Category: News

BT hatching on cloud deal with Ali Baba

Posted on July 10, 2018 by - News

Ali_Baba_and_the_Forty_ThievesBT  is  in talks with China’s Alibaba  to form a cloud-services partnership.

The UK telco said it couldn’t provide more details on the negotiations at the moment but confirmed they were happening.

BT’s confirmation follows press reports indicating that a potential partnership between the British company’s information-technology consulting unit and the Chinese e-commerce giant could be similar to Alibaba’s deal with Vodafone Group in Germany.

Earlier this month, Alibaba and Bollore SA signed an agreement to jointly develop projects in cloud services, clean energy and mobility, logistics and other areas, as the Chinese group moves to challenge Amazon.com dominance in Europe.

Europe has become key to Alibaba Cloud’s success outside China, with prospects in the US made murky by President Donald Trump’s America First agenda. Alibaba has pulled back in the US just as tensions between America and China have escalated under Trump.

BT Global Services has struck up partnerships with AWS, Microsoft and Cisco Systems, while Spain’s Telefonica works with AWS. In Germany, while Deutsche Telekom’s T-Systems has partners including China’s Huawei Technologies and Cisco, it has structured its public cloud offering as an alternative to US giants AWS and Google – touting its ability to keep data within Germany where there are strict data-protection laws, 100 percent out of reach of US authorities.

Econocom shares tank after profit warning

Posted on July 10, 2018 by - News

indexEconocom’s share price has tanked by more than a third after a profit warning issued by the reseller on Friday.

Share value for Econocom Group SE plummeted by 36.82 percent since the beginning of trading on 3 July. The tailspin was sparked after the firm posted its preliminary H1 results last week, which made grim reading for investors.

Econocom has revised down its expectations for the second half of the year. FY2018 annual operating profits are now forecast to be €120m, down from €154m in 2017.

Econocom CEO Robert Bouchard blamed weak results down to a slower leasing business, “a low point” in profitability for its French market, €10 million in provisions for “dispute and risk contracts” and €20 million in restructuring efforts.

It’s almost four months since Bouchard took over as CEO from his dad Jean-Louis Bouchard.

“We have already decided to implement an action plan designed to reduce costs across the group and across all our business lines”, he added.

“These decisions will affect our short-term profitability but will enable us to achieve the ambitions of our strategic plan, which are to generate strong growth and a significant improvement in our profitability.”

Meanwhile, the Belgium-based VAR’s complete first-half results will be published on 19 July.

“Chinese Whispers” cost UK businesses over £1.5 billion

Posted on July 10, 2018 by - News

Chinese WhispersSupply chain inefficiencies and miscommunication through “Chinese Whispers” are costing UK businesses over £1.5 billion  in lost productivity according to analysis of industry data from digital freight forwarder Zencargo.

More than 100 shipments from a cross section of UK industries suggests that UK businesses that trade internationally are wasting over three hours on average per individual shipment. Employees are spending time on phone calls and emails to request and funnel data back and forth between their trade partners, the majority of which already exists on partner systems.

Across the UK this results in over 100 million hours of time wasted per annum, or the equivalent of 50,000 employees’ annual working hours, tied up in procurement, managing suppliers and freight related admin.

The study suggests that Brexit is likely to exacerbate this efficiency problem further as shipments with non-EU countries involve on average 17 percent more wasted time than shipments with the EU, owing to the increased communications burden around customs documentation.

The study demonstrates the urgent need for supply chain innovation as a route to solving the productivity puzzle. The adoption of simple technology that helps automate communication can deliver productivity gains now to the tune of £1.5 billion per annum. This represents 5 percent of the UK Government’s annual target for productivity gains from digitisation. Significant long-term transformation is possible through widespread digital adoption across the supply chain.

Alex Hersham, CEO and Co-Founder of Zencargo added: “Technology is the main building block to bridge the productivity gap in the UK. Lack of communication harms productivity in any business, factor in complicated and often outdated supply chains and problems very quickly escalate. Now is the time to invest and innovative in technology so we can truly compete on the global stage and at the same time benefit on a productivity level.”

 

Failed government IT projects costing billions

Posted on July 9, 2018 by - News

system-failure-computer-greenA government spending watchdog has barked that billions of pounds of government IT projects are about to go tits up.

Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA) assessed in its latest annual report, 46 projects  across all categories have been declared amber/red or red, meaning they are either undeliverable or at risk of failing, rising from 38 the previous report.

Based on assessments made in September 2017, the IPA examined the viability of 133 government initiatives – including 41 transformation and service delivery projects, 31 in infrastructure and construction, 32 in military capability, and 29 in ICT – at a collective whole life cost of £423 billion.

