Category: News

Ofcom finds Orange is a lemon

Posted on March 29, 2013 by - News

OrangeOrange and TalkTalk have once again found themselves in the bottom of a customer satisfaction survey.

The pair faced the most complaints in Ofcom’s latest research into the level of service for
major telecoms and pay TV providers between October and December 2012.

Despite the total volume of complaints made to Ofcom falling during the last quarter of 2012 – the sixth consecutive quarter of decline – Orange and TalkTalk still weren’t performing well enough to satisfy their paying customers.

TalkTalk scraped the bottom in the landline telephone market,  generating the most complaints during the final quarter of 2012, with 0.36 complaints per 1,000 customers.

Ofcom pointed out, however, that the company’s complaints continued to fall quarter on quarter, although they remained at almost double the industry average, with consumers mainly complaining about service faults and customer service problems.

BT complaints fell slightly from 0.21 complaints to 0.20 complaints per 1,000 customers in Q4 2012, however, it still remained above the average, while Sky and Virgin Media both generated complaints below the industry average.

Virgin Media had the fewest number of complaints, at 0.11 complaints per 1,000 customers, while Sky attracted 0.12 complaints per 1,000 customers.

When it came to broadband Orange usurped TalkTalk to gain the most complaints at 0.70 per 1,000 customers, increasing from 0.50 per 1,000 customers three months earlier.

The data found that complaints about Orange hit a peak in October, which Ofcom said  related to the company’s decision to withdraw its free broadband offer unless customers also purchased line rental from the firm.

TalkTalk was the second most complained about broadband provider. Its complaints continued to fall quarter on quarter – from 0.35 to 0.33 complaints per 1,000 customers – although they remained higher than the industry average. BT also generated above average complaint levels at 0.30 per 1,000 subscribers. Sky’s broadband service attracted the fewest complaints at 0.08 per 1,000 customers.

Orange again found itself at the top of the complaints pops when it came to paid mobile services with above average figures of 0.21 per 1,000 customers. This was, again, largely driven by the withdrawal of its free broadband offer.

T-Mobile also generated complaints in excess of the industry average, with consumers mainly complaining about billing and how their complaints were handled. Three’s complaints were equal to the industry average.

O2 was the least complained about mobile provider with 0.06 complaints per 1,000 customers. O2, Virgin Mobile and Vodafone all achieved fewer complaints than the industry average.

People regret boozy online buys

Posted on March 29, 2013 by - News

boozebeltAccording to a new OnePoll study, nearly a quarter of British consumers have bought products online while under the influence of happy juice. Needless to say, they regret their purchases, like most other things we do while inebriated. 

Two thousand consumers took part in the survey and the results indicate that the convenience offered by e-commerce services is a double edged sword. It is not like e-commerce outfits are targeting drunk consumers, but the ease of spending hard earned cash with just a few clicks seems to be a bit too much for some jolly consumers to miss out on. Spending too much money while drunk tends to be a bad idea, whether you do it online or out on the town.

In addition, the interfaces of e-commerce sites are susceptible to all kinds of shopping mistakes. A total of 56 per cent of consumers admitted that they regretted buying clothing items online, while 22 per cent felt buyer’s remorse after getting a gadget, reports shopsafe.co.uk.

It is estimated that British consumers spend over £1,000 online a year on average. It seems that a good chunk of that is spent after a few glasses behind the laptop.

Metro.co.uk reports the case of a 22-year-old man, who somehow managed to order 22 tickets to an Oasis concert after a drinking session. The drunken shopping spree cost him over £2,000. It is not clear whether he enjoyed the gig.

eBay gets ever so bullish

Posted on March 29, 2013 by - News

smartphone-shoppingeBay has driven up its share value after making bold forecasting claims.

In its forecast of annual earnings the net giant said it would push for an earnings growth  of 15 percent to 19 percent over the next three years.

Speaking to investors yesterday the company’s head honchos said this was mean a projected revenue of $21.5 billion to $23.5 billion in 2015, compared to $14 billion in 2012.

