Channel Business Management

Stone Group undergoes an MBO

Firm goes through second MBO in the space of 11 years as it changes investment backers Continue Reading

By

• Simon Quicke, Microscope Editor

Northamber founder David Phillips passes away

The founder of Northamber has sadly died after suffering a short illness Continue Reading

By

• Simon Quicke, Microscope Editor

Sabio looks for growth with fresh CEO

Firm looks to build on six acquisitions in the last three years with a fresh face in the CEO chair Continue Reading

By

• Simon Quicke, Microscope Editor

MicroScope: Time for change

In this issue, we ask experts how they're approaching digital transformation to meet customers demand, and we look at whether the actions of the user should reflect on the accountability of the cloud provider Continue Reading

Lenovo lifts lid on SME demands for more flexibility

The vendor has found that a significant number of staff working for SMEs would like to get access to mobile and cloud computing tools Continue Reading

By

• Simon Quicke, Microscope Editor

How to improve customer experience

 Continue Reading

Channel roundup: Who's gone where?

Another busy week with several comings and goings to report on from across the channel Continue Reading

By

• Simon Quicke, Microscope Editor

Veeam UK channel boss looking to widen partner support

The recently installed UK channel boss is planning to increase the support it offers a wider number of partners as well as looking to exploit its alliances for the benefit of resellers Continue Reading

By

• Simon Quicke, Microscope Editor

Apollo increases Tech Data offer to fend off rival bid

Private equity player is now prepared to pay $6bn for distributor after its original offer was trumped by a rival suitor Continue Reading

By

• Simon Quicke, Microscope Editor

Q&A: Rob Tomlin, vice-president of channels UK&I, Dell Technologies

As Rob Tomlin completes his first year as UK channel chief at Dell, it's a good time to reflect on the progress made and future goals Continue Reading

By

• Simon Quicke, Microscope Editor

Support for business and tech called for from next government

Channel and business groups set out their wish list for whoever wins the keys to Number 10 next month Continue Reading

By

• Simon Quicke, Microscope Editor

Channel roundup: Who's gone where?

Another week with some moves across the industry as firms look to get the right personnel to drive growth Continue Reading

By

• Simon Quicke, Microscope Editor

GTDC: Distribution set for continued growth

The industry group has released the findings of its 2025 research indicating that the future for distribution is looking positive Continue Reading

By

• Simon Quicke, Microscope Editor

Opportunities and threats with Microsoft 365 Business Voice

The latest announcement from Microsoft brings significant business benefits and increased revenue to its resellers Continue Reading

By

• Michael Frisby, Vuzion

Cohesity, Extreme and Cloudera enhancing partner programmes

Just like waiting for buses it's turning out to be the week when numerous channel partner programme refreshes all turn up Continue Reading

By

• Simon Quicke, Microscope Editor

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

By

• Billy MacInnes

CompTIA: Pressure on channel to change

Industry association is encouraging resellers to step out of their comfort zones and embrace change Continue Reading

Channel roundup: Who's gone where?

No sign of the job moves slowing down with some more changes happening across the industry over the course of the last week Continue Reading

By

• Simon Quicke, Microscope Editor

Dell platinum partner OCF undergoes an MBO

The owners of the high performance computing specialist have decided the time is right for some fresh hands at the wheel Continue Reading

By

• Simon Quicke, Microscope Editor

Customer experience driving collaboration investments

Improving customer experience is one of the main factors behind the decision by users to invest in unified comms and collaboration tools Continue Reading

By

• Simon Quicke, Microscope Editor

Tech Data accepts $5.4bn private equity offer

Distributor's board recommend the sale, which should give it access to more financial muscle Continue Reading

By

• Simon Quicke, Microscope Editor

IoT security: A winning strategy for MSSPs

Don’t let your clients’ IoT initiatives make them vulnerable to cyber attacks Continue Reading

By

• Jason Howells, Barracuda MSP

Exertis delivers for DCC

Half year numbers show that although facing its challenges the Technology side of the business is performing strongly Continue Reading

By

• Simon Quicke, Microscope Editor

Channel roundup: Who's gone where?

