Comms Dealer

Q2 PC shipments in Western Europe have been boosted by ongoing renewals in the SMB space following the end of Windows XP support, says IDC.

Commercial demand remained strong as business confidence stemming from an improving macroeconomic outlook contributed to corporate renewals. Commercial PC shipment growth in Western Europe reached 26.9% - clear confirmation that PCs remain key productivity tools in the enterprise environment.

At the same time, the rebound in consumer shipments accelerated and some markets, including southern Europe, returned to levels of business close to their capacity. Shipments in Spain, Germany, and the Netherlands took off, with sell-in up by more than 40%.

According to IDC, PC shipments in EMEA reached 21.9 million units in the second quarter of 2014 - a 10.5% increase year on year and a clear return to growth after seven quarters of consecutive decline. As in the previous quarter, Western Europe drove most of the regional growth, with shipments supported by strong enterprise renewals, which led to an overall 25% increase in the PC market. Consumer shipments also returned to growth after a severe contraction in 2013.

At the same time, Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) remained impacted by the unstable political and economic situation in Russia and by currency fluctuations; as forecast, CEE declined by 13.2%. The increase in total EMEA shipments indicates a rebound in the market but not a recovery as volumes remain below the 25 million unit mark of the peak periods in 2010 and 2012.

"The clear improvements in EMEA are positive signs for PC manufacturers," said Chrystelle Labesque, research manager, IDC EMEA Personal Computing. "However, there was still a big difference between the subregions, and especially in the consumer segment the divide between mature and emerging markets is similar to the worldwide trend.

"While some parts of the CEMA [Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East, and Africa] PC market continued to suffer from unfavourable exchange rates and a difficult political situation, Western European shipments were fueled by low-end consumer notebooks. Even if the comparison is eased by a very poor second quarter of 2013, more attractive products at the right price points encouraged more consumers to renew their devices.

"Retailers and etailers also seem more confident as new product designs and features better positioned price-wise are now generating higher sales and not only just interest. Promotional activities and vendors' preparation for the back-to-school period further supported the market. The level of inventory will have to be monitored closely as back-to-school sales progress during August and September."

In this context, Chromebooks continued to grow, but their impact is limited to several countries in Western Europe.

"The PC market in the CEMA region reported a contraction of 6% year on year," said Stefania Lorenz, associate VP, IDC CEMA. "The CEE region, in line with forecasts, recorded an annual decline of 13.2%. The region was affected by the expected contraction from the Eastern countries: Russia, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan. Russia and Ukraine suffered mostly from a slowdown in consumer demand, affected by the instability in both the economic and political situation, as well as high unemployment and a salary freeze. Kazakhstan remains affected by the dramatic currency devaluation, which is not expected to improve in the short term."

"Unlike the Eastern countries, the central region has performed well above expectations," said Nikolina Jurisic, product manager, IDC CEMA. "Countries such as Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, and Czech Republic have reported strong double-digit growth year on year.

"PC growth was driven by both consumer and commercial segments, thanks to continual improvement in channel strategies from the players in the market, as well as the expected renewal of XP that is taking place. The MEA region reported soft 1.9% year-on-year growth for the overall PC market. The desktop market performed slightly better, thanks to the Windows XP renewals taking place across all commercial segments."

Microsoft has joined Startup Europe Partnership (SEP), a pan-European programme designed to promote new technology start-ups. The initiative is supported by the EC.

"Microsoft has a real and growing commitment to Europe. By joining the Startup Europe Partnership (SEP), Microsoft is helping to build communities where tech and web entrepreneurs can start-up, scale-up and go global. Microsoft's own journey offers many lessons and examples for everyone working on digital issues," said Neelie Kroes, Vice President of the European Commission.

Earlier this year Telecom Italia announced it had supported the SEP initiative as a Corporate Member.

The other founding members of the SEP include Telefonica, Orange, BBVA, investment funds such as European Investment Fund, which is a part of the European Investment Bank Group, and European universities including Cambridge University, the IE Business School and the Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society.

SAP has extended its reach to SMBs with the launch of a new Solutions Group.

SAP plans to create cloud applications, powered by SAP HANA, specifically for SMBs.

