Comms Dealer

Gamma has launched a new build option for its SIP trunking service called Resilience+.

As an alternative to the Active Standby and Loadshare build options that were already available with Gamma SIP Trunks, Resilience+ provides two SIP endpoint connections where each endpoint is active to selected DDIs while standby resilience is provided by the other endpoint.

With dual endpoints both in Active and Standby mode, this new design offers additional failover and more flexible configuration, all managed via Gamma's online portal.

Paul Wakefield, SIP Product Manager at Gamma, commented: "Extending our suite of standard resilient builds gives our partners and their customers added peace of mind.

"With three build types now available, our partners and their customers also benefit from more flexibility and freedom of choice. While our standard build options are designed to cater for most typical deployments, we can also provide bespoke advice and solutions when required."

Chris Daffin, Network Services Director at Maintel noted: "Resilience is important to us and our customers and it's great to see that Gamma is continuing to stay ahead of the game with the addition of Resilience+."

BT has rewarded the TOFS charity with a grant of £700 to recognise the charity's commitment to providing emotional support to families of children born with Tracheo-Oesophageal Fistula, Oesophageal Atresia and associated conditions.

The grant has been awarded through the company's employee recognition scheme, the BT People Awards.

The scheme recognises and rewards BT's volunteering heroes who offer their time and skills to help people in their local communities, by providing grants to organisations in which they are involved.

TOFS beat off national competition to win an award in the Education category of the awards for the contribution it makes to the local community.

TOFS (Tracheo-Oesophageal Fistula Support) was set up in 1982 by parents of children born with TOF and associated conditions. Their aim was to reach out to other families in a similar situation.

Over 30 years on and now a registered charity, they continue to help families through the challenges of bringing up a child with TOF/OA, VACTERL and associated conditions. They do this by providing one-to-one support and a range of information and resources to families. TOFS is a recognised source of information for professionals with an interest in TOF/OA.

Diane Stephens, TOFS, said: "Without volunteers we could not support and educate as many families and professionals as we do. Volunteering is a special thing someone can do and we are eternally grateful for those people who do give up their time."

BT Business Partner Sales' Kay Leech volunteers for the charity and nominated it for the BT People Award. She said: "I got involved when my daughter, Harriet was born in 2008. The charity was there to support me and my family when I need them and I wanted to give something back.

"We have some fantastic ideas of how we can use this money to give the maximum benefit to both existing and new families and I can't wait to help those ideas become a reality."

451 applications were received for this round of grants and 84 applicants received awards totalling £50,980.

Applications were submitted by BT people from all over the world including Peru, India and Belgium. These included a wide range of community organisations from football clubs to police cadets to red squirrel protection, illustrating the wide variety of activities in which BT people are involved.

For more information please visit: www.btpeopleawards.co.uk

NEC has launched its SMB solution UNIVERGE SV9100 in the UK.

Also being released is the new MyCalls Operator Console application plus new terminals including the DT800 and DT400 series, as well as the touchscreen UT880, a desk phone integrating a traditional desktop phone and an Android tablet into one device.

"The new SV9000 series continues NEC's trend of creating a natural migration path for customers, while evolving the technology to meet the needs of today's businesses," said Osamu Noda, General Manager, Enterprise Networks Division, NEC Corporation.
        
The SV9100 offering is designed as an all-in-one unified communications (UC) platform for SMBs with simplified installation and management.

By offering a broad set of UC applications, including mobility options, NEC enhances its approach to vertical markets such as hospitality, healthcare and education.

Andrew Cooper, UK Sales Director says: "Picking up where its predecessor the SV8100 system left off, the SV9100 is five times more powerful and comes with a host of brand new on-board applications. Initial reseller feedback has been positive."

AKJ has strengthened its team with a number of appointments across the business including Account Management, Development and Production.

AKJ's Managing Director Derek Watson said: "We work with many of the largest Telecoms and ICT resellers in the industry and this requires professional and experienced staff to manage.

"At the same time data and cloud are without doubt the reseller market's main ICT sales product and AKJ's billing platform Affinity is an integral part of being able to sell and bill these still fairly new products accurately, so we need the right type of people to support this."

Steve Redman, AKJ's Commercial Manager, added: "The communication landscape is rapidly changing and AKJ is ensuring it can support the channel with a scaleable billing platform which is always designed with its customers business outcome in mind."

