Comms Dealer

Sixteen channel partners got the chequered flag as winners of the Eclipse Fastest 4 incentive scheme, securing secured a p[lace with the Eclipse team at Palmer Sport in June for a driving experience at the Bedford Autodrome.

Henry West, Head of Sales at Eclipse said: "We knew this incentive would be well received within the channel, because who wouldn't want to win a day out racing these types of cars? However the buzz it generated and the feedback we received from our Partners was just fantastic - it just goes to show the sense of fun and competitiveness alive in the channel today."

Howard Panas at PC Express, one of the Eclipse Partners joining the team on the day, added: "The relationship between Eclipse and PC Express has always been an enjoyable one and the Fastest 4 incentive with discounted pricing and a four car track day prize, really demonstrated the support that Eclipse delivers to their resellers to help them grow their business. The Palmer Sport track day will no doubt be a fantastic day and a great end to a superb incentive!"

Partners will join Eclipse on the 25th June for a four car track event followed by evening meal, drinks and accommodation to round off the day.

Softcat, provider of security solutions and related IT services, has been named European Growth Partner of the Year by Check Point.

The recognition follows Softcat's fastest growth as a partner with a 208% of increase. This was largely facilitated by many support services that Softcat managed to develop around Check Point's products. Also, the company introduced support services for its clients which were crucial due to a growing demand for support at an early stage of purchase in the area of software, hardware and licensing, it says.

Softcat has been an official Platinum partner and has worked with Check Point since 2003. It's also a certified managed services provider for Check Point.

"We're thrilled with this recognition on the European stage from Check Point. We've steadily grown our managed services offering to capitalise on the growing customer demand for Check Point support, and we offer 24 x 7 telephone support through to fully managed firewall services. This in turn has enabled us to win more Check Point enterprise clients and has boosted revenues accordingly.

"We have a great relationship with Check Point's support teams in Israel and the US; they want to make sure we can give the best possible service to our mutual customers, and so give us lots of support and insight to new technologies on Check Point's road map," said Simon Walker, Softcat's managed services director.

NetSuite, provider of cloud-based financials/ERP and omnichannel commerce software solutions, has announced a launch of its new partner programme that targets BPO providers.

Not only does it offer to Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) partners lower IT costs and more flexibility, but it strives to deliver a unified cloud-based solution of ERP, CRM and ecommerce for clients of all sizes, it says. The new scheme is an answer for a growing demand and pressure faced by businesses which turn to BPO providers.

The new partners who have decided to participate in a partner programme include Capgemini, McGladrey and Accretive Solutions.

"With this new partner programme we're providing the best of both worlds to BPO providers and their customers-an enterprise-class financial system that can be deployed anywhere in the world at a fraction of the cost and in a fraction of the time of traditional on-premise ERP. We've seen strong market demand for this type of programme and we're looking forward to working closely with our BPO partners to simplify the outsourcing model and aggressively lowering their operating costs moving forward," says Jim McGeever, NetSuite COO.

Recently NetSuite has also announced its top partners and winners. The company has named Accenture as its GSI Partner of the Year and Capgemini as its GSI Newcomer of the Year. Deloitte Consulting has been recognised as its GSI Quality Partner of the Year.
In the EMEA region FHL Cloud Solutions has been named as NetSuite's Solution Provider of the Year.

Atos, which is also trying to buy French integrator Steria, is to buy Bull in an all-French IT sector deal worth €620m to create the top Europe-based cloud computing company and a major player in cybersecurity.

The companies said a combined Atos and Bull, currently numbers 5 and 10 respectively in cloud computing in Western Europe, would leap to the fast-growing industry's number-two spot by revenue behind US-based Amazon and ahead of Microsoft.

At €4.90 a share, the agreed offer announced by both companies represents a 30 per cent premium to the three month weighted average share price of Bull and the combination is expected to deliver some €80n annually in cost savings within two years, equivalent to almost a third of Atos' net profit last year.

Atos, more than nine times larger than Bull by market value based on its offer price, said the deal would enhance its offerings in manufacturing, healthcare, and the public sector, and would reinforce its footprint, "mainly in France, but also in geographies such as Iberia, Poland, Africa and Brazil".

