News

Channel Business Management

September 15, 2011 15 Sep'11
Mis-management of applications wastes millions

Businesses are failing to exploit their assets because of lack of decent management with the vast majority not bothering to use technology to monitor their operations, writes Linda Endersby.
September 13, 2011 13 Sep'11
Brand Protection top priority when protecting payment data

Protecting brand and revenues are the drivers pushing retailers towards embracing the credit card data compliance requirements, writes Linda Endersby.
September 12, 2011 12 Sep'11
IT recruitment remains steady

McGregor Boyall, specialist financial services recruiter, has published its latest IT recruitment report showing that hiring requirements are still significantly down on 2010, writes Linda Endersby.
September 12, 2011 12 Sep'11
HP's Autonomy deal keeps M&A activity going

Mergers and acquisitions watcher Regent has reported a significant number of deals last month with the HP billion dollar move for Autonomy taking the lion's share of the headlines, writes Linda Endersby.

September 08, 2011 08 Sep'11
Fujitsu could face penalties following Unite, PCS strikes

Services provider Fujitsu has been warned that it could face possible financial penalties should it fail to meet agreed SLAs as a result of industrial action by members of PCS and Unite, which is set for 19 September.
September 08, 2011 08 Sep'11
Managed services could ease pain of cuts for VARs

The budgets around traditional IT spending will remain at risk but those resellers offering managed services are in a better position, according to analysts. With managed services continuing to grow as a portion of the market the warning is that ...
September 06, 2011 06 Sep'11
Channel could benefit from NOA call for multi-sourcing

The National Outsourcing Association (NOA) is warning that in the wake of the decision by Fujitsu workers to strike customers should be looking into the idea of taking their services from a larger number of suppliers.
September 06, 2011 06 Sep'11
Stone nabs RM man to run services

Michael Battle, former RM service manager, is heading to public sector hardware supplier Stone as director of services, a newly-created role designed to strengthen its service provision in the public sector and education markets.
September 05, 2011 05 Sep'11
Government faces complaints over public sector contracts

The revelations over increased complaints come against a background of more determination by the government to get more SME suppliers selling into the public sector to encourage competitiveness and better deals in the hunt for savings as the deficit...
September 05, 2011 05 Sep'11
Butters heads to Easynet Global Services

Former BT Engage IT sales director Gary Butters is heading to manage network, hosting and services provider Easynet Global Services to head up its UK sales and marketing activities.

September 02, 2011 02 Sep'11
CSC hires to support services growth ambitions

Services and outsourcing outfit CSC has made a series of hires to boost its growth ambitions, key among them the appointment of former Fujitsu cloud services boss Jon Green as vice president of Global Business Services for the UK, Nordics and ...
August 30, 2011 30 Aug'11
Computacenter profits up a quarter despite UK weakness

Computacenter has turned in pre-tax profit for the first half of £26.2m, up 25%, on sales of £1.37bn, up 6%, following a strong product performance in its performance in mainland Europe, which masked the impact of continued weakness at ...
August 24, 2011 24 Aug'11
IT sector failure rates rise but large customers hold firm

The number of IT firms hitting the wall rose slightly last month year-on-year as the number of insolvencies across the economy as a whole increased only slightly with large companies holding firm in the face of uncertainty.
August 22, 2011 22 Aug'11
Business process outsourcing growth set to continue

Business process outsourcing is set to grow by just shy of double digits in Western Europe this year as customers keep the faith with using third-party providers to help them rather than returning these functions back in-house.
August 19, 2011 19 Aug'11
Tinglobal and Vickers set sights on services growth

Tinglobal is looking to build its services business and expand its operations as it looks to a fresh fiscal year with venture capital backing and the expertise of channel veteran Andy Vickers.
August 19, 2011 19 Aug'11
Sacked Fujitsu union rep tribunal hearing set

An employment tribunal to deal with the case of the sacked Fujitsu union rep, which sparked a threat of strike action, will be heard next week.
August 18, 2011 18 Aug'11
Tech Data shrugs off European market malaise

Tech Data's European operation has shrugged off an increasing sense of malaise in the IT market to grow its second quarter sales 30% - 14% on a Euro basis - to $3.75bn (£2.28bn), well over half of the distributor's global revenues.
August 16, 2011 16 Aug'11
SAS Group boss reveals tough managed services landscape

Managed services providers are facing customer calls for price reductions and more features without raising fees as the impact of the fragile economic conditions dictate customer attitudes towards outsourced support. The tough state of the market ...
August 15, 2011 15 Aug'11
Recruitment trend likely to flounder as confidence dips

