Category: News

Wilkinson tapped for Vectra AVP role.

Posted on August 10, 2023 by - Moving People, News

AI-driven threat detection and response outfit for hybrid and multi-cloud enterprises, Vectra has appointed Keith Wilkinson as its new AVP, leading the UK&I.

Wilkinson joins Vectra from AWS, where he served as Head of GTM Productivity Applications for EMEA and built a technology go-to-market from the ground-up, responsible for strategy and sales execution. Before that, he held several notable leadership positions at Dynatrace, ClickSoftware (acquired by Salesforce) and Genesys.

Wilkinson said that organisations were confronted with an ever-expanding attack surface and emerging attacker techniques; this increases SOC workloads resulting in an overwhelming ‘spiral of more’.

Online consumer electronics sales slump

Posted on August 10, 2023 by - News

Online prices for consumer electronics have declined by 3.2 per cent year-over-year, according to a new report by Adobe Analytics.

Amazon’s Prime Day has become a benchmark for pricing fluctuations and user behaviour, providing a unique prism to observe the complicated dance of supply, demand and modern consumer psychology.

According to Adobe Analytics data, the online pricing of items across all categories declined by 3.2 per cent year-over-year in July, and by 2.1 per cent when compared to June 2023. Cheaper online costs were mostly found in non-essential items such as electronics, toys, clothes and sporting goods, which were discounted during Amazon Prime Day.

Looking at the analysis of the July 2023 data by Adobe Analytics on price fluctuations across product categories, it revealed that compared to the same month in 2022, online grocery prices increased by 6.7 per cent.

This points to a decrease from the preceding annual price rises of 8.1 per cent in June, 9.7 per cent in May and 9.1 per cent in April. The apex of online grocery price inflation was in February when prices were up by 14.2 per cent year-over-year.

On electronics, the prices dropped significantly over the past few months, culminating in July. This decline was partly catalysed by the additional discounts offered during Prime Day, rendering electronics 2.1 per cent cheaper than they were in June. As a result, electronics prices had an 11 per cent drop in July, following a 10 per cent dip in June over the same period last year.

Dell confirms partner-led model will lead to layoffs.

Posted on August 9, 2023 by - News

Grey box shifter Dell has confirmed that its moves to a adopts a new partner-led go-to market model touted earlier this week will result in job cuts to its core sales teams.

We reported how Dell was moving to a new model that pays its direct sales force more to sell storage products through the channel.  However, now those sales teams will be much smaller.

“Some members of our sales team will leave the company. We don’t make these decisions lightly, and we’ll support those impacted as they transition to their next opportunity,” a Dell spokesperson said.

“We’re always assessing our business to remain competitive and ensure we’re set up to deliver the best innovation, value and service to our customers and partners.”

Some of Dell’s partners think that is great because it allows them to double down on Dell and drive sales growth. However, some who cheered when Dell announced that these direct sales teams would be encouraged to send them business are less enthused.

However, it is unlikely that Dell’s direct sales teams will be without jobs for long. Some Dell partners see Dell’s loss as their gain.

No faith in Meta’s trusted partner programme

Posted on August 9, 2023 by - News

Media outfit Internews has published a report slamming Meta’s Trusted Partner programme.

This programme is supposed to give human rights groups a priority channel to alert Meta to harmful and dangerous content posted on Facebook and Instagram with the aim of identifying and removing this content as quickly as possible.

However the report claims that some organisations have received long delays when reporting this content – the same delays regular users of the social media platforms experience when making similar reports.

Response times were slow, inconsistent, and in some cases Meta has failed to react at all to even the most dangerous and time-sensitive content such as calls for and threats of imminent harm.

Writing on the wall for Babylon Health

Posted on August 9, 2023 by - News

The UK AI firm promoted as the future of the NHS by former health secretary Matt Hancock, Babylon Health has entered UK administration.

The company’s demise comes amid allegations of overhyped technology, questionable ties to the Conservative Party, and terminated contracts with UK hospitals.

Babylon was founded in 2013 by former UK Iranian banker Ali Parsa who claimed its AI could revolutionise healthcare through virtual appointments and diagnostic chatbots such as its GP at Hand.

Experts warned the technology was unproven and overhyped, but Hancock’s promoted GP at Hand throughout 2018.

