Comms Dealer

Softcat has welcomed 36 new recruits to its sales and IT teams in London, Manchester and Marlow.

The recruitment drive sees 25 new starts join the Marlow team as sales executives, sales support executives and customer service executives, in addition to more specific roles in particular sectors.

Five new starts will join the Manchester team and six will join the London team, all as sales executives.

Managing Director Colin Brown said: "Softcat is employee-centric, we put them at the heart of everything we set out to achieve as a company and it works.

"Happy employees lead to happy customers and high performance, and this is proven by our high levels of customer satisfaction and our continually increasing revenues."

HR and recruitment manager Shelley Ferrigno added: "Progression is here for the taking at Softcat. Employees are constantly moving into new roles in areas of particular interest to them. An employee might join us as a customer service executive, spend some time in sales, then end up in a more technical role. We aim to accommodate our employees' interests, and always reward hard work."

Softcat recently achieved 10th best medium sized workplace in Europe in the Europe's Best Workplace listing, and 4th place in the UK.

Reports that Telefonica is in advanced talks to buy KPN NV's German mobile phone business E-Plus are perhaps overdue, according to IHS Electronics and Media Analyst James Allison. "M&A activity between Telefónica and E-Plus has been on the cards since the 800-MHz auction in 2010 when E-Plus missed out on a licence," he stated.

"A tie-up between the two would create an operator similarly sized to much larger operators such as Vodafone and Deutsche Telekom, while giving E-Plus access to fixed line voice, broadband, and television services.

"A deal between Telefónica and E-Plus previously fell through as the two could not reach a valuation. Neither Telefónica nor KPN was willing to take less than a majority share in a German unit, given the revenue and profit contributions to both operator groups' bottom line."

According to Allison a major stumbling block to the deal proceeding is getting regulatory approval from the German Cartel Office.

However, reports suggest that a deal could be announced as early as today.

Analysts estimate the value of E-Plus to be in the region of 8.5 billion euros, but cost savings resulting from a merger could push up the value to 10 billion euros.

BNP Paribas Leasing Solutions has launched an exclusive free financial training course for sales teams to help them overcome customer cash restrictions in order to win larger and more profitable deals.

Called 'Finance Unlocked: How to sell and win with finance', the scheme is designed to help technology suppliers adopt a more strategic approach to sales, and explores how organisations generate and use finance, explains the benefits of leasing over cash, and teaches delegates how to use leasing as a strategic sales tool.

The course is the brainchild of Andy Milsom who heads up training and partner development at BNP Paribas Leasing Solutions. He said: "We know from experience that the risk of a customer walking away from a cash sale in today's climate is high. We also know from our own research that order sizes are typically 32% higher when made using finance rather than cash.

"We want to help companies avoid wasting their sales efforts, and help them make all deals as profitable as possible. This means ensuring their sales teams are confident enough to explore a prospect's financial situation in some detail, so they can take a more strategic approach to sales and financing."

SIP and hosted carrier tIPicall has increased the international geographic numbers that can be ported from existing fixed line operators to its worldwide SIP network.

35 countries now allow geographic number porting into tIPicall's numbering cloud and new additions include Cyprus, the Dominican Republic and Ireland. In total tIPicall can now provide numbers in 120 countries worldwide.

Irish numbers can now be ported from operators including Eircom, COLT, Verizon, Digiweb and Smart Telecom.

These suppliers represent the vast majority of number providers in the Republic of Ireland, said the firm. The porting process takes around four weeks and single numbers or full ranges can be ported.

Steve Harrington, Channel Manager at tIPicall, said: "Traditionally, cross-border organisations have found it difficult to manage their telecoms seamlessly as they have had to be location dependent. If they wanted to look like they were in Dublin they had to be physically located in Dublin. Now companies can have a presence anywhere in the world and take their Irish numbers with them.

"This represents a significant step in the transition from traditional telecom services to SIP and next generation hosted solutions in the UK. We have been able to provide new numbers in Ireland for quite some time however the lack of porting has meant that many of our partners have had to walk away from deals. Now we can finally offer them the complete numbering service."

Daisy's entry in the 'Best Case Study (Commercial)' category of the EuroCloud UK Awards beat two other hosting providers at the event held at Baker Tilly's HQ in London, with the business recognised for the hosting services it provides to the Manchester Airports Group (MAG). 
 
Showcased at the event, Daisy's solution has enabled the MAG to deliver an overall more reliable online service to its customers, supporting the live streaming of flight information, online booking and payment functionality for car parking reservations.
 
With a portfolio of airport websites, the MAG's IT infrastructure needed the capacity to comfortably accommodate millions of website hits. Daisy's fully managed solution provides internet connectivity and hosting services, which are monitored round-the-clock.
 
As the largest UK-owned airport operator, the MAG owns and operates four airports located throughout the UK, serving approximately 42 million passengers and three quarters of a million tonnes of freight each year.
?Jon Arnold, Enterprise Sales Director at Daisy Group, said: "Daisy has been working with MAG for a number of years and through technology supported them with their growth journey across their Group. To win the EuroCloud award is a real feather in our cap. We have been recognised for the part we have played in providing a business with the solution and service that meets the demands placed on it by its customers, but also supporting business growth."

