MIT’s Andrew Lippman AV tech innovator confirmed as Chair of thrives on visionary Comms Vision p40 foundations p48 VOL 22 ISSUE 2 JULY 2017 www.comms-dealer.com Call recording for PCI, FCA and MiFID ll compliance. oak.co.uk ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT THE HEARTBEAT OF THE UK COMMS INDUSTRY THINK For Reliable & Scaleable Recording Solutions, MiFIDII, FCA & PCI Compliance e: [email protected] t: 020 3488 1498 w: www.vidicodeuk.com 3-24 Fully white labelled Industry News hosted telephony Catch up with solution from £2.75 events in comms 26 News Interview Centile chief points CD_commcloud.pdf 1 24/04/2017 12:24 up expansion bid www.channeltelecom.com Experience the 28 C CityFibre acquires Company Matters M Comms sector Y trading update CM Communications Cloud MY Entanet for £29m CY We get your 36 CMY employees, FAST-expanding CityFibre claims to have transformed the UK connectivity Business Profile landscape with the £29m acquisition of wholesale comms provider Entanet. K customers and Oak: A truly unique parent company apps talking SPECIAL REPORT annum within three years by tivity portfolio of fixed, wire- combining its fibre infrastruc- less and mobile data connectiv- CityFibre’s swoop on Entanet ture with Entanet’s wholesale ity services as well as hosted 50 was accompanied by a £200m products, systems and relation- voice and telecoms. fund raise that doubles the ships with channel partners. CityFibre’s Chief Executive Special Report firm’s market value. Telford-based Entanet has Officer Greg Mesch (pictured Postcard from The all cash Entanet acquisi- amassed more than 1,500 chan- above) said: “With Entanet now Margin symposium tion enables the alternative fibre nel partners which substantially part of the CityFibre family, our infrastructure provider to offer increases CityFibre’s broaden- combined offering will acceler- wholesale fibre services and ing wholesale capabilities. ate the take-up of services over 53 speed up the commercialisation The deal gives Entanet’s our growing network footprints of its fibre assets, while the partners access to CityFibre’s as we leverage Entanet’s chan- Comms People funding enables it to ramp up its growing national footprints to nel partner network and con- This month’s Gigabit Britain build-out. deliver gigabit-speed services. tinue to transform digital con- movers and shakers CityFibre expects to realise These will be offered along- nectivity for thousands of UK synergies of over £3m per side Entanet’s existing connec- businesses.” Full story on p32 www.comms-dealer.com A BPL BUSINESS MEDIA PUBLICATION CD Strip_07.17.indd 1 20/06/2017 12:30 INDUSTRY NEWS EDITOR’S COMMENT PSU nets Baikie via IS TECHNOLOGY-centric talk past its zenith? Is the jargon wheel grinding slower than previous years? Are we entering a post-digital era acquisition of Hub that leaves behind abstract language like ‘digitalisation’ CHELTENHAM-based PSU and ‘cloud’? Perhaps we Technology Group has bought are: Industry change has in additional leadership exper- tise and technology capabilities Stuart Gilroy brought about something far more tangible, something with the acquisition of local more easily understood by employees and customers rival Hub Business Solutions. – the raw ‘experience’ of felt interactions, which is both Headline news from the deal is dependent on technology and also a reaction to it. the appointment of Hub Direc- In this ubiquitous experience landscape, what are tor Stuart Baikie as PSU’s the channel’s challenges and opportunities, and how Director of Telecoms Sales. can we build a future-proof digital channel that delivers Baikie co-founded Total the promise of next generation ‘experience’ laden (now Bamboo) which he led as Glyn Evans, Stuart Baikie and Lorne Fry solutions? To answer these key questions Comms Dealer MD before leaving in 2014 hav- has introduced the concept of the Experience Defined ing built a £12m business. Hub’s Lorne Fry and Glyn “Hub Business Solutions has Workplace, where an organisation is identifiable by the “Joining the PSU team was a Evans also take up lead roles as built up a strong reputation for ICT experiences it provides to workers and customers. no-brainer,” stated Baikie. “We heads of departments for telco its mobile solutions, rapid site With the ‘experience’ becoming the new differentiating share the same ideas about it’s and mobile, reporting to Baikie. deployment, wireless network- battleground, the provision and management of not what you are using, but how PSU MD Michael Lounton ing and IoT deployments, mak- experience-based outcomes has become the lynchpin and why you are using it. PSU commented: “Over the past year ing it the perfect fit for PSU.” is the right place for us to con- our customer growth and take of customer acquisition, client care and customer Got a news story? email: tinue to create customer centric up of multiple product lines