They said this would be made possible through the company’s global expansion as well as drilling down focus in local commerce areas.

They added that the company would also embrace the mobile trends more fully.

And there was a good news for the company’s marketplaces business, which hosts external merchants will bring in around $110 billion in sales in 2015, a huge jump from the $75 billion in 2012.

The bold claims have now seen its shares rise by more than four percent, a feat which is sure to impress shareholders and show that chief executive John Donahoe, who joined the company in 2009, has fulfilled part of his promise to get the company back on track after it fell on the wayside amidst strong competition from Amazon.

Google tests same-day delivery online

Posted on March 29, 2013 by - News

google-ICGoogle is not content with dominating the search and mobile OS space. Now it wants to deliver our groceries, too. The company is about to roll out a new same-day delivery service in San Francisco and several suburbs south of the city, AP reports. 

Google Shopping Express will provide same-day delivery of food and other products bought online. If it takes off, Google will expand the service to other markets.

“We hope this will help users explore the benefits of a local, same-day delivery service, and help us kick the tires on the new service,” Google said in a statement.

It is an interesting twist in Google’s cunning plot to take over the world. Google wants to increase consumer reliance on the internet, even when it comes to mundane chores. The hope is that Google’s shopping push will attract even more merchants to buy online ads.

The biggest drawback of most online shopping outfits is that they cannot guarantee same-day delivery, which means their services can’t be used for perishable goods. Besides, you can already get a week-old salad at Tesco.

Several major merchants have already signed up for Google’s new service, including Target and Walgreen. The merchants will sell some items through a central website, run by Google. Google will then hire courier services to pick up and deliver the items to shoppers. The couriers will be driving Google trucks, in Google uniforms.

Blackberry hit by yearly revenue drop

Posted on March 28, 2013 by - News

ripeunripeBlackberry lost two percent of revenue in its fourth quarter of fiscal 2013, down $49 million, and a massive 36 percent drop from $4.2 billion year on year. However, it forecasts breaking even for the next quarter and a mobile analyst has told us the company should be financially viable for some time to come.

For the quarter, hardware accounted for 61 percent of the revenue, 36 percent for service and three percent for software and other revenue. It shipped six million Blackberry smartphones and roughly 370,000 Playbook tablets.

One half of the two-headed dragon that founded and used to run the company, Mike Lazaridis, will be leaving the company.

For its outlook, Blackberry said it will be increasing marketing spend for Q1 of fiscal 2014 to support Blackberry 10. This is a planned 50 percent increase in marketing, and the firm thinks it will be near breaking even, citing lower cost base, a more efficient supply chain and better hardware margins.

Jim Dawson, analyst at Ovum, told ChannelEye that every other company that’s suffered a severe drop in device revenues has struggled because cust cotting at a rapid rate is difficult. “Blackberry appears to have done a great job executing on its CORE strategy which includes reducing costs, and has managed to bring costs down significantly,” Dawson said. “As such, it was profitable this past quarter and should break even next quarter”.

“Given its good cash balance and lack of debt, it should be financially viable for quite some time at this rate, so I’m not overly concerned about the drop in revenues,” Dawson said. “I’m more concerned about the drop in subscribers, which is a longer-term indicator that it’s losing customers faster than it can win new ones”.

PCs plunge as smartphones and tablets soar

Posted on March 27, 2013 by - News

ipad3The latest survey of connected intelligent devices from IDC has revealed what we were all beginning to suspect – the day of the PC has gone, while tablets and smartphones continue their inexorable ascent.

The survey covers PCs, notebooks and smartphones.

IDC thinks that shipments of tablets will exceed desktop PCs in 2013 and topple notebook PCs next year. The tablet market is expected to grow year on year by 48.7 percent, representing 190 million units, and the smartphone market  will grow 27.2 percent to 918.5 million units.

