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EnterpriseDB, provider of Postgres products and Oracle databases solutions, has announced an expansion of its partner programme to better support the influx of new software partners.

The new ISV programme will provide access to specialised resources for certifying products and special pricing packages. Also, the companies that can bundle Postgres with their own solutions will be offered extra support, it says.

"Our customer and partner profile has become more diverse and we want to foster a direct, collaborative relationship with other software vendors," said Ed Boyajian, CEO and president of EnterpriseDB.

"Our new ISV Program provides the resources that help vendors bring better applications to market faster. And by certifying our products with other vendors, end users have the assurance that all components of their infrastructure have been optimised for Postgres."

This year's European IT Excellence Awards shows just how diverse the IT supply industry has become with solutions ranging from construction site management to healthcare systems and government document control, and from all parts of Europe.

IT Europa, the leading European IT publisher and market intelligence organisation, has announced the winners of the European IT & Software Excellence Awards 2014 - the pan-European awards event for ISVs, IT and Telecoms channels. The finalists were honoured last night at a celebration dinner at the London Lancaster Hotel.

With strong, measurable returns, many of these IT projects prove that IT investment can make business, government and other organisations a lot better and more productive. The total payback from the projects in these awards runs into many millions of euros.

The European IT & Software Excellence Awards are the only pan-European awards which recognise the crucial role that Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) and Solution Providers have in delivering real-world solutions. It attracted entries from 25 countries, and these entries, while submitted by the ISVs and solution providers themselves, each had to be supported by an endorsement by the client. 81 companies from 16 countries made the finals. The winners were selected by an independent panel of consultants and editors.

There were several major success stories, with previous years' winners returning in force and carrying off further awards. A strong batch of entries from the UK, Eastern Europe, Germany, and many from Indian companies working in Europe shows how companies are competing to deliver real rewards to customers, which can only be good for the industry.

"We are finding a consistently high level of entries for each of these annual awards, and we had an impressively wide range of industries and solutions addressed," says John Garratt, Editor of IT Europa. "What impressed us this year was the quality and the measurable returns many of these projects delivered. Many have total paybacks many times the value of the IT investment, and we are seeing many of these projects delivered as part of a continuing expansion of productive investment. This shows what a great relationship these IT suppliers have with their customers, and how customers are keen to work with suppliers on a long term change to their organisations."

The awards categories were divided into several groups: the ISV categories were for software houses, app developers and integrators supplying systems for vertical markets, government or custom environments. The Solution Provider categories were for complete solutions, often delivered with a strong services element, and finally the supplier categories, for which channel companies nominated their distributors, service providers and vendors for the support provided through their channel programmes.

The European IT Excellence Awards 2014 - results:

ISV Categories:

Big Data, Business Intelligence and Analytics Solution of the Year - Tollring

Communications/Mobility Solution of the Year - MobiCloud

ERP/Supply Chain Management Solution of the Year - IBA Group

Government/Utilities Solution of the Year - Thomsons Online Benefits

Information & Document Management Solution of the Year - Software Innovation

Relationship Management Solution of the Year - ccapps

SaaS Solution of the Year - Cybertill

Software Innovation Solution of the Year - Vecta Sales Solutions

Vertical Market Solution of the Year - PureNet

Solution Provider Categories:

Big Data Business Intelligence and Analytics Solution of the Year - DevScope

Datacentre Solution of the Year - Green Fields Technology

Enterprise Solution of the Year - Consortium Hewlett Packard Romania - SIVECO Romania

Managed Service Solution of the Year - 4net Technologies

Mobility/Communications Solution of the Year - MobiCloud

Networking Solution of the Year - SolarWinds

Public Sector and Utilities Solution of the Year - Accellion

Security Solution of the Year - Prot-On

SME Solution of the Year - Vecta Sales Solutions

Storage/Information Management Solution of the Year - AirWatch

Vertical Solution of the Year - Birlasoft (India) Limited

Supplier Categories:

Distributor of the Year - Arrow ECS

Finance/ Support Services Provider of the Year - BNP Paribas Leasing Solutions

Hardware Vendor of the Year - Emulex

Software Vendor of the Year - Centrify

Service Provider of the Year - Outsourcery

Platform of the Year - Oracle

In congratulating the winners, Alan Norman, Managing Director of IT Europa says: "the overall quality of entries was extremely high and demonstrated the depth of talent in the ISV and channel communities across Europe. I congratulate all the winners and wish them and all the finalists every success in the year ahead."