has retention. It is remarkable experiences that burn into [email protected] the memory, not the mechanisms through which they end-to-end solutions.” continued to flourish. are delivered. If a customer has a great experience dealing with you they are unlikely to flit elsewhere. FLUIDOne’s Bandwidth Bandits led by Chief Exec This month we launch our editorial programme as Piers Daniell conquered ‘10Peaks: The Lakes’ in aid part of the lead up to 2017’s Comms Vision Conference, of charity Place2Be, which works to improve the offering a platform to gain more insights into the emotional wellbeing of children and their families Experience Defined Workplace, a theme that underpins suffering from bereavement, domestic violence and this year’s event (see page 40). Also in this issue is a round- bullying. The 10Peaks events are a challenge for up of last month’s Margin in Voice & Data symposium the toughest competitors and include ultra-distance where speakers put a spotlight on some of the strong running and hiking across some of the UK’s most market opportunities at hand, including WebRTC and rugged and mountainous terrain. The non-stop the IoT (see page 50). Valuable insights were gained by courses vary from 48km to 89km and must be finished within 24 hours. “We completed the 3-peaks challenge a couple of years ago so this was the delegates, and a wonderful experience was had by all. next step for us,” commented Daniell. “We covered over 50km across 3,500 meters of ascent in just Stuart Gilroy, Editor under 18 hours. It was sheer agony. Having risen well over £20k since 2015 through various company activities, we’d really love to smash that figure in 2017.” C CC Telemarketing & Unified Omni Channel Business Promotion Communications Contact Centre Intelligence & Reporting Enhance your Unified Communication with the support of Panasonic Business C CHAT in partnership with CyTrack Intelligence Systems Social Media Contact Centre Compliance, Voice Integration Web Chat & Screen The CyTrack suite of software applications combined with Recording Panasonic’s telephony transforms Businesses and how SMS they operate in a modern world. Integrated SMS Team Coaching Customer Self Service More info: Message Service & Review Satisfaction & Solutions http://business.panasonic.co.uk/communication-solutions/cytrack Feedback T: 0207 022 6530 E: [email protected] W: business.panasonic.co.uk/communication-solutions As a Panasonic Partner, take advantage of our current Not a Panasonic Partner yet? Displacement campaign and receive up to 20% off when Join now for access to product you upgrade a Panasonic system or Competitor system. information and several benefits: Contact your local distributor for more information! https://bizpartner.panasonic.net/eu/ www.comms-dealer.com COMMS DEALER JULY 2017 3 PAN1007.2_PBX_SIP_Ad_220x103_v4.indd 1 26/06/2017 12:19 INDUSTRY NEWS COMMENT: TIME TO STAY STRONG Daisy opens doors RESILIENCE is one of the greatest strengths of any successful company, especially when times get tough and uncertainty appears. for mobile dealers Following a monumental few months for the cities of THE power of education as a Manchester and London due door opener to adjacent markets to the terror atrocities and the has been emphatically under- Grenfell fire, it’s been great scored by the success of Daisy to see how local communities Distribution’s Partner Academy launched in April. Richard Carter and businesses have pulled together in times of trouble. The scheme has already Manchester has been our home for the last 36 years and seen scores of mobile-centric it remains a dynamic, resilient and vibrant place, although it partners extend their reach into inevitably needs time to recover from the Arena bombing. areas once alien to them. Dave McGinn The feeling that, despite all the foiled terror plots of the Dave McGinn, Daisy Distri- past, it could never happen here has sadly gone. There’s bution MD, said: “Airtime was allows them to connect with Break-fix Maintenance, Daisy been many tears along the way but the overriding emotions our bread and butter, it’s our their customers and play a key Wi-Fi and Intelligent Mobile. of love, spirit and pride are still evident everywhere. heritage and many of our part- role in their digital journeys.” McGinn also confirmed Sadly, just a short time later London was savaged ners’ too. So to expect them to Subjects covered by Daisy that two additional themes will too which only worsened the pain, on the eve of the grasp connectivity, Wi-Fi and Distribution’s Partner Acad- be introduced later in the year One Love Manchester pop concert which showcased cloud etc overnight would be emy so far include Daisy’s – Connectivity for Productivity the resilience of the city to a worldwide audience and foolish of us. That is how the hosted voice solution HV.Select, and the Digital Workplace. reinforced how Manchester has come together.