Comms Dealer

Microsoft plans to launch Windows 10 on July 29th with global 'fan celebrations', joint efforts with thousands of retailers, including all Microsoft store locations and a new global advertising campaign.

Available for the first time as a free upgrade, Windows 10 delivers a fast and familiar experience that is more secure and automatically up-to-date. Windows 10 features new innovations like Cortana, Microsoft Edge and Xbox integration.

"Windows 10 was built to empower people to do great things," said Yusuf Mehdi, corporate vice president of Windows and Devices Marketing at Microsoft. "We'll mark the launch of Windows 10 by celebrating the people and organisations that upgrade the world every day - and by helping them do more in their communities."

Insight, a global provider of IT hardware, software and service solutions, has become a member of the Cloud Industry Forum (CIF), the industry body established to promote trust, security and transparency for the cloud.

Working with CIF, Insight will seek to establish greater awareness of the possibilities of cloud computing for businesses and public sector organisations, as well as demonstrate how cloud-based services can meet the demands of trust and security for customer data.

"Our approach is based on being a trusted industry advisor, and this partnership reflects our commitment to our customers," said Mike Wheeler, EMEA Go To Market Director, Hybrid Cloud at Insight, on working with CIF.

"Much like the Cloud Industry Forum, we are fully committed to creating a sustainable and responsible Cloud ecosystem for our customers and the wider industry.

"With much of the early hype around next generation computing having settled, it's critical that the industry commits to the promises made around cost efficiencies, security and performance of cloud services.

"We look forward to working closely with CIF and its existing members to drive three key tenets of its Code of Practice for Cloud Service Providers - transparency, accountability and capability."

Formed in 1988 in Tempe, Arizona, Insight serves clients across 180 countries, providing IT hardware, software and service solutions across both the business and public sector.

Insight's cloud services provide organisations with a single source for cloud-based applications and services, Private Cloud offerings through to a portfolio of Infrastructure and Platform services. This includes applications, operating systems, security and business continuity options.

Alex Hilton, CEO of CIF, added: "Our primary goal is to establish robust standards of transparency, accountability and capability across the cloud industry.

"Along with our other industry members, I am sure that Insight will make an important contribution in helping us drive for industry-wide standards, which in turn will provide comfort and clarity to end users seeking to move to the cloud."

Novice resellers went back to the classroom to learn about Samsung Wireless LAN installation techniques as part of a Nimans training course.

Attendees spent two days gaining a system overview as they learned the secrets to WLAN success and how to install the intuitive and scalable technology.

Access Points and Controllers, features, Wi-Fi standards and channels, security options and site surveys all fell under the spotlight as part of the 'hands-on' course.

A Preston-based dealer commented afterwards: "We are relatively new to this market so need to learn how to set-up and install a complete Wi-Fi system.

"We've done one so far but received some assistance from Samsung. We now understand its many capabilities and how to deploy it. We can't wait to get on with things and sell lots of it. The course was an important stepping stone."

The training course forms part of a complete support structure from Nimans designed to help resellers embrace the fast-growing WLAN arena, already worth £250m in the UK which is set to expand by 20% this year. New industry research forecasts that Wi-Fi networks will carry almost 60% of smartphone and tablet data traffic by 2019.

"WLAN is a natural evolution of voice and data communications with education, retail and hospitality huge areas to target, says Tom Maxwell, Head of Dealer Sales at Nimans.

He highlighted how Samsung WLAN is based on expandable 'bullet proof' hardware that can seamlessly integrate into existing Samsung architecture or be rolled out across other comms system platforms.

Maxwell added: "We recognise how training is a vital component in helping resellers move forward with confidence. Many haven't been involved with WLAN before but we are with them every step of the way to ensure they make a flying start.

Three new starters have brought a variety of skills sets to fast expanding Fidelity Group.

South African born Clair Bonar, 33, has joined the Henley-on-Thames based company form Barclays Capital as Finance Manager. She will be liaising daily with resellers, white label partners and suppliers. "This is like chalk and cheese from what I was doing for Barclays but its great working for a fast growing business as each day brings a fresh challenge," said Clair.

Business Development manager Zac Jones, 20, is an accomplished cricketer for the Berkshire county side  and Henley CC  - one of the best cricket teams outside of the County set up. Before joining Fidelity, he spent two years playing in Australia and New Zealand. A lover of fine dining he has recently completed a wine course specialising in the Argentina Malbec grape variety. 

Completing the trio is keen rower Dan Boddington, 23, from Watlington. Educated at Abingdon and Durham University where he studied physics, Dan has taken on the Billing Analyst role at Fidelity, helping customers save money on their ICT packages. Dan rowed for the U16 GB rowing team, helping them beat the French. "That was undoubtedly the highlight of my rowing career to date," he said.

Average distributor sell prices for PCs increased by +6.3% in the first half of 2015 across Western European eurozone countries, according to data published by CONTEXT, the European IT market analysis company.

The rise in consolidated ASPs for Desktops, Notebooks and PC Workstations - from €450 in January to €479 in early June - was partly the result of price increases implemented by vendors in an attempt to mitigate the effects of currency fluctuations on PC margins.

