Lee Walker joins Sherpa

Posted on September 25, 2018 by - Moving People, News

banner_220x220Channel Marketing agency Sherpa is expanding its global operations outreach by hiring a new Client Services Director.

Lee Walker, former Business Development Director for Stylus, has joined Sherpa as the Client Services Director and will head up the operations team.

Lee brings extensive marketing expertise from previous agency roles and his experience of managing numerous, successful teams throughout his career will be integral in his role as Client Services Director and ensuring Sherpa’s customers continue to be fully supported.

Lee said he was delighted to be joining Sherpa as the business looks to continue its successful growth.

“Sherpa already has a strong client focus, as evidenced by its long-standing relationships and recent business wins. I am joining a remarkable team who are extremely experienced across the full marketing mix, from data management, strategic planning and ABM to content marketing, SEO and paid traffic. The skill set is incredibly diverse, and I am confident that through our combined efforts our global operations will not only become more efficient but also develop stronger and more valuable business relationships with our clients.”

Sherpa CEO, Tom Perry added: “Sherpa has a wide range of clients, made up of some of the largest companies in the tech space at present and as our client base grows and the marketing landscape continues to change, so do the required skillsets of our core team. I am a big believer in championing our team and investing in them, ensuring the right person stepped into the role of Client Services Director has been paramount. I do not doubt that we have found someone in Lee who can actively lead our expansion and grow our operations teams as we take on more global marketing programmes.

“Our vision of creating the world’s best channel marketing agency requires people of Lee’s calibre, and I’m delighted he has joined Sherpa at this time of rapid expansion”.

 

Microsoft shows off its new things for the Cloud

Posted on September 25, 2018 by - News, Products

banner_220x220Microsoft today announced a plethora of new Internet of Things-focused updates to its Azure cloud computing platform.

Some of today’s announcements are relatively minor. Azure IoT Central, the company’s solution for helping you get started with IoT, is now generally available and there are updates to Microsoft’s IoT provisioning service, IoT hub message routing tools and Map Control API.

Microsoft said that the Azure IoT platform will now support Google’s Android and Android Things platform via its Java SDK.

What’s more interesting, though, is the new services. The highlight here is probably the launch of Azure Digital Twins. Using this new service, enterprises can now build their own digital models of any physical environment.

It is the virtual counterpart to a real-world IoT deployment and the idea is that as IoT deployment in the real world changes, so does the digital model. It will provide developers with a full view of all the devices they have deployed and allows them to run advanced analytics and test scenarios as needed without having to make changes to the actual physical deployment.

Writing in its bog, Vole said: “As the world enters the next wave of innovation in IoT where the connected objects such as buildings, equipment or factory floors need to be understood in the context of their environments, Azure Digital Twins provides a complete picture of the relationships and processes that connect people, places and devices.”

Azure Digital Twins will launch into preview on October 15.

Jane Ashworth takes over from Andy Bass at Lenovo

Posted on September 24, 2018 by - News

banner_220x220 as its channel director taking over from Andy Bass who cleaned out his desk last month.

Ashworth worked as UK MD at SMART and has the job of upping sales in Lenovo’s UK SMB business.

She said: “I am thrilled to be joining Lenovo which is such an innovative company and at a pivotal time in its performance journey. I’m very much looking forward to working with our channel partners to strengthen partnerships and support them in their delivery of tomorrow’s technology today. Lenovo is a strong, dynamic company with an excellent product portfolio and talented team. The refreshed channel programmes are helping to streamline processes for channel partners, and I’m excited about joining the company and supporting Lenovo’s ambition to grow the business alongside our channel partners.”

It looks like she means it.

Before her time at SMART, Ashworth was commercial sales manager role at the original Hewlett Packard and was a Sony general manager .

Of Ashworth’s appointment, Lenovo’s UK general manager Preben Fjeld said: “Our channel partners are fundamental to our continued growth plans and Jane’s strong background in channel sales, channel development and product management will further propel and energise the relationship with our partners in the UK and Ireland.”

InfinityQS bolsters its global channel partner programme with Tata

Posted on September 24, 2018 by - News

banner_220x220InfinityQShas announced that Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is to join the InfinityQS channel partner programme in a new strategic alliance.

The new partnership with TCS – it’s said – will enable its blue-chip industrial clients to use the  InfinityQS Manufacturing and Quality Intelligence platform, Enact. It’s claimed it will enable InfinityQS to use TCS’s expertise in IT, business & technology services, and engineering, to support existing partners within the InfinityQS partner network.

