Opinion

Opinion

Salesforce Management

• Tech Channel Ambassadors out to reduce stress and strife

  Billy MacInnes reflects on the TCA group’s recent launch and its ambition to help promote the channel as a positive career destination  Continue Reading

• Where channel marketing is going in 2024

  As the year of the dragon, 2024 is likely to ignite new challenges, but will it spark a revolution in partner marketing? Asks Helen Curtis, founding director at Coterie  Continue Reading

• Workforce Solutions: An untapped force for business growth

  Lee Elliot, HP’s Northwest Europe Head of Offer Execution for Workforce Solutions, shares some thoughts about the state of the market  Continue Reading

• Bridging the channel’s skills gap for a stronger workforce

  Hayley Mooney, General Manager UK, Crayon, shares some thoughts about navigating the talent shortage  Continue Reading

• Unlocking the combined value of the channel

  Adam Williamson, sales director at Exclusive Networks UK, takes a look at how to unlock the combined value of the channel  Continue Reading

• Why we need to change ROI – today

  Time-value creation, rather than just economic concepts, play a part in how we measure success when it comes to marketing and sales growth, says Helen Curtis, founder of Coterie Community  Continue Reading

• Ripe with opportunity: Helping women make their mark in the channel

  To mark International Women in Engineering Day Celine Cazali, UKI Chief Partner Officer at SAP, shares her thoughts on the importance of diversity across the industry  Continue Reading

• The balance between profit and purpose

  Billy MacInnes looks at the challenges for those that want to make money but also do the right thing by the planet  Continue Reading

• How poor IT can affect your employees (and your business)

  Richard Hutchings, chief technology officer at managed service provider Littlefish has some advice on how to lower stress and make life easier  Continue Reading

• How genuine is Artificial intelligence?

  Using artificial intelligence seems to be a smart business move but Nick Booth just wishes those benefits could be explained a bit more clearly  Continue Reading

• Looking to make your business more sustainable?

  Flex IT’s UK sales manager, Ashley Ross, sets out six simple steps to help make a difference in green ambitions  Continue Reading

• Partner reality – what you need to know about the Metaverse

  Helen Curtis, CEO, Coterie Community, examines what the channel needs to know about emerging virtual worlds  Continue Reading

• Incentives are a complementary activity

  Having investigated the current attitudes to incentives across the channel, Billy MacInnes shares some more thoughts on the issue  Continue Reading

• MicroScope at 40: The collapse of civilisation, time travel, and things that did not happen

  Long time MicroScope contributor Nick Booth looks back over the history of the magazine and ponders on which expectations failed to be realised  Continue Reading

• Tech skills problems continue

  It's a problems as old as the hills, but the pressure on skilled technical staff continues to cause headaches across the channel  Continue Reading

• How can business manage the financial cost of rail strikes?

  Colin Dean, major accounts director at M-Files, offers some advice for those struggling with the transport strikes  Continue Reading

• The channel journey

  Ian French looks back over the evolution of the channel and shares his thoughts about those changes and some of the developments to come  Continue Reading

• That channel and vendor relationship really matters

  The channel is all about relationships and the latest insights from CompTIA have underlined that  Continue Reading

• Striving for gender equality in the technology industry

  Vesela Nikolova, Bulgarian centre director at Amdaris, shares her thoughts on the need for greater diversity across the tech industry  Continue Reading

• Trying to fill the ever elusive skills gap

  Skills has been a problem for a long time, and it’s led to Billy MacInnes wondering if it can ever be sorted  Continue Reading

• The quiet revolution

  The channel is starting to act decisively on diversity, equity and inclusion. David Watts, managing director of Tech Data, UK and Ireland, explains why he thinks this is important  Continue Reading

• Customers are demanding sustainability from channel partners

  Caring about the planet is not just a nice thing to do but something that Karlton Gray, channel director at Schneider Electric UK & Ireland, believes the channel needs to do to continue to attract business  Continue Reading

• Channel tech predictions for a hybrid working future

  Nick Offin, head of sales, marketing and operations at Dynabook Northern Europe, shares some thoughts about the opportunities that are emerging for the channel  Continue Reading

• As Dorsey leaves Twitter, what impact does a CEO have?

  The decision by the boss of Twitter to call time on his CEO role raises questions about the value of leadership  Continue Reading

• The intern experience at SAP UKI

  Over the past year, Mary Anne Shaughnessy Cleary, a student at the University of Bath, has been on placement at enterprise software giant SAP UKI  Continue Reading

• Bye ‘buy’ baby: subscription services are the future

  We take a look at the changing face of IT consumption  Continue Reading

• Things to consider before signing off on PR

  Are you an MSP or channel partner looking for a good PR and/or content agency? Gina Hough, managing director at MCC Int Ltd, reckons it’s all about being prepared  Continue Reading

• The evolution of the channel partner: control the narrative to increase your sales

  Johnny Carpenter, vice-president of EMEA sales at iland, shares some advice for partners looking to increase their sales in a post-pandemic world  Continue Reading

• Is virtual learning the future of work?

  The way we all consume learning has changed significantly over the past year thanks to Covid-19, and it might never quite be the same again  Continue Reading

• Fundamental principles for channel business success

  Steven Santini, UK&I channel director of Schneider Electric, shares his thoughts around just what underpins a winning approach  Continue Reading

• Covid-19 pandemic highlights a crisis of data

  Paul Evans, CEO of Redstor, shares his views about why he feels the ‘new normal’ offers unprecedented opportunities  Continue Reading

• How can technology businesses make a safe return to business?

