COMMS DEALER 15th ANNIVERSARY These were the days of our lives!
Apologies to any new readers who may not have been part of Comms Dealer’s past when the UK comms channel was in its infancy, but we could not let our 15th anniversary pass without indulging in some nostalgia. So we have unearthed some old issues from the past and delved into our photo archive to give you a taste of all our yesterdays. And if you were around when phones and computers really didn’t like each other and you would like to share some memories (and identify some old faces) then drop me a line at
nsergent@bpl-business.com. Sometimes it’s nice to remember the good old days! Here’s to the next 5,475!
NIGEL SERGENT – Editorial Director
Our fi rst issue ever in 1996. And what was the front page story? A visionary from Northamber called Paul Smith was saying dealers should get out of the PBX business and into the server business because that was where telephony was headed. It’s only taken 15 years to get the Paul and there’s still life in the PBX yet!
It’s the year 2000 and we reported on the effects of the Millenium Bug. Ahh.. there weren’t any. Never mind there was still lots of skulduggery to report on in the channel with sales people jumping ship and company databases being misappropriated. What a feisty lot we were then! And TMA was still running… just!
In 2005 we reported on BT having an unclear channel strategy with management continually changing and under performing resellers being culled. How things have changed, with BT now a committed channel player! Meanwhile Enda Kenneally was deservedly crowned Channel Personality of the Year for her work at Mitel and she continues to Excell.
Fast forward three years and there was still lots of money in the comms channel. People could still afford to sponsor Formula One racing teams and buy companies for £162 million! And we announced our
fi rst ever ‘Margin in’ event - Margin in IP Telephony - paving the way for the popular managed meetings type events we run today.
The Comms National Awards yet? Visit
www.cnawards.com
Have you entered V OICE INTERNET DA T A Sponsors the Vendor Category 42 COMMS DEALER MAY 2011
www.comms-dealer.com
So it’s 2008 and were almost up to date… how time fl ies! Yes it’s three years since Martin Hatcher sold his MTV Telecom distribution to Scansource. We said he would stay on as executive chairman. He did, but not for long and he’s now enjoying a fruitful retirement. Meanwhile our Comms Solutions event at Wembley was a great success, culminating in one of our much loved Comms Dealer quiz nights.
Talking of quiz nights roll on Margin in Voice and Data on June 16th… see you there!
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