Comms Dealer

Softcat has strengthened its managed print service (MPS) offering with a new dedicated team that will provide end-to-end managed print and document solutions across the full breadth of Softcat's customer base.

Matthew Jones, Softcat's sales manager, said: "Looking at the market and listening to our customers there is clearly a shift taking place in the print market.

"We are investing in this area as we are seeing more and more clients move their print estate from uncontrolled capital expenditure to an operational cost.

"We see this shift across all verticals, both within the enterprise and public sector markets. With a dedicated team, we will work with our customers to deliver a more cost-effective and efficient print service to their business."

SpliceCom claims to have lowered the overall cost of ownership for its soft, hard and virtual IP PBX systems with the launch of a new entry-level IP phone - the PCS 542 - designed to work with the vendor's Maximiser OS-based systems.

"The PCS 542's blend of feature convenience and ease-of-use make it the ideal choice for those who want to carry out everyday business telephony tasks, but don't need the extended capabilities offered by our advanced PCS 5 Series IP phones," says Robin Hayman, SpliceCom's Director of Marketing & Product Management.

"For those just wanting to make and receive phone calls, see who's calling them, transfer calls, manage their voicemail and set up the occasional three-party conference, SpliceCom's PCS 542 is an obvious choice."

Ovum expects wholesale revenue growth across the globe to reach $142bn in 2019, driven by intensified retail competition.

Although the prices of many commodity wholesale services are falling, accelerating traffic volumes will ensure that wholesale revenues will continue to grow, says Ovum.

The telecoms analyst firm expects wholesale revenues to grow across the globe, with Asia-Pacific experiencing the steepest rise due to intensified retail competition in many countries and escalating international traffic.

After analysing the financial results of more than 200 telecoms service providers, Ovum's wholesale telecoms team has estimated that the global wholesale telecoms market will be worth $142bn in 2019.

It will account for 6.6% of total telecoms service provider revenues, up from 5.5% in 2012. Ovum predicts that strong demand in the Asia-Pacific region will push its share of global total wholesale revenues to 26.0% in 2019, up from 17.0% in 2012.

The range of wholesale offers is growing rapidly in Malaysia and South Korea, and wholesale revenues will increase in China due to the recent licensing of 19 mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs). These providers would not be able to operate without the wholesale services provided by China's three dominant mobile network operators.

"The rapid rate of retail service innovation, the growth of voice and data traffic volumes, and the increasing complexity of retail services all depend on an efficient and effective wholesale market because few (if any) retail service providers can do everything themselves," explains David James, practice leader for Ovum's wholesale research channel and author of the report.

"New types of service provider are emerging, but their need for connectivity will stimulate greater demand for traditional wholesale services, while those telcos that do innovate at a retail service level will create demand from those that don't."

According to Ovum figures, wholesale revenues will be concentrated among a small number of large players.

In 2012 the five largest wholesalers earned more than a third of total global wholesale revenues, and the top 10 earned more than half of the total.

Telecoms service providers headquartered in North America and Europe dominated the list of the top 20 wholesalers in 2012, with only three based in Asia-Pacific, one in the Middle East and Africa region, and none from South and Central America.

However, David James expects this picture to change with the rise of domestic and international wholesale in Asia-Pacific.

"We expect at least one Chinese carrier to be among the top 20 wholesalers by revenues in 2019, although North America and Europe will continue to dominate the list."

SoftLayer, an IBM company, is opening of a new data centre in London based on the city's reputation as a key cloud market and proximity to financial institutions, technology start-ups and incubators.

The new London centre offers up to 15,000 physical servers and the full portfolio of SoftLayer cloud infrastructure services, including bare metal servers, virtual servers, storage and networking, it says.

Also, London's facility comes as the latest of 15 new data centres that IBM has decided to open as part of a $1.2bn (€0.9bn) investment to strengthen its cloud services in Europe, it says. In 2012 SoftLayer launched its Amsterdam data centre and London network Point of Presence (PoP).

