Category: News

UK tech startup confidence holds steady

Posted on January 16, 2020 by - News

Confidence levels among UK tech startups have risen slightly over the past three months despite election disruption and the looming Brexit deadline, Studio Graphene’s latest Tech Tracker survey reveals.

Studio Graphene has published the results of its Q4 2019 Tech Tracker survey. More than 100 C-level personnel within UK tech startups were quizzed about their outlook for the year ahead, finding:

  • 74 per cent of UK tech startups are confident their turnover will grow over the coming 12 months, up a per cent from three months ago.
  • 77 percent intend to hire more staff in the next year – a fall of two percent
  • 67 percent are planning to raise investment (up a percent)
  • Hiring the right talent remains the biggest challenge facing tech startups – 73 percent cited this as an issue, which is up from 66 percent in Q3 2019 and 60 percent in Q1
  • 69 percent are worried Brexit will make it harder for them to hire the tech talent they need to grow.

Ensono scores big Arco contract

Posted on January 16, 2020 by - News

Ensono has been selected by supplier of safety equipment, workwear and services Arco to migrate its SAP infrastructure onto Microsoft Azure. The project lets  Arco to develop its eCommerce platform and continue to operate as the business relocates to new headquarters, it said.

Arco offers over 170,000 products including workwear, footwear, PPE and workplace safety products. Its Safety Services team offer training, consultancy, rescue and site services to businesses across the UK. Based in Hull, Arco reaches its customers through its extensive product catalogue, interactive website and national network of retail stores. The company has sales of over £295 million and employs approximately 1600 people nationwide. 

Blue Prism has three new Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions

Posted on January 16, 2020 by - News

Blue Prism announced the availability of three new Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions that, it claims, augment its Digital Workforce powered by the company’s connected-RPA Platform.

These SaaS solutions use IP acquired with Thoughtonomy – now branded Blue Prism Cloud – and, it’s claimed, allow enterprises to access the industry’s most advanced intelligent automation capabilities.

DMC buys three other print specialists

Posted on January 15, 2020 by - News

Managed print provider DMC has written a cheque for three fellow print specialists.

DMC has taken over Canon Platinum Condor and Systems Technology and Konica Minolta Elite partner CSL.

DMC CEO Simon Davey said: “Condor, Systems Technology and CSL are exceptional businesses and strongly complement our existing group. DMC continues to achieve considerable growth and we look forward to taking the business from strength to strength with Horizon’s continued investment and support.”

Sigma Software Distribution announces new CSP service

Posted on January 15, 2020 by - News

Sigma Software Distribution is launching Sigma Cloud, an indirect CSP service for resellers.

Sigma’s Managing Director Jane Silk said: “Sigma’s whole ethos is about working with vendors and resellers to grow their business by offering something different. We’ve taken the same approach with Sigma Cloud. We spoke to the market and it was clear they wanted more practical advice, better sales enablement and a wider range of vendors. So that’s exactly what we built.”

Tollring hires Graham Evans to head up Asia Pacific business strategy.

Posted on January 15, 2020 by - Moving People, News

UK-based Tollring, the software developer behind  communications analytics, call recording and anti-fraud product iCall Suite, has hired Graham Evans to head up business strategy in the Asia Pacific region.

Based in Melbourne, Australia, Evans brings with him over 20 years of management expertise in product, marketing and sales within the telecommunications industry having previously worked at Vonage, Vocus, M2 Telecommunications, AAPT and Hutchison Telecom.

Autho teams up with iC Consult

Posted on January 14, 2020 by - News

Auth0, the identity platform for application builders, announced a partnership with systems integrator iC Consult.

The partnership is all about demand for cloud-based identity management solutions. According to a recent survey from Germany’s digital association Bitkom and KPMG, cloud is an important driver of digital transformation with 73 percent of companies using some form of cloud computing.

A quarter of PCs just became more vulnerable to Ransomware

Posted on January 14, 2020 by - News

PCs still running when Windows 7 reaches the end of its life will be more at risk of ransomware from today, Veritas Technologies has warned.

According to experts, 26 percent of PCs are expected to still be running the Microsoft software after support for patches and bug fixes end.

The vulnerability to ransomware of PCs running unsupported software was demonstrated by the WannaCry virus in 2017. 

Pest Pulse scores LEON contract

Posted on January 14, 2020 by - News

Tech pest outfit Pest Pulse has scored a contract with restaurant chain LEON to deliver proactive pest control to its first store, with a further 19 to follow within five years.

Pest Pulse was able to cater to LEON’s specific challenges around the new store’s position beside both a river and a building site, in a notorious tourist hotspot with late-night bars and takeaways – making it a particularly high-risk store.