Apple did better than expected in the fourth quarter of 2012, closing the gap with Samsung. That’s because of sales of the Apple iPhone 5 and the iPad Mini, meaning that Apple had 20.3 percent unit shipment market share compared to 21.2 percent for Samsung.  However, from a revenue point of view, Apple had 30.7 share compared to 20.4 percent for Samsung.  In short, Apple kit is more expensive.

During the rest of the decade, tablets and smartphone sales will continue to rise, as they are taken up by emerging markets.  Notebook PCs will only show single digit growth and desktop PCs will continue to fall. By 2017, desktop PCs will show to practically no growth.

Megha Saini, IDC research analyst, said that in emerging markets in particular, consumer spending starts with mobiles but move directly to tablets before they think about PCs.

Workplace discrimination still rife

Posted on March 27, 2013 by - News

old schoolDespite more and more women finding themselves in top level jobs, workplace discrimination is still rife, research and legal experts have said.

Earlier this month research conducted by Microsoft in Ireland to mark International Women’s Day identified gender discrimination, demands from home, and a lack of support for working mothers as the main perceived barriers to workplace promotion. Microsoft UK in 2011 was itself accused of sexism and hush money to silence critics.

Over in the US, a 2011 survey suggested that nearly two-thirds of Americans reported sexual harassment was a problem with around a quarter of women reporting to having been harassed at work, while UK figures suggest that around 50 percent of women in employment are, or have been, subject to sexual harassment of some form or other.

A partner at Aspen Morris Solicitors also confirmed that there had been a rise in discrimination cases over the past few years.

“We have seen a number of women coming to us complaining of this practice in the workplace,” the partner told ChannelEye. “This has ranged from sexual harassment to trouble when they have tried to go back to work after taking maternity leave.”

The latter is something one mother experienced when she tried to return to her job in a high profile technology company after having her daughter.

“I asked to take on part time hours, a request which was rejected,” she told ChannelEye.

“I then asked if I could work from home one day a week, which the company also rejected.

“After realising I was tied to a full time post I agreed to go back under these terms. However, before I could resume my position I received a phone call telling me my post had suddenly been made redundant.”

She is still locked in a legal dispute with the company, a well known international brand.

For another woman working in a predominately male industry, it was a case of grin and bare it.

“I had comments about my boobs, if my hair or make-up wasn’t perfect I’d also be asked if I’d had a “late night” followed by nudges,” she said. “However, because I was the only girl there I had to take it as banter.”

One woman however who didn’t sit on her laurels was Adria Richards who was given the sack and subjected to online abuse when she tweeted about her experiences of sexual discrimination in the workplace.

The developer evangelist at Sendgrid, a tech company that manages emails, was an attendee at PyCon, a tech conference. However, she took to heart a conversation two male developers, employed by Play Haven, were having behind her during the conference.

She claimed within this they used the words “dongles” and “forking”, which although can be used legitimately in technology, could also be taken as offensive innuendo. Adria took them to be used in a sexual way – she snapped photos of the men and posted them on Twitter, along with their comments.

One of the developers was sacked as a result, leading to offensive comments being directed at Adria as well as a DDoS attack on SendGrid’s site.

Connections Recruitment increases IT job reach and apprenticeships

Posted on March 27, 2013 by - News

Hands across the waterConnections, a family owned recruitment company, is increasing its client and candidate reach.

It has also said it will broaden its offerings and recruitment for IT posts as well as make more moves into apprenticeships.

The company, which has survived tough economic times, running since 1985, employs 15 recruitment specialists and operates from offices in Manchester city centre, Sale and Stockport.

It currently rakes in a turn over of £5 million, but has said that it now wants to ramp this up by 20 percent .

It claims that over the the past 28 years it has placed in excess of 15,000 people in permanent jobs throughout the North West, while it’s also doing its bit for apprentices recently promoting its first apprentice and planning to take on a second to train them in all administrative aspects of the job.

The move is sure to please Prime Minister David Cameron who earlier this month claimed that apprenticeships should  become the “new norm” for school kids who choose not to get into debt by going to university.

