Comms Dealer

Wireless ISP Wifinity, which provides wireless connections to businesses in some of the UK's most remote areas, has secured £10m funding from Clydesdale Bank.

The funds will allow Wifinity to continue its development of pay-as-you-go services for the holiday park industry, upgrade its networks at MoD sites across the UK and Germany, and invest in new technology.

"By entering a long-term business relationship with Clydesdale Bank we can continue to respond to market opportunities as they arise,"said Aubone Tennant, co-CEO, Wifinity.

"Since Wifinity was founded in 2007 we have delivered Wi-Fi to more than 1,500 buildings in 120 locations with more than 120,000 devices connecting to our networks each month.

"Each network has different complexities based on location and the make up of sites so it is critical we constantly innovate in order to deliver the superfast Wi-Fi to any business,"

Wifinity provides superfast Wi-Fi connections to some of the UK's most hard-to-install locations, including schools, holiday parks, care homes, retailers and military barracks.

Wifinity's trophy cabinet houses an ISPA Best Consumer Customer Service award. The company is also listed on the Sunday Times Tech Track 100 and won Megabuyte Emerging Stars, Best Performing Company Telecoms and Networks recognition.

Exertis has signed a distribution agreement with ClearOne, the developer of conferencing, collaboration and network streaming andsignage solutions

Michael Thompson, Exertis UC business manager, said: "ClearOne represents an important addition to our growing collaboration portfolio, ticking all the boxes for our resellers and their end users in terms of technology, budget and functionality."

Andrew Loadman, representing ClearOne Sales, N. Europe & Oceania, added: "Exertis' reseller channel will significantly increase the accessibility and drive of our Media Collaboration products in the UK and Ireland."

The unified communications market is forecast to grow globally to over $95 billion by 2023, according to Global Market Insights.

US-headquarted New Signature's UK expansion ambitions have been accelerated by the acquisition Paradigm Systems. The deal follows a year of working together on joint projects.

Paradigm Systems brings skills in Azure, Office 365, Windows Server and desktop deployments and operates a managed services business that chimes New Signature's services portfolio.

Paradigm Systems has expertise in delivering Microsoft cloud and hybrid solutions for businesses of all sizes, integrating support services that underpin business transformation.

New Signature also operates in the Microsoft cloud arena and the deal means it will be better able to deliver on more complex engagements with customers of all sizes, including large global enterprises.

"Becoming part of a global business will unlock new opportunities for us and deliver an even greater range of capabilities to our existing customers." said Mike Brown, CEO Paradigm Systems.

New Signature CEO Jeff Tench added: "It was an easy decision to bring together our talented teams. We already knew great synergy existed between the teams in both our approach to delivering value to customers and with our clearly aligned culture and mission."

Cloud-based telephony solutions firm BCH Digital has welcomed Ian Beckman as Non-Executive Chairman. He brings a wealth of experience from sectors including the financial services industry.

Executive Director Mark Drury said: "I am looking forward to working with Ian as we look to enhance and expand our support for the channel market through the BCH Academy."

In his strongest call to action in years NTA's Channel Sales Manager Justin Blaine has urged IT and telecoms resellers without hosted telephony or SIP in their portfolio to 'wake up and smell the coffee'.

According to Blaine, ICT providers without a cloud or SIP proposition should get to grips with these technologies or 'risk being left behind with an ever-shrinking customer base and revenue stream'.

Blaine stated: "Even some of the most experienced leaders at the helm of respected and established companies may not provide hosted telephony or offer it reluctantly as a second fiddle. They still prefer to sell a PBX!"

The main objections encountered by Blaine relating to hosted and SIP adoption among a section of comms and IT resellers is that 'hosted solutions don't work as they should', or, 'it's only for small companies'.

"Another barrier to progress is the false belief that connectivity is either not fast or reliable enough to deploy a hosted solution in some geographic regions," added Blaine. "There is a fundamental lack of understanding in certain areas of the channel."

He noted that misconceptions such as these are all the more stark when considered against the backdrop of digital transformation that is redefining how businesses operate across the UK and beyond.

"We have to embrace change," urged Blaine. "The lack of knowledge within an industry that is supposed to be offering solution led advice at the point of sale is alarming. Ignoring the paradigm shift towards cloud-based technologies is nonsense because customers are already moving ahead."

Blaine concedes that the term 'digital transformation' may be an over-statement, believing that change is more akin to an evolution rather than an upending revolution.

