Insights Success has shortlisted, The 10 Fastest Growing Telecom Solution Providers to Watch 2018. The telecommunications ecosystem expects IoT to become a critical engine for future growth.
Best Practices for Implementing an External Recruiting Partnership
The 10 fastest growing telecome solution providers 2018
1. September 2018
www.insightssuccess.com
Delivering Global Connectivity
The 10
Fastest Growing
Providers To Watch 2018
Cloud Computing –
Revamping the Technology
for the Next Generation
Into the ‘clouds’
The Universality
of IoT Technology
Editor’s Choice
Iñigo García del Cerro Prieto
CEO
2.
3.
4. n today’s rapidly evolving marketplace ecosystem, the telecommunications industry is witnessing
Ievident technological improvements. The industry has transformed into an ever disrupting, inventive
and keenly contested space with an unprecedented growth in high-speed mobile internet traffic,
particularly with respect to wireless data and video streaming. Additionally, the wireless operators are
quickly moving towards digital media platform offering online TV streaming services, resulting in
innovative product differentiation on the part of wireless carriers. On the other hand, these operators are
taking a more dynamic approach towards simplification, instead of going after costs.
Apart from this, certain growing competitors have catered to these expectations with massive investments
to compete in this industry and expand the capacity of both wireless and wired networks as well as to
facilitate the expected streak in high-speed data transmission. Currently, it continues to be a critical force
for growth, innovation, and disruption across multiple industries.
Broadcast communication, being a part of the telecommunication industry is now making businesses more
unique and fascinating. With its extended horizons, there are different openings for the forthcoming
applicants. Through servicing the world’s ever-growing telephone and wireless connection needs, the
telecommunication solution providers are continuing to expand their operations on a global level. More
importantly, even individuals in emerging markets are signing up for telephone and Internet contracts,
while new telecommunication technologies in developed nations are expanding providers’ pre-existing
customer base.
So far, the telecommunication industry has witnessed overnight drastic changes due to technological
breakthroughs. At the end of this decade, it is expected that these advancing technologies might carry new
Editor’s Note
Telecom Industry:
A Promising and
Technologically
Advancing Future
September 2018
www.insightssuccess.com
Delivering Global Connectivity
The 10
Fastest Growing
Providers To Watch 2018
Cloud Computing –
Revamping the Technology
for the Next Generation
Into the ‘clouds’
The Universality
of IoT Technology
Editor’s Choice
Iñigo García del Cerro Prieto
CEO
5. challenges as well as vast opportunities for the telecommunications industry. According to
independent research reports, the global telecom industry will be massive in size and scale by 2020,
with approximately 5.6 billion unique subscribers, 5.8 billion smartphones and operator revenue
increases to $ 1.2 trillion from $ 1.1 trillion in 2015.
For the next 10 years, the communication service providers will be stimulated to transform the
upcoming trends into a platform of opportunities, harnessing the five digital forces like Mobility &
Computing, Big Data Analytics, Social Media, Cloud Computing, Artificial Intelligence and Robotics
to realign their business processes, products, and services. Further, the telecommunications
ecosystem expects IoT to become a critical engine for future growth.
So, with a great enthusiasm, Insights Success has shortlisted, The 10 Fastest Growing Telecom
Solution Providers to Watch 2018.
Featuring as our cover story is UFFINET, which is a neutral fiber optic operator in the wholesale
telecommunications market.
The magazine listing also includes, Britannic Technologies, a company which is transforming the
business through Telecom technologies; C3NTRO, which is the operator of choice for advanced
international Voice, SMS and Data connectivity with more than 300 direct interconnects and in-
country partners worldwide; iSymplify, who helps enterprise clients identify and implement carrier-
neutral, cloud-based infrastructure and connectivity solutions that optimize and improve business;
Tango Networks, who works to maximize the reach, impact and value of their communications
systems by extending their applications to any mobile device. It offers communication solutions to
carriers to deliver mobile UC to large enterprises and small to mid-sized businesses; ViciDial, which
provides an array of professional products and services to the rapidly growing national and
international Vicidial user community; WireIE International Holdings Inc., whichis an industry
leader that delivers purpose built business networks, bridging the digital divide across Canada and
the Americas.
Also, make sure to flip through our articles, written by our in-house editorial team as well as CXO
standpoints from notable industry personalities to have a brief taste of the sector.
Happy Reading!
Kaustav Roy
6. CONTENTS
Delivering Global Connectivity
Tech-Know Insights
Minimize Risk of Digital
Transformation Failure
Tech Revolution
Putting the Sec in DevOps
with Automated Tools
Smart in Vision
Be Smart – or Vanish
Why Utilities need
to actively develop
smart Micro-Grids
46
16
34
Cover Story
08
7. Articles
Britannic
Technologies:
Taking Customers on a Digital
Transformation Journey
C3NTRO Telecom:
A Synonym with World-Class
Telecom Solution
iSymplify:
An Expert in the Process of
Technology Simplication
Tango Networks:
Enabling mobile-
rst enterprises
ViciDial:
A Remarkable Open Source
Contact Center Solution
WireIE:
Bridging the Digital Divide
Across Canada and
the Americas
Into the ‘clouds’
The Emerging Cloud Security
Solutions and Challenges Ahead
Editor’s Choice
The Universality of
IoT Technology
28
32
22
18
38
44
24 40
12. FINET is a neutral fiber optic
Uoperator in the wholesale
telecommunications market. It
provides its services and connectivity
through fiber optic in America. The
organization was born in 1998 as the
telecommunications department of a
Spanish multinational company named
Union Fenosa, which had been
managing the telecom services
necessary for the electric exploitation.
In the year 2000, UFINET began its
period of expansion throughout Latin
America, amalgamating with the
electricity distribution companies that
were acquired at that time by Union
Fenosa. Currently, UFINET is one of
the largest fiber optic operators in Latin
America, with nearly 50,000
kilometers of fiber distributed in 17
countries and more than 20 years of
experience.
The company’s commendable
expansion and growth is currently
focused on Latin America, with rapid
growth of optical fiber deployment,
and presence among three Points of
Presence in the United States: at the
Network Access Points of the America
in Miami, Florida, Los Angeles and
60th Hudson in New York.
A Passion-Driven Leader
Iñigo García del Cerro Prieto is the
CEO of UFINET. He is a
Telecommunications Engineer
graduated from the Polytechnic
University of Madrid, an economist at
the Autonomous University of Madrid,
and also holds a Master’s Degree in
Business Administration from IESE
Business School, Spain.
Prior to becoming the CEO, Mr. García
del Cerro was the VP of UFINET’s
business development which was
primarily focused on Spanish and Latin
American markets. The main result of
his career progress has been the
exponential growth of the company
itself, particularly in Central America,
with a significant deployment of an
important optical fiber network and a
presence in over 17 countries.
The company provides the Dark Fiber
cable and the customer illuminates it
according to its needs and with its own
equipment. UFINET’s laying of dark
fiber has a permanent maintenance, in
a preventive and routine approach, as
well as in the face of a breakdown.
UFINET connects its customers to the
world through IP transit services
retaining its robust optical fiber
transportation network, and
connections with major submarine
cables and neutral points of America.
The organization’s satellite
communication services allow bi-
directional remote access to rural sites
through connections with high
availability and minimal latency. Its
technology can endure critical services
with low latency and traffic
requirements as well as services with
high bandwidth or Internet access.
As a complimentary part of UFINET’s
Capacity and connectivity services, it
offers customers with Co-location
services in various countries Central,
South and North America. This service
is intended to facilitate the
interconnection between operators
and/or system integrators, speeding up
the enablement of new links and
offering high levels of availability and
protection of the equipment and
services installed.
The company provides remote access
services to customers’ equipment
through its specialists and performs
configuration tasks, problem resolution
and maintenance. In addition, it offers
Customer Premises Equipment (CPE)
for equipment inventory management
or spare parts required by the client.
When the Vision is to be Neutral
Telecommunications Infrastructure
Operator
UFINET’s primary vision is to be the
neutral telecommunications
infrastructure operator of reference
worldwide, and the organization is
working towards the goal much more
intensely in last three years. The
Global responsibility for strategic
definition, development and
international expansion,
implementation of the business plan,
design of strategic partnerships as well
as agreements and relationships with
local partners, are the key roles and
responsibilities catered by Mr. García
del Cerro.
Enabling Digital Empowerment
UFINET provides high bandwidth
connections in fiber optic for fast and
secure Capacity connectivity to deliver
backbone and access network services,
backhaul and local loop, and national
and international connections. All
Capacity connectivity is delivered
through more than 49,200kms of fiber
optic network deployed with more than
200 communicated nodes distributed
throughout America.
UFINET’s optical fiber cable network
has a full infrastructure ready for
customers who need to rent a single, a
pair or more strands of fiber optic
cable, either for small, medium or
long-distance requests. This type of
service is more convenient for
customers requiring very high
bandwidth connectivity.
Our VSAT satellite
network access
offers a wide
coverage through
all satellites
with which
we operate.
