In Depth

In Depth

Sales and Customer Management

• Buying and selling: this time, it’s personal

  People buy from people, so the saying goes, and the coronavirus pandemic has tested the channel’s ability to do just that  Continue Reading

• Is the channel missing the ‘human touch’?

  Research from Kaspersky suggests vendors need to improve their relationships with channel partners, with experts weighing in on how to develop a closer bond through programmes and education  Continue Reading

• What will the ‘new normal’ look like?

  With thoughts starting to turn to a post-coronavirus world, the channel is trying to work out what changes made in the past few months will stick  Continue Reading

• Five-minute interview: Remco Postma, Tufin

  Remco Postma, director, channel sales EMEA at Tufin, takes the questions and reveals what gets him up in the morning and shares his ice-skating credentials  Continue Reading

• Channel starts considering the legacy of the coronavirus

  As lockdown starts to ease, considerations are turning to what the “new normal” will look like, and how it will impact the channel  Continue Reading

• Interview: Bob Bailkoski, CEO of Logicalis

  The recently appointed chief executive of Logicalis, Bob Bailkoski, discusses coronavirus and his vision for the business  Continue Reading

• Coronavirus: How Covid-19 kick-started a shift to home working

  Lockdown has forced people to work from home and turn to the channel for help in supporting the ‘new normal’  Continue Reading

• Coronavirus: It’s time to support partners

  Vendors have started to respond to the challenges that partners are facing with more flexibility and support  Continue Reading

• The channel and sustainability

  There is no doubt that the climate change crisis has put the issue in the spotlight and resellers are being asked to not only help customers but show their own credentials around sustainability  Continue Reading

• Five-minute interview: Ian Ashworth, Netwrix

  MicroScope puts its questions to Ian Ashworth, channel director for EMEA and APAC at Netwrix  Continue Reading

• Channel faces another year of evolution

  Distributors, vendors and trade associations share their expectations for the year ahead, with the need to embrace change a key part of the message  Continue Reading

• Channel predictions: Opportunities in AI, hybrid cloud, edge and security

  Some of the great and the good in the industry have shared their predictions for what they expect in 2020  Continue Reading

• How to improve customer experience

  Billy MacInnes questions experts on what they’re doing to digitally transform the customer experience and asks what advice they have for channel partners  Continue Reading

• Q&A: Angela Whitty, managing director, UK&I partner organisation, Cisco

  Cisco’s UK channel chief shares some views on the year ahead and the progress made in the 2019 financial year  Continue Reading

• SD-WAN: How channel can make net gains

  How prepared are channel partners to take advantage of the rapidly growing SD-WAN market?  Continue Reading

• Cyber security and the channel

  Leading lights in the industry give their assessment of where the cyber security market is headed in the second half of 2019  Continue Reading

• How to help businesses reach their digital goals

  With digital transformation a hot trend in IT right now, the channel’s ability to help organisations hit the sweet spot in this pursuit could attract a lot of attention from potential customers  Continue Reading

• Control or shift – channel’s role in the move to business-led IT

  What impact could the shift to business-led IT have on channel partners’ role with customers and the relationships they have grown and developed within customer organisations?  Continue Reading

• Interview: Simon England, Nuvias CEO

  With the first quarter of his tenure completed the boss of Nuvias shared his thoughts about his role leading the distributor  Continue Reading

• Interview: Graeme Watt, CEO of Softcat

  Softcat boss talk about office openings, organic growth and why he doesn't lie awake at night worrying about the future of the channel  Continue Reading

• GPC 2019: Dell Technologies highlights channel growth

  Dell Technologies demonstrates progress with partners while encouraging cross-selling across expansive portfolio  Continue Reading

• Channel enjoys a strong start to the year

  Just how has this year been going? There is no better way to find out than ask a number of those working in the channel  Continue Reading

• Adapt for the era of virtual distribution

  Virtual distribution – the delivery of subscription services rather than physical products – is a growing IT trend. We consider what this means for channel businesses and how they can remain relevant in this changing IT world  Continue Reading

• Channel tensions rising

  Competition and strained vendor relationships highlighted as concerns at Canalys Channel Forum  Continue Reading

• Agony aunt as a service

  Impartner’s chief marketing officer Dave R Taylor has some helpful advice for those trying to increase and improve their partner communities  Continue Reading

• What’s TechUK’s most inspiring data science story - Harry Potter, Mission Impossible or Susan Bowen?

  Nick Booth gets inspired talking about programming, coding and the next generation with Susan Bowen, VP and general manager at Cogeco Peer 1  Continue Reading

• Goldilocks IT: Pitching it just right

  The channel can either go too early with a pitch or come in after everyone else so choosing the right moment is vital  Continue Reading

• How can the channel get to grips with device as a service?

