News

Salesforce Management

December 14, 2011 14 Dec'11
Lack of skilled staff holding back SME growth

The lack of skills have again been highlighted as a problem holding back growth in the economy.
December 06, 2011 06 Dec'11
Watt benefits from senior reshuffle at Avnet

Graeme Watt has been promoted in a senior reshuffle at Avnet which sees the channel veteran extend his role at the distributor beyond its Technology Solutions operation.
December 02, 2011 02 Dec'11
Goom confirmed as UK managing director at Dimension Data

Dimension Data has shuffled its senior management team unveiling a fresh face in the managing director chair as well as the solutions and sales director positions.
November 30, 2011 30 Nov'11
Business groups call for greater investment in skills

There has been a call for more focus on developing skills, particularly at the SME end of the market, following the Autumn Statement.

November 28, 2011 28 Nov'11
Government credit easing fund could reach £40bn

With just a day to go before the Chancellor stands up and delivers the Autumn Statement it's already becoming clear that there should be billions of more pounds worth of credit for SMEs on offer.
November 14, 2011 14 Nov'11
Small business lending drops

The level of credit that banks are providing to SMEs has declined despite the best efforts of the government to force them to increase the flow of cash to smaller firms.
November 03, 2011 03 Nov'11
C2000 hands former LG Electronics mobile boss Brightstar role

Computer 2000 has appointed the former head of LG Electronics UK mobile division to run the Brightstar Europe operation.
October 31, 2011 31 Oct'11
Bank profits grow but calls for SME lending continue

The banks are being urged to do more to lend to small businesses with signs that where possible the finance sector is giving finance to those larger firms it deems to be safer bets.
October 27, 2011 27 Oct'11
Business collaboration could drive sustainable living

Businesses could wield a powerful influence over how people in the UK modify their behaviour towards more sustainable behaviour, especially if they collaborate to develop a set of ideas.
October 26, 2011 26 Oct'11
Office page print volumes fall for the first time

Office-based staff have reduced the number of pages they printed for the first time ever in 2011 - but the proportion of pages wasted has remained high at 62%.

October 26, 2011 26 Oct'11
Value added distribution is key, says Citrix

Citrix has stressed the importance of maintaining a value added distribution channel in the face of increasing pressure from larger distributor rivals. EMEA vice president of channel strategy Carsten Thomsen said it was one of Citrix's priorities to...
October 25, 2011 25 Oct'11
Cost still an issue for desktop virtualisation customers

The cost of additional infrastructure, licensing issues and complexity of virtualisation technologies are top of the list when it comes to customer concerns about desktop virtualisation.
October 20, 2011 20 Oct'11
Kyocera Mita hopes to spark spending with finance package

Kyocera Mita has launched a finance programme to give resellers more of a chance getting customers to splash out on hardware and document management solutions.
October 20, 2011 20 Oct'11
Banks still not doing enough for SMEs

The banks have long been criticised by resellers, customers and politicians alike for failing to provide enough credit and support for cash-strapped firms and the situation shows little sign of improving.
October 20, 2011 20 Oct'11
Wozniak urges industry to innovate

Steve Wozniak, the founder of Apple, has been sharing his experience in the industry with attendees at IP Expo urging the IT community to continue innovation.
October 18, 2011 18 Oct'11
Resellers encouraged to extend brand through LinkedIn

Resellers should encourage their best and brightest to shine on social media platforms rather than try to stem the adoption of tools like LinkedIn if they want to get the most out of online networking tools.
October 14, 2011 14 Oct'11
Channel has role to play plugging skills gap

The IT skills gap will only get wider unless more action is taken by both businesses and schools to get more young people to study ICT.
October 04, 2011 04 Oct'11
Fujitsu staff call off strike as talks spark breakthrough

Unite workers at Fujitsu have suspended strike action after a breakthrough in last minute discussions with the services giant.
October 03, 2011 03 Oct'11
Fujitsu strikers to take protest to Conservative party conference

Striking Fujitsu workers will protest at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester tomorrow as they try to highlight the ongoing struggle between the Union and the services specialist.
October 03, 2011 03 Oct'11
Osborne sets out plan to ease business credit

The challenge of helping businesses get access to credit continues to stir political debate with the Chancellor George Osborne using his speech at the Conservative Party conference to outline more measures to help cash-strapped firms.
September 29, 2011 29 Sep'11
Westcoast looks to spread apprentice sign-ups through channel

Westcoast is encouraging resellers to take an apprentice to help Britain improve its skills base and to grow the business through the current difficult trading conditions.
September 19, 2011 19 Sep'11
SMEs still struggling to get banking credit

Business Secretary Vince Cable might have taken to the stage at the Liberal Democrat conference today detailing plans to put more pressure on banks to lend to SMEs but the vast majority still feel left out in the cold over loans.
September 19, 2011 19 Sep'11
Avnet hires former Computacenter man to grow overseas

Avnet has hired former Computacenter and Bell Microproducts man Henry Godwin to help grow its operations in the Middle East and Africa. Godwin will be reporting into another former Bell old boy Graeme Watt and is charged with driving growth in what ...
September 16, 2011 16 Sep'11
Fujitsu staff to stage 24 hour walk out

Fujistu staff in Crewe and Manchester are staging a 24 walk out on Monday in a strike over victimisation of Union representatives.
September 15, 2011 15 Sep'11
UK IT consultants in demand from US firms

US firms are hiring UK IT consultants in the digital sector with an 275% increase in the number of American firms hiring Brits over the last year. The figures, from PeoplePerHour, showed IT and web programming as well as web design were the skills ...
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 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...
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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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
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 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 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 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
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
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.
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 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 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.
April 06, 2011 06 Apr'11
IT industry salaries rising as applicant numbers fall