Fastest Gr wingFastest Gr wing
Providers to Watch 2018
TheThe
13. company has significantly increased its internationalization
through add-on acquisitions and organic growth with a
significant global investment in fiber optics that has
surpassed the $200 million mark.
In 2017 the organization was awarded by the MEF as the
best wholesale operator in the CALA region (Caribbean and
Latin America), which fills UFINET with pride and
satisfaction to continue working hard to improve the
services it provides to the Clients. In 2018, the organization
was awarded by Global Carrier Community as Latam
Regional Operator of the year 2018, as well as awarded by
Frost & Sullivan as Latin America Fiber Optic Wholesale
Network Services Company of 2018.
An Immaculate Game Plan
UFINET’s strategy from 2000 to 2014 was to grow and
consolidate Central America and Colombia, as a region of
fundamental development. However, in the last three years
it has focused on promoting and developing the territory of
South America, to turn it into an important lever of growth
due to the growing demands for broadband Capacity, as
well as investment in fiber optic networks.
Apart from this, the organization has also carried out
several inorganic operations to increase its footprint, in
combination with several greenfield projects, which have
resulted in the opening of new UFINET operations in
Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, Peru, Ecuador and Mexico.
Challenges that can Change the Course of the Industry
According to UFINET, like most other industry even the
telecom industry is facing few challenges which are,
= Pricing – One must provide a value-added service and
solution to satisfy its customers’ demands. There are
many value propositions that makes UFINET unique,
but, for the organization, the most important one is the
hard work and commitment of the people. This key
factor, undoubtedly, makes the main difference to
achieve outstanding results. The staffs of the
organization are fully devoted and aligned with its
corporate values: Agility, Flexibility, Passion &
Commitment, Creativity and Closeness.
= Higher bandwidth demand – All IT trends, like IoT and
IoE, will require a higher demand on Gbps all around
the globe. Telcos must be prepared to provide higher
level of connectivity and data flow from the original
platform. UFINET’s all fiber network is fully prepared
to provide all the band-with needed, already providing
nx100Gbps Lambdas. As the organization’s pursuit is to
deliver the best quality solutions to the clients, UFINET
must and will keep delivering whichever connectivity
bandwidth needed. And it is already working to make it
Our high bandwidth
connectivity network
allows us to transport
circuits over fiber optic
in an easy and safe
manner, providing our
customers with secure
end-to-end optical
fiber connections.
14. bigger whenever operators have the
need.
= Capillarity and global reach – The
demand for services and higher
bandwidths will become global,
and thus the need of denser fibre
networks, connecting every
customer and every location.
UFINET’s network are very dense,
connecting buildings and telecom
towers, and at the same time have a
global reach in each country,
connecting may small cities and
towns.
= Development of 5G – this goes
beyond speed and bandwidth. The
challenge in this issue will be to be
able to improve the latency issues
to provide unique browsing
experience. 5G also promises to
bring the reliability, scalability,
security and universal mobility
across the telecommunications
industry, which would increase
numerous services, directly
connected to IoT. But 5G
deployments is about fibre and
towers, with a need to have 10
times more telecom towers and all
of them connected with fibre.
UFINET will definitely play a role
in these deployments.
= OTT players – Even though Over
the Top companies are competing
much more on our business,” states
Mr. García del Cerro.
“UFINET is a still young company that
is in its voyage of full expansion. The
hard work and commitment of its
employees, undoubtedly, make the big
difference to achieve an alignment with
our corporate values of Agility,
Flexibility, Passion and Commitment,
Creativity and Closeness,” he adds.
Envisaging a Triumphant Future
“Continuing the path of success that
we have undertaken with a global and
massive presence throughout Latin
America, and becoming the benchmark
as a global Infrastructure Operator,”
states Mr. Garcia del Cerro while
expressing UFINET’s future
endeavors.
The organization will continue to boost
the offer of telecommunications
services and create neutral
environments that translate into better
and more affordable services for the
general population.
“We are at a turning point, where we
are sure that a new and fascinating
stage will arrive. We have the vision to
be the Neutral Reference Operator
worldwide,” asserts Mr. García
del Cerro.
with traditional operators in a way,
there still is a lot of room for joint
venture work for both.
= Security and Privacy – Telcos must
be on the watch out of security
breaches. This feature is seriously
considered only after serious
incidents occur. Operators must be
able to forecast serious safekeeping
events.
= Ongoing Regulations - The Telcos
industry has been facing many
regulation challenges because of
the nature, rapid transformation
and complexity of sector. And they
will continue renovating in the
years to come.
Key Factors of Victory
The entry of the new shareholders in
2014 has invigorated the operation of
the organization, with a single focus:
Telecommunications. “I think this has
been very positive for everyone,
because it allows us to concentrate
We connect our customers
to fiber optic internet with
major international ISP’s,
Tier 1 category, and local
ISP’s nodes in different
cities where we
operate, via major
submarine cables in
Latin America and
the United States.
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17. Management BriefCompany Name
Allot
allot.com
Allot network-based visibility, control and security solutions
are deployed globally by the world’s leading service providers
and enterprises to improve network performance, ensure
optimal QoE and deliver value added security services.
Erez Antebi
President & CEO
Britannic Technologies
btlnet.co.uk
Britannic is a company which is transforming the business
through Telecom technologies.
Richard Dendle
Founder & CEO
C3NTRO
c3ntro.com
C3NTRO Telecom is the operator of choice for advanced
international Voice, SMS and Data connectivity with more
than 300 direct interconnects and in-country partners
worldwide.
Simon Masri
President & Chairman
&
Abraham Smeke
Senior Vice President
iSymplify
isymplify.com
iSymplify helps enterprise clients identify and implement
carrier-neutral, cloud-based infrastructure and connectivity
solutions that optimize and improve business.
Lorie Burkemper
CEO
iTel Networks Inc.
itel.com
iTel is a national provider of business services, including
voice, connectivity, networking, and cloud.
Dan Rink
CEO
Qvantel
qvantel.com
Qvantel is a pioneer in the field of BSS with over 20 years of
experience of successful digital transformations for Telco
operators
Ove Anebygd
CEO
UFINET
ufinet.com
UFINET is a neutral fiber optic operator in the wholesale
telecommunications market.
Iñigo García del
Cerro Prieto
CEO
ViciDial
vicidial.com
The ViciDial Group provides an array of professional products
and services to the rapidly growing national and international
Vicidial user community.
Matt Florell
Founder & CEO
WireIE International
Holdings Inc.
wireie.com
WireIE is an industry leader that delivers purpose built
business networks, bridging the digital divide across Canada
and the Americas.
Rob Barlow
President & CEO
Tango Networks
tango-networks.com
Andrew Bale
General Manager
Tango Networks enterprises to maximize the reach, impact and
value of their communications systems by extending their
applications to any mobile device. It offers communication
solutions to carriers to deliver mobile UC to large enterprises
and small to mid-sized businesses.
Fastest Gr wingFastest Gr wing
Providers to Watch 2018
TheThe
18. One of the greatest agonies in test automation is the
time and effort spent to continuously testing what
has been developed. The simpler and the more
straight-forward the mobile applications look to the
customer, the more complex they are in the background. As
the number of of mobile platforms and devices increases,
enterprises need to provide their developers with effective
way to test across the platforms — testing fast, verifying
the code quickly.
Why is it so important? Because continuous digital
transformation is an inevitable part of growing the business.
Often more than 60% of customer interactions happen
through the smartphones. What is the number like at your
business? Anyway, an effective mobile testing needs to be
in place to accomplish a successful and smooth delivery on
Digital Transformation promise, and to avoid loss of money
and prestige. Every kind of transformation project comes
across a certain resistance; a mobile application delivered
with no issues will minimize this resistance.
Better Application through Continuous Testing
Most of our customers in Continuous Software are
switching to agile project delivery in order to rapidly
evaluate and provide for the internal and external demands.
The traditional test processes, which are done at the end
phase of a project, remain insufficient for the agile
management. For better quality and a rapid outcome, testing
and development has to be a continuous process of DevOps
course. Thanks to test automation scripts throughout the
whole development process, softwares and applications can
be tested before going through end-user tests with minimum
amount of problems.
One of the key trends in the market is the increase of native
application development, which enables the usage of
mobile devices in a broader spectrum. With the increasing
demand towards more complex, stronger functionalities and
interface, the responsive design techniques are outdated. To
provide an optimum result for mobile testing, conducting
the tests with actual devices, a device lab, has a large
importance. The problem here is how the manual testers
and test automation systems will share devices. This is
solved by creating a mobile device lab according to
producers, models and operating systems.
Renting a device lab on cloud, uploading your scripts and
running your tests in a parallel execution costs you serious
amount of money. We couldn’t ignore the fact that this
method makes our customers’ apps less profitable every
minute. If you create an actual device lab by purchasing
every kind of smartphones out there, you still ned a web
interface to run all those scenarios and scripts to manage
your mobile device lab.
