Windows 10 not helping to push PC sales

Posted on February 29, 2016 by - News

screen-shot-2015-11-02-at-81934-amThe maker of expensive printer ink, HP’s  Chief Executive Dion Weisler, said that Windows 10 was not helping push PC sales.He said that Windows 10 hasn’t delivered and there is not enough demand for Microsoft’s new OS to help HP survive in a declining PC market.HP delivered the first earnings report since its split. HP reported a 12 percent drop in revenue to $13.9 billion, and a 16 percent drop in continuing operations to $700 million. Virtually every meaningful segment of the business reported declines, including revenue and earnings in both its printer and PC businesses.

He blamed Microsoft which he said that made a  tremendous operating system platform, and universal apps and Continuum computing but failed to stimulate demand.

“We’re carefully monitoring any sort of price development that could further weaken demand,” Weisler said.

HP sold 14.2 million PCs during 2015, but still saw its market share drop by 10 percent—and it ranked second in worldwide PC sales behind Lenovo, according to IDC.  If HP can’t rely on Microsoft to provide the killer app, it might be its own PC future is limited.

Palo Alto Networks gets high with a little help from its friends

Posted on February 26, 2016 by - News

ST-605Cyber security company Palo Alto Networks reported higher than expected second quarter results thanks to its partnerships which have been getting its foot in the door with companies and governments.

Palo Alto, which went public in 2012 and provides internet security and malware analysis products, has been grabbing market share from traditional firewall suppliers. Palo Alto recently boogied with Honeywell to protect industrial facilities and also signed a deal with peer Proofpoint to jointly provide security services to customers.

Palo Alto forecast a third quarter profit of 41-42 cents per share and revenues of $335 million-$339 million. Analysts thought the figure would be about $334.6 million.

The outfit is still running at a net loss of $62.5 million from $43 million. Revenues rose to $334.7 million from $217.7 million, above analysts’ expectation of $318.3 million.

Salesforce does better than expected

Posted on February 25, 2016 by - News

Salesforce logoSalesforce reported higher than expected quarterly revenue and raised its full-year revenue forecasts.

In a statement the outfit said that customers were stepping up purchases of its web-based sales and marketing software despite economic uncertainty.

Salesforce is becoming a barometer for the cloud-computing sector. It has done well as companies wanted cheaper and easier cloud-software services.

Salesforce highlighted new or expanded deals with customers such as Charles Schwab, the financial-services company, and consumer-goods maker Unilever.

Chief Financial Officer Mark Hawkins on a call with analysts that while the papers seem to be full of doom Salesforce has not seen an economic impact.

Part of the reason, executives said on the call, was that Salesforce often skipped over the information technology department, an area where flat spending is expected this year, and sold to other departments.

Some technology companies that have flagged potential weakness this year sell infrastructure equipment or other products that typically fall under an IT budget.

The company raised its full-year revenue forecast to $8.08 billion-$8.12 billion, from $8.0 billon-$8.1 billion.

In the fourth quarter ended January 31, revenue from sales cloud – a suite of software that allows companies to track leads, forecast and collaborate around sales opportunities – rose 12.3 percent to $708.9 million.

The net loss narrowed to $25.5 million, or 4 cents per share, from $65.8 million, or 10 cents per share, a year earlier.

Revenue rose 25.3 percent to $1.81 billion, above analysts’ estimate of $1.79 billion.

UK government delays Digital Services and Outcomes framework

Posted on February 24, 2016 by - News

delayed-train-sign-web-370x229A last minute hiccup means that resellers will not be able to use the government’s Digital Services and Outcomes framework until mid-April.

For those who came in late, the framework will allow smaller resellers to compete with bigger operations for lucrative government contracts. The framework is in place, but government buyers have been hit with a delay to a landmark framework which means they will be unable to procure from it until the middle of April.

It was supposed to go live on Monday and was supposed to replace the much hated Digital Services Framework. The latter project was killed off at the end of last year after some suppliers joined forces to moan about it.

At the time they said that it procured IT in a way which only considered a provider’s individual staff skills, not what the company as a whole could offer.

So far no reason has been given for the delay but said it wants to “make sure we meet the user needs. Working on the buying journey and building the minimum viable product has been our priority since the framework opened,” it said.

Apparently the government has been testing prototypes in our weekly user research sessions and iterating in response to the feedback.

 

Tablet sales still falling

Posted on February 23, 2016 by - News

stylustabletResellers trying to peddle tablets are having a tough time of it as users have moved onto the next new shiny thing.

According to beancounters at the analyst Context Western European tablet sales “dramatically declined” in Q4 2015, as consumers looked to alternative devices such as two-in-one detachables and convertible notebooks.

But the market watcher found that the fall in sales in the PC market “softened”, driven largely by stock clearance.

