Digital workplace led by medium sized businesses

Posted on February 26, 2019 by - News

Medium-sized businesses are investing fast in digital technology to stay ahead according to HPE outfit Aruba.

Aruba’s ‘The Hidden Middle’ report quized more than 2,700 employees in management and non-management roles across medium-sized businesses.

It discovered  medium-sized businesses are the most active users of workplace technology with almost two-thirds of business employees rated the ‘choice of technology, applications and IT support’ at their company as either good or very good.

That compared to 53 percent of those also surveyed from the largest companies. Medium-sized businesses were ahead of the competition in their use of advanced audio-visual technologies (such as voice-activated speakers), which are offered by an average of 27 percent of medium-sized business, compared to 16 percent of smaller and 22 percent of larger employers.

Court shuts Leicester-based IT supplier

Posted on February 26, 2019 by - News

Bradwell Communications has been wound-up by the High Court following an investigation that found it “lacked transparency”, following a  report by the Insolvency Service.

The  Leicester-based IT supplier was found to have links to Direct United (Services) and Fibre Tex which were closed down in April 2018, after investigations found a lack of transparency in their operations and that they had traded in an improper manner, resulting in both organisations incurring significant liabilities, according to the Insolvency Service.

Retailers have five days before losing customers

Posted on February 26, 2019 by - News

Retail technology outfit Conversity has worked out that 43 percent of shoppers researching complex purchases such as mobile phones, laptops or broadband packages make a buying decision within five days.

Within this five days window,  67 percent of shoppers will visit at least two online sites, with 57 percent then narrowing their enquiries to one or two in-store premises. This means that retailers with an integrated approach to engaging with customers are more likely to keep the customer interested throughout the process, and close the sale during this critical period.

HP provides DaaS Apple support

Posted on February 25, 2019 by - News

HP has expanded its enterprise device-as-a-service (DaaS) programme to include support for Apple products.

Until now, it was impossible for Apple fanboys outside the US with access to the company cheque book to put Apple gear onto the desks of employees under HP’s DaaS scheme.

SoftwareONE launches UC managed services in UK

Posted on February 22, 2019 by - Products

Licensing outfit SoftwareONE has launched its unified communications (UC) managed services in the UK.

The Swiss firm launched UCSimple in the US, Germany, Switzerland and Austria last year and has now added Blighty to its list.

UCSimple is based on a premise that traditional UC tools are ineffective because they don’t take into account the number of employees working remotely will increase over the next few years.

Customers fear cloud lock-in

Posted on February 22, 2019 by - News

A report from Fujitsu suggests that punters fear that they will be locked into their cloud contracts and never escape.

Fujitsu’s report “Where is Hybrid Heading?” claims that users are concerned that as they move deeper into a hybrid and multi-cloud world, they will get trapped working with just a handful of vendors.

Huawei to invest £3 billion in the UK

Posted on February 22, 2019 by - News

Huawei is looking at shifting all the cash it is spending in the US to the UK.

The announcement follows the National Cyber Security Centre saying the vendor will not be treated as harshly as it was in the US.

The NCSC said it it believed it could mitigate any security concerns related to China, although the final decision as to whether Huawei will be allowed to work on the UK’s 5G network will be made by the government.

Kaspsersky’s global revenue grows

Posted on February 21, 2019 by - News

US government spy stories have not been enough to scare off Kaspersky’s global customers.

Cybersecurity vendor Kaspersky reported annual revenue of $726 million for 2018, despite a downturn in sales in the North American market.

The figure represents four percent year-on-year global growth for the company, with all regions – apart from the North American market – reporting increased sales.

Security keeps businesses awake at night

Posted on February 21, 2019 by - News

Security outfit KnowBe4 released the results of its “What Keeps You Up at Night – The 2019 Report” which looks at more than 350 organisations globally and reveals the security weaknesses and concerns within organisations. On average, 81 per cent of organisations had some degree of anxiety around security issues.

Most were worried about data breaches, with credential compromise coming in as a close second. These

Extreme Networks boosts partner support

Posted on February 20, 2019 by - News

Extreme Networks is sprucing up its partner programme and increasing the rewards for its top tier Diamond Black partners and providing more self-assessment tools for resellers.

John Morrison, vice president of sales and services at Extreme Networks, said that the enhancements were designed to make life simpler.

“We have a solution that takes you from the application right to the user device, managed under a single pane of glass with visibility and policy that allows you to build that solution with a view to delivering the customer experience. We want to talk about the solution we now have and what our portfolio now allows us to deliver and that is an overall message to both customers and partners. The other message to partners is that we are focusing on our partner programmes and taking feedback on the programme as it was.”

Exclusive Networks pushes into Israel

Posted on February 20, 2019 by - News

Exclusive Networks has entered the Israeli market by writing a cheque for  SecureWave, an independent cybersecurity VAD based in Tel Aviv.

SecureWave distributes to around 250 resellers, SIs and service providers. Its major vendors are Fortinet, Nutanix and Infoblox, which Exclusive Group said are all “strategic to Exclusive’s cyber and cloud transformation portfolios”.

Its CEO Olivier Breittmayer said Exclusive Group’s partners would benefit immediately from the shared vendor investment the acquisition brings.

Cambridgeshire continues to attract tech

Posted on February 20, 2019 by - News

Bidwells’latest analysis indicates Cambridgeshire remains a magnet for technology companies that are looking beyond the current Brexit uncertainty. Its analysis of the Cambridge office and laboratory market finds that 0.6 million sq ft of new space will be complete during the first half of 2019.

This is the highest level of new supply in over a decade. This perhaps sounds alarm bells given the apparent slowdown in demand for labs and offices combined to 1.154 million sq ft at the end of 2018.

GT Software advances into the UK market

Posted on February 19, 2019 by - News

GT Software is getting its foot in the door of the UK market using an exclusive partnership with Advanced.

Biggish Blue mainframe specialist Advanced has signed a deal with US player GT Software to add more options to those customers using Big Blue’s technology.

GT has developed the Ivory Suite, which allows a no-code drag and drop offering that gives those with IBM mainframes the chance to add API integrations.