Category: News

VAD Progress appoints Simon Burgess UK MD

Posted on October 16, 2018 by - News

Cybersecurity VAD Progress Distribution has appointed a new UK MD, with founder so that  its CEO John Quinn (pictured) can turn his attention to the outfit’s European expansion.

Quinn has now made Simon Burgess UK MD so he can focus more on expansion into Germany. He said Germany was a different market from the UK but vendors want the company to do well there.

“We are being backed by several of our vendors to increase market share in Germany, so I am going to make sure that I am spending more time there, and also more time in the Nordics, to spearhead Europe,” Quinn said.

Quinn said that expansions into other parts of Europe are not likely to happen until at least the second half of 2019, but he has already picked out where Progress will likely go next – with the Netherlands the likely location.

He said that this year the business has grown by 330 per cent.

 

Agilitas sees giant increase in turnover

Posted on October 16, 2018 by - News

Nottingham based channel services provider, Agilitas IT Solutions, has announced a 23 per cent year-on-year increase in turnover, thanks to a number of new business wins and a refined channel and customer-centric business strategy.

Agilitas’ unprecedented growth in the last year has seen its overall turnover reach £9.5 million in FY18, generating an EBITDA consolidated group profit of £2 million. This represents growth of 53 per cent when compared to the FY17 financial year results. Furthermore, with an EBITDA percentage return against turnover of 20 per cent, Agilitas’ growth compares favourably to its peers, as it leads the way in delivering both UK and global, outcome-based IT solutions for its channel partners.

This exceptional growth has been the result of Agilitas delivering its services to an increasing number of UK and worldwide channel businesses. As a result, Agilitas now trades in over 60 countries worldwide, with this number increasing by 80 per cent in the past 12 months.

One example of how Agilitas’ enhanced service proposition is proving popular with channel partner customers is its partnership with IBM UK. The collaboration has helped the Nottingham-based services provider consolidate its position as a leader of channel services in the UK and global market. In a first-of-its-kind agreement, IBM is delivering a tailored, vendor agnostic, on-site and remote engineering solution, enabling Agilitas to provide an end-to-end inventory and engineering solution to its channel partners.

Internally, Agilitas’ current ‘Channel in 2020’ campaign has helped stimulate overall business growth, securing a number of significant qualified opportunities to date. The insights obtained from its two-year-long campaign have helped Agilitas to consolidate its services offering, positioning it as a channel thought leader, while simultaneously empowering channel partners with new information that helps them shape their own services strategy whilst streamlining operations.

“Agilitas is continuously delivering fantastic year-on-year results, which is a reflection of the team’s great performance and continued commitment; we are confident we can continue this upwards momentum in FY19,” comments Agilitas’ CEO, Shaun Lynn. “This growth is the result of Agilitas delivering world-class services’ solutions for customers on both a UK and global scale.  Our ever-expanding services portfolio is making our proposition increasingly attractive to more and more channel businesses who are looking to remain relevant to their end user customers by delivering ‘best-of-breed’ solutions.”

Fiscal teams up with Moore Stephens in fraud war

Posted on October 15, 2018 by - News

Forensic financial solutions and services outfit Fiscal Technologies announced a new strategic partnership with accounting consultant Moore Stephens, a Top 10 accounting and advisory network, to strengthen risk reduction and fraud prevention in the P2P process.

This new partnership will enable organisations across the globe to take advantage of the combined products and services, designed to monitor and prevent unnecessary organisational spend, it is said.

Procurement fraud is a very real and constant threat and finance professionals face a constant challenge in managing supplier spend and identifying erroneous payments. Increasing complexity, outsourcing and new markets can all increase fraud exposure. By taking a proactive and continuous approach to identifying fraud, organisations can increase control and thereby protect against reputational damage, whatever that is.

Head of Strategic Alliances and Channel at FISCAL Technologies Colin Rigby said the announcement allows organisations to take their fraud control to the next level.

