Opinion

Opinion

Channel Business Management

• When rubbish execution spoils brilliant systems

  Nick Booth paid a visit to the Samsung stand at the Olympic Park in London to test-drive the latest mobile wizardry.  Continue Reading

• NHS Finance Management isn't the envy of the world

  There were some complaints about the depiction of the NHS in the Opening Ceremony of the Olympics. Maybe people were upset that the dancers were all dressed up as nurses and patients.  Continue Reading

• Fujitsu bucks the trend but can it buck the economy?

  At a time when everyone else seems to be cutting Billy MacInnes ponders over Fujitsu's decision to keep spending  Continue Reading

• Wandisco shows how flotations can be done

  The tech industry has a mixed track record with flotations. Facebook anyone? But as Nick Booth finds out there are some vendors doing it well  Continue Reading

• Would you credit it? The banks are given yet another chance to do their job

  The banks have been given another chance to offer credit to cash-strapped SMEs but Billy MacInnes wonders if this will be any better than the other schemes already offered  Continue Reading

• Is the skills shortage the IT industry’s own fault?

  If the channel put more effort into training staff rather than looking for the finished article would the skills crisis in the IT world be as bad as it is now?  Continue Reading

• So how did you spend your Sunday?

  Second blog post from Epson about the team of riders that undertook the London to Brighton bike ride.  Continue Reading

• Is it a broadliner? Is it a VAD? No, it's a SuperVAD!!!

  Resellers no longer think the phrase VAD has any meaning so perhaps those wanting to prove they can offer greater support and value to the channel now need to call themselves SuperVADs.  Continue Reading

• Is cycling the channel's sport?

  It's not often you find yourself cheering 'Come on Node4' but pop along to a cycling race and you find those words forming in your mouth.  Continue Reading

• Credit will have to flow if SME growth ambitions come to fruition

  The question of credit has always been a contentious one in the channel and in recent years so many small firms have despaired of ever getting money they have not even bothered to apply to the banks.  Continue Reading

• The downside of a long weekend off

  The looming jubilee weekend might get many excited but for businesses there is inevitably lost revenue to worry about.  Continue Reading

• Column: Thwarting the time thieves

  Thieves are operating in the IT industry, stealing the most precious asset in existence - your time. Many of them work in various forms of marketing. Some public relations companies are known to waste time.  Continue Reading

• Vendors who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones

  That Avaya IPO has been rumbling on for a while, hasn't it? First tabled about 12 months ago, the plans were made official last June and it was thought, for a few minutes back in February, that it might happen in April. Well, it didn't, but there is...  Continue Reading

• The midmarket cliche

  As EMC took the wraps off its cloud infrastructure product range it's calling Vspex, it was interesting to see just where the vendor is pitching the product.  Continue Reading

• Column: Business meetings can reduce intelligence

  Finally, a piece of research I find all too believable. According to a study by Virginia Tech's Carilion School of Medicine and Research Institute, business meetings can diminish intelligence. Well, there's a surprise, writes Billy MacInnes.  Continue Reading

• Keeping the efficient efficient

  Mike Heumann, senior vice president of worldwide sales and marketing at virtualised input/output specialists NextIO, considers where the surge in server virtualisation leaves data centre managers (DCMs) and how they can address the challenges ...  Continue Reading

• Column: Survival skills the key in a managed services world

  I found little to argue about with the story in MicroScope suggesting that resellers should consider making the shift to managed services in the face of declining hardware sales and fierce competition, writes Billy MacInnes.  Continue Reading

• A barometer of concern

  The phrase barometer is one that is bound to be used in the context of Dell's results and the state of the PC market but there is also something else happening here with financial results again becoming an important indication of the health of the ...  Continue Reading

• Column: Drowning in a tide of tabloid trivia

  The channel keeps showing up in the tabloid press for all the wrong reasons, argues Billy MacInnes. If there's one thing that gets the goat of people in the IT industry, it's the lack of recognition.  Continue Reading

• The shifting channel landscape

  This comment piece, by Alan Hartwell, UK vice president of technology solutions and channels, will examine how the changing economic landscape is affecting vendor and partner relationships.  Continue Reading

• Can vendor services boost reseller revenues?