The new business unit will be led by Dean Mansfield who has over 20 years of expertise in software-as-a-service industry and his past experience includes six years at NetSuite. In his new role he will be responsible for end-to-end operations of a new division as well as for an execution of the strategy.

Mansfield will also lead SAP's Business One application portfolio, which will continue operate through the Global Partner Operations organisation.

"SMBs are playing an increasingly important role in the global economy and at the same time are increasingly interested in leveraging advanced technology," said explains Ray Boggs, vice president of SMB Research, IDC.

"We're predicting record worldwide SMB IT spending that will top $680bn by 2018, with exceptional gains in key regions and across key technologies as SMBs are being transformed through the use of mobile devices and cloud computing. The opportunity for firms to sharpen their products, refine distribution strategy and appeal to new customers has never been greater."

Nimans has formed a Wi-Fi product partnership with Samsung and is marking the link-up with an event on August 19th at Coombe Abbey, Coventry, to launch the vendor's wireless LAN portfolio which integrates with other comms systems as well as its own architecture.

Delegates at the event will qualify for an introductory offer that includes discounted hardware and sales training.

"Samsung WLAN ensures a fast, secure and reliable wireless connection in high density, mobile device centric locations that have exploded in popularity," said Paul Burn Head of Category Sales at Nimans. "The expansion of our Samsung range is a natural fit for us and our customers.

"Despite the ever growing demand for wireless solutions in the market, some resellers have been reluctant to get involved due to concerns over deployment, but we are aiming to change all that by giving them the confidence and a strong platform to always install the most appropriate solutions.

"We are investing in new technologies such as Wi-Fi mapping software that predesigns Wi-Fi solutions. This will help resellers fully embrace burgeoning market opportunities as our Samsung success story continues."

South West Communications Group's CEO and Chairman Tony Rowe OBE has been awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Laws from University of Exeter.

Rowe is also CEO and Chairman of Exeter Chiefs Rugby Club.

In a speech to University of Exeter graduates, he said: "My advice is to look for opportunities - life is full of them. The first of mine was in 1983 when the Government privatised telecoms.

"The opportunity to get involved in the rugby club came along in 1993. They needed £4,000 to help travel to away games, so I got to put the name of my company on their shirts.

"When the game went professional, I formed the board of directors in 1998 and oversaw the move to Sandy Park, to create a revenue-generating conference and banqueting facility as well as the stadium which had an average attendance this year of 10,000 and a £10 million turnover. We have recently got planning permission to grow capacity to 20,000.

"The latest opportunity was to bid to host Rugby World Cup games. Three are coming next year.

"Be positive, believe in yourself, never take no for an answer, and if you want it badly enough you can do anything you set your mind to."

Managed hosting in Europe is set to double over the next four years, reaching almost the same level as the hitherto larger co-location market.

New analysis from Frost & Sullivan, European Data Centre Services Market, which covers the retail colocation and managed hosting segments, finds that retail colocation will witness lower growth rates than managed hosting due to its market maturity. The retail colocation segment generated revenues of $2.83bn in 2013 and is estimated to reach $5.27bn in 2018; managed hosting revenues will increase from $2.01bn to $4.90bn over the same period.

"The pressing need to focus internal resources on innovative IT tasks and capitalise on economical IT management services compel enterprises to turn to managed hosting providers for data centre services," says Frost & Sullivan Information and Communication Technologies Research Analyst Shuba Ramkumar. "The growth of cloud services will also drive the colocation services market in the short term."

In the long term, however, increasing efficiency and security of the cloud will challenge the growth of the retail colocation market.

In addition, organisations across Europe are bound by regional data laws that complicate decisions with respect to availing outsourcing services. The location of data centres, therefore, becomes an important consideration for users when choosing a provider. The regional nature of European organisations also means that many of them are wary of foreign companies and prefer local providers. These cultural and language barriers are especially strong in countries such as France, Spain, and Italy.

"In order to widen their customer base across Europe, it is important for providers to offer services from a data centre located within a region," advises Ramkumar. "At the same time, they must provide efficient IT support as well as ensure data confidentiality and security to win the trust of potential customers."

