The mass migration from Twitter to Threads has raised concerns among digital experts about jumping on the Threads bandwagon.
JDR Group, a UK marketing agency, businesses that fall to the allure of Meta’s latest web platform without sufficient planning risk losing valuable time and derailing their sales initiatives.
Group director Will Williamson said that companies that rely on traditional social networks should resist the urge to join the stampede for the time being.
Juniper Research has found that operators’ revenue from SMS business messaging will reach $58 billion by 2027; rising from $46 billion in 2023.
The report highlighted Diameter protocols as critical to protecting this 30 per cent revenue growth. For those not in the know, the Diameter protocol supports routing and analysing traffic over 5G networks, becoming critical as the proportion of mobile subscribers on 5G networks reaches 45 per cent by 2027.
The report estimates that more than a trillion SMS business messages will be used for authentication purposes, including OTPs (One-time Passwords) and MFA (Multi-factor Authentication); a highly demanded use case in which operators can charge premium prices for traffic termination. It identified third-party SMS firewall solutions as a key tool for identifying and monetising this traffic.
Additionally, operators must implement SMS firewalls to ensure the cleanliness of networks as competition for authentication traffic arises from outside the telecommunications ecosystem. Emerging frameworks, including device-based biometric authentication and OTT-based business messaging, will pressure operators to ensure that SMS business messaging remains the de facto channel for authentication over the next four years.
Arrow is introducing a managed services portfolio to support channel partners through the service provision and delivery lifecycle.
Arrow’s managed services are designed to overcome the challenges that many IT providers are experiencing around the shortage of niche skill sets, the costs that are associated with building a managed services platform, and the ongoing balance of cashflow while ensuring return on investment.
Arrow’s head of services sales and go-to-market Mark Barcham said: “We’re here to help channel partners ramp up recurring revenue streams, unconstrained by the overheads typically associated with maintaining a rich services portfolio. We are very excited about the opportunity to help them grow faster.”
The European Commission (EC) has formally approved Broadcom’s $61 billion bid for virtualisation software giant VMware, with the caveat that Broadcom fulfills certain ongoing commitments around access and interoperability.
The deal, which is one of the biggest tech acquisitions of all time, was the subject of regulatory scrutiny when it was announced in May last year. Europe revealed plans for an in-depth probe in December citing competition concerns, while the UK followed suit in March.
Job losses in the UK tech sector have fallen disproportionately on women, according to a new analysis of National Statistics data.
The report, commissioned by accountancy service provider Integro Accounting, found the proportion of female employees in UK tech has called for the first time in five years. In 2021, 22.7 per cent of all employees in the sector were female, compared to just 20.1 per cent in 2022.
Prior to the fall, the UK tech sector had successfully increased the proportion of female employees every year from 2018 to 2021. Integro Accounting also found that the proportion of tech contractors who are female also declined from 16.8 per cent in 2021 to 12.1 per cent in 2022.
From 2021 to 2022, the number of female tech employees fell from 384,025 to 359,154, a decline of 6.5 per cent in a single year. Meanwhile, the number of male tech employees continued to rise between 2021 and 2022, from 1,306,833 to 1,419,590, an increase of 8.6 per cent.
Overall, the number of tech workers (both employees and contractors) increased by 4.1 per cent from 1,827,851 in 2021 to 1,903,671 in 2022.
The fall in female representation due to layoffs mirrors another trend seen during the pandemic in which female tech workers were disproportionately placed on furlough under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, which capped pay at a maximum of 80 per cent or £2,500 per month.
Between 2020 and 2021 the median gender pay gap for IT professionals in the UK widened from 10.9 per cent to 12.9 per cent – meaning that female tech workers were being paid on average 12.9 per cent less than their male co-workers.
Integro Accounting MD Christian Hickmott, said 2022 was a difficult year for women in tech: “The UK tech sector has made great strides in boosting female representation in recent years so it is disappointing to see much of that progress undone during the recent round of tech layoffs.
“Women tend to be more highly concentrated in part-time and non-technical roles, which are often the first to go during a downturn. They are also less likely to be represented in senior roles, which in turn are less likely to be targeted for redundancies. Under 15 per cent of IT directors are women, compared to nearly a third of tech workers in support roles. Given it is the IT director who normally wields the axe and the support roles most likely to be cut, the challenge is to increase female representation at senior levels,” Hickmott said.