Unit shipments of slate tablets for distributors in Western Europe fell by 27.5 per cent year on year for Q4 2015, dropping from more than five million to about 3.7 million in the last quarter of 2015.

Germany saw particularly poor performance for the devices, with tablet sales down 43.4 per cent.

Spain also saw a plunge in demand, with sales down 31.3 per cent and the UK was down 14.1 per cent.

Context attributed this decline to an upswing in popularity of alternatives including two-in-one detachables, which sold 300,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 31.3 per cent. The analyst also noted a big increase in convertible notebooks, with sales up 84.7 per cent year on year.

Marie-Christine Pygott, senior analyst at Context, said: “To put these figures in perspective, detachable and convertible pcs comprised 11 per cent of overall notebook unit sales in distribution at the end of last year, and an even larger share (15 per cent) in the consumer space.”

The PC market fared better, with “a strong focus on stock clearance” helping to see a respite from its recent tumbling numbers. PC distributor sales were largely flat, down only 0.1 per cent year on year for Q4 2015, and this was boosted by notebook sales up 2.7 per cent over the same period.

The UK market saw PC sales up 10 per cent as it suffered fewer currency headaches than the eurozone countries. Spain saw PC sales up 8.3 per cent, but Italy saw a decline of 3.3 per cent and France was down 9.2 per cent.

Consumer PC shipments were up 2.9 per cent but business shipments fell by 4.5 per cent year over year.

Ingram Micro bought in Chinese take away

Posted on February 22, 2016 by - News

ingram-mico-hqA Chinese outfit has written a cheque for Ingram Micro for $6 billion.

Chinese aviation and shipping conglomerate HNA Group will buy the outfit so that it will become a subsidiary of Tianjin Tianha. Its HQ will remain where it is along with the firm’s executive management team will stay in place, with Alain Monié continuing as chief executive.

All Ingram Micro lines of business and all regional and country operations are “expected to continue unaffected”.

Adam Tan, CEO of HNA Group, stated: “Ingram Micro has clearly established itself as a leading distributor and global provider of IT products and services. The company has a proven and talented team and we believe Ingram Micro is unrivalled in its ability to offer industry-leading, differentiated and easy-to-manage solutions to vendor and customer partners worldwide. We look forward to supporting Ingram Micro’s management team and strategies, including continued expansion into new geographies, while also offering their vendor and customer partners access to new and complementary offerings.

Tan said that Ingram Micro would become the largest member enterprise of HNA Group in terms of revenue, and facilitate the internationalisation process of the group. With the help of Ingram Micro, HNA Group would have access to business opportunities in emerging markets, which have higher growth rates and better profitability. Furthermore, the addition of Ingram Micro would help the logistics sector of HNA Group transform from a logistics operator to a supply chain operator, and provide one-stop services while improving efficiencies.

EU gives Dell deal the thumbs up

Posted on February 19, 2016 by - News

Happy man portrait

Happy man portrait

Tin box shifter Michael Dell is going to be given unconditional EU antitrust approval for its $67 billion bid for data storage company EMC.

Dell unveiled the deal in October last year, the largest ever in the technology industry sector, and designed to enable Dell to better challenge rivals Cisco Systems Inc, IBM and HP in cloud computing, mobility and cyber security.

European Commission spokesman Ricardo Cardoso has so far said nothing, but leaks in Brussels [shurely that should be sprouts.ed] claim that the when the Commission gives its ruling on the deal by February 29 Dell will be a happy bunny.

 

Dell founder and Chief Executive Michael Dell took the company private three years ago with the help of private equity firm Silver Lake.

The computer maker has arranged a debt package for up to $49.5 billion to help finance the EMC deal, the second-largest M&A financing on record.

 

IBM to spruce up channel

Posted on February 18, 2016 by - News

ibm-officeBiggish Blue has released details of its revamped channel programme which will start in January 2017.

Apparently the men in suits want to better define the relationship a partner has with IBM and have a common terms used across its channel programmes.

Like most things IBMish this will involve lots of business speak. For example IBM is standardising on the term “competencies” and will have 44 “competencies” in place by the beginning of 2017.

IBM will have new cloud incentives that last the entire life of the renewal process and there will be a programme that specifically rewards builders of IBM embedded systems.

Some new IBM services will only be resold by channel partner. These will be aimed at midmarket customers that the IBM direct sales force does not normally bother with.

IBM wants to put more cash into its channel and give resources to partners that develop its intellectual property.

To fund those investments, IBM is also limiting the amount of money it invests in partners that focus mainly on order fulfilment.

Partners will be assigned a platinum, gold or silver designation based on the amount of revenue being generated over a specific time period, customer satisfaction with that partner and the number of competencies attained. The actual size of the partner will be less relevant in attaining those designations.