Cisco isn't going to be the only firm looking to protect the bottom line by taking the axe to staff numbers with warnings that plenty of other UK businesses are considering reducing headcount as the economy heads back into choppy waters.
August 11, 2011 11 Aug'11
Ipanema targets VAR market with new partner programme

WAN governance and app-centric VPN services specialist Ipanema Technologies is branching out from its traditional routes-to-market and launching a partner programme to address a "green field" market among system integrators and VARs.
August 10, 2011 10 Aug'11
Managed services growth delivers the numbers for Kelway

Kelway has pointed to the demand for managed services as one of the main contributors to a significant increase in its revenues for its fiscal year.
August 09, 2011 09 Aug'11
SME green interest undermined by red tape

Going green might be the answer to help combat rising utility bills and presenting resellers in a positive environmentally friendly light but.
August 08, 2011 08 Aug'11
SME owners turn to personal cash to stay afloat

Close to half of UK small business owners have injected personal cash into their firm to stay afloat as the cost of doing business in Britain remains high and banks continue to keep their wallets shut.
August 08, 2011 08 Aug'11
Tech M&A activity holding up

The world economy might be on the brink but the mergers and activity in the technology space continued apace with a decent number of deals struck in the last month. For the third successive month the number of purchases went past the 250 mark with ...
August 04, 2011 04 Aug'11
Meeting etiquette disrupted by technology

Technology might well have helped us become better connected and able to work more flexibly but it has also led to an increase in workplace rudeness with the humble business meeting the main victim of wandering minds.
August 02, 2011 02 Aug'11
In-depth: Holiday questions and answers

After a long hard winter the holiday season is finally upon us. Paid time off from work may mean a dream vacation for some, for others, the opportunity to catch up with friends, family or the gardening. Some may just take time out to do nothing.
July 29, 2011 29 Jul'11
Banks under pressure to meet SME loan commitments

Bank lending commitments to small businesses under the Project Merlin initiative are likely to come under renewed scrutiny when they report their half year results next week.
July 29, 2011 29 Jul'11
Ingram Micro mulls EMEA redundancies

Ingram Micro CEO Greg Spierkel has told analysts the distributor may look to take "actions" on costs and people in EMEA during the coming months as the firm keeps a keen eye on its costs in the region.
July 28, 2011 28 Jul'11
UK government should open up IT contracts to SMEs, say MPs

The UK government needs to beef up its in house IT skills, widen its supplier base and reduce its reliance on outsourcing after wasting "an obscene amount of public money" on IT projects.
July 27, 2011 27 Jul'11
Job satisfaction? Show us the money say employees

Channel businesses would be well-advised to keep an eye on their staff because workers have revealed they are more likely to change jobs for better pay rather than more job satisfaction as they try to overcome the rising cost of living.
July 27, 2011 27 Jul'11
Amazon international cloud growth dwarfed by American performance

Growth at Amazon's web services division internationally is falling further behind the company's performance in the North American market where AWS reported a massive revenue growth rate of 85% for its latest quarter.
July 26, 2011 26 Jul'11
Paying by credit card online? Use your webcam says Jumio

US Payment Company Jumio has released technology which it claims turns any webcam into a secure credit card reader making it easier for merchants to accept online payments.
July 26, 2011 26 Jul'11
Workaholics or scared of losing their jobs? UK workers can't take a proper break

If you're reading this while on holiday, you're just another work-obsessed Brit who can't take a proper break when you head off on a vacation.
July 26, 2011 26 Jul'11
CA partners adapt to deliver cloud-based services

Large numbers of CA partners are set to adapt their business models to provide cloud-based services for data protection and managed services for backup and data management - and nearly a third have already moved to a cloud model.
July 26, 2011 26 Jul'11
CA to offer services training for IT grads

CA Technologies hopes to give recent computing graduates a leg up in the services-driven IT sector through a new programme called the Associate Services Graduate Programme (ASCP), reports ComputerWeekly.com.
July 25, 2011 25 Jul'11
Red tape costs UK small businesses £16.8bn, survey claims

UK small businesses have claimed red tape is costing them up to £16.8bn a year and they are missing out on nearly £30bn of business opportunities because of the time and resources they spend dealing with regulation.
July 22, 2011 22 Jul'11
Mobile payment market growth slows in 2011

The mobile payment market is growing slower than expected and the mass market adoption of near field communication (NFC) payments is at least four years away.
July 22, 2011 22 Jul'11
Sony insurer claims policy does not cover data breach claims