Continuous Software developed an interface, where you can
run your scripts on different devices with its own cloud
Hakan Turgut
Chairman
Minimize Risk of Digital
Transformation
Failure
Minimize Risk of Digital
Transformation
Failure
Tech-Know Insights
|September 2018|16
19. device lab, observe text execution and integrate with source
control systems. You can use it with your own mobile
device server, or you can connect your device to your
mobile lab with client integrations. As a result you’ll be
able to observe your text execution in real time with
detailed results, clickable stack trace exceptions and
screenshots, and see how much of the resources (CPU,
Memory, System Logs) your app consumes. No matter
which language your scripts were written or no matter
which tool was used to write them, by integrating with open
source automation servers this interface allows you to
include mobile testing to your continuous DevOps process.
Continuous Software
Our first business line is application testing. Today we offer
a wide range of services such as Manual Sourcing, Test
Automation, Performance Testing, Security Testing, Service
and Network Virtualization and Mobile Application Testing
and Mobile Device Lab Management. Our philosophy lies
on the successful implementation of test automation
frameworks, enabling the rapid creation of test automation
scripts that are stable and easily maintainable. Our scalable
test automation framework optimizes every level of
application from network to code- speeding up he execution
and reducing test maintenance.
Our success comes from working together with
organizations to optimize every level of application- from
the network to the code. We have solved the complexities of
software testing through our unique solutions and helped a
multitude of enterprises in accomplishing desired results.
We believe our Mobile Device Lab will be a game changer
in the industry.
Case studies
One of Top 5 Banks in Turkey
This bank has decided to make a transformation project
with Mckenzie. Part of the transformation project they
found out that one of the biggest bottleneck is Software
testing. As they were planning to use Agile project
management approach within this initiative; testing was
becoming even more critical for the success of the project.
That is why they have decided to implement Test
Improvement Project. They have identified 5 areas and
Continuous Software has been involved in all these five
workgroups which are Functional Test Automation,
Performance/Load Testing, Service Virtualization, Test
Environment Management and Test Data Management. The
project scope covered core banking, alternative channels,
international banking and credit cards application suites,
they all are in-house developed application based on Java,
.NET and IBM Mainframe. This was a teamwork, which we
have worked together with the bank’s testing team.
Development team has also participated to the project when
it was needed. We have identified sample applications,
designed processes, decided on technologies that will be
used and finally implemented the best practice within
sample applications to prove the solution. We have guided
the bank’s team and prepared documentation for them to
continue after project has been finalized. During the project
we have used HPE UFT, HPE Loadrunner, IBM Service
Virtualization, CA Test Data Management and HPE Codar
and OO solutions for respective areas.
One of the Top 10 International Banks
Entered to Turkey by acquiring an old bank, which was not
able to invest in IT for a long time. After the acquisition,
they have been audited by BDDK (Banking Regulation
Authority) and BDDK gave them a deadline to resolve their
compliance issues. Within a very limited timeframe to
implement an end to end automated Devops process which
starts from demand collection till deployment of the
applications to production environment. The solution had to
be fully automated, no human interaction other than
development of the application and be traceable on each
level of the process. Continuous Software delivered end-to-
end DevOps project to make sure to have a complete
process from demand to production deployment. Created
five different pipelines for core baking (oracle forms),
alternative channels (java), credit cards (.NET) and ATMs
(.NET). Jenkins, SVN, Nexus, HPE Codar, HPE ALM,
HPE UFT, HP PM, HP SM are implemented in project
scope. Thanks to Continuous Software, this bank passed the
audit successfully and avoided to pay a big amount of
penalty.
Management
Levent Ozalp is a serial entrepreneur and the Founder and
CEO of OPTiiM. He created 3 startups in Turkey, 1 in
Ireland and 1 in UK from military tech to system
integration. Having launched Continuous Software now
boasts 100+ employees and customers all over Turkey,
Middle East, North Africa and Europe.
Hakan Turgut is the Continuous Software Chairman. His 30
years career span took him to executive positions in IBM,
CA and Nortel. He brings maturity and wisdom to the team.
About the Author:
Levent Ozalp is a serial entrepreneur. He created 3 startups
in Turkey, 1 in Ireland and 1 in UK from military tech to
system integration. Having launched OPTiiM now boasts
100+ employees and customers all over Turkey, Middle
East, North Africa and Europe.
Hakan Turgut is the OPTiiM Chairman. His 30 years career
span took him to executive positions in IBM, CA and
Nortel. He brings maturity and wisdom to the team.
|September 2018| 17
20. Acommunication and systems integrator company,
Britannic Technologies aims to deliver a seamless
transformational digital experience to customers.
The company has a long and enriching heritage of over 33
years’ taking customers on a digital transformation
journey from start to finish. Discovering their
technology needs, demonstrating technology and
designing their roadmap, and helping them to develop
at their own pace. Delivering on their promise – we do
what we say.
The company focuses on working closely with customers as
a strategic partner to understand their technology
requirements, ensuring that the technology is aligned with
the business’s objectives and strategy.
Britannic’s core strengths are flexibility and being agile
enough to provide customers with the choice to develop at
their own pace. They provide innovative, leading
technology that is ahead of the competition and in some
cases even ahead of leading technology vendor’s roadmap.
The Thought Leaders
Richard Dendle is the Founder and CEO of Britannic
Technologies who has spent his livelihood in Saudi Arabia
in the early 1980s. During those times, Saudi Arabia was
the most advanced country in the world from a
telecommunications perspective. Armed with knowledge
garnered in Saudi, he identified an opportunity to set up
Britannic Telecom Company in 1984. The name was later
on changed to Britannic Technologies Limited in 2003
following the acquisition of a development company in
2000. The new name reflects the Voice, Data and Solutions
Integration that are core parts of the company’s services
today.
Jonathan Sharp is the Director at Britannic Technologies
who has earned a glowing reputation in the industry. With
over twenty years of experience in IT & Telecoms, Jonathan
has a proven ability to lead, develop and motivate teams,
execute change, deliver market differentiation and achieve
profitable growth. He also focuses on offering end-to-end
holistic solutions to the customers in order to maximize
their investment in ICT.
More importantly, since inception they both regularly attend
client meetings and focus on developing relationships with
customers. This has led customers to get easy access to
Britannic’s services and to working closely with the
customers in developing innovative solutions in return. As a
Taking Customers
on a Digital
Transformation Journey
Richard Dendle
Founder & CEO
Britannic
Technologies
|September 2018|18
21. result, the company’s leaders have been the catalysts for
several groundbreaking developments and are highly
prominent in the industry.
Tailored-Customer Services
In a rapidly evolving market, Britannic integrates cloud
applications and services with phone systems, contact
centre, UC solutions and line of business systems. This
helps customers gain tailored-made solutions with
flexibility, ease of management, swift installation, rapid
roll-out of new applications and predictability of costs. The
company holds an outstanding reputation in the industry
with telecoms, UC and cloud solutions and partner with the
world leading technology vendors including Mitel, Avaya,
and Microsoft.
Unique Strategies
Britannic has invested heavily in cloud infrastructure and is
well-positioned to guide its customers along their journeys
and mitigating risk along the way.
Britannic in-house software development team is known as
pioneers of innovation amongst customers and vendors with
a long line of successful unique solutions offered in the
market. This includes SIP, one of the first to build its own
SIP platform in 2004, and the first Mitel partner in Europe
to move an on-premise phone system into a virtualized
environment. Apart from this, the company is still
continuing to identify new technological trends such as
WebRTC and conversational artificial intelligence, with a
solution called Ami.
Being with the market-leading technical capabilities, it
recruits the best members. Presently, Britannic has built a
team of 80 people who are specialists in communications
solutions and highly skilled at selling with a consultative
approach. The team excels in being creative, capable and
adaptable and works closely with customers to produce
bespoke solutions to transform their business.
Future Roadmap
Currently, Britannic is well placed to achieve the
continuous growth in the market through its next generation
services and cloud architecture. It also succeeded in
implementing AI and M2M communication which is
underpinned with big data / analytics depending upon the
increase in demand.
We do what we say!
What we promise; we
deliver on budget, on
time and on spec”
Jonathan Sharp, Director,
Britannic Technologies.
Britannic focus remains unchanged and will continue to
work with its customers as business partners by providing
an excellence of service, tailored advice and solutions and
world-class technology delivery. The company is planning
to leverage the offerings from world-leaders, complemented
with innovation from niche application providers and with
its in-house capabilities. It is looking forward for
opportunities within the market for systems integration
skills and end-to-end managed services along with a
flexible, agile and innovative approach. This can help its
customers to integrate new and emerging technology into
their business processes, workflows, digital platforms and
customer experience.
|September 2018| 19
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TheThe
22. Omnichannel Agent
and Customer
Engagement Solutions
Simplify and personalize the customer experience,
empower agents and achieve business success
with one workspace for all channel interactions,
application integrations, and CX reporting.
23.
