Category: News

Orange has a bright future in the telecoms industry

Posted on June 24, 2015 by - News

OrangeFrance’s largest telecoms outfit,  Orange will continue to play a leading role in creating pan-European networks through acquisitions.

Chief executive Stephane Richard told the Financial Times that a number of smaller former state monopoly “incumbents” — including KPN , Telecom Italia and Belgacom were vulnerable if Europe were able to create a single digital market.

“I don’t know when or what, but I am in favour of an ambitious Orange in Europe,” he told the newspaper. “We are looking, we are paying attention to everything going on.”

Richard said that the French government should rein in its involvement in consolidation of the industry as decisions over mergers and acquisitions would be “essentially a topic for the French antitrust authority”.

“The government has really no tools in its hands to prevent this,” he said.

President Francois Hollande’s Socialist government has expressed concern over the prospect of Bouygues Telecom being taken over by Altice, the majority-owner of France’s second-biggest telecoms group Numericable-SFR saying it could be bad for jobs, consumers and investment.

Oracle expands cloud offerings

Posted on June 23, 2015 by - News

Tcloudhe troubled Oracle outfit has just told its channel partners that it is extending its cloud offerings in a bid to improve its bottom line and see off competition from Amazon.

Executive Chairman Larry Ellison said in a webcast that he wanted to compete with Amazon.com on price.

This was after announcing that Oracle would offer online storage and capability for customers to run their applications entirely in Oracle’s cloud.

This is all pretty new for Oracle, which is shifting its traditional database and customer relationship management businesses to the cloud.

The only problem is that Amazon Web Services is the market leader, followed by Microsoft’s Azure service and Biggish Blue. Oracle is very late to the party which has gone on without it and reached the stage where people are either too drunk to speak or have coupled off.

Oracle has imaginatively dubbed its cloud platform Oracle Cloud Platform, will provide a cost-effective alternative to Amazon, said Ellison.

“Our new archive storage service goes head-to-head with Amazon Glacier and it’s one-tenth their price,” said Ellison.

Oracle’s cloud business is growing quickly, running at a rate of about $2.3 billion a year in revenue, based on last quarter’s figures. However the rest of the company is not doing so well and reported a surprise fall in profits.

Resellers can make a bomb from connected cars

Posted on June 22, 2015 by - News

Vintage & Classic Car Salvage Yards and Wrecks (11)Connected cars are a key area for resellers as drivers are demanding that their cars have internet functions.

Cognizant Global Head of Innovation, Manufacturing & Logistics Satyavolu Prasad told the Dutch magazine Channel Web that linking technology vehicles, through ‘smart’ devices and the changing lifestyle of consumers has changed the driving experience.

“The car is becoming an extension of the consumer, because drivers expect the same experience on the move, and online connection they have a fixed location, “ Prasad said.

Resellers can find a lot of information in the field of connected cars which can help automakers in the shift to the digital world and connected cars.

The digital consumer experience, after all, is in the heart of the connected car and connected cars offer many opportunities for businesses, including resellers to generate new revenue.

These range from help apps on smartphones, to systems integration by using social, mobile, analytics and cloud (SMAC) technologies.

Back-office integration and analysis services provide opportunities for resellers and finally convergence solutions in all sectors, Prasad said. He said that manufacturers will have to apply new technologies to jump in on connected cars.

Manufacturers are investing billions of dollars in telematics and similar technologies and they must be sure that they are aligned with supply chain and implementation processes.

The system is increasingly dependent on electronic ecosystem of manufacturers. Therefore resellers advise customers to enter into partnerships so that different customer profiles and segments can be mapped. They also recommend creating technology infrastructure to develop robust industrial capabilities and customer-focused apps that support the connected car, Prasad said.

Ex-Googler wants to disable ad-blocking software

Posted on June 19, 2015 by - News

brick-wallA technology war is brewing between those who want to block internet advertising and those who want to stop their software working.

CEO and co-founder is Ben Barokas has founded a company called Sourcepoint which launched yesterday with $10 million in Series A investment funding.

Barokas wants to help publishers by providing them with technology to punch through “all the ad blockers”.

He said that it was important that publishers have a more open dialogue with readers about the transaction that takes place when they consume content. He said that publishers serve ads in exchange for content being presented for free. And that a transaction needs to take place in the first place because content requires investment.