The difficulties of insuring against cyber-attacks have been thrown into sharp relief with the news that one of Sony's insurers has gone to court to escape having to indemnify the electronics giant against claims arising from the massive data breach...
July 20, 2011 20 Jul'11
Consumerisation can improve BI use, says Gartner

The consumerisation of Business Intelligence (BI) via mobile devices could help companies to reach many more users and drive greater adoption according to Gartner.
July 19, 2011 19 Jul'11
Adobe purchase of Echosign hit by patent lawsuit from rival RPost

Barely hours after Adobe's acquisition of web-based provider of electronic signature and signature automation, Echo sign, the companies have been hit by a lawsuit filed by US-based rival Post alleging infringement of 5 of its patents.
July 19, 2011 19 Jul'11
IBM beats Q2 estimates, raises expectations for full year

IBM's mainframe revenue jumped 61% as it posted better than expected results for its second quarter with revenue up 12% to $26.7bn and an 8% increase in net income to $3.7bn.
July 18, 2011 18 Jul'11
Siemens Financial Services launches VAR finance programme

Siemens Financial Services (SFS) is rolling out a new reseller-focused financing programme pitched at all partners of its parent's various brands.
July 18, 2011 18 Jul'11
Akamai extends channel with NetAlliance partner programme

Cloud optimisation services specialist Akamai Technologies has announced plans to expand its channel with a partner programme designed to help global IT solution providers integrate the company's services into their offerings.
July 15, 2011 15 Jul'11
Softcat breaks through £200m revenue mark

Softcat is planning to hand out cake and beer to staff after breaking through the £200m revenue mark in its financial year, beating its own forecasts.
July 14, 2011 14 Jul'11
Yell launches local emarketplace

Resellers might well have used the Yellow Pages in the past to advertise their wares to the local business community but under plans unveiled by Yell dealers could be offered more interactive services.
July 13, 2011 13 Jul'11
Unite threatens Fujitsu with strike action

Unite has again locked horns with services giant Fujitsu balloting its members over strike action following the redundancy of a union rep from the Crewe plant.
July 12, 2011 12 Jul'11
Zycko managing director spearheads MBO

Networking and comms distributor Zycko has been sold off to a management buyout spearheaded by the group's managing director as the founder of the company Rory Sweet moves on.
July 12, 2011 12 Jul'11
UK product sales lag for Computacenter, but services upturn imminent

IT services provider Computacenter has said that product revenues from its more financial services-oriented customers in the UK were down 23 per cent in the first half of its financial year, even as it reveal edits first half profits will be "...
July 11, 2011 11 Jul'11
Fear over bank rejection leaving SMEs without funds

SMEs appear to be losing confidence with the banks with a significant number not even bothering to apply for loans despite the fact they need the funds.
July 08, 2011 08 Jul'11
Caan expresses fears over SME security

Symantec has been offering small business partners and customers the chance to quiz former Dragons Den star and entrepreneur James Caan to get advice from the multi-millionaire.
July 08, 2011 08 Jul'11
Systems integrators could take stake in police agency

Systems integrators that were paid billions to supply police computer systems could take a stake in the agency managing their contracts when it is privatised next year, writes Mark Ballard. Gordon Wasserman, who was responsible for police ...
July 07, 2011 07 Jul'11
Investment doubled for Tech City

The Tech City Launchpad competition for East London hunting for innovative and creative digital businesses is now looking for 20 firms to receive a £100,000 grant instead of the original 10, writes Linda Endersby.
July 07, 2011 07 Jul'11
Phoenix brings in former Fujitsu Services boss as CEO

Phoenix IT Group has filled its CEO position, which was going to become vacant at the end of the month with the departure of Nick Robinson, with a former Fujitsu Services UK boss David Courtley.
July 07, 2011 07 Jul'11
Results on Target for component distributor

Yorkshire based distributor Target Components has announced record results for year ending 31st March 2011, with pretax profits of £700K, writes Linda Endersby.
July 06, 2011 06 Jul'11
CFO's the power behind the IT budget

Resellers should be aware who holds the purse strings as dissatisfaction with the business benefits of IT lead to change in ownership of purchasing decisions, writes Linda Endersby.
July 04, 2011 04 Jul'11
Azlan hands reins to former Bell man McGregor

Azlan has plugged the management gap left in its enterprise division turning to former Bell man Colin McGregor who will take over after the summer.
July 04, 2011 04 Jul'11
Caution remains as tech sector failure rates remain stable

The IT sector continues to show stability in the number of firms hitting the wall showing its resilience and well placed position compared to some other areas of the economy.
July 04, 2011 04 Jul'11
IT services supplier Capita buys Ventura for £65m