Connections works with clients from sole traders to global PLCs and recruits for roles in administration, customer services, accounting, finance, HR, recruitment, logistics, buying, textiles, sales and marketing.

Jonathan Dobkin, co-owner of Connections, said the company’s plan had always been to grow the business organically and expand divisional offering.

Atlassian sees growth through partner expansion

Posted on March 27, 2013 by - News

lemmAtlassian has said that bookings from its channel partner network grew by 59 percent in 2012.

The enterprise software company says it has around 284 Expert Partner businesses covering 150 countries worldwide on its book.

iGUAZU  has a network of more than 600 trusted business partners in Japan, is Atlassian’s newest partner.

“While enterprise software is increasingly being bought and not sold, we know that many large-scale deployments require professional services and or customization for a successful rollout or expansion of our software,” said Jose Morales, Atlassian vice president.

He claimed that because the company’s software was a “platform” that partners could “leverage and extend” with their own plug-ins and customised integrations, its channel had seen great growth.

Atlassian’s expert partners are said to deploy and customise large-scale software implementations and extend the software platform through customised plug-ins and integrations with existing systems and appliances.

These custom solutions sit on top of Atlassian’s software platform and are sold through the Atlassian Marketplace, a business-to-business marketplace where customers can access 1500 available add-ons.  Partners also provide the professional services necessary for large customer deployments.

In 2012, revenue for Atlassian North American channel partners grew by more than 57 percent. Platinum expert partner Appfire, with offices in Boston, San Francisco, Toronto and Hyderbad, experienced record growth in 2012, doubling its staff and watching its five-year average annual growth rate soar to 57 percent.

In the U.K., Adaptavist, an exclusive Atlassian consultancy with offices in central London, achieved close to 100 percent revenue growth in 2012 and as a consequence, doubled its headcount.

Intel forced to take axe to Ultrabook prices

Posted on March 26, 2013 by - News, Opinions

titanicThe writing was on the wall for Intel-based Ultrabooks well over a year ago.

Overpriced, underwhelming, and facing massive competition from tablets and smartphones and trends such as bring your own device (BYOD), few families would take the risk of spending over $1,000 to have a bright shiny Ultrabook and keeping an eye on jobs and the general economic situation, large corporations weren’t going to splash the cash either.

So the news that Ultrabooks are set to cost far less for the holiday season this year is probably a case of too little too late. It also begs a number of questions about Intel’s business model which remain to be resolved.

Intel’s phenomenal growth was due, in a large part, to the monopolistic hold it had on the PC industry.  True, AMD was around to mitigate that, but it was only in the days of the AMD Opteron that Intel was forced to react.  Because it holds such a large X86 market share, that meant that the revenues from sales of its microprocessors allowed it to finance developing the next generation of its CPUs.  Building fabs is not a trivial matter and involves billions of dollars of investment.  Intel could afford to do this because during its so-called “tick tock” cycle, it was able to maximise profits on its current generation of semiconductors, while developing its next generation.

However, this continual growth could never be guaranteed, and disruptive technology, in the shape of tablets and smartphones, meant that given a choice, lots of people preferred to pay far less for tablets and smartphones rather than go for Ultrabooks at $1,000 plus.

And with this we come to applications and the realm of the other great X86 monopolist, Microsoft.  It’s certainly true that typing on a smartphone or a tablet is not nearly as convenient as using a conventional keyboard.  And if you are into solid beancounting, you’ll certainly need a sophisticated spreadsheet to manipulate the numbers.  Despite the now decades long promise of the paperless office, people still print stuff.  Microsoft, with Windows 8 and its tablet ready interface is too expensive.  It, like Intel, has lost its grip on the electronics market.

There’s another factor to consider, too.  Right now, Intel is in an interregnum period.  Paul Otellini, the current CEO, is due to leave at the end of May.  Intel is actively recruiting for another CEO, but that means, in the short term, that no-one is going to make huge company wide decisions.