For those who came in late, Tata Consultancy Services, is part of India’s largest multinational business group and helps manufacturers monetise connected products, operations and customers.

Speaking about the partnership Regu Ayyaswamy, Vice President and Global Head IoT & EIS at Tata said: “Increasingly, we’re seeing demand from our clients for greater flexibility across their plant IT solutions and because of this, it was the right time to bolster our services portfolio by becoming part of the InfinityQS partner program. Doing so enables us to integrate our solutions and offerings with Enact easily and seamlessly while leveraging its global support. Now our clients can capture data streams from a variety of plants and can significantly improve their production processes globally.”

Jason Chester, Director of Channel Programmes for InfinityQS, said: “Tata Consultancy Services is, without doubt, a revered global advisory company. We have successfully worked with TCS in the past on major projects with some of the world’s most recognisable manufacturing brands. To formalize this relationship through a new strategic alliance is a major opportunity for both our clients and prospects. Combining our best-in-class Enact solution with their exceptional services pedigree will be a transformative opportunity for the manufacturing industry.”

BuilderStorm partners with Conkers

Posted on September 24, 2018 by - News

banner_220x220Cloud-based BuilderStorm announced a partnership agreement with rugged tablet maker Conker to offer its solutions to BuilderStorm clients.

Conker’s rugged devices claim to provide the purpose-built functionality construction companies need to manage resources and operations via the BuilderStorm platform. The software can be used on any device with a browser, but in construction, it’s hard to recommend hardware that’s up to ‘the job’.

David Lawrence, CEO of BuilderStorm said: “We aim to have many joint customers who use our products alongside each other. We are regularly asked the best hardware to run the BuilderStorm Platform on on-site, in the past our advice has always been ‘for your site based team nothing too expensive, anything with a browser can support us’, now we have a product that can stand up to the Construction Industry we can pass on that value to our clients.”

Conker said it is continually listening to the feedback of the industry and further developing its product. It’s claimed  Conker’s Android devices perform well, hold their charge, and are IP68 rated, dustproof, water-proof and all integrated within a durable handset.

Public cloud set to grow

Posted on September 21, 2018 by - News

Beancounters at the analyst firm Gartner have added up some numbers and divided  them by their collective neck size and worked out that the worldwide public cloud revenue market is forecast to grow 17 percent to $206 billion in 2019.

This year is expected to see revenues in the market hit $176 billion –  an increase of 21 percent from 2017.

Big G said Software-as-a-service (SaaS) is the dominant segment in the public cloud market, with Gartner predicting revenues will grow 17.8 per cent to reach $85 billion in 2019.

The analyst said SaaS will maintain this market dominance over the next four years and generate global revenues of $113 billion by 2022.

Craig Roth, research vice president at Gartner, said that the increasing adoption of SaaS applications and other cloud services affects the management, dissemination and exploitation of enterprise content.

“Organisations are steadily – but not exclusively – shifting their content environments to SaaS. Gartner expects that by 2019, the current enterprise content management market will devolve into purpose-built, cloud-based content solutions and solution services applications.”

Cloud system infrastructure services (IaaS) is the fastest-growing segment of the market, predicted to reach $39.5 billion next year, representing a 27.6 percent increase from $31 billion in 2018. By 2022, Gartner expects that 90 percent of organisations will buy their public cloud IaaS from an integrated IaaS and platform-as-a-service (PaaS) provider.

How SaaSy can you get?

 

NSS Labs sues Symantec, CrowdStrike and ESET

Posted on September 21, 2018 by - News

banner_220x220Cybersecurity testing firm NSS Labs has filed a lawsuit against Symantec, CrowdStrike and ESET, accusing the vendors of failing to reveal flaws in their products.

In the antitrust suit, NSS claims that the vendors have conspired to prevent the independent testing of their products. Antitrust legislation is designed to prevent monopolies on a given market and promote fair competition.

All three vendors are members of the Anti-Malware Testing Standards Organisation (AMTSO), which has a mandate to standardise testing methods. But  NSS CEO Vikram Phatak claims AMTSO members are instead “actively conspiring to prevent independent testing that uncovers product deficiencies to prevent consumers from finding out about them”.

He said: “Further, vendors are openly exerting control and collectively boycotting testing organisations that don’t comply with their AMTSO standards – even going so far as to block the independent purchase and testing of their products. Vendors such as CrowdStrike have conspired to prevent testing of their products by placing clauses in their end-user licensing agreements that make testing of their products subject to their permission. This unethical and deceptive behaviour hampers transparency and hinders consumers in their ability to assess whether a product delivers on its promises.”

