Author: Nick Farrell

SMEs are a good sustainability target

Posted on August 15, 2023 by - News

Canalys Forum EuropeChannel sales teams hoping to pitch to SME’s might want to come in with a sustainability angle.

The latest SME Insights Report puts sustainability as a powerful factor driving the actions and strategies of small and medium-sized firms (SMEs) in the UK business sector.

The report said that three-quarters of UK small business owners say sustainability is a cornerstone of their business strategy.

However, this fervent commitment poses a challenge – the prohibitive cost of implementing “green” business infrastructure – that stands in their path.

The insights are gleaned from the SME Insights Report, which questioned over 1,000 UK small business owners. Financial costs stood out as a drag on their sustainability efforts for more than half (57 per cent) of small businesses.

NCC Group lays off more staff

Posted on August 14, 2023 by - News

Jobs at NCC Group, a UK cybersecurity firm are proving to be less than secure with more layoffs announced.

NCC specialises in penetration testing and software escrow services, confirmed tthat a “small number” of staff would lose their jobs, but declined to say precisely how many would be cleaning out their desks.

A spokesperson said that a relatively small number of the company’s talented colleagues in consultation and some based in North America have already left NCC Group.”

NCC Group cut 125 roles, about seven per cent of its workforce, in February this year.

 

Microsoft releases more AI products

Posted on August 14, 2023 by - News

Software King of the World, Microsoft has unveiled more generative AI products for frontline workers.

Vole teamed up with Aptos Labs to build new blockchain AI tools and has now introduced a new Copilot offering which uses generative AI to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of frontline professionals.

Windows Copilot AI-powered assistant is empowering service managers who receive customer escalations in Outlook or Microsoft Teams to use Copilot in Dynamics 365.

According to Microsoft, this AI-driven tool automates repetitive tasks to create work orders. Notably, there are other integrations within Microsoft 365 that further improve these capabilities. Frontline technicians will be able to access important work order information via Teams.

Cisco plans to acquire cloud-native mobile core developer Working Group Two

Posted on August 14, 2023 by - News

Cisco plans to acquire cloud-native mobile core developer Working Group Two for $150 million.

Cisco said the acquisition will enable it to bolster its mobility services platform to help operators launch new offers across IoT and industry verticals.

The outfit is run as a joint venture between Cisco and Norwegian telco Telenor after it was spun out by the carrier in 2017.
Once the transaction is complete, Working Group Two will be fully owned by Cisco, with the new owner acquiring Telenor’s 44.6 percent stake in the entity.

Rapid7 fires 18 per cent of staff

Posted on August 11, 2023 by - News

US cybersecurity vendor Rapid7 is moving to MSPs and firing 18 per cent of its workforce – about 470 employees.

Most of the cuts are in sales and engineering. The company will close some office locations too.

Rapid7 CEO Corey Thomas said that the layoffs were a tough decision.  But “making decisions from a place of strength allows us to restructure intentionally.”

We suspect it would have been tougher for those who were fired rather than the person deciding they have to clean out their desks, but maybe that is just us.

Earlier this year, publicly traded Rapid7 reportedly considered a sale to private equity investors. In March, Rapid7 acquired Minerva Labs for $38 million in cash and stock.

On the vendor’s quarterly earnings, Thomas told listeners that Boston-headquartered Rapid7 sees “massive potential to drive high-margin managed services, both through existing offerings and investing in accelerating our strategic managed service partnerships.”

Check Point acquires Perimeter 81

Posted on August 11, 2023 by - News

Israel Checkpoint

Security outfit Check Point has snapped up acquire Perimeter 81 a Security Service Edge (SSE) company.

The company says that the acquisition enables Check Point will help organisations accelerate the adoption of secure access across remote users, sites, cloud, datacentres, and the internet, all while aiming to deliver the most secure and fastest SSE solution in the market.

Under the terms of the agreement, Check Point will acquire Perimeter 81 for approximately $490 million, on a cash free, debt free basis.

