Comms Dealer

The Jabra PRO 900 series wireless headset has been expanded to include Bluetooth connectivity in a development that encourages workplace mobility and collaboration while reducing the number of missed calls.

In a recent survey among 11,900 office and mobile workers worldwide, Jabra and research company YouGov were able to document how 75% of all office workers would catch more calls by being wireless.

"We are excited that the Jabra PRO 930 and 935 solutions are optimised for Lync and give our customers the ability to choose a wireless device that enables them to work wherever, whether it is moving around the office or working outside of the office," said Giovanni Megzec, General Manager of Lync Product Marketing at Microsoft.

Users now gain the mobility to pick up any incoming Microsoft Lync call. Jabra's PRO 900 series supports the Microsoft Lync strategy to provide a consistent end-user experience while using Lync on their PC, Surface Tablet or Windows Phone.

Nigel Dunn, Managing Director, Jabra Business Solutions, UK & Ireland, said: "Efficiency and increased mobility are the key benefits we see for the users of wireless headsets. More and more workers are multitasking, handling phone calls while operating a PC or moving around the office at the same time.

"With a wireless headset you have an increased work radius, which makes the worker 'task centric' instead of 'phone centric'."I think 75 percent more calls taken by wireless headset users, speaks for itself."

Nexus Telecommunications received four nominations for the Leeds City College Apprenticeship awards, two for the first level apprenticeships, one for the advanced level apprenticeship, and an overall company nomination.

Nexus collected the Small Business of the Year award at the ceremony for fully supporting its apprentices and the apprenticeship scheme.

Rob Sims, Chief Operating Officer, commented: "The apprenticeships have given Nexus the opportunity to bring in new employees in a controlled, trained and supported way. We are already in the process of extending the scheme due to the positivity we received from the first year."

Gabrielle Jones, Marketing Communications Assistant has completed the first level Customer Service course and is now in the process of achieving the advanced level in Marketing.

Gary Smith, Apprenticeship Assessor at Leeds City College, stated: "The support at Nexus has been invaluable from director level right through to management and peers. Having this level of support and encouragement constructs a great working environment and highlights the importance of apprentices to the company."

Beds-based recruiter TTR UK is celebrating the fifth anniversary of its Flat Fee Recruitment proposition, which according to Director Gary Hammond is a proven solution with hundreds of success stories under his belt.

"We have 700-plus successful campaigns from Inverness to Exeter and over to Ipswich, across many industry sectors. We also have many customers employing two or more staff from individual campaigns," said Hammond.

Launched in April 2009 TTR's Flat Fee Recruitment solution offers a fully managed Internet recruitment campaign including anonymous advertising, copy writing, response handling and applicant telephone screening.

The solution also offers proactive applicant searching on job boards and targets technical, sales and support staff on a candidate database that holds 1,5000-plus telecoms, IT, VoIP, mobile comms, data and technology CVs.

"As recruitment demand increases, TTR is in a position now to provide any Company a realistic, cost effective and proven recruitment solution, using job boards and supporting it with candidate searching and vacancy eshots to matching applicants," added Hammond.

There's more to leasing than meets the eye, according to Tom Maxwell, Head of Dealer Sales at Nimans, who pointed out that offsetting payments against Corporation Tax is one of benefits that can get overlooked.

He said: "Sales aid leasing is fast becoming a major factor in any successful sales strategy.  "Adding a lease option with a reputable finance partner to a product can significantly enhance sales and overcome customer's budget restrictions.

"You have a great product and a customer who needs that product to expand, but what happens if the customer is not willing to make a large capital investment?

"Businesses can use leasing to reduce their tax bill. The Inland Revenue allows them to offset the whole of the lease rentals against corporation tax - which could be 20% each year - which makes the facility cost effective."

Nimans is planning to introduce new training courses over the coming months to help resellers capitalise on leasing opportunities.

Management software provider Matrix42 has appointed Robert Adlem as its new UK Channel Manager who will be responsible for the UK partners and channel expansion.

He joins from BT Engage IT where he was a Vendor Alliance Manager in charge with revenue growth targets. Prior to this, he was the UK Channel Manager at Numara where he was responsible for new channel programme.

