Comms Dealer

Tom O'Hagan is calling on resellers to up their game in 2017 and become trusted advisors to British companies in danger of missing out on the digital revolution.

The Virtual1 CEO believes UK businesses are embroiled in a digital arms race, where innovation, driving down costs and increasing speed to market are critical to success.

"This drive represents significant opportunities for the channel. Investment propositions have not been easier than they are now, with 'As a Service' models removing CAPEX objections. Those UK businesses who fail to innovate and invest will be left behind, and ICT resellers are ideally placed to become their trusted advisors."

O'Hagan says Virtual1 is significantly investing in its network and services models to ensure partners have the tools they need to capitalise on these opportunities.

"2017 is going to be a highly significant year for Virtual1 and our partners. Over the last 12 months we have been working away quietly to implement one of the UK's most advanced networks, fully software defined.

"We have automated provisioning and change management throughout, and in Q1 of 2017, we will start to open up this control to our partners, allowing them to implement configuration changes directly to their client's solutions. Our partners will truly become the masters of their own service experience."

O'Hagan is also claiming an industry first by adding MPLS ordering to Virtual1's 1Portal from February.
"This will dramatically streamline the quote and order processes for our partners," he added.

Entanet has rolled out its first apprenticeship scheme in conjunction with the Telford College of Arts and Technology (TCAT).

The scheme has resulted in the recruitment of four apprentices across the core business areas of Customer Services and Technical Support.

Tim Roberts, HR Manager at Entanet, said: "We chose TCAT as our apprenticeship partner because of its local reputation and flexibility in tailoring the Customer Services and IT Professional Competence courses to our needs.

"The four candidates that we've hired have settled in well and demonstrated great skill in learning what each of their roles entails. We're committed to promoting from within and foresee that each of these individuals will build great careers with Entanet."

Chief Executive of Entanet, Elsa Chen, added: "The introduction of our apprenticeship scheme complements our previously established programme of undergraduate placement and demonstrates our commitment to finding and keeping the best young talent in the local area.

"We've been located in Telford for the last 20 years and have no plans to change that as we're committed to investing in the local economy. As a technology business with a pioneering spirit, we recognise that the best way for us to secure our future with the best is to attract them early in their careers."

Roberts added: "We'll be investing in our apprentices, Daniel Saxon (18), Oliver Ginger (18), Jak Mason (18) and Hannah Jinks (17), helping them to achieve both Level 2 and Level 3 in their respective qualifications. Both Customer Services and Technical Support are core teams in our business but there's significant potential for each of them to progress into different roles once they've achieved their qualifications."

Solar Communications has bagged Burnley-based Denwa for an undisclosed price tag, its second big buy since swooping on Response Data Communications (RDC) in July. Following the deal Mitel has awarded Gold Solutions Partner status to the Solar Group, building on its Gold Cloud Solutions accreditation and strengthening its capabilities in the mid-market.

Solar CEO John Whitty said: "We have spent the last 12 months focusing on an investment plan that ensures our business processes and systems can support our appetite for growth and development, and Denwa is a proven service-focused business with a strong reputation in serving SMB and mid-market business customers."

Denwa's founder and MD Rob Scott will leave the business on completion of the transfer.

He said: "The Denwa team spent the last 12 years building and developing a strong company and service offering and have had the pleasure of working with some great customers. With Solar's portfolio and service culture the business will go from strength to strength."

Solar has offices in Salford, Chippenham, and Harlow, and is on a mission to bolster its managed services offering.

Solar Communications has on-boarded 30-plus year of comms and IT experience with the appointment of Paul Ceaser as Director of Operations with a remit to head up all aspects of Solar's customer services, one of the largest divisions of the business.

Previous positions include CTO in the Royal Corps of Signals, Director of Voice at GCI, and latterly CTO at 7 Technologies Group.

Solar's CEO John Whitty said: "Not only is Paul a proven customer-focused leader, he knows the importance of service and communication in the most mission critical of environments.

"It is no longer enough to focus on products and innovation, customer experience is now a true differentiator in a competitive marketplace."

US-based hosting giant GoDaddy is buying Host Europe Group for $1.82bn, including debt, as it seeks to expand into Europe with the delivery of a broader range of cloud-based products.