Although ICT is the smallest category, with a whole life cost of £10 billion, these projects include significant undertakings including the Department for Health and Social Care’s (DHSC) NHSmail2 programme that is geared to implementing a secure mail service across the health sector.

“This category of projects is very important for achieving cost savings and efficiency, and government will continue to apply innovation and technology to achieve its goals”, the report said.

“Many of the ICT projects on the portfolio enable the transition from old, legacy contracts to new ICT provisions. Often through entering smaller, more manageable contracts with integration services delivered in-house, projects have enabled departments to become more flexible and efficient.”

HMRC’s Columbus programme is another project that illustrates the breed of ICT project the government is undertaking, with the project aiming to oversee a safe transition from a former contract to a new IT operating and sourcing model.

The overall performance of ICT projects has risen slightly against the previous year, with seven amber/red projects against nine in 2016/17, but the number of ICT initiatives being taken up overall has declined by ten from 39 to 29 – and the number of projects ranked green has remained the same.

The Home Office’s Emergency Services Mobile Communications Programme (ESMCP) is among the most at-risk projects assessed, as are plans to deliver digitally-transform the UK Border Force.

Meanwhile, the report has highlighted the role of Brexit in the government’s plans to deliver infrastructure projects, calling for a need to raise the level of investment and delivery skills in government in order to achieve the “high priority” initiatives.

Tony Meggs, IPA’s chief executive said that the collective size and scope of these projects was impressive. “It takes years of hard work from the cadre of world class project delivery professionals in government to deliver projects of this scale and complexity. The current portfolio of government major projects remains a broad and ambitious one. It is vital that we continue to help create the right environment for their successful delivery.”

Several major government-driven IT infrastructure projects have come under heavy scrutiny in recent months, including the DWP’s implementation of Universal Credit, which was savaged in a report by the National Audit Office (NAO).

In a lengthy report critiquing the department’s approach to rolling out Universal Credit, the NAO highlighted the department’s failure to manage the rollout of its new digital system, dubbed full service, and the lack of sensitivity it showed towards claimants facing hardship.

Daisy boss flogs Damovo to investment firm

Posted on July 9, 2018 by - News

DaisyDaisy founder Matt Riley has sold his Damovo stake to investment firm Eli Global, in a move which could see him buy Daisy outright.

Damovo is a provider of enterprise information communication technology services and solutions, with regional businesses in Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland and Luxembourg.

In January 2015, Daisy Group completed the acquisition of Damovo Europe in what was the first acquisition since Daisy’s privatisation. Damovo is a market leader in public and enterprise-focused ICT services and solutions. It delivers essential services to more than 250 organisations, including a number of high profile customers in aviation, transportation and government.

Reports earlier this year claimed that Daisy was up for sale, but more recently it has been claimed that Riley will instead buyout the firm’s other investors.

The move means that CEO Glen Williams and CFO Stuart Hall have all cleaned out their desks and exited the company. Current MD for DACH and Poland Carl Mühlner will now take the reins as Damovo’s new CEO. Burkhart Böttcher has been announced as the integrator’s new CFO.

Commenting on his promotion, Mühlner said: “In this technology-driven world of change, it is becoming increasingly important to recognise that the collaboration between people is still one of the most critical factors for success.

“I am very happy that Damovo, as a fast-growing company with a strong culture, has found an investor where culture and trusted relationships are also considered to be at the heart of long-term business success: with our customers, our partners, and our people.”

With a headcount of 500 staff in 13 countries, Damovo holds top-level badges with four of the channel’s leading UCC vendors: Avaya, Cisco, Microsoft and Mitel.

 

Infinigate signs pact with SonicWall

Posted on July 9, 2018 by - News

satanic pactIT security distributor Infinigate UK  has signed an agreement with SonicWall to distribute its range of real-time breach detection and prevention cybersecurity gear.

The new agreement covers the UK and Ireland and extends an already successful partnership between the two companies across nine other countries in Europe.

Murray Pearce, Managing Director of Infinigate UK, believes the decision to partner with SonicWall was an easy one since SonicWall is a key player in the unified threat management and cybersecurity sector. In addition, SonicWall’s partnership approach fits perfectly with Infinigate’s own partner-centric strategy. “The increased investment that SonicWall has made in their products, roadmap and channel tools since becoming an independent company has accelerated its technology portfolio and capability in how it supports partners. It is an exciting time to be working with the SonicWall team”, explained Pearce.