To support these changes, Samantha Collins has joined AKJ from Vodafone as Senior Account Manager, bringing a wealth of experience of reseller billing operations with the advantage of already understanding the Affinity Platform.

Recently promoted to Telephone Account Manager is Charmelle Hobbs. Formerly bureau based, Hobbs has been with AKJ for eight years.

Three new graduates have also joined the development and production team.

IT leaders need to take more leadership when it comes to meeting business need in a secure and efficient way, according to Andrew Mullen, VP of Sales and Marketing at Talon Storage.

The development of shadow IT has been dominated by the proliferation of external SaaS collaboration platforms as employees look to improve productivity, but the problem is that the documents and data in question are still being taken externally to the organisation's infrastructure - creating unknown quantities of risk that is hard to assess or manage, claims Mullen.

He said: "Shadow IT is a major risk for any organisation, and it's no easy task for IT leaders to eradicate illegitimate software as almost anyone can purchase low-cost subscription licenses and have new applications up and running in no time at all. IT leaders either approve the use of this software, without doing a full risk assessment, or procure their own version of it.

"IT leaders can solve the threat posed by shadow IT by reassessing their current IT estate's collaboration capabilities and to find ways to make sure that data never needs to leave the enterprise IT estate. Enabling collaboration on documents in such a way removes the need for employees to go to external platforms, such as the public cloud."

Intelligent file access and collaboration software within the IT estate that delivers optimal global file sharing, which overcomes the barriers of latency, bandwidth and network reliability, will not only significantly reduce the risk of shadow IT, but will lead to more effective document management and avoid file duplication, improving employee productivity, believes Mullen.

"Failure to do so will only result in the continuation of data leakage - a growing problem for large-scale organisations operating in multiple geographic areas," he added.

Resellers from across northern England converged at Nimans' Manchester headquarters for a workshop about the company's GS-hosted proposition that offers upfront or recurring revenue opportunities, or a combination of both.

A Manchester dealer said: "We've not sold hosted before but the event has opened my eyes to what is happening in the market and how Nimans can help us break new ground.

"This is the next chapter for telecoms and a new movement. We need to be on the journey before someone else offers that option."

GS-hosted includes a free three-year hosted seat licence with every handset purchased. A choice of three models are available - Standard, Advanced and Executive - with upfront margin potential of 45% or recurring margins of 65%. Already hundreds of resellers have signed up and made enquiries about the service that has turned the market on its head.

Head of Network Services Mark Curtis-Wood began the seminar by posing a 'why hosted, why now?' question.

"It is time for change," he said. "Some people try and ignore it and pretend it's not happening while some embrace it. Any change can be uncomfortable at first. The world of hosted can initially be a scary place but we are here to support you on that journey with a product set you've not sold before."

Resellers heard how Nimans is a 'good barometer' to measure changing market trends, with a huge volume of IP and Lync enabled end points now being delivered, emphasising how 'something is happening' in the wider comms world.

"Nimans wanted to stand out from the crowd and offer something different to enable you to differentiate in the market. We came up with something compelling," Curtis-Wood added.

Maingate has launched Connect Flex, a new data communications and connectivity solution designed for the smart energy sector.

Across the energy ecosystem there are hundreds of thousands of distributed assets, from smart meters to substations, transformers to cut-out switches, that each require monitoring and sometimes control.

Remotely monitored assets may be connected via a fitted SIM card, provided by the mobile network operator, that handles the communications coming from and to the devices.

If a utility or other asset owner wants to change provider in order to secure financial savings or better quality of service they are forced to also replace the SIM cards.

In practice this means an engineer visiting every one of potentially thousands of assets to physically replace the cards. As it stands, players are effectively tied in to one provider for the lifetime of their physical assets.

Maingate's Connect Flex service claims to tackle the issue of vendor lock-in. By supplying their own provider-agnostic SIM cards, Maingate's service allows owners and operators to remotely change providers, without replacing the physical cards.

As part of the Connect Flex service Maingate will handle any change of provider, to ensure that no connection or data is lost during the transition.

In addition, the Connect Flex service allows SIM cards to be fitted into energy hardware at the point of manufacture, which significantly reduces engineering costs.

Asset owners and operators are then free to choose the right provider for their needs at the point of installation, depending on coverage requirements and the best provider in each location.

