Comms Dealer

Despite UK businesses having a legal obligation to protect their employees, 48 per cent of businesses in the channel have insufficient measures in place to protect their staff when working alone, according to recent research.

A study undertaken on behalf of communications business Daisy Group found that over three quarters (78%) of people were required to work alone as part of their job, either regularly or occasionally, and a quarter of all of those surveyed (25%) said their employer never checked the welfare of staff when working alone.

Of those required to work either alone or off-site (for example attending meetings), 63 per cent said that the monitoring arrangements in the organisation they worked for were haphazard. Just one in eight (12%) said they were aware that they had responsibilities to let others know of their whereabouts and to 'check in' with colleagues when working alone.

If incapacitated due to an accident whilst working alone, one in seven lone workers said that they would expect it to take up to seven hours for their colleagues to notice they were missing.

The Office of National Statistics estimates that there are approximately six million lone workers in the UK, however the research suggests that the number could be much higher when taking into consideration occasional lone working, such as attending client meetings, doing site visits or making deliveries.

Marie Wheatley, Group Head of HR at Daisy Group, said: "Most businesses are very proactive about looking after their staff whilst they are on site, but it seems that there's a real case of 'out of sight, out of mind' when it comes to their lone workers.

"Whether staff are spending the majority of their time unsupervised or just occasionally going to client meetings, businesses need to acknowledge their responsibilities to educate their lone workers about procedures and to take adequate steps to make sure that, in the event of a problem, staff have an adequate support network.

"Lone worker protection used to be very expensive, but there are now a variety of options available to suit businesses' needs and budget, whether it's lone worker devices or apps, GPS tracking for staff smartphones, or simply getting a special phone tariff for inter-company calls to operate a buddy system.?
"Whilst it is good to see that some businesses make suitable provisions to protect lone workers, it is disappointing that there are so few of them. In this day and age, and with all the technology at their disposal, there really is no excuse for businesses to leave lone worker safety to chance."

Daisy Group's low-cost tips for improving lone worker safety
• Establish good practice. Most employees are unaware that they have a responsibility for their own safety. Remind staff to inform colleagues of their intended whereabouts and to check in on a regular basis when working alone or off site.
• Assess the risk. Some work situations are more dangerous than others. Identify what likely scenarios the lone worker could come up against, and what level of protection is required to mitigate the situation.
• Multi-task. Assess whether you could make use of your company's existing telecoms or IT provision, or if it could be adapted to better protect lone workers, such as through using lone worker apps on mobile phones, GPS tracking on mobile devices, or getting a better rate on intercompany calls so that colleagues can stay in touch without phone bills shooting up.
• Test the system. Check whether, in the event of a problem, staff would know when and how to report it. Are there any situations when processes wouldn't work? Could you get in touch the employee's next of kin, should you need to?
• Ask for feedback. Many lone workers will be aware of potential problems before they happen, such as areas with a poor phone signal or high instances of violent crime, so work towards solving problems before they occur. Ask staff whether they have any safety concerns and work together to alleviate them, such as switching mobile phone networks to improve signal.

Jim Sewell, who helped establish one of the most successful telecoms resellers in the UK - London-based Alternative Networks - has issued a rallying call to industry giants to put their weight behind a new charity initiative.

Sewell has left his full time sales director role at Alternative to help set up a new 'Entrepreneur Panel' though the international Restless Development charity, which he has worked with since his youth.

"After leaving college at 18 I taught English, history and maths for nine months in a rural school in Zimbabwe with a very special organisation called Student Partnerships Worldwide, which is now Restless Development. This was a fantastic formative experience and one that gave me a love of Africa, and a great respect for the people there," explained Sewell.

"Over the last few years I have had an ambition to have more time to work on the Restless side and help set up and run some new fundraising projects, as well as having more time with the family and to do more cycling events," said Jim.

Sewell cycled from John O'Groats to Lands End with a team from Alternative in 2012 and completed sections of the Tour De Force, which cycles the route of the main Tour de France the week before the professionals.

"I really believe that companies want to work closely with charities but often find it hard to know how, unless someone internally has a specific passion. One of the reasons I left Alternative was to help put a charity/business engagement plan in place which is mutually beneficial."

The idea is that telecoms and IT entrepreneurs in the UK - either individually or through their businesses - fund livelihood projects in Africa.

"I am hugely motivated by the Entrepreneur Panel, as it makes complete sense to help people set up businesses and therefore support those around them and be self-sufficient," added Sewell.

For more details see next month's Comms Dealer, call Jim Sewell on 07973 738 935 or email Ella@restlessdevelopment.org

Spencer Bradshaw has joined ShoreTel as Head of Solution Architects and Advanced Applications in EMEA.

