The IT Nerd

 Martello Technologies Group Inc., a provider of experience management solutions purpose-built for Microsoft Teams, today announced a partnership with leading managed services provider Yorktel. The collaboration will bring Vantage DX to customers through Yorktel’s Modern Workplace as a Service (MWaaS) offering. Vantage DX is the Microsoft-recommended software that proactively detects problems before they impact Microsoft Teams users, providing tools to resolve these problems faster and optimize the Teams user experience.

A Microsoft Operator Connect partner headquartered in the United States, Yorktel is a leading provider of collaboration and managed service solutions for enterprise, public sector, education and healthcare customers worldwide. Committed to addressing hybrid workplace challenges, Yorktel has chosen Vantage DX for its MWaaS offering, to proactively manage the Microsoft Teams performance and user experience for its customers, maximizing uptime and productivity.

The partnership has already yielded a sales deal with a large North American multinational investment management firm with more than 40 locations globally to manage the Teams user experience for 5,000 employees in the US and Canada. This project also supported a major Federal Department requiring strict security provisions. With Microsoft Teams a mission-critical part of Yorktel’s offering, they expect to integrate Vantage DX into all new deployments.

Microsoft Teams experience management has become a pressing concern for enterprises and managed service providers. The recent State of Microsoft 365 Performance Management report produced by research firm EMA exposed an important blind spot for enterprise IT teams. While 81% of Teams users cited Teams performance issues such as poor video or audio quality as having a high or significant impact on their productivity, only 7% of IT teams said they had an accurate view of how Microsoft Teams is performing for users. Vantage DX closes this visibility gap for enterprises and managed service providers.

Interested in learning more about Martello’s Microsoft-recommended Vantage DX solution for Microsoft Teams? Read about Martello’s Partner Program and about Vantage DX.

Martello Technologies Group Inc., a leading developer of enterprise digital experience monitoring (“DEM”) solutions, announced today that it has entered into an amendment to its commercial agreement (the “Amended Agreement”) with key partner Mitel Networks Corporation (“Mitel”). Martello has worked with Mitel for more than ten years, providing its performance analytics software for Mitel’s enterprise customers and partners.

Martello’s original agreement with Mitel dates back to March 2012, with subsequent amendments over the last ten years. Updating a previous amendment with Mitel signed in January 2019, the Amended Agreement sets out the commercial terms under which Martello provides the Mitel Performance Analytics (“MPA”) software for sale to Mitel customers and partners. The Amended Agreement applies to enterprise-wide Mitel sales of MPA, simplifying the commercial licensing model to provide increased operational efficiency and ease for partners and customers, while increasing the contract term to three years with automatic two-year renewals, subject to certain conditions set out in the Amended Agreement. MPA is available as part of the Mitel Premium Software Assurance offering as well as the MiVoice Business Subscription and MiCloud Flex.

Martello Technologies Group Inc. is a technology company that provides digital experience monitoring (DEM) solutions to optimize the modern workplace. The company’s products provide actionable insight on the performance and user experience of cloud business applications, while giving IT teams and service providers control and visibility of their entire IT infrastructure. Martello’s software products include Vantage DX, which provides Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Teams end user experience monitoring and optimization. Martello is a public company headquartered in Ottawa, Canada with employees in Europe, North America and the Asia Pacific region. Learn more at http://www.martellotech.com

Martello Technologies Group Inc., a leading developer of enterprise digital experience monitoring (“DEM”) solutions for Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Teams is pleased to announce that TechTarget and SearchUnifiedCommunications.com have recognized Martello Vantage DX with a Network Innovation Award: TechTarget: Vantage DX brings digital experience monitoring to Teams.

As the COVID-19 pandemic changes the way people work, the adoption of video conferencing and collaboration applications such as Microsoft Teams has skyrocketed. As businesses shift to a hybrid work model, experts predict that many will continue to rely on these applications to support both on-site and remote staff. It is in this context that TechTarget has chosen Martello Vantage DX as the latest winner of its Network Innovation Award, for its ability to proactively monitor the Microsoft Teams user experience in hybrid work environments.

