Comms Dealer

Gigaclear has secured £111m in additional equity funding to build new full fibre networks in rural Britain, enabling a significant acceleration in the build rate of ultrafast Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) networks across multiple counties, reaching hundreds of thousands of people.

The funding has been raised from existing shareholders and one new institutional investor.

Existing shareholders Infracapital and Woodford have committed to investing £60m and £15m respectively with other shareholders contributing a further £1m. RPMI Railpen, the investment manager for the Railways Pension Scheme, is the new institutional investor, putting £35m to work in the company.

"In recent months we have won significant tenders to deliver our broadband network to hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses across Devon, Somerset, Gloucestershire, Herefordshire and Northamptonshire through the Government-backed BDUK programme," said Matthew Hare, Chief Executive, Gigaclear. "The new investment will fund the first stage of these new networks, along with other commercial network build projects.

"Full fibre is the future. This latest round of investment will enable Gigaclear to step up our speed of network delivery and is a clear signal of the confidence investors have in our continued expansion and success.

"Millions of rural homes and businesses across the country need better broadband and we want to reach as many of those in rural areas as quickly as possible. Our pure fibre network transforms lives by providing access to the fastest Internet speeds to be found anywhere in the world and technologically future-proofing these rural communities for years to come."

Ed Clarke, Co-Founder and Director, Infracapital, commented: "Gigaclear has made significant progress since we made our original investment and we are proud to be supporting the team as they roll out this essential infrastructure in underserved areas of the country."

Greg Mesch, CEO of fellow fibre trail blazer CityFibre, commented: "This is not only welcome news for the rural communities stranded on unsuitable copper infrastructure, it also serves to highlight the crucial role and growing momentum of competitive full fibre players and the rapidly increasing market support for full fibre investment.

"Alternative network providers like Gigaclear and CityFibre are playing a central role in transforming the UK's digital infrastructure. This will ultimately contribute towards safeguarding the nation's future as an economic force in a digital world."

This year's sparkling Comms Dealer Sales & Marketing Awards extravaganza (staged at London's Park Lane Hotel on May 4th and sponsored by KCOM) reflected the growing strength of the channel's sales organisations with more entries than ever mirroring a 25% increase in the scale of the event itself on last year.

Hosted by Radio 5 live's Colin Murray the awards luncheon celebrated the top revenue generating teams from the distribution, vendor and reseller sectors of the channel.

Stand-out winners were Entanet and Provu which both scooped a brace of awards and Pure Telecom which collected a Sales Team of the Year gong along with the coveted overall Comms Dealer Channel Team of the Year award (pictured above).

This year's event also saw the debut of two new awards, Best Apprenticeship Scheme and Best Company to Work For, picked up by Lily Comms and Berry Telecom (pictured below) respectively.

"Channel sales are as good as they have ever been as the record breaking Comms Dealer Sales & Marketing Awards has underlined," stated Comms Dealer Editorial Director Nigel Sergent.

"All of our finalists are to be congratulated on their achievements and deserve wide recognition for their hard work."

Awards judge Lee Shorten added: "Entries this year were exceptional. The quality and breadth of the submissions has shown me that channel companies are upping their game and developing top notch sales and marketing teams which are ignoring the economic news and smashing targets via resilient selling and creative marketing."

COMMS DEALER SALES AWARDS 2017 WINNERS

Best Partner Or Customer Portal - Daisy Wholesale

Best Partner or Customer Event - Gamma

Reseller Best Marketing Campaign - Cisilion

Reseller Sales Team of the Year with a turnover of above £5m - SWComms

Reseller Sales Team of the Year with a turnover between £2.5m & £5m - Exsel Group

Reseller Sales Team of the Year with a turnover up to £2.5m - Pure Telecom

Best Vendor Partner Programme - TeleWare

Vendor Channel Marketing Campaign of the Year - Union Street

Vendor Channel Marketing Team of the Year - Entanet

Vendor Channel Sales Team of the Year - Entanet

Service Provider Channel Marketing Campaign of the Year - Assembly Channel Services

Service Provider Channel Marketing Team of the Year - Fidelity Group

Service Provider Channel Sales Team of the Year - Channel Telecom

Distributor Channel Marketing Campaign of the Year - ProVu Communications

Distributor Channel Marketing Team of the Year - Pragma

Distributor Channel Sales Team of the Year - ProVu Communications

Best Company to Work for - Berry Telecom

Best Apprenticeship Scheme - Lily Comms

The Comms Dealer Team of the Year - PureTelecom

NetApp research has put a spotlight on the compliance challenges faced by businesses in the run up to the deadline for the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

NetApp's research into European cloud adoption, security and GDPR compliance found gaps in the understanding and sense of urgency among organisations that should be on top of preparations for the May 25th 2018 GDPR deadline.

