Comms Dealer

DMSL is aiming to take the VoIP services market by storm following its link up with Plusnet.

The SMB-focused distributor of connectivity and cloud solutions is on a mission to advance Plusnet's proposition to partners with an invigorated hands-on strategy to drive sales of VoIP services and connectivity.

"Business efficiency is enhanced with VoIP services," said DMSL MD John Carter. "Staff are able to hot desk with an IP phone making them always available on a direct dial number. New users can be added almost instantly and a full set of features - voicemail, call forwarding, call recording, conferencing, auto attendant features and much more are all available. Meanwhile, integration with CRM systems enables even more efficient working and enhanced customer service.

"VoIP remains a big opportunity for dealers addressing the SMB market, but you need reliable broadband with prioritised service to make it truly effective."

Nick Silverwood, Head of Business for Plusnet, added: "VoIP offers significant potential for SMBs to reduce their costs with many smaller businesses looking to adopt this technology. To do this, they require a reliable business broadband platform, provided by a trusted brand, and the personal guidance of their local dealer. 

"Plusnet can provide a dependable and affordable broadband service over a network design that proactively prioritises VoIP traffic through protocol detection. This optimises the VoIP experience and ensures low latency needed to guarantee call quality, allowing local dealers to recommend VoIP to their customers with complete confidence."

With a primary focus on broadband, Plusnet has 17 years experience in providing Internet service solutions to small businesses across the UK.

Technology IPOs in Europe are lagging behind other markets though the continent is ranked second in all funds raised for IPOs across all other sectors in Q1 2014, says PwC newest study on Global Technology IPO Review.

Rising investor confidence coupled with Chinese stock exchanges led to a very strong quarter for technology IPOs. And year over the total number of technology IPOs saw a 160% growth while its value increased fourfold to $6.8bn (€4.9bn), the study says.

In terms of countries the top performers were China, Japan, Ireland and the US.

In the first quarter of 2014 twelve IPOs were completed in the US against eight completed in Q4 2013. Overall US IPO proceeds went up by 71% y/y to $1.6bn (€1.15bn) with US being the most active country in Tech IPO in Q1 2014. At the same time Europe saw only one tech IPO completion at $500m (€358.9m). According to Raman Chitkara, Technology Industry Leader at PwC, Europe entered into a new aberration pattern after it experienced a very strong Q4 2013.

He says: "Momentum from Q4 2013 led to a very strong start for technology IPOs in 2014. Investors continue to demonstrate a strong appetite for high-growth companies with disruptive technologies. This should lead to continuation of a positive environment for technology IPOs in 2014."

Breakdown by subsectors shows that internet software and services accounted for 42% of deals in Q1 however it was ranked second in terms of the overall value which stood by $1.8bn (€1.3bn). It was overtaken by computer storage and peripherals subsector which raised around $3.8bn (€2.7bn).

US-based managed mobility specialist WidePoint has bought Dublin-based Soft-ex Communications to expand its global presence and reach additional service providers and channels.

WidePoint offers enterprise-wide telecommunications management, cybersecurity, identity and data assurance, and consulting solutions.

Soft-ex Communications is a software provider of Telecom Data Intelligence solutions throughout European and Middle Eastern markets, offering a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution that provides online data intelligence for Communication Service Providers (CSPs) and their Enterprise customers for fixed, mobile, and IP/PABX communications.

Soft-ex delivers visibility and intelligence for the CSP on their customer base and for their Multinational Corporation (MNC) customers, enabling them to achieve improved cost, performance, and infrastructure management across their global communications infrastructure. Soft-ex has global partners such as Telefonica, British Telecom, Telia, and KPN.

Ian Sparling, CEO of Soft-ex, stated: "This transaction complements our focus and expertise on delivering Business Intelligence and Subscriber Data Intelligence to the global service provider market. Through our partnerships, clients can leverage our innovative SaaS solutions combined with the scale and breadth of WidePoint's Managed Mobility offerings, optimizing the core strengths of both organisations."

Steve Komar, CEO of WidePoint, added, "The combination of WidePoint's Secure Managed Mobility Solutions coupled with Soft-ex's European and Middle East presence, channel partners, and additional portfolio of services provides our combined operations with a stronger base of operations, services, and global growth opportunities."

HP plans to invest more than $1bn over the next two years to develop and offer cloud computing products and services. It says it will make its OpenStack-based public cloud services available in 20 data centres over the next 18 months.

OpenStack is an open source cloud computing platform for public and private cloud services with other key players including Red Hat, Oracle and Dell.

"Customer challenges today extend beyond cloud. They include how to manage, control and scale applications in a hybrid environment that spans multiple technology approaches," Martin Fink, executive vice president and chief technology officer, HP, said in a statement.

Cloud services have been booming as large enterprises and service providers work on cloud apps. It is a very competitive market, however, where Amazon.com and Google recently slashed prices of most of their cloud computing services as other companies join the fray.

Cisco also laid out plans in March to offer cloud computing services, pledging to spend $1bn over the next two years, while Microsoft said it will increase its cloud storage offering for business users 40-fold.

BT says its Global Services integration services division delivered a 9% increase in its order intake this year and it "continues to see double-digit revenue increases in the high-growth regions of the world".

BT's overall sales were unchanged year/year, but it has increased its cashflow and pre-tax profit. BT adopted the plan of pushing a £3bn plus roll-out of a fibre optic network after a period of profit warnings in 2008-2009, which has allowed it to push out sports channels.

The Global Services division, the main problem behind those profit warnings has been overhauled, and turned in earnings up 12%.

"These results provide a strong platform for growth and from which to achieve our outlook for the years ahead. Our performance in the year means that we are growing our full year dividend by 15% to 10.9p and we now expect to increase our dividend by 10%-15% for each of the next two years. We continue to focus on improving the service we provide to our customers and delivering on our investments," said Gavin Patterson, Chief Executive.

