Tag: EMEA

ChannelHub announces Retail Connect One-to-One event

Posted on September 22, 2020 by - News

ChannelHub, the first online portal for matching buyers and sellers in the consumer electronics sector, has announced the dates for its first Retail Connect One-to-One event for EMEA (Europe, Middle East & Africa).

The online event, scheduled for 3-5 November 2020, will allow each registered vendor to access and connect to over 400 registered buyers across the EMEA region. This will allow them to set up direct one on one meetings with key decision makers at some of the leading retailers and distributors in the EMEA region. The event will host keynotes and workshops conducted by event partner, GfK, and pitch sessions from vendors for key consumer electronic segments including mobile accessories, smart tech, PC, gaming, and AV.

EMEA IT spending expected to increase.

Posted on November 8, 2019 by - News

Gartner augurs have been “taking the auspices” and had a vision that EMEA IT spending will rise by 3.4 percent in 2020.

John Lovelock, research vice president at Gartner, said 2020 will be a recovery year for IT spending in EMEA after three consecutive years of decline.

“This year declines in the Euro and the British Pound against the US Dollar, at least partially due to Brexit concerns, pushed some IT spending down and caused a rise in local prices for technology hardware. However, 2020 will be a rebound year as Brexit is expected to be resolved and the pressure on currency rates relieved”, he added.

Insight’s EMEA business bucks global trend

Posted on November 9, 2018 by - News

Insight’s latest figures show that EMEA business is its shining star, while other world regions are grinding to a halt.

Insight’s EMEA business has been doing well since the completion of an expensive $3.5 million restructure last year and the third quarter proved to be another three months of positive developments for Insight’s EMEA business.

Revenues increased by 11 percent to $345.2 million, while earnings from operations rocketed by more than 100 percent on a year-on-year comparison. Earnings climbed from $2.1 million in the red from the third quarter last year to a positive $4.6 million this year.

Alibaba Cloud seeks partners as it announces UK hub

Posted on October 23, 2018 by - News

Alibaba Cloud is looking for business partners after it launched its two London-based datacentres.

Yeming Wang, general manager of Alibaba Cloud for EMEA, said that the  UK is the biggest cloud market in Europe and it’s an early cloud adopter.

“The region is really good regarding the market share; the adoption and its mindset are quite open, especially in the services and research areas.”

The UK expansion adds to the EMEA hubs that Alibaba has already established in Frankfurt and Dubai, and Wang said that the London datacentres were already up and running.

Wang said that the company has developed local partners, but is on the hunt for more.

“The business scenario will be localised. In the UK, we want to join our Chinese experience and technology with the know-how of local partners, and then we jointly go to market. We are working on defining a lot of localised partner programmes to help them find their position with Alibaba, which is different from their partnerships with other cloud service providers. It’s very promising, and that is why the company is happy to put the datacentre here”, Wang said.

 

Masergy makes EMEA channel expansion

Posted on October 5, 2018 by - News

banner_220x220Masergy, a US provider of secure hybrid networking, cloud communications, and managed security solutions, is expanding its channel programme in the EMEA region and is looking for new parters.

Following its initial success, the enhanced programme will be implemented to attract new partners and grow the existing strategic partner base in the region, the outfit said.

The Masergy Global Partner Programme is designed to work with different business models, including value-added resellers (VARs), master and sub-agents, system integrators, solution providers, and consultants.  The programme allows partners to leverage Masergy’s expertise in servicing global customers by delivering world-class Secure Hybrid Networking with Managed SD-WAN, Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS), Intelligent SIP Trunking, Cloud Contact Centre, and Managed Security with detection and response solutions.

Bill Madison, Vice President of Global Channel Development at Masergy said: “We know that many enterprise IT departments are seeking innovative service providers that deliver enhanced agility and security to their businesses. Our expanded focus in EMEA will build on our current success in the region. We are adding dedicated channel resources with a focused strategic plan, and will work closely with partners to deliver bespoke solutions personalised to customers’ unique business requirements.”

Masergy has a tiered partner program and provides partners with a competitive monthly residual compensation structure along with certified product training, joint business plan mapping, market development funds, and comprehensive pre- and post-sales support.

Steve Harrington, Channel Director EMEA at Masergy said his focus was to strengthen relationships with existing partners and grow a channel base with new partners in EMEA.

