Comms Dealer

Premier Business Audio and ITS Technology Group (ITS) have joined forces to combine marketing expertise with unified communication and IT platforms.

As an audio marketing provider, Premier works with more than 3,500 customers across the UK and Europe, including FTSE 100 companies such as BT, Barclays and Sainsbury's.

Roy Shelton, ITS Technology Group CEO, said: "With our combined skillset and solution offering, the potential to add significant value to our combined client basis is compelling."

Nick Findlay, MD at Premier Business Audio, added: "This partnership adds up to more than the sum of the parts. With a telecommunications specialist and a marketing and branding agency working closely together, we are going to have some great sounding and highly efficient joint clients."

Exeter-based IP Office has netted 300-plus customer contracts from failed telco The Bush Telegraph Company after it went into voluntary liquidation on May 28th.

IP Office has taken control of servicing Truro-based Bush Telegraph Company's complete customer base which includes the likes of Truro College, the Diocese of Truro, Truro High School, Taylors of Grampound and Lanner Primary School.

Mark Collett, MD IP Office, said: "The first thing customers will notice is that their service will be enhanced. Bush Telegraph was a substantially smaller company running 9am-5pm and customers would not see anyone on a year-to-year basis unless they had a problem.

"We are three times the size and their customers will now get our 24-7 cover and be able to contact us at any time. They will still be ringing the Bush telephone number but now get our service.

"In addition, we are proactive in account management with a post-sale team and qualified engineers. We will be visiting customers personally to let them know what is happening, and who to call for support. We will talk about how we can help develop their business and they will see much more account management.

"We are delighted to also be taking on Bush Telegraph Company's three existing engineers so the same engineer will be maintaining their systems."

IP Office has 35 staff and an annual turn over of £4million.

Timico has launched a new Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) offering designed to encourage businesses of all sizes to protect themselves from potentially damaging downtime.

Timico's new DRaaS solution allows for regular testing with no disruption to the production environment. The solution includes a fully documented annual test as standard. The service allows customers to pool servers into different groupings based on function, applications or importance and prioritise the order in which they are failed over based on business requirements.

Colin Bell, Director of Cloud and Hosting at Timico, said: "Disaster recovery isn't a new concept, but with the ever-growing reliance on IT it's imperative to have a resilient strategy in place. For a long time businesses have viewed disaster recovery as a headache - something they know they should implement but that just seems too time consuming, expensive and a big drain on resources.

"Timico's new pay-as-you-go DRaaS solution alleviates many of these fears. Our customers decide how many servers they wish to protect each month and pay a minimum monthly fee based on that amount.

"Using our cloud platform as back-up in the event of a major disruption, assets are protected almost instantaneously until a business is ready to failback to its primary site. "

Timico has selected Zerto as its software partner for DRaaS, offering full integration with vCloud director for Virtual Data Centre recovery.

Timico has also recently bolstered its security credentials by attaining its ISO27001 accreditation, the international standard ensuring best practice for Information Security Management Systems.

IT solutions specialist TSG has been awarded a sixth Gold Status Competency, which reaffirms its position as an expert in Microsoft technology.

The competencies are awarded by Microsoft to partners with proven skills and experience in specific areas to set them apart from the competition.

The latest competency achieved by TSG is in small business, adding to collaboration and content, customer relationship management, enterprise resource management, midmarket solution provider and server platform.

TSG, which was founded in Newcastle, has regional headquarters across the country including in Scotland, Teesside, Manchester, the East and West Midlands, Leeds and Southampton.

Less than one per cent of the 650,000 Microsoft partners worldwide are regarded highly enough to hold a single gold competency.

"By achieving a gold competency, partners have demonstrated the highest, most consistent capability and commitment to the latest Microsoft technology," said Phil Sorgen, corporate vice president Worldwide Partner Group at Microsoft Corp.

"These partners have a deep expertise that puts them in the top one per cent of our partner ecosystem, and their proficiency will help customers drive innovative solutions on the latest Microsoft technology."

David Filmer, TSG's training and development manager, said: "To renew our five competencies and add a sixth was no mean feat. In 2012 Microsoft launched five new products which required training and development across the TSG team to ensure we had the right knowledge, skills and experience in place to retain our competencies. Essentially it was like starting from scratch, as each product brought with it changes to the accompanying competency."

TSG's chief executive David Stonehouse added: "Picking up the sixth Gold Status Competency demonstrates to our customers that we go that extra mile to show we are trusted, expert advisors for our key strategic partners.

"A lot of our customers rely heavily on Microsoft's product stack. Achieving all these Microsoft Gold Status Competencies reflects our continued investment in helping customers get the most out of Microsoft's portfolio of products."

Broadband Everywhere is using Astra Connect to offer satellite broadband services to the whole of Scotland, including remote locations

ISP Broadband Everywhere has launched a new high-speed satellite broadband service in Scotland to help bridge the digital divide between urban and rural communities.

A range of packages with download speeds of up to 20Mbps will be available to anyone living in Scotland. The new offering widens the geographical area covered by Broadband Everywhere, which already provides Astra Connect satellite Internet to customers in England and Wales, via SES satellite ASTRA 2F.

