Virtual1 and TeleWare partner to provide added value for Resellers and their Customers

~ Cost justifying network conversion to IP and adding value through resilience and voice applications ~

North Yorkshire, UK – 16th April 2012 – TeleWare, the leading provider of communications solutions for the mobile business, today announced a reciprocal partnership with leading network operator Virtual1. The partnership means TeleWare and Virtual1 Partners can deliver combined network and voice application solutions, allowing them to enjoy increased revenues, enhanced margins and reduced churn whilst providing customers with a highly competitive, resilient alternative to ISDN.

“Many businesses are still working with low capacity networks; this causes inevitable delays at peak times and, with a network already strained, businesses are unable to justify investment in new applications that could add more value to remote workers,” explained Steve Haworth, CEO for TeleWare Plc. “This new partnership means that customers can gain more value from the trunks in which they invest. It will speed up email for home workers and the increased bandwidth can be cost offset by moving to IP. The business gets greater bandwidth, has access to value added services and can give home workers improved services, all at a comparable cost to moving from ISDN to IP. This is illustrated byTechTarget’s 2012 IT Priorities Survey which stated that Wireless networks and IP telephony are set to be the most common networking initiatives implemented by UK users in 2012,” added Haworth.

Tom O’Hagan, Managing Director at Virtual1, agrees. “SIP is a growing market. We’ve seen an uptake of over 300% in the amount of SIP traffic running over our network, with customers demanding more capabilities from the end solution. So by having access to the wide portfolio of TeleWare solutions – many of which are unique in the marketplace – as part of the SIP Exchange, we can help our Partners move the sales message to a discussion of business benefits and value rather than competing on increasingly slim margins,” said O’Hagan.

TeleWare’s SIP is now a standard option on Virtual1′s online pricing tool, 1Portal, giving Virtual1 Partners access to enhanced SIP applications which include call recording for mobiles and mobile phone integration with business call handling systems.

Haworth concluded, “Moving to IP interconnects is a natural first step to convergence and unified communications, and these applications invariably lead to customers increasing their capacity requirements substantially over the term of a contract. Being able to source the IP connection, the resilience, the privacy and the applications all from a single provider makes it many times more likely that the business will remain with their incumbent network supplier.”

For more information, please visit the Virtual1 website at www.Virtual1.com, or the TeleWare website at www.TeleWare.com

About TeleWare TeleWare is the leading UK supplier of communications solutions for the mobile business. TeleWare’s applications are delivered as software services, on-premise equipment or managed services to all sizes of business. TeleWare customers include over 20% of the FTSE 100 and approaching 21% of the top 1000 blue chip national and multinational companies.

TeleWare’s applications provide business communications solutions for mobility, personal contact management, messaging and call distribution and control. Unparalleled interoperability enables seamless integration with a wide range of PBX and application vendors. A commitment to open standards ensures flexibility, freedom and choice.

TeleWare applications are sold through accredited channel partners. TeleWare are a Microsoft partner with four competencies covering Gold OEM Hardware, Silver Midmarket Solution Provider, Silver OEM Hardware and Small Business Specialist Community. TeleWare also has certification for the quality standard ISO9001/2008 TickIT and has been awarded the Investors in People national standard for training and development of its employees to achieve its business goals.

www.worldofteleware.com
www.teleware.com

Press/analyst enquiries please contact:

Lesley Hansen, Group Marketing Director, TeleWare Plc
Telephone: +44 (0) 1845 521102
E-mail: lesley.hansen@teleware.com

OR

Anne Harding, The Message Machine
Telephone: +44 (0) 1895 631448
E-mail: anne@themessagemachine.com

Title: 3PQ Team scoop BANG award for Best Contribution to the Profession
On Wednesday night, efforts of the Third Party Questionnaire (3PQ) team were rewarded when they won the award for the best contribution to the Business Continuity Profession for their creation of a “Supply Chain” Questionnaire.