VMware share drop hurts Dell’s EMC bid

Posted on February 17, 2016 by - News

Michael DellTin box shifter Michael Dell is warning investors that the $14 billion drop in the market capitalisation of VMware is playing havoc with his attempt to get cash for EMC.

A Dell spokesman said the total value of the blockbuster acquisition has dropped by about $10 billion from its original $67 billion, to $57 billion.

In an SEC filing, Dell noted that “the market value” of the VMware tracking stock has “declined, thereby reducing the implied value of the stock portion of the merger consideration”.

On October 9, the last business day before the Dell-EMC announcement was made, VMware, 80 percent of which is owned by EMC, had a market capitalisation of $33.2 billion and a stock price of $78.65 a share. Now, its market cap is about $19.2 billion, and its stock price is hovering around $45.54.

A Dell spokesman said the EMC acquisition price of $24.05 per share was “locked, that doesn’t move, but because VMware has moved down, the value of the portion of the merger consideration linked with the tracker is going to be in that range of decline”. Whatever that means.

UK channel is the most optimistic

Posted on February 16, 2016 by - News

Happy man portrait

Happy man portrait

An industry body has been adding up some numbers and reached the conclusion that the UK channel is the most optimistic.

CompTIA has just released its latest IT Industry Outlook 2016 report in which it asked 673 IT company execs in the UK, Canada and US how they felt the year would turn out.

Those from the UK were the most optimistic, forecasting growth of 4.9 percent on average and some even said things like seven percent growth. All this was driven by demand for the “staple” categories of hardware, software, services and telecoms, and supplemented with new revenue streams from emerging categories.

Tim Herbert, senior vice president, research and market intelligence at CompTIA, said: “Businesses of all sizes increasingly recognise the need to remake their workflows and customer engagement practices with an eye towards digital transformation. If investments in these technologies accelerate, and the economy holds steady, growth could lean towards the upside of the forecast.”

CompTIA identified 12 trends for 2016 that it claims will make their mark on the IT industry, channel, general workforce and broader economy. These included trends such as “moving beyond the user interface”, tech policy becoming part of US presidential election issues, digital business encompassing more than just the IT department, and organisations striving to develop more tech talent.

Of course the cloud was a big thing, along with companies getting tough on security, the analytics market heating up again, and the software layer getting more attention.

CompTIA predicted vendor partner programmes will strive to reach “escape velocity”, increased confusion over who actually is a vendor, skipping the datacentre buildout, and getting closer to the customer.

Herbert added: “Cloud computing, mobility, social, workforce automation, big data, the Internet of Things and other disrupters will continue to expand their reach in 2016. Many organisations will move beyond the experimental, early-adopter stage into broader, more varied uses of these technologies as they seek to capture the benefits of becoming a digital business.”

Dell plots more buy-outs

Posted on February 15, 2016 by - News

michael-dell-2Michael Dell has said that even more “significant” consolidation could be on the cards in the tech space, hinting that his firm could continue its shopping spree.

Dell is in the midst of a mega-deal to acquire EMC for $67 billion, which is expected to close some time between May and October.

Speaking at the company’s FY17 Field Readiness Seminar in the US, a transcript of which has been filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Michael Dell told staff that the EMC deal might not be a one-off in the industry.

“Customers need a trusted partner in this journey; in navigating this period of incredible change; and we will be the best partner for companies and organisations of all sizes,” he said.

“Customers face a real challenge in funding the digital transformation, and what they have to do is make the existing infrastructure more efficient to be able to fund the digital transformation, and we’re going to help them do exactly that. During this period, I also expect there to be significant consolidation. And we’re very well positioned to be a consolidator.”

Elsewhere at the FRS event, Dell (pictured) urged his staff not to pay attention to media reports suggesting the EMC deal could fall through, branding such articles “click bait”.

“You may have read a story that questions if this deal is going to happen. If you have, you’re wasting your time,” he said.

“The media business is under a lot of stress and their business model is sort of cratering. And what they do to survive in those tough times is they create something called click bait. They create an inflammatory headline – so and so was impregnated by aliens, or whatever, click on here to read about this story, see some ads, try to get some money. So don’t fall for that, OK?

“There’s going to be those kind of stories, just like there were during the privatisation. Do you all remember when we were going private there were all kinds of stories and they basically turned out to be nonsense? So don’t waste your time with that.”

He added that his company is “absolutely” going ahead with the deal according to the original timeline and terms “at full speed ahead”.

Nimans gets into laptops

Posted on February 12, 2016 by - News

File_5906_JPEG-WebNimans, which is normally associated with comms distribution thinks that now is the time to get into selling laptops.

