Schneider offers resellers route to manage data centres

Barcelona last week

Schneider Electric is offering a service to solution providers to offer a cloud management system to offer complex networks, edge facilities and distributed IT to their customers.

Launched at the Canalys Channel Forum in Barcelona last week, the company said it allows partners to make more money and offer their customers a way of monitoring infrastructures using what it claims is the first cloud based data centre management system, which Schenider describes as DmaaS – direct management as a service.

The system, called EcoStruxure IT Export for partners, can be sold to customers as a way of managing hybrid computer systems including data centres and private clouds. It uses predictive analytics to monitor systems.

The approach is vendor neutral and lets Schneider partners offer monitoring of power and cooling, letting them pitch end users visibility into their own infrastructures and monitor inventory, alarms and recommendations.

Home fixed wireless broadband emerging as early 5G use case

Operators racing to beat their competitors to 5G mobile services are using residential fixed wireless access (FWA) service to demonstrate leadership and boost their 5G street cred, according to a GlobalData report.

The company’s latest report: ‘5G Fixed Wireless – An Early 5G Use Case’ states that 5G FWA offers higher bandwidth than previous generations of fixed wireless, theoretically at lower costs once sufficient scale is reached. This in turn offers the ability to offer data speeds comparable to fiber in markets where deploying fiber is deemed too expensive.

Ed Gubbins, Mobile Infrastructure Senior Analyst at GlobalData, said: “Fixed-mobile integrated operators have shown particular interest in 5G FWA because it serves dual functions of enabling last-mile connectivity and providing a stepping stone to future mobile 5G. Fixed service providers have also shown interest in 5G.”

However, the technology has challenges, including in the spectrum bands envisioned for fixed wireless. According to Gubbins, “there has been particular interest in using millimeter wave (mmWave) spectrum for 5G, because of its high capacity and throughput potential. However, mmWave faces signal retention issues and limited propagation. These challenges are much more manageable at lower band sub-6 GHz spectrum; however, for fixed wireless, these bands are more likely to be used in rural areas”.

In addition to technical challenges, there is also an open question whether fixed wireless will ultimately become a widespread 5G use case. Gubbins concludes, “operators with existing fibre infrastructure, but which face difficulties in the high cost of last-mile delivery, are currently the most likely to benefit from 5G FWA to deliver last-mile services, but a successful 5G portfolio will need to include multiple services beyond fixed wireless to generate ROI. Vendors should address operator concerns about cost and longevity more directly, and with clearer timelines.”

Tollring spruces up analytics suite for BroadSoft Partners

Tollring has been showing off its new analytics suite to BroadSoft partners which includes speech analytics, business performance reporting and dashboards based on SLAs and enhanced customer interaction reporting,and an enhanced service provider management portal.

The outfit claims that the changes will bring in a new level of billing capability, offering enhanced analytics on customers and resellers, and auto-provisioning, capacity planning and product visibility.

Tony Martino, CEO of Tollring says, “We are continually strengthening our team and the evolving our analytics products and services.  Every year, we look forward to showcasing our latest enhancements at BroadSoft Connections and this year is no exception.  iCall Suite is proven in tier 1 and 2 service providers, built in the cloud, highly demonstrable and scalable, facilitates industry compliance, offers multi-language support for global rollouts and can be embedded in a service provider proposition as a fully white-label offering.  Our compelling value proposition to BroadSoft service providers has never been stronger and it continually evolves.”

 

Resellers moving to the cloud

Increasing demand for Cloud-based services has seen a further four resellers join Advanced’s partner programme TruePartner, since its launch in February this year.

Minerva UK, Deans Computer Services, HBP and BME Solutions have all demonstrated their commitment to helping SME customers transition to the Cloud.

Rewarding resellers for their Cloud-first strategy, TruePartner claims to provide “disruptive yet focused” Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions the channel can use to engage new customers.

Dean McGlone, Channel Director at Advanced, said: “Resellers are starting to see the breadth of opportunities the Cloud can deliver, and this is exemplified by the four new partners that have joined our TruePartner programme. We’ve found that an overwhelming number of SMEs across the country want to embrace the Cloud, but many lack the knowledge and experience to make the transition confidently. In fact, according to our research, just 33 per cent admit to being experienced in the Cloud.