“I am excited about the significant market opportunity for Masergy and our partners as our innovative technologies, customisable global solutions, and industry-leading customer experience sets us apart from our competitors.”

 

SnapLogic signs up 11 EU channel partners

Posted on June 1, 2018 by - News

devil_514SnapLogic has onboarded 11 new channel partners across EMEA and appointed Roger Coles as channel and alliances director.

The move is part of a cunning plan to expand its Partner Connect programme in the region.

Partners joining the programme include eCraft Oy in the Nordics, who will become SnapLogic’s as a Master Reseller/Distributor across Finland and Sweden and is tasked with helping the company build local sales channels and grow awareness of the brand.

Germany-based dtms will embed SnapLogic into its contact center and CX AI offering to help capture the attention of its existing customers in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, while TmaxSoft will use SnapLogic to simplify the application and data integration process across cloud, on-premise and hybrid infrastructure.

Other businesses joining SnapLogic’s partner network include London-based Identity Methods, Abacus Consulting, KETL, Inviqa, Torry Harris Business Solutions, Minordata, Shift Technologies and NPP Solutions.

Coles said that the swift growth of the outfit’s channel programme highlights the key role SnapLogic has to play in the digital transformation journey many businesses are undertaking.

“Looking forward, we’re aiming to further grow our channel presence in EMEA to more than 30 quality partnerships by the end of 2018 and we’ll be hosting our first EMEA partner forum towards the end of the year.”

Carbon Black poaches channel bloke from HPE

Posted on May 12, 2017 by - Moving People, News

milesripponclearswift-370x229Miles Rippon has been named as Carbon Black’s EMEA channel director and has been ordered to sort out the outfit ‘s European channel business following its strategic distribution agreement with Arrow.

Apparently, Rippon will be building up Carbon Black’s relationships with channel partners, expanding its reach and increasing enterprise sales through the region. To do this he will have to push Arrow and Carbon Black’s joint offerings in cyber security.
In a statement, Rippon pointed out that traditional AV products were going no-where because they could not deliver the improvements needed to protect organisations against modern threats.

While there is a huge demand from customers for a leading NGAV solution, by combining Cb Defense with Arrow’s vast network, Carbon Black is greatly increasing its global footprint, providing high margins for resellers and continuing to stay at the cutting edge keeping businesses protected from cyberattacks, he said.

There is a huge opportunity for Carbon Black to work with its channel partners to grow its market share this year and Rippon said was happy to be behind the wheel.

Rippon joins Carbon Black from HPE’s enterprise security products division, where he served as EMEA channel and alliance director. Prior to that, he has held roles as VP of global channels for Clearswift and VP of EMEA channels for RSA Security.

Mark Reeves, VP for EMEA sales at Carbon Black, said: “Miles is an EMEA channel expert with extensive experience and hands-on sales territory and sales management skills. He has maintained strong sales performance records in developed and emerging territories. With the recent launch of our streaming prevention technology and the appointment of Arrow, we are now well set up to service the channel and build momentum in the market.”

Insight restructuring costs hit EMEA operations

Posted on May 5, 2017 by - News

imagesInsight saw its EMEA operations slip into the red because of restructuring costs.

Restructuring costs of $3.2 million made Insight’s EMEA numbers look pretty rubbish. Costs shot up as the company tried to improve the efficiency of its EMEA operations. Apparently things are going to be pants there for some time.

Overall the numbers for the first quarter across EMEA showed that Insight delivered a 9per cent  climb in sales to $330 million but a loss with income dipping by $1.1m compared to a positive position of $2.7 million in the same period last year.

Insight CEO Ken Lamneck said that EMEA was a blight on the balance sheet but otherwise the firm had enjoyed a fairly decent performance in the region.

“The sales growth obviously is pretty 20per cent  constant currency growth, so really solid there. A few big deals are brought down the gross margin related to some large software enterprise agreements and some hardware deals, lower than margin there for — but certainly good growth on a top-line and obviously growth year-over-year on the earnings line as well,” he said.

“But we looked and we said, hey, there is a couple of markets where there is some inefficiency. So we’ve taken that very specific action,” he added.