A presentation slide on the Atos website after the pair announced the deal showed the cloud services market growing at a compound annual rate of between 25% and 50% a year.

"Bull will bring critical and complementary capabilities in big data which, combined with Atos solutions, will create an offering in this high-growth segment," it said. Bull's main shareholders, Crescendo Industries and Pothar Investments, own some 24.2% of the company and have already committed to tender their shares, the companies said.

Atos is also in a battle to acquire French IT services group Steria. Steria has accepted a bid from rival Sopra and rejected Atos' €22 per share proposal.

Communications Minister Ed Vaizey has highlighted the role that superfast broadband is playing in the success of the Cornish economy as latest research estimated that the high-speed technology had already created or safeguarded at least 1,400 jobs and helped the county's businesses grow.

About 6,000 Cornish firms are now using fibre optic broadband - and the number is continuing to grow rapidly with more than 200 Cornish firms joining up every month.
The Superfast Cornwall partnership's latest evaluation report, based on a survey of more than 220 Cornish businesses which have been using fibre broadband for 12 months or longer, estimates that 611 jobs have already been created and 807 safeguarded.

More than half of businesses surveyed (52 per cent) reported that fibre broadband had enabled them to grow, whilst 79 per cent indicated that fibre broadband had saved them time or money and 55 per cent said that the technology had allowed them to work in new and different ways. About half (49 per cent) indicated that it had allowed employees to work more efficiently from home or remotely.

Mr Vaizey, who paid a fact finding visit to the Superfast Cornwall partnership, said he was impressed by the number of firms joining the 'superfast broadband revolution' and the innovative ways they were using the technology to find new customers, expand and boost competitiveness.

"Superfast broadband is a key part of the present and future success of Cornwall and the UK as a whole," he said. "This exciting technology is essential to modern business life whether you are a high-tech startup or an established family firm in an industry, such as tourism or manufacturing - and it will become even more essential in the increasingly 'connected world' of the future.

"It is heartening to see the way Cornish firms are embracing the new technology, finding ways to make it work effectively for them and creating jobs. They are sending the message loud and clear that Cornwall is very much open for new business."

Ranulf Scarbrough, Superfast Cornwall programme director for BT, said: "Cornwall has long been known for innovation and its forward-thinking approach is, once again, very apparent with the roll-out of fibre optic broadband. Superfast Cornwall has already put in place a fibre broadband network able to serve 90 per cent of homes and businesses - which is better coverage than most European cities - and Cornish businesses have been quick to take advantage.

"They are using the great benefits of superfast broadband to offer their products and services far and wide. Cornwall might be a county in the far South West of England, but it is very much at the forefront of the UK's superfast broadband revolution."

Volta, developer and operator of central London's purpose-designed carrier-neutral data centre, and Venus, a fibre network provider for the media and business community, have jointly announced enhanced hybrid colocation solutions via Amazon Web Services (AWS) at Volta Great Sutton Street (GSS).

Customers can now combine the convenience of collocating their IT infrastructure in the heart of London at Volta's facility with the flexibility and cost effectiveness of AWS Direct Connect, a dark fibre connection between Volta GSS and Amazon Web Services through Venus' almost unlimited network capacity.

AWS Elastic Cloud services provide overflow storage and processing capacity for data centre users.

Justin Keery, Director of Venus, said: "Venus saw the Volta GSS opportunity before the fit-out was complete, and we have been connected since day one. Venus and Volta both target Central London businesses with requirements for serious data capacity. Volta GSS' power and cooling combined with the capacity of the Venus dark fibre network deliver a powerful colocation and connectivity combination to the City and West End."

HP's Q2 saw business PCs as one of its few bright spots. It announced further job losses after releasing its core results early, as it came in under sales expectations with revenue of $27.3bn, down 1% yr/yr.

Having already cut thousands of jobs it says it is increasing the size of its job cuts by 11,000-16,000 positions. The company, which had 317,000 employees last year, saw gross margin rise 50 bps Y/Y to 24.2%. R&D spend was up +7% yr/yr to $873m.