Google did not prioritise ad blocking in its roadmap, and Google CEO Larry Page downplayed the threat of ad blocking. He said that it was instead up to the industry to make better ads that people wouldn’t want to block.

However Barokas thinks Sourcepoint’s technologists have the expertise force users to look at as many adverts that publishers through at them. There are many other “ad blocker blocker” systems but they provide “unsophisticated solutions” that just replace a publisher’s intended ad with a lower quality alternative.

Sourcepoint lets a publisher decide how to present a message to a web visitor that has an ad blocker installed.

The publisher could choose to circumvent the ad blocker and serve the ad, or it could say to the visitor “our ads pay for your content, how about you choose to allow them,” or it could allow the user to choose their advertising experience (three ads for three stories, for example,) or the publisher could ask them to pay to subscribe.

Sourcepoint is working on a number of “sophisticated” subscription options that are designed to take away the friction that usually comes with subscribing to a website’s paywall.

However it still has the problem that advertising departments insist on making adverts so irritating that people want them switched off so they can actually read the content.

For now, Sourcepoint is offering its services to “two dozen top 100 comScore publishers” for free. That not only includes the ad blocker circumvention software, but also analytics tools for publishers to establish their ad blocking audiences.

Barokas is lloking at different business models including a software as a service-type licensing option, an advertising recovery service which would take a cut of ad revenue returned to the publisher, taking a percentage from new subscriptions the publishers sign up, or a mixture of the three.

Of course the ad-blocks will come up with ad-block, blocker blocking software and soon everything will be unblocked again.

 

 

 

BSG rocks Gibraltar

Posted on June 18, 2015 by - News

Santa Barbara beach and Rock of Gibraltar La Linea Cadiz Andalusia SpainConsumer transaction technologies outfit NCR and its channel partner BSG has been chosen by Gibraltar International Bank to install intelligent ATMs and NCR software.

NCR got the deal after convincing GIB that it could increase transactions through the more convenient ATMs, available 24/7 in a range of locations in Gibraltar.

GIB is using NCR SelfServ 34 ATMs using NCR Solidcore Suite for APTRA security software and “the latest” Windows 7 ATM operating system.

NCR APTRA software on the SelfServ 34 also enables a wide range of transactions, such as mixed cash and cheque deposits.

GIB CEO Lawrence Podesta said that the launch of Gibraltar International Bank earlier this year provided an opportunity for customers in Gibraltar to benefit from new and improved banking services.

NCR and BSG allowed the bank to disrupt existing banking models in Gibraltar by transitioning routine banking transactions from tellers to self-service ATMs.
This means that our bank staff will be more available to interact face-to-face with customers on high value banking services, such as mortgages.”

NCR SelfServ ATMs with Solidcore Suite for APTRA are designed to defend against known and unknown malware and fraud attacks on the ATM.

They use a multi-layered approach to ATM security which protects against the execution of unauthorized code on ATM networks. NCR Skimming Protection Solution (SPS) also protects cardholder data from card skimming attacks by detecting and jamming the signal of fraudulent skimming devices, as well as notifying the bank in real-time. This increases the likelihood of prosecuting fraudsters.

BSG Computer Systems, NCR’s Interact channel partner for the region, was responsible for the deployment at Gibraltar International Bank. BSG offers the entire NCR financial services portfolio, as well as providing services for all NCR solutions they deploy.

Mike Edinburgh, managing director at BSG said that by moving  basic transactions that customers would historically queue for at the teller to self-service ATMs the bank will improve the customer experience and loyalty.

“Our long-standing relationship with NCR and its innovative, proven solutions enabled this. BSG has also benefited from even greater engagement and training as we recently joined the NCR Interact channel partner programme,” he said.

Salesforce strengthens hold on wearables

Posted on June 17, 2015 by - News

Salesforce logoAccounting software outfit Salesforce has made another move into wearable computers by giving cash to APX Labs.

APX makes software for wearables used at work and Salesforce has made investment through its venture capital arm, SalesForce Ventures.

According to a Washington Business Journal report, “APX Labs has raised another $10 million in venture capital, a round that includes new investors SalesForce Ventures and SineWave Ventures”. However, it is still not clear how much each company has invested.

APX Labs’ wearable tech software is mostly used in heavy industries like energy, telecommunications, automotive and aerospace. The app is believed to improve the entire workflow of the companies with its various features like, contract approval and sending email with just a tap.