24. In the ancient times, smoke signals and drums were
used to telecommunicate. Talking drums could mimic
human tones in loud pitches and were mostly used in
South America and Africa. It served as an early form of
long distance communication which was used during a war,
ceremonial and religious purposes. The telecommunication
industry continued evolving ever since. From smoke signals
and drums to VoIP Internet Telephony, telecommunication
has come a very long way. One company, disrupting the
market in the VoIP arena from the time it was formed is
C3NTRO Telecom.
C3NTRO Telecom is an international carrier with 20 years
of unparalleled experience supplying voice, data and SMS
services to the carriers around the world. It is the operator
of choice providing an advanced international voice and
data connectivity backed by reliable and state-of-the-art
global network, with more than 300 direct interconnects
and in-country partners worldwide.
C3NTRO Telecom offers guaranteed SLAs and proven
business tools backed by a dedicated sales team to ensure
an optimal combination of quality and cost-effectiveness to
destinations around the world, terminating over six billion
international minutes each year.
In addition to this robust portfolio of international carrier
services, C3NTRO Telecom is a fully licensed operator in
Mexico and has agreements with all the local and regional
loop providers. It delivers integrated tailor made solutions
for Mexico’s top 1000 enterprises, which includes unified
communications, data connectivity, SMS, video-
conferencing, Microsoft enterprise solutions and contact
center services.
Leaders Echoing Experience
C3ntro is backed by two of its pioneers Simon Masri, the
President and Chairman and Abraham Smeke, the
Senior Vice President.
Simon is a civil engineer and entrepreneur with over 25
years of experience in the telecommunications industry. He
deployed the first VoIP gateway in LATAM and today is
leading over 10 Telecom Startups that are now integrated
under one holding company as C3ntro Telecom.
Abraham, with 15 years of experience, manages all the
commercial initiatives and processes in sales, sales support,
purchasing, pricing, finance marketing and product. He has
created, maintained and executed all sales plans and
strategies to achieve annual/quarterly revenue/ targets.
Journey that Speaks more than Words
C3NTRO Telecom has been recognized as an exceptional
carrier in the industry due to its hard work and perseverance
throughout the years. It began as a local wholesale carrier
and has continued to grow by innovating its product
offering and expanding its reach and knowledge in its data
and SMS services. It has a customer base that includes
many of the leading mobile operators around the world.
With its reliability, high volume capacity and competitive
pricing through its state-of-the art high performance, IP
network has made C3NTRO Voice services the top choice.
C3NTRO offerings are customized to meet customers’
needs which include several cutting-edge tools for billing,
reporting and monitoring. Some of the Tier 1 customers
outsource their traffic to the company which they manage
A Synonym with
World-Class
Telecom Solution
C3NTRO
Telecom:
Simon Masri
President & Chairman
|September 2018|22
25. through its switching platform. The company provides
proactive and preventive fraud detection based on human
behavior information which is compiled through Big Data
analytics for optimal results.
Accomplishments that have shaped the Journey
C3NTRO Telecom has become an alternative word for a
world-class network and substantial growth. Backed by its
reliable state-of-the-art infrastructure, real-time reports and
automated routing, the company has become the carrier for
the new era that will spearhead the future of the Telecom
industry.
Growth and achievements seen in the last few years
includes:
= 16 billion VOIP Minutes per year
= Market leader in international long distance
= Sales representation in 10 countries
= Top 12 IP-Transit providers
= 800+ Managed IP/MPLS metro circuits
= 700+ VM Servers
= 700+ Managed Networks (LAN, WAN, WI-FI,
Security)
= 200+ million SMS per month
= Leaders in Fraud detection services for Tier 1
Fiber innovation to help transform the Industry
With a multimillion dollar investment since last year C3ntro
Communications
Made Simple.
began deploying the newest and most advanced fiber optic
nnetwork in Mexico. It is confident about its next step in
order to provide the customers with its own network
ultimately propelling their country and prospectively its
southern neighbors, to a faster and more reliable
communication platform.
In addition to investing in fiber, C3NTRO has also
successfully launched its own Cloud Connectivity program,
with strategic partnerships with Amazon Web Services,
Microsoft Express route and the remaining top 10 Cloud
providers in the world - l Tier 1 Carriers. This has been a
major investment for the company as it has become a
pioneer in Cloud connectivity services projecting from
Mexico.
Collaborating with Microsoft as one of its strategic partners
and both companies’ ardent efforts, C3NTRO has
successfully extended the Microsoft Top Partner status into
LATAM. The company believes that it is a huge
achievement that will not only be beneficial to each party
but more importantly to the various enterprises in the
region.
Mission and Foresight in the Upcoming Years
C3NTRO is a carrier genuinely devoted to the customer
satisfaction by adding value through the provision of its
services and solutions. It is earning the trust by building
long term relationships based on efficiency, honesty and
innovation.The most productive new product has been its
Value Added Services, where C3ntro manages, Monitors
and Report all of a Tier 1 traffic behaviors, as well as
managing the Fraud Detection services for several Tier 1
Carriers.
The company’s vision is to establish itself as the top global
wholesale carrier centered in value added services,
innovative solutions and trustworthy operation in a
consolidating industry.
C3NTRO aspires to be recognized as one of the leading
carriers in this industry. To further solidify the growth, it
has become one of the leading enterprise carriers in Mexico
supplying telecommunication services and turn-key
solutions to Fortune 1000 Companies.
Abraham Smeke
Senior Vice President
|September 2018| 23
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TheThe
27. The Emerging
CloudCloudSecurity Solutions
and
Challenges Ahead
n the world of cloud computing, the companies
Iare facing new security challenges every year. The
essential principles of the security are secure
access, credentials, application usage, anomaly
detection, encryption, and storage. Cloud security
companies are developing products with prominent
security features to tackle these issues. Transition
periods for the organizations moving from mainframe
systems to cloud systems are reducing sharply. They
are operating with on-premise and off-premise devices
spread across countries with different security laws.
Such organizations are bringing greater security
challenges and hence valuable business for security
service providers. The security solutions providers
should care for the needs of both security requirements
and performance.
Cloud Security Services with High Growth
Potential
Technologies such as artificial intelligence, the
machine learning and the most recent deep learning
encompass a number of solutions that can be used for
security purposes. Anomalies in the behavior of
‘entities’ within the system can be detected easily with
the help of deep learning technology. Machine-
learning technologies will help to differentiate between
the good and the bad software. This approach will offer
a significant tool for security practitioners enabling
them to detect the threat in advance and eradicate it.
|September 2018| 25
28. Security hardware, firewalls, intrusion detection and
prevention systems have taken a virtual mode for
operations. As more organizations have started using the
cloud technology, more kinds of vulnerabilities will emerge
and consequently more approaches to security will also be
developed. If cloud service providers can also expand their
services to emerge as ‘infrastructure-as-a-service’ provider
they will be able to offer the high-end data security
available even to the small enterprises.
Encryption can be an effective technology for data loss
prevention. There’s been a lot of security spending over the
last several years, and yet the number of records breached is
considerably high in recent years. Companies are
considering this as the business opportunity to aid in
compliance with data privacy and security regulations. It
indicates the necessity of sophisticated encryptions and
authentication therefore they are considered as emerging
security trends for data loss prevention.
There are technologies which use big data analytics to
identify the anomaly in behavior by a user. System
defenders can spot a red alert if they are working with the
user behavior analytics (UBA). There is a lot of interest
shown in this technology by the enterprises as this can
enhance the workforce output also. These technologies offer
huge business opportunity. The technique called ‘peer-
analysis’ compares how some user is behaving compared to
other users with the same manager or same department.
Training can be given to the employees for better security
practices and enable them to adhere to the security policies.
Technology can also enhance the security of endpoints like
desktops, servers, tablets and laptops using most improved
security monitoring, detection of threats and quick response
capabilities to incidents.
Chipset within a device can be a part of the authentication
process. Apart from passwords, the device acts as a token
for security in cloud networks including laptops, desktops
and mobile devices. Hardware authentication solutions at
processor level can combine a variety of hardware-
enhanced factors simultaneously to validate a user’s
identity.
Solutions Offered by Cloud Service Companies
Clients have got multiple expectations while using the
cloud service from providers. They should maintain
complete control over their data processing even in multi-
user cloud environments. They should be able to retain their
efficiency and flexibility according to business objectives
and policies. Access to ‘Software as-a-Service’ applications
should be as secure as before.
High-performance solutions for the cloud security are
available today which enable the governance. The
management of sensitive data in a centralized manner for
all applications, systems across all platforms with on-
premises and partially or fully cloud environments is
possible.
There are companies specializing in cloud security
solutions and providing following services –
• Classification and protection, security assessment and
audit, document management and watermarking, and
encryption.
• Security-as-a-service platform, cloud discovery, real-time
monitoring and blocking, on-demand application and
configuration, and Sensitive data discovery.
• Privacy and confidentiality, risk assessments, data loss
prevention, tokenization, flexible and granular email
security controls, capabilities around user behavior, data
loss prevention, and policy restrictions.