NSS Labs said that, in the past, vendors that refused to take part in product testing would see their reputation damaged and sales hit.

With this in mind, vendors have now decided to boycott testing en masse, seeking to protect their reputations as a group, it claimed.

The vendors have not commented, so far.

 

Rubrik launches first reseller global programme

Posted on September 21, 2018 by - News

Rubrik, the Cloud Data Management Company, today announced its first global programme for resellers.

Dubbed the Rubrik Velocity Partner Programme it will  tap into the $48 billion data management market opportunity. The tiered program empowers partners with a framework for differentiation, more sales and technical enablement to build and recognize expertise, and new rewards to support partners who invest in their business with Rubrik.

Bertrand Yansouni, VP of Worldwide Channel at Rubrik said: “Rubrik’s unprecedented growth is due in large part to our phenomenal partner ecosystem and our 100 percent channel go-to-market approach. Our new Velocity Partner Programme expands upon our commitment to the channel by empowering partners to drive their key business initiatives through Rubrik, like building their cloud business or driving more advanced services. We believe this new programme will increase the velocity of our partners’ success.”

Lots of buzz words in there. Sounds like the firm needs a new spinmeister to us.

Rubrik has wanted a “total” channel business model since day one. The Rubrik Velocity Partner Programme was designed with partner input and incorporates meaningful investments to enable and reward dedicated partners who lead with Rubrik.

The new program includes three tiers – Authorized, Select, and Elite. Classification is based on competency and performance. Requirements will vary based on country and partner size so that every partner has access, and a clear progression path, to the highest tiers.

The programme also introduces new specialisations to recognise the unique capabilities.Rubrik  claims. So it is launching Rubrik Academy, a new “enablement” programme for the entire Rubrik partner ecosystem, which includes accreditations for partner sales, pre-sales, and post-sales.

The Velocity Partner Programme introduces a rebate for Elite partners, lead and opportunity sharing, joint marketing funds, and incentives for partner sales and sales engineer representatives in the highest tiers.

The programme also introduces a new global Partner Technical Advisory Board, reflecting the value Rubrik places on partner solution engineers’ technical expertise. The new program is being introduced at Rubrik’s EMEA Partner Conference. Program benefits will go into effect February 1, 2019.

“Rubrik’s innovative technology has been instrumental in changing perceptions of the value of backup, recovery, and data protection. Rubrik brings simplicity to traditionally complex technologies and has allowed us to elevate data management from an insurance policy to become an integral part of our customers’ strategic approach”, said Tim Jeans, Head of Specialist Sales at Softcat. “Through the new Velocity Partner Program, Rubrik is proving to us once again how valued its partners are by building our technical and sales competencies further to drive bookings, increase deal size, and accelerate profitability.”

“Rubrik is a key partner for us because their solutions offer our customers simplicity, cost savings, automation and a path to the cloud”, said Rob Owen, AVP – Chief Architect at Computer Design Integration (CDI). “The Rubrik partner program is going to give us the tools to increase not only our top-line revenue, but our profitability as well.”

“Rubrik is driving positive disruption in a market that had limited innovation and can benefit from efficiency and modernization improvements”, said Manny Punzo, Director of Data Protection and Management at Technologent, a global provider of IT, data, cloud and security services.  “Their [its, Ed.] simple, scalable solution addresses our customers’ key initiatives, including not only how they improve data protection, but also how they bring the cloud into their business. Rubrik’s new Velocity Partner Program is going to help us capture this shift in the market and grow our company.”

Rubrik didn’t say which tiers these partners occupied.

Formpipe Lasernet and HSO team up on digital transformation

Posted on September 20, 2018 by - News

banner_220x220Microsoft Dynamics Document management solutions, Formpipe Lasernet has partnered with HSO, the provider of enterprise business solutions, to strengthen its UK presence.

The Global managed IT services market continues to grow and is expected to expand at a CAGR of 9.4 percent through to 2024, taking the total market value from $145.3 billion in 2016 to a projected $249.4 billion by the end of 2024 according to recent research from Wise Guys Reports.

Commenting on the partnership, Mike Rogers, chief commercial officer at Formpipe Lasernet, said: “We are continuing to build on our partner first strategy and are delighted to welcome HSO onboard. Formpipe Lasernet is a global company and the addition of HSO will strengthen our presence within the UK. The Lasernet product set and partner ecosystem continues to go from strength to strength, so partnering with HSO was a natural choice.”

