Comms Dealer

Arrow bounced back in Q2 with the European acquisition of COMPUTERLINKS helping to keep its growth positive. Second quarter sales of $5.7 billion were above the midpoint of guidance and overall and adjusted for the impact of acquisitions and changes in foreign currencies, total sales increased 1% year-over-year.

Enterprise computing solutions (ECS) grew 10% year-over-year and was flat globally adjusted for acquisitions. Operating income grew 12%, and billings grew at a mid-single digit rate year-over-year adjusted for acquisitions. Sales in the ECS business were $2.1bn, driven by continued growth in the software and services businesses and by a rebound in hardware-related business, following a spending pause during the first quarter.

"In enterprise computing solutions, we continue to move forward on our strategic transformation towards selling comprehensive solutions with a focus on the higher value segment targeted at the data centre. Our comprehensive solutions addressed enterprise customers' entire needs, be they on-premise, in the cloud or a hybrid combination. Both global components and enterprise computing solutions are benefiting from the growing demands to generate and capture data from a proliferating variety of Internet-connected devices and security transmit, analyse and store that data," Michael J Long, CEO told analysts.

In the Americas, ECS sales grew 34% quarter-over-quarter and grew 1% year-over-year. In Europe, sales grew 17% quarter-over-quarter. Europe sales in constant currency advanced 26% year-over-year, primarily due to the acquisition of COMPUTERLINKS. Adjusted for the impact of the acquisition, sales declined 1% year-over-year in constant currency in Europe.

"COMPUTERLINKS brought us new capability, new reach. And if you look at our European performance, we had record sales, record operating income and record operating income percent in Europe. So that's a big validation of that strategy that's paid off. And so when you look even deeper below that, security is growing at 9% worldwide for us."

In both the Americas and Europe year-over-year, growth in software and services were offset by a decline in proprietary servers. Enterprise computing solutions gross margin advanced year-over-year due to the more favourable mix of security infrastructure software as well as services. Operating income grew 20% year-over-year in the second quarter, and operating margin of 4.8% was up 40 basis points year-over-year.

"Proprietary servers year-over-year are down about 17%. That's why I'm really ho-hum on the IBM changes. There's really just not that much there that's worth going after. But our services business and software business is up 11% and 15%, respectively, towards that number."

"What we've really seen in the services piece is North America's a little bit ahead of Europe in growth. Europe's around 7% on the services side. And on the software side, Europe is actually leading North America by the same kind of few percentages as you saw services the other way. So the good thing about what we're seeing is that the business is learning from each other, region to region."

Piers Linney, co-CEO of Outsourcery, has joined the Cabinet Office SME Panel, which advises on small and medium business issues.

The SME Panel, formed in 2011, advises the Cabinet Office on work to help more small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to win public sector contracts and other SME-related issues. The panel consists of a broad range of micro, small and medium business leaders across a number of industry sectors.

Linney said: "The public sector provides a massive opportunity for SMEs, which are the engine of the economy. The aim of having SMEs account for 25% of direct and indirect central government expenditure is within reach and the G-Cloud framework in particular is a world leading example of how IT procurement should evolve to drive value for money and broaden supply bases to introduce more competition and innovation.

" However, it is important that such initiatives continue to adapt and that feedback is heard and acted upon and I look forward to adding our perspective."

Stephen Allott, the Crown Representative for SMEs said: "The SME panel has been doing a fine job in acting as a sounding board for Cabinet Office policies and offering excellent advice at how best to make it easier for smaller firms to pitch for and win government business. Piers will offer the board further experience from the IT sector and we look forward to his input.

"Government is now getting huge value from SME IT suppliers in particular. The G-Cloud Cloudstore is the standout success in this regard with spend of over £190 million to date - 56% of which has gone to SMEs."

The opportunity for IT resellers to adopt cloud telephony and generate new voice revenues has never been greater, according to a study by NCONNECT.

60% of survey respondents said they would take advantage of cloud telephony by adding it to existing customer offerings.

IT-centric resellers were frank about the concerns and risks associated with selling more voice services, or in many cases selling voice for the very first time.

The biggest obstacle for 55% of respondents was how adding voice might appear to dilute their customer offering.

For 36% of respondents, the prime worry was the competitiveness within the existing voice market and the need to have compelling and differentiated solutions.

"IT resellers must celebrate and exploit their hard-earned specialisms, but why leave money on the table when you're trusted by customers to deliver on their requirements?" said Rami Houbby, UK Managing Director of NCONNECT.

"There is a real opportunity for the IT channel to take advantage of cloud to break through into new voice revenues.

"According to the Cloud Industry Forum, nearly 80% of UK organisations have now formally adopted at least one cloud-based service showing just how far the market has come in understanding and accepting cloud IT. The demand for cloud telephony will only increase."

Telit Wireless Solutions, provider of machine-to-machine (M2M) modules, services and solutions has joined the Telefonica M2M Channel Partner Programme.

Under the terms of the deal, Telit will extend its value added services portfolio by adding Telefonica's connectivity services. The new partnership is aimed to reach to M2m customers across Europe and Latin America.

Telit m2mAIR Mobile delivers tools to service providers of M2M that help manage and deploy of global distribution, provisioning, connectivity and offers module management.

It also grants access to ePortal and help manage M2M accounts, control billing and charging as well as diagnose issues and analyse business performance, it says.

"We are delighted to serve Telit's partner ecosystem within our M2m Channel Partner Programme. This enables Telefónica to address new markets and segments and enriches our value proposition based on Telit's global leadership in module development and differential value-added services," said Rafael Garcia Meiro, Director of Telefonica B2B Indirect Sales Channels.

