Brexit: The channel is more of a mouse than a man

Screen Shot 2018-10-11 at 09.47.40There’s one thing clear from the Canalys Channel Forum here in Barcelona and that is many of the major players are individually, and in the words of Robert Burns scared out of their pants.

Burns described a frightened mouse as a”Wee, sleekit, cowrin, tim’rous beastie; O, what a pannic’s in thy breastie!”

In short, the channel mice are terrified of what might happen in the case of a hard Brexit.

Translated from the Scots dialect, the poem also suggests the channel hasn’t a clue and needs leadership. Maybe the future is too horrific for it to face the plain and simple truth.  The channel may suffering what’s called in posh words “cognitive dissonance” but, in a short Anglo-Saxon phrase, cacking its pants.

We put this to Steve Brazier, the lead analyst at Canalys this morning. And he’s far more outspoken than his customers and clients.

He said that if there’s a hard Brexit from the European Union, the pound will crash, tech prices will rise and the UK will suffer a major recession.

The point is that while other manufacturers in say, the car industry, have spoken out loudly about the dangers to business, only one of the Big Six has said anything. We talked to Lenovo which said that it’s in favour of open trade and implied strongly that a soft Brexit or no Brexit at all was preferable to falling into the abyss.

The primary impact of a hard Brexit is the UK, but Ireland will be affected too, because the Irish tech channel is similar to the UK, said Brazier.

Specifically, distributors and vendors will be affected and because no one knows what the outcome will be – that’s anyone, right from timid resellers and vendors right up to Her Majesty’s Government, and perhaps even the devil. However, she or he probably has all the detail.

Resellers snubbing distributors

14500.snubNew research shows 14 percent of resellers are purchasing between 20 and 30 percent of their kit from e-tailers like Amazon.

According to a report from Context, resellers are spurning IT distributors as if they were a rabid dog. More than 7,000 resellers in 14 countries found that a substantial minority of respondents were cutting them out of the loop when sourcing goods.

Some 30 percent of respondents said they bought up to 10 percent of their stock from e-tailers, 16 percent between 10 and 20 percent, and 14 percent between 20 and 30 percent, Context said.

Product availability was cited ahead of price as the most common reason resellers are flocking to e-tailers among the respondents, who were drawn from the UK, Australia, New Zealand, the Baltics, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Slovakia, Spain and Turkey.

The report said that distributors needed to tackle the threat by focusing on value-added services, and solution-driven areas such as cloud, claiming this represents a $34 billion  opportunity.

Adam Simon, global MD for Context said the transformation of IT distribution has been driven in large part by the growing presence of major e-tailers and changing reseller expectations. Smaller resellers especially feel increasingly that their interests are not being looked after by distributors, and they’re flocking online as a result.

“It’s not time for distributors to hit the panic button. By focusing on things such as customer service, training and adding value in areas like the cloud and multiple new service areas, they can find ways to differentiate. Reassuringly, distributors continue to invest in infrastructure and skills to support their clients. But we may see price pressures push several players into finding economies of scale via acquisition over the coming year — potentially in APAC and LATAM”, he said.

Dell doubles hyperconverged sales

michael-dell-2The pressure of Dell’s boot on the throat of the hyperconverged space has increased as the outfit has doubled its revenue in the sector in the second quarter.

According to figures from IDC, the worldwide converged systems market grew 10 percent year on year in the second quarter of 2018, generating revenues of $3.5 billion and Dell was the winner with  seeing its sales jump 95.2 percent to $418.7 million.

Sebastian Lagana, infrastructure platforms and technologies research manager at IDC, said: “Datacentre infrastructure convergence remains an important investment driver for companies around the world.

“HCI solutions helped to drive second-quarter market expansion thanks, in part, to their ability to reduce infrastructure complexity, promote consolidation, and allow IT teams to support an organisation’s business objectives.”

he certified reference and integrated infrastructure market saw a year-on-year decline of 14 percent, generating $1.3 billion in the second quarter. This represents 38 percent of total converged systems revenue.

Dell also led the charge in this market segment, with $640 million in sales, representing a 47.5 percent share of the space. This was followed by Cisco/NetApp holding the second-largest share of this segment space and HPE trailing in third.

Integrated platform sales declined 12.5 percent year on year, with revenues of $729.4m. Oracle was the top-ranking supplier in this segment, capturing 60 per cent of this market space and seeing profits of $441 million.

