Comms Dealer

Virtual1 channel partners will soon be able to quote customers for MPLS network orders via the company's fast growing 1Portal.

The system is being trialled by select partners and is planned to go fully live early this spring, according to CEO Tom O'Hagan.

"Partners will be able to generate a representative quote quickly and simply, complete with specifications and a network diagram of the proposed solution that they can share directly with their end customers," he said.

"This will enable early capture of essential information meaning less duplication, faster provisioning, quicker revenue realisation and, most importantly, increased end customer satisfaction."

Released to the channel six years ago the 1Portal now offers options around resiliency, firewalls and data centre interconnectivity, as well as connectivity to the leading SIP and UC vendors such as BT, Gamma, Shoretel and Unify through Virtual1's SIP and UC exchange service.

"We have also built in private access to the leading public cloud providers including Microsoft Azure, AWS and Google Cloud, through our recently launched Cloud Exchange product," said O'Hagan.

"And in the next few months our market firsts will continue with the release of network change controls into 1Portal through SDN which will put our partners directly in control of the configuration of solutions they provide.

"Being focused on the wholesale market means that the aim of each release is to make life for our partners as simple and easy as possible."

Two early morning seminars in London and Manchester will aim to lift the lid on the changing valuations in the TMT sector and explain how to build value into a business with an exit strategy.

Run by corporate finance specialist Evolution Capital in association with Comms Dealer, the breakfast events will consider the sale of Lanway to Chess and will feature a presentation from Vernon Yerkess, former shareholder, explaining the process that Lanway went through with Evolution and the value that was added as a result.

Simon Kelson M&A Advisor at Evolution, commented: "These are must attend events for any ICT business owners looking at an exit or planning one in the next year or so.

"Vernon's engaging talk will provide a real insight into to dos and don'ts of preparing your business for sale and will unveil some of the key steps directors must take to ensure a maximum value is achieved."

Later on in the year, continuing in the series, Evolution will be staging a larger event to look at the impact on valuations a year on from Brexit.

To register for the breakfast 'business valuation' events at the Ivy London on 2nd March and the Radisson Blu Edwardian Manchester on 30th March go to: www.evolutioncapital.com/register

TeleWare is celebrating its 25th anniversary, setting out a quarter of a century ago with Geoff Haworth at the helm and operating out of a garage.

Today, TeleWare counts some of the world's largest companies among its customers and has received accreditation from the likes of Avaya and numerous Microsoft gold and silver partner competencies.

Last year TeleWare delivered two Microsoft world firsts - the first being to route, record and analyse a call in real time through Microsoft Azure and the second being to completely migrate all fixed-line call recordings to Microsoft Azure.

Now, three out of five FTSE 100 banks use TeleWare technology and TeleWare is also a leading SIM-based mobile voice and SMS recording provider.

TeleWare is investigating how customer analytics can be best used to shape customer experience. Beyond that, the company is looking at how machine learning can be used to help businesses get the absolute most out of their data and artificial intelligence to create automated communications.

This is in addition to developing intelligent bots to improve communications management and augmented and virtual reality call centres.

Steve Haworth, CEO at TeleWare, said: "There has been incredible growth in entrepreneurship in the 21st century, resulting in a sharp decrease in the average company lifespan.

"People are now starting businesses with the aim of exiting almost as quickly as possible.

"That's not the TeleWare way. We look at the last 25 years as building a solid foundation and legacy that can propel us into the future.

"It's never been about any one product, but the ethos of being the very best in the industry and constantly innovating to meet changing business needs.

"Some of our people have been with us since the very beginning and they have been joined by a fantastic team of experts, creative thinkers and people who like to get things done. This has created a team who are focused on delivering the best for our partners and customers."

Six Degrees Group has appointed David Howson as CEO with founder and current CEO Alastair Mills becoming Chairman of the Board. Six Degrees was founded by Mills in 2011 and since then the business has grown to more than £100m revenue with over 500 staff.

Following the sale to Charlesbank Capital Partners in 2015, the company has invested significant new capital in people, services and technology.

6DG has completed 19 acquisitions, most recently adding new solutions capability for application performance management, platform services and public cloud hosting.