“This exciting new partnership will empower clients to increase control of their supplier spend, improve spend visibility and take a more proactive stance in protecting working capital by identifying and challenging erroneous payments before they happen. The combination of Moore Stephens’ network resources and capabilities and the power of FISCAL Technologies forensic software creates a compelling market offering. We look forward to working together to help organisations of all types improve risk and fraud prevention.”

Exciting indeed.

“We’re thrilled to be working with FISCAL Technologies”, said Robert Noye-Allen, Partner at Moore Stephens. “Over the last few years there has been an increasing drive towards continually enhancing financial process efficiency, but fraud prevention must always be a constant concern. Our partnership with FISCAL enables us to provide our clients with an effective tool for protecting supplier spend and defending against fraud, on a continuous, preventative basis.”

Thrilling.

Roc Technologies sweeps up some Esteem

Posted on October 15, 2018 by - News

Services outfit Roc Technologies has written a cheque for managed services provider Esteem Systems.

The newly combined firm is expected to hit sales of £80 million in 2019, Roc said.

Last year Roc bought City Change Management and secured a £10 million investment from the British Growth Fund.

Roc CEO Matt Franklin said Esteem’s managed services capabilities as a key factor behind the deal. When added to Roc, it creates a “strong annuity-driven business”, whatever that means.

Roc said that managed services will now make up 30 percent of the business and the combined firm will have a headcount of 350 employees and offices in Newbury, London, Wetherby and Glasgow.

Roc CEO Matt Franklin said: “I am delighted to be able to welcome Esteem Systems and our new colleagues into the Roc family. Our strategy at Roc is simple; to become the most valuable partner in our customers’ digital transformation strategy, and through that value-driven customer relationship, drive Roc’s growth and reputation in the market.

“The coming together of Roc and Esteem Systems is 100 per cent complementary in the portfolio, customers, industry focus, and geography, and I am thrilled that together we can extend new value to our joint customers and accelerate our next phase of growth through a truly differentiated customer offer.”

 

TfL wants suppliers for £70m IT tender

Posted on October 12, 2018 by - News

Transport for London (TfL) is calling for five suppliers to bid for an IT contract worth up to £70 million as its Atos and Computacenter contracts wind down.

The tender is for core ICT support and will run for an initial four years, with the potential to be extended for a further three years.

The successful supplier must provide service desk and desk-side support services, including support for customer information screens, audiovisual equipment and meeting rooms.

At the moment the primary desk support is currently delivered by Atos, while Computacenter provides desk-side support.

TfL said that “price is not the only award criterion”, emphasising the quality of service offered by the potential suppliers.

Partners have until the end of the month to apply for the tender, with invitations to tender set to be sent out at the start of December. The agreement is expected to start in January 2020.

Scott Walker takes chief marketing officer role at Unitas Global

Posted on October 12, 2018 by - News

0Enterprise cloud outfit Unitas Global named Scott Walker as chief marketing officer.

With more than two decades of experience driving sales and marketing programs for many of the industry’s leading enterprise cloud companies, Walker will serve to strengthen Unitas Global’s position in the managed cloud services marketplace. He will report directly to Patrick Shutt, CEO of Unitas Global.

Shutt said: ” “In just the last three years, Unitas Global has grown by more than 500 percent. To continue expanding our business, we need to apply a greater focus to sharing the stories of why our customers choose to partner with Unitas Global as they advance along their digital transformation journeys. Having been in the industry for more than two decades, Scott understands this better than most. He sees the value we bring to enterprises that are looking to use the cloud to gain a competitive advantage. We couldn’t be more excited to have him on board to help our business reach the next level.”