SES's newest satellite ASTRA 2E, located at the orbital location of 28.2o East, will power the satellite broadband in Scotland. The service includes a static IP address which enables users to watch BBC iPlayer, Netflix and other services - even if they choose to install the satellite on a motor home or caravan for travel outside of the UK.

"Broadband Everywhere frees users from the limitations of terrestrial Internet connections, and brings fast, reliable broadband anywhere, and we are delighted people in Scotland will now be able to benefit from our service," said Steven Burton, Business Sales at Broadband Everywhere.

"With satellite broadband, there is no need for a phone line or mobile dongle and the connection is unaffected by landscape. If broadband is required at the top of a mountain, in the middle of a field, or simply living in a rural hamlet - this is the perfect service."

Broadband Everywhere's satellite Internet works in a similar way to digital television, with the signal sent to the modem through a dish on the property.

Channel Telecom is fulfilling a major mobile phone contract including the supply of over 350 handsets.

The contract value exceeds £70,000 over the next two years and a mix of iPhone, HTC and Samsung smartphones will be supplied. A further 300 handsets will be supplied later in the contract period.

Channel Telecom has recently revised its mobile proposition for channel partners, providing more flexible contract terms with competitive pricing.

Matt Donaldson, Sales Director for Channel Telecom, stated: "This is another example of where Channel Telecom has been able to support a channel partners with excellent contract terms and aggressive pricing to win deals in a competitive pitch."

Responding to news that G-Cloud has been given an 'amber/red' status by the Major Projects Authority (MPA), the Cloud Industry Forum (CIF) questions what it has really achieved since it launched in 2011.

According to Alex Hilton, CIF's CEO, G-Cloud lacks the single ingredient that must underpin every procurement service - transparency.
 
Hilton said: "Our latest research on the UK market indicates that cloud adoption rates in the public sector match those in the private sector, both standing at 69 per cent, but this enthusiasm does not seem to have spread to local government, which simply hasn't taken to G-Cloud as was predicted.
 
"From its inception, G-Cloud held a great deal of promise and we fundamentally support a consistent approach to cloud procurement by government. The government's stated aspiration is for 25% of central procurement to be through SMEs, but  this does not seem to be following through to local authorities.
 
"The Cloud Industry Forum's Code of Practice is a certification model for Cloud procurement services. We encourage G-Cloud providers to promote it to their local authority customers to further assure their Cloud credentials.
 
"Whilst the European Commission is driving it's Digital Agenda for Europe the UK government doesn't itself subscribe today to any certification schemes, we believe it should be offering more assistance and guidance in the selection of suitable and trustworthy cloud providers."

3CX has acquired e-works, the Italy based video conferencing company, enabling the developer of the Windows VoIP PBX 3CX Phone System to deliver integrated, client-free web conferencing based on WebRTC technology.

Having initially licensed e-works' web conferencing technology in October 2013, 3CX has now acquired the company as part of its strategic plan for its video conferencing solution, 3CX WebMeeting.

The acquisition brings together two compatible companies, with both 3CX and e-works being pioneers in the development of software-based communications technology and advocates of open standard solutions.

e-works, founded in 1999, was a first mover in web conferencing and the company will now focus on the development of 3CX WebMeeting, while continuing to provide video conferencing to its existing customers which include BT, Fiat and the Province of Trento.

e-Works will also become the base for 3CX's Italian operations, catering to the growth in demand for 3CX Phone System.

The launch of 3CX WebMeeting which is expected imminently will bring to the market one of the first multiple participant video conferencing solutions utilising WebRTC.

Google's WebRTC technology enables video and voice communications to take place through an open standard Internet browser, meaning that participants will be able to join meetings without the need to download any additional software or plug-ins.

Nick Galea, CEO of 3CX said: "With both companies being pioneers in the field of software-based communications technology, the acquisition of e-works is part of our long term strategic vision to lead through innovation.

"With e-works' technology we will also capitalise on the growth of WebRTC which is set to revolutionise the telecoms industry."

Stefano Spattini, CEO of e-works said: "With our companies' shared commitment to innovation and open standards, we look forward to working together to take the VoIP market by storm."

Avnet Technology Solutions has launched the Evolve Partner Programme in the UK.

The initiative will see Avnet train and develop business partners to sell CommVault Simpana software.

Evolve will provide Avnet business partners with support across business planning, sales and technical training, lead generation and pipeline management.

Tom Corrigan, open storage and Cisco business unit leader, Avnet Technology Solutions, UK, commented: "We are seeing high demand for CommVault technology, and Evolve provides the framework for Avnet's business partners to get involved and gain market share in a high growth technology area."

Avnet is limiting the number of business partners accepted onto the Evolve programme.

Distributor ICON has appointed Calvin McIlroy (formerly of Spectralink) to work with its channel partners in the London region.

ICON distributes Spectralink's on-site voice solutions and McIlroy's experience will be leveraged towards helping channel partners grow their on-site mobility and BYOD WiFi solutions business.

Mark Shane, Sales Director for ICON, commented: "Calvin will support our London channel partners across our full solutions portfolio but, as gamekeeper turned poacher, Calvin's deep understanding of our Spectralink business will strengthen our position."