This week in the ICT Channel...

Every friday morning, Comms Dealer magazine rounds up the top channel news that broke during the week.

In this week's news...

Marcus Gayle to conduct The Big Goal Tournament draw live

Former Wimbledon, Rangers, Watford and Brentford striker Marcus Gayle will be making the draws for The Big Goal regional tournaments live on Thursday March 28th at 1pm.

Forty-two teams from the ICT industry will be in the hat for the draws which will be made live on-line from the Gtech Stadium, home of Premier League side, Brentford FC, where Gayle is now an ambassador.

To watch the draw live visit: https://www.instagram.com/streetsoccerfoundation

Southern Regionals, Brentford FC’s Community Stadium, from 12.30pm, April 12th.

CityFibre , Comms Dealer, Dataquest Group , Excalibur Communications - Part of the Onecom Group , Focus Group 2, Gamma 2, Giacom 4, Giacom 5 , Global 4 Communications, Intec 2 , NPS , Ocean Telecom , Platform X 2 , Redsquid Communications , Sky Business 2 , Vorboss , Zenzero .

Northern Regionals, Sunderland AFC’s Beacon of Light, from 9am, April 19th.

ANS Group , Daisy Corporate Services 1, Daisy Corporate Services 2, Elite Group , Firstcom Europe , Giacom 1, Giacom 2, Platform X 1, Sky Business 1, Vapour Cloud.

Midlands Regionals, Nottingham Forest’s The Forest Sports Zone, from 8.30am, April 26th

BDR Group 1, BDR Group 2, Daisy Corporate Services 3, Daisy Communications, Fifteen Group, Focus Group 1, Gamma 1, Giacom 3, Inform Billing , Intec 1, Jola Cloud , LANternTech , NT Voice & Data Solutions , Rydal Group , Virgin Media , Wavenet , Welcomm.

Max Taylor named Vodafone UK CEO

Max Taylor will take the role of Vodafone UK CEO, stepping up after five years as COO.

He said: “Leading the consumer team over the past five years has been a real privilege as we’ve seen our customer base and revenue grow, and we’ve improved the customer experience.”?

The CEO position was previously held by Ahmed Essam Shelbaya , who will become CEO of European Markets and Germany Executive Chair.

Essam will continue to oversee the proposed merger of Vodafone UK and Three UK UK.?

He said: “Over the past three years our business has made continuous strides in all areas, and I am confident that under Max’s leadership, Vodafone UK will continue to go from strength-to-strength.”?

Gamma campaign spotlights positive relationships

Gamma is highlighting the importance of positive business relationships through its new brand campaign, which was unveiled to guests at Searcys at the Gherkin on March 20th.

A survey by Gamma found that 72% of individuals believe that good rapport is more important than price and capabilities when choosing a partner, and this rises to 77% amongst UK respondents.

A similar number (76%) agree that individual customer relationships are the best way to connect with customers/clients.

Gamma’s new brand reflects this with the tagline ‘Better Together’ and a new mascot, a purple dog designed to embody warm and mutually positive relationships.

Charlotte Armitage joined Gamma at the Gherkin to explain the concept of ‘return on relationships’: “Safety and stability in relationships is built and developed through consistent, predictable, positive and healthy interactions with others.

“Therefore, creating secure and meaningful relationships with employees and customers positions an organisation as a place that both parties wish to remain a part of, contributing to the success of any company.”

Gamma found a similar picture when asking decision-makers about internal relationships as 75% believe strong relationships with colleagues are key to business success.

The research shows that many still need help forging these relationships as only 37% of respondents believe they have strong relationships between their organisations and their customers/clients.

Furthermore, only 31% of respondents believe they have strong relationships with their colleagues.

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Evolve IP and Promptvoice launch AI-based solution

XTIUM has launched an AI-powered in-queue, on-hold call solution through its new partnership with Promptvoice.

AI Studio is designed to boost reseller revenue streams through the creation of welcome greetings, auto-attendant, interactive voice response and call menu recordings.

It combines professional voice artists with AI voices plus over 10,000 scripted and pre-recorded messages and provides access to more than 50 languages and dialects.

Evolve IP’s Solutions Director, Scott Rixon , said: “This improves the caller experience, provides enhanced customer satisfaction and a monthly recurring revenue stream for resellers.”

VMO2 trials smart poles powered by fibre network

Virgin Media O2 is claiming a UK first by deploying 4G and 5G smart poles on top of its existing fibre network.

These smart poles, which don’t require planning permission, are installed beside the operator’s existing national fibre network cabinets, of which there are 25,000 in place around the UK.

This reduces cost and complexity by negating the need for a separate backhaul connection or dedicated electricity supply and can help avoid a potentially time-consuming planning process.

Jeanie York , Chief Technology Officer at VMO2, said: “The ability to use our existing national fixed network to backhaul and power small cells could be transformational, helping us save time and money, open up new revenue streams, support smart city technology and fully leverage the benefits of our scaled converged network.”

Thanks for reading, and we hope to see you back here next friday for the latest news update. Be sure to subscribe at the top of this newsletter to get your copy.