HSO brings more than 25 years of industry experience to Formpipe Lasernet’s established partner portfolio. With offices in the UK, Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, APAC and the US, HSO has delivered successful implementations in almost every country in the world. HSO is an award-winning Microsoft Gold Partner specialising in implementing and supporting ERP & CRM business solutions based on Microsoft Dynamics 365 and providing Managed Services to multinational enterprises in Retail, Distribution, Manufacturing and Services.

Mark Cockings Head of Alliances and Sales Operations at HSO said of the partnership: “HSO are pleased to be partnering with Formpipe Lasernet to deliver a comprehensive solution for document management with Microsoft Dynamics 365. Our joint proposition enables customers to quickly and efficiently create, modify, control, disseminate and archive branded documentation across their entire organisation. This partnership continues HSO’s strategy to work with best of breed organisations to deliver innovative solutions to meet the growing business needs of our customers.”

 

 

MSPs need strategic vision and to differentiate

Posted on September 20, 2018 by - News

Wise Guy Reports claims that the the Global managed IT services market will expand at a CAGR of 9.4 percent through to 2024, taking the total market value from $145.3 billion in 2016 to a projected $249.4 billion by the end of 2024.

MSPs globally are facing a multi-faceted struggle to grow their businesses. On the one hand, there is competition from the public cloud players such as AWS, Google and Microsoft who set pricing levels and have reach but are unable to customise or tailor their offerings to specific verticals. The bulk of MSPs are much smaller, and specialist in technologies covered and markets, but need scale to build their profitability and have limited resources.

Other analysts Gartner claim that when compared to 2017, the entry criteria have become much harder and stringent. The focus has squarely shifted to hyperscale infrastructure providers, it says, and this has resulted in it dropping more than 14 vendors from its top players list. According to Gartner, there are no more visionaries and challengers left in the market; only a handful of leaders and niche players driving the momentum.

Among smaller players, the pace of competition has stepped up and they are feeling a major pressure to differentiate, either on skills, markets covered, geographical coverage or in customer relations. According to Gartner’s research director Mark Paine: “The key to a successful and differentiated business is to give customers what they want by helping them (the customer) buy.”

Jim Bowes, CEO and founder of digital agency ManifestoOne said that the way to win more customers is by showing them their place in the future

Bowes, Robert Belgrave, chief executive of digital agency hosting specialist Wirehive along with  Gartner’s Mark Paine will be addressing these and other marketing issues for MSPs at the UK Managed Services & Hosting Summit in London on 19 September.

A key part of the event will also be hearing from the experiences of MSPs themselves and looking at established winning ideas. Now in its eighth year, the UK Managed Services & Hosting Summit event will bring leading hardware and software vendors, hosting providers, telecommunications companies, mobile operators and web services providers involved in managed services and hosting together with Managed Service Providers (MSPs) and resellers, integrators and service providers migrating to, or developing their own managed services portfolio and sales of hosted solutions.

 

 

Matrix signs ICON as UK distribution partner

Posted on September 20, 2018 by - News

banner_220x220Global access control vendor ICON has been named as Matrix’s new UK distribution partner.

ICON already distributes the Matrix range of telephony solutions but has added the Access Control and Time and Attendance solutions to its portfolio in a bid to push into the healthcare and manufacturing area.

Mark Shane, Sales & Marketing Director of ICON, commented: “Our partnership with these solutions means that the UK reseller channel now has access to a very versatile and affordable range of access control solutions, which offer enterprise features at a lower investment stake. The biometric readers and from Matrix are already proving a hit with partners who have suffered from using inferior products in the past. Until now not freely available in the UK market, we believe that the Matrix solutions will become a significant revenue earner for our partners, displacing many of the traditional enterprise vendors from their preferred supplier position.”

Dhaval Bhagora, European Sales development at Matrix Comsec, said: “We are very pleased to have ICON on board distributing our Access Control solutions for us. We are very excited about our new relationship. We at Matrix recognise ICON’s abilities and pedigree and look forward to helping them achieve our goals for the UK market.”

Crayon scores Henkel contract

Posted on September 19, 2018 by - News

banner_220x220Crayon has taken over the Software Asset Management (SAM) for Henkel’s main software suppliers. Under the terms of the agreement, Crayon will provide both operational and strategic software license management for the Group’s clients and servers on a worldwide basis.