Only 37% of respondents so far have invested extra funds in data regulation compliance, a figure that should be much higher to prepare businesses for a data-driven future and to fend off crippling fines.

Other key findings from the survey of 750 CIOs and IT managers from France, Germany and the UK show that the responsibility for data compliance is not always clear, a comprehensive understanding of what is involved in the GDPR is lacking, and that GDPR preparation moves slowly.

The crux of meeting the GDPR deadline is compliance. While the originator of data remains the owner, under GDPR anyone who processes that data is also responsible.

However, 51% of the respondents say responsibility for compliance rests with the company that produces the data, 46% say it is in the hands of the company that processes the data and 37% of survey participants believe responsibility for data compliance is in the hands of third-party cloud providers.

All of these parties will be individually responsible for the data they handle and the survey respondents' multiple answers indicate a basic understanding of this 'shared responsibility' for personal data.

The low figures also demonstrate an air of uncertainty among EMEA's CIOs and IT Managers.

Compounding the confusion over compliance is the lack of comprehensive understanding of what is involved in the GDPR.

Understanding is highest in Germany, but only 17% of respondents there say they fully understand GDPR. France is second with 15%, followed by the UK with 12%.

The majority of base respondents say they have 'some' understanding of the GDPR (47%), and with only a year until the 2018 deadline, 9% still say they 'don't know' what GDPR is.

This lack of understanding is mirrored by 73% of base respondents admitting to having some concerns about the looming deadline, which threatens businesses with a large fine if regulations aren't met.

With the clock ticking and only a third (37%) of respondents across Europe saying they are investing extra funds in preparation for the GDPR deadline, Germany is taking GDPR preparations most seriously, with over a quarter of respondents (27%) saying they've already hired specific personnel with data protection expertise; France is second with 20% and the UK following behind with 17%.

However, 14% of base respondents have yet to make any preparations at all. These preparations will prove essential given the rising power of data for businesses.

As IDC figures predict, there will be an exponential growth in data, with 80 billion devices expected to connect to the internet by 2025.

When it comes to cloud adoption,?a little more than a quarter of respondents (29%) regard compliance with regulation as a key motivation.?This suggests that businesses are still not focused on the issue of compliance - even when it comes to major business decisions like cloud adoption.

Dr. Dierk Schindler, Head of EMEA Legal & Global Legal Shared Services at NetApp, commented: "As the cloud continues to transform the way we do business, the GDPR is a landmark piece of legislation.

"It lays the foundations for our data-driven future and provides a strong incentive for all enterprises which process EU citizens' data to build a robust data privacy compliance framework.

"C-suite staff and IT managers, however, are still uncertain when it comes to data compliance, which is both striking and concerning as it lies at the heart of GDPR.

"Their understanding of compliance and their ability to embrace the responsibility for any data they handle will directly affect their capacity to fend off future fines.

"With only half of the NetApp survey's base respondents having at least 'some' understanding of what GDPR is, we have a long way to go - and only a year to do it."

A new cloud-based UC offering based on the Cisco Hosted Collaboration Solution (HCS) platform has been rolled out by Node4 targeting the mid-market with voice, video, instant messaging and presence, conferencing, voicemail and integrated messaging, mobility and contact centre.

Node4 is seeking additional partners to bring this solution to market.

A recent Node4 survey of 200 UK IT decision makers showed that cost was the number one complaint regarding UC in the mid-market. And mid-market companies feel that their UC deployments are not reaching their full potential.

Just 18% of mid-market companies rank their UC deployments as being in the top quartile in terms of functionality, and one in five claim to be 'very satisfied' with their UC.

Node4 will offer its Cisco HCS-based solutions to the channel at wholesale prices.

Channel partners will be able to sell licences at a reduced cost compared to direct mid-market sales, and white label the service with their own branding and a powerful self-provisioning tool, said the firm.

"In the last year we've sensed real hunger within the mid-market for the kind of advanced, fully-featured UC systems that, until recently, only the largest enterprises have been able to afford," commented Simon Herbert, Cloud Solutions Development Specialist, Cisco.

"There's an enormous opportunity here. It's only right that more advanced functionality should start to migrate down the chain via a UcaaS model."

Andrew Wilson, Director of Channel Sales, Node4, added: "Our focus is on new customer acquisitions in the mid-market and our channel partnerships form a critical part of our strategy.