Independent software vendors (ISVs) face a wide-open market with great opportunities, but will need to focus to get the best rewards in the longer term. Discussions at the ISV Convention recognised the rapid changes in the independent software business, but it was the nature of the change that most experts were concerned about.

Rob Craft, senior director of enterprise cloud at Microsoft said that the transition to cloud was not so much a toggle as a slider. HP's cloud portfolio director Hans Van Breda also said that it was an innovation journey. It was when the discussion tried to pin down how far along the slider the industry was, that things became less certain.

Rob Craft thought it was 50% of the way, but this was based on the enterprise nature of the business. SMBs will take while longer. And there is a strong role for the channel, all parties agreed. But it could be a very different channel. "End customers focus on outcomes; not hardware/software" so the channel becomes more like a consultancy says Ingram Micro's Advanced Division director Jason Beal.

The ISV Convention 2014 at the London Lancaster on March 26 heard experts from HP, IBM, Interoute, Microsoft and Oracle set out their ideas to several hundred invited ISVs from across Europe. The keynote from Mark Paine of Gartner talked of the nexus of forces - mobility, big data, cloud -combing to force new ways of thinking - and marketing.

Customers need to know who you are and how to find you, he suggested. And this means suppliers such as ISVs need to look beyond the product, re-evaluating routes to market. A key test for any supplier on this differentiation - can an ISV replace its sales messaging with that of a competitor? If this still works, the ISV needs to change and get more focus in its message.

With individuals and whole sections of in enterprises bypassing traditional IT departments, ISVs have to work out how to engage with these new buyers, Mark Paine said. The new buyers are tech-savvy, connected, but not from any particular department, and outcome-driven. This means, the Gartner expert told the Convention, that analytics systems bought outside traditional IT models is a real growth point; the new buyers seek rapid innovation and outcomes.

Another part of the nexus may not be so obvious in its attraction to ISVs. Big data is non-consumable for most business users, the Convention was told. Customers actually want developers to make big data small - then can tap insights, said BI specialist Jaspersoft. Oracle's VP Sales for ISV/OEM Laurent Zelmanowicz pointed out the huge growth in the Internet of Things, and the wall of data that all sorts of devices, from boats to consumer goods were going to be generating. It is a question of capacity, he said, and the management of these quantities of data. Interoute's CTO Matthew Finnie pointed out that there was still a need to build customer confidence after an era in which the IT industry had supplied solutions that didn't deliver against expectations.

Lauri Saft, director of the IBM Watson cognitive computing partner program was busy after her presentation now that IBM has opened up this powerful tool for development. She said "yes, you can buy a Watson", but a revenue share model also shows how it works for developers and ISVs.

The IBM Watson organisation, which offers this cognitive analytics package, is scaling fast and now with 700 employees, will grow internationally to over 2000 people. It was clear how Watson can benefit ISVs, she said - early movers have been able to leap-frog competition. The Watson program was now engaged in bringing all parts of its channel together - app and content developers plus those with the talent to recognise where Watson can be applied.

"IBM Watson gets smarter with every bit of data and every interaction," she concluded, saying it had had 1800 applications in a month on how it can be put to use.

Earlier the debate livened up when the issue of measuring outcomes for customers was raised. The idea of profit sharing had been considered by some people, but was viewed as too hard to control once marketing effort and the like were considered.

Cisco is transforming its existing channel partner and services programme into new Cisco Partner Ecosystem to better support partners on their way to cloud and help them benefit from market opportunities, it says.

The upgraded Cisco Partner Ecosystem strives to win a broader set of partners, in particular ISVs, consulting firms, technology and Internet of Things partners, it says.

In general terms Cisco Solution Partner Programme, which is a key tenant of its Partner Ecosystem, has been designed to focus on 'solution partners' and approach them in order to bring a wealth of solutions they offer into Cisco's ecosystem.

Though this new scheme the prospective partners will be offered a number of benefits such as an opportunity to develop Cisco's market solutions, which cover hardware, software and service, and an access to Cisco channel and its go-to-market designations.