“Many of the tech roles created during the pandemic were remote, which favoured women juggling career and caring responsibilities. These remote roles have been among the first to go as the economy slowed and the pushback against remote working gathered pace.
“The silver lining in these data is the relative resilience of the UK tech sector to the wave of job losses initiated by US tech giants in Q3 of last year. US tech companies went on a hiring binge during the pandemic and have found it much easier to shed staff due to weaker labour laws. The European tech sector, by contrast, isn’t characterised by such a hire and fire working culture.”
Cisco Gold Partner ITGL has selected the Highlight Service Assurance Platform to enhance the managed service experience it delivers to its 200+ customers including NHS Trusts, university and colleges, as well as private sector companies.
The Portsmouth-based ITGL uses an army of tools that are fully integrated into Cisco’s ecosystem and Highlight is now a key part of this tool set.
Software King of the World Microsoft says a state-backed threat group covertly accessed email accounts at around 25 organisations worldwide, including US and Western European government agencies.
The company attributed the attacks to Storm-0558, a threat actor based in China.
The group primarily focuses on government agencies in Western Europe, engaging in activities like espionage, data theft, and credential access.
Data solutions provider D4t4 has reported a drop in revenue of 12.6 per cent to £21.4 million.
Software revenue increased by 9.6 per cent to £19.1 million and annual recurring revenue was also up by 19 per cent to £16.7 million.
D4t4 CEO Bill Bruno said his company was transforming into a software sales organisation and selling Celebrus software.
Security outfit Drata has appointed Sydney Sloan as the company’s first ever Chief Marketing Officer (CMO).
Sloan will oversee global marketing at Drata to help market and brand leadership, and customer engagement.
Sloan is an expert in spearheading and executing successful global marketing strategies while building world class teams for high growth SaaS companies.
The Competitions and Markets Authority (CMA) is ready to reopen talks with Microsoft on its proposed merger with Activision Blizzard.
Microsoft has stated that it will attempt to restructure the deal to allay the concerns of the CMA about its potential domination of the cloud gaming market. An appeal hearing was due to begin later this month.
A CMA spokesperson said: “In order to be able to prioritise work on these proposals, Microsoft and Activision have agreed with the CMA that a stay of litigation in the UK would be in the public interest and all parties have made a joint submission to the Competition Appeal Tribunal to this effect.”
The change in stance on both sides of what was turning into a bitter dispute comes after a US judge ruled that the acquisition could proceed.
The US competition watchdog, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) had requested that the deal be blocked, citing similar concerns to the CMA about Microsoft buying exclusive access to Activision games such as Call of Duty and stopping those games being made available on other cloud gaming platforms, notably Sony and Nintendo.
Global PC shipments declined 13.4 percent year over year during the second quarter of 2023 (2Q23), according to preliminary results from the International Data Corporation (IDC)
According to IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker this was the sixth consecutive quarter of contraction brought on by macroeconomic headwinds, weak demand from both the consumer and commercial sectors, and a shift in IT budgets away from device purchases.
However, despite the poor showing, the market performed better than forecast for the quarter, IDC said.
The overall weak demand has caused inventory levels to remain above normal for longer than expected. This includes finished systems at the channel level, as well as the supply chain.
UK retail sales experienced a little increase in June, with like-for-like (LFL) sales gaining +1.9 per cent, according to fresh statistics from accountancy and business advice firm BDO.
BDO’s latest High Street Sales Tracker revealed that the overall like-for-like sales increased by +1.9 per cent in June, compared to the previous year’s base of +8.4 per cent. LFL sales growth remains much lower than the consumer price index (CPI) inflation, implying that sales volumes have declined dramatically as consumers continue to tighten their purse strings.
BDO Head of Retail and Wholesale Sophie Michael said that this is the second month that figures have come in below inflation.
Since July 2022, like-for-like sales growth has failed to exceed the rate of inflation every month, she said.
Michael added that as the government aims to halve inflation by the end of the year through a series of interest rate hikes, discretionary spending and sales volumes are expected to decline further as households face increased mortgage and rent payments.