  Andrew Mulholland, marketing manager at D-Link UK & Ireland, identifies how resellers can take advantage of vendors' service offerings to grow their business. It is fair to say that the channel landscape has changed significantly over the years.  Continue Reading

• Column: Being Frank about the lack of support

  It's lunchtime and the phone rings. I take a cursory glance at the caller ID as I lift up the handset. It starts with the numbers 0099 and is followed by a load more that I don't register before I press the answer button. The line is bad. "Hello," I...  Continue Reading

• Column: Take customer ties to new levels in 2012

  Billy MacInnes sees cause for optimism in Gartner's predictions around cloud and BYOD. Earlier this month, Gartner unveiled its predictions for the next few years and there were no prizes for guessing the two trends which dominated the list: cloud ...  Continue Reading

• Column: We need better IT training. Geoff Hurst told me that

  One should never name drop - the Queen told me that- but I was talking to Sir Geoff Hurst and ex-England international Gareth Southgate on Sunday...  Continue Reading

• A growing managed services opportunity

  One of the classic lines that is often used in a channel conversation is about services. Vendors tell resellers to do more of them, distributors look to support them and customers will pay for them.  Continue Reading

• Health and safety or you pay

  The Government is planning to give the Health and Safety Executive a legal duty to make a cost recovery from organisations and businesses who are found to be in breach of health and safety law.  Continue Reading

• Digital Marketing

  In the seven months since March 2011 when the Advertising Standards Authority gained a remit to oversee digital advertising and marketing (in addition to the original print media remit), a huge number of complaints - some 5531 - have been lodged ...  Continue Reading

• Bucking the trend in tough times can bring its own problems

  If you talk to people at Citrix you can't escape the impression that whatever the conditions elsewhere in the industry or the wider world, life is pretty good at the vendor right now.  Continue Reading

• Has technology really levelled the playing field?

  Wouldn't it be great if you could go online and shop around for a better deal on your energy minister? Well, sorry, that's just not going to happen. It doesn't work like that, sir.  Continue Reading

• EU Common Sales Law

  According to the Law Society, the European Commission is expected to issue a proposal for a Common Sales Law that would cover the whole of the EU.  Continue Reading

• Desktop virtualisation is not so easy PC

  Having attended VM world and Citrix Summit in the space of a week, one of the main impressions I came back with was that for all the talk about desktop virtualisation over the past two years or so, it is turning out to be a bit more complex and ...  Continue Reading

• Tribunal claims on the wane

  According to a recent set of statistics published by the Ministry of Justice, Employment Tribunal claims over the period April 2010 to March 2011 are down by 8 per cent to 218,100. Not bad at first glance. However, when compared to 2008/9's figures,...  Continue Reading

• Ministers urge businesses to tackle employment red tape

  The next stage in the Government's Red Tape Challenge has kicked off and businesses are now being asked to tackle employment related law, bureaucracy and red tape.  Continue Reading

• Unfair dismissal rule changes

  Changes to the rules on unfair dismissal rules are to be brought in by the Government. Under the new rules, from 1 April 2012 the qualification period for the right to claim unfair dismissal will be extended from one to two years.  Continue Reading

• Plans for two new Enterprise Zones

  The Government has asked the Lancashire and the Hull and Humber Local Enterprise Partnerships to develop proposals for two new Enterprise Zones following the recent announcement by BAE Systems about their sites in Brough, Warton and Samlesbury.  Continue Reading

• Not everything is virtual at VMworld

  As more than one observer has already remarked, this year's VMworld Europe event in Copenhagen was occasionally like a conference in reverse.  Continue Reading

• Changes aim for swifter justice over workplace deaths

  The Government is seeking more health and safety prosecutions before Inquests with changes to an agreement - the Work-Related Deaths Protocol - between those who investigate and prosecute work-related deaths.  Continue Reading

• Don't quote me

  Executive pay has never really left the spotlight. However, in today's straightened times, it's a very hot topic especially as executive pay of quoted companies is rising much faster than the pay of workers.  Continue Reading

• Negligence and dismissals

  In most cases, serious negligence could be grounds for gross misconduct. But what happens if an employee has a lucky escape and nothing results from the negligence? Will a dismissal be unfair?  Continue Reading

• Olympic Workforce?