  HP claims the majority of its customers are interested in device as a service, and nearly half are already using it. But what opportunities, and challenges, does this bring for the channel?  Continue Reading

• Q&A: Sasha Williamson, CEO of Luminet

  In an ongoing series of channel conversations Nick Booth talks to another senior channel executive about how to communicate with customers and partners  Continue Reading

• Q&A: Sean Collins, regional director at Extreme Networks

  Sean Collins is quizzed by Nick Booth over his thoughts about how the industry could be communicating better  Continue Reading

• How to sell like Steve Jobs

  What made Steve Jobs a genius? Paul Clapham argues that the magic was never in the products themselves, but in the carefully crafted sales pitch  Continue Reading

• When you're not reading MicroScope, how do you consume your news?

  Reuters’ annual report reveals insights about digital news consumption based on survey of over 50,000 online news consumers in 26 countries  Continue Reading

• Bimodal IT: Is it really anything new?

  Billy McInnes wades through the sea of IT jargon and asks whether Gartner's new catchphrase is a paradigm shift, or is simply a snappy term for something we've been doing all along  Continue Reading

• Last day: ACEs 2016 entries

  Due to demand for more time the deadline for the entry process for the ACEs has been extended  Continue Reading

• MicroScope ACEs 2016 launched

  The MicroScope Awards for Channel Excellence 2016 have launched and nominations are open  Continue Reading

• Five Minute Interview: Pete Hannah, NETGEAR

  In the last Five Minute Interview of 2015, MicroScope catches up with Peter Hannah, regional director at NETGEAR  Continue Reading

• The next wave of US start-ups are coming

  Nick Booth went to San Francisco to get introduced to some firms that hope to make a real impression in the UK market and with British partners  Continue Reading

• Have you nailed Challenger Selling yet?

  Manoj Madhusudanan, managing director of InsightBee, argues that sales executives must create engaging conversation by leading with market insights  Continue Reading

• 2014/2015: A look back and forward - part two

  In part two, MicroScope asks industry experts what 2014 meant to them and finds out what they believe 2015 has in store for the channel  Continue Reading

• 2014/2015: A look back and forward - part one

  MicroScope speaks to industry experts and thought leaders to find out what 2014 meant to them and ask what they see on the not too distant horizon  Continue Reading

• How good is good enough?

  Are companies spending too much on their IT, or not getting value for money because it is under-utilised? 'Good enough' IT might provide an answer, writes Billy MacInnes  Continue Reading

• Sports sponsorship opportunities for channel businesses

  The sports sponsorship market is growing rapidly, presenting greater marketing potential for companies large and small  Continue Reading

• An A-Z guide to social media

  The use of social media across the channel has grown at an incredible rate, but is often lacking a strategy that really works  Continue Reading

• Prepare for changes to consumer rights

  Two new important pieces of consumer rights legislation make specific provision for digital content for the first time  Continue Reading

• Five minute interview: John Sheard, Realex Payments

  John Sheard, head of corporate business development at Realex Payments, talks about BBC Radio 6 and his dream of flying in the five minute interview  Continue Reading

• Changing places: redefining the channel for the evolving network market

  Resellers and networking specialists are redefining their roles in the networking market to meet customers' changing needs, says Amro Gebreel  Continue Reading

• MicroScope's top stories: February 2014

  Ingram Micro to cut jobs across Europe, SCC buys into managed print world, and Lexmark talks MPS benefits to woo channel. Catch up on the biggest channel stories of February 2014  Continue Reading

• The loneliness of the CEO

  With IT vendors struggling to transform their businesses, amid increasing popularity of the cloud, Amro Gebreel and Simon Quicke profile the state of affairs for some of the most prominent CEOs  Continue Reading

• Two nations, one channel? The impact of Scottish independence on IT

  In September Scotland goes to the polls in a referendum to decide its future and that of the UK, Alex Scroxton considers what the prospect of independence could mean for the channel  Continue Reading

• 2013 review of the year - part one

  Channel figures reflect in the first part of a piece looking back on the ups and downs of 2013 and ponder on what 2014 holds in store. Amro Gebreel reports  Continue Reading

• Christmas gift ideas for the VAR in your life

  Nick Booth looks at some of the more original techie gifts on the market this year for the VAR who has everything  Continue Reading

• Pitch virtualisation services successfully

  There are many reasons why customers might want to embrace virtualisation. Amro Gebreel looks at how to sell it effectively  Continue Reading