In truth, it’s hard for me, as a seasoned Intel watcher, to see quite what rabbit the new Intel CEO, whoever she or he might be, might pull out of the corporate top hat.  Intel has been in fixes before, and because of its size and its sway can never be underestimated.  But it’s hard to see it making very much more than a ripple in the smartphone and tablet market, leaving it between a ROC and a hard place. It’s also hard to see where the complex supply chain it generates is going to end up, too.

Huawei expands into Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq

Posted on March 26, 2013 by - News

huawei-liveHuawei is moving to make money in war torn countries.

The Chinese behemoth has appointed  regional value added IT distie Optimus to distribute its enterprise product range for networking, unified communications and security.

Under the deal Optimus will aim to grow Huawei’s channel network across Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq where it will also undertake regular marketing and channel development activities to help increase the vendor’s market share and reach in the region.

Meera Kaul, managing director of Optimus Technology and Telecommunications said the partnership was “very important” and would help it offer customers a “omplete range of technology.”

She added that the company also planned to take Huawei’s enterprise products including  cloud computing, enterprise networking and wireless, as well as Unified Communication & Collaboration (UC&C), video conference and telepresence products, and partner them with
other vendors.

Optimus also claims it will promote this product range through focused channel development activities, which include training, certifications, skills development and consultancy services to help them sell the productsbetter.

“Over the last few years, our Enterprise Business division has been investing heavily in developing our Middle East customer base,” said Dong Wu, vice president, Huawei, Enterprise Business, Middle East.

He added Huawei would continue to invest in training, motivating and incentivising partners.

E-commerce generates demand for mega-warehouses

Posted on March 26, 2013 by - News, Opinions

warehouse-openOnline shoppers are not just killing main street, they seem to be taking creating a lot of demand for oversized commercial storage units suitable for logistics and delivery outfits. In other words, small warehouses are going out of style, fast.

Property Magazine International reports that 25 million square meters of retail space will be needed over the next five years to keep up with e-commerce trends. That is the equivalent of 3,300 football pitches and some developers might end up driving white Bentleys, just like Premiership footballers.

It is estimated that online outfits will also need an additional three million square meters of specially equipped e-fulfilment space over the next five years. Another 22 million square meters is needed to keep retail stores and satellite warehouses stocked.

The growth of e-commerce will also drive further development of so-called dark stores, which is basically a fancy name for huge warehouses where goods are packed and shipped to consumers.
Jones Lang LaSalle executive Paul Betts argued that many retailers have simply outgrown their supply chain infrastructure and they have to work out new logistics models for multi-channel retail.

EMEA CIOs expect higher IT spending in 2013

Posted on March 26, 2013 by - News

server-racksWe might be a bit closer to bottoming out. According to a study commissioned by Riverbed Technology, 71 per cent of CIOs in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region expect IT spending will go up this year, reports IT Web.

A total of 400 CIOs across the region took part in the study and answered a few questions about their spending priorities over the next 12 months. They were asked to pick their top five priorities and virtualisation and consolidation programs ranked first. About 50 per cent believe server virtualisation will be their primary spending priority. Data consolidation ranks second at 40 per cent, followed by storage consolidation, desktop virtualisation, server upgrades security and compliance, and WAN optimisation, all in the 32 to 34 per cent range.

Oddly enough, the study found that 10 per cent of CIOs plan to make rather aggressive investments in an effort to boost competitiveness. However, 28 per cent claim their focus will be on efficiency and overall cuts in spending over the next 12 months.

It is hardly surprising that 33 per cent of CIOs plan to approach investment cautiously in 2013, but most plan to keep spending at current levels. Only 9 per cent said their IT budgets were shrinking and that they would spend less than last year.

Although most outfits see potential to cut costs through data centre and server consolidation, there’s apparently a lot of room for improvement in WAN performance. As many as 38 per cent of the CIOs said application performance over WAN is a barrier to consolidation.