Nutanix saw a year-on-year decrease of its HCI market share, but still ranked second in the segment, holding 19 percent of the HCI space, with Cisco and HPE coming joint third.

ResponseSource swallowed by Vuelio

shark_attack_painting-t2 (1)Access Intelligence, the parent company of Vuelio, has bought ResponseSource for a cash-and-shares worth £5.5 million to create an unrivalled portfolio of stakeholder engagement software.

Access Intelligence CEO Joanna Arnold said: “Vuelio and ResponseSource have a lot in common. They are both SaaS businesses providing great communications intelligence to PR, marketing and journalism professionals. But at the same time, they are extremely complementary, and ResponseSource will from day one add significantly to the portfolio while accelerating our combined product development, particularly in journalist services.”

Vuelio clients now have the option to access a powerful means of media engagement thanks to the ResponseSource Journalist Enquiry Service, which allows journalists to request information from PR professionals directly. This creates an unprecedented opportunity for Vuelio clients to gain coverage by providing comment, opinion and other content on a vast range of topics for leading newspapers, publications and influencers.

Journalists and influencers using the service will also benefit as over time they will be able to access a broader range of leads through the Vuelio client base – a rich source of blue-chip businesses and sector-leading organisations.

Joanna Arnold added: “ResponseSource’s trusted journalist services are representative of the strong links between the team and the journalist community. These links provide a platform for relationship building and research, and it needs to deliver value to everyone involved. We plan to continue to invest in the ResponseSource brand, in its services, and in its people.”

ResponseSource founder Daryl Willcox will remain at the combined company and becomes Director of Audience Strategy for Access Intelligence. He said: “It’s a great outcome for our customers, journalist users and the team at ResponseSource that we are now part of an ambitious UK  company that understands the importance of the journalist network we have built. I’m looking forward to continuing to grow this strategically important side of the business that benefits journalists and PR professionals alike.”

Channel is still a very male preserve. Reserve?

Many many men

Many many men

Hundreds and hundreds of channel delegates here at the Canalys Channel Forum in Barcelona have one thing in common and that is that to the best of our knowledge the majority of the blokes here have willies.

But that may change in the future and reliable sources at one of the Big Six vendors here at the conference agrees with Dell and EMC and thinks that it is likely that change in the gender gap in the channel community will happen sooner rather than very much later.

Dell EMC, without being personal, agreed with that view and has already  put in place several programmes to assist both its channel partners and employees working with it to welcome diversity.

It has set up both a woman’s partner network and a unit promoting female entrepreneurs, a company representative said. Dell EMC has achieved near parity with approximately 45 percent of its staff women.

It is also actively encouraging young girls to develop their computer science skills, and also has a programme to allow its male employees to emphasise with the strengths women can bring to the industry.  It promotes diversity in all fields.

A male executive at the conference who spoke on the condition he and his company remained anonymous, told ChannelEye: “Women traditionally find themselves on the PR and marketing side. Women are more efficient than men. They get things done and when they say they’re going to do something they do it, unlike men.”

Which, of course, begs many questions and there are more questions than answers.

Dell promises to beef up the channel

A bevy of senior Dell EMC executives spoke to a bevy of tech hacks this morning and spelled out in detail their promise of reseller goodnesses for their mega storage and server businesses.

Speaking at the Canalys Channel Forum in sunny Barcelona, the company was quick to say it was prepared for the British exit from the EU (Brexit) from day one, and even before day one. It is talking to the UK government and to other bodies and organisations to ease the transition if and when and however it comes.

But, and relating to its channel strategy, Dell EMC said it had given its resellers a lower price, and “that forms a strong incentive to the channel. Large accounts worldwide are wide open. If our partners win that business they’re protected.”

Michael Collins

Dell EMC’s Michael Collins showing determination

Dell EMC said it will be a partner led strategy.

“Speaking to our partners and what they want from us is to look at the opportunities that exist in our enterprise business. We have to give them the ability to sell right across the range of Dell’s product portfolio.

“We’ve looked at where the opportunities are for the channel. We’re putting a commitment to the channel in order to invest and win incremental business, to be protected and we’ve introduced “partner of record” – that means the customer is locked to the partner for a period of a year. It’s exactly what our partners asked for.”

