Comms Dealer

Alderley Edge-based Chess is just two placements away from being the most desirable company to join in the UK following its third place ranking in the Best Company To Work For Sunday Times annual listings. 

The firm is now competing in the mid-sized category following a year of acquisitions which more than doubled employee numbers.

Chess achieved its sixth consecutive year as one of the Sunday Times 100 Best Companies to Work For having attained the coveted Three Star accreditation - the highest possible rating. 

Chess also picked up a Special Award for Innovation in Engagement Practice for its approach to people engagement, which includes 'happiness training' from Chief Executive David Pollock - an exercise designed to raise positivity, wellbeing and people engagement. 

The sessions encourage the 400 Chess people to be open to ideas, smile and laugh, balance their professional and home life and embrace change and challenges.

Pollock said: "Over the last 22 years our people have focused on our vision of building a business to be proud of, a great place to work and a great place to be a customer. 

"To have been listed as 3rd in the UK's Best Companies to Work For and win the Innovation in Engagement Award is something everyone at Chess can feel truly proud of."

A Cloud Management Service launched by Graphite Software enables the download of Secure Spaces for privacy, enterprise and convenience applications.

Downloadable Spaces allow a user to opt-in to content and receive new apps on their mobile devices, while protecting their privacy and home screen configuration.

Downloadable Spaces are also used for securing company apps and data while maintaining the privacy of the employee, addressing some of the key issues in BYOD deployments.

"Users can now opt-in to having Spaces that meet their specific needs or interests including Spaces for shopping, travel, events, banking, work and more," said Alec Main, CEO of Graphite Software.

"From a business perspective, enterprises can feel safe in the knowledge that all of their staff are equipped with the right applications and data leakage is prevented, while the employee can be confident that their privacy is maintained."

Main also pointed out that third-party administrators can configure and curate Spaces via the Secure Spaces Cloud Management Service.

Enterprise administrators can now push pre-configured work Spaces to employees via an emailed invitation.

The emerging Back Office Workforce Optimisation (BOWFO) market has emerged as an attractive, emerging category with high growth potential, according to analyst form Frost & Sullivan in a new study.

Frost & Sullivan defines BOWFO as a software solution that helps manage people, processes and workflow in the Back Office to improve operational effectiveness, customer service and compliance.

The report states, 'the Back Office represents a vast and largely untapped reservoir of the type of performance improvement that the contact center has enjoyed for years. Operating an array of customer related operations processes the Back Office may rightfully claim to be the engine that drives organisational performance from behind the scenes. BOWFO provides a way to tap that reservoir'.

Alexander Michael, Director of Consulting at Frost & Sullivan, said: "All customer-centric companies agree that a well managed customer experience is a key differentiator.

"What few people realise is that most activities that ensure a consistent customer experience actually take place in the back office. For this reason, optimising the performance of the back office directly influences profitability."

Elizabeth Gooch, CEO, eg solutions, stated: "This Report highlights those market drivers pushing the sector to the forefront of the enterprise's mindset, not least the need to control processes through transparency, BOWFO's increased ability to provide a quick return on investment and greater efficiency, as well as the increasing recognition of the importance of customer service improvement.

"We have known for many years that the Back Office is a major contributor to the success of an enterprise and given the potential for impacting the customer experience, efficiency and compliance, it plays a vital and increasingly strategic role."

Being first to quote the customer for connectivity increases the likelihood of winning a deal threefold, according to calculations made by Jola.

The company bases its claim on data mined from hundreds of sold leased lines as well as quotations on thousands of postcodes.

Andrew Dickinson, MD, said: "We analysed all of our postcodes over a 12 month period and found that where more than one partner was quoting on the same deal, the first in won the business 76% of the time."

He believes that Jola's automated leased line quoting tool speeds up the selling process because it can deliver an email and spreadsheet attachment within minutes of a postcode being entered.

"This means that Jola partners can quote customers while still in meetings with them and as opportunities come up in conversation," added Dickinson. "The system can be accessed via mobile, tablet or laptop."

In practice the algorithm used by Jola takes all the prices from all the main carriers and selects the cheapest for the address across a range of speeds and technologies.

CTO Adrian Sunderland explains: "From our experience end customers view all carriers the same and so pick the cheapest 95% of the time.

"Where the partner or the end user wants a specific carrier, perhaps for diversity, they can contact us and we will deliver a quote manually within 24 hours. Any bona fide channel company can register to use the pricing tool and there is no agreement to sign until the end customer decides they want to go ahead."

Just one year after launching its indirect model 40% of OneLogin's sales now come through the channel.

With the bit between its teeth the identity management vendor is recruiting for the second wave of its Global Channel Partner Programme, planning to expand in EMEA and APAC.

"The channel is core to OneLogin's DNA, and the OneLogin Global Channel Partner Programme offers system integrators, distributors, value added resellers and security providers an opportunity to expand their businesses with cloud-based solutions for the desktop and mobile world," said Josh Greene, OneLogin Vice President of Sales and Business Development.

The firm has announced a deal with Softcat, the UK-based infrastructure provider, to deliver cloud single sign-on and identity management.