Before joining Unitas Global, Walker served in VP and director-level marketing and sales roles at companies across the cloud services sector. In his three years with Ericsson, Walker served as VP and Head of Cloud Infrastructure where he was responsible for a cloud infrastructure practice and launched the company’s composable hyperscale system and edge computing platforms to support IoT and 5G readiness for service providers. Before joining Ericsson, Walker served as VP of Indirect Channels and Alliances at Equinix, where he was responsible for significant growth and was part of the key team that launched the world’s first direct connection to public cloud capability with AWS. He’s also held senior level positions with ARCserve, AT&T Solutions, and Masergy.

Walker said: “Having been part of world-class teams throughout my career, one of the key lessons learned is that to build an effective cloud strategy requires a trusted partner who is focused on delivering financial and strategic outcomes for the customers we serve. Unitas Global is laser-focused on helping its customers leverage cloud and cloud networking solutions to gain an edge. The company has a very compelling differentiated value proposition and is committed to helping its customers navigate the complexity of today’s modern cloud infrastructure. I am ecstatic to be on a winning team that is ready to scale to new heights.”

In his new role at Unitas Global, Walker will be responsible for leading all aspects of Unitas Global’s multi-channel marketing strategy, including branding, demand generation, and sales enablement initiatives across the organisation.

 

EkkoSense taps Crawford for telecoms unit

Posted on October 12, 2018 by - News

colin_crawford-418x315EkkoSense has appointed Colin Crawford to head up its expanding Telecoms and Broadcast business unit.

EkkoSense supports  telecoms and broadcast firms with its comprehensive portfolio of turnkey network cooling solutions and services.

In his new role, Colin Crawford will be responsible for promoting the company’s distinctive balanced cooling approach, and will be particularly focused on resolving the thermal management challenge for telecoms and broadcast organisations as they increasingly try to introduce more and more network power into limited enclosures. Colin has spent the last ten years developing and implementing major network cooling approaches for leading organisations such as Telefonica and Vodafone during his previous roles at CommScope, Dantherm Group and 4energy.

EkkoSense supports telecoms and broadcast firms with comprehensive balanced cooling strategies, as well as ongoing estate management services, site audits and analysis using the company’s innovative sensors and 3D visualisation software.

Dean Boyle, CEO of EkkoSense said: “with experience in assisting some of the world’s largest organisations in optimising the thermal performance of their networks, EkkoSense is an ideal partner for telecoms and broadcast businesses as they seek to secure the maximum performance from their business-critical network assets. With Colin Crawford joining EkkoSense to head up our Telecoms and Broadcast team we’ll be working closely with our industry partners and customers to develop our work in this area, with a particular focus on improving network reliability, increasing capacity and maximizing systems lifespan for their existing network assets.”

Crawford said: “Optimised network performance is always conditional on the consistent performance of thermally-sensitive transmission equipment, and that’s particularly the case in the telecoms and broadcast sector where thermal optimisation is becoming more and more critical. Over the last few years EkkoSense has quickly established itself as a key solutions and services provider in this area, and I look forward to helping further establish the company in these critical markets

Channel needs to support the free press

Posted on October 11, 2018 by - Events, Moving People, News

Pieter Brueghel the Elder

Boys thrashing tops in 1560 – Brueghel

The Canalys Channel Conference closed at 3PM prompt this afternoon, Barcelona time,  but not before one of the few channel journalists left standing was given a five minute slot to stand and address the thousand or so attendees at the conference.

Cristoph Hugenschmidt, a journalist at Inside Channels CH, made an impassioned speech about how the community of vendors, distributors and resellers need the independence that real journalism – rather than fake news or marketing spin – offers that influential group.

Cristoph reckons – and ChannelEye agrees – that the hugely lucrative market needs independent journalism more than ever before. He gave as an example a Canalys event he attended a year or two back where a marketing spinner told the assembled hacks that journalism wasn’t necessary any more because his company could put out the message it wanted via social media and using impoverished hacks to write online press releases.

Nevertheless, after delivering this insult to the hackettes and hacks at the table, according to Cristoph, he tipped up a couple of hours later and said: “I do expect you journalists to be at my 9AM roundtable tomorrow.”

