Category: News

Computacenter has announced promising results for the financial year 2023.

The company said its gross invoiced income (GII) exceeded £10 billion, marking an increase of 11.4 per cent compared to the previous year. Additionally, there was a 10.2 per cent rise in gross profit and adjusted earnings per share (EPS).

These gains were attributed to advancements in technology sourcing and services.

The gross profit saw a 10.2 per cent uplift, while the profit before tax rose by 5.4 per cent, indicative of heightened strategic investments. Read more…

IT distributor Ingram Micro is gearing up for a smashing new IPO.

Word on the street is that they’ve got the money maestros at Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley cooking up a juicy £6.5 billion deal that could pop as early as April.

This is not Ingram’s first rodeo. The California giant, which took a step back from the Wall Street limelight in 2021 after a hefty £5.8 billion buyout by Platinum Equity, flirted with an IPO last September but didn’t go through with it. Read more…

Number crunchers at Juniper Research have added up some numbers, divided them by their shoe size, and realised that Contact Centre-as-a-Service is about to rake in a whopping $10 billion subscription revenue by 2025.

It will balloon to an eye-watering $18 billion by 2028. That’s a stonking 76 per cent growth!

Juniper said that while the moolah from CCaaS is predicted to shoot up by 21 per cent between 2024 and 2025, this rocketing rate will hit the brakes in the following three years.

This will be caused by an anticipated reduction in service innovation and over-saturation of service providers due to the consolidation of SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) platforms.

CCaaS is this nifty cloud-based gizmo provided by CSPs (Communication Service Providers) that’s a godsend for businesses dealing with customers. It’s like having a digital switchboard that handles all the natter from emails, calls, you name it, all in one place. Read more…

Juniper Networks is stirring up the AI scene with a fresh twist on its Juniper Partner Advantage (JPA) Programme.

The new scheme helps partners get smart with AI for IT Ops, promising a smooth ride to cash town with reliable, nifty, and far-reaching managed networking services.

It has included a shiny new Partner Assured badge to showcase their mates’ top-notch Juniper skills, which were checked out by the bigwigs at Information Security Systems International (ISSI). It’s all about ensuring customers get the crème de la crème of service while cutting costs.

Juniper’s partner club boss Gordon Mackintosh said the company was laying down the red carpet for partners to flex their value and speed like never before.

Its managed service provider (MSP) designation has ballooned by 44 per cent, thanks to some clever AI tricks that are set to boost partner profits and customer happiness. Read more…

Despite the juicy drama of its  CEO Neil Murphy’s hush-hush exit over some sneaky trades, Bytes Technology is raking in the cash.

The company has bagged a whopping £89 million in the kitty, with profits and sales through the roof – we’re talking a stellar 25 per cent jump in demand.

Gross invoiced income growth exceeded 25 per cent, indicating strong demand for software and IT services from corporate and public sector clients.

The company’s cash position stood at approximately £89 million at the year-end, reflecting a cash conversion in line with the group’s target of 100 per cent.

Current boss Sam Mudd is pleased with the results, saying that his team’s done a blinder and that they’re on track for even more money from their IT gear.

Meanwhile, the story of Murphy’s exit is getting more involved. Apparently, The FCA sniffed out some dodgy dealings and suspects that he had been trading on the sly – 119 times no less, and even his missus got in on the action.

Subsequent investigations revealed unauthorised trading of the company’s ordinary shares on 66 trading days between January 2021 and November 2023.

Additional transactions conducted by Murphy on behalf of his wife were disclosed later, further highlighting the lack of transparency in his dealings.

Yet, the market’s buzzing and BTG’s not sweating it. They’re all hands on deck, promising to play nice with the investigators and keep things squeaky clean.

Software King of the World Microsoft has decided it won’t be pocketing your pennies when you fancy moving your data from Azure to another cloud or back home to your own data centre.

Vole cooed in a snappy blog post that it was all about choice including the freedom to take your data and do a runner from Azure.

This sudden burst of generosity is all thanks to the looming European Data Act, set to give the boot to sneaky lock-in antics by 2025. But Vole felt generous and spread love worldwide, not just in Europe. Read more…

Cloudy Security behemoth Zscaler has snapped up the hotshot start-up Avalor, and they’re not shy about their grand plans to revolutionise AI in cybersecurity.

The bigwigs are keeping schtum on the exact figures, but whispers on the grapevine peg the deal at a cool £200 to £280 million. The tech town’s been buzzing since January about this match made in cyber heaven, and it’s all done and dusted as of March 13.