The CFO Glynis Bryan said that when it took a charge in Europe it did not always see a recovery in the first year and it expected the benefit of the cost cutting to filter in about $2m a year with most of that starting to come through to the balance sheet in 2018.

Sales for the outfit were up 26 percent  to $1.48 billion for the three months ended 31 March. Gross profit was $208 million for the first quarter, up 29 percent  year-over-year.

 

AMD makes Grasby EMEA president

Posted on November 6, 2015 by - Moving People, News

f5697b3fd254b65ad587865f7373dff7AMD has announced that its Corporate Vice President Worldwide Component Channel Darren Grasby, 45, has been appointed to the newly-created position of president of AMD EMEA .

Lisa Su, president and chief executive officer at AMD said that EMEA was a “key region” with a broad set of important customers, partners and markets for AMD.

She said that Grasby was a proven leader who is ideally suited to drive deeper customer, partner, and stakeholder relationships across EMEA as a part of helping AMD accomplish our long-term business goals

“Over the past eight years Darren has proven to be an effective and results-driven leader. This new role will allow him to broaden his influence and reach in supporting AMD’s customers, partners and employees while also promoting and enhancing our regional reputation and prominence as an innovative technology pioneer.”

Grasby said: “I am honored to take on this role, particularly as it allows me to promote AMD’s technology leadership and highlight the innovation that is central to AMD’s business philosophy across a broad geographic region. At its core, AMD is focused on building great products to the benefit of our partners and customers. EMEA is widely renowned as a stronghold of opportunity and I’m excited to expand our pipeline for success across the region.”

European PC shipments rise

Posted on January 20, 2015 by - News

A not so mobile X86 PCSales of PCs in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) grew by two percent in the fourth quarter of last year.
Although that’s hardly a stellar figure, Western Europe showed better results with growth of 10.7 percent.
In all, shipments amounted to 93.3 million units.
IDC’s report said that the market grew because of healthier shipments to ordinary people in the quarter, with vendors stocking up for Christmas and January sales.
Next month, there will be Microsoft promotions which will bring prices down on notebooks with less than 15-inch screens.
HP, and Lenovo dominated the market place, with shares of 23.3 percent and 19.6 percent respectively.
Dell has 9.8 percent share in EMEA, followed by Acer, Asus and “others”.

 

Server revenues up. A bit

Posted on June 12, 2014 by - News

bummerA report from IDC said EMEA server revenues showed a slight uptick in the first quarter of this year – up 1.5 percent compared to the same quarter last year.

The EMEA server market generated $2.8 billion in the first quarter – that’s $44 million more than the same quarter in 2013 and amounting to 537,800 units.  That’s 22,000 units less than in 2013 and that’s because virtualisation and integrated systems are making their mark.

IDC said that there’s a negative trend in the market amounting to a 20.3 percent decrease in vendor revenues when you compare the 4th quarter of 2013 and the first quarter of this year.

“Despite a strong push for additional capacity in megadatacentre customers and renewed focus on tower and rack volumes by the largest OEMs, the macro trend in the X86 market continues to point to value as the only real growth opportunity,” said Giorio Nebuloni, research manager for enterprise servers at IDC Europe.

He said the blade market shows strong growth in the higher end market with higher aversage selling prices.

The X86 server market accounted for $1.72 billion in Q1 – that’s 81 percent of total values. Non X86 vendors generated $541 million, amounting to 3,810 units in EMEA.  This bit of the market is showing a decline.

The top dogs in the EMEA region were HP, IBM, Dell, Fujitsu, Oracle and the ubiquitous “others” – as this IDC chart demonstrates.
serversQ12014

Acer takes axe to management

Posted on December 23, 2013 by - Moving People, News

acer-logo-ceStan Shih, who came out of retirement to rescue Acer from its parlous state, has apparently been busy since his return.

Smartphone supremo Chen Guowei has apparently left Acer to spend more time with his family.  Guowei was in charge of Acer’s business unit in mainland China.

And the net has spread wider, according to Taiwanese wire Digitimes, the head of EMEA operations, Walter Deppeler, is set to leave the company too.

The company plans to cut as many as seven percent of its global workforce.  Like other PC manufacturers, Acer has been hit by a drop in demand for X86 based systems and a widespread move to smartphones and tablets that aren’t Acer tablets.