Infinigate’s plans for growing SonicWall’s channel sales include putting in place a dedicated team of technical, sales and renewals to recruit and engage partners, and create additional demand for the products. “We’ve developed a best practice methodology for recruiting and engaging partners, which is our 3xCtm Partner Success Model. Our channel network is segmented so that we can create a clear value proposition that is targeted to the right partners.

“We know from our research that SonicWall partners highly value strong technical support and services, so we have invested ahead to ensure we have really strong capability in this area”, added Pearce.

Michael Berg, Executive Director of EMEA Sales at SonicWall said: “SonicWall is excited about expanding its partnership with Infinigate. We are confident in Infinigate’s abilities to educate and enable partners. With a strong IT security focus, professional services and technical support capabilities, Infinigate is an ideal partner for us.”

According to Berg, “SonicWall has significant plans for growth in the UK and over the last 12 months, we’ve seen a 147 per cent increase worldwide in partners signing up to the SonicWall SecureFirst Partner Program.  With our recent announcements, we expect an increasing number of enterprise-focused partners to enrol in the program given the functionality and value we are bringing to new segments of the market.

“We will achieve further growth through partnerships with leading companies, such as Infinigate, leveraging their established relationships with over 2,000-plus security and networking resellers.”

Cisco defeats Gen-X IT in court

Posted on July 6, 2018 by - News

Cisco Kid Manchester trader Gen-X IT has been ordered to pay Cisco has been awarded a “seven-figure” sum by the High Court.

Cisco said that two Gen-X IT directors accepted a court ruling in favour of the vendor and agreed to pay a “significant” settlement.

Alan Gould and Kelley Stewart accepted that they had infringed Cisco trademarks by dealing in counterfeit products and parallel-imported products – sometimes referred to as the grey market.

Neil Sheridan, Cisco director of brand protection, said: “This action, together with other successes we have had with the City of London Police, demonstrate the strength of Cisco’s enforcement of its intellectual property rights.

“We have obtained significant remedies from Alan Gould and Kelley Stewart, which show that the directors and senior management of companies that choose to infringe Cisco’s rights can and will be the target of Cisco’s enforcement action.

“Last year’s UK Supreme Court decision that trading in grey products, as well as counterfeit products, can result in criminal prosecution is further proof that trading outside Cisco’s authorised distribution network will have consequences.”

Cisco and Gen-X IT have been at dagger points for more than ten years.  Gen-X IT  was caught trading counterfeit Cisco products in 2005.

This latest episode saw Gen-X IT go into administration, initially expecting a financial penalty of nearly $2 million. Gen-X later said it feared the settlement would “greatly exceed” this amount.

An administrator’s report posted on Companies House in January stated that Cisco was seeking £35.1 million from Gen-X, but at this time the final amount had not been decided.

Claranet acquires ethical hacker NotSoSecure

Posted on July 6, 2018 by - News

Cat-Plying-Clarinet-Funny-Musicians-PictureClaranet has written a cheque for  an ethical hacking training and penetration testing outfit NotSoSecure.

NotSoSecure was founded in Cambridge, and has offices in San Francisco and India. It supplies ethical hacking training to the Black Hat conferences.

Charles Nasser, founder and CEO of Claranet, said the merger will allow the MSP to gain access to new markets.

“Our acquisition of NotSoSecure has been made as part of our vision to further enhance the security services and expertise that we are able to offer to our customers, as well as gain access to new global markets such as the US and Australia”, he said.

“We are confident that bringing the company into the Claranet Group will be hugely beneficial to the customers that we serve. Its ambitious aims for growth are very much aligned with our own, so we are eagerly anticipating the impact they will have on the success of the wider group.”

NotSoSecure’s founders Dan Haagman and Sumit Siddharth will remain with the outfit.

Siddarth, CTO of NotSoSecure, said: “Since we established the business, the risk of cyberattacks for organisations around the world has grown exponentially. However, this has not been matched by an increase in training and knowledge and, as a result, there is now a severe global skills shortage in cybersecurity. Our strong presence at Black Hat and other leading conferences means that we get a lot of business in the US through word of mouth alone, but I believe that we are just scratching the surface.”

 

Sparta Global picks up training gong

Posted on July 6, 2018 by - News

85.58Graduate IT training and services provider Sparta Global has been recognised by Women in Tech as the leading Female Grad Tech Employer of the Year in its 2018 awards honours.

Women in Tech is an organisation dedicated to helping women experience a fulfilled and successful career in tech. As part of its annual Employer Awards, Sparta Global was recognised for helping to close the industry gender gap by encouraging more women to start and sustain a career in the technology sector. Sparta global has helped train and place women consultants in positions at organisations including Canada Life, the Ministry of Justice and Discovery, Inc..