• Secure web gateway platforms positioned to capture
traffic and see the flow of data to and from SaaS
applications with reports of data flow, content, and user
activity monitoring.
Challenges Ahead
There is a great service opportunity opening up for creative
and innovative solution providers in the area of cloud
security solutions but they are equally challenged on
various fronts. Organizational level challenges represent
those risks that may impact the structure of the organization
or the business as an entity. The functional areas that are
vulnerable and can be compromised are identified by
exploring past business records. These areas represent
potential threat or source of failure and needs to be secured
on priority. The physical location of the cloud data center
can come across a challenge of unauthorized on-site access.
It can be prevented through staff training, physical location
security, and network firewalls. Technological Security
challenge is related to hardware, and services such as
portability, maintenance. Compliance and issues related to
the audit, lack of jurisdiction information or changes in
jurisdiction and sometimes even illegal clauses in the
contract often lead to the legal disputes over information
security. Data Security challenges are mainly pertaining to
data integrity, confidentiality, and availability. Multiple
companies are coming to the market with same approach to
deal with the security challenges and have similar solutions
to the same problem. Real challenge is creating innovative
and proactive solutions which can offer better security and
smooth flow of business operations.
|September 2018|26
29.
30. iSymplify is a business communications agency which
focuses on delivering telecommunications, cloud
services, unified communications & mobility solutions.
They educate their clients on the marketplace and
technology options while supporting them in making
informed business decisions.
iSymplify’s primary focus is on customer service – working
collaboratively with their clients to guide them through a
well-defined methodology to evaluate, negotiate, assess,
and procure cloud-based technologies and services in an
unbiased manner. Outlining the pros and cons of each
option, they guide their clients to the ideal technologies and
vendors, while leveraging their partnerships to create a
custom-tailored solution.
Since virtually every customer is unique, iSymplify delivers
cloud solutions – including public/private/hybrid cloud
solutions, cloud-based voice, data and network services to
multi-unit, businesses across North America. They have a
proven track record of connecting business with technology
and have connected tens of thousands of network nodes for
global, domestic corporations and state governments during
its tenure.
A Strategic Consultant
Lorie Burkemper is the President and Founder, has spent
her career helping businesses with strategic technology
consulting – including voice & data solutions, UCaaS,
CCaaS, SDN & hybrid networking, cloud compute, IT and
wireless services.
Before iSymplify, Lorie played an essential role as Client
Development Manager at Cybera – where her
responsibilities included lead development, partner
recruitment, client consultation and managed data &
security options. She also oversaw strategic accounts,
funnel management and territory management. After
leaving Cybera, she served as an Account Manager at
CompuServe Network Services – providing ongoing
customer care and implementation support for a number of
Fortune 500 companies.
Unbiased Services
iSymplify helps businesses perform more efficiently by
leveraging cloud services to reduce costs or meet new
business challenges. Their clients value their experience,
market knowledge, and ongoing support in migrations from
traditional networking and on-premise technologies to the
cloud. They also help organizations find the right solutions
for their business at the right price.
Most importantly, iSymplify supports enterprise
organizations navigate their design, proposal and
implementation process, while providing an ongoing
An Expert in the Process of
Technology Simplication
Lorie Burkemper
Chief Executive Ofcer
iSymplify:
|September 2018|28
31. customer relationship that exceeds expectations. With a
deep understanding of a wide range of technologies, they
deliver unbiased recommendations regarding
telecommunication, mobility, or cloud communications
projects customized to the client’s unique business
priorities.
Currently, iSymplify supports their clients with projects
focused on improving customer experience. They deliver an
omnichannel customer experience to re-design business
workflows in order to optimize supply chain, asset, and
inventory management. It is working on improving data
analytics and focusing more on informed business
decisions. The technology, services and knowledge base is
unprecedented.
The Consultative Approach
For almost a decade, companies were focusing on the key
business and technology trends like cloud enablement,
digital business transformation, and customer experiences.
With those trends in mind, iSymplify designed solutions
and experiences that facilitated easy migrations that deliver
successful business outcomes.
With a technology-agnostic and carrier-neutral approach,
the iSymplify’s team of experts works collaboratively with
the clients to meet their business needs, often as an
extension of its IT team. it is this focus on delivering the
best course of action that has proven ideal for both short
and long-term solutions.
With over 200 technology partners, iSymplify can assist a
wide range of business verticals. With the help of combined
relationships, they manage a wide range of technologies
such as voice/web collaboration, networking. With the trend
of moving from on-premise solutions to cloud-based
solutions, iSymplify has spent the last few years helping
businesses navigate this often-difficult landscape –
particularly in the cloud computing, IoT and AI, disaster
recovery, security, and blockchain sectors. From discovery
& sourcing to implementation & management, they guide
clients through every step necessary.
Talking about the processes within the company, Lorie says
“We’ve learned that listening and really digging in to find
out what our client’s goals and needs are as early as
possible is critical to success. We’ve developed our process
to make sure we can uncover those business needs and
challenges – then stay engaged throughout the entire
process.”
We take a client
-focused, service
rst approach to
connect businesses
to the cloud.
Further ensuring client success, iSymplify is continuously
investing in education so it can offer the go-to resource for
CTO’s. With resources being continually stretched thinner,
they also support IT teams through education – allowing
them to stay up to date with the latest trends and
technologies in an unbiased and affordable manner.
Future Planning
iSymplify’s long-term plan is to work ‘Arm in Arm’ with its
clients to strategically map out technologies that drive
execution & adoption while building out their practice to
provide additional coverage across the US. They are also
rapidly growing their team to provide additional resources
in the IoT, data analytics, AI, and cloud managed service
sectors – positioning them to help businesses augment
teams with these new areas of expertise.
|September 2018| 29
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TheThe
32.
33.
34. s the use of mobile handheld devices continues to
Arise worldwide, the need for businesses to work
mobility into their operations has become of
absolute importance. Mobile technology is a key driver of
innovation for almost all businesses, from improving
customer experiences to creating modern, flexible work
environments for employees.
An innovative solution provider that offers superior
enterprise mobile communications products and services is
Tango Networks. Its groundbreaking mobility platform
provides simple, flexible adaptation of enterprise
communications for the mobile workforce, even in multi-
vendor environments.
In an interview with Insights Success, Andrew Bale,
General Manager of Cloud Services for Tango Networks,
described the company’s success with raising enterprise
mobility to the next level.
Kindly brief us about Tango Networks, its services and
solutions.
Almost every business today has a mobile workforce. By
that, I mean that employees perform much if not all of their
work using mobile phones instead of traditional desk
phones.
But there is a critical gap in how the IT department controls
these communications compared to other parts of IT. Unlike
desk-phone communications, mobile communications are
routed and controlled by external mobile service providers.
The enterprise’s IT department can’t manage these
communications the same way it can for wire-line
communications.
Tango Networks eliminates this IT control gap through our
Kinetic Communications Solutions that give the CIO direct
control over mobile communications.
With our Kinetic solutions the IT staff can control mobile
communications the same way they can the rest of the IT
stack, such as wire-line communications, internal
messaging, Wi-Fi, networking, Internet access, and so on.
Companies use our products and services for solutions
including Mobile Unified Communications, enterprise text
messaging, compliant mobile communications, and mobile
integration with CRM. One of our newest solutions enables
enterprise IT to restrict mobile phone usage by a company
driver while his vehicle is in motion, to proactively address
the worldwide concern of distracted driving.
How do you diversify your telecom solutions so that they
will benefit your customers?
We focus on complementing and enhancing other systems
and applications our customers have deployed, not
requiring them to rip out and replace a lot of things that are
working.
Our Kinetic solutions are unique control middleware
interfacing with enterprise calling systems, cloud services,
enterprise applications and other parts of enterprise IT. Our
solutions mobile-enable these systems, giving employees
on mobile phones the same kind of experience that they
would have in the office on a desk phone. We offer versions
of our enterprise mobility solutions for both cloud and on-
premises deployments, which is our Kinetic
Communications Platform.
Our cloud-based offering is called Kinetic Cloud. Kinetic
Cloud represents a major leap in enterprise mobility
technology because it is the industry’s first cloud-powered
mobile convergence solution, making integration and
management of mobility even simpler.
Enabling mobile-rst
enterprises
Andrew Bale
General Manager
Tango Networks:
|September 2018|32
35. Kindly brief us on the achievements that have shaped
the journey of Tango Networks.
Tango has been in business more than a decade and the
most successful mobility projects the company has seen are
those that make the user experience simple and familiar.
For example, our solutions can enable an employee to use
the native dialing interface of their smartphone to activate
features of the corporate UC system, without the need to
search for and launch a special app. As a result, employees
do not have to learn some new, clunky interface.
Describe the role of Tango Networks’ innovations in
transforming the industry?
We are leading innovators of enterprise communications
mobility, with more than 60 patents granted for the
underlying technology of mobilized enterprise
communications. For years, enterprise mobility was
handled as a device management problem, focusing on
rudimentary access control and configuration management.