  With the Olympics less than a year away, employers should start thinking about writing a specific Olympics policy to deal with requests for leave as well as any unauthorised absences.  Continue Reading

• More personal liability for directors

  Pre-pack sales of failed businesses are a major irritant to all concerned, not least because of the appearance that the failed business can "dump" its debt and the buyers can start the same business all over again, debt-free, under a new company.  Continue Reading

• New bill will strengthen consumer rights

  The Government has announced that it's producing a new Consumer Bill of Rights to 'streamline confusing and overlapping legislation and regulation' and provide stronger consumer protection.  Continue Reading

• "Frustrated" IT professionals keen to switch jobs

  "Frustrated", "Numb", "Unchallenged" and "Underpaid". Those are the words used by IT professionals in Ireland when asked to describe how their job made them feel. Do their UK equivalents feel the same? ...  Continue Reading

• Blackberry outages send message on back-up strategy

  If I was RIM, I might be asking some hard questions of my IT network provider (assuming I had one) in the wake of the much-publicised outages at the Blackberry-maker.  Continue Reading

• Penalty warning for paper tax returns

  With the 31 October deadline for paper tax returns very close, HMRC is urging taxpayers to get their paper tax return in on time, or face a penalty.  Continue Reading

• Employees get more help to quit smoking and get active

  Employee illness costs employers - and the country - a small fortune and to try to combat this, the Government is working with businesses through the 'Public Health Responsibility Deal' to help make the population healthier. So far, 285 ...  Continue Reading

• Best value for government contracts? What about everyone else?

  Interesting to see Lord Digby Jones, former head of the CBI, calling on the government to change its procurement strategy and use "best value" rather than" best price" as the yardstick for contracts.  Continue Reading

• Buying a house could trip you up

  In September HMRC launched a joint venture with the Council of Mortgage Lenders and the Building Societies Association. For a fee of £14, mortgage lenders can apply to HMRC with borrowers details for cross checking against income tax and ...  Continue Reading

• New IP guidance for businesses

  A new guide for businesses to make sure they don't fall foul of intellectual property laws has been launched by the Intellectual Property Office.  Continue Reading

• Revised shortage occupation list

  The Migration Advisory Committee has advised the Government that the Shortage Occupation List should be revised to restrict migrants from outside the European Economic Area to a smaller proportion of occupations within the UK labour market.  Continue Reading

• Why can't some VARs get support from their partners?

  Whenever you chair a round table between an IT vendor and its channel partners, the same issues are raised time and again. Whatever happened to the co-op funding you promised us? Why are we always the last to know about changes?  Continue Reading

• Oracle OpenWorld not so open to Salesforce.com CEO

  Doesn't look like Oracle's OpenWorld event in San Francisco is all that open after all. What else are we to think of the bizarre story that Salesforce.com CEO Mark Benioff has had his keynote speech, due to be presented at the event today (5 October...  Continue Reading

• Be Smart

  Many employees are given smartphones by their employers. But have those employers stopped to write a policy on how these devices should be used?  Continue Reading

• Exclusive - the IP hone 5 operators in the UK revealed

  Which companies are best at tweaking IP performance? Watch this space as we reveal the quintet of the best companies at fine tuning Internet Protocol - dubbed the IP hone 5.  Continue Reading

• Does business have its head in the cloud?

  When I first saw the headline on the MicroScope story, I was pretty impressed. "Cloud to become a business conversation in 2012," it stated.  Continue Reading

• The great margin mystery. How does ChaCha answer any question for 10p?

  Britain's mobile operators aren't always as creative as they might be when it comes to making money out of existing services. They fret about 'delivering OT content' when they already have services that go unexploited. Text information services are ...  Continue Reading

• HMRC extends Business Records Checks

  HM Revenue & Customs has begun an extension of its Business Records Checks programme. Piloted earlier this year in eight areas, the programme involves checks on the adequacy of small and medium-sized enterprises' business records.  Continue Reading

• Is Junosphere the world's first cloud testing environment? Not really

  There's a funny list circulating on the web of the Ten Most Pointless Phrases in technology PR. 'World's first' isn't on it. But it should be. Juniper Networks has launched Jun sphere, which appears to be a cloud based testing system for service ...  Continue Reading

• Yes, partners should be committed, but how do you define their commitment?

  "Underperformance is no longer an option." Chilling words from Anthony O'Mara, Trend Micro EMEA senior vice president, in the context of what the vendor expects from its channel partners going forward.  Continue Reading

• Incident Reporting

  Businesses are being reminded by the HSE about new incident reporting arrangements that were introduced last month.  Continue Reading

• IT insolvencies increase but things could be worse

  There's an interesting quirk in the latest monthly insolvency figures from Experian. While the number of insolvencies in August as a whole were the lowest since February, the figure for the IT sector was 9% higher than in August 2010.  Continue Reading

• Reasonable adjustments must aid employee

  Businesses with employees on sick leave or who need some form of rehabilitation to come back to work ought to take note of the case of Salford NHS Primary Care Trust v Smith.  Continue Reading

• Yah boo sucks, that's enough Oracle and Autonomy!