After carrying out site surveys and making the appropriate recommendations, Pest Pulse delivered its strategically positioned smart traps to enable 24/7 monitoring of LEON’s Temple Bar restaurant. LEON and Pest Pulse can both view real-time analytics via cloud-based software and will receive notifications as soon as a trap is activated, so technicians can investigate and execute corrective actions before an infestation happens.

Charterhouse swallows NETconnection

Posted on January 13, 2020 by - News

Comms supplier Charterhouse has written a cheque for managed service provider NETconnection.

For those who came in late,  NETconnection is a LAN and SD-LAN specialist, Charterhouse said, with over 30 members of staff and more than 100 customers.

Charterhouse CEO Mark Brooks-Wadham said NETconnection was an exceptionally talented team harnessing great LAN capabilities that allowed his outfit to develop its existing product and services offering to our diversified customer base.

Cirrus and TelXL merge

Posted on January 13, 2020 by - News

Cloud-based contact centre outfit Cirrus and networking company TelXL are to merge.

The pair say they have ambitious growth plans and is on course to double revenues in the coming year thanks to a highly successful channel strategy. To support this anticipated growth the company will be increasing headcount by over 60 percent.

For over a decade Cirrus has been providing a voice network to customers by using the TelXL carrier service and TelXL’s range of solutions. Cirrus claims it has enhanced the TelXL’s network services with omnichannel capabilities for contact centres, conversational artificial intelligence, in-call language translation and secure payment solutions. The merged company will increase its product development capacity, ensuring even quicker speed to market with innovative new products.

Jason Roos is the new  CEO of the newly merged company and said that the merger significantly increases development capacity and will allow more exciting products and solutions to market in ever shorter timescales.

“For our staff, there are many more opportunities for growth and career development within a fast-moving and dynamic organisation that is in a leading position within an extremely exciting market.”

Nigel Fox, Founder of TelXL commented; “The merger is the natural next step for both organisations in what has been a long-term relationship. In 2015, TelXL acquired 51 per cent of Cirrus and this merger is the next step in our journey together.  We have successfully traded as a Group for many years and merging will bring us even closer together, with common goals and a shared vision of the future. The merger comes at the end of a highly successful year for both Cirrus and TelXL.”

Counterpath teams up with Honeywell

Posted on January 13, 2020 by - News

Unified Communications and Collaboration CounterPath has partnered with Honeywell to create Smart Talk which is a new Unified Communications (UC) software solution that enables organistions to streamline communications, increase productivity, and enhance customer experiences.

Basically it means that mobile workers to connect and collaborate on the devices they already use and is designed for shops, hospitals, lorries and distribution centres.

The move is part of the growing demand for rugged tablets which is projected to reach US$946 million by 2025, exhibiting a CAGR of 5.9 percent during the forecast period (2018-2025).

Barrie Desmond comes out of hibernation to catch salmon

Posted on January 10, 2020 by - News

After a year away, Barrie Desmond has returned to Exclusive as part of a cunning plan to spruce up the channel player’s executive team.

Desmond will become SVP of marketing and communications, and Gaerard Allison takes up the SVP  EMEA role. At the same time, the distributor has introduced Brad Gray as SVP of APAC and Scott Lewis as SVP of the Americas.

Desmond said that the channel player had lots to do to disrupt the market and introducing technologies that would put resellers in a position to meet evolving customer needs.

Cancom CEO quits

Posted on January 10, 2020 by - News

Cancom CEO Thomas Volk has quit the company over “differing opinions on the future strategic development of the company”.

The company’s supervisory board will replace the outgoing CEO with COO and member of the executive board Rudolf Hotter as of 1 February. Volk’s duties will be split between Hotter and the firm’s CFO Thomas Stark.

Volk took the reins of the company some 15 months ago when  CEO of 26 years, Klaus Weinmann, stepped down. The dark satanic rumour mill manufactured a hell on earth yarn that Cancom was weighing options for a sale – with reseller giants CDW, NTT and Bechtle in the frame to buy the company.

Government about to damage IT investment with tax reform

Posted on January 10, 2020 by - News

The government’s  IR 35 reform is going to seriously damage the IT industry according to Simon Winfield, UK and Ireland MD at global recruitment firm Hays.

The government has refused to delay the April start date of the reforms and is only going through token London-centric consultation exercises which it appears keen to ignore.

Winfield warned: “If they are undertaking additional consultation now until mid-February and the reforms are coming into effect from April, there simply isn’t enough time to give this the attention it so desperately needs,” he said.

He said that introducing the new laws on 6 April will counter any investment in this area. A number of industries are suffering from niche skills shortages and these reforms could worsen these gaps. The IR35 reforms will hit technology harder than any other market and introducing them will counter any investment in this area.