Later, it was revealed that Babylon shareholders had donated £200,000 to the Conservative Party and Hancock’s own leadership campaign in 2017 and 2018.

Major layoffs coming at VMware

Posted on August 8, 2023 by - News

Broadcom is to make major layoffs at VMware after its $61 billion acquisition closes

According to Business Insider, the Broadcom cuts are expected to focus on non-engineering roles.

It is speculated that layoffs could come as early as the end of this month after both companies publish their latest earnings results.

The UK regulator approved the deal last month after the merger was given the green light in Europe.

A VMware spokesperson said that while the company expected Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware to close within Broadcom’s fiscal year 2023, integration planning is not complete, and any rumors about post-acquisition plans are both speculative and premature.”

VMware had about 38,300 employees in February, while Broadcom had roughly 20,000 staffers in October, according to Securities and Exchange Commission filings.

Dell encourages direct customers into the channel

Posted on August 8, 2023 by - News

Canalys Forum EuropeDell’s new partner-first strategy includes paying direct sales reps to encourage customers to buy storage products through the channel.

Under the plan Dell reps are going to look at their comp plan and see, ‘I make X if I sell it directly. I make X-plus if I sell it through a partner.

Bill Scannell, president of global sales and customer operations with Dell Technologies said this should encourage direct sales teams to call up their favourite partners to work together on projects.

Penrose calls to speed up smart data reforms

Posted on August 8, 2023 by - News

A business alliance spearheaded by John Penrose, MP for Weston-Super-Mare, is urging the government to expedite Smart Data reforms, to bolster competitiveness of British exporters, stimulate investment in UK digital jobs, and offer better bargains for consumers to reduce the cost of living.

Penrose has thrown his weight behind measures to enhance Britain’s world-leading digital success in open banking to be extended as quickly as possible to industries beyond financial services.

The partnership includes entities such as NatWest, TISA, the Financial Data and Technology Association, The Payments Association, Open Banking Excellence (OBE), fintech Ozone API and Icebreaker One. They have jointly written to ministers, advocating for swift implementation of previously agreed reforms to prevent British businesses from being disrupted by foreign competitors.

The proposed reforms in the Data Protection and Digital Information (No.2) Bill includes provisions to introduce Smart Data reforms, but no specific timelines have been provided for their enactment in various business sectors.

UK business leaders say they need confidence to initiate investment programmes immediately, and modern digital enterprises must move much, much faster than traditional customary speed.

The MP for Weston-Super-Mare, in acknowledging the global success of open banking in the UK, cautioned that competitors in other nations will not stand still. So, to stay ahead businesses must replicate their success across the various sectors of the economy to provide better prices and develop world-leading enterprises in industries like online retailing and energy.

Helen Child, Founder of Open Banking Excellence (OBE), in an interview, emphasised the importance of data sharing as the foundation of open banking. According to her, this data can be used by lenders to undertake accurate real-time affordability assessments and make more educated decisions, allowing previously excluded customers to demonstrate their trustworthiness.

She  pointed out the role of open banking in personal financial management tools, enabling customers to have a comprehensive view of their accounts and make better financial decisions.

Child said that by accelerating the global expansion of open banking, the company can make an actual change during the cost of living crisis by addressing the challenge of financial inclusion.

 

 

Fujitsu to shutter European BU Client Computing Devices operations

Posted on August 7, 2023 by - News

Fujitsu is closing its BU Client Computing Devices operations in Europe and will no longer sell PCs, notebooks, workstations and peripherals after April 2024.

The fact that the PC market tanked means is Fujitsu has had enough and is walking away.

Its PC business including peripherals, will be discontinued in Europe from next April, in favour of servers, datacentre technologies, hybrid cloud infrastructure, and data-driven platform services.

Fujitsu has confirmed that maintenance contracts will be fulfilled, and spare parts for clients should still be available five years after the end of operations in April 2024.

Microsoft makes Office concessions to AWS

Posted on August 7, 2023 by - News

Software King of the World, Microsoft is granting customers with specific licenses the power to run Office products within an AWS cloud.

This partially reverses a policy change made in 2019, which required customers with perpetual licenses to purchase new licenses if they wanted to run those applications on AWS, Google Cloud or Alibaba clouds.

Microsoft is the UK’s third largest cloud provider and so this has made it a target of a complaint with the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC).  In the complaint Google accused Microsoft of using its dominant position to trap customers into contracts within its Azure cloud server business.