A busy week with lots of announcements of fresh faces taking up roles across the industry Continue Reading

By

• Simon Quicke, Microscope Editor

SCC investing millions in HQ

A couple of buildings that date from the 1980s will be given a full refurb as the channel player invests in its facilities Continue Reading

By

• Simon Quicke, Microscope Editor

Software driving increased IT spending in 2020

Gartner has been looking into its crystal ball to see how IT spending will fare across EMEA next year Continue Reading

By

• Simon Quicke, Microscope Editor

What’s in a name? Inside sales versus telesales

Inside sales seems much the same as telesales, only dressed up for the modern age. What's brought the change about and is it really so different from what we already know? Continue Reading

By

• Billy MacInnes

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

Channel roundup: Who's gone where?

Another busy few days in the IT world with some more appointments being made across the industry Continue Reading

By

• Simon Quicke, Microscope Editor

HPE supports as a service shift with partner programme enhancements

To support the ambition to offer as a service across the portfolio by 2022 HPE has started to make changes to its partner programme Continue Reading

By

• Simon Quicke, Microscope Editor

MicroScope: The growing SD-WAN opportunity

After plenty of hype, software-defined wide-area networking is delivering revenues for the channel, but how are partners taking advantage of it? Also read about how to tackle the growing skills gap in the face of Brexit, and how businesses are supporting intelligent workspaces Continue Reading

Rivals offer alternative to UKFast staff after CEO steps down

Lawrence Jones has decided to step down amid allegations of sexual misconduct Continue Reading

By

• Simon Quicke, Microscope Editor

What resellers want: Countering customer frustrations

Alex Tatham, managing director of Westcoast, discusses his conclusions from the results of the company’s recent survey Continue Reading

By

• Alex Tatham, Westcoast

Computacenter delivers solid third quarter

Computacenter has cheered investors with a decent Q3 just a week after fellow channel player Softcat did the same with its full year numbers Continue Reading

By

• Simon Quicke, Microscope Editor

Changing of the guard: Will technology leaders soon set business strategy?

IT must increasingly align with the business to keep up with modern customer demands, leading to a change of how the technology leadership role is performed Continue Reading

By

• Sean Farrington, Pluralsight

Retirement wave sparking mainframe skills crisis

LZLabs has found that in just a few years those with the skills at many firms to keep the mainframe lights on are planning to head off into retirement Continue Reading

By

• Simon Quicke, Microscope Editor

NetSuite makes “largest ever” investment in channel

ERP software vendor outlines new partner programme Continue Reading

By

• Christine Horton

Channel roundup: Who's gone where?

A brief guide to some of the appointments made across the industry in the past week Continue Reading

By

• Simon Quicke, Microscope Editor

Webroot putting the ground work in before 2020 programme launch

The security player's channel chief has been spending the months post the Carbonite acquisition getting a firm grip on its indirect business Continue Reading

By

• Simon Quicke, Microscope Editor

Skills issues holding back wider channel adoption of emerging tech

CompTIA takes the pulse of the UK channel and discovers more would like to be at the cutting edge but expertise is an issue Continue Reading

By

• Simon Quicke, Microscope Editor

New Commvault channel chief promises partners greater stability

Mercer Rowe’s pledge of no more “knee-jerk reactions” welcomed by partners Continue Reading

By

• Christine Horton

Channel roundup: Who's gone where?

Another busy seven days with some more arrivals that have been hand picked for their abilities to bring growth Continue Reading

Forcepoint in a rush to make a channel difference

Security player is turbo-charging its efforts to put structures in place to work with partners Continue Reading

By

• Simon Quicke, Microscope Editor

Schneider Electric: Healthcare, manufacturing and education leading edge spend

Power management specialist works with Canalys to survey resellers around the opportunities and challenges customers are facing around edge computing Continue Reading

By

• Simon Quicke, Microscope Editor

Fresh image and roadmap “breathe new life” into Commvault

Commvault unveils new look and product strategy under CEO Sanjay Mirchandani Continue Reading

By

• Christine Horton

Digital transformation: How far are we really in the journey?

Are customers really in as much of a hurry to digitally transform as the shrillest advocates of the technology would like us to believe? Continue Reading

By

• Billy MacInnes

LzLabs moving to plug mainframe expertise gap

Pressure is mounting from various sides on those customers that are still using apps that are stuck on aging mainframes Continue Reading

By

• Simon Quicke, Microscope Editor

Nutanix reassures channel in transition to software company

Nutanix launches partners services programme and pushes OEM relationships Continue Reading

By

• Christine Horton

Webroot and Carbonite to re-launch channel programme in 2020

Webroot talks merging channel organisations following its acquisition by Carbonite in March Continue Reading

By

• Christine Horton

Nutanix announces back-end rebate increases

Vendor looks to get partner compensation “on a par” with competitors Continue Reading

By

• Christine Horton

Channel roundup: Who's gone where?