The 3PQ is a free resource that can be used and adapted by anyone to help them gauge the capabilities of their suppliers and partners. It outlines a simple, consistent set of parameters, simplifying the process and reducing the amount of time and work involved in assessing their supply chain. The value of this document is easily recognised by the number of times it has been downloaded from the Continuity Forum website where it is hosted – 14,000 downloads. The 3PQ team is made up of volunteers in the business continuity profession from the public and private sector:

• Gayle Hedgecock;
• Sharad Karia;
• Sara McKenna;
• Bob Simpson;
• Andy Tomkinson; • Roger Jarvis; • Simon Maddox; • Matt Innerd; • John Robinson; • Natalie Cooper; • Robin Dunford-Green; • Bill May; • Colin Ive; • Nestor Alfonzo Santamaria;
• Steve Yates;
• Gayle Hedgecock, Chair of BANG 3PQ commented at the awards ceremony, “We are pleased to see that the 3PQ has been focused upon once again and that the team’s work has now been recognised with this prestigious award. Now is the right time for organisations to fully embrace this questionnaire and to review the Business Continuity Management (BCM) capability of their supply chain, as part of their preparedness for the London 2012 Olympics, any unusual events and for day-to-day operations.”

Steve Yates FBCI, the BANG Chair, commented that, “BANG was established over 4 years ago to bring together Business Continuity, Emergency Managers as a professional networking Group, and build a bridge between the Public & Private sectors for the transfer of organizational resilience knowledge. Today BANG numbers some 1,000 individual members located around the world. The Group fully understands the need of sharing information and producing specific industry tools that will be of assistance to all resilience professionals. The BANG 3PQ Team should be seen as the vanguard for future supportive work, using the combined knowledge of BANG members to deliver more tools to increase the resilience of organisations and the productivity of those working in this field.”
More information about the 3PQ questionnaire can be found on the Continuity Forum website at http://www.continuityforum.org/content/3pq-business-continuity-project-page

BANG can be found LinkedIn at http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=1463967
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/BANG/149094125152919
and Twitter: @BANGBC

Vocal advocates live voice broadcasts Business continuity notification specialist Vocal is advising customers to consider enabling live voice broadcasting as part of their emergency communications strategy, using landline infrastructure as well as the mobile networks. The recommendation is to add voice broadcasting alongside current communications methods of email, SMS, BlackBerry PIN, text to speech and radio pagers. With mobile networks potentially becoming stressed by high traffic during the Olympics, voice broadcasts that can be received by landlines offer a robust addition to SMS and email messaging broadcasts. Vocal’s customer message delivery statistics show that organisations that use voice broadcasts have statistically higher message response rates compared to those that use SMS or email alone. Official London promotional agency London & Partners estimates that there will be 5.5 million day visitors and 450,000 staying visitors in London alone during the period. “We’re expecting to see mobile networks heavily used during the Olympic Games, with many extra picture messages being sent and an uplift in mobile internet use,” explains Trevor Wheatley-Perry, Vocal’s Managing Director. “Adding live voice broadcast messaging to landlines is a logical measure to take, adding yet another layer of resilience.”

“Additionally, in a crisis, hearing a familiar voice can help create a sense of either calm or importance, depending on the message being delivered. Voice broadcasts to landlines allow organisations to reach recipients who may not have mobile phones, who are at home out of hours or have their mobile switched off, out of coverage, or people with impaired vision who cannot easily read text messages,” adds Wheatley-Perry. Voice broadcast is an integral part of the communication strategy of many of Vocal corporate customers. The high availability and high performance telephony broadcast system which runs within the iModus infrastructure is complimented by a range of powerful and flexible IVR Call Manager solutions. Vocal can also provide dedicated freephone crisis lines, so employees can register their safety at the same time, without interruption to the incident updates being sent out. The company found that the biggest problem for its customers during 7/7 was their inability to identify which members of staff were safe and which needed help. In response, it has developed the SafeCall solution, so organisations can focus contact on the minority of users unaccounted for rather than repeating messages to a staff base of potentially thousands. Inbound crisis lines, hosted away from businesses’ own telephony infrastructure, are another essential tool to provide accurate and up to the minute management information. Vocal also advocates the use of message boards to ensure the latest communication is always retrievable, if general communication devices are not available.