"The first phase of this evolutionary process could simply be a case of moving businesses into a more connected environment where all communications are integrated," added Blaine.

He reiterated that cloud averse resellers should no longer operate at a knowledge level that is below the requirements of the market, and explained that NTA has taken action to educate partners via a series of free sales training courses.

"These courses are designed to up-skill resellers' sales teams and enable them to grasp new technology, eradicate the myths and realise the ever growing profit potential in this space."

NTA has deployed a new set of features on its hosted platform, adding CRM integration, click to dial, a mobile app and reception console.

The company's Channel Sales Manager Justin Blaine said CRM integration was the result of a collaboration between NTA and a third party UC expert.

The roll out took longer than might be considered the norm because of the complex nature of NTA's infrastructure which is positioned across a large number of data centres.

"The new integration delivers connectivity to all of the leading CRM applications used in the market, plus many more bespoke applications designed for particular verticals," said Blaine.

The CRM application can be implemented both on-premise or in the cloud. And NTA offers two different licenses with the new suite of products.

The Express version integrates with Outlook and Gmail, while Fusion connects to most other CRM applications.

These licenses also support screen popping, click to dial, presence and chat sessions.

NTA also lifted the veil on a new operator console for large enterprises and businesses with high call volumes, and a mobile app that replicates the functionality of an office desk phone.

Responding to demand from partners Voiceflex is gearing up to launch FCA compliant SIP call recording and storage on March 1st.

"Due to the large number of channels we support across multiple data centres, the conventional recording equipment wasn't man enough for the job," said Paul Taylor, Sales Director.

Taylor also noted that call recording has become a de facto must-have within many sectors, a requirement that has been triggered by what he described as a prevailing 'culture of blame'.

"Employees and customers need protection," added Taylor. "The only way to protect verbal communication is via call recording."

Voiceflex's SIP trunk call recording solution is hosted in the cloud and offers free set-up with no fixed monthly commitment. Customers pay only for why they use, and they have the option of deleting recordings and downloading them to be stored locally.

"Our call recording application is designed for partners selling cloud or on premise-based telephony to businesses wanting to record both incoming as well as outgoing SIP calls," added Taylor.

Embattled Avaya has named Walter Denk as Worldwide Channel Leader responsible for creating and executing the partner strategy and leading revenue growth through the channel, which is comprised of more than 7,000 partners around the globe.

Denk moves into the new role from his previous position as vice president of Avaya Germany's Small and Medium Business Group.

Prior to Avaya, Denk held positions in Sales and Marketing at a number of global technology companies, including Deutsche Telekom, IBM and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Distributor Hammer has signed an EMEA-wide deal with Spectra Logic, maker of high-capacity workflow, tape and disk-based products.

It is Spectra Logic's first two-tier deal anywhere, and Brian Grainger, Chief Sales Officer at Spectra Logic, who spent a year looking at options, told IT Europa: "We could have hired salespeople and looked for resellers, but it made more sense to invest in a value-added distributor."

In the home US market, it is relatively easy to identify the channels and buyers in supercomputing, but Europe, with its diverse cultures, languages and markets, is less straightforward.

"So in Europe, I decided to go with a known and respected channel."

And this is not just for the tape and disk products, but the full range, including video and the fast-growing data centre business, the markets spreading beyond the traditional supercomputing ones of scientific research, medicine and specialist data centres into surveillance and government, particularly as the business moves even more into the mid-market, he explains.

Spectra Logic's object-based storage systems links directly to the public cloud, so this agreement will also enable Hammer to enhance its current cloud portfolio.

Grainger added: "We've seen a major increase in demand for high-capacity deep storage solutions, which have become essential to a wide range of businesses grappling with the challenges of storing, managing and accessing data while dealing with the rapidly evolving mandates in Europe that are driving changes in storage requirements.

"With Hammer's help we aim to reach more businesses that can benefit from our product range."

Yealink's T46G SFB and T48G SFB phones have become the first in the company's T4x series to be certified for use on Microsoft's Skype for Business Online Service platform.

Offered as part of the software giant's Office 365 productivity suite, the new platform offers cloud PBX and PSTN conferencing functionality accessed via add-on licences.

Other models in the company's T4x Skype for Business range are currently undergoing accreditation testing. These are expected to be certified by Microsoft for use on the online platform within the next few weeks.