ScanSource offloads its non-digital business

Posted on August 23, 2019 by - News

ScanSource has announced it plans to sell its non-digital business across the UK, the rest of Europe, Latin and South America totalling $623 million.

The US distributor posted poor Q4 financials where revenues decreased three percent to $960.8 million and operating income shrank four percent to $29.4 million.

The outfit said it will flog operations worth $623 million in revenues in Europe, including the UK, Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Peru and Miami in the US. The move will affect around 490 employees in its Barcode and Communications business.

EkkoSense hires Pete Le Noury for growth bid

Posted on August 23, 2019 by - Moving People, News

Data centre simulation specialist EkkoSense has appointed senior global operations specialist Pete Le Noury as the company’s Chief Operations and Chief Financial Officer.

Le Noury has been bought in to drive a planned growth phase. His appointment follows EkkoSense’s recent addition of Adrian Barker from Vertiv as Key Account Director, and also of data centre expert Mark Acton to the company’s board as a non-executive director.

Biometric security measures called into question

Posted on August 22, 2019 by - News

The significant breach and vulnerabilities recently discovered by vpnMentor researchers within Suprema’s BioStar 2 database are enough to scare any potential end-user away from biometric security measures, according to Frost & Sullivan security expert Danielle VanZandt.

VanZandt said that with more than a million fingerprint biometrics and user passwords exposed in the breach, BioStar 2 had become the first significant example of how biometric access still has its vulnerabilities that vendors, integrators, and end-users must be aware of before implementing any of these solutions within their organisation, she said

British customer service is getting worse

Posted on August 22, 2019 by - News

Helpshift has released new data revealing consumers’ opinions about the state of customer service and it is bad news for the British.

More than 59 percent of British consumers surveyed stated customer service is either not improving or getting worse, in contrast to only 46 percent of French, 45 percent of Americans, 38 percent of Germans and 34 percent of Dutch.

Panduit hires Kandziora

Posted on August 21, 2019 by - Moving People, News

Infrastructure outfit Panduit EMEA has appointed Martin Kandziora as Senior Marketing Manager. He will lead the international and country marketing teams with responsibility for developing and implementing marketing strategy and campaigns across Europe, the Middle East and Africa to support the developing activity of Panduit in the region.

Kandziora was Vice President Marketing and Communications for Rittal, a sizeable privately-owned manufacturer, where he spent 15-years. He holds a diploma in electrical engineering as well as an MBA. Martin Kandziora is involved with various professional associations and committees. He also writes articles for both the German and English-language press.

Feltech rescued from administration

Posted on August 19, 2019 by - News

Feltech has been rescued from administration by systems integrator Media Powerhouse, which has acquired its assets in a pre-pack deal.

According to AVinteractive, the St Albans Audiovisual (AV) reseller appointed an administrator on 12 August.   The White knight, in this case, was CEO Michael Breen who said that Feltech had become “heavily indebted”.

SCC sees pay off in IT systems and its Global Delivery centres

Posted on August 19, 2019 by - News

SCC has had good figures this financial year thanks to its investments IT systems and its Global Delivery Centres in the UK, Romania and Vietnam.

For the year ended 31 March, the firm saw turnover increase by 18 percent across EMEA to reach £2.2 billion, and operating profit for the UK operation was up by 16.9 percent to £18.7 million.

The UK leads the way with turnover growth of 23 percent, followed by France with 20 percent. SCC’s business saw a four percent improvement in services revenue over last year.

Actian expands global channel and channel programme

Posted on August 16, 2019 by - News

Data outfit Actian has announced the arrival of its new global partner programme which will provide new features and benefits for value-added distributors and system integrators.

AvalancheTM cloud data warehouse is supposed to provide a more than twenty times performance advantage over rival offerings such as AWS Redshift and Snowflake.

The company said channel partners were a key part of its strategic long-term growth plan and it was doubling its usual 10 percent  referral incentive to 20 percent through to the end of 2019.

Ciscos’s weak guidance could mean industry downturn

Posted on August 16, 2019 by - News

The tech industry could be facing a downturn after Cisco announced some lacklustre predictions for the fourth quarter.

Cisco showed sales for the three-month period ending 27 July climbing six percent to $13.4 billion.  But CEO Chuck Robbins said that the last month of the quarter “didn’t feel like a normal Q4 finish”, triggering Q1 revenue growth guidance of between zero and two percent.

Kings Walden water treatment works proves Affinity systems

Posted on August 16, 2019 by - News

After two years of testing at Affinity Water’s Kings Walden water treatment works, datumpin debuted its data technology designed to enhance existing Telemetry and SCADA information systems.

The UK-based datumpin specialises in the research, design, build, and operation of data systems that optimise complex water treatment, distribution, storage and disinfection equipment performance.

Brexit stalls SAP adoption

Posted on August 14, 2019 by - News

With concerns about how they will suffer after Brexit, companies are not so keen to invest in esoteric management software which no one knows what it actually does,according to a new report published today by Information Services Group.

Apparently, Enterprises in the UK are cautious about adopting SAP S/4HANA and other SAP products, given the uncertainty surrounding the country’s exit from the European Union.

SnapLogic doubles channel partners

Posted on August 14, 2019 by - News

SnapLogic has doubled its channel partners across EMEA in the last six months as part of the continued expansion of its Partner Connect Programme in the region.

The company claimed that this investment in strategic partnerships has resulted in growing customer adoption of the SnapLogic integration platform across key markets in EMEA, including the Nordics, Benelux, and the Middle East.

The 14 new partners that have signed since the start of the year include Comma Group in the UK, ebecs (a DXC Technology company) in the UK.