Previous roles include stints at Central Telecom and Vodafone.

Adrian Hipkiss, MD EMEA at ShoreTel, said: "Spencer brings to our expanding EMEA business his 22-year experience in unified communications, business transformation, contact centre and mobility technologies.

"With cloud a key focus for our organisation moving forwards, he has arrived from a value added reseller which specialises in cloud solutions."

MXC Capital has acquired Calyx Managed Services from Better Capital for £9m. Headquartered in Manchester Calyx has a national footprint and delivers managed IT services to the UK mid-market through a portfolio of managed cloud, networking and mobility solutions.

The investment will sit alongside MXC's existing investment portfolio of technology businesses which includes Castleton Technology, 365Agile and Eagle Eye Solutions Group.

In the year ended 31st December 2013 Calyx generated a gross margin of £10.1m and a loss before tax of £7.4m, partially as a result of the capital structure of the group.

In the year ended 31st December 2014 management accounts for the business show a gross margin of £10.4m and a normalised EBITDA of £400,000.

MXC believes that the business is capable of generating cash from the point of acquisition. The gross assets of Calyx at 31st December 2013 were £10.4 million. 

MXC Chief Executive Marc Young said: "Calyx is a well-established business delivering a broad portfolio of ICT solutions.

"We know the Calyx business well and it operates in markets we are already active in. We believe there is an opportunity to create value for our shareholders from this investment."

Call management technology is undersold and opportunities in sectors such as education and finance squandered, according to John McKindland, Head of Systems Sales at Nimans.

"The data can be invaluable to end users but there's a lack of awareness," he said. "Many customers are not aware of the features and benefits. There's also a perception of high cost which is not the case. Resellers are missing out on additional revenue."

During demonstrations Nimans leads with applications - CTI or call management for example - and this approach has proved successful.

"We see traction from schools that request call recording, and this dovetails with call management to drill down and identify key information," added McKindland. "This is particularly valuable in sixth form and academy-style schools with older children.

"Financial services is another area resellers should be targeting as there's a big focus on the volume of calls per hour, so any productivity information is invaluable."

Virgin Media Business and Arqiva have joined forces to enable seamless 4G connectivity to city centres across the country.

The partners can provide Mobile Network Operators with access to over 400,000 street assets including lampposts and CCTV cameras.

Combined with Virgin Media Business's high capacity fibre network and Arqiva's expertise in wireless transmission, this will provide an end-to-end solution for small cell deployment - from design, through installation and into in-life operation.

As a result Mobile Network Operators will be able to use this service to extend the reach and depth of their networks, ensuring more people benefit from a high speed 4G experience.

Duncan Higgins, Marketing Director at Virgin Media Business, said: "Small cell technology is a key way of tackling network capacity in built-up areas for mobile operators.

"Increasingly people are using their mobile devices to download and stream videos. That's why services like this are so important."

Nicolas Ott, Managing Director of Telecoms, Arqiva, said: "Regardless of network or consumer device, seamless and hassle-free connectivity is an absolute must. The challenge in dense urban areas is that buildings can block the signal and the higher volume of users can result in network congestion. Small cell technology is key to addressing these challenges, as already demonstrated in the USA and Asia."

In what has been described as one of the most significant deals for Vodafone Ireland's business division the company has partnered with Ryanair to provide 95 per cent of the carrier's telecoms, M2M and communications needs.

The agreement will facilitate Ryanair's teams including pilots and cabin crew with up to the minute information, improving the overall customer experience within the airline. 
 
Vodafone will support ticketing, check-in, ground crews, in-flight crews and pilots with telephony, fixed line and mobile 3G and 4G functionality across Ryanair's 189 locations in Europe and North Africa.
 
Vodafone Ireland Enterprise Director, Anne Sheehan, said: "This business partnership is one of the most significant for Vodafone Ireland to date, demonstrating our total communications capabilities by providing complete end-to-end solutions tailored to Ryanair's requirements across 189 locations in Europe."
 
Ryanair's Chief Technology Officer, John Hurley, said: "As part of our Always Getting Better improvement programme we're continuing to enhance the Ryanair experience for our 90 million customers annually.

"This partnership with Vodafone will provide us with the technical support to allow us to make these improvements quickly and seamlessly, including the introduction of paperless cockpits and a swifter inflight sales system."
 
Part of the initiative is the introduction of the electronic flight bag that will remove paper from the cockpit which is fundamental to Ryanair's strategy. 

In addition, Vodafone will support the on-board electronic point of sale (EPOS) devices used for in-flight credit card sales.

From April 2015 Ryanair crew will be issued with 8,000 new handheld devices with machine to machine connectivity which will create a secure managed connection to sync data with credit card companies when the plane lands.
 
