INDUSTRY NEWS COMMENT: OPEN LINES Chris Smith
“Working in close collaboration with our customers is a priority for the Openreach business.”
HAVING been in my job as Managing Director Service Management for Openreach for a few months now, it’s time to update you on progress. I have made it my key aim to get out and about and meet as many of our customers as physically possible, getting to really understand the issues and challenges out there in the marketplace. I have been encouraged by customer feedback, and found that our customers are a positive group. Although we have faced
some hurdles during the current service improvement
process, the level of support has been terrific. As many of you who are involved in our regular calls and briefings will know, repair has been in a stable state since early March, and we are ahead of our published plan for provision, meeting eight day lead times on average across the UK. We’ve been targeting resources in areas where they have been most needed and our engineering teams have been really working hard, an approach that has paid dividends. Even the tough period when we faced four public holidays did not derail our momentum. I’m encouraged by the support our customers have shown during this difficult period and I want to build on this going forward. We have made real progress in reducing lead times, and although we still have significant work to do, particularly in our contact centres, I am confident we will return to a BAU position in the timeframes targeted in our plan to industry. Working in close collaboration with our customers is a priority for me and for the Openreach business. I’m looking forward to delivering against the improvement plan.
Chris Smith, MD Service Management, Openreach
Peach brings in plum deal
PEACH Telecom has beaten off strong competition to become Hampshire Chamber of Com- merce’s preferred communica- tions supplier.
The firm, which has 5,000 customers across the UK, will work with the business organi- sation to provide telecoms pack- ages for all of its members. Using the buying power of the membership network Peach Telecom will give all Chamber members reduced prices for tele- phone systems, installation and support, broadband and landline and mobile phone bills. The service will be provided in association with Hampshire Chamber of Commerce, and will operate under the name Chamber Communications. Peach Telecom’s MD, Darren Scott-Healey, comment-
ed: “Winning this competitive tender is a massive accolade for Peach Telecom and testament to the fact that we don’t just install and supply phone lines, we lis- ten to problems and create tailor made solutions.
“This new venture will be of huge benefit to Chamber mem- bers across Hampshire, partic- ularly smaller businesses that often struggle to get good rates compared to large companies with big buying power.” Maureen Frost, the Director of Operations at Hampshire Chamber, added: “This was a highly competitive pitch but Peach Telecom stood out from the crowd. It listened to the challenges of our members and came back to us with the right solutions to support businesses in our network.”
SHORT CALLS
The UK leg of ScanSource Europe’s Partner Tour is to be staged at Vinopolis (a museum of wine) in London on 14th June. This is the third of eight locations in the distributor’s pan-European roadshow. “There will be a good mix of business, education and entertainment activities,” said Emma Edwards, Sales Manager UK and Ireland, ScanSource Europe.
4Com Channel Partners has partnered with Bolton- based Telesis. The reseller has bucked the market by selling on lease with high application attach rates making it a neat fit with 4Com. Telesis MD Christian Bleakley said: “We see this as an opportunity we’ll both benefit from.”
Wick Hill is shipping the latest version of WatchGuard Technology’s extensible threat management (XTM) family of multifunction firewalls. With the new WatchGuard Safe Search feature administrators can manage and enforce search engine filtering settings to ensure users, in particular children, do not see inappropriate content in their search results.
6 COMMS DEALER JUNE 2011
www.comms-dealer.com
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