"With the expansion of our UC proposition to incorporate Cisco HCS, collaboration solutions are no longer a privilege for the large enterprise. For the first time Node4 is giving its partners the opportunity to offer a UC solution based on HCS to market at a price to suit mid-sized businesses."

Enghouse Interactive has signed a partnership agreement with ScanSource Imago enabling the distributor to resell a range of Enghouse products including the Enghouse Interactive Communications Center (EICC), together with its Quality Management Suite (QMS) and Real Time Speech Analytics (RTSA) offerings.

Phil Boyd, Vice President of Merchandising, ScanSource Imago, said: "We were looking for a partner with expertise in contact centre and customer interaction technology.

"EICC has a native integration into Skype for Business and a strong record on other UC platforms including Avaya and Cisco."

Gary Bennett, Director of Channel Sales at Enghouse Interactive, added: "We continue to show strong momentum in the scale of our contact centre implementations. Partnering with ScanSource gives us the opportunity to accelerate this momentum throughout 2017 and beyond."

Cloud and network provider Exponential-e's financial results for year ending January 31st 2017 were ahead of forecast with revenues up 26% to almost £97.5m driven by an increase in demand for cloud network computing and managed services.

Exponential-e reported EBITDA of over £20m, up 45% with profit before tax up 48% to just over £9.9m.

CEO Lee Wade said: "The last year has been incredibly successful for the business, delivering record revenues. Customer acquisition has continued to rise fuelled by strong demand for our cloud-based offerings.

"Our model is built to deliver innovative, 'non-stop compute' solutions, that use best-of-breed technologies. These have proved popular with our customers over the last 12 months and have contributed to this revenue growth."

The last 12 months have seen Exponential-e develop a range of new products and services.

In July it launched an SD-WAN proposition which allows companies to centrally assign and manage application policies across multiple sites and scale bandwidth up or down as required.

In February it made a 10 Gigabit Internet service available, which is over 400 times faster than the Government's minimum definition of superfast broadband, available to businesses throughout the UK.

The company also expanded its operations outside London, moving its Manchester office to a new, bigger location and growing its headcount there to 20 people.

Earlier in April, it appointed Afshin Attari as its Director of Public Sector who is tasked with significantly growing the company's presence in the government computing space.

"Despite the ongoing market uncertainty we anticipate the next 12 months will continue to be positive," added Wade.

"Our determination to innovate and create products ahead of the market will endure and hold us in good stead. As further commitment to this part of our business, we have earmarked £2m to be used solely for research and development."

Avaya has named Stephane Boudier as new EU Mid-Market Leader following a year working with the vendor as Orange Global Account Director, delivering a +160% growth in Avaya's mid-market space in Q4 2016.

He took over French Channel last summer contributing to an expansion of Avaya France's Unified Communication, Contact Center and Networking solutions.

Boudier brings almost 30 years of experience in the telecoms industry, including two decades with service providers such as TDF, Orange, and SFR.

He also brings international experience to his new pan-European role having formerly served as CEO of PSN in Poland, Executive CTO for Orange Jordan, and years of experience in both North American and Asian companies.

Fadi Moubarak, Vice President for Avaya Channel, EMEA & APAC, said: "Stephane has demonstrated both a clear understanding of the diverse needs of our partners and end customers as well as real enthusiasm for achieving growth and strong, enduring relationships."

The extent of MyPhones.com's influence across the globe has been revealed following analysis of SIP trunks in use with the firm's Altos hosted telephony platform which highlights customers in the southern as well as the northern hemisphere.

"We originally designed Altos for the UK reseller channel," said Dr Stuart Marsden, founder and chief executive of MyPhones.com. "So, it came as a surprise to see just how far our end-user base had spread.

"As expected, the vast majority of our end users are located in the UK, but they are also spread across Europe, North America and Asia, and as far as South Africa, Australia and New Zealand in the southern hemisphere."

International end user subscriptions now represent almost 5% of MyPhones.com's total subscriptions.

MyPhones.com currently has end-users in more than 60 countries covering most of mainland Europe and Russia.

In Asia, they include Turkey, Saudi Arabia, India, Pakistan, China, Japan and South Korea. Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, the United States, Canada and Brazil also figure.

"Altos doesn't mind whose SIP trunks are used to carry the calls," added Dr Marsden. "And our approach is to try to accommodate the needs of our resellers, leaving them free to negotiate the best possible rates for SIP trunks and minutes from their preferred providers.

"Some of our resellers are looking overseas either for better SIP trunk rates or to deliver a service to customers based outside the UK. And we are very happy to support them."