David Rai, CEO of Sparta Global comments: “After graduating from university, it can be a daunting experience to enter the world of employment – particularly when you are faced with entering the competitive technology industry. This step can be even more difficult for women, with just 17 percent of the people working in technology in the UK being female.

“Sparta Global is committed to increasing diversity in tech through supporting the development of graduate women. Our talent team regularly visits universities across the UK to discuss the career opportunities and prospects available to women seeking a career in technology. This award recognises the great work of our passionate teams who are dedicated to promoting diversity and inclusion by increasing the number of women working in tech today”.

Easy Software appoints Sam Lawrence to Business Development

Posted on July 5, 2018 by - Moving People, News

0Document management outfit Easy Software has appointed enterprise solution sales specialist Sam Lawrence to its sales and support team as Business Development Manager.

Responsible for managing all aspects of account management from pre-sales and sales through to project delivery and the transition to support, Sam will be accountable for a number of Easy’s  flagship accounts, with her appointment clearly an important addition to the growing UK sales and support team.

Sam has 15 years experience in business development in the knowledge and risk management technology space in a career that features senior business development appointments at Lakeview Computers, Select Technology, SHE Software and Cardinus Risk.

In parallel with this appointment of Sam, the German-headquartered company has also appointed software solutions analyst Sean McLaughlan as an Easy software consultant.

Sean has over ten years of experience working in software solutions consultancy, working at tech services companies such as Digital Copier Systems, NetHelpDesk and MSX International. He is skilled in focussing on the management of relationships with all customers, particularly in all areas that impact the product implementation and services cycle.

For Easy Sales & Marketing Director Howard Frear, these appointments signal another positive chapter in the company’s on-going success story. “We are excited with these two strong appointments to the Easy team, and we’re sure Sam will quickly help us grow EASY to support our pipeline, as her impressive business development track record, combined with her solid experience in the risk and knowledge management space, will be an extremely hard combination to beat.

“We are really pleased to welcome Sean to the Easy UK family. Sean will work to support all aspects of the client relationship across our services and product solution, where he has impressive experience already.

“These are important appointments for Easy as we anticipate further growth in the areas of DM and contract management, digital finance and HR, as well as using DM to address regulatory requirements such as GDPR.”

Dell says his outfit has become too complicated

Posted on July 5, 2018 by - News

Michael DellMichael Dell has told those who are interested in such things that his moves to return Dell to the stock exchange were part of a cunning plan to simplify the business.

In an interview with CNBC, inside the New York Stock Exchange, Michael Dell (pictured) said the current structure is “too complicated” and the move will allow the firm to simplify the structure that currently sees its trade as a tracking stock related to VMware’s performance.

On Monday Dell Technologies announced that it would be relisted as a public company, with VMware remaining independent.

“We have an extraordinary business that’s doing incredibly well”, Dell’s Dell said.

“We brought together the best assets of the industry, we have invested heavily, we changed the trajectory considerably, and if you look at the original businesses that we started with, we’ve had 21 quarters in a row of growth and share in those businesses.

“In the last five years, a lot has changed. We have completely transformed the business, become the essential infrastructure company [and] really changed the profile nature of the company in terms of our capabilities.

“This is about simplifying our capital structure and exposing the value that we’ve created to shareholders.”

 

Exclusive gets cash to become global VAD

Posted on July 5, 2018 by - News

Surprise Kitten Kittens Cat Money Animals PetExclusive Group is completing a major investment transaction with funds advised by the private investment firm, Permira.

The amount of cash involved is not being talked about but it is clear that it is not being used for aquistions.

The company said its aim is not to dilute its distinctive, value-oriented approach by consolidating with other major VAD players, but to create the world’s largest global specialist VAD in cyber and cloud transformation, with a target to reach $10bn annual revenue in the years ahead.

Olivier Breittmayer, CEO at Exclusive Group, said: “Cybersecurity and cloud are the leading business priorities in this age of digital transformation, both as separate disciplines but – even more so – joined together as a co-dependent whole.  Both sectors are becoming increasingly complex, and both suffer from a huge lack of skills & knowledge.  The Industry needs a VAD that can fill this gap and we aim to do that.  We believe we have the right and relevant focus; vendors, services and skill set to build a compelling offer for channel partners and vendors to realise significant profitable growth.”

By following a specialist focus in cyber and cloud, Exclusive Group claims to be addressing the widening global shortage in skills and knowledge among channel partners and end-user organisations to enable the desired pace and success of digital transformation.