Wheatley-Perry’s message is clear: “It’s vital that organisations review their emergency and regular communication plans now, so they can decide on the appropriate level of extra provision – such as voice broadcasting – to maintain service and safeguard customers and staff during the Olympics. These plans need to cope with any event: this year, it’s a planned one, so it makes sense to check specifically against the likely challenges and eventualities that we can predict.”

Notes to editors:

• Vocal’s London 2012 Prepare campaign kicked off this month and runs to October 2012
• Follow the campaign on Twitter @vocalltd
• The campaign includes a a live exercise “Responding to Obstructions during the Olympics”, in London on the 20th April. To register for these free envents, visit http://www.vocal.co.uk/events/

Vocal shortlisted for CIR Specialist Company of the Year Award

Vocal Ltd, leading provider of emergency notification and alerting services, has been shortlisted for the CIR award for Specialist Company of the year. This award aims to reward bespoke providers of business continuity, disaster recovery and crisis communications services or solutions. This is the second year running that Vocal have been shortlisted for this award. Vocal has also been shortlisted for 2 other categories; iModus for Most Innovative Solution of the Year and PlanManagement for Business Continuity Management Planning Software of the Year.

Trevor Wheatley-Perry, Managing Director stated, “We are proud to be shortlisted for these awards. It’s fantastic to be recognised for our contributions to the industry. We have a portfolio of leading, award winning solutions, backed by some fantastic people working at Vocal. Being shortlisted, brings a great sense of achievement to everyone at Vocal.” At the heart of Vocal is the organisation’s goal to create innovative business continuity and communication solutions by addressing specific customer needs. The company undertook a number of key projects in 2011, developing bespoke solutions for a variety of Public and private sector organisations. Winners will be announced at the Business Continuity Awards Gala Dinner, a black tie event, taking place on 30th May 2012 at the Hilton on Park Lane, London, W1, UK. For more information on this year’s CIR awards visit the awards page.

Business Continuity Awareness Week 2012 Kicks off

Business Continuity Awareness Week (BCAW) is always a great week and this year will be no exception. At Vocal Ltd, we suspect, it will be even greater as there is a lot to talk about as 2012 is packed with activity, including the Queens Jubilee and London 2012, the largest sporting event in the world. BCAEW is a time when the whole world shouts about the importance of Business Continuity, thanks to the Business Continuity Institute (BCI). The Global event is facilitated by the BCI and we at Vocal Ltd are pleased to be a part of it. John Duffy, our Sales Manager, National Accounts, will be hosting a webinar on Thursday 22nd March, “How to prepare your business for the London 2012 Olympic Games”, at 10am. The webinar will share experience and recommend approaches to preparing for disruption during the Games. Topics include identifying risks, ensuring your business continuity plan is fit for the Olympics, preparing a communication strategy and exercising business continuity plans prior to the Games. Time is running out, and organisations need to prepare. Register now. This week, as part of our own Business Continuity Awareness week activity, we will also be launching our 2012 Prepare Campaign, which aims to share insight and help organisations benchmark their preparedness efforts against others. Read more about 2012 Prepare.

TeleWare Increases Choice of Wide Area Connections

~ Griffin interconnect extends reach for service assurance ~

North Yorkshire, UK – TeleWare, the leading provider of communications solutions for the mobile business, today announced the immediate availability of a direct interconnect between its Hosted Communications platforms and the Griffin network. This new interconnect, extends the reach of the TeleWare hosted voice services with quality of service assurances, providing customers and partners with an additional wide area connection option from an established service provider.