  I love a good spat as much as the next person but am I alone in thinking there is something incredibly childish in the current very public row between Oracle and Autonomy?  Continue Reading

• Diluting the Agency Workers Regulations

  They've not even been brought into law yet but rumours are circulating that the Government - more specifically the Prime Minister - is looking at diluting the effect of the Agency Workers Regulations.  Continue Reading

• Whitespace offers new generation of Orwellian technology

  Personally, I'm obsessed with the continuing story of White Space, the invention that uses unused parts of the TV spectrum to create a new form of Wi-Fi. The upshot is that large parts of the Britain - unreachable parts of the countryside, can now ...  Continue Reading

• Business attacks on Miliband speech miss the point

  It's amazing how quickly the pro-business lobby came out against Labour leader Ed speech attacking predatory businesses and asset strippers.  Continue Reading

• Reporting burdens for small businesses could be eased

  Proposals to simplify the financial and corporate reporting requirements for small businesses are the subject of a Discussion Paper published by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and the Financial Reporting Council.  Continue Reading

• Does the Web makes us all more angry and abusive?

  Should we be surprised by a US poll that shows 56% of people in their teens and early 20s have been the target of online taunting, harassment or bullying? I'm not.  Continue Reading

• Managing employee's behaviour outside work

  With the August riots and disturbances (hopefully) well and truly behind us, some employers may be faced with staff who have acted inappropriately outside the workplace. How should they be handled?  Continue Reading

• Blame for NHS's £12 billion IT disaster identified

  No evidence of corruption has been found in the NHS IT cock up that has cost the UK taxpayer £12.8 billion.  Continue Reading

• Any new energy management vendors worth a punt?

  Energy management systems are a £7bn market already. It was our taxes that created this market, so we might as well get involved, if only to get our investment back. So who are the runners and riders in the race for supremacy in this market?  Continue Reading

• Employers can be liable for discrimination claims

  As funny as it may sound, an employee calling someone (of Polish descent) 'Borat' can land the employer in hot water.  Continue Reading

• Salesforce can't live with the channel and can't live without it

  Analyst Tiffani Bova, Gartner's VP of worldwide sales and channel strategies, says that the channel will play a huge part in the delivery of cloud services, despite what Salesforce.com's CEO Marc Benioff may say.  Continue Reading

• HP keeps the strategy, replaces the man who thought it up

  Farewell then, Leo Apotheker. You were the CEO at HP who introduced a software-based strategy on 18 August by simultaneously announcing plans to acquire Autonomy and (with the full authorisation of the board) to look at a strategic options for the ...  Continue Reading

• HMRC revises its view of VAT under salary sacrifice arrangements

  Readers may recall recent column where it was mentioned that as a result of a European judgment, the VAT element of the Cycle to Work Scheme needs to be recovered from employees.  Continue Reading

• Red Hat: on track to become a billion dollar open source software company

  Amid all the reports about Red Hat's very strong performance in the second quarter ending 31 August, only one site seems to have picked up on an intriguing comment made by the vendor's CEO Jim Whitehurst in the statement accompanying the results ...  Continue Reading

• Strategy, schmategy: could there be more disruption at HP?

  So the biggest technology story doing the rounds today (22 September) is that the board of HP have had a meeting to discuss whether they should get rid of CEO Leo Apotheker, the man they appointed to run the company less than a year ago.  Continue Reading

• Sleeping with the enemy?

  It's dangerous territory but a recent survey from Staffbay, a jobs website, found that a good number of respondents were happy to (try to) sleep their way to the top.  Continue Reading

• Can Microsoft explanation for Office 365 and Windows Live outage reassure cloud customers?

  The explanation as to why Microsoft suffered an outage of three and a half hours to its Office 365 and Windows Live services on 8 September might not be too reassuring for those people out there tempted to move to the cloud.  Continue Reading

• Tableau offers business intelligence for dummies

  I missed the event, but a tip off from a former tabloid journalist told me that the Tableau's partner programme might be worth investigating Research companies Gartner and IDC both recently rated Tableau as the fastest growing business intelligence ...  Continue Reading

• National Minimum Wage and guidance for interns

  With increasing use of interns by businesses, both as a way of increasing work placements and of hiring low cost help, the Government (and the Courts) have become concerned at the potential for abuse.  Continue Reading

• Who else thinks resellers can thrive in the cloud era?

