Comms Dealer

Former Proximity Communications CEO Darren Boyce has joined the board at Maintel as Non-Executive Director.

Proximity was created in 2009 following a merger between Applinet and the Unified Group. Boyce, who was Managing Director of Applinet, took the role of group CEO when the two companies came together. The business was sold to Maintel in October this year.

Boyce was previously Sales Director at LANBase which was acquired by Workplace Technologies (subsequently acquired soon after by NTL Incorporated in 2000).

John Booth, Non-Executive Chairman of Maintel, commented: "Darren brings a wealth of commercial experience and insight in our sector and his skills will be a valuable addition to the Maintel Board as we focus on our future development and growth."

According to a BBC news report BT is in talks with Telefonica over the potential acquisition of the O2 mobile network from the Spanish firm.

The discussions are described as being at a 'highly preliminary stage'.

BT spun-off O2 in 2002, then called BT Cellnet. Three years later it was acquired by Telefonica for £17.7bn.

Telefonica said in a statement, 'Telefonica informs that, although it is in talks with British Telecom, these talks are in a highly preliminary phase and there is no certainty that a transaction will take place'.

Resellers with the ability to simplify end user IT infrastructures and provision connectivity solutions stand to make significant gains next year.

That's according to a channel survey undertaken by Brocade which found that the biggest challenges faced by customers are complexity (46%) and bandwidth provisioning (46%).

The study also identified three trends that are front of mind - virtualisation (72%), BYOD and Software Defined Networking (30%).

Over half of Brocade's EMEA channel partners and systems integrators believe that SDN and Network Functions Virtualisation (NFV) will be significant trends within the next two years.

Of those surveyed in EMEA 18% are already deploying SDN and NFV technologies, with 62% either currently evaluating SDN and NFV solutions or planning to do so within the next year.

Marcus Jewell, Vice President, EMEA, Brocade, said: "Our channel partners are looking to the future and focusing on building technology solutions that their customers will need in the years to come, in particular SDN and NFV.

"With customers prioritising virtualisation and BYOD, it's only natural that complexity and bandwidth are their top challenges."

SIP technology is tops according to delegates at Britannic Technologies' annual Convergence Summit held in London. In a live poll 47% of attendees voted SIP as their most favoured technology, followed by cloud at 36% and CTI 32%.

The end user event was targeted at decision makers from mid-sized and enterprise organisations and the big theme this year was 'business enablement through technology'.

Britannic Technologies Sales and Marketing Director Jonathan Sharp said: "The presentations were delivered over a technology that enabled the audience to view the presentations on their devices and interact with the presenters. And a live poll was conducted among the audience to discover which technology they thought would add the most value to their business."

Incom Business Systems celebrated its 25th birthday this month and the Directors marked the milestone by hosting a employee team-building weekend in Prague.

Colleagues worked in groups to carry out team-building tasks which included escaping from a Mind Maze and completing an Apprentice-style challenge.

The event also marked Incom's growth in the past five years, doubling in size since 2009.

Managing Director David Hughes said: "It was rewarding and an absolute pleasure to see colleagues - some of whom I've worked with for two decades and some for only a few months - working together and having so much fun.

"The way everyone pulled together on the team challenges is testament to the culture of our company, both inside and outside of the office. I will take away many happy memories from our 25th anniversary celebrations in Prague."

Westcon Group's UCC practice awarded its top performing Avaya partners with a day's sailing at the Royal Solent Yacht Club in Lymington.

"The sailing incentive rewards partners that have sold the full stack of Avaya products to their mid-market customers. The results this financial year have been tremendous. The trip demonstrates our thanks to our partners for their constant support and commitment," said Ralph Donohue, General Manager UK & Ireland, Westcon UCC.

Partners spent the day sailing in a fun environment with plenty of teamwork challenges and highly competitive close quarter racing, followed by a prize presentation and dinner.

Paul Sheppard, Sales Manager, Maintel, added: "I had a fantastic day. The competitive sailing was great fun and I am looking forward to next year's already."

tIPicall has launched a new bundle pricing offer exclusively for channel on OnePBX, its proprietary hosted telephony platform.

