Comms Dealer

Few could have predicted BlackBerry's roller coaster ride following its meteoric rise to dominance a decade ago. Today, however, you don't need to be Mystic Meg to see that BlackBerry is once again on the march, this time on a mission to fully reclaim its overarching market influence, according to Mike Gibson, Director of UK Enterprise.

Heroic BlackBerry deserves more than a medal following its skirmishes in the war of the enterprise smartphone. The company has emerged, reinvented, from the heat of a hard fought battle, victorious. In a remarkable turnaround incoming Chief Executive Officer John Chen, who replaces Thorsten Heins, aims to drive innovation and electrify BlackBerry. He has brought stability to a company that was up for sale last summer, reeling from a Q2 net loss of £597 million and about to wield the axe on 4,500 jobs. But core principles remain the same and are already making their influence keenly felt in various ways, noted Gibson.

"John Chen has set out a clear mandate of going back to BlackBerry's heritage and roots to deliver enterprise-grade, end-to-end mobile solutions," affirmed Gibson. "From an enterprise perspective, my priority is to continue to build on the early success of BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 (BES10) - which now has 30,000 servers installed and counting. Leveraging the strength and depth of our existing channel partnerships is fundamental to this objective; along with our focus on handsets, EMM solutions, cross-platform messaging and embedded systems. We're confident about our future in enterprise, our technology and our ability to adapt to changing market needs."

BlackBerry's strength in enterprise software and services, including BES10 and BlackBerry Technical Support Service, is the force behind a big push to develop new strategic partnerships with VARs, MSPs and SIs. "We're working to develop and grow these partnerships via our BlackBerry Partner Programme so that they can capitalise on the opportunities that our portfolio offers them," added Gibson. "With our inherent focus on mobile, our heritage and our reach, we are confident that we can continue to best serve the needs of the enterprise market in the medium and long-term."

Gibson's career began in data comms before moving into UC, including a stint at Nortel. Although his role at BlackBerry is firmly rooted in the mobile space, the focus is broadly similar to his past experience. "Software and services are at the core of our business and my previous experience has stood me in good stead, particularly with innovations such as BES10 where we've taken our previously proprietary software to create a full cross-platform solution that extends our security and management capabilities to iOS and Android devices," he said. "All of my previous roles have been characterised by a strong channel-centric approach and this came into play as BlackBerry introduced its Partner Programme to activate the IT VAR community."

Partners can join the BlackBerry Partner Programme at one of three levels - Strategic, Approved or Associate. Progress through the tiers is encouraged, and Strategic top tier partners receive the most benefits including full access to the Partner Programme website. Notably, training has proved to be a popular area within the portal. "Since its launch 19 months ago we have seen over 6,500 eLearning modules completed, 2,500 webinar modules attended and a total of 728 people have participated in the on-site classroom training," commented Gibson. "We also cater for the complex distribution network by tailoring content for our key distribution partners."

According to Gibson, BlackBerry's partners benefit from a constant stream of upsell opportunities that are designed to fully maximise their account penetration. "We've introduced a range of new sales incentives aimed at rewarding solutions sales, as well as a partner support package to help partners maximise revenue opportunities from support services," Gibson added.

His message is clear: BES10 is a full cross-platform solution that builds on BlackBerry's tried and trusted capabilities in security and management, and it is testament to how far the company has travelled from old perceptions of it being a 'phone maker'. "We are much more than a device company," Gibson commented. "For any organisation looking to seamlessly manage multiple mobile platforms and devices, they can do so with BES10 and benefit from the security and management capabilities that have made BlackBerry the leader in mobile enterprise for more than a decade. What's more, there is a simple upgrade path from our existing BlackBerry infrastructure to our BES10 platform without the need for a costly rip and replace."

BES10 is flexible and scalable, designed to address the needs of SMBs using Active Sync through to an organisation operating in a fully regulated environment which must conform to the strictest security criteria. "The development of BES10 exemplifies how we are continuously innovating to meet and anticipate the requirements of our customers," added Gibson. "As different mobile devices and platforms have proliferated within the workplace, we have created and delivered a full cross-platform solution that can manage and secure iOS, Android and BlackBerry devices, apps and content from one single console."

Gibson claims that BlackBerry manages more mobile devices than any other MDM vendor in the world, pointing out that over one third of FTSE 100 companies have already been installed globally along with over 60 per cent of its Fortune 500 customers. "This reflects their desire for a cross-platform enterprise mobility management solution that delivers a strong level of security, control and management at both the device and app level," he stated. "We're confident that with further innovations in this space, including the forthcoming launch of our new cloud solution, we can continue to maintain the strong position in enterprise that we have held for well over ten years."

Most organisations have a variety of devices types and platforms in the workplace today. The real challenge is how to secure and manage not just these devices but the apps and content running on them, especially in an environment where BYOD and/or consumerisation have driven IT departments to settle for workaround solutions in an attempt to make a multitude of device types and platforms 'fit for work', observed Gibson. "In their haste to adapt to this shift many organisations have opted for a more basic mobility management model just as everything is being mobilised. Consequently, they require even more sophisticated mobile management capabilities," he said.

