Comms Dealer

A collaboration between Salford Software and Atia Communications has helped Chichester University reduce call costs by 50% in the first three months of unified communications roll out for 10,000 staff and students across two main campuses and six affiliate sites.

The Microsoft Office 365 and Lync on-premise solution was initially rolled out to staff in June 2013 during the summer holidays and then subsequently to students in time for the start of the new 2014 academic year.

James Mason, Head of IT Operations, Chichester University, said: "We've cut our telephony bills by half in the first three months of use and opened up a new world of collaboration. If staff or students are abroad they are able to continue communicating at a fraction of the expense and with ease."

The solution has solved a number of issues including the campus' location in a bad signal area for mobile telephony. "Microsoft Lync will change that," added Mason. "We're also able to keep the university running in the face of inclement weather. Snow brought us to a standstill a couple of years ago but that would no longer be the case with the ability to have net meetings, online conferences and to share documents via Lync.

The university has worked with Salford Software for over 15 years. The IT firm recommended an upgrade from Microsoft Outlook to Office365 while working with Atia Communications for the Lync installation.

"Our student union AGM will be held for the first time across both our campuses via unified communications and iPads to link both meeting rooms together at the same time. The list of possibilities is endless," enthused Mason.

Paul Beaumont, Salford Software's Chief Executive, added: "We've worked in higher education for decades and working together with Atia Communications we're able to help Chichester University get real return on investment for the implementation of Microsoft technologies.

"With our combined knowledge of the marketplace and the technologies, the teams at Salford and Atia have provided Chichester with a cutting edge solution that is already seeing cost savings."

Patrick Copping, General Manager at Atia Communications, added: "Salford Software has been a part of our channel partner scheme for over a year now and in that time we have developed a great relationship.

"Lync integrates perfectly with Office365 and it makes perfect sense for any organisation deploying Office365 to integrate Lync straight into it."

Huawei is to invest £10m to support technology research programmes with key British universities.

The funding, part of Huawei's $2bn investment commitment to the UK, will be implemented by 2017 and strengthens the company's partnership with British higher education.

The £10m investment includes key collaborations with the major British universities, with the research programmes focusing on advanced multimedia, IT and optical technology, green radio, 5G technologies, optical technology, wireless communications and product engineering.

The significant level of funding for these university schemes has been made available through Huawei's Innovation Research Programme, which extends the company's long-term focus on research and development into the academic world by forging partnerships with global educational institutions. Every year Huawei invests over 10% of its revenue into R&D, in 2012 this equaled to US$4.8 billion.

It is expected that the research programmes will help increase Huawei's understanding of these technologies and thereby improve the consumer, network and enterprise services and solutions it offers. Huawei already counts BT and EE among its network customers in the UK and is currently the world's third-largest smartphone vendor.

David Willetts MP, Minister for Universities and Science, following a visit to Huawei's Shanghai R&D centre today, said: "This investment is a vote of confidence in UK universities and their world-leading science and technology skills. We want to encourage greater links between innovative businesses and our research-focused universities. Attracting global companies, like Huawei, shows we are realising these ambitions."

Victor Zhang, Chief Executive of Huawei UK, said: "This collaboration with the UK's universities is an excellent initiative. As the global technology economy continues to grow, new innovation is fundamental, and these research projects will ensure the UK is at the forefront of developments in wireless, multimedia and advanced communications.

"As a global leader in the technology industry, we believe we have a responsibility to nurture the next generation of talent. The research partnerships we're announcing today with British universities are a sign of that commitment, and we passionately believe that greater collaboration across cultures fosters a unique learning environment and a truly global workforce that benefits everyone."

Riverbed has named Keith Hoskison as Senior Vice President, Worldwide Channels and Strategic Account Programs.

He has worked at BMC Software, Aruba Networks and Cisco Systems, and has specialised in building and executing strategic relationship management programs targeting global accounts, channel partners, and strategic alliances.