Also, Cisco sees its channel partners in a new role of trusted advisors focused on business outcomes, new market opportunities with horizontal/vertical solutions and services for solution platforms that will strengthen further partner differentiation.

The new programme will also emphasise the connection between channel partners and solution partners via a dedicated marketplace solutions catalogue.

On top of this, Cisco has also introduced some major changes into its certifications, specialisations and incentives structure.

"The next generation channel program will enable and reward partners for adopting new consumption models and reaching new buying centres, with an emphasis on solutions, hybrid IT, and architectures. Channel partners will see changes across Certifications, Specialisations and Incentives. Partners will generally have 16-24 months to transition to the new requirements," explains Edison Peres, SVP of Worldwide Channels.

The certification structure has been streamlined to help partners better differentiate and invest in their Cisco practice, it says.

Cisco will keep its strongest brand Gold certification as well as Premier and Select, however the company has announced plans to retire its Silver designation starting from April, 2016.

All Gold, Premier and Select will expand and require partners to include hybrid IT business model. As far as Gold is concerned, partners will still need to prove that they sell a minimum of four cloud/managed services offers as well as they will need to have a Cisco Business Value Practicioner on staff and hold four Cisco Advanced Architecture Speclisations, it says.

Premier partners will be required to have one cloud/managed service offer and a Cisco Express or Advanced Architecture Specialisation while Select will remain Cisco's entry level for partners who intend to grow their businesses in the midsize market.

At the same time, Silver partners will be offered to choose between an increase in breadth to become Gold Certified or increase their depth in order to earn Master Specialisation. They will also get an option to move to Premier Certification.

Additionally, Cisco has introduced global and multinational certifications and changes to its Global Partner Network programme to simplify transactions with global customers.

Cisco will continue to focus on 'depth' which is reflected by keeping three levels of specialisations: Master, Advanced and Express. However, the partners will be encouraged to enhance their portfolio to include two new Master Specialisations and new solutions specialisations.

Additionally, in the second half of the year, Cisco plans to launch its Deal Registration Programme which brings discount incentives under one umbrella. The other enhancements involve Registered Deal Differential which offers to partners who register deal with Cisco to qualify to receive a discount differential of up to 8%, a 60% growth. Although the incentives will remain to be based on the investments and value partners add, it says.

"I'm excited about the changes and the opportunities we have ahead. The future is bright for Cisco and our partners - we are making the Internet of Everything possible. As we have in the past, I'm confident our partners will make the necessary transitions to evolve their business models successfully, and together we'll bring even more value to our customers" says Peres.

Technology giant Cisco has pledged to invest $1bn over the next two years to build what it claims will be the largest global Intercloud. Cisco's investment will be in building up data centres to run the new service called Cisco Cloud Services, to be delivered with and through partners.

Cisco's network of clouds will also rely on data centres operated by partners and the company says its global Intercloud will offer an expand- ed suite of value added application and network-centric cloud services to drive forward the Internet of Everything.

The move is fresh evidence of a shift in customer preferences towards renting external services rather than buying hardware that resides on site.

Robert Lloyd (pictured), President of Development and Sales, said: "The time is right for Cisco and partners to invest in an application-centric glob- al Intercloud to offer broader reach and faster time to market.

"Together, we have the capability to enable a seamless world of many clouds in which our customers have the choice to

enable the right, highly secure cloud for the right workload, while creating strategic advantages via innovation, and ultimately business growth."

Cisco is already working with global partners to focus on big corporations and government agencies while optimising its services with software from companies such as SAP, Microsoft and VMware.
Cisco is also expanding the Cisco Powered programme to include Cisco Cloud Services.

IT specialist Blue Chip is celebrating its eighth year as Technical Partner and sponsor of the Voltcom Crescent Suzuki World Superbike (WSB) team, topped off by Eugene Laverty's win in the opening race of the World Superbike 2014 Championship at Australia's Phillip Island.

Blue Chip MD Richard Cook said: "We have worked with the team over the years across MotoGP, British Superbike and World Superbike as well as providing IT infrastructure and support to the Crescent Suzuki retail business. 2014 is set to be a very positive year with riders Eugene Laverty and Alex Lowes on board, already with a win in the first race of the season by Eugene."

