Cisco increases channel digital marketing

Networking giant Cisco has spruced up its channel digital marketing programme.

The vendor said that the customer buying process is increasingly going digital with two-thirds of B2B transactions starting online with users 60 per cent towards deciding before they even speak to a channel salesperson.

In an announcement, Cisco said that to make it easier for channel partners to increase their digital marketing skills, the vendor is launching a Marketing Velocity programme.

V1 backs Sage’s cloud vision with RPA software upgrade

V1 has released a new version of its Robotic Process Automation (RPA) software to support technology giant and partner Sage in its plans to become a cloud-centric company.

The Invoice Automation solution, which Sage’s reseller community is already offering to its customers, includes enhanced cloud capabilities to ensure close integration with Sage X3. Key functional aspects to V1’s upgrade include a more straightforward and more responsive and modern interface to enhance the customer experience further, supporting Sage and its resellers’ intentions to help organisations make the most of the cloud.

Kathy Quashie joins Vodafone

Vodafone today announced that Kathy Quashie had joined the company as Head of Partnerships & Alliances.  She will provide support to Vodafone’s partners.

She will help flog its mobile, fixed, converged and Internet of Things (IoT) solutions to businesses of all sizes across the UK.

Quashie is looking to recruit new partners. Kathy joins from BT where she led the Major Business Team for nearly four years.

Vlocity and KCOM team up

Cloudy software provider and Vlocity has teamed up with UK communications and IT services outfit KCOM.

They have signed an agreement to leverage the Vlocity Communications Cloud to boost digital transformation initiatives across its sales, marketing, and customer care organisations.

KCOM connects businesses and residential In Hull and East Yorkshire and has 140,000 consumers and businesses in the region. It was recently named Best Consumer Internet Service Provider at the 2019 Internet Service Providers Association (ISPA) Awards.

Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple will face regulation

Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple will face regulation in ten main areas over the coming years, with data privacy representing the main focus, warned  GlobalData.

GlobalData’s latest report: ‘Data privacy – Thematic research’ states that Big Tech companies have persistently evaded any form of accountability for data breaches, election manipulation, obstruction of justice, promotion of terrorist material, fake news, and online abuse perpetrated through their own internet platforms.

AWS growth slows

Amazon’s cloudy business seems to have skipped a beat as the outfit fell short of what the cocaine nose jobs of Wall Street predicted.

The retail giant’s net sales increased 20 percent year on year to $63.4 billion for the three months ending 30 June 2019.

The revenue figure beat market expectations, but its growth figure fell short of what analysts had predicted.

Amazon Web Services (AWS), its cloud business, generated revenue of $8.3 billion in the quarter, up 37per cent on the same period last year, but falling slightly short of analyst expectations.

Intel jacks up CPU production

Chipzilla has told the world+dog that it is easing some of the problems that have plagued the supply of CPUs over the last year by stepping up production.

The PC market has struggled with shortages at a time when the commercial segment has been growing with many customers taking measures to migrate away from Windows 7 before support ends in January .

Intel’s CEO Bob Swan said that the supply issues were easing and PC demand continued to improve, particularly in the commercial segment.

Global semiconductor sales to decline this year

Beancounters at analyst firm Gartner have added up some numbers and divided them by their collective shoe sizes and predicted a 9.6 percent  decline in worldwide semiconductor revenue in 2019.

Big G said that the market will fall to $429 billion from the $475 billion recorded last year.

The drop means OEMs and hardware suppliers in the channel will see demand-driven oversupply in the DRAM market that will slash pricing down by 42.1 percent. All this will last until the second quarter of 2020.

NCC increases sales team

NCC Group is sprucing up its sales team to improve its UK business.

The cybersecurity VAR posted overall revenue of £250.7 million in its preliminary results for its fiscal year ending 30 May 2019. This represents a seven and a half percent rise on last year’s figure.

But its Escrow business witnessed a decline of nearly three per cent to £38 million, with a 10.7 percent increase in North America offset by a six and a half percent decline in the UK.

CEO Adam Palser said that the company has added 44 heads to its UK escrow sales teams in order to return it to growth.

Softcat getting the cream

Softcat has provided an update saying that its fourth fiscal quarter is going well.

Softcat plc primarily acts as a value-added IT reseller and IT infrastructure solutions provider in the United Kingdom. The company manages technology for businesses and public sector organisations, such as software licensing, workplace technology, networking, security, and cloud and datacenter.

Customers are ready for SD-WAN

Beancounters at IDC have added up some numbers and concluded that customers are keen on the much-hyped SD-WAN tech.

The analyst house is expecting impressive growth in the SD-WAN infrastructure market with the enterprise segment of the networking market growing at a 30.8 percent compound annual growth rate between 2018 and 2023 to hit revenues of $5.25 billion.

IDC’s Network Infrastructure expert Rohit Mehra said that SD-WAN is one of the fastest-growing segments of the network infrastructure market and several factors were driving the growth. Traditional WANs were failing to meet the needs of digital businesses, “especially as it relates to supporting SaaS apps and multi- and hybrid-cloud usage”.

Honeywell launches new software partner programme

Honeywell has launched its Independent Software Vendor Programme, giving partners and software vendors a platform to serve distribution centres, healthcare, manufacturing, retail, and transportation and logistics customers.

The global programme allows software vendors to join Honeywell’s ecosystem, which includes distributors and reseller partners specialising in mobility, scanners, printers and voice solutions. Vendors can collaborate and work with customers to find solutions for Honeywell’s Mobility, Edge-enabled mobile computers and data capture products.

UKFast grows fast

Cloud player UKFast has seen revenues have increased by double digits thanks to enterprise customers looking for private or hybrid cloud support has helped UKFast deliver substantial numbers for its last financial year.

In 2018 the outfit saw a 12 percent increase in organic revenue and a climb to £53.9 million in revenues from £48.3 million a year earlier.

The enterprise hosting division did the best and now accounts for 43 percent of total sales. Staffing levels increased by 23 percent as it hired more cloud security, networks and remote desktop service expertise.

Gartner roasts big cloud

Analyst outfit Gartner has waded into the Big Public Cloud providers saying that they have reliability issues and poor services.

Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud remain in the Leaders segment, while Oracle, Alibaba and IBM retain their positions in the Niche Players quadrant. However, AWS, Microsoft and Google were blasted by Big G.

RingCentral releases new products for partners

Cloudy outfit RingCentral has released a new generation of cloud communications solutions to its channel partners.

For those not in the know, RingCentral provides a single cloud platform with multimodal communications capabilities including voice, video, online meetings, team messaging, and digital customer engagement.

With Westcon acting as a master agent for RingCentral initially in the UK and Ireland, it is anticipated that Westcon will draw on its established EMEA footprint to extend RingCentral’s reach across multiple markets in Europe.