According to TechTarget: “As employees increasingly depend on team collaboration suites to do their work, it becomes more important that the apps themselves consistently work as they should. And, in complex hybrid environments, traditional IT monitoring tools may not be up to the challenge. That’s where digital experience monitoring (DEM) enters the chat. Sometimes referred to as end-user experience management, DEM is a relatively new approach that involves correlating data from across on-premises infrastructure, cloud infrastructure, applications and endpoints. TechTarget is recognizing a notable new DEM platform, Vantage DX from Martello Technologies, as the latest winner of our Network Innovation Award for its impressive Microsoft Teams end-user experience monitoring capabilities. The Vantage DX suite combines call quality analytics and network path analysis to help enterprises find not just where problems exist, but also what’s causing them and how to fix them.”

Vantage DX is a single platform DEM suite designed to optimize the ‘work from anywhere’ Microsoft 365 and Teams user experience. Vantage DX provides industry-leading Microsoft 365 and Teams user experience monitoring and analytics capabilities, allowing IT teams to rapidly prioritize and resolve performance issues impacting the user experience, and proactively optimize future performance. Request a Demo of Vantage DX.

Related Resources

TechTarget: Vantage DX brings digital experience monitoring to Teams.
Vantage DX Use Cases
Buyer’s Guide: Microsoft Teams Performance Monitoring Solutions
Video: Optimize Microsoft 365 Reliability & User Experience with Martello Vantage DX

 Martello Technologies Group Inc., a leading developer of enterprise digital experience monitoring (“DEM”) solutions with a focus on Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Teams, is pleased to announce it placed No. 148 out of 448 companies on the 2021 Report on Business ranking of Canada’s Top Growing Companies, moving up the rankings after placing 205^th in 2020 and 206^th in 2019.

Canada’s Top Growing Companies ranks Canadian companies on three-year revenue growth. Martello earned its spot with three-year growth of 297%.

Martello’s Vantage DX solution provides monitoring and analytics that offer actionable insights into the performance and user experience of Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Teams, no matter where the user is located. The Company provides this solution to companies of any size, having recently launched its Partner Program, in which managed service providers (MSP) and value-added resellers (VARs) can elevate their Microsoft 365 service offering for small and medium businesses with Martello DEM. 

Launched in 2019, the Canada’s Top Growing Companies editorial ranking aims to celebrate entrepreneurial achievement in Canada by identifying and amplifying the success of growth-minded, independent businesses in Canada. It is a voluntary program; companies had to complete an in-depth application process in order to qualify. In total, 448 companies earned a spot on this year’s ranking.  The full list of 2021 winners, and accompanying editorial coverage, is published in the October issue of Report on Business magazine—out now—and online. 

Related Resources

• Vantage DX Overview
• Vantage DX Use Cases
• Webinar: Optimizing Microsoft Teams Voice When Returning to the Office Only Complicates Things. Register Now.
• E-Book by Microsoft MVP Nick Cavalancia: Working in the New Normal: Optimizing Microsoft Teams Performance for the Modern Workplace

Martello Technologies Group Inc.,, a developer of enterprise Digital Experience Monitoring (“DEM”) solutions announced today the launch and controlled availability of the iQ digital experience analytics platform with integrated Microsoft 365 monitoring. The product launch, part of Martello’s FY22 growth plan, comes as Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) released a report this week which presents a business case for Martello DEM for enterprises using Microsoft 365.

Teaming Martello iQ and Gizmo Microsoft 365 monitoring gives businesses the ability to know, understand and act on Microsoft 365 performance and availability by combining insight into the end user experience with actionable context about the user’s IT and network environment. Martello is making it easier for businesses to achieve these benefits by integrating the iQ and Gizmo solutions into a common platform. The solution, part of Martello’s FY22 growth plan, is now in controlled availability, with Gizmo customers receiving early access to the integrated iQ platform.

The report, authored by EMA Research Director Valerie O’Connell, looks at the Threshold of Investment (TOI) of Martello’s Microsoft DEM solutions, an approach which combines quantifiable metrics and qualitative gains to determine the point at which it makes more business sense to invest in an improvement than to continue funding the status quo. According to O’Connell, the TOI case for Martello is compelling and clear.

According to the EMA report, Microsoft 365 health is directly connected to employee productivity, making DEM a C-Suite priority. Furthermore, with the global workforce shifting to remote work in response to the global pandemic, workers are relying on Microsoft 365, and Microsoft Teams in particular, more than ever before. Martello CEO John Proctor echoes this sentiment, saying: “The CIOs and CEOs I speak with view Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Teams as a critical pillar in driving the productivity of their entire workforce, no matter where they are. Because of this, DEM is increasingly being seen as a ‘must have’, rather than a ‘nice to have’.”