The Swiss hack was basically saying that unless the channel supported free and independent journalism as part of the community, we’ll all wither away and companies will lose the insight, gossip and spinicide that hackettes and hacks deliver.

Why does the channel need journalists like Cristoph and the few of us that are left? My feeling is that despite the noise of Twitter and other social media, and PR and marketing executives spinning like tops, there is a need for a cool third party appraisal of what’s going on. “Going forward”, to use an infamous marketing perversion of the phrase “in the future”, company CEOs need to decide whether they can afford the ridiculous price of marketing spin and decide whether it’s worth it.

ChannelEye of course,  is notorious as purveyors of “fake news” – via The Rogister and theINQUIRER.net,  and coined the term “wide awake news” two years after Donald Trump was born.

Lenovo pulls up its channel socks

Posted on October 11, 2018 by - Events, News

Screen Shot 2018-10-11 at 11.27.37At a keynote speech at the Canalys Channel Forum yesterday, analyst-in-chief Steve Brazier said Lenovo had a poor set of tools for its partners and made decisions too slowly.

But senior executives at Lenovo told ChannelEye this morning that it’s already taken significant steps to turn that position round.

Lenovo said it recognised its tools and processes weren’t perfect, but said it had been investing and making improvements. It’s committed to speeding up the way it works with resellers and investing money to improve the matter.

“We’re turning things round – we need a more sophisticated way of helping the channel.”

Lenovo recognised that it’s a big investment that it has to undertake. It’s been working on the project for 12 months.

“We have further to go but we are making progress. We [now] have the ability to give split second decisions on deals and on pricing.”

It claimed it was getting good feedback from its distributors and channel partners on the improvements it’s already made.

It recognises that it needed to be more collaborative at sharing material with partners and need to be more agile and have a bespoke method of getting its product message tailored to the customers that they’re pitching to.

* The company said it is likely to be protected in the event of a continuing trade war between the US and China. It has a factory in China but also in other territories and has the ability to switch production if it needs to.

Brexit: The channel is more of a mouse than a man

Posted on October 11, 2018 by - News

Screen Shot 2018-10-11 at 09.47.40There’s one thing clear from the Canalys Channel Forum here in Barcelona and that is many of the major players are individually, and in the words of Robert Burns scared out of their pants.

Burns described a frightened mouse as a”Wee, sleekit, cowrin, tim’rous beastie; O, what a pannic’s in thy breastie!”

In short, the channel mice are terrified of what might happen in the case of a hard Brexit.

Translated from the Scots dialect, the poem also suggests the channel hasn’t a clue and needs leadership. Maybe the future is too horrific for it to face the plain and simple truth.  The channel may suffering what’s called in posh words “cognitive dissonance” but, in a short Anglo-Saxon phrase, cacking its pants.

We put this to Steve Brazier, the lead analyst at Canalys this morning. And he’s far more outspoken than his customers and clients.

He said that if there’s a hard Brexit from the European Union, the pound will crash, tech prices will rise and the UK will suffer a major recession.

The point is that while other manufacturers in say, the car industry, have spoken out loudly about the dangers to business, only one of the Big Six has said anything. We talked to Lenovo which said that it’s in favour of open trade and implied strongly that a soft Brexit or no Brexit at all was preferable to falling into the abyss.

The primary impact of a hard Brexit is the UK, but Ireland will be affected too, because the Irish tech channel is similar to the UK, said Brazier.

Specifically, distributors and vendors will be affected and because no one knows what the outcome will be – that’s anyone, right from timid resellers and vendors right up to Her Majesty’s Government, and perhaps even the devil. However, she or he probably has all the detail.

Resellers snubbing distributors

Posted on October 11, 2018 by - News

14500.snubNew research shows 14 percent of resellers are purchasing between 20 and 30 percent of their kit from e-tailers like Amazon.