Dell EMC said there are two flavours of its preferred programme.

“It’s not just for enterprise customers but we’ve expanded this to include commercial as well. The benefit for the partner is really simple. When partners sell more, they make more margin and revenue and it gives incremental opportunities. This is very much based around our storage portfolio.”

Further, Dell EMC is pushing into its enterprise IoT business for large organisations and will offer eight bundles aimed at specific environments.”

It’s the software that is the secret, the company claimed, and the bundles are related to large requirements such as energy requirements for connected organisations.

“It is not going to pay all the bills this year, next year or even the year after. These are early attempts to figure out how to promote this technology. We have IoT training for customers and partners and have made this available through our distributors.”

Around a half of its enterprise storage and server offerings are fulfilled through the channel, the company claimed.

Vendors need to oil the resellers aching joints

Steve Brazier, the top analyst at Canalys gave his views on the future of the channel in the European market right now in the European forum held in rainy Barcelona today. And apparently there are more storms on the way.

And as well as giving his predictions on the way things are going, he turned his attention on the top six vendors and the way they were disappointing distributors and resellers.

In a wide-ranging keynote, Brazier said that the trade war between China and the USA introduced uncertainties into the market and no-one can predict the shape of things to come. It could be that we see large shifts in manufacturing and companies like Samsung that manufacture in Vietnam rather than China could reap huge benefits from not facing heavy tariffs.

He said that partners make most of their money from the top six and it’s all down to a question of margins. The channel and the vendors, he said, had introduced friction into the border between direct selling and through partners.

He said that there’s more friction between vendors and the channel. The vendors demand loyalty from their channel while the channel wants vendors to stop selling directly. There’s a danger that vendors are not being open about the data they get from their “partners”.

“We’re expecting some tough questions in the private sessions.”

Banking alternatives see spike in inquiries

oldbankFar-reaching IT failures and outages at traditional banks in recent months have triggered a surge in enquiries to banking alternatives, reveals one of the world’s largest independent financial advisory organisations.

deVere Vault, the global e-money app and multi-currency prepaid card, today reports a 35 per cent quarter-on-quarter increase in enquiries.  It follows a series of technical glitches at several major banks, affecting millions of customers.

Nigel Green, founder and CEO of deVere Group, comments: “People have long been getting fed-up with major banks’ high fees, hidden costs, limited working hours, and less-than-impressive customer service, amongst other things.

“But this recent litany of IT failures has, it seems, prompted many of them to look beyond traditional banking and seek out alternatives, such as deVere Vault.

“Indeed, we’re largely attributing deVere Vault’s 35 per cent jump in enquiries in the last quarter to people being negatively impacted by the chaos within the traditional banking sector.

“By switching to alternative banking solutions users typically enjoy much lower fees, plus on-the-go, 24-hour, hassle-free, borderless access to, and use of, their money. It’s not just the banks’ massive IT disruptions that are driving consumers towards alternative solutions.  Geopolitical factors, such as Brexit amongst many others, are causing exchange rate volatility – but these alternatives are multicurrency, meaning users have the ability to mitigate the adverse impact of currency fluctuations on their cash.

“In addition, the world is increasingly globalised and people are ever-more internationally mobile.  These alternative banking options are ideal for those who frequently travel as they can be used wherever, whenever.”

He added: “It is becoming increasingly evident that fintech [financial technology] firms are filling the gap left between what traditional banks are offering and what clients are now expecting, especially in terms of customer experience.”

Green said: “By providing those who use them with access to, and management and use of their money with no stress, no hassle and no hidden charges, wherever they are in the world, the demand for alternative banking solutions in our ever-more globalised world looks set to continue to soar.”

Axis gets a foot in the door with Police

policemanAxis has been named a full member of Secured by Design (SBD), the national police crime prevention initiative, as a wide range of network video products receive its Police Preferred Specification accreditation

SBD is part of the Police Crime Prevention Initiatives’ (PCPI) group of crime prevention organisations, which operate in support of the Police Service throughout the UK. Membership was awarded after 15 of Axis’ network video products were accredited for achieving SBD’s Police Preferred Specification (PPS) standards for security.

The PPS accreditations include a variety of devices from AXIS Companion, a complete solution that brings the reliability of professional video surveillance to small business owners. This gives SMEs the confidence and reassurance they need to invest in cost-effective networked video technology, and reap the security and business benefits that connected devices offer.