• Virtualise everything for future channel success

  At VMworld Europe 2013, the big message was how virtualisation is moving beyond compute to encompass storage, the network and management – the entire datacentre, writes Billy MacInnes  Continue Reading

• We need to talk about coding

  There is a desperate shortage of people who can talk to machines in the IT industry and we need to attract more. Nick Booth explores how the industry can go about bridging the gap  Continue Reading

• Preparing networks for 802.11ac

  Chris Kozup, senior director at Aruba Networks explains how resellers can help customers prepare their networks for the latest networking standard, 802.11ac  Continue Reading

• Public sector missing the SME target

  Billy MacInnes reports on the government's failing attempts to meet targets for increasing its direct IT spend with small and medium-sized enterprises  Continue Reading

• Channel IT Priorities 2013: channel takes to managed services

  TechTarget's Channel IT Priorities 2013 research into channel IT priorities shows a world in transition, with managed services and cloud becoming increasingly important. Amro Gebreel reports  Continue Reading

• Gartner’s Magic Quadrant: Sales tool or marketing gimmick?

  With businesses under pressure to find targeted solutions for their customers, Alex Scroxton asks if the channel can find value in Gartner's Magic Quadrant - or whether it is just a shabby sales ruse  Continue Reading

• Chromebooks: consumer toy or channel opportunity?

  With sales of Google Chromebooks to consumer buyers seemingly on the rise across the board, Steve Bell finds out if there is any potential for resellers to offer the technology to businesses  Continue Reading

• Bringing the iTunes attitude to the office

  Billy MacInnes looks at how resellers can help organisations change their current application delivery method for a more flexible app store approach  Continue Reading

• Use PR to get your business noticed

  PC World Business combined PR, sponsorship and social media to build its reputation as a business IT brand. Simon Quicke identifies the lessons resellers can learn from its achievements  Continue Reading

• MicroScope ACEs 2013: Stand out from the reseller crowd

  Amro Gebreel garners advice from channel figures about what resellers can do to differentiate their products and services in a highly competitive field  Continue Reading

• MicroScope ACEs 2013: What's in an award win?

  Billy MacInnes weighs up the pros and cons of industry awards and assesses their potential business value  Continue Reading

• Brocade CEO Carney talks channels, datacentres, software defined networking

  Alex Scroxton caught up with Brocade’s new CEO Lloyd Carney in Prague to discuss his views on where the vendor’s channel is headed, and future developments around software-defined networking  Continue Reading

• Tips for selling security

  Understanding a customer's needs is key to making an expedient security pitch. Amro Gebreel looks at the opportunities for resellers in this fast-moving market  Continue Reading

• Market for big data is open

  Vendors should play a more active role in promoting the technology outside the large enterprise sector. Amro Gebreel reports  Continue Reading

• Help SMEs benefit from big data on a small scale

  Little data can yield big results for many small businesses. Billy MacInnes reports  Continue Reading

• Resellers demonstrate cloud success

  As customers are starting to realise not only the potential but actual benefits of cloud, resellers can begin to embrace a wealth of opportunity. Linda Endersby looks at cloud success stories from across the customer spectrum  Continue Reading

• Five Minute Interview: Gerald Holler, COMPRiS

  MicroScope puts its questions to Gerald Holler, managing director of COMPRiS Channel Management  Continue Reading

• Leading the SME to cloud

  Of all organisations, small and medium-sized enterprises have the most to benefit from investing in cloud but few understand how it can help their business, says Billy MacInnes  Continue Reading

• Raise cloud confidence among SMEs

  To take advantage of demand for cloud, resellers are being advised to switch to a managed services business. Speakers at AVG's recent series of cloud services seminars shared their experiences  Continue Reading

• Datacentre market evolves for resellers

  As trends indicate greater datacentre use, Amro Gebreel reports on the increasing opportunities for the channel to get involved  Continue Reading

• Taking care of datacentre demands

  Whether customers opt for an on-demand hosted datacentre or a dedicated in-house facility, there's a key role for the channel. Billy MacInnes reports  Continue Reading

• The sales opportunities behind Windows 8

  Amro Gebreel looks at the related security, management and hardware pitches resellers can make with the launch of Microsoft's latest operating system  Continue Reading

• Will Microsoft’s mobile Windows gamble pay off?