“We have some of the best people in the world and by far the highest ratio of engineers of any distributor in our class”, added Breittmayer. “We also have the greatest track record of ensuring local, regional and global market success for disruptive technologies. Our strategy will see us continue to build out the strongest possible vendor portfolio in our ‘cyber super centres’ and ‘cloud competency centres’ – across all relevant segments – and expand our service offerings and global footprint to meet the demands of any project.”

Michail Zekkos, Partner in the technology team at Permira said: “Exclusive Group’s unrivalled focus and commitment to cyber and cloud is very exciting and we are delighted to partner with the company. We believe that enterprise cloud and cybersecurity will continue to rapidly converge, creating a tremendous market opportunity for the company to enable that transition while positioning its channel partners at its forefront.”

IBM wins NHS security deal

Posted on July 4, 2018 by - News

nhsleafletBiggish Blue has won a £30 million contract to provide cybersecurity services to NHS Digital.

The three year deal will see IBM provide monitoring, detection and response services to the NHS.

Dan Taylor, security director at NHS Digital, said: “This partnership will enhance our existing cybersecurity operations centre which is delivered from NHS Digital’s Data Security Centre.

“It will give us, during times of increased need, the ability to draw on a pool of dedicated professionals from IBM.

“It will build on our existing ability to proactively monitor for security threats, risks, and emerging vulnerabilities while supporting the development of new services for the future and enabling us to better support the existing needs of local organisations. This will ensure that we can evolve our security capability in line with the evolving cyber-threat landscape.”

The contract notice, originally published last November, said that NHS Digital was looking for five or six potential suppliers to bid for the contract, with one supplier chosen outright.

Rob Sedman, director of security at IBM UK, said: “IBM is excited to partner with NHS Digital and brings enhanced detection and incident response coordination capabilities to its Data Security Centre.”

Agilitas and IBM sign global channel services deal

Posted on July 4, 2018 by - News

ibm-officeChannel services outfit, Agilitas has signed a multi-year agreement with Biggish Blue to provide reseller, MSP and systems integrator customers with access to global multi-vendor channel services, helping to improve operational efficiencies across its customers’ IT infrastructure.

The deal will see Agilitas use IBM technology support services and global engineering teams to provide the on-site maintenance that forms part of Agilitas’ InventoryAssure+ service.

Together, Agilitas and IBM will deliver a “formidable” global channel services proposition to the market, providing services on behalf of its channel partners to a broad spectrum of industries including financial services, retail, manufacturing and the public sector, it’s claimed.

This is the first such relationship in the IT channel for Agilitas, which will be equipped with a larger platform to help deliver its growth plans and support the needs of its expanding customer base, it’s claimed.

“We have formed a very strong, trusted relationship with IBM over the years and understand each other’s businesses inside-out,” said Shaun Lynn, CEO of Agilitas. “It is this understanding that has enabled us to craft such an innovative and unique channel services deal that will benefit our channel partners for years to come.”

With a trading footprint in over 80 countries worldwide, developed through a collaborative partner delivery model, the collaboration with IBM enables Agilitas to provide their channel partners with technology solutions that help make businesses more efficient and accelerate digital innovation and transformation, it’s claimed.

“Having a delivery partner of IBM’s calibre ensures that our channel partners continue to be provided with first-class global channel services, not only across our Inventory-as-a-Service solution, but engineering services too”, added Lynn.

“In today’s ever changing business environment, enterprises need consistent and reliable support to run their IT systems across a supply chain of services from multiple vendors”, said Andy Roberts, Director of Technology Support Services, IBM UK and Ireland. “This is a great opportunity for both organisations to change the channel marketplace.”

HFX signs a partnership with CIPHR

Posted on July 4, 2018 by - News, Products

devil_514SaaS flexitime and workforce management outfit  HFX has signed a partnership agreement with CIPHR.

The partnership includes integration that brings together HFX’s cloud-based workforce and time management solutions with CIPHR’s range of HR, Recruitment and Learning solutions.

Rob Oehlers, head of customer experience at CIPHR said: “HFX’s cloud-based products are a significant extension to our own HR SaaS solutions. HFX’s innovative approach to managing staff working time means their products are flexible, based on real world experience and extremely useable.”

Nicola Smart Chief Operating Officer at HFX said: “CIPHR’s mid-market focus is an important segment for our products and services. We find that the flexibility that we can provide with our cloud-based model works really well in this market where agile companies are keen to maximise use of specialist technology. We are delighted to be working with CIPHR.”