"Connect Flex is an example of Maingate's push to develop solutions focused on decentralising the energy system and opening it up to change," said Maingate's UK Managing Director, David Owen. "The openness and transparency on which Connect Flex is built is the key to applying the Internet of Things to the smart energy ecosystem."

Nimans is taking part in a Samsung Christmas giveaway, with 78 festive presents being handed out to Samsung dealers throughout December as part of a yuletide sales incentive.

The '12 Days of Christmas' promotion spans dozens of prizes - from Amazon Vouchers to Galaxy tablets, home entertainment systems and Samsung TV's - as a thank you and reward for loyal customers.

Every Samsung System or WLAN Solution sold in November will be awarded an entry into one of 12 Christmas Prize Draws beginning on 1st December. A new prize draw takes place each working day for the next 11 days culminating in the grand prize of a Samsung 8 series curved UHD 55in TV worth £2,800.

Nimans' Head of Systems, John McKindland, says all Samsung Systems, including WLAN sales that include a controller, qualify for entry.

"2014 has been a great year - but this has only been possible thanks to the continued support and commitment from our channel partners. As a thank you, Samsung are giving away a range of gifts to bring some festive cheer across our reseller community," he explained. "It's going to be a Christmas to remember for many of our loyal customers."

Chess has snapped up Scottish telecoms reseller NetDatatel, its fifth acquisition this year.
 
The Morayshire company specialises in the oil and gas industry in Scotland and its portfolio includes calls, broadband, data networking and PBX installation.
 
The reseller will operate under the Chess name and adds £1.5 million to the Chess Groups' turnover.
 
Chess Chief Executive David Pollock said: "We have acquired a business striving to become a leading telecoms supplier in the important Scottish market."
 
Richard Btesh, Chess Director, added: "Bringing into the fold of the Chess Group a company with a strong pool of resources in the gas and oil industries is another strong statement for our growth.

"We continue to acquire specialist telecoms, data and ICT businesses. This acquisition follows recent acquisitions Parachute IT, Integra ICT, Avenir Telecoms and The CRM business as strategic additions."
 
Chess has completed over 70 acquisitions in the past 10 years.

It seems the 'business turnaround' industry is just as fond of acronyms as our own. Its brightest luminary, PY Gerbeau, swears by a brace of acronyms that form the foundation of his approach to breathing life back into drowning organisations. His two favourite management values - JFD (Just F' Do It) and FIF (Fit In Or F' Off) - have not failed him yet.

Gerbeau's loyalty to his tried and tested JFD and FIF formula has helped him to secure many notable successes but he is perhaps best known for rescuing the Millennium Dome from what appeared to be certain failure.

It goes without saying that the Gleneagles audience were light years away from needing a 'helping hand', but the flamboyant French entrepreneur and former professional ice hockey player (he became a member of the French national team until an injury curtailed his sporting career) provided Comms Vision delegates with a lively and at times hilarious lesson on leadership and managing business change.

His penchant for taking over failing businesses and reinventing them as fighting fit machines is well documented. And a strict adherence to his non-nonsense management values plus four other key principles ensure that successful outcomes are a dead cert.

Gerbeau's Fab Four principles – Flexibility, Adaptability, Agility and Common Sense - when combined help businesses to adopt a chameleon-like strategy that enables them to adapt to changing and threatening environments, but only if organisations are orchestrated in the right direction.

"Management is not about knowledge and giving orders, it's about being a conductor," added Gerbeau. "The only rule is to ensure that staff play together from the same song sheet.

"Business starts and finishes with people. And as a leader you need to reinvent yourself. It's not just about being visionary, it's about being a doer. So be absolutely committed, live the brand, get people to change and pass on your passion to your staff."

Brands can take years to build but minutes to destroy, and you have to get it right first time or be punished, warned Gerbeau. "Staff need to believe in the brand values and the biggest challenge is to lead by example," he added. "Staff want to learn and be inspired.

"The chief exec needs one week a year on the floor to remind them of who they work for - the customer - and staff want to understand them as a person.

"Leaders have a mission. It's not about money, it's about making a difference - and you make a difference by showing people you are on a mission."

Devising a strategy can be easy, but implementing one is another matter with change management being a potential sticking point. "Getting people used to change is a challenge," added Gerbeau. "This can be done by changing departments around and moving desks every three months to give people a taste of change. Without change businesses won't survive."