A shift towards a candidate-driven IT jobs market has driven industry salaries up by 5% over the past 12 months, according to sector recruitment specialists CV Screen.
April 01, 2011 01 Apr'11
Church rewarded with Integralis board promotion

The UK boss of Integralis has been rewarded for contributing heavily to helping the security specialist move back into the black with a promotion to the board.
March 31, 2011 31 Mar'11
Etailer group warns EU against changing returns policies

Entailers could gave a hike in the cost of returns thanks to EU legislation with little choice but to pass costs onto users. That warning has been sounded by e-retail trade body IMRG, which has reacted with dismay to the passage of proposed legal ...
March 30, 2011 30 Mar'11
Kaspersky UK boss leaves in restructure

Kaspersky Lab has confirmed its UK managing director Malcolm Tuck is leaving the business following a restructure at the antivirus specialist.
March 25, 2011 25 Mar'11
Channel backing government moves to tackle skills gap

The channel has thrown its support behind the government's plans to address the IT skills gap following plans announced in the Budget to boost the technical knowledge of future generations.
March 25, 2011 25 Mar'11
Budget in-depth: Government looks to entrepreneurs for growth

In his second Budget Report, the Chancellor of the Exchequer focused on business growth, and provided a package of incentives to entrepreneurs and businesses to help them to deliver that growth, writes Jeff Webber.
March 23, 2011 23 Mar'11
Budget 2011: Skills gap seen as threat to future growth

The potential for a lack of skills in the British workforce has been highlighted as a real danger to future prosperity by the Chancellor George Osborne.
March 10, 2011 10 Mar'11
Tech M&A slows but recovery remains on track

The move by Lumison to spend £22m for BlueSquare Data Services at the end of last month was the highlight in terms of M&A activity as the number of deals overall slowed from the start of the year.
March 03, 2011 03 Mar'11
MicroScope ACEs nominations open

Nominations for the MicroScope Awards for Channel Excellence have opened. The emphasis of the MicroScope channel awards is to recognise those suppliers that have really delivered excellence rather than fall into the trap of giving a pat on the back ...
February 25, 2011 25 Feb'11
SMEs could boost efficiency with IT investment

Small businesses could boost their efficiency by over 50% through IT investment, according to independent research, writes Bill Goodwin. Studies by E-skills UK, the public private sector partnership for IT skills and training, show that many small ...
February 17, 2011 17 Feb'11
Cyber crime costing UK firms £21bn a year

The cost of cybercrime to UK businesses is £21bn with British firms being the target of IP theft, industrial espionage and theft of customer data.
February 17, 2011 17 Feb'11
Micro-P confirms Brown as commerical director

Channel veteran Phil Brown has returned to distribution as Micro-P's commercial director following a relatively short spell running sales at netbook pioneer ASUS.
February 14, 2011 14 Feb'11
Avnet CEO Vallee steps down to drive acquisition strategy

Avnet CEO Roy Vallee has announced he is to step down from his post at the distributor at the end of the firm's financial year in order to concentrate on the firm's acquisition strategy, with current COO Rick Hamada to take up the torch from 4 July ...
February 09, 2011 09 Feb'11
Employers looking for IT staff to build up in-house expertise

The private sector should pick up the slack on the jobs front when it comes to employing IT specialists as spending starts to pick up this year.
February 07, 2011 07 Feb'11
Equanet eyes services growth with new head of IT solutions

Dixons-owned reseller Equanet has ushered in former Dataplex technical director Jamie Marshall as head of IT solutions.
February 01, 2011 01 Feb'11
Tech sector stands out as M&A target

The prospects of the tech sector being a ripe one for M&A activity look good with the valuations and returns being offered for investors much higher than in other areas of the economy.
January 28, 2011 28 Jan'11
Virtualisation, cloud and UC in demand as users look to grow

Virtualisation, cloud computing and unified comms are the technologies most in demand but resellers should not look to the public sector to be at the head of the queue to buy them.
January 26, 2011 26 Jan'11
Public sector IT cuts might not be as deep as feared

The impact of public sector cuts on IT spend from that market are not going to be severe as some anticipated with technology investment protected with the axe falling in other areas.
January 24, 2011 24 Jan'11
Avnet hires and fires staff as Bell integration nears end

Avnet Technology Solutions has confirmed the loss of 40 jobs, largely from Bell Microproducts' former headquarters in Chessington but added it is hiring to cover new vendor signings and a European accounts payable hub launching in Bracknell.
January 18, 2011 18 Jan'11
Ecommerce revenues rise but so do fraud fears

Ecommerce specialists have expressed fears that their fraud budgets are remaining stagnant in the face of increasing attempts by criminals to short change them.
January 17, 2011 17 Jan'11
CU swaps group sales director Brett for Chatterton

London-based Computers Unlimited (CU) is to appoint Mark Chatterton as group sales and marketing director this week to replace group sales director Alistair Brett who has left the company.
January 12, 2011 12 Jan'11
IT jobs most in demand

The demand for IT staff hit a six month high in December leading from the front in an energised job market that rounded off the year with nearly all sectors demanding workers.
January 11, 2011 11 Jan'11
Former SonicWall man Bird takes top role at eSellerPro

Ecommerce specialist eSellerPro has unveiled Keith Bird as its CEO after managing to tempt the former SonicWall man onboard to help drive growth across Europe. Bird, who was vice president EMEA at SonicWall, left the security vendor at the end of ...
January 10, 2011 10 Jan'11
Industry old timer McBride joins Computacenter board

Computacenter has bolstered its board with the addition of industry veteran Brian McBride.