Author: Nick Farrell

Exertis Hammer and A10 expand in the Nordics

Posted on May 22, 2020 by - News

Value-add distributor Exertis Hammer and application networking outfit, A10, have extended their distribution agreement to service resellers in the Nordics.

A10, a vendor which, it is claimed, enables intelligent automation with deep machine learning to ensure business-critical applications are protected, reliable and always available, has existing distribution partnerships with both Exertis and Exertis Hammer; and now, Exertis Hammer will add value to its security, innovation and automation solutions for new and existing Nordics customers.

Lenovo still the boss of the PC market

Posted on May 21, 2020 by - News

Lenovo had a lot to be happy about when it announced its latest results.  It had managed to maintain its dominance of the PC market and had some rather good numbers.

Group revenue dropped by  a percent but it still broke the $50 billion barrier for the second consecutive year, while pre-tax profit improved by 19 percent, coming in at $1.02 billion.

The vendor has been running an “intelligent transformation” strategy hoping to make cash on the back of 5G and the growth of the internet of things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI). This cunning plan mostly centered on  IoT, infrastructure and vertical offerings. That plan has carried on despite the current upheaval caused by the Covid-19 coronavirus.

Numbers for the year to 31 March were welcomed by, Lenovo chairman and CEO Yang Yuanqing: “Amid one of the most significant periods of global change and transformation we have ever seen, Lenovo significantly transformed its business over the past year. From achieving record PTI of $1.02 billion to reaching near record revenue of $50.7 billion, I could not be prouder of our strong performance.”

Top five telco results show B2C market strong despite coronavirus

Posted on May 21, 2020 by - News

Beancounters looking at the numbers of the top five European telco first quarter results say that they show early crisis stage resilience in the B2C market.

GlobalData had a look at the results for  Vodafone, Telefonica, Deutsche Telekom, Orange and BT and said they showed an encouraging degree of business resilience in the European telecommunications industry at large, with few surprises in the B2C market.

While all five telcos flagged losses in roaming revenues due to lockdown measures implemented in the final weeks of the quarter, several confirmed a positive or stable mobile contract churn development for the quarter overall – with little to no disruption impact on ongoing business restructuring projects, or 5G strategies. More importantly, all were able demonstrate, to some extent, the way the COVID-19 crisis is accelerating ongoing digital customer experience initiatives. Others were able to point to a small but encouraging growth in service revenues.

Openreach deploys Nokia fibre networks

Posted on May 21, 2020 by - News

Nokia said that Openreach will deploy its fibre solutions to help meet its target of bringing ultra-fast and reliable broadband access to 20 million homes across the UK by the mid-to-late 2020s.

The roll-out with Nokia focuses on deploying GPON and XGS-PON fibre access technologies to expand Openreach’s fiber-rich network to reach 4.5 million premises by the end of March 2021. It’s also capable of delivering up to 10Gb/s symmetrical broadband speeds in the future, in areas where demand for additional capacity is required, it’s claimed. Nokia’s solution supports a smooth evolution from current traditional deployments to virtualised access-network control and management (SDAN – Software Defined Access Networking) by software upgrade.

Puzzel unlocks Capital City College Group customer service

Posted on May 20, 2020 by - News

Puzzel, which makes cloud-based contact centre software, has announced that London’s largest further education college group, Capital City College Group, has successfully rolled out its omni-channel customer service solution including the latest AI-powered Agent Assist technology.

The organisation’s contact centre uses Puzzel’s range of voice, email, SMS, Webchat and social media capabilities to provide, it claims,  a joined-up learning advisory service across multiple brands for the largest college group in London. Since adopting the Puzzel solution, the group has improved the experience for customers, agents and approximately 28,500 students, dramatically reducing call abandonment rates by 68 percent in one academic year alone, it boasts.

Sharp Europe partners with TeamViewer

Posted on May 20, 2020 by - News

Sharp Europe has shacked up with market  remote access technology outfit, TeamViewer. The partnership will enable Sharp’s software partners to easily connect via TeamViewer to selected displays and support customers’ visual solutions needs remotely, it’s claimed.

The next-generation remote technology allows full remote control of a screen including: installing and uninstalling apps, reviewing device configuration at a glance, exchanging files with the display, as well as other remote access features that can be accessed at any time from a connected device.

Highlight appoints Luminet’s Modha

Posted on May 20, 2020 by - News

Highlight has appointed Bimal Modha as its new director of sales. Bimal will be looking to double the company’s revenues by end of 2021 by developing Highlight’s sales team to collaborate with existing clients, drive new business and introduce new channel partners.

Modha has more than 20 years of sales, marketing and business development experiences for multi-national companies such as BT Retail, BT Global Services, Tiscali, Virgin Media Business and Virtual1. Most recently, he was Head of Business Development and Marketing at Luminet where he established the company’s new partner portal and introduced key strategic partners including Expo-e, FluidOne and Entanet (City Fibre Group).

£3 billion worth of NHS cash goes to framework

Posted on May 19, 2020 by - News

A group of London NHS trusts has allocated more than £3 billion on a framework contract.