"With a multi-device enterprise environment now the reality, the IT department has the opportunity to regain a measure of control over the management of the mobile enterprise estate. BES10 ticks all of the boxes by delivering a full cross-platform solution offering the best of our security and management capabilities."

Not surprisingly, MDM is top of the agenda for most CIOs and IT departments, not just because of BYOD but also because of the clear opportunity that mobility presents to boost productivity, customer engagement, job satisfaction and more. "We are focused on creating a platform agnostic service that goes beyond just devices to managing endpoints," stated Gibson. "As experts in mobile we are well positioned to achieve this because other mega IT vendors lack focus and competency in mobile, while smaller pure play MDM vendors lack the resources and reach."•

The battle for market share in the business smartphone market is set to hot up following a rally by BlackBerry and the roll out of a new channel campaign. BlackBerry's dominance in the enterprise mobility market has been chipped away by competitors but by going back to its roots it hopes to win back defectors.

The company has stepped up the battle to win more users with BES10 (BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10), a full cross-platform solution that builds on its heritage and capabilities in security and management.

Mike Gibson, Director of Enterprise UK, said he is positive BES10 will hold its own against competitors and that BlackBerry's strength in enterprise software and services will persuade potential partners to join forces with the company.

Key areas of focus now include handsets, EMM solutions, cross-platform messaging and embedded systems.

"We're working to develop and grow new strategic partnerships with VARs, MSPs and SIs via our BlackBerry Partner Programme," confirmed Gibson. "With our focus on mobile, our heritage and our reach, we are confident that we can continue to serve the needs of the enterprise market."

Gibson claims that BlackBerry manages more mobile devices than any other MDM vendor, pointing out that almost 30,000 BES10 servers have already been installed globally, including over one third of FTSE 100 companies and over 60% of BlackBerry's Fortune 500 customers.

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By Elvire Gosnold, Director, Blabbermouth Marketing: Key words are old hat but content marketing is a must for your 2014 wardrobe. The good news is that SEO is no longer mythical wizardry costing thousands of pounds a month with nothing to show for a good part of the year.

Our friends at Google have altered the rules yet again in a bid to support genuine businesses and individuals who have something interesting to say. Organic growth in search engine optimisation can now be more easily achieved by simply creating original and meaningful content.

Content marketing complements Google's aims of creating a fairer, more realistic online search environment that not only offers a better experience for users but also the writers that genuinely have something to say. This means that successful SEO can be more easily achieved by resellers as the focus has moved away from key words and now encourages legitimate, intelligent content that truly enriches reader's knowledge.

Therefore resellers need to move away from the opinion that you will only get exposure if you constantly repeat words such as cloud, broadband and hosted. Those days have long gone and now you can actually get penalised for over using words. Intelligent news and discussions is what you need to be focusing on as constant, fresh and original opinion pieces will make you the blue eyed boy of the Google Guy.

Prospective clients will see you when they are looking for information for their business as a whole, not just when they are doing the obvious searches for IT and telecoms services. Creating content gives you better visibility in search engines so as your impressions increase so too should your click-throughs and site exposure.

Westcon Group's Comstor business unit has strengthened its relationship with CA Technologies, expanding the company's data centre market presence in a move that sees Comstor partners across the UK gain access to CA Technologies' IT monitoring software.

Andreas Dohmen, Executive Vice President EMEA, Comstor, said: "It's a natural progression to anchor our portfolio with this foundational monitoring technology."
 
Andrea Dossena, Vice President of Partner Sales, CA Technologies EMEA, added. "By joining forces with Comstor, we're able to bring this value proposition to customers in the UK and across vertical markets via the reseller channel."

Spending on IT per person is much higher in the UK, Germany and France than in southern Europe. A study by German high-tech association BITKOM showed an EU average of €1,197. At the lower end were Italy (€930), Spain (€928), Russia (€403), China (€213) and India (€49).

Similarly higher expenditures in Germany for information technology and telecommunications were significantly higher than many other major industrial nations at €1,477. Japan (€1,807, UK (€1,994) and the USA (€2,430) were higher, however. France was just behind Germany at €1,470.

"ICT investment are the most important indicator of the development of the digital economy and society," says BITKOM President Prof. Dieter Kempf. "The gap [for Germany] with the UK and the USA is far too great."

While the ICT spend in 2013 stagnated in Germany compared with 2012, the weaker countries did significantly increase their spending. The fastest growing was India (up 11%), followed by Brazil (10%), China (9%) and Russia (5%).

South West Communications Group has announced ambitions plan to significantly grow its business by the end of 2014.

Now in its 30th year as a telephone systems provider, South West Communications Group is aiming to expand its market share in telephony but also to increase the use of its purpose-built data centre hosting facility in Exeter and to expand the connectivity side of the business.

To support its growth plans, South West Communications Group is launching a recruitment drive to fulfil new roles in office-based and field sales.

Sales director Sarah Flowers said: "People generally know us for two things, telephone systems and Exeter Chiefs, but we offer so much more.

"Our data centre enables hosting, disaster recovery and data backup services and we offer a full range of Internet connectivity, data network and video conferencing solutions.