“As part of TruePartner, each reseller is supported in delivering genuine Cloud solutions to their customers, while harnessing the benefits of a Cloud subscription service, from recurring revenue to client retention and acquisition. We’re continuing to see a need for Financial Management Solutions (FMS), but SMEs are increasingly demanding Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), which can be delivered with our Business Cloud Essentials solution.”

Advanced said n the SME community is “vocal” about the need for better support when it comes to transitioning to the Cloud. Advanced claims that a massive 88 percent of business leaders think Cloud providers need to do more to build confidence in the Cloud.

Jo Dixon, Managing Director at HBP, said: “We recognise that moving to the Cloud is not only right for our customers, but it also’s right for us and we’re looking to adapt quickly. Advanced is fully supporting the traditional reseller channel in its transformation to adopt the Cloud, proving to be the right partner for us.”

Patrick Clayton, Managing Director at Deans Computer Services PLC, stated “There’s a growing pace of shift to the Cloud, based on the huge benefits to end users. Our new partnership with Advanced gives us the opportunity to support businesses with their transformation, giving them a fully integrated, true Cloud ERP solution with all the advantages that offers.”

John Chadwick, Managing Director at Minerva, said:  “Minerva has been in business for 35 years. Over that period, we have cultivated a portfolio of “best of breed” applications which were designed primarily for on-premise situations and we have serviced that requirement from both our Applications software and our Networking teams.

The market is moving, be it conservatively, towards Cloud alternatives and we have been searching for some time for a suitable Cloud partnership. We are confident Business Cloud Essentials now fills that void, and we intend to embrace the opportunity.”

Ruckus provides finance for partners

Ruckus Networks has released details of its new Financial Services programme.

This programme is designed to help customers future-proof their Wi-Fi connectivity solutions by enabling investments in the latest networking technology through multiple financing options including leasing, zero per cent interest, and subscriptions. The new services allow Ruckus to provide technology solutions and total cost of ownership benefits that align with their customers’ and partners’ top financial metrics and business priorities.

Customers and partners seek ways to ease their upfront capital expenditure (CAPEX) yet remain competitive through new technology investments while increasing their bottom line. Ruckus created its Financial Services programme to address this need by helping customers and partners acquire the latest networking hardware, software and professional services with minimal upfront capital investment. After testing the programme earlier this year, it is now available worldwide.

UDT Sales Manager, Brian Smith said that his outfit had used Ruckus Financial Services to help fund a Large Public Venue project for our customer.

“With upfront and flexible funding, the Ruckus solution aligned with our budgetary, operational, and revenue generation objectives.”

Ruckus Financial Services recipients get a turnkey finance solution for all hard and soft costs, not just hardware components. This gives customers and partners the ability to keep existing bank funding lines intact, diversify their funding base and free up working capital for core business goals. For Ruckus partners, these expanded offerings also mean faster payment and more sales possibilities for their customer channels.

“We’re always looking for ways to simplify the buying process and ensure a seamless business transaction,” said Bart Giordano, Vice President of Worldwide Sales, Ruckus Networks. “By providing Ruckus technology total cost of ownership benefits with flexible financial solutions, we can help our customers and partners meet and exceed their financial and business goals.”

VAD Progress appoints Simon Burgess UK MD

Cybersecurity VAD Progress Distribution has appointed a new UK MD, with founder so that  its CEO John Quinn (pictured) can turn his attention to the outfit’s European expansion.

Quinn has now made Simon Burgess UK MD so he can focus more on expansion into Germany. He said Germany was a different market from the UK but vendors want the company to do well there.

“We are being backed by several of our vendors to increase market share in Germany, so I am going to make sure that I am spending more time there, and also more time in the Nordics, to spearhead Europe,” Quinn said.

Quinn said that expansions into other parts of Europe are not likely to happen until at least the second half of 2019, but he has already picked out where Progress will likely go next – with the Netherlands the likely location.

He said that this year the business has grown by 330 per cent.

 

Agilitas sees giant increase in turnover

Nottingham based channel services provider, Agilitas IT Solutions, has announced a 23 per cent year-on-year increase in turnover, thanks to a number of new business wins and a refined channel and customer-centric business strategy.

Agilitas’ unprecedented growth in the last year has seen its overall turnover reach £9.5 million in FY18, generating an EBITDA consolidated group profit of £2 million. This represents growth of 53 per cent when compared to the FY17 financial year results. Furthermore, with an EBITDA percentage return against turnover of 20 per cent, Agilitas’ growth compares favourably to its peers, as it leads the way in delivering both UK and global, outcome-based IT solutions for its channel partners.