Capita has bought contact centre business Ventura for £65m in a further sign of IT and BPO consolidation, writes Karl Flinders.
July 01, 2011 01 Jul'11
Magirus hands Milner alliance hunting job

Having established itself as a provider of bundled solutions to resellers Magirus is looking to further develop the combined offerings it can deliver partners.
June 30, 2011 30 Jun'11
Worldwide IT spend on track for 7% growth in 2011

Global IT spending remains on course to grow 7.1 per cent this year, say Gartner analysts in their latest quarterly spending forecast, with cloud computing spend growing fastest of all.
June 29, 2011 29 Jun'11
Resellers told to name and shame late payers

Resellers are being urged to anonymously name and shame late paying companies to try to pile the pressure on those trying to stretch out clearing invoices.
June 29, 2011 29 Jun'11
Close to half of IT pros in the market for a career move

Over 40 per cent of IT professionals are actively seeking work, with 52 per cent keeping an eye on the IT jobs market, according to a survey of the ICT recruitment sector by the IT Job Board.
June 29, 2011 29 Jun'11
Ignoring customers will cost resellers

Those resellers that ignore customers and fail to update them on progress of IT projects and deployments face losing business. Lack of communication turned out to be one of the major reasons that suppliers were sacked by customers according to a ...
June 24, 2011 24 Jun'11
Data is the new oil? That's just too much

Judging by Google, there seem to be a lot of people around at the moment who are opening their presentations with the bold statement that "data is the new oil".
June 24, 2011 24 Jun'11
Fujitsu staff to strike in support of ousted union rep

Sixty-five Unite members employed by IT services provider Fujitsu at its Crewe office are to walk out in protest at the treatment of their trade union rep, whom they claim is being singled out for redundancy.
June 24, 2011 24 Jun'11
Network overhaul needed to boost remote working capabilities

Managed services provider Calyx has responded to this week's annual CBI and Harvey Nash employment trends survey, which talked up the growing importance of flexible working to UK businesses.
June 22, 2011 22 Jun'11
Five minute interviews

Find out a little more about what makes some of your favourite channel folk tick with our probing interviews.
June 21, 2011 21 Jun'11
Sysec plans for security services growth

Security specialist Sysec has outlined its ambitions to expand its managed services business after hiring an ex-Computer Associates staffer to run that operation.
June 07, 2011 07 Jun'11
C2000 names new sales, commercial directors

Computer 2000 has named Peter Hubbard, formerly of Dell, as its new sales director, and promoted David Watts to the role of commercial director.
June 07, 2011 07 Jun'11
Computacenter blamed in public sector open source row

Systems integrator (SI) Computacenter has taken fire in a growingbust-up over open source software at Bristol City Council, which MPs have been told proves the government's open source ICT strategy isunworkable, writes Mark Ballard. In a letter to ...
June 06, 2011 06 Jun'11
Acronis launches licensing model for managed services providers

Acronis is to give managed services providers (MSPs) access to a new monthly subscription-based licensing model for resellers looking to provide disaster recovery and data protection services to their end-user base.
June 02, 2011 02 Jun'11
Cisco adds partner rebates to extended EasyLease scheme

Cisco's financing arm, Cisco Capital, is to extend its EasyLease low rate financing programme through to the end of July and added five year deals and up-front rebates to the scheme.
June 02, 2011 02 Jun'11
Intact hands UK MD role to services boss Pett

Managed support services provider Intact Integrated Services has appointed its vice president of service operations Alan Pett to the role of UK managing director.
June 02, 2011 02 Jun'11
Ingram Micro to offer £100K SMB credit limits

Broadline distributor Ingram Micro has announced a major expansion of its CreditBuilder + programme within the UK and will now offer credit facilities of up to £100,000 to SMB resellers over a 12 month period.
May 31, 2011 31 May'11
Finance not seen as problem for optimistic mid-market

Smaller firms might still be struggling to get credit and blame the banks for keeping too tight a grip on the purse strings but in the mid-market there appears to be more optimism around the chances of getting finance.
May 26, 2011 26 May'11
IT failure rates stable as health of SME sector improves

The number of IT firms hitting the wall has stabilised with the number of insolvencies last month dropping slightly year-on-year.
May 25, 2011 25 May'11
Creating a sustainable and scalable managed services business

Complimentary seminar from MicroScope in association with Kaseya Dates Thursday 9th June @ Old Trafford Cricket Ground.
May 24, 2011 24 May'11
Project Merlin fails to increase bank lending

No surprise the banks are failing to increase lending to small companies despite the much heralded "Project Merlin" agreed with the UK government back in February.
May 24, 2011 24 May'11
RM unveils former Dell executive as chairman