Channel Telecom has teamed up with Virgin Media Business for an exclusive offer to channel partners providing discounts on partners' home broadband, TV and phone packages.
 
The new Virgin Affinity Programme strengthens the partnership with Channel Telecom as it is offered exclusively to Channel Telecom's partner community.

The Affinity Programme offers partners 'substantial' discounts on up to 30Mb fibre optic broadband, TV with TiVo box (with over 100 TV channels) and unlimited weekend calls to UK landlines and Virgin Mobiles including free installation.
 
Channel Telecom MD Clifford Norton said: "This is positive in two ways for our reseller community; They get the chance to take advantage of this discount just by being a partner with us and it also supports our business relationship with them. We hope the Affinity Programme will open up more opportunities for new resellers to come on board with us."

Westcon Group and Polycom have linked up to stage their first virtual European channel seminar, connecting seven locations via video conferencing in a broadcast that explored the possibilities of global UC.

Themed 'UC Vision, Video Collaboration without Boundaries', the seminar was introduced by Area Sales VP of EMEA Channel Partners Keith Carter and Polycom executives, as well as David Grant, Senior VP EMEA at Westcon Convergence.

The UK event was broadcast from Polycom's Executive Experience Centre in London.

Phillip Pexton, Industry Analyst from Canalys, demonstrated the opportunity for video across EMEA and forecasted market growth of 34% by 2017: "This is a massive opportunity for resellers," he said. "Microsoft Lync is currently disrupting the market in a big way and threatening traditional IP PBX players. Polycom has a strategic alliance with Microsoft and is currently the leader in Lync phone shipments in EMEA with more than 60% of the market."

"As Unified Communications solutions become more complex with the move from hardware to software, increase in multi-vendor solutions, and ever-evolving eco-systems - the need for simplicity in doing business, deployment, support and processes has never been more important. Bringing it all together and simplifying business and processes - this is where the real value lies."

Lyn Driscoll, Account Director from Britannic Technologies, a Polycom Video UK Business Partner, commented: "We've talked about video conferencing taking off for so long now that it's refreshing to see such progress. Historically, video conferencing has been difficult to use and has presented issues with affordability and complexity in deploying the solutions.

"With the consumerisation of IT and the need for access anywhere, coupled with Polycom and Microsoft's vision, we can embrace this video proposition."

Edinburgh-based Commsworld has been awarded Virgin Gold Business Partner status, a reward for driving Virgin's market share in Scotland.

The accreditation also reflects Commsworld's new capabilities having developed a high-speed business-only network for transferring fast data and voice services across Scotland, powered by Fluency, the ISP acquired by the company last October.

Richard Nicol, Commsworld CEO, said: "This is a tremendous accolade. Commsworld take great pride in the fact that we partner with 'best of breed' suppliers and are delighted to be confirmed as a Virgin Gold Partner.

"Service standards and quality are extremely important to us and this status is testament to the investment and focus we have put into this area."

A spate of major contract announcements in the first few months of 2013 has created a spirit of optimism in the UK IT outsourcing market according to Ovum.

This activity has given a much-needed boost to the industry in the UK, while the government's emphasis on cost savings has also created opportunities for outsourcing providers, says the global analyst firm.

In a new report on the state of the UK IT services market, Ovum stated that although growth in UK and Ireland over the past two years has been anaemic at best (growing 1.5% in 2011 and 2.0% in 2012), things may be looking up.

The first five months of 2013 saw the announcement of $7.2bn of new contracts, including three megadeals (contracts valued at $1bn or more) involving three separate vendors: Arvato, Atos and Capita. The total contract value (TCV) announced so far this year suggests that 2013 should surpass the level announced in 2012 ($12.8bn) with relative ease.

However, it remains to be seen whether the spate of deals so far will provide the necessary impetus for significant growth in the IT services industry. "Despite the optimism engendered by the string of large deals announced so far in 2013, market conditions in the UK continue to be challenging," warns Ed Thomas, IT services analyst at Ovum.

"The slow rate of economic recovery means that many enterprises will still be wary of investing in IT projects. However, the recession has also ensured that cost cutting remains one of the top priorities for the majority of companies. This should provide opportunities for IT services vendors, although they will need to offer more than just a cheap service in order to win business in the mature UK market."

Ovum points to the public sector as a major part of the IT services market in the UK, and this sector has become even more important as the coalition government increases its use of outsourcing in order to meet ambitious savings targets.

While the industry has in the past been monopolised to a large extent by a limited number of large vendors, the UK government has put strategies in place to increase the level of competition.

"Vendors looking to gain entry into the public sector will inevitably lack experience of working with government clients, particularly when compared to the established players," added Thomas.

"Successfully delivering public sector projects requires a unique set of skills, which providers will have to acquire before they can compete successfully with the likes of HP and Capita."

SAP co-CEO Jim Hagemann Snabe plans to step down in May next year, leaving American Bill McDermott in sole charge of the German software giant. Snabe, who became co-CEO in February 2010 along with McDermott, will join SAP's supervisory board.

Industry watcher Ray Wang says he wouldn't be surprised if SAP appoints another co-CEO to replace Snabe, possibly Vishal Sikka, the board member responsible for technology and innovation. Sikka would act as 'a good counterweight to Bill McDermott's sales and business acumen', said Wang.