Vodafone Machine-to-Machine (M2M) connects previously isolated machines or devices to the Internet, delivering new functionality and enhanced services without the need for human intervention.

Former advertising guru and software development expert Marshall Sherman (pictured) has launched a new enterprise aimed at helping channel businesses break into international markets.

Ghost Digital and Data (GD&D) is offering distributors, comms providers and independent software vendors a one-stop-shop for European expansion combining creative advertising with database development and language services for non-English speaking countries.

Sherman along with his new advertising partners has already executed a plan to take his own 'Alcatel-Lucent friendly' Amigo brand to Europe.

This required some serious challenges to be overcome, not least of which were the language barriers. Now he wants to make the service available to other third party software vendors and similar companies in the telecoms industry.

Sherman told Comms Dealer that GD&D aims to offer channel companies pain free overseas expansion at around a third of the cost currently paid by well financed corporates.

"In addition to our Europe-wide distribution service the key to this is that we have major international databases at our disposal and we can provide a complete service to address them encompassing call centre services, campaign creation from concept upwards, email development and execution through to email response handling and contact management.

"We have even designed html email templates with links embedded which enables companies to rapidly address their chosen databases with quality tailored messages."

GD&D is also offering language services to help ICT companies address specific European territories including the production of multi-lingual websites and marketing literature, translation of emails, software and manuals plus, crucially, pre and post-sales and responses to marketing activities by staff speaking the language of the country being addressed.

"Our services are principally aimed at ambitious mid-market and enterprise businesses looking to secure business abroad professionally and cost effectively on a recurring revenue basis, but we are also happy to work with SMEs and start-ups on a partial remuneration model based on leads generated, sales made or contract renewals," added Sherman.

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The appointment by Commsworld of Steve Thomson as Non-Executive Director (NED) is another sign of the company's growth ambitions. He replaces former NED Ian Blackford who becomes Chairman following the retirement of Malcolm Macpherson who held the post since 2000.

Thomson brings 35 years of business and banking experience to the Edinburgh-based firm after a long career in marketing and investment banking in Europe, Asia, North America and Russia, working for Burson Marsteller, Wickes, USB Philips & Drew, and latterly as a Managing Director of Credit Suisse First Boston and Moscow based United Financial Group.

Commsworld CEO, Ricky Nicol says the appointment is an endorsement of the advances Commsworld has made in recent years.

The firm will also draw on Thomson's Investor Research expertise. In 2000 he acquired a UK-based market intelligence service providing corporate clients worldwide with analysis of developments in the aviation industry in Russia, Ukraine, the Baltics and central Asia. He sold the business in 2013.

The 55-year-old, who is also on the Board of Highlands & Island Enterprise, said: "I was attracted to the NED role by the people and the business. But the most important factor is the amount of opportunity in the market due to how rapidly it is changing.

"Ricky and his team have built an impressive, robust business and I believe they are now in a great position to take that to the next level, which is what I would like to help with. I hope I can help Commsworld grow into new markets like the public sector, while also making its proposition more understandable to the non-tech savvy.\"

2014 was Commsworld's 20th year in operation and it marked the milestone by expanding its network services across Scotland and generating record revenues surpassing the £9 million turnover from the previous year.

Nicol said: "Steve brings a wealth of business experience that we will benefit from a great deal. He gives us a straight and measured opinion on the strategies we have in place and the plans we are looking to implement, while also helping with how to roll these out. This will be valuable as we approach another important year in the company’s growth.\"

Beecham Research predicts almost one billion cellular M2M connections worldwide by 2020, according to its new report.

The 'Global M2M Connectivity and Services Forecast' looks at the rapid rise of M2M since 2013 when there were just 172 million cellular M2M connections worldwide but also projects a note of caution in the face of increasing hype around the future of M2M and the Internet of Things (IoT).

"Our worldwide forecast has been constantly updated over a long period with direct, multiple contacts in all relevant countries worldwide," said Saverio Romeo, Principal Analyst at Beecham Research, where they have been studying the M2M market since 2001.

"As a result, we have a substantial up-to-date database to work with, built up from usage data on application sectors and connectivity technologies."

However, Romeo warned about the excessive hype surrounding some current M2M forecasts. "While the M2M market is growing strongly, we have seen some excessive predictions that simply create unrealistic expectations," he said.

"An average growth rate of nearly 30% per annum over the next few years represents both a very strong and exciting opportunity in a services market that is substantially business-to-business," said Robin Duke-Woolley, Founder and CEO of Beecham Research.

"Unfortunately there are some ludicrous, multi-billion connected device forecasts around at present for M2M and IoT that betray a complete lack of understanding about how the market really works.

"Much faster growth rates are just not realistic in this market because enterprises do not assimilate new technologies into their business processes that quickly."