Our solutions are first to provide true control over real-time
applications – voice, messaging, collaboration and others –
used by a truly mobile workforce.
Where does Tango Networks see itself in the long run?
What are its future goals?
Tango is ushering in a new era of enterprise mobility that
puts enterprise IT directly in control of mobility in a
manner similar to the control over fixed voice and data
communications. In fact, many of our customers are going
“Mobile First” and making mobile phones their primary
communications devices. Tango is providing the tools,
technologies and partnerships to allow our customers to
access the mobile capabilities currently locked up within
the mobile operator network.
Our approach is complemented by trends like Private LTE,
where an enterprise can use a private deployment of LTE to
deliver its own wireless services for employees or IoT
devices. This exciting trend is directly in line with our
philosophy.
Considering the rising number of telecom solution
providers, how does Tango Networks stand out from its
competitors?
Enterprises have not been well-served with business-class
mobile communications services in the past. Basically
enterprises have had to choose from the same mobile
services offered to consumers.
But enterprises have very different communications needs
such as call recording, enterprise application integration,
policy enforcement and so on. Unlike the other forms of IT,
the enterprise IT staff doesn’t have direct control over
mobile communications in order to meet these
requirements.
We are leading innovators of
enterprise communications
mobility, with more than
60 patents granted for
the underlying technology of
mobilized communications.
Our solutions put enterprise IT in charge of mobile
communications just like they are in control of the rest of
the IT stack. This is the foundation of the first genuine
business-class mobile communications.
Give us an example of your client that accurately
highlights Tango Networks’ position in the market.
A good example is the deployment at University Hospitals
Birmingham in the UK. The hospitals wanted employees’
phones to operate as dual-line devices. Our solution enables
work calls to be identified with the employees’ switchboard
extensions, while the employees’ mobile phone numbers are
kept private.
For example, a physician can call a patient without giving
up the privacy of their mobile phone number. You can learn
more by reading the case-studies at our website.
About the Leader
Andrew Bale is the General Manager of Cloud Services
at Tango Networks. He is an experienced
telecommunications professional focused on helping
companies to grow through clarity of vision and operational
excellence. Currently, he serves the position of General
Manager in Tango Networks. He has been honored with
various positions such as CEO and Managing Director in
other organizations such as Integent, Resilient Networks,
and Worldstone.
About the Company
Tango Networks delivers market-leading enterprise mobile
convergence solutions bringing enterprises and mobile
operators together. The world’s Tier 1 operators and global
enterprises rely on Tango Networks’ superior workforce
mobility solutions, built over a decade of successful
innovation. Tango’s Kinetic Communications Solutions
include rich Unified Communications on any mobile phone;
mobile voice and text recording for compliance; mobile
usage control preventing distracted driving; and automatic
business application integration.
|September 2018| 33
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TheThe
36. Be Smart – or Vanish
Why Utilities need to actively
develop smart Micro-Grids
The energy market is changing
rapidly. This is true not only
for the USA and Europe but
on a global level. Possibly the most
important change is the one towards
more decentralized systems. This is
challenging the utility industry.
Utilities historically have developed
by integrating small microgrids
which grew around mills and other
small-scale generators (today we
would say prosumers). This is why
utilities developed along the entire
value chain: They integrated these
micro distribution grids in a more
stable larger (Transport) grid and
replaced decentralized generation by
more cost-efficient central power
plants. This highly efficient
centralized system was allowing
industrial development as we know
it. At its time it was possibly the only
way to serve large, strongly energy
depending production like steel,
paper or the upcoming chemical
industry. The centralized energy
system did not result from an
oligopolistic market, but the industry
structure derived from an efficient
technical design.
There are several reasons why this
formerly beneficiary system is
challenged today. Not all apply in all
markets but some of them do, so
decentralization of energy markets is
a global trend. Specifically, in most
industrial markets the new energy
regime is driven by politics favoring
small scale, decentral renewable
generation. Subsidies on renewables
devalue existing large thermic power
plants. Even large-scale hydropower
plants do not easily pass strict
environmental and social feasibility
analysis. But independent of any
political setting there is another more
fundamental reason for the growing
competitiveness of a decentralized
energy design. While the first phase
of industrial development is known
for its industrial clusters (often
grown close to energy sources like
coal or water) which shaped many
geographic areas for more than a
century, later phases are much more
dynamic and do less depend on
geographic proximity. Within a
dynamic industry setting where
businesses are set up and closed or
moved somewhere else on a regular
basis a static centralized
infrastructure loses competitiveness.
In many emerging markets this
dynamism as well expands towards
those areas which are today not
connected to the central grid but offer
inexpensive land or new agricultural
products which can be sold abroad at
high prices. Finally, the political will
and the industrial demand for
decentralized systems today
encounter renewable generation even
at small size at competitive costs
compared to large size thermic power
plant. For the most prominent
renewable technology photovoltaic in
the North (with less radiation) this
competitiveness is given only as grid
parity, meaning central generation
plus transport is as expensive as
photovoltaic on site. In the Southern
hemisphere photovoltaic is already a
competitive source empowering
decentralized energy infrastructure.
While decentralized generation has
caught up with centralized generation
plants, distribution systems with a
large portion of decentralized
renewable generation capacity are
often inefficient. There are basically
four reasons for this inefficiency: (1)
Missing price mechanism supporting
grid operations, (2) high costs to
operate such a system stable, (3)
large amount of excess energy
(exported or not being used at all)
and (4) sub-utilized interface
between microgrid and its feeder
system. These are basically the same
reasons that in the last century
supported the centralization of the
grid system. What is needed is an
intelligent or smart decentralized
distribution system.
An intelligent distribution system
with mainly decentralized generation
requires more than smart meters and
it is different from today popular so
Smart in Vision
|September 2018|34
37. Dr. Karl Kolmsee the CEO of Smart Hydro Power, studied agricultural and
philosophy at the universities of Hamburg and Goettingen, Germany. After his PhD he has
spent most of his professional career in the energy business – first as consultant at A.T.
Kearney later as manager at E.ON, Europe’s largest private utility, and member of the board
at Schmack biogas, one of the pioneers of the biogas market in Europe. In 2009 Karl
Kolmsee has been nominated professor for energy management at Applied University of
Kufstein, Austria. His main areas of academic work are international energy markets and
renewable energy. In 2010 he founded Smart Hydro Power to focus on design and
commercialization of kinetic pico hydro power systems with main focus on rural
electrification for emerging markets like India, Latin America and Eastern Africa. Today Smart
Hydro Power offers complete solutions for off grid solutions and micro grids.
About the Author
|September 2018| 35
38. called smart home or home storage solutions. These offer
photovoltaic, battery and basic load management for the
individual household. Some providers of home storage
solutions integrate customers in a community model to
allow exchange of autogenerated electricity. But these
communities are barely more than contract partners
within a fixed price net metering model. Individual home
solutions – even within sales-and-purchase communities
– do not solve any inefficiency issues decentralization
faces. These systems are either completely self-sufficient
– in this case they are expensive – or they rely on central
grid services like a parasite of its host. Sustainable
decentralization requires an intelligent control and
steering mechanism between the households which build
a microgrid.
While there are possibly different steering mechanisms,
establishing a local market with the price as variable that
guides demand and supply according to the aggregated
demand function and the aggregated cost functions
seems promising. Technically this does require a
dynamic forecasting and load management (at least for
major loads which are used in a price-sensitive manner).
At first glance a market model would solve the four
major issues shown above. It would set a price for
photovoltaic and battery storage which would control
demand and thereby reduce necessary installed reserve
storage and generation capacity. This mechanism would
as well be consistent with the functioning of the feeder
grid and could therefore supply itself services to this grid
which would be valued with the same “currency”.
Technically this steering mechanism might be
completely decentralized based on individual processors
in each household like the blockchain technology (once
necessary processing capacity comes down to acceptable
limits) or it might work between a central unit and
individual processors. In either way it steers the local
market place towards an efficient optimum given
generation, demand and battery storage capacity at a
defined point in time.
Micro grids do open (within a given legal framework) a
possibility for traditional utilities to re-define their role
using some of their traditional strengths. But new
entrants can equally well enter this space and perform
wherever the incumbent does not adapt. This gives room
to numerous co-operations between new entrants or
between new companies and the incumbent offering their
services or developing new business models along the
value chain. Incumbent utilities may be smart – or
vanish.
|September 2018|36
39.
40. C
ustomer experience is one of the important factors
that affect customer retention. Almost every
organization has its own contact center to deal with
customer issues. The positive feedback and satisfactory
customer service is a key to gain new customers and retain
the existing ones. Hence, to serve the dynamic customer
needs and provide a complete customer experience
organizations are shifting their focus towards adopting of
avant-grade contact center software.
Powered with vision to provide holistic customer
experience the ViciDial Group provides an array of
professional products and services to the rapidly growing
national and international VICIdial user community.