Mills is changing roles in order to spend more time with his wife and young children, as well as focusing more on his charitable endeavours, including supporting WeSeeHope, for whom he is a long-standing Ambassador.

Howson will be taking on the role of CEO as of 1st February 2017. He brings 25 years experience in the industry, most recently spending six years at Zayo where was a member of the Executive team.

Prior to Zayo he spent 12 years at Level 3 Communications where he held numerous senior roles.

Howson has spent the last 16 years in Colorado and will be relocating with his family to take up this position.

Mills commented: "It has been a huge privilege and a great joy to have led the company as CEO since we first put pen to blank sheet of paper, almost exactly six years ago.

"I have worked alongside a group of talented and diligent people. I'm hugely thankful for their dedication which has underpinned our success.

"Now is the perfect time for me to step back from the front line and for a new CEO to lead the next chapter of our growth story.

"David is well known to both the management team and Charlesbank, and his track record in our sector speaks for itself.

"My journey with Six Degrees isn't finished and I'm delighted to be taking up the role of Chairman, supporting the company's ongoing success."

Howson added: "The team has built meaningful scale and a compelling portfolio proposition, giving me fantastic foundations to build on."

Nuvias is opening an office in Switzerland, its first new country office in Europe. It had previously opened an office in Dubai.

The two major divisions of the distributor - Wick Hill and Zycko - had each had local companies in the country, but this is in response to pressure from both vendors and local partners, says CEO Paul Ecclestone.

The Swiss market is not doing too badly either, so it is reckoned to be a good place to be. The office will have local resources for support and administration.

"Given that we are generally growing faster than the market in security, UC and specialist networking this is part of a plan drawn up some 18 months ago for expansion. You can expect to see more Nuvias ramping up each quarter this year as part of this evolving work," he says.

A key motivator in opening the office was Nuvias' appointment by Riverbed as a Swiss distributor, an extension of Nuvias' existing EMEA distribution agreement with the networking vendor. Zycko (now part of the Nuvias Group) has been a Riverbed distributor since 2005, and says it is the most extensively resourced and qualified Riverbed distributor in EMEA.

Hosted comms provider TelcoSwitch has enlisted Joe Murphy to lead a newly formed dealer channel operation.

He brings almost 20 years of channel experience, including a notable stint at Adept Telecom, and has pledged to implement a tried and tested model for recruiting and supporting dealers.

"Years ago there was a departure from the traditional dealer model with vendors either developing their own billing platform or buying one, so a lot of dealers migrated to virtual reseller models," he explained.

"This is great for those wanting to develop businesses capable of provisioning and supporting a customer base, but it has limited the options for freelance telecoms specialists who want to focus on selling and building commissions.

"We are bringing back an option that was always popular but supporting it with modern mechanisms."

The company provides online deal calculators and proposal tools and will sell under a sister brand which has a dedicated website and product information.

Russell Lux, CEO, said: "We are not experts in selling directly, so we are actively recruiting partners who can now choose their preferred method of engagement, dealer or wholesale."

Distributor Mayflex is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. The company was founded on 17th March 1917 as Mayall & Co as a distributor of Swan Kettles by John William Mayall and stayed in the family for three generations.

The Mayflex brand name was introduced in 1985 and became the name of the company shortly afterwards.

Around this time the company entered the communication cables market launching a range of coax, voice and RS232 cables.

This new venture gathered momentum and led to the ongoing development of network cabling in the form of copper twisted pair and fibre optic cables as they grew in popularity.

In January 1997, Mayflex introduced the Excel brand to the structured cabling and rack market. Excel is now sold in over 70 countries and holds top spot in the UK based on the volume sold.

In April 2015 Mayflex was acquired by Sonepar, an independent family-owned company in the B2B distribution of electrical products and related services.

Andrew Percival, Managing Director at Mayflex, said: "This important and exciting anniversary marks the longevity of our business and demonstrates our adaptability as market conditions and technology have evolved.

"Mayflex now employs 300 plus associates, from staff that have been in the business for 15, 20 even 30 years, along with newer recruits, bringing a great dynamic to the business.