TeleWare services are network independent and already connect directly to BT, Daisy and Exponential-e networks. Once a direct interconnect is in place there is the ability to provide quality assurances. For TeleWare customers and resellers, this additional interconnect with Griffin increases choice, allowing them to select the interconnect that provides the balance of price and quality that they require for their business. For Griffin network users, this latest enhancement to the TeleWare platform enables direct access TeleWare hosted voice services over their Griffin broadband links with the assured quality of service they are used to receiving from Griffin. This avoids the potential service-affecting issues where connection is over the Internet, such as where contention can affect voice quality during peak times. “Applications like VoIP need true business-class connectivity. Griffin is the number one ISP to the reseller community and the new interconnect gives Griffin Partners the ability to access their TeleWare voice services as if it was part of their private network without the need to go across the public interconnect. This ensures the quality and security of voice services across our network,” Andrew Dickinson, MD Griffin. “We continually monitor the capacity and utilisation of our platforms and have seen a significant increase in traffic through our hosted platforms over the past year. In parallel with managing the internal platform resources, we review the external interconnects. The addition of the Griffin interconnect is the culmination of activities over the last few months and is a significant step forward in ensuring high quality of service for our Griffin customers,” commented Paul Escreet, Operations Manager, TeleWare Hosted Services.

About TeleWare TeleWare is the leading UK supplier of communications solutions for the mobile business. TeleWare’s applications are delivered as software services, on-premise equipment or managed services to all sizes of business. TeleWare customers include over 20% of the FTSE 100 and approaching 21% of the top 1000 blue chip national and multinational companies.

TeleWare’s applications provide business communications solutions for mobility, personal contact management, messaging and call distribution and control. Unparalleled interoperability enables seamless integration with a wide range of PBX and application vendors. A commitment to open standards ensures flexibility, freedom and choice.

TeleWare applications are sold through accredited channel partners. TeleWare are a Microsoft partner with four competencies covering Gold OEM Hardware, Silver Midmarket Solution Provider, Silver OEM Hardware and Small Business Specialist Community. TeleWare also has certification for the quality standard ISO9001/2008 TickIT and has been awarded the Investors in People national standard for training and development of its employees to achieve its business goals.

www.worldofteleware.com
www.teleware.com

Press Enquiries, please contact:

Lesley Hansen, Group Marketing Director, TeleWare Plc
Telephone: +44 (0) 1845 521102
E-mail: lesley.hansen@teleware.com

OR

Anne Harding, The Message Machine
Telephone: +44 (0) 1895 631448
E-mail: anne@themessagemachine.com

A new ISPreview.co.uk survey of 872 internet access subscribers in the United Kingdom (*) has revealed how more than half (52%) of respondents support the government’s plan to spend £100m on improving superfast broadband services in some of the country’s largest cities, yet only 10% of the 52% felt that £100 Million would be enough to do the job properly. A further £50m was recently added, although this will only help “smaller cities”.

The Urban Broadband Fund (**) aims to deliver “ultrafast” fibre optic based 80-100Mbps+ (Megabits per second) broadband services to ten large UK “super-connected cities” and a further batch of “smaller cities” over the next three years, starting with the main capital cities of Edinburgh (Scotland), Belfast (N.Ireland), Cardiff (Wales) and London (England).

However, when given a choice of alternative options, some 62% of respondents said that they’d rather put the £150m towards boosting broadband in poorly served rural areas and only 19% would spend it in cities as intended. A further 11% would have used the money to help cut the country’s deficit and just 8% would spend it on something else entirely (i.e. not broadband or cutting the deficit).

“On this issue the country initially appears to be split right down the middle,” said ISPreview.co.uk’s Founder, Mark Jackson. “But, when given a choice, most people still think that the new funding would be better spent upon improving internet access in poorly served rural areas, as befits the governments original focus.”

“At the same time we shouldn’t forget that poor broadband connectivity is by no means isolated to rural areas and many urban locations also suffer from similar problems. But it’s still difficult to understand the government’s decision to intervene in places that the private sector could resolve by itself,” concluded Jackson.

-END-

* Online survey conducted between 5th March 2012 and 16th April 2012 with 872 UK internet users.