This exceptional growth has been the result of Agilitas delivering its services to an increasing number of UK and worldwide channel businesses. As a result, Agilitas now trades in over 60 countries worldwide, with this number increasing by 80 per cent in the past 12 months.

One example of how Agilitas’ enhanced service proposition is proving popular with channel partner customers is its partnership with IBM UK. The collaboration has helped the Nottingham-based services provider consolidate its position as a leader of channel services in the UK and global market. In a first-of-its-kind agreement, IBM is delivering a tailored, vendor agnostic, on-site and remote engineering solution, enabling Agilitas to provide an end-to-end inventory and engineering solution to its channel partners.

Internally, Agilitas’ current ‘Channel in 2020’ campaign has helped stimulate overall business growth, securing a number of significant qualified opportunities to date. The insights obtained from its two-year-long campaign have helped Agilitas to consolidate its services offering, positioning it as a channel thought leader, while simultaneously empowering channel partners with new information that helps them shape their own services strategy whilst streamlining operations.

“Agilitas is continuously delivering fantastic year-on-year results, which is a reflection of the team’s great performance and continued commitment; we are confident we can continue this upwards momentum in FY19,” comments Agilitas’ CEO, Shaun Lynn. “This growth is the result of Agilitas delivering world-class services’ solutions for customers on both a UK and global scale.  Our ever-expanding services portfolio is making our proposition increasingly attractive to more and more channel businesses who are looking to remain relevant to their end user customers by delivering ‘best-of-breed’ solutions.”

Fiscal teams up with Moore Stephens in fraud war

Forensic financial solutions and services outfit Fiscal Technologies announced a new strategic partnership with accounting consultant Moore Stephens, a Top 10 accounting and advisory network, to strengthen risk reduction and fraud prevention in the P2P process.

This new partnership will enable organisations across the globe to take advantage of the combined products and services, designed to monitor and prevent unnecessary organisational spend, it is said.

Procurement fraud is a very real and constant threat and finance professionals face a constant challenge in managing supplier spend and identifying erroneous payments. Increasing complexity, outsourcing and new markets can all increase fraud exposure. By taking a proactive and continuous approach to identifying fraud, organisations can increase control and thereby protect against reputational damage, whatever that is.

Head of Strategic Alliances and Channel at FISCAL Technologies Colin Rigby said the announcement allows organisations to take their fraud control to the next level.

“This exciting new partnership will empower clients to increase control of their supplier spend, improve spend visibility and take a more proactive stance in protecting working capital by identifying and challenging erroneous payments before they happen. The combination of Moore Stephens’ network resources and capabilities and the power of FISCAL Technologies forensic software creates a compelling market offering. We look forward to working together to help organisations of all types improve risk and fraud prevention.”

Exciting indeed.

“We’re thrilled to be working with FISCAL Technologies”, said Robert Noye-Allen, Partner at Moore Stephens. “Over the last few years there has been an increasing drive towards continually enhancing financial process efficiency, but fraud prevention must always be a constant concern. Our partnership with FISCAL enables us to provide our clients with an effective tool for protecting supplier spend and defending against fraud, on a continuous, preventative basis.”

Thrilling.

Roc Technologies sweeps up some Esteem

Services outfit Roc Technologies has written a cheque for managed services provider Esteem Systems.

The newly combined firm is expected to hit sales of £80 million in 2019, Roc said.

Last year Roc bought City Change Management and secured a £10 million investment from the British Growth Fund.

Roc CEO Matt Franklin said Esteem’s managed services capabilities as a key factor behind the deal. When added to Roc, it creates a “strong annuity-driven business”, whatever that means.

Roc said that managed services will now make up 30 percent of the business and the combined firm will have a headcount of 350 employees and offices in Newbury, London, Wetherby and Glasgow.

Roc CEO Matt Franklin said: “I am delighted to be able to welcome Esteem Systems and our new colleagues into the Roc family. Our strategy at Roc is simple; to become the most valuable partner in our customers’ digital transformation strategy, and through that value-driven customer relationship, drive Roc’s growth and reputation in the market.