According to a report from Context, resellers are spurning IT distributors as if they were a rabid dog. More than 7,000 resellers in 14 countries found that a substantial minority of respondents were cutting them out of the loop when sourcing goods.

Some 30 percent of respondents said they bought up to 10 percent of their stock from e-tailers, 16 percent between 10 and 20 percent, and 14 percent between 20 and 30 percent, Context said.

Product availability was cited ahead of price as the most common reason resellers are flocking to e-tailers among the respondents, who were drawn from the UK, Australia, New Zealand, the Baltics, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Slovakia, Spain and Turkey.

The report said that distributors needed to tackle the threat by focusing on value-added services, and solution-driven areas such as cloud, claiming this represents a $34 billion  opportunity.

Adam Simon, global MD for Context said the transformation of IT distribution has been driven in large part by the growing presence of major e-tailers and changing reseller expectations. Smaller resellers especially feel increasingly that their interests are not being looked after by distributors, and they’re flocking online as a result.

“It’s not time for distributors to hit the panic button. By focusing on things such as customer service, training and adding value in areas like the cloud and multiple new service areas, they can find ways to differentiate. Reassuringly, distributors continue to invest in infrastructure and skills to support their clients. But we may see price pressures push several players into finding economies of scale via acquisition over the coming year — potentially in APAC and LATAM”, he said.

Dell doubles hyperconverged sales

Posted on October 11, 2018 by - News

michael-dell-2The pressure of Dell’s boot on the throat of the hyperconverged space has increased as the outfit has doubled its revenue in the sector in the second quarter.

According to figures from IDC, the worldwide converged systems market grew 10 percent year on year in the second quarter of 2018, generating revenues of $3.5 billion and Dell was the winner with  seeing its sales jump 95.2 percent to $418.7 million.

Sebastian Lagana, infrastructure platforms and technologies research manager at IDC, said: “Datacentre infrastructure convergence remains an important investment driver for companies around the world.

“HCI solutions helped to drive second-quarter market expansion thanks, in part, to their ability to reduce infrastructure complexity, promote consolidation, and allow IT teams to support an organisation’s business objectives.”

he certified reference and integrated infrastructure market saw a year-on-year decline of 14 percent, generating $1.3 billion in the second quarter. This represents 38 percent of total converged systems revenue.

Dell also led the charge in this market segment, with $640 million in sales, representing a 47.5 percent share of the space. This was followed by Cisco/NetApp holding the second-largest share of this segment space and HPE trailing in third.

Integrated platform sales declined 12.5 percent year on year, with revenues of $729.4m. Oracle was the top-ranking supplier in this segment, capturing 60 per cent of this market space and seeing profits of $441 million.

Nutanix saw a year-on-year decrease of its HCI market share, but still ranked second in the segment, holding 19 percent of the HCI space, with Cisco and HPE coming joint third.

ResponseSource swallowed by Vuelio

Posted on October 11, 2018 by - News

shark_attack_painting-t2 (1)Access Intelligence, the parent company of Vuelio, has bought ResponseSource for a cash-and-shares worth £5.5 million to create an unrivalled portfolio of stakeholder engagement software.

Access Intelligence CEO Joanna Arnold said: “Vuelio and ResponseSource have a lot in common. They are both SaaS businesses providing great communications intelligence to PR, marketing and journalism professionals. But at the same time, they are extremely complementary, and ResponseSource will from day one add significantly to the portfolio while accelerating our combined product development, particularly in journalist services.”

Vuelio clients now have the option to access a powerful means of media engagement thanks to the ResponseSource Journalist Enquiry Service, which allows journalists to request information from PR professionals directly. This creates an unprecedented opportunity for Vuelio clients to gain coverage by providing comment, opinion and other content on a vast range of topics for leading newspapers, publications and influencers.

Journalists and influencers using the service will also benefit as over time they will be able to access a broader range of leads through the Vuelio client base – a rich source of blue-chip businesses and sector-leading organisations.

