Comms Dealer

Avnet Technology Solutions has launched an End User Computing (EUC) Practice in the UK designed to help the channel generate new business in the growing desktop transformation market.

Open to new and existing Avnet business partners, the practice combines VMware Horizon Suite with Avnet's SolutionsPath methodology and marks the first major collaboration between the two companies in the UK since Avnet added VMware to its UK supplier portfolio in October 2012.

The shift toward desktop virtualisation and trends such as Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) have created a new set of challenges for IT departments as they struggle to manage a plethora of devices securely and cost-effectively, noted Avnet, which has recognised the importance of creating a framework for business partners that helps their customers create a successful, secure and productive workspace environment, says the firm.

Tom Ellis, VMware EUC partner development manager, Avnet Technology Solutions UK, said: "The practice enables business partners to sell VMware Horizon Suite and the additional hardware, software and services which complement VMware EUC solutions."

According to Ed Dolman, Head of Channel, UK and Ireland at VMware: "We consider this initiative to be a powerful value proposition as we seek to attract new partners who want to enter the desktop transformation market but currently lack the relevant skills.

Mobility management solutions and telecom software specialist Globo has announced positive unaudited interim results for H1 2013 driven by positive market trends, particularly in the field of 'bring your own device' (BYOD) tendency, it says.

Both Globo's market sectors, consumer and enterprise, were doing well posting a revenue increase by 22% y/y (to €17.9m) and by 132% y/y (to €10.2m), respectively. The enterprise segment with its leading GO!Enterprise was strengthen by a disti agreement signed with Ingram Micro in North America in H1 and, in particular, the prospective contribution from its 'Enterprise Mobility in a Box' distributed now through the US and Canada. The growth in the enterprise segment was also supported by a growing demand for BYOD trend.

BYOD trend in mobile technology also contributed to Globo's performance, especially given that Globo's Go!Enterprise solution delivers a platform that aims to provide the employees secure access to corporate date, it says.

On the other hand, the consumer segment (CitronGO! And Go!Social), which accounted for 56% of total revenues for the period, saw a growth in the emerging markets due to a growing demand for internet and social media through feature phones.

As far as the telecom segment is concerned, SaaS solutions increased by 81% y/y to €3.64m, thanks to continued expansion of the company's WIPLUS WiFi service that includes the managed services provided to hotels, airports, marinas and other locations.

In total revenue increased by 52% year-on-year to €32.03m reflecting the overall growth in the mobile sector. Gross profit went up by 40% to €17.05m with gross margin of 53% (against 57% at the same time a year before). EBITDA increased 44% y/y to €18.64m, with operating margin going up to 45% while profit before tax stood at €14.47m which translated into a 74%-growth year-on-year.

During the first six month of the year Globo also managed to secure a €20m three-year revolving credit line with Barclays Bank for future investments and acquisitions, it says. The company entered into new partnerships and alliances with technology companies, including IBM and Fujitsu, and signed new reseller agreements.

In the coming months Globo plans to leverage its entries into key markets with a strong focus on enterprise mobility and BYOD trends in Western Europe and the US. Additionally, it expects that its consumer-dedicated solutions will continue to grow, mostly in the emerging markets, where the smartphone saturation is still relatively lower. The markets with strong demand for internet access and with limited bandwidth capacity will be targeted by Globo's CitronGO! And Go!Social - where the revenues will be generated from services provided to end users via Value Added Service providers and Mobile Network Operators.

"Globo's growing reputation in consumer and enterprise mobile markets around the world is being translated into a strong, profitable trading performance. Demand for our market-leading products and services are being supported by positive market trends, particularly BYOD, and we are continuing to invest in R&D to strengthen our competitive edge. The potentially substantial contribution from Enterprise Mobility in a Box and Go!Enterprise 247 cloud offering and the positive trading so far in the normally strong second half, have increased our confidence in achieving market forecasts for the full year," says non-executive Chairman, Barry Ariko.