“The coming together of Roc and Esteem Systems is 100 per cent complementary in the portfolio, customers, industry focus, and geography, and I am thrilled that together we can extend new value to our joint customers and accelerate our next phase of growth through a truly differentiated customer offer.”

 

TfL wants suppliers for £70m IT tender

Transport for London (TfL) is calling for five suppliers to bid for an IT contract worth up to £70 million as its Atos and Computacenter contracts wind down.

The tender is for core ICT support and will run for an initial four years, with the potential to be extended for a further three years.

The successful supplier must provide service desk and desk-side support services, including support for customer information screens, audiovisual equipment and meeting rooms.

At the moment the primary desk support is currently delivered by Atos, while Computacenter provides desk-side support.

TfL said that “price is not the only award criterion”, emphasising the quality of service offered by the potential suppliers.

Partners have until the end of the month to apply for the tender, with invitations to tender set to be sent out at the start of December. The agreement is expected to start in January 2020.

Scott Walker takes chief marketing officer role at Unitas Global

0Enterprise cloud outfit Unitas Global named Scott Walker as chief marketing officer.

With more than two decades of experience driving sales and marketing programs for many of the industry’s leading enterprise cloud companies, Walker will serve to strengthen Unitas Global’s position in the managed cloud services marketplace. He will report directly to Patrick Shutt, CEO of Unitas Global.

Shutt said: ” “In just the last three years, Unitas Global has grown by more than 500 percent. To continue expanding our business, we need to apply a greater focus to sharing the stories of why our customers choose to partner with Unitas Global as they advance along their digital transformation journeys. Having been in the industry for more than two decades, Scott understands this better than most. He sees the value we bring to enterprises that are looking to use the cloud to gain a competitive advantage. We couldn’t be more excited to have him on board to help our business reach the next level.”

Before joining Unitas Global, Walker served in VP and director-level marketing and sales roles at companies across the cloud services sector. In his three years with Ericsson, Walker served as VP and Head of Cloud Infrastructure where he was responsible for a cloud infrastructure practice and launched the company’s composable hyperscale system and edge computing platforms to support IoT and 5G readiness for service providers. Before joining Ericsson, Walker served as VP of Indirect Channels and Alliances at Equinix, where he was responsible for significant growth and was part of the key team that launched the world’s first direct connection to public cloud capability with AWS. He’s also held senior level positions with ARCserve, AT&T Solutions, and Masergy.

Walker said: “Having been part of world-class teams throughout my career, one of the key lessons learned is that to build an effective cloud strategy requires a trusted partner who is focused on delivering financial and strategic outcomes for the customers we serve. Unitas Global is laser-focused on helping its customers leverage cloud and cloud networking solutions to gain an edge. The company has a very compelling differentiated value proposition and is committed to helping its customers navigate the complexity of today’s modern cloud infrastructure. I am ecstatic to be on a winning team that is ready to scale to new heights.”

In his new role at Unitas Global, Walker will be responsible for leading all aspects of Unitas Global’s multi-channel marketing strategy, including branding, demand generation, and sales enablement initiatives across the organisation.

 

EkkoSense taps Crawford for telecoms unit

colin_crawford-418x315EkkoSense has appointed Colin Crawford to head up its expanding Telecoms and Broadcast business unit.

EkkoSense supports  telecoms and broadcast firms with its comprehensive portfolio of turnkey network cooling solutions and services.

In his new role, Colin Crawford will be responsible for promoting the company’s distinctive balanced cooling approach, and will be particularly focused on resolving the thermal management challenge for telecoms and broadcast organisations as they increasingly try to introduce more and more network power into limited enclosures. Colin has spent the last ten years developing and implementing major network cooling approaches for leading organisations such as Telefonica and Vodafone during his previous roles at CommScope, Dantherm Group and 4energy.

EkkoSense supports telecoms and broadcast firms with comprehensive balanced cooling strategies, as well as ongoing estate management services, site audits and analysis using the company’s innovative sensors and 3D visualisation software.

Dean Boyle, CEO of EkkoSense said: “with experience in assisting some of the world’s largest organisations in optimising the thermal performance of their networks, EkkoSense is an ideal partner for telecoms and broadcast businesses as they seek to secure the maximum performance from their business-critical network assets. With Colin Crawford joining EkkoSense to head up our Telecoms and Broadcast team we’ll be working closely with our industry partners and customers to develop our work in this area, with a particular focus on improving network reliability, increasing capacity and maximizing systems lifespan for their existing network assets.”