Lance Crosby, SoftLayer CEO, said: "We already have a large customer base in London and the region. The work these businesses are doing - the solutions and services that they are building in the cloud- is inspiring. Organisations of all sizes using SoftLayer services to disrupt industries or even their own operations, creating new business models and applications."

CommVault has revamped its PartnerAdvantage Programme with new training accreditation and tools, additional incentives through a creation of the new MarketBuilder and introduction of Service Provider Edition programme.

Also, the expanded programme includes a tiering approach, deal registration processes and partner portal.

The PartnerAdvantage programme aims at building closer relationships with partners and assisting them in creating demand for its SaaS solutions for disties, VARs, SIs and service provider partners, it says.

As CommVault has specifically invested in its programme to attract more Service Providers, the new expanded PartnerAdvantage scheme offers to service providers accelerated time-to-market, new revenue opportunities, access to customised software licensing, pricing models, discounts and rebates.

Ralph Nimergood, VP Worldwide Partners and Programmes, said: "The channel has been at the centre of CommVault's growth strategy from the start and we're building on this foundation to create new routes to market and routes to margin for our partners.

"Our enhanced PartnerAdvantage programme offers resources and focus for partners that can enable their selling and implementations with customers to holistically manage and protect their data, which drives our transformation as a channel-driven company."

Resellers attending an Open Day at Nimans to learn about the latest Mitel and Aastra merger developments were told it's 'business as usual'.

Key personnel from the manufacturer and distributor, including Mitel UK Sales Director Robert Hutton, were on hand to outline future strategies, software updates and product plans - as resellers travelled from far and wide.

Nimans is the official UK distributor of the Aastra 400 system series and the company also showcased its leasing capability and Jabra headset portfolio as part of the half day event.

Hutton told attendees that the merger made 'great business sense' and created a billion dollar company with 60 million worldwide customers and 2,500 channel partners.

Dealers also heard how Mitel was 'absolutely committed' to the Aastra 400, with every current platform continuing with investment streams.

A Leeds-based dealer who attended the event said: "We only sell Aastra and never had any problems about what was happening. It's been very interesting to see the way forward. A few things have taken a bit of time to be outlined but what I've heard gives us even more confidence to move ahead on a stronger footing based on a clearer understanding of where the company is going."

Phoenix IT Managed Services has secured a five year contract from the South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (SWYPFT).

Under the terms of the deal Phoenix will help the Trust develop and enhance its IT services which will support an improved offer to people who use Trust services, with care closer to home, and support for self-directed and self-managed care, and staff using technology to best effect to support a good service user experience.

Adrienne Pickering, Deputy Director of IT at SWYPFT, said: "We put people who use our services at the centre of all we do and modernising services and offering the best technological solutions to underpin good care is fundamental to this.

"Our partnership with Phoenix IT Managed Services will provide opportunities to collaborate to enhance the experience of service users and to provide staff with equipment and technical support to work in the most efficient, effective and agile way."

Chief Executive of Phoenix IT, Steve Vaughan, added: "Our focus is on delivering high quality and forward looking services to our customers and this success is a perfect example of our collaborative approach to working with the NHS and the wider Public Sector."

In a bid to drive greater productivity and customer uptime Calyx has extended its management services portfolio, doubling the number of services solutions it offers.

Following investment in a new automated toolset focused on the prevention or early detection of IT-related problems, Calyx has added 13 more managed services solutions.

The new catalogue has been designed to offer a modular approach, providing customers with a choice of services from which they can cherry pick according to the needs of their business.

"Businesses today are having to manage a growing volume and variety of technology," says Steve Clark, Calyx CEO.

"Many have neither the time nor the necessary skills and expertise to do this in-house. That's why outsourcing is quickly becoming the best option for many businesses. And it is that growing demand that our extended management services portfolio is designed to address."

Development of the portfolio has been spearheaded by Stuart Pooley, Calyx's Head of Service Delivery, harnessing input from across the business.

"In the past, most IT support has tended to be reactive, with the focus on getting systems back online as fast as possible to avoid loss of productivity" said Pooley.

