Author: Nick Farrell

RM sees slower growth

Posted on August 25, 2022 by - News

Big snail in Old TaipeiRM has seen disappointing growth over the last six months.

In its interim results for the six months ending 31 May 2022 the company said its adjusted operating profit fell 42 percent year on year to £5 million while margins fell from nine per cent to five percent.

Revenue was up four percent year-on-year to £100.3 million but RM had expected to do much better than that.

It said that performance was affected by delayed shipments in RM’s Resources division and challenges associated with the implementation of its new IT platform.

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Fujitsu faces no competition on copper contract

Posted on August 24, 2022 by - News

Fujitsu managed to keep mainframe support and maintenance contract for the Police National Computer (PNC) because no one  challenged them.

The contract awarded to the Japanese Giant is worth £48 million and runs from April 2022 to March 2026.

Recently published Home Office procurement documents show this was a single tender action, meaning it is a direct contract with a single supplier, without competition.

This was done due “to lack of response from market following market engagement”, documents show.

VMWare improves partner model

Posted on August 24, 2022 by - News

VMware has changed its Partner Connect model claiming that it will give it greater levels of flexibility.

VMware Partner Connect now supports three core profit drivers  services, lifecycle profit and stickiness [no really? .ed]

The vendor’s better performing channel players are earning around 80 percent of their revenues from services, whether that be cloud, managed or professional, with profits 1.5 times higher, and professional services revenue of more than double, according to numbers shared by the vendor, it is claimed.

Vertiv appoints Lim for HR role

Posted on August 24, 2022 by - Moving People, News

Vertiv has named Cheryl Lim the company’s new Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO).

Lim will report directly to CEO Rob Johnson and run the outfit’s HR.

She has been working for more than two decades leading human resources teams, supporting organisational changes, and supplying data-driven stuff  for global HR operations in the manufacturing space.

Before joining Vertiv, Lim  held HR positions at Honeywell and was most recently the vice president of Human Resources at ITT.

Robertson Sumner expands into technical recruitment

Posted on August 23, 2022 by - News

Channel recruitment company Robertson Sumner is building another division after receiving multiple enquiries about technical roles.

CEO Marc Sumner says it would be “silly” for the company not to invest in the area with there being “shortages” in the market.

“No one can get enough technical talent into their business, so everyone is looking. We’ve had a phenomenal year in terms of growth and numbers, and with our recent office expansion we were looking at ways we can help our customers even more into 2023 and beyond.

“We have ‘dabbled’ with the odd technical role in the past, but we normally say no. But with the sheer number of enquiries it seem silly not to invest in this area.”

Carbon neutral data centres set to grow

Posted on August 23, 2022 by - News

Number crunchers BIS Research had a look at the carbon neutral data centre market and has predicted last year’s revenues of US$5.02 billion will more than triple by 2027.

According to the study, revenue will reach US$16.53 billion as government regulations on carbon emissions increase and there is a rising emphasis on renewable energy

The report said that there is growing energy-efficient alternatives for data centre cooling and sustainable development efforts and corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities

Some of this will help cut the rising global cost of electricity. 

Inflation hits the channel

Posted on August 23, 2022 by - News

Inflation is already having an impact on those in the PC hardware world.

Canalys research analyst Kieren Jessop warned that PC shipments across Western Europe in the second quarter showed the consequences of inflationary pressures and the ongoing Chinese shipment issues.

This is now a second quarter of decline in Western Europe, with an 18 percent year-on-year drop in shipments in second quarter with notebooks particularly hit, with a 26 percent year-on-year decrease.

Ingram Micro launches Ultra programme

Posted on August 22, 2022 by - News

Ingram Micro Cloud has launched a a programme for managed service providers (MSPs).

The distributor has launched its Ultra offering in the US and Canada with the aim of rolling it out to other territories, including the UK, in the next few months.

Partners will be able to sign up to the Ultra Membership Programme through the distie’s marketplace.

Google Cloud switches off IoT services

Posted on August 22, 2022 by - News

Google Cloud is giving its customers with less than a year to find alternative IoT services.

Google Cloud told its customers: “We’re writing to let you know that Google Cloud IoT Core Service will be discontinued on August 15 2023 at which point your access to the IoT Core Device Manager API will no longer be available.”

Wayside snaps up another UK distributor

Posted on August 22, 2022 by - News

Wayside Technology Group has acquired another UK distributor -VAD Spinnakar.

Spinnakar is an Arcserve, Cloudian and Deep Instinct distributor and Wayside snapped it up for an aggregate purchase price of £9.8 million.

Windsor-based  Spinnakar is focused on storage, cloud, security and data management businesses.

It is the latest VAD to be snapped up by Wayside, which bought the parent company of Sigma Software Distribution in 2020.

European Electronique happy about Commonwealth Games contract

Posted on August 19, 2022 by - News

European Electronique is provided the University of Birmingham with digital support for the Commonwealth Games.

The university was the main campus village hosting athletes during the tournament earlier this year, with the hockey and squash competitions being held there.

Having the university as a customer, European Electronique installed infrastructure to provide around the clock support for the events.

Working with Aruba, the UK systems integrator says it used its engineers while supplying support hardware and networking.

Cisco sees supply chain constrains ease

Posted on August 19, 2022 by - News

Cisco thinks its supply chain constraints are easing and should get better over the next few months.

The industry has been plagued with component shortages for  18 months and the channel has been managing inventories and customer expectations.

At the time Cisco thought that the situation would improve by the second half of the year. Cisco’s announcement of Q4 and fiscal year numbers, for the period ending 30 July confirmed the trend.

Printers should beware of erratic chips warns IDC

Posted on August 19, 2022 by - News

IDC beancounters have warned the printing industry that microchip shipments are likely to be “erratic” for the rest of the year forcing some to move to more black and white solutions.

Most OEMs are seeing demand outstrip supply, especially in higher-speed A4 and A3 colour segments where more microchips are required for manufacturing the products.

The company said that this will have a knock on impact on revenues, cash flow, and profits.

The analyst firm says its figures show that the overall Western European hardcopy market declined 2.6 percent year on year in the second quarter to 4.28 million units.

Acronis scores Arsenal again

Posted on August 18, 2022 by - News

Football team Arsenal has renewed its partnership with Cyber protection outfit Acronis.

The agreement will see Arsenal get access to the data backup vendor’s portfolio of data protection and recovery services.

The deal ropes in Ingram Micro Cloud as the delivery partner in the relationship.

In a statement Arsenal said: “Our partnership extension gives us access to Acronis’ and Ingram Micro Cloud’s extensive experience in delivering innovative solutions for global sports organisations.”

Resellers become all powerful

Posted on August 18, 2022 by - News

A new CompTIA report says that resellers are in a greater position of power.

The latest Partner experience trends 2022 from CompTIA shows that relationships between partners and vendors appear to be getting stronger, but the resellers are the ones choosing who to work with.

But the US based survey also revealed that channel partners were being careful in choosing which vendors to work with, which meant those strong relationship were the result of considered decisions.

CompTIA  senior director, industry analysis Carolyn April said: “Channel partners enjoy far greater choice of vendors to align with in a marketplace that has expanded in the cloud era.

“Greater choice means greater chance to find the most optimal fit. Proactive vendors understand that they need to step up their game and optimise the experience for partners or watch them go elsewhere.”