Joanna Arnold added: “ResponseSource’s trusted journalist services are representative of the strong links between the team and the journalist community. These links provide a platform for relationship building and research, and it needs to deliver value to everyone involved. We plan to continue to invest in the ResponseSource brand, in its services, and in its people.”

ResponseSource founder Daryl Willcox will remain at the combined company and becomes Director of Audience Strategy for Access Intelligence. He said: “It’s a great outcome for our customers, journalist users and the team at ResponseSource that we are now part of an ambitious UK  company that understands the importance of the journalist network we have built. I’m looking forward to continuing to grow this strategically important side of the business that benefits journalists and PR professionals alike.”

Channel is still a very male preserve. Reserve?

Posted on October 10, 2018 by - News

Many many men

Many many men

Hundreds and hundreds of channel delegates here at the Canalys Channel Forum in Barcelona have one thing in common and that is that to the best of our knowledge the majority of the blokes here have willies.

But that may change in the future and reliable sources at one of the Big Six vendors here at the conference agrees with Dell and EMC and thinks that it is likely that change in the gender gap in the channel community will happen sooner rather than very much later.

Dell EMC, without being personal, agreed with that view and has already  put in place several programmes to assist both its channel partners and employees working with it to welcome diversity.

It has set up both a woman’s partner network and a unit promoting female entrepreneurs, a company representative said. Dell EMC has achieved near parity with approximately 45 percent of its staff women.

It is also actively encouraging young girls to develop their computer science skills, and also has a programme to allow its male employees to emphasise with the strengths women can bring to the industry.  It promotes diversity in all fields.

A male executive at the conference who spoke on the condition he and his company remained anonymous, told ChannelEye: “Women traditionally find themselves on the PR and marketing side. Women are more efficient than men. They get things done and when they say they’re going to do something they do it, unlike men.”

Which, of course, begs many questions and there are more questions than answers.

Dell promises to beef up the channel

Posted on October 10, 2018 by - Events, News

A bevy of senior Dell EMC executives spoke to a bevy of tech hacks this morning and spelled out in detail their promise of reseller goodnesses for their mega storage and server businesses.

Speaking at the Canalys Channel Forum in sunny Barcelona, the company was quick to say it was prepared for the British exit from the EU (Brexit) from day one, and even before day one. It is talking to the UK government and to other bodies and organisations to ease the transition if and when and however it comes.

But, and relating to its channel strategy, Dell EMC said it had given its resellers a lower price, and “that forms a strong incentive to the channel. Large accounts worldwide are wide open. If our partners win that business they’re protected.”

Michael Collins

Dell EMC’s Michael Collins showing determination

Dell EMC said it will be a partner led strategy.

“Speaking to our partners and what they want from us is to look at the opportunities that exist in our enterprise business. We have to give them the ability to sell right across the range of Dell’s product portfolio.

“We’ve looked at where the opportunities are for the channel. We’re putting a commitment to the channel in order to invest and win incremental business, to be protected and we’ve introduced “partner of record” – that means the customer is locked to the partner for a period of a year. It’s exactly what our partners asked for.”

Dell EMC said there are two flavours of its preferred programme.

“It’s not just for enterprise customers but we’ve expanded this to include commercial as well. The benefit for the partner is really simple. When partners sell more, they make more margin and revenue and it gives incremental opportunities. This is very much based around our storage portfolio.”

Further, Dell EMC is pushing into its enterprise IoT business for large organisations and will offer eight bundles aimed at specific environments.”

It’s the software that is the secret, the company claimed, and the bundles are related to large requirements such as energy requirements for connected organisations.

“It is not going to pay all the bills this year, next year or even the year after. These are early attempts to figure out how to promote this technology. We have IoT training for customers and partners and have made this available through our distributors.”

Around a half of its enterprise storage and server offerings are fulfilled through the channel, the company claimed.