Education specialist RM has announced a shuffling of its senior management just days before its current chairman retires.
May 24, 2011 24 May'11
Banks failing to lend small firms the funds they promised

The banks are continuing to fail to provide credit for small businesses and are set to miss the targets they agreed with the government to start providing money to cash strapped firms.
May 23, 2011 23 May'11
Europe shines in upbeat quarter for Tech Data

European sales shone for Computer 2000 parent Tech Data in the first quarter of its fiscal 2012, which closed on April 30.
May 19, 2011 19 May'11
Growth fund unlikely to deliver for majority of channel

The impact of the government's business growth fund is expected to be minimal on smaller resellers as most would prefer to stick with traditional methods of getting access to finance.
May 19, 2011 19 May'11
2e2 cuts back borrowing on strong Morse profits

ICT services provider 2e2 has reduced the level of its bank borrowing on the back of profits contributed by Morse, which it acquired last year.
May 18, 2011 18 May'11
Softcat bucks public sector cuts with recruitment plan

Soft cat has announced plans to take on over 60 public sector specialists across its three UK locations by the end of 2012 to support ambitions to grow infrastructure and software sales into the public sector.
May 18, 2011 18 May'11
Crawling social networks not the way for resellers to find staff

Resellers have been warned to avoid relying on social networks to find their next star sales person because of the effort involved in trawling through the thousands of potential candidates.
May 13, 2011 13 May'11
M&A tech activity stabilises following strong Q1

The health in the tech mergers and acquisitions market across Europe continues to perform well up but has started to show signs of stabilisation after a very strong first quarter of recovery.
May 11, 2011 11 May'11
Datatec questions strength of UK economic recovery

Datatec, the South African ICT powerhouse behind network sector stalwarts Logicalis and Westcon, has lamented the state of the economic recovery in the UK as it announced audited results for its fiscal 2011, which closed on 28 February.
May 11, 2011 11 May'11
Demand for IT jobs hits five year high

The demand for IT skilled staff is growing quicker than any other sector of the economy as customers look to recruit both permanent and temporary workers.
May 11, 2011 11 May'11
Lenovo extends credit to help cash constrained users

Lenovo Financial Services is extending credit facilities to resellers across the UK and France as it looks to exploit the upswing in attitudes towards leasing.
May 11, 2011 11 May'11
In-depth: The chance for the channel to exploit bank holidays

When people look back at 2011 and think of April they will no doubt remember the Royal Wedding and the unusual summer like conditions enjoyed by most of the country.
May 09, 2011 09 May'11
Sir Peter Rigby continues to show the wealth in reselling

There are few things in life that remain certain but the ability of Sir Peter Rigby to top the wealth charts in the channel has been a constant over the last few years.
April 27, 2011 27 Apr'11
MicroScope ACEs postponed

The MicroScope Awards for Channel Excellence (ACEs) have been postponed and will no longer take place on 16 June. The decision to postpone the awards comes in the wake of a change of ownership to MicroScope after Reed Business Information sold the ...
April 27, 2011 27 Apr'11
Resellers need to be freed from red tape to drive recovery

One leading SME business group has called for resellers to be freed from red tape if they are going to be able to help the economy grow.
April 26, 2011 26 Apr'11
Cost cutting days end as users look to IT to support growth

The time of leaning on technology primarily as a cost cutting aid appear to be coming to an end with customers looking to IT as a means to support growth.
April 20, 2011 20 Apr'11
Computacenter UK product sales floored by gov budget cuts

Government austerity measures took a toll on Computacenter's (CC) UK numbers as product sales fell by double digits in the calendar year to date but growth in services and continental businesses steadied group figures.
April 20, 2011 20 Apr'11
Skilled IT workers head abroad in hunt for better pay

Better quality jobs and better pay are causing IT workers to consider leaving the UK to head to other shores.
April 18, 2011 18 Apr'11
Pacey launches credit management consultancy

Credit guru Eddie Pacey has launched a channel consultancy to provide advisory services for resellers, distributors and vendors.
April 11, 2011 11 Apr'11
Computacenter buys into German Apple channel

Computacenter (CC) has made its second acquisition in as many weeks, snapping up German Apple integrator HSD Consult for €4.9m (£4.3m).
April 08, 2011 08 Apr'11
Tech M&A activity continues to accelerate

The recovery in the M&A tech markets continues to accelerate with the number of deals up by 20% month-on-month in March.
April 07, 2011 07 Apr'11
Private sector might be home for government staff with IT skills

IT staff working in the public sector should have an easier time finding jobs in the private sector according to those in the recruitment industry.