Martello Technologies Group Inc., announced today that its iQ software solution has received a 4.5/5 rating in a product review by Microsoft MVP Brien Posey, published on TechGenix. Martello iQ is a digital experience and IT analytics platform that consolidates and analyzes data from multiple monitoring, IT services management and business applications for a more comprehensive view of how critical services and applications, such as Microsoft 365 are performing.

TechGenix, which provides content and reviews to millions of IT professionals globally, published the ‘gold star’ review this month, highlighting the tool’s unique value to enterprise IT professionals. The review cited several factors in determining the Martello iQ product’s score, including the dozens of integrations it supports, ingesting data from all of the disparate tools that an enterprise class organization is likely to be using. The solution’s multitenancy is another critical capability highlighted by Posey, allowing IT teams to monitor multi-cloud environments such as multiple Azure subscriptions. The Martello iQ software’s ability to not only ingest but also perform root cause analysis dramatically reduces the time required to solve problems, by reducing the complexity that is inherent in monitoring hybrid cloud resources. This can help organizations increase the availability of critical IT services.

Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) in the Netherlands uses iQ: “Martello’s solutions have grown with us and helped us manage our multi domain and hybrid cloud environment more effectively,” said Willem Bouwman, IT Specialist, SQL Database and Monitoring Engineer in the Information Technology and Digital Innovation department of Leiden University Medical Center. Read the Leiden University Medical Center Case Study.

Here’s a video that gives you an overview of Martello iQ:

 Martello Technologies Group Inc., today announced two initiatives as part of a strategic investment to strengthen its DEM capabilities.

The Company has entered into a share purchase agreement (the “Share Purchase Agreement“) dated April 28, 2020 to acquire 100% of the shares of GSX Participations SA (“GSX“), a provider of end-user experience monitoring for Microsoft Office 365 headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland with more than 400 enterprise customers globally. The consideration for the acquisition is 22,000,000 common shares and CDN$13,860,000 cash for an aggregate purchase price of $18,700,000, subject to adjustment (the “Purchase Price“), 

Martello intends to close debt financing concurrently with the closing of the Transaction. Financing provided by Vistara Capital Partners will fund the acquisition of GSX, while a secured revolving credit facility from National Bank of Canadawill be made available to Martello to draw upon from time to time to finance its day to day operations. The transaction is subject to the completion of standard conditions of closing for this type of transaction, including the completion of the financings as well as conditions regarding minimum cash and available cash at closing. Additional information about the transaction and the debt financings above are detailed in this press release. Closing is expected by May 28, 2020.

Martello also announced today that, as part of an enhanced focus on its software as a service (SaaS) -based DEM strategy, the Company has completed a strategic review of all operations and is taking steps to achieve efficiencies across the organization. As a result, Martello has reduced its workforce with a specific focus on the former Elfiq division, and is in discussions with a third-party regarding a divestment of this division. These decisions have been taken in the context of rapidly expanding global remote work requirements and the resulting opportunity created in the SaaS-based DEM market, and by the Company’s priority to achieve positive adjusted EBITDA in the near term. 

GSX Transaction Highlights and Commentary:

• Based on unaudited financial statements prepared by GSX for the year ended December 31, 2019: 
  • GSX generated €4.4M of revenues in FY2019, which is approximately CDN$6.6M. 
  • Pro forma consolidated Martello revenues on a trailing twelve-month basis are approximately $19.7M. 
  • Approximately 89% of total GSX revenue for its software during FY2019 was recurring, with Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) of approximately €0.3M, or CDN$0.45M. 
  • GSX billings from sales of Microsoft Office 365 digital experience monitoring increased by 34% in FY2019. 
  • GSX’s gross margins are approximately 90%. 
  • GSX EBITDA in FY2019 was (€1.1M)
• Complimentary to the earlier acquisition of Savision, the acquisition of GSX further extends Martello’s digital experience monitoring capabilities into Microsoft Office 365, which is the dominant business application platform used by Martello’s enterprise and SMB markets. 
• While this acquisition has been in negotiation and diligence for more than six months, recent events show the opportunity with Microsoft Office 365. The service has 200 million monthly active users, typically growing at a pace of 3 million users per month¹. With remote work increasing, Microsoft noted on March 19, 2020² an unprecedented spike in Teams usage, with daily users growing by 12 million in just seven days. 
• Once synergies are realized from integration, Martello believes that GSX should deliver positive adjusted EBITDA contribution, and with MRR and Office 365 monitoring growth trajectories, should help to deliver EBITDA margins typically associated with SaaS vendors. 
• GSX is a Microsoft Gold Partner in both Messaging and Cloud Productivity. 
• Near-term growth opportunities as a result of this transaction include: 
  • Integrating the GSX software into Martello’s multi-tenant cloud SaaS environment to provide a simplified deployment model for GSX’s existing target market (large enterprise and MSPs) while also expanding its addressable market to small and medium sized businesses. 
  • Offering Office 365 user experience monitoring to existing Martello customers and partners, many of whom use or sell Office 365.

Transaction and Financing Details

Through its wholly owned subsidiary, Martello Technologies Corporation (“MTC“), Martello will purchase all the issued and outstanding securities of GSX. The Purchase Price is payable as follows: (i) a cash payment of CDN$13,860,000 and (ii) the issuance of 22,000,000 common shares of the Company (the “Common Shares“) to the shareholders of GSX (the “Vendors“). Upon completion of the transaction, it is expected that the Vendors will own 9.5% of the issued and outstanding shares of Martello on an undiluted basis. While no new insiders will be created upon closing, the Martello Shares issued to GSX’s largest Vendor will be subject to a 4-month plus 1 day hold period. Sampford Advisors acted as exclusive M&A adviser to Martello on this transaction. The transaction does not constitute a Fundamental acquisition as per TSXV Policy 5.3.

As part of the transaction described above, MTC will complete debt financing with Vistara Capital Partners (“Vistara“). Vistara will provide a subordinated secured term loan of US$8M (the “Term Loan“.  The Vistara credit agreement (the “Vistara Credit Agreement“) is dated April 27, 2020. The Term Loan is repayable within 36 months of closing and carries interest of the greater of (i) 12.50% per annum; and (ii) the U.S. prime rate plus 8.75% per annum calculated monthly in arrears on the outstanding principal amount. Vistara will take subordinated security interest in all the present and after acquired property of MTC, the Company, and the Canadian, US, Swiss, and Dutch subsidiaries of the Borrower (the “Corporate Guarantors“). Repayment of the Term Loan will be guaranteed by the Company and each of the Corporate Guarantors. 

As consideration for providing the Term Loan, Vistara will receive upon closing 12,777,273 bonus warrants to purchase Common Shares (“Bonus Warrants“) subject to the TSXV Policy 5.1 – Loans, Loan Bonuses, Finder’s Fees and Commissions (“TSXV Policy“). Each Bonus Warrant will be exercisable into one Common Share (a “Bonus Share“) at an exercise price of CDN $0.22 per Bonus Share for up to 36 months from closing (the “Expiry Time“), unless the Term Loan is repaid earlier, then the Expiry Time shall be reduced in accordance with TSXV Policy. Subject to TSXV approval, the Bonus Warrants may be exercised on a “cashless basis”. Furthermore, if at any time, after four months and a day after the Issue Date, the volume weighted average price (VWAP) of the Common Shares for any twenty (20) consecutive Trading Days on the TSXV, during which the total volume of common shares traded in such period exceeds 5,000,000, is equal to or exceeds CDN $0.44 being 100% premium on exercise price then all of the Bonus Warrants shall be deemed to be automatically exercised by Vistara on a cashless basis. The Bonus Shares will be subject to an initial four month plus one day hold period from the date of issuance of the Bonus Warrants. Issuance of the Bonus Warrants is subject to approval by the TSXV. Existing term debt to Royal Bank of Canada will be repaid on or prior to closing.

Additional Financing

In addition, National Bank of Canada (“National Bank” or the “Senior Lender“) has offered to provide a senior secured revolving credit facility of up to CDN $7.5M (the “Revolving Facility“) which MTC can draw upon from time to time to finance its day to day operations.  The National Bank credit agreement (the “National Bank Credit Agreement“) is dated April 27, 2020. It is comprised of a demand revolving line of credit and other ancillary facilities. The credit facility carries interest of Canadian Prime Rate plus 2.85% per annum. This facility will be undrawn at the close of the transaction.