Earlier this year, many PC vendors had commented on the need to bring up prices following the strong depreciation of the euro against the US dollar in the second half of 2014 and into 2015.

The increase was also the result of a shift in the product mix, driven partly by a decline in the share of low-end, Microsoft Bing-based systems towards the end of the 6-month period.

In February Bing products still accounted for almost 15% of all PCs sold through distribution in eurozone countries but their share was down to 5.8% in early June.

Mayflex has collected the Milestone Solutions distributor of the year award for 2014, presented to Gary Harmer, Director of Sales Electronic Security, at the Milestone MPOP event.

Mayflex has been distributing the Milestone XProtect Software Suite and NVR solutions for over five years via a network of accredited partners.

Harmer said: "The Mayflex team have continued to develop relationships with existing customers and at the same time has forged ahead with bringing on new Milestone customers to the business.

"Integration with a range of ecosystem technology partners including Axis, Canon, Digital Barriers, Paxton and our newest partner ISONAS, Pure IP access control continues to help us position Milestone as a VMS provider."

Milestone's open platform Milestone XProtect video management software (VMS) is based on a true open platform, which means it has a published application programming interface (API), allowing developers to alter the functionality of XProtect.

The Milestone open platform enables users to add custom security solutions to surveillance, such as access control, cameras and video analytics.

The restructure of Microsoft's phone hardware business sees the reduction of up to 7,800 positions, primarily in the phone business.

As a result, the company will record an impairment charge of approximately $7.6 billion related to assets associated with the acquisition of the Nokia Devices and Services (NDS) business in addition to a restructuring charge of approximately $750 million to $850 million.

The announcement follows recent moves by Microsoft to better align with company priorities, including recent changes to Microsoft's engineering teams and leadership, plans to transfer the company's imagery acquisition operations to Uber, and shifts in Microsoft's display advertising business that enable the company to further invest in search as its core advertising technology and service.

The plans were outlined in an email from Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella to Microsoft employees.

"We are moving from a strategy to grow a standalone phone business to a strategy to grow and create a vibrant Windows ecosystem including our first-party device family," Nadella said. "In the near-term, we'll run a more effective and focused phone portfolio while retaining capability for long-term reinvention in mobility."

Microsoft will record a charge in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2015 for the impairment of assets and goodwill in its Phone Hardware segment, related to the NDS business.

This charge has no impact on cash flow from operations and is nondeductible for income tax purposes.

Based on the new plans, the future prospects for the Phone Hardware segment are below original expectations. Accordingly, the company concluded that an impairment adjustment of its Phone Hardware segment assets and goodwill of approximately $7.6 billion is required.

Over 20 of Union Street's partners enjoyed a sensational evening of high quality cricket at the Kia Oval last month. In a 20-20 thriller Surrey needed six off the last ball to beat visitors Gloucestershire and Ashar Mahmood duly delivered smashing the ball over square leg.

"It was any amazing evening which I am sure all our partners enjoyed," said Union Street Sales Director Vincent Disneur.

"The hospitality in our box was top class and it was  a sensational ending.

"Needless to say our guests from Stroud based Connexus were gutted as they thought Gloucestershire had it in the bag!"

Disaster recovery specialist Databarracks has introduced a new pricing model for the UK channel.

The simplified model is designed to make procurement of disaster recovery easier for the channel and end users.
 
Peter Groucutt, MD at Databarracks, said: "When evaluating suppliers and buying a DR service there are a number of different factors that need to be considered.

"Understanding how the service is priced shouldn't be an arduous task but a lot of pricing models can make it overly complicated. We have been guilty of it ourselves.
 
"Traditionally, our pricing for Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) was specific but not necessarily easy to understand.

"For an accurate quote, customers would need to do an inventory of their servers, storage and compute in order to get an accurate quote.

"This presented a few problems. Firstly, it was time-consuming for the customer and secondly, there was a risk of costing based on inaccurate data, leading to a higher monthly cost than expected.
 
"We've completely streamlined our DRaaS pricing model. Costs are fixed on a per-server and per-terabyte basis.

"It's transparent and it aids conversations for buyers internally because there are no hidden costs - what you see is what you get, so it's much easier to get buy-in from other key stakeholders.
 
"Partners can now produce accurate quotes on their own and do it within minutes with just a small amount of information from the customer.

"A big part of selling cloud services and maintaining your relationship with your customers is about building trust. By providing a pricing model that works and is honest, you create a relationship built on trust, which will last."

Rick Wallis has been appointed Jabra's Channel Sales Director UK&I just seven months after joining the company as Business Development Manager - SI Channel.

He was previously Head of Sales for the VAR, SI and Mobile Specialist Reseller channels at Brother and UK Sales Director for NEC IT Platform Solutions.

In another promotion, Lee Davis takes the role of Head of Telco UK&I with a remit to grow the Telco partner base. And also in the frame is Natasha Munro who joins as Scotland Account Manager from Misco.

Nigel Dunn, MD, Jabra UK & Ireland, commented: "Both Rick and Lee have contributed significantly to the development of our SI and Telco partner bases and promoting them into strategic roles will further strengthen our existing relationships while developing new ones.

"The appointment of Natasha into the High Touch role in Scotland also provides Jabra and our channel partners with growth opportunities in this region."