Launched in 2007, VICIdial software offers an enterprise
class, open source, contact center solution with predictive
dialer capabilities. This software is implemented to handle
inbound, outbound, and blended phone calls, as well as
inbound email and customer website chat, all within the
same agent’s device screen.
The Trailblazer
Prime innovator, Founder and Chief Executive Officer,
Matt Florell created VICIdial back in 2003 and still
oversees the entire development task within VICIdial to this
day. Matt has extensive experience in this vertical and is
particularly enthusiastic about IT management, VOIP (IP
Telephony), software development, project management,
Linux, web development, and executive management.
He has received BS degree from Carroll University of the
U.S. state of Wisconsin. Matt has been a speaker and
advisor in several industry conferences over the years
which includes it360 Toronto Conference 2007, 2008 and
2010, ClueCon 2010, Amoocon 2009 IP Telephony
Conference, and Florida Linux Show 2008 to name a few.
Since the free release of the VICIdial software, Matt has a
notable influence on the entire telecom industry. He has
even presented numerous projects at the U.S. Astricon
conference and has been awarded a ‘Fellow of Astricon’ for
ten consecutive years.
Under his leadership, the company offers the VICIdial open
source call center solution which is a fully featured call
center suite with inbound, outbound and blended call
handling. The software has been adopted by thousands of
companies around the world with over 14,000 new system
A Remarkable Open
Source Contact
Center Solution
Matt Florell
Founder & Chief Executive Ofcer
|September 2018|38
ViciDial:
41. installations in more than 100 countries and has been
translated in 16 different languages as well.
Best-in-class Open-Source Software
ViciDial was introduced to the industry as one of the first
free and open-source software solution. This has generated
a dramatic effect on the contact center industry as a whole,
and has even pushed other solution providers to offer better
services to maintain the customers they have.
VICIdial can be installed to the hardware by the customer’s
own hand or else they can even contact the company for the
hostage service. A large VICIdial installation can handle
over two million phone calls per day, with over eight
hundred agents handling calls and internet communications
from customers. There are also over two thousand settings
and configuration options, allowing easy customization of
distinct call flows, agent permissions and other settings.
This solution is available as a hosted service which is
extremely flexible & scalable, and it can be installed on
customer premise hardware as well.
On the hosted contact center platform, VICIdial Group
adapts blended telecom and internet services from multiple
carriers to offer a robust and fault-tolerant solution for its
clients. The company’s blended tier-3 hosted internet
infrastructure has proven to be an optimal solution and has
been able to serve clients with numerous users in multiple
countries spread across the world.
Some of the other exclusive features that also offered to its
hosted clients for free are like custom built VICIdial servers
optimized for call centers, cellphone number scrubbing,
agent audio soundboards and high-level data encryption, the
features which are known for its real-time assistance.
Additionally, the ViciHost which is an official hosted and
managed solution from ViciDial allows customers to avail
the benefit of a private cloud of dedicated, custom-built
ViciDial servers with extra services that is not available on
the ViciDial open-source platform.
Promising Future
Over the last fifteen years, ViciDial professionals has
experienced and learned a lot by interacting with clients
based worldwide The company ardently recognizes the
hardware required for a very large contact center setup. And
its perception in providing the solution has been appreciated
by many industry leaders.
The company has earned numerous prestigious awards
including Internet Telephony East, “Best of Show” Call
We offer an innovative
open-source
telecom solution for
contact centers.
Center VO.IP Germany 2nd place for Call Center
Applications and Sourceforge.net “Project of the Year”
VOIP Projects and so on.
In the upcoming years, ViciDial is planning to offer training
regarding the software and envisions demonstrate how
power of software can be used for the betterment of the
society. The company also believes that this will continue to
deliver an edge in the contact center segment of the
telecom industry.
|September 2018| 39
Fastest Gr wingFastest Gr wing
Providers to Watch 2018
TheThe
42. “
The gratifying tool for companies to lead ahead -
IoT Technology” The Internet of things (IoT) is a
revolutionary change for many sectors like
manufacturing, agriculture, retail, electronic, energy and
healthcare which are progressing towards the IoT
phenomenon to connect digitally. It has placed an
opportunity to build unusual results which increases a
company’s compatibility. Enterprises seeking
development are focusing on the use of real-time data
management and IoT analysis. Many of the
companies are adopting this technology to heighten
their power of consumption. Companies are
mainly concentrating on IoT application from
“sensing” instead of “doing” to grow its
competitive advantages. This element empowers
organizations by allowing them to take the IoT
advantage and adopt a more ‘innovative
connected approach’.
Infrastructure Management – Optimization of
Technology
New applications are now enhancing their level of
consumption. Likewise, manufacturing sector is also
Editor’s Choice
|September 2018|40
43. which land is fertile or which one is dry and predict
future fields.
IoT Technology Helps to Optimize Energy
Consumption
Integrated Sensing and Control system helps to optimize
energy consumption. IoT devices are integrated with
energy consumption systems in order to maintain
balance between power generation and energy usage. IoT
devices offer the opportunity to remotely gather
information. It enables advance functions like remote
controlling and changing light conditions. IoT
Technology work for home-based energy system which
provide power related information, energy consumption
and energy usage at homes. IoT devices set goals to
improve efficiency, reliability and sustainability of the
energy system.
Monitoring Environment through IoT Technology
Environment monitoring application has been involved
with sensors to assist information about environment
changes by identifying water quantity, atmosphere, air
pressure etc. It also has focus on monitoring movements
of wildlife and their habitats. Devices connected to the
internet also provide statistics about earthquake or
tsunami - early warning systems, and also used as an
emergency system. IoT device application is used to
collect geographic information and majorly instructive
information. This device also uses standardized approach
to bring wireless sensing technique and gather finest
information.
IoT Technology Helps to Sustain Building and Home
Automation
With certainty, IoT devices are used to monitor and
control the mechanical, electrical and electronic systems.
IoT devices are used in various types of home
automation and building automation systems. Control
and sensory applications offer unified information. The
integration of the internet with building creates an
energy management system which will allow prominent
energy efficiency.
There have been many ways for IoT technology to
expand compatibility in the digital world, and it will be
implemented in each sector to work as an important tool,
to enhance its affinity. After all, the IoT network makes
technology more unified and satisfying, with its tools and
applications and IoT will be a step ahead towards
numerous opportunities.
getting engrossed and achieving excellence through IoT
Techniques. Applications are liable for monitoring and
controlling operations for urban and rural manufactures
like bridges, farms, and railway tracks. It is the key
features of the applications were IoT infrastructure is
also used for monitoring the construction safety and risk
management system and operations. This major feature
represents the mechanism of IoT application which
works under infrastructure management. Benefits of IoT
Technology are cost reducing, time reducing, better in
quality, and increase productivity. It helps to make fast
decisions and save money with real-time analysis. IoT
devices help to give prominent results by monitoring and
controlling operations used in all infrastructure related
area.
Manufacturing Techniques are Growing with IoT
Technology
In the manufacturing sector, networking and controlling
have been used with IoT devices. It provides information
about data and operation stability. Network status and the
information is collected in the system by tracking IoT
device. Manufacturing control process deliver
information about industry application and smart
manufacturing details receiving form IoT device. IoT
intelligent system enables sharing information about
product demands, service management, supply chain
networks, sensors and control systems together. Small
industries can also be integrated with IoT technology
that enables real-time optimization, measurements,
production compatibility and safety management.
However, intelligent systems are determined as the
significant technique that implies user experience and
system security which ultimately saves costs.
IoT Technology brings Innovative Farming Methods
The Agriculture sector is one of the industry to
implement IoT technology for stability and better
performance. IoT technology has become a significant
method of farming. It also offers durability and
functionality to the whole process. The combination of
wireless sensors with agricultural apps and cloud
platforms benefits in gathering definite information
relating to environmental conditions like, rainfall,
temperature, humidity, wind speed etc. Farmers are
getting competent results out of it, and are able to find
real-time information easily. Linked with farmland, it
improves and automates farming techniques like weather
information, taking decision on quality and quantity, and
minimizes risk and waste. With IoT Tech farmers can
find out detailed information of farm and similarly know
|September 2018| 41
44.
45.
46. Committed to providing best in class business
network solutions in underserved regions from Port
Hardy, British Columbia to Gander, Newfoundland
WireIE Holdings International Inc. is working around the
clock. In a brief interview with Insights Success, Rob
Barlow, the President & CEO of WireIE speaks to a few of
the challenges the organization has faced, and strategies it’s
incorporated to ensure WireIE’s standing in the industry.
Let’s have a look at what the leader has to say about his
organization.
Give a brief overview of WireIE, its solutions and
services?
Rob: WireIE Holdings International Inc. builds, deploys,
and operates Broadband network solutions in underserved
regions across Canada and the Americas. Our specialty is
owning and operating carrier grade Metro Ethernet Forum
(MEF) certified networks for oil and gas, mining, utilities,
healthcare, financial services, retail and government
industries.
How do you diversify your Telecom Solutions so that
they will benefit all of your customers?