"Robert has a proven track record of working with vendors and channel partners in order to identify new sales opportunities. He brings energy and enthusiasm along with business acumen and experience in developing strategic alliances. I am confident that Robert will make a rapid impact on our UK channel strategy and quickly become a valued member of the team," said Markus Baumann, Vice President Sales EMEA of Matrix42.

Distributor Northamber has reported a pre-tax loss of £690,000 in the second half of the year following a fall in sales from £41m to £30m.

It lost £390,000 in the second half of the year before and has been slashing costs and jobs, saving, it says, $770,000 a year. But, with margins falling from 7.7% to 6.7%, it has to move rapidly away from its traditional hardware business.

Chairman David Phillips said: "This has necessitated a wide-ranging and costly restructuring. The vindication of the changes we are making can be seen in the foundations of a return to a more worthwhile future."

Ricoh Europe has unveiled an enhanced IT services portfolio which includes on-site, remote and cloud based services which will be offered to customers across Europe.

The new portfolio has been designed to address the needs of both small and large organisations, it says.

The enhanced IT services will be provided through regional delivery teams and Ricoh's European network.

"With more technology-led change on the way and European businesses taking greater strides towards digital transformation the need for more advanced and robust IT services is essential," said Carsten Bruhn, Executive Vice President, Ricoh Europe.

Citing 'slowing consumer purchases' amid high penetration rates in mature markets, IDC now forecasts tablet shipments will grow 19.4% in 2014 (to 260.9 million units), down from a prior estimate of 22% (271 million units).

Tablet growth steadily slowed in 2014: Shipments rose an estimated 142% in Q1, but just 28% in Q4. IDC puts full-year growth at 52%.

Two silver linings for enterprise leader Apple, with its 33.8% Q4 share are that prices are only expected to drop 3.6% in 2014, after falling 14.6% in 2013, as more consumers embrace 'higher-end devices'.

Commercial buyers are also expected to account for 14% of shipments, up from 11% in 2013. IDC also thinks Windows tablets, struggling to gain a strong consumer foothold, will take over a quarter of the commercial segment thanks to rising convertible adoption.

The revised forecast still puts tablet sales within striking distance of eclipsing PC sales: IDC expects PC shipments to drop 6% this year to 295.9 million. Both are dwarfed by smartphones shipments which are expected to grow 19% to 1.2 billion.

SIP and hosted provider tIPicall has named the dates for its 2014 SIP training days.

Now in its third year, the free events are aimed at directors and senior managers of CPs who have not yet shifted their sales focus towards SIP.

The session covers industry best practise around marketing, selling and deploying SIP effectively and discusses how to start moving a traditional comms business into the world of IP.

Steve Harrington, Sales Director at tIPicall, said: "There is a lot of confusion, misunderstanding and over complication in the market around SIP.

"Many senior managers in communications providers do not really understand what it is and why it is so important to get right. They can get left behind by technical talk and often do not realise how straightforward it can be.

"Education is the key to make them see the value in selling SIP services and to do it right first time."

The first two training days are being held in London on the 8th and 15th of April at the 8 Members Club in Bank, with a Manchester event to follow.

 Griffin has launched an all-in-one hybrid cloud solution to the channel, provided by Easynet and Zynstra.

Mike Ayres, Easynet Managing Director Business Markets (UK) Indirect, said: "There's no doubt that 2014 is the year that cloud computing becomes ubiquitous, but among SMEs in particular there are still some concerns around complexity, cost, security and resilience.

"In reality, the cloud is one of the safest, most cost-effective places for data. This is where our resellers come in. They can dispel the cloud computing myths, offer unrivalled market knowledge and provide impartial expertise and advice. With Hybrid Cloud, customers can experience exactly the same benefits of cloud as a large enterprise, without the need for a huge IT investment."

Graham Bromham, Managing Director of Solsis (a Thames Valley-based Managed Service Provider), added: "For the reseller, this solution delivers all the IT services a business needs in one product. It removes the headache of us having to manage multiple products from multiple vendors. With several quick wins already under our belt and more in the pipeline, it's a winner for us already."