Salesforce has always encouraged wearable devices. So by investing in APX Labs, the company is trying to strengthen its position in the wearable tech software space.

Over the past few years, Salesforce made several investments in startup businesses either through acquisitions or partnership arrangements. The most recent one was the buyout of smart calendar app, Tempo, from Tempo AI.

Salesforce will use Tempo’s technology or its engineering talent to develop new products or improvise on the existing ones.

 

EZ Security Tech Support shuttered

Posted on June 15, 2015 by - News

great-depression-soup-lineThe “online computer tech support model” is starting to look rather shaky after one of the big names, EZ Tech Support shut down.

EZ Tech Support, based in Portland, Oregon, was hardly a good role model for the industry. It flooded the interwebs with advertising which claimed their computers had possible security and performance problems. The programmes implored people to call the company’s number, which was displayed amid warnings.

However this week the company stopped taking calls earlier this week, its general manager, Gavynn Wells, said he was no longer worked there and was “unclear as to the direction the company will be going into.”

The company is two pay periods behind in payroll, and rumours are the company’s funds had been frozen, the former employee said.

EZ Tech Support was doing rather well and it routinely took in $25,000 to $30,000 every two weeks in revenue. One former employee said call centre agents were pushed to generate $750 in sales a day.

The company started business last October in an older building in northeast Portland. It sold a perpetual license for a security program called Defender Pro Antirvirus for $300 and one-time fix service starting at $250.

With callers’ permission, EZ Tech Support agents installed a remote access program on their computers. Agents then installed a free application called Webroot Analyzer, a legitimate application that flags possible problems on a computer.

The items highlighted by Webroot’s Analyzer — even if the issues had no material effect on a computer — were used to convince people they needed to buy Defender Pro.

The US Federal Trade Commission filed two lawsuits in November against an assortment of mostly Florida-based companies that allegedly conned consumers out of $120 million using deceptive sales tactics to sell ineffective software and unneeded support services. Some of those companies had business models similar to that of EZ Tech Support, although that outfit was not named.

MediaTek wants to sort out China rules

Posted on June 12, 2015 by - News

mediatek-generic-chipMediaTek has slammed Taiwan’s rules regarding its domestic semiconductor companies investing and merging overseas, particularly in mainland China,.

MediaTek chief executive MK Tsai said the rules are too strict and should be reconsidered.

He said that Taiwan risks falling behind in the global race to develop the best chips if it does not invest more overseas to recruit talent and access large markets like China’s.

Rivals like Qualcomm and Intel have ploughed billions into China, Tsai said, but Taiwan’s rules prohibiting the export of advanced chip technology to the mainland risked its business prospects there.

“China is such a huge market … if everyone else is going and you have to stay on the sidelines, you’re in a weaker position,” Tsai said.

Taiwanese regulations prohibit chip design firms like MediaTek from investing any funds in China for research and development purposes, let alone for mergers and acquisitions, according to the company.

Tsai moaned about Taiwan’s “passive” stance amid a recent wave of mergers in the chip world.

“You have to keep up with the technological advancements or you’ll become irrelevant,” he said.

MediaTek-designed chips are doing well among Chinese phone vendors like Xiaomi.

Unlike chip design, investment in chip manufacturing in China is allowed, though heavily regulated..

RHUB and Collaboration make Fahr key reseller partners

Posted on June 11, 2015 by - News

VideoConferenceWeb conferencing outfit RHUB Communications and its UK partner Collaboration has appointed, Germany-based Fahr & Partner as its key Channel Reseller Partner.

Collaboration Technologies is a Northern European Master Distributor for RHUB Communications and its TurboMeeting Web Conferencing and Remote Support solutions.

Fahr & Partner was awarded Master Reseller, Gold Partner status with Collaboration Technologies.

Phil Suter, Collaboration MD said that Fahr & Partner was a strategic appointment, not least because of their understanding of ‘All Things IT.’

Fahr’s CEO Helmut Fahr, said that the move would give his outfit the rich functionality of the RHUBs offering.

