Author: Nick Farrell

SCC’s founder receives the Legion d’honneur.

Posted on September 22, 2021 by - News

SCC’s founder, Sir Peter Rigby, has received the accolade of being the first British-born businessman to receive the Legion d’honneur.

The award, France’s highest honour, is handed out only to a select few, usually celebrities and military leaders. The decision to award it to Rigby is in recognition of his services to the French economy and building strong business relations.

The French like him because he set SCC up on the other side of the Channel [Geddit? Ed.]. Starting with a team of two in 1998, the privately-owned Rigby Group’s French business now runs an operation that employs 3,300 staff across 23 locations. The Rigby Group has expanded over the years beyond just offering technology, and its activities include hotels, aviation and real estate.

Babble in Scottish invasion

Posted on September 22, 2021 by - News

Babble has continued its acquisition spree by adding Scottish telecoms firm 8020 to its business.

Dumfries-based 8020 provides mobile, connectivity and IT services to over 750 customers across Scotland and the north of England.

Babble said the deal would provide scale to the company while delivering a Scottish presence for the business as it continues its expansion.

Matthew Parker, chief executive of Babble, said: “As a proud Scotsman I’m thrilled to take our business into this new region. This deal supports our drive to acquire high-quality revenue tech businesses that will add significant value to Babble as we continue our ride to becoming the UK’s leading cloud technology business.

Sophos speeds up MSP Connect worldwide

Posted on September 22, 2021 by - News

Security outfit Sophos is speeding up the worldwide growth of MSP Connect, Sophos’ programme to help managed service providers (MSPs) increase customer management efficiencies, unlock new business opportunities and boost revenue, it said.

The company said that MSP Connect has been doing rather well and achieved 67 percent  year-over-year billings growth in the first quarter fiscal year 2022, ending June 30, 2021, and 55 percent year-over-year billings growth in fiscal year 2021, ending March 31, 2021, through MSP Connect Flex, Sophos’ monthly billing programme.

The Americas, Asia-Pacific and Japan (APJ), and Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) regions delivered double-digit growth, with the most significant gains in the United States, United Kingdom and Ireland (UKI), Germany, and Australia and New Zealand (ANZ). MSP Connect now supports more than 16,500 global and regional MSPs worldwide, a 54 percent increase since April, 1, 2020, the start of Sophos’ fiscal year 2021.

Fake chips flood the market

Posted on September 21, 2021 by - News

Suppliers are reporting a flood of fake, substandard chips as global markets are already seeing an increase in prices for components and electronics as a result of the ongoing chip production crisis.

Japanese electronics manufacturer Jenesis is one of those that have suffered the most as a result of the fake chip phenomena when it could not get chips from its normal sources, and its division in southern China placed an order through a site run by Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba.

Zoom releases new partner packages

Posted on September 21, 2021 by - News

Zoom has announced a new partner programme to try and boost sales of its Zoom Phone.

Resellers now have the opportunity to sell Zoom Bring Your Own Carrier (BYOC) licences, which the vendor claims will open up new revenue opportunities, as well as provide maximum flexibility to customers.

Punters who use enhanced cloud peering to access PTSN will also soon have access to the Zoom Phone Provider Exchange, allowing them to find the provider and provision phone numbers securely from the Zoom portal.

Laura Padilla, Head of Global BD and Channel at Zoom said the Zoom Phone is a fully featured cloud phone system built on the Zoom platform. Zoom Phone BYOC gives enterprise customers the flexibility to keep their current PSTN service providers by redirecting existing voice circuits to the Zoom Phone cloud or implement a hybrid setup with Zoom Calling Plans.

Pandemic brings silver lining to cloud. Eureka!

Posted on September 21, 2021 by - News

A cloud business software specialist has recorded one of its best years thanks mostly to the pandemic.

East Kilbride-based Eureka Solutions recorded an annual turnover of £4.5 million in its latest financial year which was a two per cent growth over the previous 12-month period. It saw enquiries double and client numbers increase by four per cent.

David Lindores, CEO of the firm which has an extensive client base across the UK, said: “Our team deserve huge credit for this. They [Team is singular, Ed.] have stepped up and made sure that our clients enjoyed exceptional service and creative solutions during one of the most difficult times for business that anyone has ever encountered.

“Like every other employer, we’ve had to deal with fear and uncertainty, but we have focused on our clients, just as many of them turned to cloud-based software as a work from home solution. With our help, clients have been able to carry on delivering their products and services. That’s not just very good for them, it is good for us, as we don’t expect this to stop here.

Netomnia crosses 50,000 homes and businesses threshold

Posted on September 20, 2021 by - News

Cheltenham-based fibre network operator Netomnia has just passed 50,000 homes and businesses across its rollout areas.

The outfit has added 20,000 premises to its network in the last two months and is delivering its infrastructure in 14 towns across England, with more to come over the coming months, as it aims to connect 100,000 homes and businesses by the end of 2021, and one million premises by 2024.

