Channel catch-up: News in brief

Apogee

The firm has landed a deal to supply IT hardware to the States of Guernsey under a five-year contract that starts next month. This will see Apogee deliver IT equipment across the public sector and undertake IT “lifecycle services” aimed at modernising the suite of devices used by staff and their user experience. The contract also includes onsite support delivered alongside integration into helpdesks to ensure faults can be quickly assessed and devices replaced if needed.

Carl Day, chief sales officer at Apogee, said: “We are delighted and extremely proud to have been selected by the States of Guernsey to help modernise the user experience across government services. Following months of collaboration between our teams to learn what is important, we are developing a deep understanding of both the current landscape and the future needs of their workplace environment.” 

Westcon-Comstor

The distributor has become the first Authorised Training Partner (ATP) in Europe for security vendor Proofpoint. This means the distie will be delivering Proofpoint-certified education and enablement services to partners and customers across Europe.

“Gaining authorised status underlines the unique, value-added offering of the Westcon-Comstor Academy, and is an acknowledgement of the quality of training we provide. We look forward to repaying the faith that has been placed in us by providing channel partners and their customers with the highest standard of education and enablement across the Proofpoint portfolio,” said Martin Flensburg, vice-president of service delivery and go-to-market at Westcon-Comstor.

Kent Breaux, senior vice-president, EMEA, at Proofpoint, explained why the distributor was chosen: “Its proven expertise in enablement, combined with regional reach and technical depth, makes them the ideal partner to expand access to certified Proofpoint education across the continent.”

BlueSnap

The orchestration platform player has shared details of decent growth in its channel partner programme. The firm has seen 11 systems integrators join since its launch in September 2024. The programme now includes 41 partners globally, representing a 137% increase, underscoring the strong demand for seamless, scalable global payments solutions.

“Our partners trust us to help them deliver meaningful value to clients and open new revenue opportunities in a global economy,” said Gavin Cicchinelli, BlueSnap’s chief revenue officer. “The Channel Partner Programme is more than just technology – it’s a relationship.”

SoftwareOne

The firm has gained the AWS Generative AI Services Competency, which adds to the existing range of competencies the channel player has with the cloud giant.

“Generative AI [artificial intelligence] is only as powerful as the foundation it’s built on,” said Ian Hutchinson, alliance leader for Amazon Web Services (AWS) at SoftwareOne. “Our AWS-native generative AI services accelerate time to value, reduce risk and deliver measurable business outcomes.”

ISS

The workplace experience specialist has landed a two-year contract extension to its education partnership with the London Borough of Redbridge Consortium. The contract, valued at approximately £10m over two years, will see ISS continue to provide food catering services for 32 primary schools across the borough in northeast London, underscoring a 15-year legacy of collaboration with the consortium.

Alastair Dale, managing director of education at ISS UK & Ireland, said: “We are thrilled to continue our journey with Redbridge primary schools, and this extension is a testament to the trust and collaboration we’ve built over the years. By supporting healthier children through good nutrition and promoting healthy habits in a new, exciting way through our FEED initiative, we’re committed to delivering excellence and innovation in everything we do.”