Welcome to Interpreter, the Damovo ICT e-newsletter designed with you, our clients, in mind.
Good times ahead for Damovo Group…
Damovo Group were pleased to be able to announce the very positive news that the financial restructuring of the business had been completed. In essence this saw previous bondholder debt reducing from EURO 358m to EURO 50m with bond holders taking an equity stake in the business. The removal of the need to service the previous levels of debt now means Damovo has far greater flexibility to focus on developing its business.
At the same time Damovo Group appointed new executive management team members. Mike Parton joined as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer along with Salim Alam as Chief Financial Officer. Both Mike Parton and Salim Alam bring strength and experience to the business and will lead Damovo Group in building on its established footprint in the ICT sector.
Damovo has operations within Belgium, Brazil, Czech Republic, Germany, Ireland, Mexico, Poland, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Mike Parton has already committed to investing in the people of Damovo and plans to spend time working across the business to further enhance our portfolio of customer centric solutions and services. To this end Mike has also begun meeting a number of UK clients to fully understand their future requirements and build on our existing relationships.
Mike Parton commented that as an already established leader within the ICT industry and now financially secure, with supportive shareholders committed to growth, this is an exciting time for Damovo and the company can now look forward to a very positive future.
For UK clients Damovo is forging ahead with investment, further building upon our skills, infrastructure and services to enable clients to take full advantage of developments in the fast moving world of convergence. At the vanguard of this activity is our work in the areas of Unified Communications, IP Telephony, Multimedia Contact Centres and Managed ICT Services. In the latter case, for example, we have lifted the provision of our already advanced remote monitoring and reporting services to the level of business level management and reporting. Here Damovo can provide clients with real time reporting of their ICT investments performance in quantifiable business terms.
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Higher education and ICT – enhancing the student experience
Nichola Thurston-Smith, Education Sector Consultant at Damovo, recently hosted a roundtable discussion on the subject of the increasing role ICT is playing at today’s higher education institutions. Participants included Mark Flexman, IT Infrastructure Group Manager at Bournemouth University, Dennis Mottram, Head of Network Strategy at Aston University and James Adams, Senior Analyst for Public Sector at Datamonitor and two journalists from The Guardian and Silicon.com.
All the participants agreed that while universities are becoming more ‘customer centric’, ICT doesn’t necessarily attract new students, but it does play a key role in enhancing the student experience during their time studying.
Students entering university in 2007 will be the first generation to have had computing since birth, so today’s student is generally IT savvy. They possess a number of communications and multimedia devices, such as mobile phone, MP3 player and desktop/ laptop computer – so there is a lot of pressure on universities to have robust and scaleable ICT infrastructures to support them. For many there is also the difficult balancing act of replicating a ‘home’ environment for their students while at the same time ensuring their network is secure. Skype usage was cited as a particularly ‘grey area’, as it does bring a number of security concerns – and with the rise of social networking sites (e.g. Facebook, MySpace etc), peer-to-peer file sharing and other applications they are likely to continue.
The emergence of IP and wireless technologies is however, enabling universities to deliver more flexible and widely available services to their students. There is now a much larger demand for online learning – for example, lectures at Bournemouth University are now filmed and available online, meaning students can catch up, if they miss them. The University is also trialing an SMS service that will enable lecturers to notify students of lecture cancellations/changes.
The technological benefits of IP don’t necessarily have to directly impact on students either. Aston University’s converged IP network is enabling it to make best use of its real estate and resources, such as IP cameras being used to ensure projector lamps are not being unnecessarily wasted.
It was agreed that one of the biggest challenges facing universities was a cultural rather than technological one, as academics need to be as equally engaged with new ICT systems as the IT managers. If both can be in step with each other, even better, as that helps reduce integration problems in the future. Maybe then OHPs can be a thing of the past!
Damovo is already working with a number of universities to help them deliver leading-edge ICT services to their students. The message is higher education institutions need to embrace the technology, otherwise they risk not truly offering a 21st-century learning experience.
If you would like more information on Damovo in education, or if you are interested in joining our education network please email talktous@damovo.com
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CMA Annual ‘Communications in Business’ Survey 2007 - make your views heard
Damovo has an annual Associate partnership with CMA, the UK’s premier business association for ICT professionals representing those individual professionals, and corporate users responsible for networks and communications systems throughout the value chain. CMA carries out an annual members survey on issues and attitudes on various aspects of the communications industry. This online survey titled ‘Communications in Business’ results in a substantial report that is well respected by the likes of Ofcom and suppliers such as BT and Vodafone amongst others.
CMA has invited Damovo to ask our clients to participate in this year’s survey and to join with CMA members in making our combined voice heard where it matters with the regulator and the major suppliers. It is the best way to make our collective enterprise user voice heard and to influence the main service providers as well as stakeholders such as Ofcom, the British Government and the European Commission.
As a thank you for your time and effort, all Damovo clients who take part in the survey will receive a copy of the membership version of the report free of charge. The report will contain charting and business conclusions on all aspects of the survey and be extremely useful as a business briefing through to CIO and board level.
Your participation should take approximately 40 minutes and even if all sections do not apply please fill in as much as you can - every response is vital.
The survey is available online at http://www.thecma.com/survey/register.cfm?source=8. until Friday 10th August, however this date may be extended. When you visit this website you will be asked to complete a short registration form. Your username and password will then be automatically emailed to you.