Centerprise releases its CiCloud platform

Posted on September 20, 2021 by - News

Centerprise has cut the ribbon on its CiCloud platform, which has been built leaning on technology from HPE and CloudSigma.

For those not in the know, CiCloud is based on HPE GreenLake technology combined with infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) specialist CloudSigma’s expertise to offer hybrid, private or public cloud options to customers. Ark Data Centres are being used to physically house the information.

The idea is that workloads can be moved to the platform without too much hassle, as well as the promise of the option to scale up or down quickly and the option of a pay-as-you-use model.

Timing is important as customers shift towards the cloud, with many having accepted that it is a way to consumer technology and services.

Bluebell takes on more management hires

Posted on September 20, 2021 by - Moving People

Fibrish  Bluebell Opticom has made two new hires to its senior management team.

From 1 October  Samir Mansuri will be technical director; Anil Parmar, sales and marketing director; Peter Murray manufacturing and production director, and Paul Gibbins as non-executive director.

Bluebell Opticom MD  Paul Felix McCann said that all the new hires excel in their respective roles, and bring Bluebell the knowledge, creativity, and experience to optimise its operations and enhance our ability to address evolving market requirements with fibre solutions.

Mansuri most recently served as principal electronics design engineer for Camera Corps and held similar roles with industry leaders including SIS LIVE, Pro-Bel, and DTL Broadcast, designing creative solutions for high-profile live events and other broadcast applications.

Sharp launches new partner programme

Posted on September 17, 2021 by - News

Sharp Business Systems UK has revised its partner programme to reduce the reliance on using hardware sales as the main performance indicator.

Apparently, the outfit has been chatting to its partners and customers to make sure both understand that the business offers more than just the traditional printers.

Sharp dealer sales director Paul Leach said COVID-19 necessitated a new way of thinking.

“We knew our previous programme needed to evolve with the changing marketplace. The new programme has been designed to meet the needs of our partners and help them meet customer demand for practical, relevant and cost-effective solutions. We see the programme as a partnership. We wanted to develop and create a partner programme that is aspirational to the dealers we partner with, and ultimately leads to a successful relationship for both sides”, Leach said. 

Crown Commercial Service calls £4 billion tender

Posted on September 17, 2021 by - News

The Crown Commercial Service called a £4 billion tender for suppliers to provide digital specialists for a two-lot framework that will be accessible by government and public sector departments.

“Crown Commercial Service (CCS) as the authority intends to put in place a pan-government collaborative agreement for the provision of digital, data and technology (DDaT) specialists and facilitate large-scale digital transformation programmes,” the tender states.

Delphix hires Harbert to lead its marketing

Posted on September 17, 2021 by - Moving People, News

DevOps outfit Delphix has appointed Josh Harbert as Chief Marketing Officer.

Delphix Worldwide Field Operations president Steven Chung said Harbert’s analytical and revenue-focused leadership, combined with his proven track record in enabling technology companies to grow market share aggressively, will be a great asset.

Harbert brings over two decades of marketing experience at high-growth companies with a particular focus on pipeline generation, account-based marketing growth strategies, scaling marketing teams and technology stacks, customer marketing, and executive engagement.

Harbert’s marketing leadership experience spans tenures at Apptio, Qumulo, and most recently, Tanium. While at Apptio, he was instrumental in the company’s growth from an early stage through IPO and an eventual $2 billion sale to private equity in 2019.

Synaxon forges distie deal with European Office Supplies

Posted on September 16, 2021 by - News

Synaxon has signed a partnership with European Office Supplies, the leading distributor of printer supplies, giving members access to the company’s full range of products through EGIS – its online procurement platform.

The idea is that by using EGIS, they can go online 24/7 and check current stock availability and pricing from all major distributors – and place and manage their orders

Synaxon Managing Director Mike Barron said: “The work from home boom in printer sales, more businesses and people need to regularly replenish their ink and toner cartridges, printer paper and other consumables. This partnership with European Office will help our members to capitalise on that opportunity.”

Westcon-Comstor signs distie agreement with Noname Security

Posted on September 16, 2021 by - News

Distributor Westcon-Comstor has signed a new EMEA distribution agreement with enterprise API security company Noname Security.

The cunning plan further strengthens the Westcon Next Generation Solutions (NGS) offering in the cloud and DevOps security.

The Noname API Security Platform lets businesses mitigate API security risks by discovering all APIs, data, and metadata, analysing API behaviour, remediating API vulnerabilities, and detecting and preventing API threats. 

Arqit signs research deal with Juniper

Posted on September 16, 2021 by - News

Quantum encryption outfit Arqit has signed a deal with Juniper Networks to explore network security technology to protect against quantum security threats.

The idea behind the ‘Technology Alliance Partner Connect’ deal is to develop a way to stop cyber-attackers targeting networks by using quantum secure key-exchange mechanisms to limit interruptions and improve business resiliency.

Juniper Vice President of Engineering Domenico Di Mola said: “Quantum encryption is a promising technology to help make networks more secure against threats now and into the future, and we are thrilled to be working with Arqit on these innovations.”