"However, with prolonged downtime becoming less acceptable, customers are looking for providers who can prevent the majority of problems before they have an impact."

The new portfolio has a strong focus on security. Key modules include email content filtering; web content filtering; network and security services; password services and compliance management.

On-site mobility solutions are great tools for leveraging existing business relationships, but wireless solutions are not quoted as often as they should be, according to Mark Shane, Sales Director at distributor ICON.

Upselling, developing new clients and expanding into new fields are just a few of the opportunities resellers can miss out on because they are not aware of the opportunity, or the wireless solution they support lacks the required functionality. "Some resellers sell and support wireless solutions where the handsets are designed and built only for use in office or carpeted areas," said Shane. "This narrow focus means that the opportunity to place solutions in areas of the organisation such as production, service delivery and dispatch is frequently overlooked."

There is a perception among some resellers that wireless handsets are no more than a mobile alternative for a desk phone. But with enterprise quality wireless solutions the handset is frequently used as a component of a business or process solution. And in some cases, such as the Spectralink BYOD type handset PIVOT, its role as an endpoint for a PBX is secondary to its use as a device for running business apps or reporting the real-time status of an organisation's control, process or monitoring systems. "This extended capability opens up opportunities for the reseller to quote a wireless on-site mobility solution as part of a total business solution," added Shane.

He cited one particular case where a reseller proposed to install a DECT solution in a hotel. After a call to ICON, the reseller was able to expand the proposal to include the management of the hotel's fire control system using Spectralink mobility solutions. "It is this ability to see and understand the bigger picture that is key to ensuring that opportunities are not missed," said Shane. "Adding a wireless handsets to the proposal as part of a business solution will differentiate resellers from the competition, deliver greater value to the customer, and produce better margin."

Demand is strong across all traditional verticals, noted Shane. However, there is particular strong growth in on-site voice mobility solutions for real-time messaging. "This is not to be confused with the handset-to-handset text messaging solutions available on many wireless solutions," he explained. "Real-time messaging is the integration of a business' process and monitoring solutions with the corporate telephone network, making it possible for staff to be automatically informed of critical events. These internal M2M type deployments can trigger alerts to Spectralink Wi-Fi or DECT handsets whenever a state of a machine, control system or other monitored system changes."

Demand for this type of service comes not only from the hospitality vertical where these solutions are important for guest safety and service but also from retail and manufacturing sectors. The smartphone trend has also spurred growth in demand for the enterprise wireless solutions. As more and more companies look to use intelligent endpoints as part of their business process it is becoming evident that the smartphone device has some significant drawbacks. "Companies are turning to dedicated enterprise wireless solutions from Spectralink such as the smartphone like PIVOT handset," added Shane. "PIVOT runs android applications like a smartphone but also delivers quality QOS, trouble free roaming and wire line like voice quality."

Wi-Fi and DECT are no longer competitive technologies, believes Shane. However, in those cases where simple voice mobility is required the technology attributes do play a significant part in the decision about which solution to select. In these cases, issues of cost prevail and considerations usually focus on the quality of the wireless infrastructure and whether or not it will support a Wi-Fi solution.

However, when the on-site mobility solution is deployed as part of a business solution then each technology is developing its own unique strengths and attributes. "Voice over Wi-Fi is best suited to data intensive applications where voice is not the primary requirement," commented Shane. "DECT on the other hand is the better option for low data intensive messaging apps and were voice quality and extreme handset robustness is required. Only in scenarios where DECT and Wi-Fi could deliver equally does it come down to issues of deployment such as legacy infrastructure and choice of handset."

In the medium-term telecoms and IT resellers will need to offer some form of voice mobility solution that will support a range of business applications. There is a fundamental restructuring taking place in the market where voice and solution mobility is key. "Enterprise quality wireless solutions are no longer being used as mere mobile desk phone replacements," added Shane.