Both CMA and Damovo understand how precious your time is and so we thank you in anticipation of your valued support and contribution to this critical project. If you have any questions about the survey please email Andrew Stewart, astewart@thecma.com or alternatively please got to the CMA website for more information on the Association, www.thecma.com
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Portfolio bulletin
What’s new…
Ericsson will launch the latest version of its MX-ONE IP-PBX platform on September 3rd 2007. MX-ONE V3.1 will provide additional functionality on top the V3 release launched at the end of 2006. The following are highlights of the new features available:
Support for SIP on both the user and trunk sides
SIP support can be used with SIP-compliant phones, wired or WLAN. What is SIP: Session Initiation Protocol is an emerging standard for IP Telephony. It is an open signalling protocol which allows for any kind of real-time communication session whether Voice, Video, Web or Instant Message. It allows sessions to be transferred between these mediums and can be used on many different platforms such as: laptops, PDAs, mobile phones, IP phones.Network and server redundancy
Duplicated networks can be used for inter-LIM signalling and backup servers can be installed to take over duties of defective servers.Support for mixed media LIMs
Legacy LIMs via Group Switch can be supported on the same system as new LIMs via IP (LIMoIP), useful for remote sites connected via WAN and the main system is migrated to MX-ONE Telephony Server.Security
Inter-LIM signalling protected with IPSec and pre-shared keys.
Media encryption with SRTP for IP telephones and IPLU.
Signalling protected with TLS in Telephony ServerIncreased Capacities
Up to 50,000 users (from 25,000)
Up to 32,000 IP extensions (from 16,000)
Damovo is fully accredited and approved to sell and service MX-ONE V3.0 and will be able to supply MX-ONE V3.1 from its launch date.
In today’s competitive market, enterprises need to respond quickly to new business opportunities while at the same time keeping a tight focus on their costs. In this context, it is natural to assess the opportunity to gain a competitive edge by enhancing the business processes and applications with improved communication solutions. Those that want to enhance the business process are looking at:
Convergence of applications as a single point of communication
The increased role of mobility
Mobile application integration
Ericsson Corporate Telephony allows enterprises that utilise the Microsoft’s Live Communications Server 2005 solution to integrate the MD110 telephony features and functions into the Microsoft Office Communicator client software. This enables a single interface point at the desktop where users can access all their communication needs providing efficiency and productivity gains for the user. It also offers twinning of MD110 PBX extensions for mobile users within the enterprise, providing access to corporate telephony functions and directory information.
Damovo has just received business approval for the introduction of Solidus eCare 5.0 into the portfolio; solidus eCare 5.0 is more than just a contact centre. Solidus eCare 5.0 is all about maintaining the most important asset, the customer. Solidus eCare is the tool for integrating business processes with communications. Solidus eCare uses IP and mobile multimedia to provide a contact centre solution that empowers businesses to always offer the right level of customer service in a cost-effective way.
This new contact centre solution enables your customers to send in a request by SMS and receive an e-mail back with the answer or confirmation. They will be instantly recognised by the management applications and quickly routed to the agent that’s best equipped to answer their request, no matter where that agent is. Since the call can be routed to mobile phones, agents can work from anywhere and, if needed, only during peak periods. Customers will notice only that service is excellent whenever they call.
With Solidus eCare organisations can be assured that their customers always receive competent, high and consistent levels of service ensuring customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. Solidus eCare 5.0 introduces new and improved features using open standards for IP and mobility. It provides informal contact centres as well as agents in traditional contact centres with a greater degree of flexibility in their daily work.
Damovo has recently signed a partner agreement with Airetrak whose primary focus has been in healthcare, where their systems are used for locating and tracking medical equipment, staff and patients by the use of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags. However, the use of RFID technology is still evolving and it is clear that its use will broaden as the technology matures. For example, we are already starting to see signs of use within education for tracking audio-visual equipment.
Phase outs…
The Call Centre Manager (CCM) and Call Centre Assistant (CCA) sales stop came into effect in May 2007 and service stop is 31st December 2007, this is effectively end of life for this product.
Ericsson is offering attractive pricing in a campaign to upgrade existing CCM/CCA users to the solidus eCare 5.0 platform. solidus eCare 5.0 is built on modules which makes the pricing of this replacement more attractive than earlier releases - it should be noted that the lowest core software release of MD110 is BC12 (or any MX-ONE TSW or Telephony Server) for solidus eCare 5.0 integration. Click here to read more on solidus eCare 5.0.
Ericsson intends to extend the life of DNA 5.4 beyond the current communicated phase-out dates. We have not as yet had formal confirmation of this, and feel that the Netwise product still lacks functionality which is essential to our clients. We are confident of an extension period of at least 12 months and will continue to position DNA 5.4 until the replacement product reaches an acceptable quality. Ericsson will offer an attractive migration campaign to users of DNA to assist clients in changing platforms. We continue to monitor these products and will only introduce Netwise when we feel confident that our clients will benefit from the new functionality without sacrificing other basic requirements.
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Improving client relations…
The overarching aim for the new internal sales function is to provide easy, direct and frequent contact with clients. The team will focus on strengthening relationships, improving communications and the effective sharing of information with clients - all activities which in the past our clients have requested we place greater emphasis on. The new team will also be available to deal with any day-to-day general enquiries quickly and efficiently.
The internal sales function has a number of key objectives;
To improve existing processes for client communication
To increase the level and intimacy of understanding of clients’ needs
To provide vertically aligned team members for greater understanding of your business
To enhance the ways in which we communicate with you
To provide relevant news and updates on solutions and service offerings
To act as an alternate point of contact in the event that your account manager is unavailable
The new function is made up of six internal account managers, headed up by Marc Cooper. All team members bring with them a rich variety of customer relations experience at all levels and across many disciplines.
Over the coming months the new team will be engaging with a number of clients. If you wish to contact the team directly please email sales.uk@damovo.com or call 0870 420 6777.
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Thank you to all of you who have forwarded suggestions for subsequent instalments of Interpreter, these have been duly noted. Please keep up the suggestions and feedback to talktous@damovo.com