“We have been delivering collaborative solutions to our clients for five years, and RHUB is a major addition to the suite of technologies we use to develop our range of solutions…. RHUB’s ease of use, and the excellent user experience, combined with its great pricing make it a powerful player in this rapidly expanding market. Especially the ownership of the appliances will give the company the skills to act on their market,” he said,

Suter said that the deal means that RHUB’s on premise solution can be purchased for a once-only low-cost price, with NO on-going fees, and can be branded to that individual’s company or organisation.

Brits waste too much time on meetings

Posted on June 10, 2015 by - News

meetingUK companies are wasting millions sending workers around the world to meetings, many of which are unnecessary, according to a new study.

The survey of 2000 employees, conducted by sound gear maker Sennheiser, revealed that almost two thirds of respondents have to travel considerable distances to meetings even though 65 per cent admit that they’ve had a wasted trip.

The furthest distance on average that respondents had to travel was 218 miles. 53 percent travel over 100 miles for a meeting, and a further 10 percent have jetted over 500 miles.

Despite the considerable time and expense involved, nearly half think their company wastes money on train tickets and flights, with 54 percent saying that a Skype call would suffice.

Yet the average UK worker makes less than three conference calls or video calls per week, with 61 percent making two or less, a precedent that’s costing unnecessary amounts of money, not to mention the environmental impact of travelling.

Charlotte Waterworth, Marketing Manager, Sennheiser Communications said that video conferencing and Skype calls are as simple as picking up a mobile and putting on a headset, yet many companies still seem reluctant to take full advantage of the benefits this technology can offer.

More than 53 percent admit to sneakily arranging meetings to spend longer out of the office, and over half say that the most common reason for attending a meeting is simply because it’s scheduled even though there’s nothing important to discuss.

And on their return to the office 37 per cent admit to having “fiddled” expenses as a way to squeeze a bit more value from a trip, with 10 per cent justifying their actions by saying “everyone does it”.

Only seven percent think all of the face to face meetings are necessary, and 60 per cent say their boss often holds meetings just for the hell of it.

“When you factor in unnecessary expenses and time out of the office, effective meeting management is an adjustment many struggling businesses can look into quite easily to help improve their bottom line” Waterworth concluded.

Cloud channel support is slack

Posted on June 9, 2015 by - News

Every silver has a cloudy liningThe Cloud Industry Forum has warned cloud customers are not getting the levels of support they need from channel partners when it comes to help migrating to the cloud.

In a report the Forum said that part of the problem is that there are some inexperienced channel players who are yet to really grow into being cloud providers and customers needed to make more careful assessments of potential partners.

Customers were having to deal with the result of poor integration with existing legacy systems and a failure by the partners to thoroughly assess the ability of the user’s network to deliver a stable product.

Overall the CIF findings were positive with 90 percent of customers expressing a positive satisfaction rating and 70 percent of IT buyers expecting to increase their use of cloud in the year ahead.

But since cloud migration is a key part of the whole business it does seem to be that more work needs to be done.

The CIF findings also come on top of a recent report from LogicNow that seems to suggest there is a worrying disconnect between service providers and customers.

The gap between customer expectations and partner service plans is a wide one, according to the LogicNow ‘Global IT Service Providers Harmony Report’.

The research suggested that most IT buyers started out a discussion with a service provider with the intention of getting help with a specific, business critical need. But the research found that the channel saw the chance to push wider services and tended to follow their own agenda.

Speaking last month, on the launch of the report Dr Alistair Forbes, general manager at LogNow, said that service providers needed to be patient about rushing into talk to a customer about a range of investment options, rather than dealing with the specific concern brought to their attention.

“Pushing strategic consultancy too early in the relationship gives an impression of under-valuing the immediate concern weighing heaviest on the customer’s mind. IT departments engage with Service Providers because they have a particular problem that needs solving. This must be addressed first to earn the opportunity of a strategic engagement later on,” he said.

Xirrus spruces up channel

Posted on June 8, 2015 by - News

xirrusWireless networks maker Xirrus is becoming more dependent on  its channel and has spruced up its l programme to include deal-registration options.

The big idea is that it will create happy solution providers by allowing them fatter margins.  The outfit is bristling with new programmes and an updated sales portal and training programmes through its Xirrus University.  The courses offer a free online sales and technical certification which teaches partners how to flog  Xirrus gear.

The company is seeing its wireless networks being part of lots of different bigger projects being sorted out by its  partners and the company says it wants to make life as easy for them to do it..