While many are trying to get out flogging hardware Nimans the time was apparently right to provide its resellers with access to a hardware range that provides both a tablet and a laptop in one package.

The outfit works with Venturer and thinks it can offer products that should appeal because of the decent prices and the Windows 10 compatibility.

At the heart of the cunning plan is the idea is this concept of “convergence” between coms and traditional IT data. Concrete examples proved thin on the ground.

Nimans gets Venturer’s “reseller base” which should be a foot in the door. If the laptop market stabilises this year, as predicted, it might actually be in the right place at the right time. More enterprises start to migrate away from older versions of the Windows OS this year.

IT professionals saved from recession

Posted on February 11, 2016 by - News

an-queue-at-a-job-centre-in-1924-pic-getty-images-762512302Beancounters working for the recruiter Randstad Technologies claim that IT professionals have survived the economic crisis better than other sectors and now earn more on average than… er, the beancounters.

Randstad Technologies analysed Office of National Statistics and professional industry data on every occupation in the UK, taking into account the aggregate wage bill for full-time staff between 2002 and 2014 and divided by its shoe size.

The total wage bill for full-time employees in IT jobs rose 82 percent from £17.4 billion in 2002 to £31.6 billion in 2014, reaching five percent of the total wage bill for all UK full time employees.

More than 400,000 people have taken on IT jobs since 2002.

Ruth Jacobs, managing director of Randstad Technologies, said: “The increasing demand for Tech has been the umbrella which sheltered the sector from the storm of the recession. As technology has become a larger part of our lives, the industry has grown dramatically, with 400,000 new full time jobs in just 12 years. The growth in the sector has been so significant it’s now responsible for five per cent of the total UK wage bill. But this rapid expansion means there is tough competition for Tech talent as employers want to find the right people for the right jobs.

“The demand for people will advanced IT skills will only grow in the future, as Britain will need 2.2 million digitally skilled workers by 2020 to match the sector’s potential. This means that if you are qualified for software developer jobs, data analyst jobs or network engineer jobs, it will be easier to find work, with almost no chance of being laid off long periods of time.”

Randstad said the average wage for tech professionals has fallen by 11 per cent, but despite this, they have still done better comparatively, with tech employees earning more on average than accountants.

Jacobs, added: “As technology has progressed, the costs associated with the industry have dropped exponentially in line with Moore’s law. This helps to explain why the average wage of Tech professionals has declined more than some other sectors. However, IT jobs still offer some of the highest average salaries in the UK, overtaking accountants.

“While the average salary figures have been boosted by the number of IT jobs in London, the growth of fin-tech jobs and IT security Jobs have helped the sector to do well compared to other industries.

HP scores huge Scottish contract

Posted on February 10, 2016 by - News

d0c5a0b6998666e50be87b41d1a5e246The former maker of expensive printer ink, the much divided HP, has been awarded single-supplier status on a £90 million Scottish framework project.

The cannae plan involves setting up a Desktop Client Devices and Associated Services framework across public sector organisations across Scotland, including health bodies, local authorities, universities and colleges, and other public organistaions.

According to the contract award notice from Scottish Procurement Under the deal HP will supply a range of mobile devices, tablets, other hardware and peripherals, will last for four years and is expected to be worth up to £90m.

HP  was named the single supplier in the notice but what is strange about the deal is that HP is keeping quiet about it all. It is not clear if HP has put its partners on alert that it will be needing them or asking for them to put in bids for the work.

In previous paperwork about the framework,  Scottish Procurement listed the benefits the framework will offer public bodies, including pricing which is “significantly lower” than that offered in the current market; fixed pricing for the duration of the framework; and “transactional efficiencies”, meaning e-procurement methods will be used.

Government slammed over out of date broadband

Posted on February 9, 2016 by - News

tin-can-phoneThe Engineering Employers Federation (EEF) has warned that the UK could miss out on the fourth industrial revolution if the government continues to ignore business broadband.

The EFF said that UK businesses were paying inflated prices for inadequate broadband.

In a report which asked 128 companies between December 1 and December 31 about their broadband connection, more than half of all mid-sized firms were paying over £5,000 a year for their internet access. And to make matters worse nearly half of companies based in business parks were unable to access speeds above 10Mbps.

Two-thirds of manufacturers surveyed said that they planned to invest in IoT related infrastructure and services.

Lee Hopley, EEF chief economist said that manufacturers needed best in class provision if Britain was to take advantage of the next industrial revolution and government cannot afford to think it is job done.

“While the quality of networks isn’t currently an issue, companies are paying inflated sums to have proper access and are fearful they will not have competitive access five years’ down the line.”

The EEF said that the government had placed too strong an emphasis on improving home broadband services and called for a review of the business broadband marketplace, with the aim of driving prices down by the end of the current parliament.