Author: Nick Farrell

CIOs are increasing investment in technologies that help drive business value and ESG performance and highlighted growing trends such as linking executive pay to ESG metrics, a Logicalis summit was told.

The summit, themed Forging a Digital Path to Sustainable IT, was designed to give CIOs insight and inspiration from experts driving sustainable innovation in their industry.

The event highlighted the vital role of IT as an enabler for sustainable transformation and the importance of CIOs actively getting behind business-wide sustainability goals. Read more…

Payments outfit Checkout.com has launched a new product t to help merchants optimise acceptance rates and grow revenues.

Dubbed Intelligent Acceptance, it is an AI-powered optimization engine, trained on billions of transactional data points from Checkout.com’s global network and insights from the business’ domain expertise after a decade at the forefront of the digital economy. Read more…

Networking giant Cisco is looking to acquire its partner Accedian.

For those not in the know Accedian focuses on performance analytics and end-user experience solutions, including seamlessly delivering 5G networks.

Cisco says the acquisition will allow service providers to deal with problems, like increasing subscriber expectations, that need real-time data and insights.

Accedian’s CEO Dion Joannou said: “We look forward to bringing our critical capabilities to a wider set of solutions within Cisco’s Networking portfolio and taking the next step in the partnership we have built with Cisco and our joint customers over the last years.”

Customers are becoming less predictable, making existing models and approaches less effective. according to a new Twilio study.

The study blames global pressures for changing customer behaviour, which Twilio says will have knock on effect on marketers trying to influence investment decisions.

The headline findings indicated that almost half of marketers are questioning the value of traditional customer segmentation models, and as a result are looking for greater budget flexibility and more opportunities for real-time personalisation.

Many felt customers were more susceptible to cost-of-living pressures and environmental concerns, making it difficult to use existing models, particularly with demographic data.

Read more…

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is under pressure from Big Tech firms to apply a lengthy appeals process under the proposed Digital Markets, Competition, and Consumers (DMCC) Bill.

Introduced in April, the DMCC Bill aims to address the excessive dominance of Big Tech in digital markets.  However, companies like Apple, Meta and Microsoft have told the House of Lords that they want the option to appeal against the DMU’s decisions in a “full merits” review.

This step would give tech firms the opportunity to contest unfavourable decisions by undergoing a complete rehearing of all the evidence involved.

The Bill aims to empower the UK competition watchdog, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), with the necessary authority to enforce a new code of conduct on some of the most influential companies globally, ensuring effective regulation and oversight.

As part of the DMCC legislation, the Digital Markets Unit (DMU), a branch of the CMA, will receive specific powers to identify large companies with substantial market influence.

Once identified, these firms must follow a code of conduct in the sectors they dominate.

The Code is designed is to prevent firms from distorting or undermining competition among their service users, by misusing their market power and strategic position.

Under the DMCC the CMA will have more resources to investigate competition issues and take action, including where companies collude to increase prices at the expense of consumers.

A new lobby group has emerged to counter Big Tech influence. The group – made up of trade associations, charitable foundations, publishing firms and smaller e-commerce websites – says the government must uphold the Judicial Review standard for appeals under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers (DMCC) Bill, as the ‘full merits’ review process tech firms are calling for could impede the entire regulatory framework. Read more…

Daisy Corporate Services has completed its acquisition of cyber security service provider, ECSC Group.

The ECSC acquisition provides highly complementary services to Daisy Corporate Services’ (Daisy) current operational resilience offerings, and provide enhanced customer proposition.

Daisy says that the acquisition will deliver significant opportunities to include cyber security services into Daisy’s wider managed service customer base, supporting their long-term corporate development strategy.

Established in 2000, ECSC provides security breach prevention, detection and response support to almost 425 customers across all sectors and including a range of corporate and blue-chip organisations.

Daisy Group CEO Neil Thompson said: “Cyber security is a major priority for organisations, as the severity of threats and vulnerabilities continues to grow. By combining Daisy’s existing capability with ECSC’s depth of experience and expertise, we can help organisations manage the growing complexity around security detection and response – delivering a new standard in cyber security services to mid-market and Enterprise organisations in the UK.”

ECSC CEO Matthew Briggs said: “ECSC has established itself as a trusted and innovative cyber security service provider over the last 23 years. Daisy shares the same ethos, and as a leader in IT services we feel the two organisations are a great fit. We firmly believe that together we will become the UK’s leading cyber security organisation.”