David Peranich, President of Worldwide Field Operations at Riverbed, said: "Keith will be responsible for driving new channel initiatives and programs, and expanding our relationships with service providers, system integrators and VARs as they embrace and extend our platform."

Distributor Westcon has named Dolph Westerbos as the company's new Chief Executive Officer. Westerbos comes to Westcon Group from Brambles and CHEP, where he served as Group President of Asia Pacific and EMEA for the supply chain and pooling solutions provider.

He has also worked at Dell and ModusLink. Existign CEO Dean Douglas is leaving to pursue another business opportunity.

"I'd like to sincerely thank Dean for the role he played in globalising Westcon and expanding its footprint during the five years he led the organisation," said Jens Montanana, Chief Executive Officer, Datatec. "His strategic vision and experience in the technology and channel industry will serve him well and I wish him the most success in his new endeavours."

Daisy Group's results for the six months ended 30th September 2013 show 2% growth in adjusted EBITDA to £27.8 million (2012: £27.3 million); expansion in gross profit margin from 36% to 39% (reflecting the continued improvement to the product portfolio mix); growth in basic adjusted EPS of 2% to 6.45 pence; and an interim dividend of 1.5p per share.
 
Operational highlights include the retail business which has had success with a number of long-term managed service contract win; a new mobile carrier agreement signed with improved margins; improvement in cross-selling, with the number of products per Retail customer increasing to 1.86 (2012: 1.81) and proportion of retail customers taking three or more products increasing to 25% (2012: 22%).
 
The product portfolio continues to improve, further reducing the reliance on fixed line network services. Fixed line calls accounted for just 12% of total Group revenue for the 6 month period (2012: 14%).
 
Diisy Data Centre Solutions (acquired in May 2013) is performing well and ahead of initial management expectations.
 
Cash flow is expected to materially improve in the second half of the year, following first half working capital investment relating to the contract wins in the mid-market business.
 
The Board maintains its intention to increase total dividends for the financial year ending 31 March 2014 by 15% and by a further 15% for the full year ending 31 March 2015.
 
The market remains highly fragmented and the Board will continue to consider strategic acquisitions that improve our capabilities and provide clear value for shareholders.
 
Matthew Riley, CEO of Daisy, commented: "We are pleased to report the results for this interim period, in which we have seen growth in adjusted EBITDA and basic adjusted EPS.
 
"A number of managed services contract wins in the mid-market have strengthened our position and we have a good pipeline of opportunities going into the second half of the year.
 
"The Daisy Data Centre Solutions business, acquired in May 2013, is performing ahead of expectations and the change of ownership has been well received by the existing customers following an uncertain period caused by the demise of 2e2. From this foundation, we are building a strong pipeline of business.
 
"Since the period end we have announced the acquisition of Indecs which, together with our existing Servassure and Net Crowd businesses gives us credible scale in the Partner Services area. We expect good growth from this business in the coming years.
 
"Looking forward, we remain cautiously optimistic and expect to see continued progress and strong free cash flow generation during the rest of the current financial year. In line with this, we intend to increase our total dividends for the year by 15%. We are focused on driving organic growth whilst investigating strategic acquisitions that provide clear value for our shareholders."

The Cloud Industry Forum's view that hybrid IT is the prevailing deployment model for the foreseeable future has been endorsed by vendors.

Most organisations are already operating a hybrid IT estate in one form or another, and according to the CIF this trend will continue for the foreseeable future.

This mix of on-premise, hosted and Cloud services, along with the proliferation of mobile solutions, collaboration and devices, means that the future challenge confronting IT managers is how to build an effective hybrid IT estate while meeting the operational and governance needs of the organisation, noted Andy Burton, Founder of the CIF.

He stated: "Hybrid IT is hardly a new phenomenon as it relates to the co-existence of multiple IT deployment models, which has been true for most business since the move away from mainframes in the 1980s.

"However, most causes of a hybrid environment have been the product of a transition process rather than an explicit strategy. Arguably this is no longer the case today and to further test the extent to which on-premise will continue to co-exist alongside Cloud-based services, we asked participants that already use Cloud services if they would ever consider moving their entire IT estate to the Cloud.

