PrintIT issue48

12 PRINT.IT 01732 759725 BULLETIN Sponsorship hat- trick from Midshire Midshire, the full-service technology reseller acquired earlier this year by Sharp Electronics Europe, is continuing to support sporting groups in the Midlands through sponsorship, print and design. It recently renewed its sponsorship agreement with Stockport County Community Foundation’s School Coaching Programme for a third consecutive year and is also providing £1,000 to the University of Manchester’s Netball Club to help fund training tops and bibs and other expenses, including team travel costs. Stockport County Community Foundation’s School Coaching Programme works with local schools to engage children of all ages in safe developmental activities around football. The Foundation’s Dave Wardle said: “Midshire supports the foundation with investment, design and print. Their sponsorship goes far beyond finance and has always felt very personal. As a registered charity we are completely reliant on donations, grants and sponsors, and it’s amazing to be supported by them once again.” The University of Manchester Netball Club has six teams and more than 60 active members. It was named Club of the Year at the Athletic Union Awards 2017. Other local organisations supported by Midshire include Stockport Metro swim club and NK Theatre Arts. www.midshire.co.uk Blackbox expands services with cloud telephony Office technology supplier Blackbox Solutions has added cloud-based telephony and unified communications to its growing portfolio of services, following an agreement with TelcoSwitch, winner of the Best Hosted Platform category at the Comms National Awards 2017. Colin Griffin, Managing Director of Blackbox Solutions, said: “This partnership will give Blackbox Solutions access to a comprehensive integrated suite of telecoms products, including VoIP telephony, conferencing, mobile, broadband and contact centre features, ensuring we can provide our clients with the best software and hardware solutions, tailored to their business needs.” Established in 2012, Blackbox Solutions offers businesses a flexible and full- turnkey solution for all their print, computer networking and IT services needs. www.blackbox-solutions.co.uk   Matthews the Printers digs deep London-based, family-run business Matthews the Printers has given £4,000 to the Fields of Life charity to go towards the construction of borehole wells in Uganda. Fields of Life aims to bring safe drinking water to over one million people by 2020. To date, it has completed the construction of 117 schools and 580 wells in Uganda, Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan. www.matthews-printers.co.uk Public sector business triples at UKFast Cloud hosting specialist UKFast is on track to triple public sector revenues in 2017, following a £2.3m investment in government data centre space and the acquisition of public sector cloud hosting firm Secure Information Assurance (S-IA). Recent business wins include a £250,000 deal with the Cabinet Office and a £375,000 deal with an undisclosed public sector organisation. Martin Knapp, head of public sector at UKFast, says that since S-IA joined forces with the hosting giant, his team has seen a marked increase in enquiries. “We’re investing heavily in Restricted LAN Interconnectors (RLI) for defence, our Public Services Network (PSN) for central government and the Health and Social Care Network (HSCN) for health service capabilities. That investment is reflected in a clear growth in the number and scale of the projects we’re being asked to deliver. The UK public sector is seeing us as an increasingly credible alternative to UKCloud and the US hyperscalers,” he said. Knapp added: “We’re also seeing a great deal of interest from private firms wanting to tap into our expertise and accreditations to help them sell into the public sector.” UKFast CEO Lawrence Jones adds that the technology group is seeing a significant rise in enquiries from the public sector for cybersecurity and ethical hacking services following several high-profile cyber-attacks that affected government and the public sector this year. He said: “The addition of our cybersecurity arm Secarma adds an extra dimension, which is proving valuable for our public sector clients who are putting security higher up the agenda when considering outsourcing.” UKFast recently announced half-year revenue of £22.9m, up 18% on H1 2016. It is on track to turnover £46m in 2017, up from £40m in 2016. www.ukfast.co.uk Commercial steps up to boost staff wellbeing An employee wellbeing initiative at Cheltenham-based business services specialist Commercial led to 40 staff taking nearly 13 million steps in a six-week walking challenge, at an average of 12,265 steps per employee, per day. The challenge was part of Commercial’s ongoing Green Angels programme, which stimulates and supports staff-led ideas for environmental and social initiatives. www.commercial.co.uk Lawrence Jones