The revolving doors in the industry have been spinning over the last week as some senior figures have chosen to step aside and some fresh blood has been sought elsewhere to help fuel growth Continue Reading

By

• Simon Quicke, Microscope Editor

Westcoast uncovers reseller thoughts about distribution

Channel player asks resellers what they think of distribution and finds there is work to do to support digital transformation ambitions Continue Reading

By

• Simon Quicke, Microscope Editor

CompTIA: Channel must “learn new tricks” to keep customers

CompTIA CEO urges channel to explore emerging technologies or risk losing business Continue Reading

By

• Christine Horton

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

By

• Billy MacInnes

Might be a while before someone orders from a reseller with Alexa

Personal assistants are gaining traction as yet another way customers can order services but concerns about data integrity are holding back widespread adoption Continue Reading

By

• Simon Quicke, Microscope Editor

Forcepoint using platinum and services to up consultancy levels

Security player is adding more depth to its channel programme with a couple of enhancements Continue Reading

By

• Simon Quicke, Microscope Editor

Channel roundup: Who's gone where?

Another busy week in the industry and time for the channel to get familiar with a few fresh names Continue Reading

By

• Simon Quicke, Microscope Editor

MicroScope: What’s next for the channel?

The fourth quarter is the busiest in the channel, so we talk to experts to ask what technologies should be selling strongly in the coming months. Also, discover whether vendor certifications are really worth it, and what Brexit could mean for the GDPR sales pitch Continue Reading

Westcoast and iland present a tale of two disties

Talking to just a couple of distributors reveals the evolution and determination from those firms to remain ahead of the market Continue Reading

By

• Nick Booth

Telstra looking for channel growth after turning purple

The recent launch of Telstra Purple will give the comms specialist the opportunity to provide the channel with more support Continue Reading

By

• Simon Quicke, Microscope Editor

Nuvias putting the emphasis on value

Distributor kicks off a campaign around adding value for resellers that will run for the next few months Continue Reading

By

• Simon Quicke, Microscope Editor

HPE points distribution towards the growing as a service opportunity

Vendor is sitting down with distributors this week to talk about as a service, SMEs and its channel programmes Continue Reading

By

• Simon Quicke, Microscope Editor

Maintel turns to former Avaya boss to step into CEO shoes

It's only taken a few weeks for the managed services player to settle on its choice of who will be its next chief executive Continue Reading

By

• Simon Quicke, Microscope Editor

Channel roundup: Who's gone where?

Another busy week for those working in HR departments, including one of those getting a fresh head, over the past week Continue Reading

By

• Simon Quicke, Microscope Editor

Veeam looking to get more partners to gold

Vendor is keeping the focus on skilling up its partner base and getting them to higher levels in its programme Continue Reading

By

• Simon Quicke, Microscope Editor

WatchGuard focusing on verticals as MSP numbers swell

Security player has seen its managed service provider relationships grow since it reached out to that segment of the channel community Continue Reading

By

• Simon Quicke, Microscope Editor

Extreme Networks bringing Aerohive partners into unified programme

Plans to bring Aerohive partners into a unified programme are close to being made public by Extreme Networks Continue Reading

By

• Simon Quicke, Microscope Editor

Channel roundup; Who's gone where?

Another busy few days with some of the great and the good in the industry getting a chance to make a fresh impression in senior roles Continue Reading

By

• Simon Quicke, Microscope Editor

Are accreditations and certifications channel essentials, or simply nice to have?

 Continue Reading

ScanSource paints a picture of a digital future

Just weeks after it revealed plans to divest its hardware operation the firm has updated UK partners on the strategy Continue Reading

By

• Simon Quicke, Microscope Editor

Quest and SecureAuth look for growth through the channel

If you have ambitious targets to meet then there is no better way of cranking up the sales activity than deepening relationships with the channel Continue Reading

By

• Simon Quicke, Microscope Editor

Channel has to help customers with confidence crisis

Those trying to go through the IT buying process are struggling with too much information and trying to make sense of vendor marketing messages Continue Reading

By

• Simon Quicke, Microscope Editor

Agilitas chairman Kelly awarded OBE

Channel veteran is recognised for his efforts working in the ICT community in Wales Continue Reading

By

• Simon Quicke, Microscope Editor

Channel roundup: Who's gone where?

