competence and level of customer support in providing integrated communication solutions for our customers."

ITSPA (the Internet Telephony Service Provider's Association) has voiced support for the European Council net neutrality proposal after presenting the Latvian Presidency of the European Union an award, voted on by its members for their leadership in developing a workable council text on the Open Internet.

ITSPA has long campaigned for an open Internet to ensure effective competition in Internet-based services but has expressed concerns about adopting an extreme net-neutrality position that would prevent effective management of the Internet.
 
Eli Katz, chair of ITSPA, said: "We have been very active in this area over the last few years. We believe the Latvian Presidencies' Open Internet proposals strike the right balance between promoting competition while enabling innovation.

"They will put an end to abusive practices by a minority of ISPs who have tried to frustrate competition with their own services while at the same time allowing specialised services to be offered with enhanced levels of prioritisation.

"This is essential if the Internet is to reach its full potential, for example by delivering TV services over broadband to free up valuable radio spectrum for mobiles."
 
Eli Katz went on to express the hope that the European Parliament would not seek to modify the text.

"This is a carefully worded proposal that has undergone thorough review. This is a complex area and it's all too easy to create unfortunate unintended consequences which would be difficult to unwind. We urge the Parliament to accept the Council net neutrality text while keeping the area under review to ensure the internet remains open and vibrant."

Pictured: Guy Miller of ITSPA presents the award to Ildze Jansone, Coordinator of the Latvian Presidency of the Council of the EU at the Embassy of Latvia in the UK.

Poor advice from vendors is the biggest barrier to a SME's agility, with nearly 60 per cent believing they don't have the technology to future-proof their business, according to TalkTalk Business research.

Often with no IT function, determining who and how to educate SMEs can be present a challenge for the channel with 32 per cent of SMEs ranking staff IT literacy as the key barrier for achieving a more agile business.

SMEs are looking to the channel for education and advice, not to just patch-up current systems.
 
Under investment, security, business continuity and regulation were cited by respondents as the primary agility barriers for corporate and enterprises, and 40 per cent of firms are dissatisfied with the time needed by IT to process requests.
 
40 per cent of enterprises feel they are being held back by their technology, with just under half looking to the channel to help find solutions.

The report highlights the need for the channel to implement change for customers as an iterative process, with three quarters of enterprises either being slow adopters of technology or only doing so as part of a mass adoption cycle.
 
Charles Bligh, Managing Director, TalkTalk Business said: "Agility is a key asset for businesses of all sizes and channel partners are in a unique position to help companies grow and adapt, by educating, advising and implementing updated IT and connectivity solutions.
 
"By providing the insight and knowledge needed, the channel can ensure that businesses maintain the bandwidth and network infrastructure to support data heavy applications and make British businesses better off."

UK software provider Advanced Computer Software Group has been acquired by Vista Equity Partners, a private equity firm with over $14bn in committed capital, for an enterprise value of £750m. Shareholders will receive 140 pence per share equating to an equity value of approximately £725m.

The takeover puts Advanced in a powerful financial position to invest in and develop the business through the next phase of growth, supporting its ambition to become a major global player.

"This acquisition means we now have the major financial backing we need to support us through our next phase of growth and establish our position as a serious global player," said Vin Murria, CEO of Advanced Computer Software Group.

"Our customers will benefit from increased investment in our product and services as we continue to offer innovative and leading edge technology solutions implemented both on-premise and, increasingly, via a subscription model."

Founded in 2008, Advanced provides healthcare, business and learning management software and services. It has more than 2,000 employees and 20,000 customers.

The group has grown revenue to more than £200m through a programme of complementary acquisitions and strong organic growth.

"Advanced has a strong history of delivering mission critical and high ROI solutions to its customers," said Brian Sheth, Co-Founder and President of Vista Equity Partners.

"Vista will help Advanced build on that success by contributing professional expertise, proven best practices, and management techniques that will help Advanced continue to deliver operational, product and service excellence."

Despite a growing reliance among businesses on the Internet, recent research has discovered that slow Internet connections are costing the UK economy £11bn a year in lost productivity, as millions are left unable to work during periods of IT downtime.

The research commissioned by Daisy Group found that the average worker is unable to complete their normal job responsibilities for up to 44 minutes every week due to poor broadband speeds, while seven per cent admitted that their Internet connection grinds to a halt more than 10 times in any given seven day period.

According to the study, more than a third (39%) of respondents said that their home Internet connection was 'much faster' than the one they use at work. This is despite the government's effort to roll out fibre broadband across the UK and offer free grants to subside the costs of upgrading a connection.

Jan Wielenga, Product Manager for Data Networks at Daisy Group, said: "Too many businesses are still relying on basic ADSL connections that are aimed at the residential users. These are the businesses that struggle to cope with the high-bandwidth demands of software and apps that workers use.

"It is simply unacceptable for businesses that rely heavily on the Internet to experience periods of downtime, particularly at a time when fibre and dedicated Ethernet connections have never been more affordable and available.

"The Internet going down or running slowly for 44 minutes per week doesn't sound much, but the result of any loss of productivity is that businesses can suffer."

During periods of slow Internet access, more than half (60%) of those surveyed admitted that they turn to their smartphones for non-related work activities, such as online shopping and checking social media. Worryingly, nine per cent of respondents admitted to using their smartphones to look for other jobs when they have no Internet access.

The research suggests that the average worker loses 38 hours of productivity a year through slow Internet access or IT downtime. Taking the UK's average wage of £13 per hour, and 72% of the UK's workforce of 30 million that use the Internet in their job roles, it is estimated that £494 worth of productivity is lost per employee per year, which across the country mounts up to a staggering £11bn.

The research was conducted to assess the take-up of the government's SuperConnected Cities scheme that helps subsidise the cost of a superfast connection upgrade for SMEs. Businesses located within a defined postcode in 22 cities are currently eligible for a grant of up to £3,000, with more cities due to be added to the scheme in April 2015.

"A strong digital infrastructure has become the backbone of any forward-thinking organisation because it ensures that they are prepared for the future. However, there is a lack of awareness amongst SMEs that the SuperConnected Cities scheme exists which is hindering the UK economy. Now really is the time to upgrade to avoid being left behind the competition," added Wielenga.

To assist SMEs decide which connectivity solution meets their requirements, in conjunction with the CBI, Daisy is hosting a free webinar on the subject on 26th March.