Spy outfit went direct to get government to buy software

Posted on August 10, 2023 by - News

US spy tech outfit Palantir directly contacted the minister of state for disabled people, health and work, Tom Pursglove in a bid to get him to buy technology to crack down on benefits fraud.

For those who came in late, Palantir, was founded by PayPal co-founder and Trump supporter Peter Thiel.  It wrote to Pursglove in April to brief him on its technology, promising that it could help the Department for Work and Pensions to “recover large amounts of fraud.”

According to emails seen by The Guardian after a Freedom of Information request, Palantir attached a note trying to arrange a meeting with Pursglove or his team “to explore whether this capability could be of benefit here in the UK.”

Wilkinson tapped for Vectra AVP role.

Posted on August 10, 2023 by - Moving People, News

AI-driven threat detection and response outfit for hybrid and multi-cloud enterprises, Vectra has appointed Keith Wilkinson as its new AVP, leading the UK&I.

Wilkinson joins Vectra from AWS, where he served as Head of GTM Productivity Applications for EMEA and built a technology go-to-market from the ground-up, responsible for strategy and sales execution. Before that, he held several notable leadership positions at Dynatrace, ClickSoftware (acquired by Salesforce) and Genesys.

Wilkinson said that organisations were confronted with an ever-expanding attack surface and emerging attacker techniques; this increases SOC workloads resulting in an overwhelming ‘spiral of more’.

Online consumer electronics sales slump

Posted on August 10, 2023 by - News

Online prices for consumer electronics have declined by 3.2 per cent year-over-year, according to a new report by Adobe Analytics.

Amazon’s Prime Day has become a benchmark for pricing fluctuations and user behaviour, providing a unique prism to observe the complicated dance of supply, demand and modern consumer psychology.

According to Adobe Analytics data, the online pricing of items across all categories declined by 3.2 per cent year-over-year in July, and by 2.1 per cent when compared to June 2023. Cheaper online costs were mostly found in non-essential items such as electronics, toys, clothes and sporting goods, which were discounted during Amazon Prime Day.

Looking at the analysis of the July 2023 data by Adobe Analytics on price fluctuations across product categories, it revealed that compared to the same month in 2022, online grocery prices increased by 6.7 per cent.

This points to a decrease from the preceding annual price rises of 8.1 per cent in June, 9.7 per cent in May and 9.1 per cent in April. The apex of online grocery price inflation was in February when prices were up by 14.2 per cent year-over-year.

On electronics, the prices dropped significantly over the past few months, culminating in July. This decline was partly catalysed by the additional discounts offered during Prime Day, rendering electronics 2.1 per cent cheaper than they were in June. As a result, electronics prices had an 11 per cent drop in July, following a 10 per cent dip in June over the same period last year.

Dell confirms partner-led model will lead to layoffs.

Posted on August 9, 2023 by - News

Grey box shifter Dell has confirmed that its moves to a adopts a new partner-led go-to market model touted earlier this week will result in job cuts to its core sales teams.

We reported how Dell was moving to a new model that pays its direct sales force more to sell storage products through the channel.  However, now those sales teams will be much smaller.

“Some members of our sales team will leave the company. We don’t make these decisions lightly, and we’ll support those impacted as they transition to their next opportunity,” a Dell spokesperson said.

“We’re always assessing our business to remain competitive and ensure we’re set up to deliver the best innovation, value and service to our customers and partners.”

Some of Dell’s partners think that is great because it allows them to double down on Dell and drive sales growth. However, some who cheered when Dell announced that these direct sales teams would be encouraged to send them business are less enthused.

However, it is unlikely that Dell’s direct sales teams will be without jobs for long. Some Dell partners see Dell’s loss as their gain.

No faith in Meta’s trusted partner programme

Posted on August 9, 2023 by - News

Media outfit Internews has published a report slamming Meta’s Trusted Partner programme.

This programme is supposed to give human rights groups a priority channel to alert Meta to harmful and dangerous content posted on Facebook and Instagram with the aim of identifying and removing this content as quickly as possible.

However the report claims that some organisations have received long delays when reporting this content – the same delays regular users of the social media platforms experience when making similar reports.