"They are being integrated with real-time messaging solutions to deliver critical management and control information to staff, or in the case of the PIVOT smartphone solution being used to provide an android platform on which to run business applications. The opportunity for the reseller is to exploit these new applications by selling a business solution rather than an on-site mobile handset."•

Panasonic has entered the cloud market following a link up with Radius Communications that sees the vendor offering cloud PBX and cloud contact centre services to the UK and Ireland. We got the story from Bob Mercer, Panasonic's Network Communications Group Manager.

Radius Communications has developed a bespoke cloud service - called storm - for Panasonic which is fully interoperable and works in conjunction with Panasonic's hardware, including its latest range of SIP handsets as well as the vendor's on premise PBX systems. The solution has been designed to enable Panasonic's distributors to take cloud PBX services and hybrid deployments using Panasonic CPE to their traditional SME customer base, as well as secure new business with larger PBX and advanced contact centre deployments. storm also offers inbound-outbound call routing through the cloud.

This storm cloud service is now ready for launch in the UK with a further launch in Ireland planned for later this year. Panasonic manufactures over 300,000 PBXs a year and the move is a response to declining demand for in-situ PBXs and the growing trend for cloud telephony, noted Mercer. "Though Panasonic remains committed to the development of customer premise systems, the rapid expansion of the cloud segment of the PBX market has shown us that there is increasing demand for hosted alternatives," he said. "storm is our response to this demand, and will offer our customers the same enterprise grade features that they have come to expect from our range of PBX systems."

The storm proposition represents a new addition to the Panasonic product family and a decisive move for the organisation as it seeks to expand its range of communications services. Users of the new storm services will be able to use the platform as a standalone PBX replacement from the cloud or as part of a hybrid deployment alongside existing Panasonic equipment.

"We feel the system is flexible so that users of the new storm services will be able to use the platform as a standalone end-to-end PBX replacement, or as part of a hybrid deployment alongside existing Panasonic equipment," said Mercer. "So as a simple example a user may choose to add inbound-outbound call service routing to an existing PBX solution through the cloud as a start point, then upgrade the whole estate to a hosted solution at a later date.

"Our core focus on providing PBX systems has not changed and we have new products scheduled for later this year which will continue to meet the needs of our channel partners, but the rapid expansion of the cloud segment of the PBX market has shown us that there is increasing demand for hosted alternatives. Our channel strategy is unchanged, and our key distribution partners will be central in assisting to market, sell and support the product to the reseller community."

Mercer has witnessed first hand Panasonic PBXs being replaced by rival cloud solutions. "This has been frustrating to say the least," he commented. "We can't stop the trend towards cloud so we needed to find the right answer. We took time in building our partnership as it was important that we found the correct product and the right partner to ensure that our customers could remain loyal to Panasonic and benefit from selling a Panasonic-led hosted offering."

The launch of storm is also a response to Panasonic resellers who have been asking for a cloud solution. "We have some dedicated resellers who, like the end users, were keen to remain loyal to Panasonic but could see that they risked losing business by doing so. The response from resellers, so far, has been great, so hopefully they see it as worth the wait," added Mercer.

Once the concept of cloud storage and cloud computing was proven, it was only a matter of time before telephony followed suit. The pace of change is surprising, but it's a way of saving money and that has been a huge driver for most businesses over the last five years. "The biggest problem with current cloud solutions is that they do not offer all the features that customers are familiar with on a PBX, but this is where the storm product comes into its own by faithfully replicating all PBX functionality," added Mercer.

"Our strategy is to work closely with our resellers, particularly those with an IT skill set, and to build with them initially, then roll out to the broader market," commented Mercer. "Training is the key to understanding the product and to making the sale. In partnership with Radius we have put all the tools in place to ensure success for our partners."

Several UK resellers have now contracted to use the new storm services, and Mercer is excited about the platform's prospects for 2014. He added: "Panasonic is performing well at this time and the move to a more B2B focused model will only benefit our channel partners. And our objectives are clear in the cloud collaboration model. We know the forecasts show the traditional PBX market in EMEA to be declining by around 10-12 per cent every year in favour of hosted, so we aim to fill this gap."•