The deal is split into lots of Information Management, Governance and Technology consultancy, transformation consultancy, data access, security, helpdesk, device management, IT hardware, asset management, general IT software, finance software, procurement software, CRM, and project management software.

The trusts, lead by Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, as hosts of NHS London Procurement Partnership, are splashing out on “innovation” such as chatbots, blockchain, RPA, and AI.

Huawei is fighting for its life

Posted on May 19, 2020 by - News

Huawei is fighting for its life after the US demanded that foreign chipmakers, such as TSMC, stop supplying it.

Huawei relies on Taiwanese company TSMC for around 98 percent of the semiconductors used in its smartphones. TSMC uses US-made equipment to manufacture its chips, and will be among the worst affected by the US sanctions.

Speaking at Huawei’s annual analyst conference today, the Financial Times quoted Guo Ping claiming that the US sanctions have put Huawei in a fight for survival.

CloudStrike hires Amanda Adams as channel lead

Posted on May 19, 2020 by - News

CrowdStrike has a new channel leader in the UK for Europe.

Amanda Adams is also the Senior Director, European Alliances at CrowdStrike and has worked at Cisco and Tenable. She will be based in London.

Adams said that the European market is a key area for CrowdStrike, ripe as it is for disruption by partners able to use next-generation cybersecurity solutions that stop customer breaches.

“Our partners are our biggest champions and I intend to help us pivot to supporting the MSP and MSSP market with new and exciting programmes.”

Outfits ignoring the cloud are defying gravity

Posted on May 18, 2020 by - News

Companies which ignore the cloud are trying to defy gravity, according to AWS’s CEO of Amazon Web Services.

At  the vendor’s online Summit event, Andy Jassy said he understood why some organisations are wary of a cloud move, but that they will be at a competitive disadvantage if they don’t.

“There is still a segment of companies trying to fight gravity and they argue that they can still do the infrastructure less expensively than can be done in the cloud or that they have enough services to allow their organisation to move as quickly as people can in the cloud. We’ve done many thousands of these comparisons over the years and I don’t think I’ve yet seen a company that can move at the cost structure and the pace of changing their customer experience that they can in AWS and in the cloud.”

Computacenter reports coronavirus not really hit its business

Posted on May 18, 2020 by - News

Computacenter has told the world+dog that it does not seem to have been badly hit by the coronavirus pandemic.

The outfit already told us that last month that it had seen a surge in demand for laptops at the start of the crisis and its first quarter showed a slight dip in revenues, but profits had remained in line with the previous year.

It has now added some more details of progress so far this year, with the firm able to pick up some fresh business during the pandemic.

Microsoft buys Metaswitch in 5G push

Posted on May 18, 2020 by - News

Microsoft has acquired a UK-based 5G specialist Metaswitch Networks, which has a number of high profile customers including BT and Sprint.

Microsoft said Metaswitch’s portfolio of cloud-native communication software will be expanded into its own range of services aimed at the telecommunications industry. It  said that it intends to use the talent and technology from Metaswitch’s portfolio to extend Azure’s reach in the telecoms industry.

Yousef Khalidi, corporate VP of Azure Networking, wrote in his bog: “We have a long history of working with operators as they increasingly embrace software-based solutions and continue to support the advancement of cloud-based networking while helping create new partnership opportunities for existing network equipment providers. Our intention over time is to create modern alternatives to network infrastructure, enabling operators to deliver existing and value-added services – with greater cost efficiency and lower capital investment than they’ve faced in the past.”

Vole has been busy building its 5G skills by acquisition. Two months ago it snaffled cloudy based Affirmed Networks.

 

Suppliers create virtual contact centre in just seven days

Posted on May 15, 2020 by - News

Essex’s most vulnerable residents now have dedicated access to support during the COVID-19 crisis, following the design and build of a virtual contact centre in just seven days. Cinos, a specialist provider of integrated audio-visual and communication solutions, Tiger, a specialist unified communications (UC) data analytics company, Provide CIC and Essex County Council have worked together to create the Essex Welfare Service.

The Essex Welfare Service has been set up to support the most vulnerable people across Essex. It will offer a single point of contact for welfare services – allowing Provide CIC to coordinate efforts with the council, voluntary organisations and charities.

Having already enlisted Cinos’ expertise on previous telephony and contact centre projects, and currently using the Tiger software, Ken Ngai, Technology Operations Manager at Provide CIC explains that the new cloud-based contact centre solution was deployed in just a week, with Cinos donating their professional services, and Tiger offering their software, both free of charge.

Openreach limits Huawei dependence

Posted on May 15, 2020 by - News

BT Group’s infrastructure unit Openreach has signed an agreement with American networking and communications firm Adtran to limit its dependence on Chinese company Huawei and to speed up construction of a fibre-based broadband system across Britain.

Under the government’s new  rules, ‘high-risk’ vendors (such as Huawei) are excluded from sensitive ‘core’ parts of 5G and gigabit-capable networks, with a 35 percent cap on high-risk vendors supplying parts to the non-sensitive areas of 5G and high-speed fibre-based networks.