365 it services’ & LMS Capital Peter MacLean shuts Fox IT as part of his scheme

Posted by Chris on August 3rd, 2012

Peter MacLean used to refer to himself as Chairman of 365iT plc which was the holding company of Fox IT and recently became Fox IT Holdings as part of MacLean’s big plan.  Shareholders in MacLean’s companies are always kept in the dark, unless they are a big shareholder like LMS Capital.

How did Fox IT get to be put into administration at this stage in the game ??? The short answer is that probably MacLean wanted to put it into administration.

MacLean’s name was not on the letter sent out to shareholders of Fox IT Holdings. This is probably because he wants to avoid being seen as the person who first of all sold 365iT Plc’s crown jewels to LMS Capital ( when LMS Capital was not supposed to be buying anything but was going to be split up ) and then shut down Fox IT Holdings and it’s only company Fox IT.

The whole scheme is deliberately very complicated. What readers should most of all take from this is to ensure that they don’t get into any business dealings with MacLean. Don’t invest in any company in which he is involved; sell your company to any company that he is involved in or buy any company that he is involved in. You will not be able to believe anything that is said to you.

At the moment he is hovering around as Chairman of 365 it services ( which is basically owned by LMS Capital and MacLean and run by Peter Howells, former M.D. of 5i Limited ) and is still actually the Chairman of Fox IT Holdings, the owner of Fox IT, although as previously mentioned his name did not appear on the letter to shareholders telling them that Fox It was being put into administration. ( Creditors and partners of Fox IT should note that Fox IT is the only asset owned by Fox IT Holdings ).

So, the story is basically this: After a period when information provided to 365iT plc shareholders reduced to virtually nil they were suddenly told that most of the companies in the 365iT plc group were being sold to LMS Capital. Interestingly it turned out that MacLean was the only one to get paid back out of the money that LMS Capital paid for the 365iT plc companies and that then he put money into the new 365it services group owned by him and LMS Capital. Clearly he and someone at LMS Capital had arranged this deal.

Shareholders were then told that they would be informed about the ” future ” of 365iT plc and it’s only company Fox IT. Now lets bear in mind that 365iT plc was free and clear of all debts so all that was required was for Fox IT to trade profitably for the group to be profitable. But NO !! after a short period MacLean announces that there will be a change of name from 365iT plc to Fox Holdings Limited. ( The sale of the companies to LMS Capital did not, apparently, require the approval of all shareholders but the change of name did ??? ). This seems to be so that the LMS Capital owned company could trade as 365 it services or similar. Then in the last month shareholders were informed that the decision was that Fox IT would be put into adminstration. So a company completely free of debt and profitable suddenly needs to be put into administration. Well, there’s a surprise.

The fact that MacLean’s name is not on any of the paperwork is probably to do with the fact that he does actually realise that there is such a things as a Director’s fiduciary duty. He could well be called to account to explain how and why he sold off the most valuable companies to LMS Capital, netting a pay out to himself and then shut down a profitable company.

Shareholders in Fox IT are in discussion about the details of MacLeans big plan. Watch this space.

Internet Connection Dorset

Posted by Chris on June 14th, 2012

If you are looking for an Internet Connection in Dorset then you may be surprised to know that Poundbury Systems has had it’s own National Internet and Telephone network since the early 2000′s. Prior to that Poundbury’s owners built National I.P. ( Internet Protocol ) networks for other people.

Poundbury has a number of locations in London ( for resilience ) where we connect to the Internet and Telephone networks of the world. We provide U.K. Hosting facilities ( mainly )  in the London and Poundbury areas ( which is very important for websites that want to rank well in U.K. searches ).

Our deep, long standing and extensive knowledge of Internet ( and Telecommunications ) connectivity ensures that you get a different perspective on your Internet Connection requirements to that which you find from the ” major players ” .

We can, of course, provide a like for like solution to that offered by other companies but given that we can provide almost any sort of Internet connection, anywhere we like to concentrate on what is best for you. That means understanding your business requirements and objectives before providing a solution to you.

In addition to ” Landline ” ( copper or optical fibre cable ) connectivity we can provide wireless connectivity. Where required we can mix and match.

Obviously in rural areas there may be some bandwidth ( size of your Internet pipe ) restrictions but if you need high bandwidth and quality service then we will do our best to provide this wherever you are. If you need resilience and fault tolerance ( no single point of failure ) then we can provide this aswell.

So, pretty well, you can think to yourself that whatever your Internet Connection requirement is, Poundbury Systems can provide it. The question is more what you want and need ??