  Miriam Murphy, senior vice-president at Tech Data Advanced Solutions, shares her thoughts about how we can start to get back to more normal working practices  Continue Reading

• Four disciplines for maintaining staff productivity to meet service level agreements in pandemic

  Datto’s vice-president of engineering for remote monitoring and management, Ian van Reenen, shares some views about productivity during the current crisis  Continue Reading

• Building the workplace of the future

  Technology has evolved in the office, but are companies prepared for the next step?  Continue Reading

• All to gain: Unlocking the potential of a diverse and inclusive workforce

  We look at the business benefits of opening the doors to a diverse workforce  Continue Reading

• What if we could learn IT skills at the speed of hackers?

  IT training is not a marathon, but maybe it is a Skill Sprint, writes Nick Booth  Continue Reading

• Channel relationships really matter

  The chief executive and founder of security distributor e92plus, Mukesh Gupta, shares his thoughts about the help his firm can deliver right now  Continue Reading

• Covid-19: Let's get through this together

  The channel has always been about people at its heart, and as we all struggle to get through the coronavirus crisis, let's not forget to look out for each other  Continue Reading

• Beware of falling for the hype machine

  With more companies resorting to hyperbole to sell products, Billy MacInnes warns of the necessity to see past exaggeration and look at the true effectiveness of products and technology  Continue Reading

• What’s in a name? Inside sales versus telesales

  Inside sales seems much the same as telesales, only dressed up for the modern age. What's brought the change about and is it really so different from what we already know?  Continue Reading

• Westcoast and iland present a tale of two disties

  Talking to just a couple of distributors reveals the evolution and determination from those firms to remain ahead of the market  Continue Reading

• How to train channel staff

  Having trained staff leads to better growth for your business and is something the channel needs to focus on – but how to go about it?  Continue Reading

• How to make channel sales work

  To be effective in channel sales, you have to be a great project manager, able to influence without formal organisational power and operate effectively at every level in an organisation. Read on for advice on how to succeed  Continue Reading

• A bridge too VAR

  The expedition from VAR to MSP is not short of challenges but, equipped with the right map, ambitious companies can feel more confident in getting past first base. In the second part of his series, Predatar CEO Alistair Mackenzie takes a closer look...  Continue Reading

• Help us to help you – how the customer-first model helps you empower your business

  We are in the middle of the fourth industrial revolution, with technologies such as the internet of things, data analytics, artificial intelligence and cloud-based business management tools a regular talking point. But technology alone won’t solve ...  Continue Reading

• Insight 2019 technology predictions

  Michael Guggemos, CIO of Insight, shares his thoughts about what will be the key issues for the channel in the months ahead  Continue Reading

• Enhancing the role of the channel essential for the tech industry

  Ben Boswell, Vice President for Europe at World Wide Technology (WWT), discusses how vendors and the channel need to work together to ensure outstanding outcomes for customers  Continue Reading

• Does the IT industry think diversity and Dyslexia Awareness is just for one week in October?

  Amazon, the Prince’s Trust and Nuance all do their bit to make the IT industry more accessible. But is there really a diversity dividend wonders Nick Booth  Continue Reading

• The need to keep women from falling out of the IT world

  The discovery that women often fall into IT is one that got the attention of Billy MacInnes who hopes that more can be convinced to stay  Continue Reading

• Shouting over the gender gap

  Things are being done but the shouting over the gender gap is far from over says Billy MacInnes  Continue Reading

• Coming back to the channel: why it’s time to rethink reselling

  Neil Robertson, CEO of Compleat Software, shares the motivation for the firm's re-engagement with the channel  Continue Reading

• CAE and i-Storage have something to market

  A couple of British firms caught the eye of Nick Booth with both deserving recognition  Continue Reading

• If you hated GDPR you may like the African Continental Free Trade Area

  For those struggling with GDPR there is a new $2.5 trillion target market that Nick Booth thinks is worth looking into  Continue Reading

• GDPR: securing data is more than just a technology fix, it’s about understanding human behaviour

  Neal Lillywhite, VP EMEA Channel at Forcepoint, argues GDPR is about people and processes as well as technology  Continue Reading

• Women in Tech – How long can we wait?

  Inspiring the next generation into IT is clearly important, but says Zoe Cunningham, Managing Director, Softwire, the skills gap and gender imbalance will never be addressed without some radical thinking  Continue Reading

• The rise of the millennials

  The rise of millennials will drive disruption and innovation in the channel points out Steve Bailey, commercial director of Agilitas  Continue Reading

• Setting up a business is like jumping out of a plane at 12,000 feet

  When he decided to set up his own business the IBC Group it reminded Ian Birch of the feelings he had when skydiving  Continue Reading

• Innovate or die?

  The well worn phrase has Billy MacInnes wondering if it is still as popular as it once was in the channel  Continue Reading

• The price of happiness

  What happens when people are happy in their work? Or rather, what happens when too many people are too happy in their work?  Continue Reading

• The rise of the robots

  The robots are coming for jobs and Billy MacInnes wonders what that means for us all  Continue Reading