Zscaler boss Jay Chaudhry said that AI is only top-notch if the data’s up to snuff and he had the world’s biggest security cloud, and with Avalor’s tech, it will spot the cyber nasties before they even think about causing trouble. Read more…

Gartner’s crystal ball gazers predict bumpy roads ahead for genAI and a slowdown by 2026.

Big G thinks that the big spend on keeping IP safe and dodging copyright infringement is set to put the brakes on genAI adoption and trim down those juicy returns.

Gartner’s top boffin, Rita Sallam, warns that as genAI gets smarter, the rule-makers are playing catch-up. And it’s not just the big cheeses sweating over IP risks; it’s a headache for the whole office.

She says it is time to be choosy with vendors and smarten up the crew with the right tools. Read more…

In a dazzling display of optimism for the future, the bigwigs of Britain’s channel scene are buzzing more than a hive in summer.

Agilitas IT Solutions’ latest interviews with 250 top brass from the UK’s channel firms reveal a confidence score of 7.9 out of 10. That’s the beefiest it’s been in half a decade.

The managers threw their weight behind snazzy innovations, sprucing up the customer experience and snagging the crème de la crème of talent.

A hefty 82 per cent reckon AI’s the bee’s knees for business. But only three-quarters are giving AI a whirl in their game plans. Read more…

Aussie order management outfit Fluent Commerce is making a splash with its new global channel partner programme.

It is rallying APAC, NA, and EMEA partners to ‘come and ride the OMS wave’ – and they’ve even got a dinky-di Aussie mascot to boot

The programme has three tiers—Wave Champion, Surf Pro, and Surf Community—each tailored to the partners’ tech know-how, experience, and project wins.

The programme is being mascotted by DOM, a surfing OMS nerd and Koala [not pictured] , which is apparently ready to show the ropes on the Order Management odyssey.

Since its 2013 debut, Fluent Commerce has gathered a hefty gang of over 200 seasoned partners, including top-tier heavyweights like Accenture and Capgemini, all churning out better projects. Read more…

Channel partners see data both as a pesky problem and a cracking chance as they gear up to hop on the gravy train of recurring revenue models, a new study has revealed.

Number crunchers at distributor Westcon-Comstor chatted with over 500 senior decision-makers at partners across nine countries. A smashing 97 per cent reckon data is crucial as they toddle towards a future chock-a-block with everything-as-a-service (XaaS).

The correct data is hard to get, and it’s the biggest problem blocking partners from bagging those sweet recurring revenues. In the UK, 56 per cent of managers are tearing their hair out over it.

The hot ticket is data that can sniff out and kick-start market growth chances. Read more…

Data centre colocation outfit Equinix has unveiled plans to turn a tired old paint factory in Slough into a cutting-edge data centre complex.

The blueprints feature a data hall, plush office spaces, and all the behind-the-scenes gubbins needed to keep the digital show on the road.

Equinix is going green in a big way. They’re decking out the new digs with all sorts of eco-friendly kit, from water-saving cooling towers to energy-sipping lights. And they’re not just saving the planet; they’re giving it a makeover, promising to boost the site’s biodiversity by at least 10 per cent with green roofs, native plants, and homes for our feathered and furry friends. Read more…

GenAI fuelled Oracle’s infrastructure revenue in its most recent quarter, and more profit is likely.

Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison told listeners on the company’s quarterly earnings call that Oracle was bringing GenAI to a wide range of industries – highlighting a digital assistant for ambulatory clinic systems and the technology’s work in aligning Albania’s laws with the European Union’s to speed up the country’s EU entrance.

“Oracle’s Gen 2 AI infrastructure business is booming. That’s become pretty clear to everybody,” he said, Read more…

It does not matter that Broadcom seems to have hacked off the channel with its VMware plans. Its CEO, Hock Tan, has declared that its VMware business is poised for a meteoric rise.

For those who came in late, Broadcom redid its channel policy to focus primarily on large channel partners. Tan has expectations of double-digit growth.

“We’re not just selling; we’re revolutionising the way our customers use private clouds,” Tan proclaimed as he unveiled his strategy to use VMware’s untapped potential. With a focus on upselling to 2,000 strategic customers, Tan’s vision is clear: to transform on-prem datacentres into powerhouses of efficiency and innovation. Read more…

STFC’s Hartree Centre is teaming up with the Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust to give a futuristic twist on healthcare by bringing in Artificial Intelligence.

The collaboration is a step towards realising the potential of advanced digital technologies in NHS healthcare, which can elevate the quality and effectiveness of patient care and contribute to healthier lives.

The announcement closely follows Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt’s budget announcement of £3.4 billion in funding to support digital transformation in the NHS as part of more comprehensive plans to boost productivity. Read more…