The top 20 overseas countries with Altos registrations are Bulgaria, Cyprus, France, Germany, India, Iraq, Israel, Italy, Kenya, Luxembourg, Morocco, Pakistan, Philippines, Poland, Romania, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Spain, Thailand, United States.

Intercity Technology has invested £10m into the development and launch of Touch Technology, a global UC solution that has already been adopted by a number of global brands and is due to launch into the channel this year with a focus on boutique resellers.

Touch Technology was developed in-house and is protected by a global patent, offering integrated voice calls, video conferencing, mobility, screen sharing and collaborative tools.

Touch Technology is also available as a mobile first solution without the need for any fixed infrastructure.

Touch Technology also has an open API and integrates with other business systems including Sales Cloud from Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics.

Andrew Jackson, CEO at Intercity Technology, said: "To have global brands embracing and benefitting from technology that has been developed here in the UK is a huge achievement.

"We have created a disruptive solution that can completely transform the way businesses work. Boosting productivity is key to business success and Touch Technology is an exciting innovation that empowers organisations to facilitate communication and collaborative working across the business."

Lee Hull, executive director at Intercity technology, added: "Thanks to its global coverage and scalability, Touch Technology enables us to support more businesses across the world, helping them to work smarter and get the most out of their team.

"We've worked hard to create a flexible and scalable communications solution which can be quickly deployed. We're looking forward to launching this into the channel later this year and we are confident that it will become a selling point for our channel partners."

The current industry obsession with Big Data and Business Intelligence plays directly into the hands of Sentel, according to CEO Ger Connery who has spent two decades working with telecoms analytics in the cloud.

Against the backdrop of the late '90s dot.com gold rush Connery first worked as a Sales Manager in payroll software and mailing equipment before joining Sentel, a telecoms start up, as Sales Director in 1998. The company serviced the network reporting market which at that time was only served by BT. It won a number of large corporate and public sector accounts including Barclays, AIB, the Department of Social Welfare and MOJ, along with many SME accounts mainly through the partner channel.

"Our USP was online access to reporting suites for CDR management with graphical as well as statistical display, not DOS which was the standard presentation output back then," explained Connery. "We were the first true cloud-based provider of telecoms analytics taking a managed service approach. We targeted all of the alternative telcos and resellers, and becoming profitable within three years of launch was a milestone."

Connery put his house on the line to lead an MBO before becoming CEO in January 2006. "When the stock market crash came we had to readjust," he added. "Our move into more traditional call logging through vendor channels such as Cisco, Avaya and Mitel followed, but always in the cloud and with a managed service wrap. It didn't suit everyone as many were still wedded to the on-premise approach. But we had developed a hard shell, always believing that cloud was the future."

To drive revenues the company branched out into other areas such as billing analytics for Your Communications which then became C&W, and ran a mobile reporting service for the NHS. "The market changed quickly during the noughties," recalled Connery. "After the building downturn and the following economic downturn of 2008, and drawing on our broad experience of all things telecoms, we decided to invest in an all-in-one telecoms platform focused on cost reduction, audit and asset tracking, tapping into the growing Business Intelligence and Big Data space.

"We built and launched our TEMS solution targeting enterprise and the public sector. This service is a strong performer for us today. We never lost sight of our telco and service provider history and thankfully there has been a huge upturn in activity in this space since UC adoption has become the trend. Sales are rising for our UC analytics and our new toll fraud protection service propositions, tapping into the cybercrime defence market."

Sentel has now streamlined its services into two clear lines of business - a Service Provider UC Analytics wrap and Enterprise with full TEM managed service wrap. "Instead of all things to all people, with 10 services we are clearly defined and better resourced to pick our battles," added Connery.

Sentel has over 500 customers and expects to grow 30 per cent this year as part of a three year plan to achieve 100 per cent growth, with staff numbers forecast to rise by 50 per cent. Connery says a young management team and more dynamic product development will speed up the delivery of products and services to market, thereby accelerating growth. "Our drive is to double turnover in the next five years and build the business into a BI market leader in the telecoms space," stated Connery.

The growing popularity of UC and the cyber fraud issue has also improved Sentel's position in the service provider market, resulting in a product roadmap that includes toll fraud protection, voice recording integration, contact centre, SP facing UC adoption reports, revenue assurance and CTI wraps. "The consolidation of SIs and telecoms vendors served to trigger a refocus on our channel driven services, making them sharper and more stable," said Connery. "All the chat is data analytics and business intelligence. This is good for us and we are in the right place."•