We can provide copper and fibre broadband Internet Connections at up to 75 Mbps and a U.K. Ethernet network at speeds up to a Gigabit per second.

Whatever your requirement please give us a call on:

01305 259849

What is happening in Telecommunications? – the view from Burton on Trent

Posted by Chris on March 24th, 2012

From where I sit near Burton-on-Trent nothing much has changed in ICT and Telecommunications solutions for 10 Years or so. Rubbish you might say – loads of things have changed. Part of my problem is that Voyager Networks – the company that I sold in 2000 – was way ahead of it’s time. We were a Voice over IP provider when it really was a new thing ( In fact I remember Cisco buying Celsius – whose equipment we were already using – to build some of the first VoIP systems ). We were a Managed Network Services Provider when it was a nightmare to be one ( by this I mean that there were all sorts of ” New Telco’s ” claiming to be ” better than BT ” when in fact they were much much worse. ( The problem was that we had to try them before we could find this out ). We had a ” Network Operations Centre ” ( NOC ) when this was a really cool thing to have – it even had a ” Bridge ” – and it also had some super cool software ( InfoVista ) to ” pro-actively manage our customer’s networks “.

We were only able to build and run these Managed Networks because we had some really great technical people who overcame all the technical issues that arose from being a leading edge Data Networking and Telecommunications Solutions Provider.

In fact the world has got a lot simpler in the last 10-15 years – nobody really disputes the fact that VoIP is the way to go. All the main ” telephone systems ” companies are now VoIP Solutions providers ( well actually they are Unified Communications providers having been Converged Solutions providers along the way ). Most of those Telcos are now dead and gone. ” Consolidation ” has happened big time in the Telecommunications Provider market. Network and device management software has got better and cheaper.

A look from Burton on Trent at my old companies website http://www.voyager.net.uk/partners/ serves to emphasize what I am saying – hardly anything has changed ! All of these products and services/solutions  http://www.voyager.net.uk/solutions/ were there years ago. The only hint of a change is in ” Mobility “.

A look at 365iT’s website is the same http://www.365itservices.co.uk/ ( 365iT bought 5i Limited a few years ago ). Can we find ANYTHING different ?? The only thing that stands out for me is ” Virtualization “. Server virtualization is a pretty hot area with VMware being a hot stock  http://www.forbes.com/sites/tomtaulli/2012/03/23/3-stock-picks-from-tech-ceos/ .

With nothing having changed I think one thing is certain – competition is fierce !! Which means price erosion.

If we look at Node4’s website http://www.node4.co.uk/ ( Node4 are Headquartered in Derby ) there is an indication of one of the main changes that have happened – Cloud computing. Words like ” Hosting ” and ” Co-location ” are prevalent on the Node4 website. Virtualization is also there.

In this article http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/vmware-cto-virtualization-is-swiss-army-knife-of-it/72151 Virtualization, Cloud Computing and BYOD ( Bring your own Device ) are the areas mentioned as being important by corporate, Revlon.

I think the real clue as where ICT and Telecommunications is going is in the phrase ” Any information, anywhere, on any device, at any time ” and the challenges that this brings both to the user ( who will have multiple communications streams coming through to whatever device they are using – more of which soon )   and also in the types of information and data that the user is accessing.

The drive to achieve this level of communication is what will drive and shape the infrastructure and Telecommunications solutions requirements.

Many companies are in denial over the use of social media ( and I am greatly amused by this as it seems to me that company management have not read or remembered their – recent – history. In our memory people have refused to accept that the personal computer would become ubiquitous, the mobile phone, emailing, texting etc etc and of course they have grown to be huge industries. Perhaps when Facebook IPO’s for $75-100 Million in the next month or so some management will start to take it and other Social Networks seriously ).

Personally I think that people will use social ( and social business ) applications alongside corporate applications and so for example the stream of communications to their smartphone, iPad and Laptop will include the ” Unified Communications bit ” ( voice calls, text and email ) and the ” Social Media bit ” and this will require the integration and control of all of those streams. Of course this is already happening for many people and it happened with the smartphone first – as looking at my Blackberry demonstrates – Messages, Text/SMS, Calendar, Phone, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Google+ etc etc.

As Revlon chief information officer David Giambruno says this demand for information drives certain infrastructure elements -e.g.  virtualized server farms, security to protect those servers, storage farms for the all the data – including back-up data, smartphone and iPad compatible applications N.B. The rise of companies like http://www.apperian.com/ who specialize in ” Mobile Application Management “.

Telecommunications solutions will be driven by the need to fulfill our desire for ” Anything, Everywhere ” communications.

Chris Windley, Burton on Trent.


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