Exclusive Networks sees growth

Posted on August 4, 2023 by - News

Exclusive Networks did rather well in the first half of 2023 with growth in most areas of the business and a “record high” gross sales clocked at £1.99 billion.

The outfit reported Year-on-year, gross sales grew by 20 per cent on a reported basis and 22 per cent at constant currency.

Most of this growth was driven by business with existing vendors in their current geographies.

The remainder of the growth was due to vendor expansion which was a combination of vendors entering into new geographies and new vendor relationships.

The distributor reported improvements in vendor retention rates in H1 2023, supported by increasing demand for vendors’ solutions and the continued engagement of channel partners.

Net vendor retention rate on a rolling 12-month basis at H1 2023 was up 131 per cent (vs 122 per cent in H1 2022) with net reseller retention rate on a rolling 12-month basis at H1 2023 at 130 per cent (vs 122 per cent in H1 2022).

Net margin was £191.63 million in the first half of 2023, an increase of 18 per cent year-on-year, reflecting a mix of geography and deal size.

Operating expenses increased 14 per cent to £119.12 million, aligned with tight control on new hires and overhead cost structure.

The company said costs are evolving at a slower pace than the top line, improving its operating leverage.

Adjusted EBIT rose to £72.51 million, up 26 per cent year-over-year.

In second quarter gross sales were £.99 billion, an increase of 12 per cent year-over-year on a reported basis, 15 per cent at constant currency.

Compared to Q1 2023, when gross sales clocked at £1.02bn, Exclusive Networks saw a slight dip in sales this quarter.

Exclusive Networks CEO Jesper Trolle said he was pleased with the excellent performance in the first half of 2023, with strong margin progression and sales growth ahead of the cybersecurity market.

“Our momentum reflects the differentiation, resilience, and operational gearing of our model, combined with a laser focus on efficiency and cost control. As a result, we have moved closer to our long-term target of adjusted EBIT margins of c.40% with high cash generation. In addition, we continue to grow strongly in the US, a significant market with exciting long-term growth potential.”

Trolle acknowledged how after a surge in demand for cyber technology in 2022 – reflecting the shift to hybrid working, increasing use of cloud technology and threats linked to the war in Ukraine – the company is now seeing sales activity return to a “normalised” long-term trend of double-digit growth.

 

Hackers using Salesforce zero day

Posted on August 4, 2023 by - News

Salesforce logoHackers have been using a zero-day hole in Salesforce email services and SMTP servers, enabling malicious actors to specifically target Facebook users.

According to Guardio Labs the threat actors used a vulnerability named “PhishForce” to conceal malicious email traffic in Salesforce’s legitimate email gateway services, capitalising on Salesforce and Meta’s size and reputation.

The attackers managed to evade conventional detection methods by “using Salesforce’s domain and reputation and exploiting legacy quirks in Facebook’s web games platform,” the researchers said.

Financial institutions going all digital

Posted on August 3, 2023 by - News

Financial institutions are ramping up data-driven financial management support according to new research by Tink.

Tink’s report said that more than four in five bank executives believe they have a responsibility to assist clients in better managing their finances during the challenging economic period.

Additionally, 45 per cent of those polled felt it is their obligation to make their products and services inclusive and accessible.

Enterprises want single-vendor SASE solutions

Posted on August 3, 2023 by - News

According to a new report, an increased enterprise preference for single-vendor SASE solutions is expected to propel its growth at twice the rate of multi-vendor SASE solutions.

The report, compiled by Dell’Oro Group, said that enterprises are anticipated to spend nearly $34 billion between 2022 and 2027 on single-vendor SASE solutions.

Though multi-vendor SASE solutions are projected to grow slower, they will continue to occupy a significant part of the SASE market, with enterprise spend expected to be $29 billion between 2022 and 2027.

Exertis rumoured to replace and cut staff

Posted on August 2, 2023 by - News

Exertis is rumoured to have replaced and cut significant numbers of staff in an organisational reshuffle.

The dark satanic rumour mill has manufactured a hell on earth yarn claiming that more than150 staff have exited the outfit as a result of organisational changes .

However the company is currently advertising for approximately 70 roles this will leave Exertis UK with a slightly reduced headcount than it had in August 2022.

In a statement Exertis said it was a large business, and people left all and joined all the time.