The company has also reiterated its market forecast for the full year .

Full-service business support systems provider Cerillion has launched a new partner programme for its cloud-billing solutions, called Cerillion Skyline, dedicated to cloud infrastructure and solutions provider from across the verticals.

New partners will be certified by Cerillion to implement consultancy services and encouraged to build joint solutions as well as to offer their own billing service on a white-label basis.

Cerillion's cloud-based solution combines its billing and charging engines with customer, payment and collections management and product catalogue and offers a mix of recurring fees and usage-based pricing, it says.

http://www.cerillion.com

Symantec has named Mark Nutt as vice president, EMEA Partner Management, to be in charge of the development and execution of Symantec's channel strategy across the EMEA region.

"Symantec is more committed to partners and distributors than ever before," said Nutt. "It is vital that we enable partners to deliver superior value to customers and that, in turn, we demonstrate our commitment to directly supporting our channel partners' business growth. I am delighted to be playing a role in defining and implementing our new channel strategy."

Nutt joined Symantec in 2011 to run EMEA's Strategy and Sales Operations organisation, responsible for driving sales performance and operational excellence across the business.

Prior to joining Symantec, he was general manager at Morse, where he was responsible for all aspects of business unit strategy, structure, reporting and planning.

Nutt started his career in 1987 at HP where he held various sales positions.

Eighty channel petrol heads have safely returned home after 'racing' a cavalcade of old bangers over 1000 miles from England to Hungary in the second Gamma Ball Rally, bringing home an amazing £50,000 for charity.

The rally, sponsored by Cisco, saw 22 cars - all bought for a maximum of £500 - set off from Gamma's headquarters in Newbury to undertake a series of mad challenges en route through France, Belgium, and Germany.

The route also took in a harrowing spin around the infamous Nurburgring - which resulted in a few bumper benders but no major casualties - before a last leg dash to the finish line in Budapest. All but two cars made it to the finish including Comms Dealer's paint daubed Comms Wheeler vehicle with race organiser John Haw of Gamma on board.

Inevitably there were madcap stories involving dodgy diversions and unplanned pit stops, but Haw was pleased to comment: "Thankfully no one got on the wrong side of the law and although there were some shaky legs after some prangs on the Nurburgring, everyone arrived in Hungary unscathed. It was an amazing effort and the amount raised by the cars and in the 'Money Can't Buy' gift auction during the race night gala evening was truly awesome. We netted £50,000 in total which is amazing!

"There were almost too many incidents and hilarious moments to recall as everyone entered into the spirit of the rally and had a great time. I would like to thank everyone who took part especially our amazing Gamma support team that probably drove twice as many miles as anyone else helping cars in trouble, and of course our generous main sponsor Cisco."

The £50,000 raised will go to two deserving charities, The East Cheshire Hospice who cared for Julie Wright, Operations director at Chess Telecom who lost her battle with cancer earlier this year and Action Through Enterprise which helps disadvantaged people in Ghana.

The final results of the Gamma Ball Rally were as follows:
Roll of Honour
First Place - Team Spirit Cannonball 
Second Place - STL        
Third Place - DOMinate          
Spirit of the Rally - Smokey and Abandon it               
Booby prize - Olive Hoons (for flying from Frankfurt to Budapest due to car sickness!)

To see more pictures and the mad cap rally highlights see the October issue of Comms Dealer.

BlackBerry has signalled its intent to be acquired by a consortium led by Fairfax Financial Holdings for $4.7bn. The news follows Blackberry's recent announcement about plans to cut 4,500 jobs, tantamount to 40% of its worldwide workforce, in an effort to stem losses.

A letter of intent contemplates a transaction in which BlackBerry shareholders would receive $9 in cash for each share of BlackBerry share they hold. The consortium would acquire for cash all of the outstanding shares of BlackBerry not held by Fairfax.