** Urban Broadband Fund Details

http://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2012/03/budget-2012-confirms-final-10-uk-cities-for-100m-ultrafast-broadband-fund.html

*** Explanation of why the lack of fast broadband is NOT just a problem for UK rural areas

http://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2012/04/lack-of-fast-broadband-is-not-just-a-problem-for-uk-rural-areas.html

London, UK – 19th March 2012 -Global Reach today announced a new partnership with Cable & Wireless Worldwide (CWW). The partnership will make the company’s unique public wi-fi & network control solution available to CWW customers.

Malcolm Seagrave, Solutions Director, Cable&Wireless Worldwide said, “By utilising Global Reach’s Public Wi-Fi & Network Policy Control management platform, we’re providing a best-of-breed offering that overcomes the implementation barriers which hold back many wireless projects. Customers benefit from the ability to provide a managed Public Wi-Fi Network with confidence.” Global Reach’s public WiFi solution provides users with a means to instantly connect to the internet wirelessly utilising their smart phones, laptops or iPads etc, in a safe secure and fully monitored way, the white label solution is fully managed and hosted to negate potential compliance issues across the service . It is a fully scalable end to end out of the box solution – keeping the service appropriate and within regulatory guidelines with content filtering to block offensive sites. The front end captive portal ensures acceptance of terms via easy login process to give way to access out to the internet or restricted access to the hosts website only if required, this together with the Network Policy Controllers which manages the whole experience without any need for customer interaction. The software menu allows customers to select which optional services they require, whether that be for new site installations end to end or utilisation of existing wireless access points networks and taking over the service in a more controlled way to offer a managed end user experience fully compliant and monitored in real time. CWW’s new Innovation Lab is intended to incubate and test new technologies before rapid deployment to its enterprise customers. Using agile methodology, the skunk-works style centre is expected to deliver new applications far faster than previously possible.

About Global Reach Corporation Global Reach provides software and hardware solutions for rapid deployment of secure managed Wi-Fi access across new or existing wireless infrastructures. Global Reach’s customers include the majority of the Telecom companies in the UK, Transport For London and has deployed solutions in USA, Scandinavia, and South East Asia. To find out more visit www.globalreach.eu.com

About Cable&Wireless Worldwide
Cable&Wireless Worldwide (LSE: CW) provides integrated communications and data hosting services to large enterprises and mid-market customers in both the public and private sectors.

With an unrivalled heritage and a globally significant network Cable&Wireless Worldwide can provide secure, robust and resilient connectivity to over 150 countries.

To find out more, visit www.cw.com

Contact CCO Louis.Wesley @globalreach.eu.com +44 7680 331371

The recent partnership between UK-based Netmania IT and the Slovenian telecommunications giant, Iskratel, has resulted in one of the largest providers of fixed telephony services in the Republic of Croatia choosing Netmania IT’s low cost, feature rich Auto Configuration Server to manage the company’s CPE estates.

Leading IT services and solutions provider, Netmania IT, based in Staffordshire, has announced that Optima Telekom, Croatia’s second largest fixed telecom operator, is the latest provider to choose ACSLite in order to manage the company’s device estate for its 275,000 customers.

The deal came about after Netmania IT teamed up with Iskratel, one of the top-ranking providers of state-of-the-art communications solutions with more than 50 years of experience in the telecommunications industry. Commenting on the partnership, Marko Macek, Product Manager at Iskratel says:

“We chose Netmania’s ACSLite device management solution because it fits in perfectly with Iskratel’s projects which involve the sale of our range of customer premises equipment.

“We provide our customers with state-of-the-art CPE products and now that we also offer Netmania’s provisioning and management system in the form of ACSLite, it puts us in a favourable position with potential clients as well as with our existing customers.

“The success we’ve had in winning the new Optima Telekom project has seen our expectations confirmed when it comes to the responsiveness, flexibility and efficiency of the Netmania team.”

Speaking on behalf of Netmania IT, Sales and Marketing Director, Anthony Brown adds:

“We’re delighted to be working with Iskratel. The team are a real pleasure to work with and have an excellent understanding of the TR-069 protocol and the benefits of a TR-069 Auto Configuration Server. They’ve helped us to expand our reach in Europe and subsequently offer ACSLite to one of the biggest telcos in Croatia.