She said competition for consumer spending has never been more intense.
The statistics further revealed that following last month’s disappointing results, the homeware industry continued to underperform in June. Total homeware LFL sales declined by -0.6 per cent this month after falling by -8.8 per cent in the same month last year.
In-store sales did particularly poorly, declining -0.7 per cent in 2022 from a -1.9 per cent base. Total LFLs in the fashion sector increased by only 3.0 per cent in June, boosted by a 7.2 per cent increase in in-store sales due to increased high street footfall during the warm weather.
The lifestyle sector also showed a minimal increase as well, with total like-for-like increasing by +2.3 per cent month on month from a base of +6.9 per cent. This is the category’s ninth month in a row with positive LFL sales.
Michael noted that reports of insolvencies in the retail sector have recently increased significantly, reflecting the severity of the situation.
She said the retail industry was the UK’s economic engine. Urgent assistance was needed to prevent further deterioration.
To address the challenges faced by UK retailers and level the playing field with shopping destinations in Europe and beyond, Michael suggested that the government consider reinstating tax-free shopping for overseas tourists.
This policy issue has garnered significant attention, and retailers are urging the government to take action.
Michael stressed that retailers, like others in the broader consumer markets sector, are facing labour supply challenges, which have been exacerbated by post-Brexit restrictions on worker mobility.
According to her, retailers are being forced to pay higher wages in order to maintain their workers and compete for new talent in the market.
The cost increases add to the current inflationary pressures, she said.
While the Chancellor has announced certain initiatives in previous announcements to encourage parents and those who have taken early retirement to return to work, she stated that they have yet to make a meaningful impact.
The retail and wholesale head noted that while such actions may help to mitigate the negative effects, given the persistent levels of inflation on essential spending, retailers will need to continue to focus on closely managing their cost base and how best they can drive top-line revenue. Micheal said the margin between winners and losers for stores is likely to expand as the year unfolds.
BT CEO Philip Jansen has announced that he will be clearing out his office and leaving “at an appropriate moment over the next 12 months”.
Rumours that BT’s board of directors had begun searching for a new chief exec started in March.,
Jansen first joined BT as CEO in 2019 and managed to nearly halve the company’s share value from 230p to 122p.
Software King of the World, Microsoft has increased penalties for partners and suppliers who violate contracts and the Partner Code of Conduct.
The purge means that the vendor could revoke the solution provider’s ability to sell in certain partner programmes and even purge the provider from the partner ecosystem.
Vole said: “We’re committed to winning in the market ethically and in compliance with the laws and regulations of the countries/regions in which we operate.”
Digital communications outfit Zivver hosted a conference on how digital communications can be used in different areas of healthcare delivery.
The conference was attended by West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust, Royal Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, East of England Ambulance Service and the national Asthma and Lung charity.
Zivver said it wanted to encourage an open conversation regarding transformation in healthcare services.
Future System Digital Programme Lead and Deputy CIO at Global Digital Exemplar West Suffolk Hospital Sarah Judge, said: “These events are important for sharing best practice with other healthcare providers. It promotes broader thinking to ensure we are working towards standardising email security and engaging internally across different departments.”
Zivver launched its second innovation playbook for healthcare, exploring common communication problems that occur in health such as accessibility, safely sharing media and information to and from users, integrating system providers and using automation to save time. The playbook helps clinical and non-clinical teams find their problems, consider tools that can help solve these problems and learn from good practice in other health systems.
Healthcare Advisor and co-author of the playbook Liam Cahill said: “Communication is at the heart of healthcare interactions so improving communications is a necessity. However, it presents a myriad of challenges. Behaviour change can be disruptive, digital inaccessibility and exclusion for service users increases the complexity, and there is little coherence and compatibility across local systems when channels and connections across partners are so needed. Despite the hurdles, it is important that we work together to provide staff with ‘creation tools’ that empower them to transform their services and improve care.”
Zivver Commercial VP Oliver Brown said: “Receiving tangible insight and feedback from our trusted customers, advisors and partners is not only vital, but also a blessing. It reaffirms Zivver’s mission to improve clinician-to-patient care through secure communication channels, whilst enabling us to drive continuous innovation to solve integrated healthcare systems’ most pressing challenges, both now and in the future.”
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