Time for the weekly roundup of personnel moves across the industry with several senior roles being filled in the last seven days Continue Reading

By

• Simon Quicke, Microscope Editor

LogMeIn looking for channel to support UCC suite

Firm is looking to get partners behind its latest product releases as it increases the focus its on comms and collaboration suite Continue Reading

By

• Simon Quicke, Microscope Editor

Datto challenging MSP sales and marketing assumptions

Firm is using an event in London to challenge existing views of sales and marketing and provide advice for those looking to devise their own strategy Continue Reading

By

• Simon Quicke, Microscope Editor

Are accreditations and certifications channel essentials, or simply nice to have?

We investigate how important it is for channel businesses to gain industry and vendor certificates Continue Reading

By

• Billy MacInnes

Cyxtera building channel base

As the business evolves and becomes increasingly indirect the data and security player is keen to work with more resellers Continue Reading

By

• Simon Quicke, Microscope Editor

Time to skill up and deepen customer relationships

The fourth quarter is a key time on the sales front but there are other activities that resellers should engage in to get themselves in a stronger position come the year end Continue Reading

By

• Simon Quicke, Microscope Editor

Commercial PC growth better for channel than consumer PC growth

The commercial PC segment experienced a 15% sales increase in July, while consumer sales dropped by 2% – but that’s better than the other way round Continue Reading

By

• Billy MacInnes

Channel roundup: Who's gone where?

Plenty of movement in the industry this week as firm's look for experts that can help deliver growth Continue Reading

By

• Simon Quicke, Microscope Editor

Ivanti steps up channel investment

Firm makes a raft of improvements designed to increase partner support and increase indirect revenues Continue Reading

By

• Simon Quicke, Microscope Editor

MicroScope: Helping digital transformation

Find out how the channel is helping customers to digitally transform their businesses to keep up with trends and plan for the future, and read about what changes could come about from the shift to business-led IT. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

Asolvi set for further UK expansion after landing fresh investment backers

Nordic firm has already acquired three UK firms this year and looks like more will be on the agenda after it has a fresh majority investor on board Continue Reading

By

• Simon Quicke, Microscope Editor

CenturyLink expands channel programme across EMEA

Firm is looking for resellers to sign up after it rolls out a major expansion in the area covered by its channel programme Continue Reading

By

• Simon Quicke, Microscope Editor

Users struggling to get hold of digital skills

Research has found that a lot of customers are not able to take advantage of the latest technology because they do not have the in-house expertise needed to adapt and adopt it Continue Reading

By

• Simon Quicke, Microscope Editor

Channel roundup: Who's gone where?

Changes in personnel worth noting this week at Googe Cloud, Lexmark, AOC/MMD and Qualitest Continue Reading

By

• Simon Quicke, Microscope Editor

Tech Data CEO points to Q2 results as validation of strategy

Rich Hume is keen to move the firm to higher value solutions and viewed the second quarter results as a sign that the strategy is delivering Continue Reading

By

• Simon Quicke, Microscope Editor

Channel roundup: Who's gone where?

The channel moves continue to stack up regardless of the summer holidays Continue Reading

By

• Simon Quicke, Microscope Editor

Interview: Graeme Watt, CEO of Softcat

 Continue Reading

How to help businesses reach their digital goals

 Continue Reading

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

 Continue Reading

Channel advice: How to spend the holiday weeks

Staff might be coming and going topping up their tans but there is still plenty that the channel can do both internally and crucially externally with customers Continue Reading

By

• Simon Quicke, Microscope Editor

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

By

• Billy MacInnes

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

By

• Billy MacInnes

Channel roundup: Who's gone where?

Another busy week as some senior appointments are made across the channel Continue Reading

By

• Simon Quicke, Microscope Editor

Digital transformation leadership a problem for users

NTT research has highlighted issues around the expertise of those leading digital transformation efforts and Kyocera has highlighted the need to concentrate on people as well as technology Continue Reading

By

• Simon Quicke, Microscope Editor

Higher margin business helps Insight in Q2

Channel player might have seen sales remain flat but the CEO is remaining confident about the prospects for the second half Continue Reading

By

• Simon Quicke, Microscope Editor

CybSafe reaps the benefits of turning to the channel

The security firm has provided an update a year after it made its decision to go in-direct Continue Reading

By

• Simon Quicke, Microscope Editor