"The results were quite enlightening in that almost 50 per cent of firms could eventually see themselves one day being wholly based in the Cloud (12% as soon as possible, 17% based on IT refresh cycles and the balance when they perceived the cloud was able to accommodate all of their business IT needs). The remaining 50% cannot see a day when they will be entirely based in the cloud, but only 4% had no expectation of ever using a cloud service."

Matt Eckersall, UK Director of Hosting, Microsoft, added: "Microsoft approaches cloud services as a way to help customers take a key step toward better business agility, economics, and experiences both inside and outside of their company walls. We also know that for today's CIOs and business leaders, the cloud presents an opportunity to redefine the role that the IT and non-IT business functions play in implementing a business' strategy. Because of its power to fundamentally change how businesses operate and compete, the cloud is a game changer for many companies.

"As we focus on people, we know that no business service you create today lives on an island. You need apps, communication, and collaboration to connect together in an agile way. To achieve this, we believe you need a comprehensive cloud - from platform, to productivity, to business solutions. It doesn't make business sense to make a one-off software decision in today's world. So the hybrid way really will remain the practical deployment model for the foreseeable future."

Nick East, CEO of Zynstra, a provider of hybrid cloud solutions for SMEs, stated: "The combination of on-premise and cloud services is nothing short of a marriage made in heaven for the SME. Hybrid IT is the perfect solution for this market. Today it is possible to provide SMEs with world-class IT capabilities in a way that allows them to pay as the benefits are realised, not when the solution is first deployed Arguably enterprise-class IT at a SME cost.

"SMEs face the same challenges as they look to migrate to the Cloud as any other organisation, including concerns over data sovereignty, data privacy and control. In addition, they are often concerned about limited access to Internet bandwidth. For these reasons, we have no doubt that SMEs will naturally gravitate towards a hybrid model that lets them use applications and store data at the point that works best for them," continued Nick.

Gilles Samoun, Chairman and CEO of Abiquo, a cloud management platform provider, added: "IT has always had to deal with the compromise between designing the perfect infrastructure for each IT solution, and standardising to gain economies of scale and deliver a consistent set of services.

"Moving to a hybrid model of cloud services deals with the scale issues for hardware, but introduces new challenges in maintaining consistency of service provision and support. Increasingly we will see companies look beyond just viewing cloud as an alternate infrastructure, and examine how a multi-provider cloud world can be integrated to their inventories, monitoring and support systems, and processes.

The hybrid, multi-provider cloud model will play a big part in this transition, giving businesses more choice and flexibility. As a consequence, rather than "move to the cloud" we see companies making the cloud an extension of their own tried and tested environments."

JMC IT has received national recognition having scooped the British Chamber Awards Commitment to People Development award.

Andrew Burgess, MD, said: "We work with some of the region's best businesses on a daily basis and we know what fantastic talent exists in the North West. It's a true privilege to play a part in nurturing these individuals and providing them with a rewarding working environment and to be recognised yet again for our efforts in doing things differently."

Judges were impressed by JMC's commitment to fostering its workforce through a range of initiatives, including Team JMC, the company's social, sporting and charitable arm.
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Through this programme, which involves competitive sporting events, family fun days and social activities, the business recently raised over £16,000 for local children's charity MedEquipforKids, thanks in part to a gruelling 35-mile hike across 33 peaks in under 24 hours.

JMC achieved the highest three-star rating from Best Companies earlier this year, and was also named Salford Business Awards' Employer of the Year for the second time running. It was the highest ranked Greater Manchester business in the 2013 Sunday Times Best Small Companies to Work For list and reached 9th in the UK for 'job security' in the prestigious table.

Softcat is partnering with Websense in its first inclusion on the recently updated G-Cloud 4 framework. Softcat's public sector network security team, headed by Grant Davey, will be the sole provider of Websense security software to public sector G-Cloud customers seeking to update or upgrade their existing IT infrastructures.