"Our aim is to build on the telephony core of our business and to put more resource in these other services to offer a complete business communications service. It is an ambitious plan but we are eager to embrace growth to well and truly leave behind the tough economic times of recent years."

South West Communications Group is also planning to broaden its customer catchment area by offering its range of products and services to businesses in the midlands.

Eclipse has named Dave Manning as its new Director of Operations. He joins at a time when the company plans to double the size of the business and create dozens of new roles.

Over the coming months Eclipse will be developing its product portfolios to deliver a flexible range of connectivity, communications and cloud services to support business productivity and growth, and customer focus will be key to Eclipse's success.

Manning said: "The team at Eclipse is passionate about delivering an exceptional experience to their customers all the way through their relationship with us, and I can't wait to be part of the evolution of this already successful company."

Clodagh Murphy, Managing Director, added: "I'm delighted to be welcoming Dave to the team and at such an exciting time for us as a business. Dave's knowledge and experience will help us to diversify and grow while maintaining and improving what we currently do."

Unify, formerly known as Siemens Enterprise Communications, has announced a number of new features and enhancements to the OpenScape Contact Center Suite, delivering improved efficiency and flexibility through expanded support for major mobile devices, tighter social media integration and improved analytics.

Responding to the BYOD trend Unify now offers Mobile Agent and Mobile Supervisor applications for the OpenScape Contact Center Suite, enabling full access to contact center tools via iPhones, iPads, Android smartphones and tablets. This provides anywhere workers increased flexibility and improves responsiveness to customers.

New to the OpenScape Contact Center Suite is an Analytics package through a new partnership with Softcom. By incorporating Softcom's InsideEdge line of analytics solutions into Unify's OpenScape Contact Center Suite, contact center managers will be able to monitor agent and campaign stats in real-time, uncover weaknesses, and streamline training to maximize agent productivity and profits.

Other enhancements to existing OpenScape Contact Center Suite offerings include: Social Media solution can now route Facebook posts to agents, improving responseiveness; Campaign Director is now a pure SIP, software-only solution that dramatically reduces TCO; improved Workforce Optimisation through strengthened partnerships with Verint and ASC, helping drive further efficiencies and effectiveness for contact center users; and AgentDesktop-Web client allows agents to work from anywhere on any device without installing any software on their PCs.

"Today's contact center requires a complete arsenal of tools to provide greater responsiveness to customers and to effectively manage internal processes," said Nancy Jamison, Principal Analyst, Customer Contact at Frost & Sullivan.

"Unify's OpenScape Contact Center Suite provides a robust tool set for omni-channel customer engagement, with proactive outbound, social and mobile - for agents, supervisors and managers."

The new OpenScape Contact Center Suite is available now directly and through Unify's global partner channel.

Nimans has produced a 12-page booklet designed to make SIP more accessible for resellers. It follows the launch of a dedicated SIP trunk service and outlines  key areas for successful deployment.

Data bandwidth requirements, how many trunks, connectivity criteria, SIP benefits and management considerations are some of the many topics covered.

Nimans says the launch of its own SIP trunk service provides resellers with 'more control' and access to a complete range of network-based products and expertise.

The Nimans proposition gives resellers a strong and proven platform to capture a bigger share of the growing SIP market, claims Head of Network Services Mark Curtis-Wood.

"There's a right way of doing SIP and a wrong way. Resellers need to understand what the client wants, put a solution together and deliver it to them," he explained.

"The new guide is part of this ethos, a key building block in helping resellers identify and capitalise on market opportunities especially at the SMB level. We want to open their eyes to the huge market potential.

"It's about creating a holistic solution. Conversations often start off about how SIP can cut ISDN costs by 25%. But it's really about flexibility, disaster recovery and number portability. We can help resellers embrace SIP for the first time or take their service to the next level."

Wholesale comms provider Entanet has given its partners a New Year boost by extending its free activation offer on new FTTC orders until the end of January 2014.

The offer, which has now been running for four months, applies no charge for activation on new FTTC connections and no charge for standard copper-to-FTTC broadband migrations on new connections. A one-off charge is normally applied to each of these services.

The promotion has drawn plenty of interest and generated many new fibre broadband sales, according to Paul Heritage-Redpath, Product Manager at Entanet.

"It's been hugely popular and with a number of prospective sales still moving through the pipeline, we have made this further extension to give our partners every chance of completing new business sales."

The offer is equally appealing for existing customers on standard BT or LLU copper broadband looking to upgrade to fibre or brand new fibre customers, says Heritage-Redpath.

"If that's something a customer is considering, the offer of free activation and migration may just persuade them to make the decision."

Entanet will be continuing to drive sales of FTTC this year, he adds. With more customers looking to make use of higher-speed online services, we expect to see robust demand for FTTC and the offer is a good way of drawing attention to our offerings in what we expect to be a good year for new connections. This offer helps our partners to be competitive while also underlining the extra value and personal and specialist service that sets Entanet and its partners apart from the competition."

The promotion covers all of Entanet's allowance-based and unlimited FTTC packages, and both Family and Business offerings on 12- and 24-month contracts.

The offer is available to registered reseller partners only.