INDUSTRY NEWS COMMENT: IN THE PICTURE Richard Carter
I’D HEARD a lot about 3D TV and was curious to see if the latest craze lived up to all the hype. A visit to my local electrical superstore gave me the chance to see for myself what all the fuss is about as I took advantage of a demo set on display. Wearing dark glasses in the middle of a brightly lit shop did nothing for my image but the visual impact was fairly impressive. The sales assistant wasted no time
in telling me why I should be spending the best part of £1,500 to enter a new world of entertainment. It’s ironic how television manufacturers keep producing a new wave of must-have technologies. It wasn’t that long ago that HD was all the rage but now 3D is the driving force to stimulate sales. The same analogy can be used for the communications industry where a constantly evolving landscape opens up new revenue opportunities based on helping businesses perform smarter and more effectively. UC is a classic example. Here at Nimans we firmly believe that UC will revolutionise the way people communicate in the future. That’s why we are currently busy investing in the technology ourselves to equip all our staff with their own UC workstations, providing them with first hand knowledge and experience to pass onto our customers. There are still sceptics who say they’ve heard it all before
and prefer to adopt a wait and see philosophy in the adoption of any new technology. Timing is often the most crucial factor, and for me the time is now for UC. I walked away from a 50” LED TV which I didn’t feel compelled to buy at the moment. It’s amazing what technology can do, but there simply isn’t enough 3D material to watch just yet. When there is and demand starts to accelerate, only then will a clearer picture truly emerge.
Richard Carter, Group Sales & Business Development Director, Nimans
Plusnet prepares to grow channel base
INTERNET service provider Plusnet is looking to greatly expand its channel base and will be investing heavily in its part- ner programme over the next few months.
Plusnet Partner launched three years ago with little fan- fare but has grown to include around 250 companies includ- ing resellers and corporate providers for applications like CCTV and EPOS systems. Plusnet’s Head of Business, Nick Silverwood, told Comms Dealer that the company is now ready to begin growing its chan- nel base in earnest. “We haven’t really advertised the service to date,” Silverwood said. “This is about building our story and building up credibil- ity gradually within the channel and building relationships.” Plusnet’s strategy will be based around a ‘pay as you grow’ pricing system suitable for smaller partners without a background in service provi- sion, and the company’s tightly focused propositions elsewhere. “Because we focus purely on broadband we bring a lot of spe- cialisation,” he said. “We don’t try and diversify our skillsets and focus by offering a huge range of services.”
Nick Silverwood Silverwood believes that the
company’s position as a sub- sidiary of BT is a key factor. “There’s been a lot of consoli-
dation within the business ISP space and that will continue,” he said. “So the fact that we are part of the BT Group gives part- ners the confidence that we’re here to stay and we have the financial backing of BT.” While Plusnet Partner is cur- rently built around a DSL prod- uct suite, there are new tech- nologies in the pipeline. By the end of the year the company plans to release fibre- based connectivity and a new proposition aimed at financial transactions, bringing PCI com- pliance to broadband for pay- ment terminals.
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Member of the Audit Bureau of Circulations 13,160 January 10 - December 10
Gamma brings new Horizons to resellers GAMMA Telecom’s just-
launched web portal Horizon has enthused an early adopter of the service which provides a range of fixed telephony and business mobile capabilities. Jack Michalski, CEO at Telecom, one of
Welcome
Gamma’s largest resellers of IP Telephony, said: “Horizon is more than just a replace- ment PBX service, it embraces today’s demand for accessibility no matter where you are or what device you are using. The UC roadmap looks exciting.”
and has an emphasis on control and simplified administration through the web, removing the burden from IT managers while giving channel partners a sticky customer base that provide high margin monthly recurring rev- enues, says Gamma..
Richard Bligh The service sits in any sized
organisation from single sites to large corporates. It’s feature rich
Horizon is made up of a number of key components including a choice of hand- sets from Cisco, Polycom and Yealink, a web portal that can be accessed from any device, Gamma’s IP network and sup- port services, and a call control-
ler from Broadsoft that sits at Horizon’s core giving full PBX functionality.
Richard Bligh, Marketing Director at Gamma Telecom, commented: “The thing that makes Horizon stand out is the end-to-end service.
“This includes provision of the access service with SLAs, the automation of Gamma net- work, number and porting pro- cesses which are a selling point for our channel partners, and the easy-to-use web interface for end customers.”
Differentiate your inbound call management service and stand out in the marketplace with MYRIAD from Kcom. Call 0800 915 5298 or visit
kcom.com/myriad
4 COMMS DEALER JULY 2011
www.comms-dealer.com
Horizon also gives resellers the opportunity to provide more tightly integrated fixed/mobile solutions to businesses. Users can have ‘one number any- where’ ensuring calls are never missed and calls can be handled easily between devices. Gamma’s MVNO resellers can benefit from competitive on-net rates for mobile and fixed calls via Gamma’s MVNA agreement with Vodafone.
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