At Henkel, more than 53,000 employees work with a large variety of different application programs from various software manufacturers. The increasing complexity of software licensing also raises the risk of mis-licensing and mis-purchasing. This contradicts the Group’s efforts to ensure licensing compliance and to optimise software procurement and maintenance.

Henkel decided in favour of Crayon as it has a background with license management for major international corporations and many years of experience.

Irmgard Arends-Koch, Head of Service Integration at Henkel said: “”Together with Crayon, we want to ensure that Henkel is properly licensed and able to stand up to the legal review of manufacturers and auditors,” says. “We are pleased to have Crayon at our side as a strong and experienced partner.”

The common interest in achieving efficiency gains is also reflected in the services’ remuneration model, which rewards both actual savings and proven cost prevention.

 

 

Lenovo chats to channel about NetApp partnership

Posted on September 19, 2018 by - News

banner_220x220Lenovo has been talking to its channel partners about its planned partnership with NetApp as it prepares its Dell EMC counter attack.

The pair announced that they would be working together at the Lenovo Transform 2.0 event in New York. The stated aim was to  bring flash storage products to market and a joint venture in China to deliver localised solutions for that market was mentioned.

Kirk Skaugan, executive vice-president and president of the datacentre group at Lenovo, said the NetApp partnership would significantly broaden and solidify  the company’s growth in the datacentre business and help to improve profitability.  Lenovo was operating in every market such as telcos, MRI scanners ultrasound, wind turbines and embedded Xeon edge devices.

Lenovo used Tranform to reveal its ThinkShield security , which it has worked on with Intel. MobileIron and Absolute. There was a laptop launch with the firm adding the ThinkPad X1 Extreme to the high end range aiming it at ‘advanced users and prosumers’. We never understood what promusers meant, and suspect an expert at the University of Marchitecture thought it up.

 

 

 

Ignoring customers’ opinions can lead to more successful products

Posted on September 19, 2018 by - News

banner_220x220Jan van den Ende, Professor of Management of Technology and Innovation at Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (RSM) has warned that customers opinions can only help the development of some products and services.

New functions or technology can be improved by customer opinion, but for products designed to suit the identity of the user, it can hinder their market success.

Van den Ende, alongside colleagues Marina Candi and Gerda Gemser, interviewed both the business and leading product managers of 132 recent innovation products to measure customer involvement against revenue and profitability.

Jan says: “Developing products in co-operation with customers is a fashionable practice in product design. If you involve customers repeatedly during the innovation process, their feedback is not bound by company history or only attached to current innovations, which makes them more creative. Yet our research found that this was only the case when customers were involved in the development of functions or technology in a product – for example by involving surgeons in the design of a new surgical instrument. This is because feedback from potential customers early in the design process helps to create the best functioning prototypes.

“When customers were involved in hedonic innovations, designed to create an emotional experience or suit the identity of the user such as a pair of fashionable shoes or a smartphone, the reverse was true. As Steve Jobs said, customers do not know what they want until we’ve shown them.”

When designing innovative hedonic – no not hedonistic – products, asking what customers want can actually reduce the chance of market success.

Jan says: “Innovations of an aesthetic nature, designed to convey emotional experience or express one’s identity, often rely on the element of surprise, which makes customer involvement more complicated. For these kinds of products, success is often the result of a more social process, with public opinion usually shaped by reviews and reception on social media. For example, who is endorsing the product and who hates it? These reactions can be hard to predict by involving customers at the design stage.” 

IaaS and PaaS combination attracts demand

Posted on September 18, 2018 by - News

Analyst outfit Gartner has highlighted growth in IaaS, PaaS and SaaS next year. There’s a real future in aaS.

After shuffling its collective tarot cards Big G decided that 2019 will deliver a 17.3 percent  increase in public cloud services, which will follow on from an expected 21 per cent  growth in 2018.

The majority of that growth in spending will be directed towards Infrastructure as a Service offerings but the analyst house is expecting that 90 percent of the customers who go for IaaS will do so from a provider that can also provide Platform as a Service.

Sid Nag, research director at Gartner said: “Demand for integrated IaaS and PaaS offerings is driving the next wave of cloud infrastructure adoption.”

“We expect that IaaS-only cloud providers will continue to exist in the future, but only as niche players, as organizations will demand offerings with more breadth and depth for their hybrid environments. Already, strategic initiatives such as digital transformation projects resulting in the adoption of multicloud and hybrid cloud fuel the growth of the IaaS market”, he added.

SaaS is also still an area expecting growth with Gartner forecasting 17.8 percent improvements in revenue next year.