  I'm a bit confused by the Channel Transformation Alliance, the body which has been set up to promote and further the spread of cloud computing and managed services in the channel. It's not that I don't think it's a good idea.  Continue Reading

• Anti-social CRM concept gaining traction on Topman site

  Social CRM (Customer relationship management) has produced mixed results for retail giant Arcadia after angry consumer complaints against its Top man brand were made public by its social CRM systems.  Continue Reading

• Don't stash your cash in Switzerland

  If you're an individual or a business with monies that you secreted away in Switzerland then you should be aware that HMRC now have an agreement in place with Swiss authorities that will see you paying more tax and which removes some of the Swiss ...  Continue Reading

• VAT 'amnesty' to end soon

  A window of opportunity for anyone outside of VAT regime, that should be registered and inside, closes soon. As reported by BusinessMan on 16 June, HMRC has been running a campaign that aims to capture those who should be registered for VAT but who ...  Continue Reading

• Nine out of ten city CIOs on course for prosecution by FSA

  Over 90 per cent of city firms could face prosecution in November for failing to comply with new FSA regulations on call recording, according to one study.  Continue Reading

• Resellers should try and get closer to their vendors says channel boss

  Resellers often complain that they don't get the support they want from the people who supply them with kit. But is it their own fault? We asked some top vendors for their advice.  Continue Reading

• The new domain - it's not an e.xxxellent idea for all

  With the launch of the new .xxx top level domain on September 7, businesses - and individuals for that matter - need to be awake to the fact that they may want to protect their brands and names from abuse by cyber squatters.  Continue Reading

• Younger people lagging behind with pension provision

  According to Government research, young workers are nearly four times less likely than their older counterparts to be saving in their employer's pension scheme.  Continue Reading

• To expense or not to expense

  According to expense management firm Concur, around 20 per cent of small firms don't really know what they're paying staff in expenses. Further, they also aren't sure of how to claim tax relief on expenses which, in simple terms, means that they're ...  Continue Reading

• Tech Entrepreneurs Week - how you could win fifty grand for your start up

  Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales is to be the head of the Head of Jury in December's Tech Entrepreneurs Week. He's giving a speech too. But that's not why I'll be on the edge of my seat. I won't listen to a word of his speech.  Continue Reading

• The Apprentice

  The Government has announced a package of measures that cut red tape for employers that may help get more apprentices into the workplace, Under the measures, employers that contract directly with the Government will benefit from simpler payments, ...  Continue Reading

• Small firms are relieved

  Recently issued figures from the Government have shown that a good number of small businesses are benefitting from Small Business Rate Relief that was doubled last October and which continues until September 2012.  Continue Reading

• Omnisense geopositions everything - can pinpoint a randy cow with military precision

  It's one of the tragedies of the modern technological age. Each new invention is ruined by somebody trying to turn it into a marketing tool. There are other ways of monetizing scientific breakthroughs.  Continue Reading

• Mind the gap

  For the first time since records began it appears that female junior executives are earning as much as their male counterparts.  Continue Reading

• PCs in retreat as market prepares for tablet invasion

  Poor old PC. Things are not looking good. After all the furore surrounding HP's decision to retreat from the PC arena.  Continue Reading

• Why make a mobile app? You won't get rich but you might impress

  Keep quiet about this -it's an industry secret - but some IT companies can be a bit dull to work for. But how do you move up the ladder? If your current job leaves you creatively unfulfilled, and you want something impressive to put on your Linkedin...  Continue Reading

• Accounting records - guidance for directors

  Lawyers Herbert Smith are reporting that the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales have issued "Guidance for directors on accounting records under the Companies Act 2006".  Continue Reading

• Why did Yahoo's CEO get the boot by phone?

  So Yahoo has fired CEO Carol Bartz. Whatever the reasons for her sacking, I'm intrigued by the way Yahoo chose to fire her. In an email to Yahoo employees, Bartz wrote: "I am very sad to tell you that I've just been fired over the phone by Yahoo's ...  Continue Reading

• Consultation launched into disability employment services

  Around 50% of disabled people are out of work and for a number of reasons, those that are employed often work far below their potential. To combat this, the Government has launched a consultation into employment services for disabled people.  Continue Reading