Printing revenue fell 4% yr/yr after falling 2% in FQ1, enterprise hardware fell 2% after growing 1%, and enterprise services once more fell 7%. PCs were healthier (+7% vs. +4%, with 12% commercial growth offsetting a 2% consumer drop). As was software (flat vs. -4%, with 8% licence growth). Financial services -2% vs. -9%.

High-margin printing supplies revenue fell 7%, while printing hardware units rose 1%. In enterprise hardware, a 6% drop in storage and a 14% drop in business critical systems (mainly through Itanium weakness) offset a 6% increase in networking. x86 servers rose 1%.

Full-scale outsourcing by telecoms carriers is driving their managed services markets to new heights, says a researcher.

Infonetics Research released excerpts from its latest Service Provider Outsourcing to Vendors report, which tracks the revenue vendors derive from the services they provide to their carrier customers. The managed services portion of the outsourcing market, which includes network maintenance, operations, planning and design, grew 6% in 2013 to over $36 billion and is forecast by Infonetics to top $45 billion by 2018.

The report tracks both the overall network outsourcing market as well as the fast-growing managed services segment within it, also referred to as 'full-service outsourcing,' where an equipment vendor takes over an operator's entire infrastructure on an end-to-end basis over an extended period, including network maintenance, operations, planning and design tasks.

"At this point, it's hard to find new large outsourcing deals unless China comes on board, which may eventually happen due to the ongoing discussion about 4G network sharing," notes Stéphane Téral, principal analyst for mobile infrastructure and carrier economics at Infonetics Research.

Téral continues: "As a result, last year was marked by musical chairs: Huawei and ZTE picked up some deals, while Alcatel-Lucent and Nokia exited some unprofitable contracts. But overall, demand for managed services with a strong focus on user experience remains unabated."

In 2013, network equipment manufacturers outsourced by service providers to perform network services earned $68.1 billion worldwide, up 3.8% from the year prior. Ericsson held tight as the service provider outsourcing revenue leader in 2013, while HP leapfrogged IBM to take the second place.

Fourth placed Huawei continued its ascent, gaining 2.4 percentage points and chalking up the strongest year-over-year revenue growth of any vendor. Growth in the overall market moderated in 2013 due to a combination of forex for Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, and Nokia, and major contract restructuring at Alcatel-Lucent and Nokia.

Europe's IT channels are much more in sync currently across the various countries says Wayne Gratton, distributor Avnet SolutionsPath business development director.

And it is the specialist channels that are growing, he says. The vendors themselves are also collaborating better. "As a distributor we set out to help partners with multiple accreditations," he says. And this is growing, supported by those vendors.

Wider channels are involved: "We've always had a good relationship with service providers, and have a growing cloud business."

While the UK stays in the lead on market focus, the channel vertical practices are the ones that are winning.

It means not just one-off wins, but using expertise to be confident and build strength in verticals.

While local differences with other countries remain, Avnet has been getting good attendances at events from France to Turkey, he says.

Turkey in particular has been very resonant to the messages, with energetic events and good numbers at events. The SolutionsPath University events will expand and be run in more countries.

Red Box Recorders has appointed a senior member of staff to strengthen its product development and delivery as the company expands further into global markets.

John Cunningham joins Red Box Recorders as Chief Technology Officer where he will be responsible for the full technology cycle from architectural design through to product delivery and post installation customer support. His remit will also include product research and development, quality assurance testing and professional services project management.

Cunningham will also be ultimately responsible for upholding technical quality management and ensuring the continuous improvement of Red Box Recorders' services. He will also provide support in an additional role as the Executive Escalation Manager for key customer accounts, ensuring complete customer satisfaction.

Prior to joining Red Box Recorders Cunningham developed hundreds of software solutions across several sectors including broadcasting and financial services. His previous role was Chief Technology Officer for Nomad Digital, where he managed research and development units across Europe.

Lee Jones, CEO at Red Box Recorders, said: "Our appointment of a new Chief Technology Officer will ensure not only that our technology products are of premium standard, but also that our customers receive knowledgeable support during and after product install. We believe that John will be a huge asset to our team and help strengthen future global growth of our company."