Matthew Helling, IT Security and Networking Manager at Softcat, said: "Companies are moving over to cloud applications from standard productivity suites like Office 365 to more specific cloud apps to meet business needs.

"However, secure access can be a sticking point for customers to overcome as well. Working with OneLogin, Softcat can provide cloud-based identity management that makes it easier for customers to migrate over to cloud and keep their users secure once they get there."

Daniel Power, EMEA sales director at OneLogin, added: "Sales of cloud products like Office 365 continue to go up, and most companies will migrate to the cloud for some of their services over the coming months.

"However, this creates a real challenge for IT - not just in managing the migration from systems like Active Directory to the cloud, but also in how to keep access to those applications secure.

"The only realistic approach to security for cloud applications is to move over to cloud identity management. Working with Softcat, OneLogin brings that mix of ease of use and security that customers are asking for around cloud."

Business comms firm VIA has added a Lync app to its portfolio delivered over a direct and exclusive network connection provided by Exponential-e, the cloud, IT and network provider.

"By operating its cloud-based communications application through a dedicated link, VIA can ensure that companies will not lose access to their phone systems when an Internet connection is being impacted by heavy duty user traffic," said Eddie Worthington, Technical Director, VIA.

The solution promotes seamless communication between employees by bringing together voice interaction, instant messaging, email, video, and audio, across a variety of devices, such as landlines, smartphones, PCs, and tablets.

Square 1 Products has unlocked significant market potential with the launch of a Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS) solution that greatly simplifies BYOD deployments.

Gary Conner, Sales Director, said: "The solution is a simple sell for resellers. It has instant appeal for end users with a reduction of up to 40% on capital expenditure while enabling them to adopt the BYOD model without compromising data security.

"With the growing demand for flexible working environments and many employees wanting to use their own devices at work utilising phones, tablets and slates, the IT department has come under tremendous pressure to support employees with a BYOD model. Now the cloud-hosted VDI solution has become a reality."

Conner also noted that growth is set to increase due to Microsoft withdrawing its support mid-July 2015 of Server 2003.

"It is estimated that over 700,000 companies are still using this software and all will now need to look at alternative solutions or risk relying on unsupported systems," he said.

"Furthermore, using our white label service resellers' end customers can migrate their entire systems across painlessly or start slowly by moving Exchange or remote back-up first, followed by other requirements later.

"Growing companies can start their new people on the hosted system and migrate existing staff at a later date once they have seen the benefits first hand."

Three key appointments have boosted Maverick's strategy to advance the benefits of AV solutions in the wider business market.

The audio-visual business unit of Tech Data has appointed Shaun Elliott as Sales Director while Simon Millidge has been named Education Channel Manager.

Carmel Keightley has joined the firm as its new dedicated Marketing Manager, moving over after two years working in the Public Sector team. She will take responsibility for Maverick's customer focused campaigns, supporting business growth for both professional AV and B2B resellers.

Director of Maverick UK, Simon Fagan, stated: "We grew significantly last year and we have shown how effective we can be in driving and supporting development for our partners and customers.

"With the experience and expertise they bring, Shaun, Simon and Carmel will add even more energy and enthusiasm to our team and enable us to evolve and enhance the strategic focus of our business."

Advertised salary rates continue to rise strongly across the UK and there is little sign of a slowdown in wages growth, according to Clive Jefferys, MD of Telecoms recruiter JMA Network.

"The latest report from Adzuna points to accelerating pay pressure with a whopping 8.1% growth in aggregated advertised salaries over the last 12 months," he said.

"As the skills shortage bites deeper, the old adage that the best people are attracted to the best paid jobs has never been truer. Given that agreed job offers generally exceed advertised salaries, the true rate is likely to be well over 10%.

The volume of job advertising continues to grow with 25% more positions available compared with the same three month period last year. Nonetheless, the time taken to fill positions continues to slow as a dearth of candidates frustrates hirers.

"The average time to select and start new employees is now around four to five months. The wisest hirers have thrown away formal hiring schedules and interview candidates at every opportunity."

Bolton-based IT services firm Imerja has reported record financial results for the first half of the year with six month revenues up more than 60% on the same period last year.

The company is on course to exceed £9m by the end of the current 2014/2015 financial year.

A growing portfolio of annuity customers, supported from Imerja's accredited 24x7 operations centre, means the company already has significant forward revenues secured through to 2020 and beyond.

Its telemedicine services, such as Telestroke and Video-as-a-Service, have enabled critical and sometimes life-saving services to be accessed by patients regardless of location, improving clinical outcomes and delivering efficiency in terms of resource utilisation and cost savings.

Imerja's MD Ian Jackson said: "It is satisfying to see such strong and sustainable growth resulting from our long-term strategy for inward investment.

"We want to be a company that makes a difference. Our strong in-house capabilities are underpinned by high levels of accreditation and secure 24x7 operations, and from our headquarters in Bolton we deliver critical solutions to a large number of government, healthcare and blue light services each year.

"Our focus on achieving accreditation to HMG OFFICIAL across our core services will ensure Imerja is able to continue to provide robust and accredited services into the public sector for the foreseeable future."