  Developed for touch devices, MS's new OS marks a big shift away from the traditional UI. But it could be too big for many users who are content with Windows 7. Billy MacInnes reports  Continue Reading

• Profit from your SMB accounts with cloud services

  Alex Scroxton talks to Mike Foreman, general manager of SMB at AVG, about the vendor’s new CloudCare services package, and our upcoming channel event series  Continue Reading

• Guide the way in a complex world of virtual technology

  With the trend towards server and desktop virtualisation growing, VARs with the right skills will be called on to guide customers through a maze of choices. Billy MacInnes reports  Continue Reading

• Five Minute Interview: Mike Worby, Comparetheware

  MicroScope sits down for a chat with Mike Worby, co-founder of IT search portal Comparetheware.com  Continue Reading

• Identify and exploit the opportunities of BYOD

  Amro Gebreel assesses the openings for resellers in security and management sales and consultancy  Continue Reading

• Tools for BYOD success

  Billy MacInnes considers the reseller role in helping organisations develop and deliver bring-your-own-device programmes that meet the requirements of employer and employee  Continue Reading

• Big data: Big problem, big opportunity or big hype?

  As the requirement for data management grows, Linda Endersby investigates the channel's role in helping firms understand how big data can match business strategies.  Continue Reading

• Storage products to boost business

  Resellers pitching the right storage products and services can boost their bottom line and achieve long-term success as organisations seek new ways to manage an explosion of data.  Continue Reading

• Clearing the fog of cloud

  Amro Gebreel looks at how to make a clear pitch with cloud technology amid all the hype and customers' concerns.  Continue Reading

• Selling the cloud to SMEs

  We investigate which areas of business are best for SMEs to move to the cloud and what role the channel can play in implementing and delivering those services.  Continue Reading

• Interview: ACEs lifetime achievement winner Steve Raymund

  Interview with this year's ACEs lifetime achievement award winner Steve Raymund, chairman of Tech Data  Continue Reading

• In-depth: Selling BI in the context of other market trends

  Business intelligence vendors and their solutions need to be more agile and adaptive than ever, says Amro Gebreel. The need for business intelligence (BI) has never been greater. Data volumes continue to multiply and the requirement for real-time ...  Continue Reading

• In-depth: You don't have to be big to want to be smart

  Business intelligence isn't the preserve of the corporate, and the emergence of analytics software specifically designed for SMEs is helping the technology penetrate much smaller businesses too, as Billy MacInnes reports.  Continue Reading

• In-depth: Pitch cuts in cost and complexity

  Resellers must be sensitive to budget-strapped businesses facing sophisticated threats, writes Amro Gebreel.  Continue Reading

• In-depth: Potential personal exposure of directors

  The recent case at the end of 2011 involving Langreen Limited (in Liquidation) revisits the question of the potential personal exposure of directors if their company fails financially. For once, directors have been offered some comfort, writes Paul ...  Continue Reading

• In-depth: Technology to pitch in 2012

  Last month, Gartner published its technology and trend predictions for the next few years and among the dominant trends were a greater move towards cloud computing and increasing consumerisation of IT.  Continue Reading

• In-depth: Selling services for social success

  Nobody can now dispute that social networking is well-established in the workplace, at Salesforce.com's Cloudforce conference in September.  Continue Reading

• In-depth: The benefits and pitfalls of social media

  Amro Gebreel outlines how you can make social media tools work for your business- as well as some cautionary tales on how not to do networking.  Continue Reading

• Compliance costs rising for SMEs

  Keeping on the right side of the law and ticking all the compliance boxes is costing small firms a fortune as they seek out legal advice to ensure they are doing the right things.  Continue Reading

• In-depth: Steps to effective business in the public sector

  What do government CIOs expect from their suppliers, and what does the channel need to do better when it comes to dealing with key technology buyers?  Continue Reading

• In-depth: The value of events

  Bringing customers to your door has to be a very efficient way of turning them into clients. The person who has seen how you operate and met the team is far likelier to give you work.  Continue Reading

• In-depth: The rights and wrongs of packaging

  Legislation has been in force for several years that is intended to restrict the amount of packaging used by companies, writes Elizabeth Hyde. However, many businesses remain unaware that even if they do not produce the original packaging, they may ...  Continue Reading

• In-depth: Customers still dominated by recessionary mindset

  It has been a busy first half of the year as the industry looked for green shoots, cast its vote in the general election and hoped that the dark days of the recession were behind it.  Continue Reading

• Analysis: Mid-market turns to managed services

  A consensus is emerging that only 3% of companies that reduced their IT staff during the recession are planning to recruit to fill the shortages. The research is stacking up that firms that shed staff to cut costs are not going to bring them back.  Continue Reading

• In depth: Making social media work for your business

  Social media is transforming rapidly from a method of private communication to a business tool, writes Paul Clapham The media world does not change very often, but when it does the change tends to be major.  Continue Reading

• In depth: Getting ahead in the cloud

  The channel must adapt to meet the demands of cloud computing and embrace the commercial opportunities it presents, writes Billy MacInnes.  Continue Reading