The PCPI SBD was established in 1989 and works with police forces and industry suppliers to create high standards of crime prevention equipment, with the ultimate aim of reducing both the risk and fear of crime. SBD requires products to be rigorously tested or certified independently before it is prepared to consider them for its coveted PPS accreditation.

“Axis is driven by a vision to constantly innovate for a smarter and safer world. Having SBD accreditation provides customers who are procuring security equipment and video surveillance technology with that extra level of knowledge that Axis products are proven and trusted,” says Atul Rajput, Regional Director Northern Europe at Axis Communications. “We have worked hard to ensure that all of our products deliver to the highest standards, for both enterprise and small business.”

The company said that network video is essential for crime prevention and prosecution and can help communities feel safer and more secure. It  has a major role to play in the development of smart city technology. Image data from shopping centres, transport networks and city surveillance is not only used to fight crime, but also to provide intelligence around the movement of people and goods throughout an area.

In addition, while a large part of SBD accreditation focuses on ensuring devices are safe from physical attack, it is equally important that the cybersecurity of new technology is given the same priority.

“Axis has worked hard to ensure it has a safe and secure platform for network video. Axis engineers pride themselves on designs that make device management and issuing firmware updates simple but fully protected against malicious hackers and online criminals. Once IP video is securely installed on the network it can be combined with other data sources to deliver real insights for smarter living,” Rajput says.

“We welcome Axis as a full member to what is a select group of companies that have demonstrated the necessary criteria to meet our strict standards for SBD accreditation,” says Guy Ferguson, Chief Executive Officer, Secured by Design. “The role of network video surveillance is increasingly vital for communities across the UK, and it is important that vendors such as Axis are proving that this technology can be built and deployed responsibly and reliably.”

Axis products that have achieved the PPS accreditation include devices from the AXIS Companion range of indoor and outdoor cameras, as well as thermal and radar imaging equipment, and the Axis Network Horn Speaker. This gives Axis’ partners the ability to provide businesses of all sizes and needs with full solutions and externally certified equipment.

Cloud Foundry launches certified systems Integrator programme

two-clouds-1385018843_27_contentfullwidthOpen source outfit Cloud Foundry has announced its the Cloud Foundry Certified Systems Integrator programme.

The programme is  designed to help Systems Integrators (SIs), consultancies and professional services organisations highlight their expertise working with the Cloud Foundry family of technologies.

These organisations have demonstrated contributions to the Cloud Foundry community through contributing code, hosting meetups, public marketing of the platform, Foundation membership and more.

  • Cloud Foundry Certified SIs will receive the following benefits:
  • Top-level visibility in The Foundry, the largest open source marketplace in existence
  • An official Cloud Foundry Certified SI badge to use in their marketing material
  • Reseller discounts for Cloud Foundry Certified Developer exams

The Foundation also announced two new projects — Eirini and CF Containerisation — have been accepted as incubating projects by the Project Management Committees (PMCs), which oversee platform engineering of the open source projects, to further the interoperability of Cloud Foundry and Kubernetes.

Vertiv announces Joachim Fischer as EMEA channel sales director

indexVertiv has announced the appointment of Joachim Fischer as channel sales director for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA).

The company said that Fischer brings significant channel experience having previously worked as general manager sales for NEC in Germany, Austria and Switzerland (DACH), leading substantial channel development programmes.

Fischer will lead the creation of an enhanced product portfolio specifically designed for the channel, along with a competitive commercial policy and a series of marketing initiatives and programmes to support resellers. Moreover, his role will be essential in supporting new product developments for this segment, as well as bringing edge computing solutions to the market.

Vertiv EMEA vice president Karsten Winther said the company had been working intensively to develop a comprehensive list of value propositions – a sophisticated channel dedicated product portfolio, additional investments in reseller recruitments and further investments in channel marketing programmes.

“This is with the ambition to attract partnerships based on trust and significant mutual growth in our channel distributors and resellers, as part of our broader go-to-market strategy. We have incredible potential – paired with Fischer ’s expertise in driving both projects and run rate business with the channel and all of our new initiatives; we can make substantial progress to become more attractive to channel partners and help expand our reach into this ever-changing, dynamic and critical market area.”