Crawford said: “Optimised network performance is always conditional on the consistent performance of thermally-sensitive transmission equipment, and that’s particularly the case in the telecoms and broadcast sector where thermal optimisation is becoming more and more critical. Over the last few years EkkoSense has quickly established itself as a key solutions and services provider in this area, and I look forward to helping further establish the company in these critical markets

Lifts fail to elevate themselves at the Arts

The few remaining hacks of the Channel Free Press found themselves on the 41st floor of the Arts Hotel tower in Barcelona today when they felt an enormous noise and rumbling shake their minds out of concerns about Lenovo and generalised lethargy.

Fiona O’Brien, an Irish woman from Lenovo, sought to reassure us wee timorous cowering beasties  but actually we just wrote it off as just one of those things that happen when you’re isolated hacks afraid of heights and depths.

The Arts Hotel shut down its network of elevators because of an escalated security alarm and the staff decided to temporarily stop the lifts from working.

We have reached out to the PRs at the hotel to dig out the truth, going forward.

Goodness knows what would have happened if you desperately needed to visit the wazzeria and you were stuck in the lift. It took me right back to the days I got stuck in the lift at Hampstead-on-the-Hill, and found myself stranded with a beautiful woman and a lovely Indian man. We didn’t panic. We just gritted our teeth and carried on, carrying on…

Channel needs to support the free press

Pieter Brueghel the Elder

Boys thrashing tops in 1560 – Brueghel

The Canalys Channel Conference closed at 3PM prompt this afternoon, Barcelona time,  but not before one of the few channel journalists left standing was given a five minute slot to stand and address the thousand or so attendees at the conference.

Cristoph Hugenschmidt, a journalist at Inside Channels CH, made an impassioned speech about how the community of vendors, distributors and resellers need the independence that real journalism – rather than fake news or marketing spin – offers that influential group.

Cristoph reckons – and ChannelEye agrees – that the hugely lucrative market needs independent journalism more than ever before. He gave as an example a Canalys event he attended a year or two back where a marketing spinner told the assembled hacks that journalism wasn’t necessary any more because his company could put out the message it wanted via social media and using impoverished hacks to write online press releases.

Nevertheless, after delivering this insult to the hackettes and hacks at the table, according to Cristoph, he tipped up a couple of hours later and said: “I do expect you journalists to be at my 9AM roundtable tomorrow.”

The Swiss hack was basically saying that unless the channel supported free and independent journalism as part of the community, we’ll all wither away and companies will lose the insight, gossip and spinicide that hackettes and hacks deliver.

Why does the channel need journalists like Cristoph and the few of us that are left? My feeling is that despite the noise of Twitter and other social media, and PR and marketing executives spinning like tops, there is a need for a cool third party appraisal of what’s going on. “Going forward”, to use an infamous marketing perversion of the phrase “in the future”, company CEOs need to decide whether they can afford the ridiculous price of marketing spin and decide whether it’s worth it.

ChannelEye of course,  is notorious as purveyors of “fake news” – via The Rogister and theINQUIRER.net,  and coined the term “wide awake news” two years after Donald Trump was born.

Lenovo pulls up its channel socks

Screen Shot 2018-10-11 at 11.27.37At a keynote speech at the Canalys Channel Forum yesterday, analyst-in-chief Steve Brazier said Lenovo had a poor set of tools for its partners and made decisions too slowly.

But senior executives at Lenovo told ChannelEye this morning that it’s already taken significant steps to turn that position round.

Lenovo said it recognised its tools and processes weren’t perfect, but said it had been investing and making improvements. It’s committed to speeding up the way it works with resellers and investing money to improve the matter.

“We’re turning things round – we need a more sophisticated way of helping the channel.”

Lenovo recognised that it’s a big investment that it has to undertake. It’s been working on the project for 12 months.

“We have further to go but we are making progress. We [now] have the ability to give split second decisions on deals and on pricing.”

It claimed it was getting good feedback from its distributors and channel partners on the improvements it’s already made.

It recognises that it needed to be more collaborative at sharing material with partners and need to be more agile and have a bespoke method of getting its product message tailored to the customers that they’re pitching to.

* The company said it is likely to be protected in the event of a continuing trade war between the US and China. It has a factory in China but also in other territories and has the ability to switch production if it needs to.