Category: News

Nearly two fifths of UK channel organisations believe that the global IT channel will expand in the next two years.

Research commissioned by Agilitas IT Solutions show just over half of UK channel businesses actively looking to expand their businesses internationally, with Europe, the Middle East, Africa and North America proving the most attractive destinations.

Nearly two-thirds of channel respondents already operate in the APAC region, while 32  per cent are looking to move into South America.

The findings have been released by Agilitas as part of its research into the attitudes of the UK IT channel towards globalisation, and the issues and barriers presented to companies that wish to facilitate international growth.

UK businesses still maintain a degree of caution when approaching globalisation. For example, a quarter of decision makers believe that Brexit and the ‘Trump era’ will have a profound impact on global IT channel growth, with a fifth of all companies believing the European Union exit will significantly delay growth plans.

A third believe that having a presence in other regions minimises the financial risk of having a purely UK-focused business, ahead of the UK’s official EU exit, while 20 per cent  of decision makers cite internal finances and infrastructure issues as the main barriers towards expanding.

Shaun Lynn, CEO of Agilitas said that the research showed that optimism for expanding internationally has never been higher, within the UK IT channel.

“However, they now require actionable insights to consider how, why and when they should undertake this significant internal transformational shift. A mainly prosperous economic landscape, allied to an increased number of industry collaborations, is increasing turnover, allowing businesses to analyse how they can stimulate this further in new markets,” he said.

CDW won the largest ever G-Cloud deal according to the Crown Commercial Service (CCS).

The at £25.7 million deal was agreed in June with the Department of Education saw CDW provide services in the Cloud Hosting Lot of the framework.

Previously the largest deal that had been facilitated by G-Cloud saw consultancy firm BJSS transact a £10.6 million deal with the NHS in April 2016.

According to CCS figures, Capgemini was the biggest G-Cloud supplier in the first half of the year, according to the data, winning £38.5 million worth of business. CDW was ranked second with £26.8 million.

Amazon Web Services was just behind CDW, with sales of £26.4 million.

IBM meanwhile saw its G-Cloud sales top £8 million, while Microsoft made £ 5million. Softcat saw h1 G-Cloud sales of  £2.8 million  and Computacenter made £771,810.

Solar Communications has been acquired by Wavenet as part of its much announced M&A spree.

The outfit raised £75 million in funding and said that it was out to expand through aquisitions.

Wavenet CEO Bill Dawson said: “Solar is an extremely capable and exciting business with a very talented team. Its combination with Wavenet will provide added depth to the innovative and business-enhancing services provided to both sets of customers.

“Solar has been successful developing the platform, people and services required for growing the business both organically and by acquisition. This has accelerated its transition from being a leading telephone system reseller in the UK to becoming a fully managed cloud service provider, able to provide superlative technology and a fully managed service.

Solar’s CEO John Whitty, who will remain with the firm said: “Whitty said: “Following an intensive 30 months of growing our business into a successful and agile organisation, the time is right to take the next step and allow our customers to benefit from our significant joint capability and experience in the UC market.

“I am looking forward to being part of the Wavenet team and further helping the group to develop and deliver the cloud UC components.”