Available on a monthly rolling contract, resellers can take advantage of bundle pricing including seat license, DDIs, UK landline, UK mobile and either EU landline or USA landline and mobile calls.

On a 36 month term, resellers can also benefit from an included Yealink handset.

tIPicall Managing Director Guy Miller said: "We want to offer our partners a different proposition - while free UK calls are great, the added value to the right opportunity to bundle in European or American calls takes bundles to a different level.

"As we're Channel-only, it's up to our resellers how they want to price and promote this service, they can carry on as they are now with a new zero cost base for the calls or they can pass the savings on to new clients to win more deals. They might even want to migrate existing clients on other platforms and split the savings.

"The pricing of these bundles means resellers will be making a minimum 100% markup on hosted. We want to bring back profit into the Channel and our global reach has allowed us to slash worldwide prices to achieve this."

As well as boosting resellers' coffers a pre-Christmas incentive sales scheme run by Daisy Wholesale will also generate additional funds for charity.

For every new qualifying service taken between now and 23rd December Daisy Wholesale will make a donation to kids charity Action for Children.

"In a normal month, it is estimated that in excess of £6,000 will be generated," said Terry O'Brien (pictured), MD of Daisy Wholesale. "Although an already significant amount, Daisy Wholesale hopes that its partners have a great month of trading and that as much money as possible is raised for the UK-based children's charity.

"After such a great 12 months of business, we were trying to think of a way to thank our resellers for their generous custom. Ideas of different incentives were thrown around, but we really wanted to do something extraordinary this year and really give back to show our appreciation. And, how better to do that than help make Christmas a little more cheerful for the UK's most vulnerable children?"

The services that qualify for the donation span across the provider's portfolio and include WLR, SIP, broadband and Ethernet, HVX and HDS seat licences and mobile connections.

A connection will count once it is brought into service, or in the case of an Ethernet order, when accepted by the relevant carrier.

The fundraising incentive comes just two months after the business raised £7,800 for charity Diversity Role Models with a 40-man trek up Mount Snowdon.

Sennheiser has unwrapped the D 10, an entry-level wireless DECT headset with a customisable single-sided design that offers the single connectivity to either a desk phone or a softphone/PC.

Its two-in-one wearing style can use either a headband or ear hook with full workday talk time of up to 12 hours and fast charging of up to 50% in 20 minutes.
 
The D 10 includes a noise cancelling microphone, wideband sound and ActiveGard technology that offers hearing protection against acoustic shock.

Its Digital Signal Processing technology enables clearer sound by incorporating echo cancelling and audio equalisation and DECT connectivity to avoid interference with nearby Wi-Fi devices.
 
The D 10 is supplied with a base station that has a built-in ringer for USB models with choice of tones and adjustable volume. It also includes built-in cable management.

Up to four headsets per conference call are available and with a wireless range of up to 180m the headset is suitable for large office environments.
 
"We designed the D 10 with the modern office professional in mind, ensuring that everything from design through to operation reflected the no-compromise standards that are demanded by today's users," said Jane Craven, Sales Director at Sennheiser Communications.

"The DECT standard combined with our digital processing technology ensures clarity in typically noisy office environments, and we've made sure that workers can stay mobile and connected throughout the day."

Venus Business Communications has moved into bespoke premises in Oxford Street, a move that marks the beginning of a five year growth strategy.

"The new premises provides the space we need to house our growing reseller team and integrate our technical teams," said Brian Iddon, Venus Business Communications' Director.

Venus began adopting a partnership approach with resellers two years ago while growing its network. It now has 28 points of presence across London, passes hundreds of thousands of London postcodes, covers 19 exchange areas where fibre can be offered to premises, and passes through every main London data centre.

"The move to fibre is being driven by more connected devices and smaller businesses taking their IT infrastructure into the cloud," added Iddon.

"This requires better communications to access the cloud and therefore a powerful network is needed. This provides real opportunities for resellers that we are helping them capitalise upon and as a result growing in partnership with them."