Rob: Agility is key. WireIE is operating in communities
that have been leaning on unreliable connectivity – if they
even have access at all. We can’t always turn to the sort of
solutions most people take for granted in bigger cities.
We’ve diversified our offerings to reflect that. We sell
wholesale access to Tier 1 and Tier 2 network operators
throughout Canada, and the US. We’ve also helped create
small Internet service providers like FirstTEL, an
Indigineous business, where we were able to offer a triple
play Internet, VoIP and 290 Channels of IP TV. This
offering is typically one-tenth the cost of traditional
network deployments.
Please describe the experiences, achievements or lessons
learnt that have shaped the journey of WireIE?
Rob: I started as a lineman with Hydro One 25 years ago.
We were using two-way radios and doing everything on
paper. I always knew there had to be a better way. After a
decade of doing that I left to work for Clearnet, and later
Telus when it acquired Clearnet. It was revolutionary what
Clearnet was doing with the Motorola iDEN network at the
time. It had always been in the back of my mind during my
lineman days, but that got me thinking about how we
should be putting more effort into connecting these
communities. Even now, all these years later it’s absolutely
baffling how many of communities don’t even have
adequate broadband infrastructure.
What role do WireIE’s innovations play in transforming
the industry?
Rob: I think, above all, we want to have a social impact.
We’re creating channels for voices where there’s a
precedence of exclusion and isolation from the digital
economy. It’s a digital divide perpetuated by inadequate
Bridging the Digital
Divide Across Canada
and the Americas
Rob Barlow
President & CEO
WireIE:
|September 2018|44
47. assessment of needs. The onus is being put on these
communities to prove the needed funding incentives for
broadband infrastructure, but most of these communities
lack the technical talent or resources to assess their high-
speed infrastructure, as well as the commercial knowledge
and buying power. When they do build infrastructure,
they’re often requesting fibre-optics as a fix-all. It’s a
business case that is dependant on subsidies for initial
infrastructure with no funding for the operational costs that
continue to be an ongoing escalating barrier. We’re trying to
demonstrate that the typical incentive model isn’t the best
solution. There are fourth generation technologies and
commercial models capable of delivering reliable
broadband connectivity to underserved markets.
Please give us a brief explanation regarding your
influence towards the industry and the company?
Rob: I’m trying to drive this conversation surrounding the
digital divide both through WireIE’s mandate and as a
public individual. With WireIE, I’ve spent over a decade
laying the groundwork, bringing these underserved
communities access to the digital economy and the high-
speed broadband infrastructure needed to compete in the
21st century. It’s about inclusion, and that drives most of
what we do.
What are WireIE’s future goals?
Rob: Bringing all underserved markets the same service
you would get in metropolitan areas is an ongoing long-
term strategy. We definitely still have a lot of ground to
cover. There’s no reason why more people can’t be
empowered with connection. We’d love to see governments
at all levels change the conversation and tone of the
discussion, recognizing that broadband in relation to
underserved markets requires a different approach before
incentive programs for capital are utilized. Beyond that, our
goal is delivering Industrial Internet of Things networks to
remote, heavy industry like liquid natural gas exploration
and production facilities.
Considering the rising number of Telecom solution
providers, how does WireIE stand out from its
competitors?
Rob: Partnering is in our DNA and we utilize these
partnerships to get underserved markets connected and give
them a voice. There’s strength in what we’ve formed and
it’s still in the works. The partnership with Frontline 360
Inc. is a prime example. We’re an exclusive distributor of
the Internet Protocol TV (IPTV) VoIP and Internet for
Indigenous communities in Canada. This is the sort of
technology that is going to give these communities access
to the digital economy and close the divide.
We’re creating channels
for voices where there’s a
precedence of exclusion
and isolation from the
digital economy.
About the Leader
Rob Barlow is the President and CEO of WireIE. An
entrepreneurial leader by nature, Rob Barlow has been a
key force in the introduction of several high profile
technologies into the Canadian Telecommunications sector.
Rob brings progressive senior experience in the IT, Wireless
Internet, Energy and Telecommunications sectors. He’s held
various strategic positions at TELUS and Hydro One.
About the Company
WireIE is an industry leader that delivers purpose built
business networks, bridging the digital divide across
Canada and the Americas. WireIE sells wholesale access to
Tier 1 and Tier 2 networks operators, and direct to large oil
and gas developers. The company specializes in owning and
operating carrier grade Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF)
certified networks to connect the underserved in oil and gas,
mining, utilities, healthcare, financial services, retail and
government industries. WireIE has become the first carrier
worldwide with a focus on underserved region networks to
receive the Metro Ethernet Forum Carrier Ethernet 2.0
certification for service operators.
|September 2018| 45
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Providers to Watch 2018
TheThe
48. The pace of software
development has kicked into
high gear, with new versions
being churned out at a breakneck
pace. In hopes of shortening the
development cycle, organizations are
fast adopting the DevOps model
which relies far more on automation,
new practices, and of course
continuous tools to help get the job
done.
The DevOps model was established
to improve coordination between the
development and production teams,
making the process of getting new
software out the door faster and
smoother. The rapid release of new
updates to applications like we see
from companies such as Netflix and
Facebook has done a great deal to
improve the user experience,
providing them with better products,
and changing our expectations for
how a top notch software house
should perform.
One of the ways that teams working
with DevOps have achieved these
results stems from a significant
amount of “shifting left” various
checks on the code and increasing
visibility across teams for better
efficiency.
While this shift to a more agile
methodology has proved to have
significant results in getting high
quality releases out on tighter
schedules, the question moving
forward is how to keep the code
secure?
There is now an understanding
throughout the industry that securing
the code should be a core business
objective. This has led to DevOps’
evolution into the DevSecOps model
that looks to integrate security
practices into the DevOps tool chain.
Making this shift can be a scary
endeavor for many organizations
who had never quite succeeded in
implementing security even before
they moved to the faster DevOps
model. Changing practices within
your organization, while challenging,
can actually help to overcome a
number of important challenges,
especially as they relate to
prioritization.
Reducing Friction Between
Development and Security Teams
There is already a lot of friction
between security teams and
developers, with security doing their
hardest to get an already stressed
engineering staff to address
vulnerabilities that they are unable to
see as directly affecting their product,
and therefore not really worthy of
their time and attention.
From the developer’s point of view,
their first priority is pushing out a
product that performs its basic
functions without crashing. Security
for them is an added bonus, but more
often just an extra pain that slows
down their release schedule.
However, in a DevSecOps model that
uses the right automated tools,
security does not have to come at the
expense of sticking to the timeline.
One of the tools that developers
depend on for making their tight
schedules are open source
components. These components,
which are written and maintained by
the open source community and
Putting the Sec in DevOps with
Automated Tools
Tech Revolution
|September 2018|46
49. make up between 60-80% of the code base in modern
applications, give developers the powerful features that
they need for their products without forcing them to
reinvent the wheel.
Unfortunately, developers do not have a practical way of
manually keeping track of which open source
components have known vulnerabilities before they add
them to their products or monitoring said products post
release when new vulnerabilities are reported. These
oversights can have significant effects like we saw in the
Equifax breach last September when hackers exploited a
vulnerable version of Apache Struts 2 in the company’s
web portal to steal the personally identifiable information
belonging to over 145.9 million people.
The application security testing tools that they were
using help protect their proprietary code were unable to
catch this vulnerable component because only Software
Composition Analysis (SCA) solutions are able to
identify and alert on open source components with
known vulnerabilities. To put it bluntly, they lacked the
proper automated tools for the job.
Simply put, if a security team does not know which
components they are using, and which ones are
vulnerable, then they cannot direct their development
team on what to patch or where.
Establishing Facts Based Prioritization Through
Adoption of Automated Tools
Visibility is key element of DevSecOps and is invaluable
for communicating to developers why remediating
certain vulnerabilities should be prioritized. This is
where automation can cut the amount of friction of
having a security team member sitting on the
development crew.
Using the right continuous, automated tools at the
earliest, and even later stages of the DevOps tool chain
can add improved visibility to the process and make the
product’s code significantly more secure. Whether it is
helping developers to choose the right components
before they even make a pull request from open source
repositories, using a selection tool like the Web Advisor
to check if the component meets their organization’s
policies for security, license compliance, and even
quality, can help save time on remediations after the
code has already been compiled.
Moreover, technology like WhiteSource’s Effective
Usage Analysis can be a game changer for keeping code
secure. According to our research into Java, 70% of
vulnerable functionalities in open source components are
not in fact effective, and therefore do not have a direct
impact on their product. Practically, this means a 70%
reduction in the scope of alerts that need to be addressed
for remediation, making prioritization an easier task.
Automating this process of analyzing the open source
components and presenting the data on a platform that is
accessible for all participants of the DevSecOps tool
chain to see can help to pass on the message of what is
most important, providing evidence that remediations are
really worth their time and effort.
Rami Sass
CEO
WhiteSource Software
|September 2018| 47