Response times were slow, inconsistent, and in some cases Meta has failed to react at all to even the most dangerous and time-sensitive content such as calls for and threats of imminent harm.

Writing on the wall for Babylon Health

Posted on August 9, 2023 by - News

The UK AI firm promoted as the future of the NHS by former health secretary Matt Hancock, Babylon Health has entered UK administration.

The company’s demise comes amid allegations of overhyped technology, questionable ties to the Conservative Party, and terminated contracts with UK hospitals.

Babylon was founded in 2013 by former UK Iranian banker Ali Parsa who claimed its AI could revolutionise healthcare through virtual appointments and diagnostic chatbots such as its GP at Hand.

Experts warned the technology was unproven and overhyped, but Hancock’s promoted GP at Hand throughout 2018.

Later, it was revealed that Babylon shareholders had donated £200,000 to the Conservative Party and Hancock’s own leadership campaign in 2017 and 2018.

Major layoffs coming at VMware

Posted on August 8, 2023 by - News

Broadcom is to make major layoffs at VMware after its $61 billion acquisition closes

According to Business Insider, the Broadcom cuts are expected to focus on non-engineering roles.

It is speculated that layoffs could come as early as the end of this month after both companies publish their latest earnings results.

The UK regulator approved the deal last month after the merger was given the green light in Europe.

A VMware spokesperson said that while the company expected Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware to close within Broadcom’s fiscal year 2023, integration planning is not complete, and any rumors about post-acquisition plans are both speculative and premature.”

VMware had about 38,300 employees in February, while Broadcom had roughly 20,000 staffers in October, according to Securities and Exchange Commission filings.

Dell encourages direct customers into the channel

Posted on August 8, 2023 by - News

Canalys Forum EuropeDell’s new partner-first strategy includes paying direct sales reps to encourage customers to buy storage products through the channel.

Under the plan Dell reps are going to look at their comp plan and see, ‘I make X if I sell it directly. I make X-plus if I sell it through a partner.

Bill Scannell, president of global sales and customer operations with Dell Technologies said this should encourage direct sales teams to call up their favourite partners to work together on projects.

Penrose calls to speed up smart data reforms

Posted on August 8, 2023 by - News

A business alliance spearheaded by John Penrose, MP for Weston-Super-Mare, is urging the government to expedite Smart Data reforms, to bolster competitiveness of British exporters, stimulate investment in UK digital jobs, and offer better bargains for consumers to reduce the cost of living.

Penrose has thrown his weight behind measures to enhance Britain’s world-leading digital success in open banking to be extended as quickly as possible to industries beyond financial services.

The partnership includes entities such as NatWest, TISA, the Financial Data and Technology Association, The Payments Association, Open Banking Excellence (OBE), fintech Ozone API and Icebreaker One. They have jointly written to ministers, advocating for swift implementation of previously agreed reforms to prevent British businesses from being disrupted by foreign competitors.

The proposed reforms in the Data Protection and Digital Information (No.2) Bill includes provisions to introduce Smart Data reforms, but no specific timelines have been provided for their enactment in various business sectors.

UK business leaders say they need confidence to initiate investment programmes immediately, and modern digital enterprises must move much, much faster than traditional customary speed.

The MP for Weston-Super-Mare, in acknowledging the global success of open banking in the UK, cautioned that competitors in other nations will not stand still. So, to stay ahead businesses must replicate their success across the various sectors of the economy to provide better prices and develop world-leading enterprises in industries like online retailing and energy.

Helen Child, Founder of Open Banking Excellence (OBE), in an interview, emphasised the importance of data sharing as the foundation of open banking. According to her, this data can be used by lenders to undertake accurate real-time affordability assessments and make more educated decisions, allowing previously excluded customers to demonstrate their trustworthiness.

She  pointed out the role of open banking in personal financial management tools, enabling customers to have a comprehensive view of their accounts and make better financial decisions.

Child said that by accelerating the global expansion of open banking, the company can make an actual change during the cost of living crisis by addressing the challenge of financial inclusion.