Fairfax, which owns approximately 10 per cent of BlackBerry's common shares, intends to contribute the shares of BlackBerry it currently holds into the transaction.

The BlackBerry Board of Directors, acting on the recommendation of a special committee of the board of directors, approved the terms of the letter of intent under which the consortium, which is seeking financing from BofA Merrill Lynch and BMO Capital Markets, would acquire BlackBerry and take the company private subject to a number of conditions, including due diligence, negotiation and execution of a definitive agreement and customary regulatory approvals.

Barbara Stymiest, Chair of BlackBerry's Board of Directors, said: "The Special Committee is seeking the best available outcome for the Company's constituents, including for shareholders. Importantly, the go-shop process provides an opportunity to determine if there are alternatives superior to the present proposal from the Fairfax consortium."

Prem Watsa, Chairman and CEO of Fairfax, said: "We believe this transaction will open an exciting new private chapter for BlackBerry, its customers, carriers and employees. We can deliver immediate value to shareholders, while we continue the execution of a long-term strategy in a private company with a focus on delivering superior and secure enterprise solutions to BlackBerry customers around the world."

Jan Dawson, chief telecoms analyst at Ovum, commented: "Taking BlackBerry private doesn't solve the fundamental problems at the company. First, the company's device sales are cratering, and its announcement last week that it no longer intends to pursue the consumer market is essentially the death knell for this business.

"Normally, companies are taken private in order to give a long-term strategy time to payoff without the hassles of short-term investor scrutiny. But BlackBerry's key problem for the last couple of years has been the lack of such a long-term strategy. It simply hasn't articulated a way to rebuild its business as its device sales drop precipitously.

"Unless Fairfax plans to radically change or accelerate BlackBerry's strategy, it's unlikely to be able to turn the company around. And that means we're likely seeing the beginning of the end for one of the most iconic brands in mobile technology."

Azzurri has implemented a new cloud-based contact centre architecture for decade-long customer Vanquis Bank based on the Avaya platform and the Callmedia 5.0 contact centre management application.
 
To cope with the growth of Vanquis Bank, which has seen its number of agents increase from 25 to 550+ agents since it was founded in 2002, the company needed to switch from its existing system which was at near full capacity.

They needed a highly resilient high-capacity, multi-site contact centre infrastructure that was scalable and worked across multiple locations thus seeing the company throughout its future growth and international expansion.
 
The new cloud-based contact centre Azzurri has deployed will meet Vanquis Bank's most ambitious growth goals for at least the next five years, with support for upwards of 1,000 extensions and 1,000 telephone lines.

The project began by migrating the company's core contact centre operations to a centralised data centre in Corsham, from which calls are routed to the company's four contact centres in various locations across the UK and South Africa.
  
Vanquis Bank is part of the Provident Financial Group and has over 1.0 million UK customers.
 

Canadian-based tech firm Phybridge, which specialises in IP telephony and UC, has embarked on an expansion campaign across EMEA and the man at the centre of its cross Atlantic push is the newly appointed Senior VP for EMEA and former Aastra channel supremo Viv Singh.

"Phybridge switch innovation delivers Ethernet and Power over Ethernet over a single pair of wire with four times the reach of traditional switches," he said.

"They are designed specifically to allow businesses to leverage their existing voice infrastructure and transform it into an IP path with power ideal for IP telephony."

According to Singh the Phybridge switch innovation eliminates many of the local area network barriers and costs associated with IP Telephony migration.

"Quality of service, voice continuity, elimination of risk and disruption, a highly secure network and a lower total cost of ownership are some of the benefits being realised by the 1,000 plus customers using the Phybridge switch offering," he stated.

"Phybridge technology has successfully been deployed throughout Europe including embassies around the world for one of Europe's largest governments.

"The launch of the PoLRE (Power over Long Reach Ethernet) family of switches combined with the increasing interest and demand from EMEA customers and partners warrants a local presence."

John Croce, CEO of Phybridge, sees the European market as a 'tremendous' opportunity for growth.