The new Xirrus Xcellerate channel programme now features three Authorised, Premiere and Elite levels. To help partners sell Xirrus wireless networking products and services, the company has also established its own sales team which gets qualified leads for channel partners.

Xirrus has created a Proposal Generator tool to quantify the company’s value versus that of competitors and has created customisable vertical marketing campaigns, data sheets and online resources that can all be co-branded. It also makes free demo gear available.

Xirrus is betting that a significant portion of the channel will want to partner with a wireless networking manufacturer that is not widely distributed.

Microsoft and partners defend against Chromebook

Posted on June 5, 2015 by - News, Products

windowscomputexThe glorious Wintel alliance which is still running despite a few hiccups has a cunning plan to see off the threat of Google Chromebooks.

Microsoft and its chum Intel plans to launch a device running Windows 10 with Bing.

Microsoft and Intel are working with all   partners to bring cheaper devices to the market and help tackle the growth of Google Chromebooks.

Stage one of the plan is to release a cheap OEM version of Windows 10 with Bing.

As was the case with Windows 8.1, Windows 10 with Bing will be a Windows 10 SKU available exclusively for PC makers and will be offered at a very low cost or even free of charge.

Microsoft has worked out that it needs to slash licensing fees that manufacturers need to pay for installing Windows on their devices.

Windows with Bing is basically Windows 8.1 with Bing offered the same features as Windows 8.1 but came with Bing branding that OEMs could not change.

Users, however, were allowed to replace Bing as the default search engine with Google or something else.

A Windows 10 with Bing flavour will appear later. In fact Windows 10 is designed to be installed on as many devices as possible, and Microsoft expects one billion PCs, tablets, and smartphones to be running it by 2017.

Smaller US ISPs put in more effort

Posted on June 4, 2015 by - News

mouseA new study has found that the UK;s biggest broadband ISPs are rubbish when it comes to something minor like answering the phone.

The BROADBANDRating report found that the average call answer time for small ISPs was 84.76 seconds versus 320.85 for the biggest five.
The results reveal that the big boys such as PlusNet and KC are among the slowest, while smaller providers such as. Exa Networks and B4RN tend to be the fastest.

PlusNet actually came bottom of the pile by forcing customers to wait for an average of 16.48 minutes. This is unfortunate as it is one of the few big providers to offer UK based support.

Automated answering systems, which are common among larger ISPs don’t count as an answer and lengthened the wait.

Here is the league table of results

Average Call Waiting Times for UK Internet Providers (seconds)
Exa Networks – 9.83
B4RN – 10
FastNet – 17.16
Daisy – 17.66
Timico – 26.66
Gigaclear – 32.5
Andrews and Arnold (AAISP) – 36.66
Easynet – 39.16
Fidonet – 43
Claranet Soho – 58.66
Gamma – 65.66
Zen Internet – 73.33
Gradwell – 89.66
TalkTalk – 95.75
Hyperoptic – 103.16
Manx Telecom – 123.83
Virgin Media – 142
BT – 170.85
JT – 186.33
Eclipse Internet – 261
Fuel Broadband – 273
Sky Broadband – 330.75
KC – 381.16
Plusnet – 988.57

HP split set for November 1

Posted on June 3, 2015 by - News

Whitman's-SamplerThe maker of expensive printer ink, HP will be splitting itself in two on November 1.

HP queen bee, Meg Whitman said that everything will be good to go for the separation of HP and Hewlett-Packard Enterprise would be effective on November 1.

Whitman made the announcement during the company’s technology event, HP Discover 2015, in Las Vegas.

The world’s No. 2 personal computer maker wants to split into two listed companies, separating its computer and printer businesses from its faster-growing corporate hardware and services operations.

Whitman believes that breaking HP into two companies, with about $57 billion in annual revenue each, will create two more nimble outfits which can respond to the constantly shifting technology marketplace.

Whitman will be left in charge of Hewlett-Packard Enterprise, which will include the $27 billion division that sells industrial-grade computing and networking gear and the $23 billion Enterprise Services business, which runs the tech and IT operations for other companies under contract.

Her slimmed-down company will walk away from the separation with the majority of the parent’s cash — about $13.3 billion — which will allow it to quickly pivot into deal-making mode. It’ll also allow both new companies to re-engage with Silicon Valley and the wider tech industry, she claims.