“ACSLite fits in perfectly with Iskratel’s existing product portfolio and we hope that many more of their clients will be able to enjoy the benefits of ACSLite in the future.” Optima Telekom’s telecommunications network covers more than 100 cities in Croatia. The company prides itself on using the latest technology and global telecommunications solutions to provide efficient and modern services which enable its customers to communicate quickly and efficiently.

“We chose ACSLite after evaluating a number of other platforms and finding it to be the best product at the best price. It’s already improving our provisioning and in-life device management processes and helping us save money in these areas,” explains Tihomir Culjaga, Voice Network Expert and telecommunications Consultant at Optima Telekom.

“We are now bringing more of our existing subscriber devices under management and will shortly be implementing the latest ACSLite upgrade with the customer support console to provide one-click fixes and improved diagnostics to our support helpdesk.”

For more information about ACSLite, please visit www.acslite.com or call +44 (0)1543 267 860.

For more information about Netmania IT’s partnership programme, please email sales@netmania-it.com.

Tim Gregg has just been confirmed as the latest telecommunications expert to join Netmania IT’s global team to deliver the company’s feature rich Auto Configuration Server (ACS), ACSLite, into the American market.

As part of the Staffordshire-based company’s ongoing global expansion, the leading IT services and solutions provider, Netmania IT has recently appointed telco specialist, Tim Gregg, as the company’s new Technical Sales Manager for North America.

Tim has previously worked with global Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) manufacturers and distributors headquartered in the US and has extensive knowledge of the telecommunications and technology sectors; joining Netmania IT with over twenty years experience in the telco industry.

Based in Denver, Colorado, Tim will now be using his device management expertise and extensive track record in the Broadband Forum’s TR-069 protocol to provide a local presence for Netmania IT’s TR-069 device management solution, ACSLite, in North America.

“We have always been committed to local markets around the world which is why collecting expertise from the area is an important part of our ongoing global expansion,” explains Netmania IT CEO, Nick Wilcox.

“Bringing Tim on board, with his knowledge of the local marketplace and extensive experience in the telco industry will help us better serve our US client base as well as provide a local representative for new ACSLite customers.”

Netmania IT’s ACSLite platform has received growing interest from service providers across America as well as other countries around the world as a cost-effective solution for ISPs looking to leverage the power of TR-069 in order to manage their device estates remotely.

“Throughout 2012 we will be continuing our ACSLite global expansion strategy and recruiting more field representatives worldwide, so if anyone thinks they have what it takes to join the Netmania IT team, we are inviting them to get in touch to help us realise the massive pipeline of opportunities we have waiting,” adds Nick.

Notes to editors

About Netmania IT & ACSLite:

Since the company was founded in 2000, Netmania IT has established itself as a leading provider of IT services and solutions. The company’s industry-leading expertise in the field of TR-069 comes from working with one of the first providers in the world to adopt the TR-069 CPE WAN Management Protocol which resulted in the company becoming responsible for the management of one of the largest and most active TR-069 device estates in the world.

Netmania IT has subsequently been heavily involved in the Broadband Forum’s TR-069 CPE WAN Management Protocol over the years and has built up a vast amount of knowledge and experience in TR-069 standards, including systems integration; zero-touch provisioning of value-added services; data collection and router diagnostics; integration into self-care portals; firmware upgrades and compliance testing.

After years of experience managing an estate of many millions of devices, the Netmania IT team decided to use this knowledge to create ACSLite – a low-cost, feature-rich Auto Configuration Server which represents the ideal TR-069 device management solution for all service providers, offering advanced device management functionality at a price which even the smallest providers can afford, while offering the scale and flexibility larger ISPs require as they increase their subscribers.

For more information, please visit: http://www.netmania-it.com & http://www.acslite.com

For media/press enquiries/to request images

Please contact Lauren Pritchard-Gordon, Netmania IT Marketing Assistant
Email: Lauren.Pritchard-Gordon@netmania-it.com
Tel: +44(0) 1543 267 860.

Interviews are available upon request.