"We are active across EMEA and will extend our reach further in the coming months.

"Times have certainly changed through our 100 years of trading, but there is one constant within Mayflex, ambition, this is alive and kicking within our business and will underpin our development over the years to come."

Content Guru is one of the largest cloud-based contact centre infrastructure vendors in Europe and worldwide by number of seats, according to US-based industry analyst firm DMG Consulting in its 2016-2017 Cloud-Based Contact Centre Infrastructure market report.

Content Guru's storm cloud offering converges multi-channel cloud contact centre capabilities with UC and incorporates technologies such as AI and WebRTC for many practical applications.

Sean Taylor, CEO at Content Guru, commented: "2016 marked a tipping point in the cloud contact centre marketplace. It was our strongest year and provides a fantastic springboard to help us realise our global ambition of becoming the leading global provider of cloud customer engagement hubs."

Aberdeen City Council is the latest organisation to benefit from CityFibre's pure fibre network project in the city.
 
Delivered in partnership with Capita as part of the Scotland-wide SWAN programme, the network, which is already benefitting Aberdeen businesses, will support the Council's growing demand for bandwidth and resilience among schools, libraries and other public buildings.
 
Over 100 public buildings will be connected to the ultra-fast, pure fibre network, delivering cost savings and improvements to digital systems and services such as online administration, public Wi-Fi, and classroom e-learning.
 
James McClafferty, CityFibre's Head of Regional Development in Aberdeen, commented: "Transforming Aberdeen into a Gigabit City has been a truly collaborative process, working with a range of strategic partners to enable access to next-generation digital connectivity for businesses, organisations, and public sites across the city.
 
"This next phase delivered in partnership with Capita and Aberdeen City Council will provide essential new communications infrastructure for the city's hard working public services as well as a future-proof alternative to ageing, capacity constrained copper networks. This is a long-term solution that will support the city as data usage and storage needs continue to grow."
 
As well as improving digitised services and facilitating the uptake of innovative e-learning methods in schools, Councillor Willie Young, Finance, Policy and Resources Committee Convener at Aberdeen City Council, believes CityFibre's investment will help to attract new talent and investment to the City.
 
He said: "Aberdeen has fast been emerging as one of the most impressive Gigabit Cities in the UK thanks to an innovative and well established partnership between the private and public sector.
 
"By partnering with CityFibre, we can create a leading digital infrastructure which not only makes a significant statement to the global business community but will allow our citizens to access it in public buildings.
 
"In particular, the network will make an incredible difference to our young people in schools. Digital learning has real benefits in that it allows our pupils to self-learn by being creative with their subject matter. It is crucial that schools are equipped with the best network to allow this learning to continue and develop.
 
"Further investment in this infrastructure throughout 2017 will create an extra 30km of fibre network, positioning Aberdeen among the best connected public sector facilities in the country. This is a genuine example of the achievements that can be made through local authority partnerships with innovative businesses for the betterment of an entire region."
 
CityFibre is also developing Gigabit City projects in Edinburgh and Glasgow as well as throughout England, with plans to launch additional cities later in 2017.

A new range of ISDN to SIP convertors are set to catalyse SIP trunk adoption in the UK according to their maker Splicecom which also claims to have unlocked revenue opportunities that are beyond the reach of traditional service providers.

The Basic Rate and Primary Rate ISIP devices enable resellers to approach businesses still using legacy PBXs with 'immediate and cost-effective' access to SIP trunks, according to the firm.

"Businesses using ISDN trunks with their PBX do so for one of three reasons - they're happy with their existing PBX and want to continue sweating the asset, their existing PBX can't support SIP trunks, or it's too costly to add SIP trunk support to an existing PBX," explained Stuart Bell, Splicecom's Head of Sales for UK&I.

"We're not talking small numbers here. There are still around two million ISDN trunks in everyday use in the UK. Most of these are services that can't be directly swapped for SIP at present due to them either being still in contract or for the three reasons previously outlined.

"The availability of ISIP gives our partners immediate access to a large legacy market that the traditional SIP service providers can't access at the moment."