Analyst UBS has downgraded Infosys to Sell from Buy, and slashed its price target to $45.77 from $67.44. The firm is worried the IT outsourcing giant isn't as well-positioned as rivals to take advantage of growth opportunities, and is also concerned about its high attrition rate, both of management and staff.

Infosys has seen a number of senior execs jump ship since Narayana Murthy returned as chairman last year, and CEO S.D. Shibulal plans to leave by January. Meanwhile, concerns about the impact of cloud software/services on traditional outsourcing work remain high; Infosys has tried to deal with the trend in part by offering more proprietary/value-added services.

On purely financial rather than technology terms, TheStreet Ratings Team likes the company: "We rate Infosys a BUY. This is driven by multiple strengths, which we believe should have a greater impact than any weaknesses, and should give investors a better performance opportunity than most stocks we cover.

"The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its revenue growth, largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures, reasonable valuation levels, solid stock price performance and growth in earnings per share. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company has had somewhat disappointing return on equity."

The best sales and marketing teams in the comms channel were recognised at the industry's most prestigious sales awards event staged at the Park Lane Hotel, London on May 8th. Hosted by respected BBC sports presenter John Inverdale, the awards luncheon rewarded the top revenue generating teams from the distribution, vendor and reseller sectors of the channel.

Stand-out winners were STL (pictured left) and Focus Group which both secured a brace of awards, with Focus bagging the coveted Comms Dealer Overall Sales Team of the Year Award (pictured above).

Comms Dealer Editorial Director Nigel Sergent said: "The quality and quantity of Sales Awards submissions have again demonstrated how channel sales and marketing people continue to drive growth and deliver commercial benefits to their companies.

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

For more information on this year's Sales Awards please visit www.cdsalesawards.com

COMMS DEALER SALES AWARDS 2014 WINNERS

DISTRIBUTOR CHANNEL ACCOUNT TEAM OF THE YEAR
Exertis Micro-P

DISTRIBUTOR CHANNEL MARKETING CAMPAIGN OF THE YEAR
Nimans

DISTRIBUTOR CHANNEL MARKETING TEAM OF THE YEAR
Pragma

RESELLER BEST MARKETING CAMPAIGN
STL

RESELLER SALES TEAM OF THE YEAR £2.5-£7.5m
STL

RESELLER SALES TEAM OF THE YEAR £7.5m+
Focus

RESELLER SALES TEAM OF THE YEAR UP TO £2.5m
Nexus IP

SERVICE PROVIDER CHANNEL ACCOUNT TEAM OF THE YEAR
Virtual 1

SERVICE PROVIDER CHANNEL MARKETING CAMPAIGN OF THE YEAR
Channel Telecom

SERVICE PROVIDER CHANNEL MARKETING TEAM OF THE YEAR
Fidelitiy Group

VENDOR CHANNEL ACCOUNT TEAM OF THE YEAR
Gamma

VENDOR CHANNEL MARKETING CAMPAIGN OF THE YEAR
Cisco

VENDOR CHANNEL MARKETING TEAM OF THE YEAR
Entanet

OVERALL SALES TEAM OF THE YEAR
FOCUS GROUP

Avenir Telecom has been ranked top distributor in O2's Q1 2014 Office 365 League Table results for the best performing partners.

Office 365 was first introduced at Avenir Telecom's Insight event held in February at the Hilton Hotel in Northampton.

Since then Avenir Telecom has provided additional training days for its partners in association with both O2 and Microsoft. Having held two events in April - at O2 in Glasgow and at Avenir Telecom Headquarters in London - further training days will be held at Microsoft campus in Reading on 8th May and later in May at O2 in Leeds.

Andy Tow, Managing Director, Avenir Telecom, commented: "It's great that so many of our partners have seen the opportunity to boost their profit margins by adding new products and services to their portfolios and continue to add real benefits to their customers."

Jason Phillips, Head of Partners, Telefonica O2, added: "We've had a good start on our digital journey and there is plenty of opportunity out there to sell Office 365 to our customers, and we are delighted that Avenir Telecom have been so quick to seize this opportunity."

ProVu Communications is to stage two reseller open days to showcase the latest equipment from its vendors Gigaset, Sangoma and 2N.

The open days will be held Huddersfield and London in May and June and during the events Gigaset will be launching its new Maxwell tablet phone plus their new Hybird PBX phone system for small business.

Sangoma will be presenting their latest SBC products and talking about network security. 2N will be launching its new Verso range of IP door entry intercoms.

Darren Garland, MD at ProVu Communications, said: "As a value added distributor we view these types of events as an essential part of our role to keep our channel informed of the latest products."

Mitel has signed an OEM agreement with LiveOps to power its MiContact Center Live solution with LiveOps cloud contact center functionalities.

Rich McBee, President and CEO, Mitel, said: "Leveraging the technology from LiveOps, we now deliver a flexible customer care solution via the cloud, optimised to meet the needs of any size organization, from small businesses up to the largest enterprises."

The new MiContact Center Live solution will offer WebRTC and social media - two features customers are increasingly demanding alongside traditional channels - as well as Web-based tools for agents and supervisors.

It is integrated with multiple CRM software vendors, including saleforce.com and Microsoft Dynamics. The solution also includes self-service options with Interactive Voice Response (IVR) and outbound features that help businesses to proactively engage customers throughout campaigns.

"We see this OEM partnership with Mitel as significant to disrupting the market and increasing cloud contact center adoption," said Marty Beard, Chairman and CEO, LiveOps.

"Mitel shares the same vision as LiveOps in our commitment to transforming how businesses interact with their customers, increasing customer loyalty and creating brand advocates for life."