Three vendors are trying for the number two slot in enterprise networking and communications, says market research firm Infonetics Research. The enterprise networking and communication infrastructure market is highly fragmented, with well over 100 vendors vying for a piece of this $50bn market.

Excerpts from its 2014 Enterprise Networking and Communication Equipment Vendor Scorecard, which profiles, analyses, and ranks the seven leading vendors of enterprise networking, network security, and communication equipment and software worldwide cover Alcatel-Lucent, Avaya, Brocade, Cisco, HP, Juniper, and NEC.

"Cisco dominates the enterprise networking and communication market by a wide margin, due to offering the broadest solution portfolio, receiving positive feedback from enterprises, and capturing significant market share. The battle for second place is raging between Brocade, HP, and Juniper, and each has unique strengths: Brocade has the strongest financials, HP is growing the fastest, and Juniper has experienced the highest improvement in enterprise feedback," notes Matthias Machowinski, directing analyst for enterprise networks and video at Infonetics Research and lead author of the report.

Infonetics' scorecard evaluates vendors on criteria using actual data and metrics, such as direct feedback from buyers, vendor market share, share momentum, financials, and solution portfolio. This approach aims to eliminate subjective scoring and ensures vendors are assessed accurately and fairly.

Repeating its performance in last year's scorecard, Cisco once again earned the highest overall score by far, attaining perfect scores in 6 of 7 criteria and even improving on market share momentum, but the battle for second place heated up this year, with Brocade holding on to the spot again thanks to its strong financials, and is followed very closely by HP and Juniper

HP captured showed most improvement; NEC's top position in Japan's enterprise telephony market helped place it 5th in Infonetics' 2014 scorecard.

Software defined networking is coming, but Europe may take two years to catch up with the size of US deployments, claims Dr Clifford Grossner, Directing Analyst for Data Centre, Cloud, and SDN at Infonetics Research.

"Software defined networking (SDN) spells opportunity for existing and new vendors, and the time to act is now," he said.

"The leaders in the SDN market serving the enterprise will be solidified during the next two years as lab trials give way to live production deployments in 2015 and significant growth by 2016. The timelines for businesses moving from lab trials to live production for the data centre and LAN are almost identical."

The timing between the US and Europe is difficult to predict he adds: "If I had to guess, I would say that EMEA is very active in lab trials and production trials today, same as NA, but it will take 24 months before the size of EMEA deployments start to be equal the that of NA. This may also be an unfair comparison because of the differences in the average size of enterprises in EMEA."

The top drivers for deploying SDN are improving management capabilities and improving application performance, while potential network interruptions and interoperability with existing network equipment are the leading barriers. Meanwhile, enabling hybrid cloud is dead last on the list of drivers, a sign that SDN vendors have some work to do in educating enterprises that SDN can be an important enabler of hybrid cloud architectures.

Red Box Recorders has secured a global contract with Tradition, said too one of the world's leading brokers.

Under the terms of the deal Red Box Recorders will be responsible for recording over 8,000 channels of communications throughout the Americas and the UK.

This contract is the latest in a string of new customers for Red Box Recorders in the international finance sector.
 
Yann L'Huillier, Group Chief Information Officer at Tradition, commented: "Rationalising our infrastructure and reducing costs while increasing our Quality of Service is a constant focus for us.

"Red Box Recorders has allowed Tradition to achieve this goal by providing an efficient, easy to use solution that records both turrets and IP telephony."
 
Lee Jones, CEO at Red Box Recorders, added: "Red Box's Quantify suite can help organisations to address the challenges posed by the requirements of the increasingly complex compliance regulations in different regions."

Derby-based Node4 is opening the doors of its Pride Park site to local businesses on 7th August to mark its 10th anniversary and showcase its capabilities to local firms.

Andrew Gilbert, Managing Director, said: "As the East Midlands continues to thrive as a business hub, having a Data Centre to service the local economy provides an infrastructure for growth.

"We have years of experience working with SMEs and pride ourselves on our flexible approach to doing business. Technology is an enabler for lots of things and we want to give local companies the best possible chance of experiencing the full benefits."

JMC IT has been awarded an annual contract to provide its 24/7 SupportCare Active System Monitoring Service and a new private cloud network to building products distributor Magden.
 
Having grown from a single branch Manchester operation to four distribution centres supplying customers as far afield as Scotland and Gloucester, Magden now has plans to grow the business through several acquisitions.
 
Harry Cross, Magden Financial Director, said: "We knew that our current system had been draining too much time and too many resources from the company, and so we requested that JMC conduct a health-check on our existing IT systems.

"The results confirmed our fears and showed us the potential of what could be achieved by having a system in place that would actually work for our business.
 
"We have already seen the benefits of introducing the SupportCare service and in September we'll have a new network that can support our four remote branches as well as our growth plans. The best part is, the new system will grow with us."
 
David Gowler, Account Manager at JMC, added: "Businesses are reliant on their IT systems to operate and there is no excuse for companies to allow their systems to hinder their ability to grow.

"Working with a business that has such impressive growth plans is an exciting opportunity that will allow them to see the difference we can make."

Black Box Network Services UK has achieved Premier Partner Certification from Cisco.

To earn Premier Certification, Black Box Network Services had to meet set standards for networking competency, service, support and customer satisfaction.

David Long, Director of Sales & Marketing UK & Ireland, Black Box Network Services, said: "Today's dynamic communications market requires a partner process to adapt and transform technology to drive business results, and at Black Box we believe communication is an organisation's most important process. 

"Being a Premier Partner and working together with Cisco at this level will now create further value to our propositions."