"Viv will be responsible for managing our EMEA Team, bringing new initiatives, recruiting and training new resellers, elevating existing partners to higher levels of accreditation and growing our overall EMEA business," he said.

Singh added: "To expand our EMEA growth over the next four months our key objective and focus remains on recruiting four to six strategically placed distribution partners plus establish partnership with five global partners.

"We are able to provide a number of case studies where we have helped our Business Partners to secure significant number of deals using our solution."

One deal of importance cited by Singh involved the deployment of a Phybridge solution that saved a customer wanting 1,400 endpoints more than $1.5m.

"We are confident that by working together with our new and existing business partners in EMEA we will secure these type of projects.

"And now with the launch of the 8 Port Polre switch we can scale right down to two IP extensions on a hosted IP platform."

The economic uplift is prompting greater demand for cloud-based communications, and according to The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the outlook is brightening with an upgraded forecast for UK growth this year for 1.5%, up from 0.8%, indicating that the recovery is gaining momentum.

Cloud computing specialist Qubic is upbeat about these positive predictions and its MD Chris Papa reckons the 'booming' information economy is helping to kick-start the UK's recovery with the pay-as-you-go hosted model gaining in appeal.

"Increasing demand for Qubic's services reflects the positive economic outlook as companies attempt to capitalise on the latest IT advances without large capital expenditure projects," he said.

"A hosted solution can help encourage start-ups and SMEs in general to grow as it means that businesses can use technology on a pay-as-you-use basis rather than tying up cash in a costly server with a telephone system.

"Hosted technology can help by streamlining these companies' operations and making them more efficient, in particular those who have limited resources in terms of staff and capital.

"Using hosted technology to create efficiencies can actually save costs and allow companies to operate far more effectively."

Confidence is increasing in the UK and IT service providers are playing a vital role in helping companies to expand quickly and become more agile, claims Papa.

"As well as minimising the ongoing costs associated with managing and installing IT systems in-house, the infrastructure provided by Qubic allows rapid expansion with IT resources allocated and available, often in a matter of minutes," he added.

Research among 17,000 IT managers global research and consulting company, Eastern Management Group (EMG) states that sales of SIP phones, both corded and wireless, are growing steadily for several reasons, among them the growing popularity of hosted PBX and PBXs built on open source technologies.

The research identifies that although most hosted PBX sales are to small to medium size businesses and account for less than 10% of all PBX endpoint sales, the market is experiencing significant growth.

"We know this from our own dealings of companies that are in the SME bracket, they are increasingly switched onto the features and benefits of hosted telephony," said James Passingham, CEO of independent managed communications provider, Foehn.

EMG points out that today's target customer for a hosted PBX is typically a multi-location small or medium business (under 10 branches) and the initial hosted PBX sale is 1-3 locations and 10-25 SIP phones.

"In the UK, SMEs represent a sizeable proportion of the overall business market and the rise of hosted PBX is presenting significant marketing opportunities, certainly evidenced by the number of suppliers in this vibrant sector," added Passingham.

The report also highlights the fact that many new PBXs are built on open source software frameworks, such as Asterisk from Digium. With open source continuing to mushroom in popularity among businesses and organisations in the public and non-for-profit sectors, the open source PBX represents a massive market and is driving the adoption of SIP phones.

EMG identifies that approximately 10% of all new PBX systems qualify as open source, a trend that is benefiting the low end of the market, with 75% of open source endpoints being on PBXs with fewer than 50 end users. Open source PBX appliances also have an average of 54 phone extensions.

"EMG concludes that it is 'bullish' about the market for SIP phones, although does factor in potential dampeners such as the world economy and unemployment," noted Passingham.

"From our own experience of marketing and selling both hosted and open source solutions, SIP has come of age, partly because Internet access is faster and at the heart of communication in most businesses, but also because hosted and open source PBXs are driving take-up, as borne out by EMG's research."