The facilities provided by National Bank will be guaranteed by the Company and its subsidiaries in Canada, US, Netherlands, and GSX (the “Corporate Guarantors“) and will be secured against the property of MTC and of certain of the Corporate Guarantors. Repayment of the National Bank revolving facility is expected to also be guaranteed in part by Export Development Canada. 

Strategic Review Results

Martello has taken steps to achieve efficiencies in sales, general and administrative and development operations. As part of this initiative, the former Elfiq network technology division workforce has been reduced by approximately 70% through temporary layoffs, to focus on the SaaS-based components of Martello’s DEM strategy. The Company intends to exit the former Elfiq network technology business, and is in discussions with a possible buyer for the intellectual property and assets of this division. This operational change will allow Martello to allocate more resources to SaaS-based DEM activities, while reducing Martello’s operating cash burn immediately.

Martello has announced today that its UCScore web-based site qualification tool for unified communications (UC) deployments has become a key differentiator for channel partners and managed service providers that sell UC solutions. 

UCScore is a web-based site qualification tool that is designed to test voice call quality. It gives customers a clear, accurate assessment of the impact a planned UC deployment will have on their network. It requires no software installation, and unlike other bandwidth tests, it tests what matters to voice performance, to prevent jitter, latency and packet loss. UCScore works by sending packets (representing voice calls) between a customer site and the UCScore server, delivering an easy to understand summary of results online. The scores represent the R-Factor results of these simulated voice calls, which is a measure of call quality.

Related Resources:
UCScore Site Qualification

Mitel Performance Analytics

Martello Technologies Group Inc. (TSXV: MTLO) is a technology company that provides clarity and control of complex IT infrastructures. The company develops products and solutions that monitor, manage and optimize the performance of real-time applications on networks, while giving IT teams and service providers control and visibility of their entire IT infrastructure. Martello’s products include SD-WAN technology, network performance management software, and IT analytics software. Martello Technologies Group is a public company headquartered in Ottawa, Canada with offices in Montreal, Amsterdam, Paris, Dallas and New York. Learn more at http://www.martellotech.com

Martello Technologies Group Inc. today announced the latest release of Martello iQ, which includes new features designed to help IT teams better deliver services for remote and office workers.

Martello iQ is an IT Operations Analytics solution that unifies disparate monitoring tools, cloud platforms, and IT Service Management (ITSM) systems for improved troubleshooting, decreased downtime, and easier reporting. Performance and availability of business services such as Office 365 and unified communications (UC) is critical to the productivity of today’s increasingly remote workforce. The new release of Martello iQ helps IT teams manage the demands of an organization’s remote workforce by maintaining service levels around the clock and enabling performance analytics.

Denmark-based Københavns Professionshøjskole (University College Copenhagen) uses Martello iQ to consolidate data from multiple monitoring, IT service management, and business applications. The addition of Service Level Agreement (SLA) monitoring in the latest release of Martello iQ now also enables the education institution to ensure the reliable delivery of its business services.

Key features of the latest Martello iQ release:

Increased Focus on Service Level Agreement Monitoring

• Aligns IT teams and business stakeholders according to terms of Service Level Objectives (SLO) targets.
• Improves customer service and enables issues to be rectified proactively before impacting the end user by enabling SLOs to be configured for each business service and using these settings to calculate and display performance data.

Augmented Mitel Performance Analytics Alarm Management Capabilities

• Partners and enterprises using Mitel Performance Analytics (MPA), the UC performance analytics software developed by Martello, can now bring together unified communications and IT operations for complete ICT performance visibility and control.
• Rich dashboards now provide comprehensive visibility across all devices.

Martello Technologies Group Inc. is a technology company providing digital experience monitoring and optimization solutions that monitor, analyze and optimize the performance of real-time cloud services. Martello’s products include SD-WAN technology, unified communications (UC) performance analytics software, and IT analytics software. Its partners include Mitel, Microsoft and Paessler. Martello Technologies Group is a public company headquartered in Ottawa, Canada with offices in Montreal, Amsterdam, Paris, Dallas and New York. Learn more at http://www.martellotech.com