Due to the need to implement different infrastructure frameworks based on application type, enterprises will use traditional data centre services alongside the adoption of cloud services. As a result, the European data centre services market is focussing on more hybrid data centre services that combine colocation, managed hosting and cloud solutions. 

Computacenter's first half results show sustainable growth in the UK, continuing issues in Germany, and France recovering.

Group revenue for first half increased by 2% on an as reported basis and by 4% in constant currency as services revenue increased by 3% on an as reported basis and by 5% in constant currency.

UK revenue grew by 14% in first half of year and it says it is confident that 'momentum that we have in UK will continue for foreseeable future'.

German revenue fell by 10% in constant currency during first half while French revenue increased by 14% in constant currency in first half of year - overall this means that the business is up on the same period last year.

Microsoft is to axe 18,000 jobs over the next year in a restructure plan to align the recently acquired Nokia Devices and Services business with the company's overall strategy. The job cuts are the deepest Microsoft has made in its 39 year history.

Of the total, about 12,500 professional and factory positions will be eliminated through synergies and strategic alignment of the Nokia Devices and Services business acquired by Microsoft on April 25th.

The actions associated with the plan are expected to be substantially complete by the end of this year and fully completed by June 30th 2015.

The company expects to incur pre-tax charges of $1.1 billion to $1.6 billion over the next four quarters, including $750 million to $800 million for severance and related benefit costs, and $350 million to $800 million of asset-related charges.

The plans were outlined in an email from Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella to Microsoft employees, and an email from Microsoft Executive Vice President Stephen Elop to Microsoft Devices Group employees.

The company employs 127,000 worldwider, including 3,500 workers based in the UK. 

Exertis Micro-P is aiming to put resellers in the frame for incremental revenue opportunities following a link-up with Cambridge-based video conferencing manufacturer BlinkPipe which enables voice and video over one Internet connection.

BlinkPipe merges the audio stream from an analogue or SIP conference phone with the HD video of their 720p, multi-element zoom lens face-tracking camera.

This way, the video travels over the customer's Internet connection and the conversation is not broken up by poor network performance.

The solution simplifies what has until now been a technical hurdle for most resellers, according to James Burns, UC Devices Business Unit Manager at Exertis Micro-P.

"The BlinkPipe solution eases the pain a reseller historically would have experienced with bringing this type of technology into their portfolio," he said.

"There is no need for a reseller to invest significant time and expense on vendor technical and sales accreditations or be restricted to USB devices that use an existing desktop conferencing service." 

Burns also noted that the solution is available in both an opex and capex sales model. And as part of BlinkPipe's accreditation programme resellers get a BlinkPipe Room System for their own demonstration use, sales and technical training plus marketing collateral and referrals.

"BlinkPipe makes video conferencing available to end users who did not have the budget for an integrated VC solution," added Burns.

"This product presents an incremental sales revenue opportunity for our channel partners to present to a well-established audio conferencing market in the UK."

In bold statement Dan Burgess, UC Devices Product Manager (pictured left), claimed: "BlinkPipe is a true game changer in the conferencing marketplace.

"It offers an opportunity for resellers to re-engage with their customer base with a product that offers 100% attachment rates to existing and incremental audio conferencing sales.  

"The clever bit is that the camera 'listens' to the conversation and lip syncs the video and audio so it appears they are both on one video stream."

Exertis Micro-P's launch plan for BlinkPipe includes a series of product webinars during week commencing 21st July.

BT has lifted the lid on One Phone, a new service that brings together a company's office phone system and mobile phone usage into a single service, hosted in the cloud and delivered on a mobile phone.

All of an individual's numbers are linked to their work mobile phone, so whether somebody calls their landline, extension or mobile number, all calls go to one phone.

The service works with a full range of mobile phones by inserting a BT One Phone SIM.

Graham Sutherland, CEO, BT Business, said: "With an increasingly mobile and demanding workforce, businesses need communications technology that is as flexible as they are. Missed calls mean missed business."

BT One Phone provides inclusive on-net internal calls between users within a business, a choice of company shared bundles or unlimited voice and text tiers, and access to billing data.

To install BT One Phone, in most cases BT will build a dedicated mobile network in a customer's premises. When an employee leaves the office there's a handover between their dedicated mobile network and the BT Mobile national network.