Softcat, a platinum Websense partner, will be providing two key Websense solutions to G-Cloud customers: web security and email security gateway software.

Email and web threats are continually evolving and many organisations are seeking better security solutions to protect their IT systems. Key threats are from phishing emails that link to malicious sites, and whitelisted websites with malware infected links/applets, both of which cause many of today's information security breaches.

Email and web security systems monitor and block malware threats whilst offering other benefits such as enhanced productivity and better legal liability controls. G-Cloud customers will benefit from Websense advanced email and web security solutions, which defend against today's advanced malware.

Grant Davey, Softcat's public sector networking and security manager, said: "Having no web security in place leaves public sector networks open to malware and cyber attacks. Through Websense and the G-Cloud, we now have the opportunity to better protect public sector networks."

UK organisations are lacking cloud-specific competencies and training according to new research which found that 43 per cent of UK IT professionals rate their current competence in cloud implementation and management as either poor or very poor, with only seven per cent rating it as excellent (despite the fact that 64 per cent of organisations questioned are currently using at least one cloud based service).

The findings are part of Databarracks' annual Data Health Check report, which surveys over 400 IT professionals from UK-based organisations, on the changing ways in which technology is used by businesses today. As part of this year's report, greater focus was put on assessing the impact of cloud computing on the IT job market, as well as the competency and training of employees.

Despite the lack of confidence in their cloud competency, 54 per cent of respondents have received no cloud training in the past 12 months and even more worrying is that 53 per cent have made no plans for training in 2014.

Peter Groucutt, managing director at Databarracks, says this is an issue we need to address: "These results paint a worrying picture. The survey doesn't suggest an immediate threat to jobs as a direct result of cloud computing but as businesses continue to use more cloud services there is clearly a new skillset required to manage them.

"The myth that cloud services will eventually replace in-house IT teams is largely unfounded. What we can expect to see instead is a change in the shape of the job market. Our data shows a significant reduction in tape-based backup and continued growth in general cloud adoption, with minimal job losses. IT departments are evolving. In the past, the majority of their time was spent managing internal systems and a smaller portion was spent on using those systems to support the business.

"Cloud services allow IT teams to focus the majority of their time on using technology to best serve the business. To do this successfully, they still need to be firmly backed up by a strong workforce, with an appropriate set of skills and qualifications. Training in the more commonly used cloud platforms such as VMware's vCloud and Amazon Web Services will serve particularly useful in the current market.

"Cloud services have evolved rapidly over the past decade, and their adoption is likely to continue to grow. Our report suggests that the number of organisations who have adopted at least one cloud-based service has risen to 64 per cent in the last 12 months. There is no reason cloud computing should be something for the IT department to fear, but employees must ensure that they remain relevant in today's changing market by gaining the appropriate skills and qualifications."

Britain is lagging behind Europe in training women IT professionals as only 7% of professional engineers in the UK are female and companies must take the lead in redressing the balance according to Scott Fletcher, Chairman and founder of UK cloud infrastructure specialists ANS Group.

"Private companies are beginning to take the lead in providing skills training and they should seize the opportunity to provide more apprenticeships for women in male dominated sectors. This is particularly true in the IT industry," said Fletcher.

The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) 2013 skills survey discovered that only 7% of professional engineers in the UK were women and that this figure has only risen by 2% over the last five years.

This compares with 18% in Spain, 20% in Italy and 26% in Sweden.

The Science and Technology Commons Select Committee is currently studying the progress of female students and academics pursuing science, technology, engineering and maths careers and hearing evidence from education providers.

"We need to increase the flow of young talent into tech and engineering industries and attracting more women is an obvious answer. Currently a large proportion of female Stem graduates (science, technical, engineering and mathematics) are choosing careers in other industries," said Fletcher.

A report published earlier this year by the Institute of Physics (IOP) found that half of all the co-ed schools in the UK did not put forward a single female student to sit an A-level in physics.

"It seems that Britain's schools have pigeon holed physics as a 'boys' subject which is a notion that needs to be eradicated immediately," said Fletcher.