Fischer said: “I am very excited to join Vertiv and to help shape the company’s new channel programmes in EMEA. This market has its own particular dynamics, and I look forward to applying my experience and knowledge to match its needs.”

US software outfits plan $5.2 billion merger

Merge-AheadCloudera and Hortonworks have announced plans to merge, creating an organisation valued at $5.2 billion.

The pair claims the merged outfit will be “the world’s leading next-generation data platform provider”.

The new firm will have a revenue of around $720 million and will save 125 million a year.  There is no word at this point how those savings will be made, but we suspect more than one person will be cleaning out their desk and leaving the building.

Cloudera CEO Reilly is set to helm the new business, while Hortonworks CEO Rob Bearden will join the board of directors.

Bearden said: “This compelling merger will create value for our respective stockholders and allow customers, partners, employees and the open source community to benefit from the enhanced offerings, larger scale and improved cost competitiveness inherent in this combination. Together, we are well positioned to continue growing and competing in the streaming and IoT, data management, data warehousing, machine learning/AI and hybrid cloud markets. Importantly, we will be able to offer a broader set of offerings that will enable our customers to capitalise on the value of their data.”

 

Metaphor headed for £10 million revenues

PF-loadsamoney_2177214kMetaphor IT is confident that it is going to break the £10 million barrier within the next three years.

Founder Richard Callis expects the company to generate a turnover of £7 million by the end of its current financial year on 31 March 2019 and to hit the magical 10 million barrier it will use a combination of acquisitions and organic growth.

Acquisitions have been a critical part of Metaphor IT’s growth so far but the company has not found any which are the right fit, yet.

Metaphor has Rackspace, Citrix and Microsoft among its vendor partners acquired in September 2016, with the purchase of Surrey-based Teagen, but Callis admitted that it will acquire only companies that meet a set of rules.

Acquisition targets must fit in with Metaphor’s existing three pillars of cloud and virtualisation, security, and managed services, and must have revenues of £5m or below, he said.

 

 

Brexit about to give the application development market a kicking

1046922917The application development, testing and maintenance market is about to be dusted up by Brexit, according to a report from a report from Information Services Group.

Banking, financial services, healthcare and life sciences are likely to suffer some adverse impact from Brexit as no one knows what software they are going to need.

This means that the majority of companies in the UK have not yet begun preparing for Brexit, and there are growing fears of supply-chain disruptions. As for providers, the large ones should be able to cover most situations that arise, but smaller UK-based providers may struggle with the changing market dynamics.

Many vendors hope that there will be a spike in demand after 29 March next year as customers try to get in-line with any changes quickly.

Banks had already started to move headcount out of the UK, and there was talk of some movement in the car manufacturing areas, and that would be a strain on existing systems based on the current situation, the report said.

There were also signs that aside from Brexit customers were looking for more focus on next-generation options from their application development management partners. Areas of interest included: analytics, IoT, cloud-native architecture, SaaS-based offerings, security, customer experience and mobile.

BlueJeans increases US expansion with Ingram Micro channel deal

imagesBlueJeans has penned   a distribution deal with Ingram Micro as part of its push into the US market.

The pair already has teamed up in Europe and Asia Pacific market. Under the deal, Ingram Micro will send BlueJeans’ unified communications products, including BlueJeans Meetings, BlueJeans Rooms and BlueJeans Events up with its channel partners throughout the US. They will sell them on to businesses looking for collaboration tools.

Jeff Yelton, executive director of Ingram Micro, said that BlueJeans was a cloud-native meetings platform and a natural fit with Ingram’s growing unified communications and collaboration portfolio.

“Demand for intelligent workplaces is building among businesses of all sizes, and we’re excited to extend our relationship with BlueJeans and expand our U.S. portfolio to include BlueJean’s one-touch video, audio and web conferencing solutions”, he said.

Managing the relationship with Ingram Micro, BlueJeans has appointed a new SVP of global channels Barry Ruditsky who joins BlueJeans from Actiance, where he worked with ISVs and OEMs, including IBM, and launched a global VAR programme for the company.

“There is a terrific market opportunity for BlueJeans as we continue to work alongside the industry’s best partners, including Ingram Micro. Enterprise companies in every market segment are fully aware of the impact that meeting and collaboration solutions like BlueJeans have on the morale, engagement and bottom line of the business. There is an endless runway for us to grow with our partner community.”