Symantec reveals plans for EMEA partners

Posted on November 20, 2013 by - News

symantecSymantec resellers need not fear getting the chop as the security company unveils its new channel strategy .

Although a little light on detail, when asked about the current size of its partner channel and the ideal size of a future channel, Symantec’s VP of EMEA partner management, Mark Nutt, confirmed that having the right channel mix was more important than the overall size.

But there can be little doubt the vendor will be shedding a number of under-performing resellers and replacing them from some of the new partner categories it has identified – there are eight such categories, according to Nutt, who also stressed the important role for disties in the future of the Symantec channel.

“Distribution has a tremendous amount to offer but we need to work out where the value to our partners,” Nutt said. “Now that we’ve identified eight different partner types, we need to better understand which parts of the channel we need to explore, which to invest more in and which that streamlining.”

Although Nutt stressed he was “not looking to turn partners off; it’s not about reducing numbers” it looks likely some resellers will have to forge relationships with distributors, such as TechData, Arrow, Avnet, Ingram and Cohort.

Those disties that can help Symantec recruit from new partner groups will be of particular interest.

The vendor is also streamlining its product offering down from around 150 different products to less than 10, in order to make the task of addressing customer needs more straightforward for resellers.

The changes are part of a global strategy which will lead to a new partner programme which goes live in February 2014 but will be officially unveiled in April.

Symantec is also opening a telephone-based partner account management team that will be run from its Dublin offices.

HP to slash 7,000 EMEA jobs

Posted on October 28, 2013 by - Moving People, News

HPHewlett-Packard is planning to cut as many as 7,095 jobs in EMEA. Some of the staff will be redeployed, but some will get the sack. HP did not offer a timeline for the cuts.

“Under the proposal presented to the European Works Council (EWC), HP expects approximately 7,095 employees to exit the company or to be redeployed into new roles,” the company said.

HP added that workforce reduction plans will vary by country, based on legal requirements and consultation with work councils and employee representatives. Needless to say, HP is adamant that the cuts will have no effect on customer service.

The cuts come as no surprise, as HP has already outlined plans to reduce its workforce by 15 percent in an effort to save $3 billion. It’s all part of Meg Whitman’s cunning five-year plan, which like most five-year plans isn’t going well. However, Whitman is not in a position to send anyone to Siberia or unperson them, so all HP can do is sack a bunch of people and hope Lenovo doesn’t eat its lunch in the meantime.

EMEA PC shipments down 16% in Q3

Posted on October 22, 2013 by - News

european-commissionPC shipments in EMEA declined 16 percent in Q3 2014, hitting a grand total of just 21.4 million units. What’s more, research firm IDC reports notebook shipments dropped 20.6 percent, while desktops weathered the storm with a 7 percent plunge. This is understandable because desktops can’t be cannibalized by tablets, so sales of workstations and gaming desktops are still relatively stable.

However, there are some encouraging signs. Although the market contracted, the drop wasn’t as bad as last quarter and there are some signs of recovery.

“The third quarter marked a change in the overall market trend,” said Chrystelle Labesque, EMEA research manager. “While it is too early to talk about recovery, the worse seems to have been reached in the second quarter of 2013. However, the ramp-up is mainly in the commercial area, with September performance above expectations for most players.”

Labesque added that the end of Windows XP support in 2014 is already driving IT departments to focus on hardware refresh, generating higher renewal in the corporate space.

Shipments in Western Europe were down 13.2 percent year-on-year. The back-to-school period didn’t help much, as demand remained soft, which can also be attributed to the late rollout of Windows 8.1, at least to some extent.

IDC believes new form factors like convertibles based on Intel’s new SoCs could drive demand in the fourth quarter and the introduction of Bay Trail and Windows 8.1 products might be the reason shipments were slow in Q3, as nobody wanted to end the quarter with practically outdated inventory.

Interestingly, Central and Eastern Europe did even worse than the Middle East and Africa, with a decline of 22.2 percent. MEA dropped just 14.5 percent.

As far as vendors go, Lenovo is continuing to outperform the competition. It ended the quarter with a 15 percent share of the market, up from 10.7 percent in the second quarter. HP also gained share, and it’s still the leader with 21 percent, up from 18.2 percent. Acer and Asus continued to bleed, losing almost a fifth of their share in the process.