Host Europe is a large privately-owned web services provider and operates brands such as 123Reg, Domain Factory, Heart Internet and Host Europe.

GoDaddy also says it will explore strategic alternatives for Host Europe's PlusServer managed hosting business, including a possible sale.

Peach Technologies has relocated to 'wacky' new offices, a move that also marks the firm's tenth anniversary and coincides with a rebrand.

The company's £2.5m investment in its Whitley HQ, a 15,000 square foot working environment, was designed to encourage employees to maximise their career potential while also promoting a fun and friendly place to work, said the firm.

The building features an oval jungle boardroom, library quiet zone for staff learning, coffee shop meeting room, private working zones and 'chilled' working zones to empower co-operation between departments.

The Peach team also have access to free breakfasts and fruit, and Xboxes and pool tables housed in an American diner style kitchen.

Pictured: CEO Darren Scott-Healey opens the doors with the Mayor of Winchester

Zest4 has added new pre-Ethernet and pop-up office solutions to its portfolio, a move that supports its roll out of M2M offerings.

"Pre-Ethernet solutions give partners the opportunity to provide reliable enterprise grade connectivity to customers whose businesses operate away from permanent premises or who offer a service that's based out on the road," said Anton Le Saux, Zest4's Head of M2M and IoT.

"Festivals, temporary retail outlets, kiosks, digital road signage and pop up offices are just some of the business types that rely on technology but often struggle to stay connected."

Zest4 supplies a range of enterprise grade routers and mobile tariffs with 4G broadband connectivity and the ability to connect to any network.

Le Saux added: "One of the challenges resellers have is the networks wanting to tie customers into long-term contracts when they take out a new SIM.

"Zest4 now has the ability to offer SIMs with flexible data that means a customer can consume as much as they need while they need it and then drop down to a bare minimum to ensure they have cover for failover."

Mandy Fazelynia, Zest4's Operations and Business Development Director, added: "We have had personal experience of using enterprise grade routers during our recent office move and they were critical in ensuring we could operate as usual despite a long wait for our fixed line to be installed.

"Pre-Ethernet solutions offer businesses the connectivity that they need to succeed."

CMS Distribution has acquired a majority stake in Scandinavian distributor Newgen Distribution.

Newgen's founder shareholders Axel Diurson and Max Ellberg will stay on with the business as joint MDs, and retain the remaining share capital.

CMS Distribution acquired a minority stake in Newgen as part of its acquisition of fellow distributor Widget earlier this year. That stake has now been increased to over 50%, making Newgen a subsidiary of CMS Distribution.

Frank Salmon, CEO of CMS Distribution, said: "CMS wants to become a significant player in continental Europe, opening up more opportunities for our suppliers and offering the benefits of scale to our customers."

Newgen will be managed separately from CMS Distribution BV, the group's 100% owned subsidiary in continental Europe, which is based in Eindhoven, Netherlands.

Onecom has been awarded Premium Partner Status by Samsung, one of only five partners to achieve the top tier ranking.

Darren Ridge, Onecom CEO, said: "This certification assures customers that their businesses will have access to the latest products and support when they choose Samsung devices through Onecom. I look forward to maintaining and growing this valuable partnership."

Graham Long, VP of Enterprise Business for Samsung Electronics UK and Ireland, added: "Premium Partner Status is thoroughly deserved by Onecom."

Exertis has signed a distribution agreement with Enghouse Interactive for its multi-channel contact centre and customer interaction solutions.

Resellers will gain access to the Enghouse Interactive Communications Centre (EICC) and Enterprise (CCE) solutions together with its Quality Management Suite (QMS) and Real Time Speech Analytics (RTSA).

Enghouse solutions are platform independent but work with all the main telephony providers and can be deployed in the cloud, on premise or in a hybrid environment.

Typically sold into contact centres with between 10 and 250 agents, their solutions can scale from one to tens of thousands of users.

John Bird, Exertis, Head of UC Systems and Support Services, said: "Our partnership with Enghouse is a great opportunity to deepen our engagement with our resellers that offer ShoreTel and NEC unified communications solutions, creating additional profitability for their business.

"It also provides our Microsoft resellers with a platform to enhance Skype for Business into a fully featured enterprise call management solution."