CCOOMMMMSS N NEEWWSS
BYTES...
5-STAR
Pragma has completed its 6th annual
reseller incentive last month where
they welcomed 20 of their fastest
growing partners on an all-expenses
paid incentive trip to Cancun, Mexico.
FORGHETTI
Cloud Distribution has created a
complimentary password management
program with forghetti as a way to
boost security awareness in 2020.
ZEN
Zen Internet has once again been
recognised as one of the best
companies to work for in the UK. Zen
was awarded a two-star Best Company
Rating for its excellence in workplace
engagement in this year’s ‘The Sunday
Times Top 100 Companies to Work
For’ list.
CAE POSTS 28% GROWTH OVER 2019
INFRASTRUCTURE TECHNOLOGY
SOLUTIONS provider CAE
Technology Services has
reported strong numbers for its
financial year ending June 2019.
Turnover for the year increased
28% from £103.9m to £132.9m
following growth from multiple
areas driven by investments
made in the previous year.
This figure included impressive
growth from international sales
of 184%, representing £13.7m of
turnover, or 10.3% of the overall
number. Operating profit
increased from £2.3m to £3.9m, a
rise of 69%.
The results were achieved in a
year where CEO, Justin Harling
(pictured) and COO, Richard
Behan, completed a Management
Buyout of the business.
Justin Harling commented,
“We know the business has
huge potential and we are
delighted that the figures
illustrated what can be achieved
in both the short and long term
for CAE, especially in a year that
included our MBO.”
AVAYA PREPARES
ACO FOR US
RELEASE
FOLLOWING ON FROM Avaya’s
Engage event the joint
solution Avaya and
RingCentral (Avaya Cloud
Office or ACO) will hit the US
market at the end of Q1.
On an earnings call last
month, Jim Chirico, Avaya’s
CEO, said “In the area of
enablement, our internal
sales teams have been fully
trained, nearly 500 of them.
On the partner front, we have
certified dozens of partners.
In last week at our Annual
Customer & Partner
Conference, Engage, we held
multiple ACO training and
information sessions with
well over 700 partner
personnel in attendance. In
area of technology, we
remain on track to release
ACO at the end of this
quarter. In fact last week, we
showcased a demo version
of the product and its initial
feature set.”
Chirico continued, “Later
this month, Avaya Endpoints
will be available for auto
provisioning, not only with
ACO but as part of
RingCentral’s own RCO
offering, providing another
demand engine for our
devices. Our initial launch will
focus on the U.S. and will
quickly expand to three
additional countries in next
release cycle.”
The partners in the UK can
expect to buy through four
strategic Master Agents who
have yet to be named (at the
time of writing). UK Channel
Partners have traditionally
preferred to own the
customer relationship rather
than sell as an agent.
Although RingCentral has
had phenomenal success
with their approach it
remains to be seen if ACO will
be embraced in the same
way. Comms Business will be
talking to Avaya in the
coming months as they roll
out the solution in the UK.
SPITFIRE LAUNCHES FIREWALL AS A SERVICE SOLUTION
SPITFIRE HAS LAUNCHED Firewall as a Service
(FWaaS) providing customers using Spitfire MPLS
or Ethernet services with a complete managed
solution, including firewall. Spitfire FWaaS uses
FortiGate firewall technology utilising purposebuilt
security processors and threat intelligence
security services from AI-powered FortiGuard labs
to deliver top-rated protection, high performance
inspection of clear-texted and encrypted traffic.
For Spitfire, Dominic Norton, Sales Director
stated, “Cyber security is of paramount
importance to our customers, with growing
threats from a range of criminal and malicious
sources. Our Firewall as a Service provision is a
natural evolution of the move to the cloud for all
applications. It ensures that customers have all
the benefits of a SAAS solution including
automatic updates for up to the moment
protection and business continuity security
without the need for internal IT resources.”
12 | Comms Business Magazine | March 2020 www.commsbusiness.co.uk
/www.commsbusiness.co.uk