As Technical Partner, Blue Chip hosts the team's technical infrastructure on its cloud platform and provides 24/7 international support and communication links, as the team travels to 14 different circuits throughout the World Superbike season.

Voltcom Crescent Suzuki Team Manager, Paul Denning, said: "Eugene's win has shown what we are capable of this year and with Blue Chip as very much a part of the team, playing a pivotal role in our communications and IT over the last eight years, we share this success with them too."

The next race takes place in Aragon on Sunday 13th April 2014.

SMEs and sole traders operating in 22 UK cities could between them account for claims worth up to £100m under the government's new Superconnected Cities scheme.

The initiative, which is backed by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, offers business owners a £3,000 voucher towards the cost of leased line and superfast broadband installation.

But according to Paul Barnett, Director at ICUK, the scheme doesn't go anywhere near far enough.

"The UK's connectivity infrastructure needs a bigger boost," he stated. "Speeds are still slow in the countryside while high business demands still need to be met in cities.

"As a registered supplier, we are pleased to see an initiative which could get more businesses thinking about leased lines, but there's a gap to be filled in the superfast market and this doesn't come close."

Barnett claims that even with upfront costs covered by this voucher many businesses will feel the pinch when it comes to paying around £400 a month for the ongoing contract.

"Of the businesses we've spoken to, this scheme is not feasible and will not represent a good return on investment," he commented. They would be far better off with a FTTP solution, offering plenty of speed and reliability, albeit without a service level agreement.

"Rolling out more fibre solutions that will benefit every business is undoubtedly a better solution than what amounts to a short-term cost reduction for a long-term expense."

The Jabra BIZ 2300 headset has been awarded the Red Dot Award 2014, an international award within the world of design.

Museum Director and Professor, Anne-Louise Sommer of Designmuseum Denmark, said: "Getting an industry design award like the Red Dot is a cause for celebration for any designer or design department. The pieces awarded usually show a balanced coherence between aesthetics, form and function and can often be seen as either highlighting an industry trend or, in more mature markets, making a design benchmark for the industry."

The BIZ 2300 headset has been created with the large-scale customer support centres in mind and marks a change in the way Jabra headsets are developed and designed.

"With the BIZ 2300 we challenged ourselves to reinvent the corded headset. This has resulted in a headset which, in terms of functionality and aesthetics, satisfies the requests and demands of the end-user and the industry alike. We are very excited that our efforts have been recognised by Red Dot," said Holger Reisinger, Jabra Vice President of Marketing, Products and Alliances.

IT directors and CIOs are playing a greater role in the strategic direction of UK businesses according to a report by Vodafone UK.

While the traditional image of IT departments was one of a cost sink-hole, living a separate existence to the rest of the company, they are now more important than ever to the strategic direction of UK businesses.

That's according to 'The New IT Crowd', part of Vodafone's Perspective series, which aims to provide insights into the UK workplace. The report explores the ever increasing importance of senior IT professionals in today's workplace.

The research, which surveyed 300 IT directors and 300 non-IT business leaders, found that IT is now recognised as a strategic priority (86%) at board level, with the IT team now expected to think about the 'bigger picture' (88%). This comes at a time when the IT department is also expected to manage an increasingly complex technology and communications estate, becoming a key driver in business performance.

The rapid pace of technological change is one of the main reasons for the shift in fortunes of the IT department. IT is now seen as a key part of organisational innovation and transformation, rather than just being viewed as a tool for reducing costs and remaining competitive. Nearly nine out of 10 respondents stated that IT is now an important enabler of change and three quarters said that it has changed the nature of the competition they face.

Jonathan Kini, Enterprise Commercial Marketing Director, Vodafone UK, commented: "Far from being the problem child of old, IT departments are now absolutely critical to the growth and strategic direction of businesses in the UK."

However, despite their newfound importance, many IT Directors and CIOs are failing to live up to these expectations in the eyes of the rest of the business. Over one third of non-IT directors think that their IT counterparts need to hone their communication skills (39%) and communicate effectively with other functions (35%).

Some heads of IT are also struggling to keep pace with this rapid change of responsibility, with two-thirds worrying about remaining up to date with their knowledge of technology (63%). With a new generation of digital natives bringing their own devices into the workplace (BYOD), security remains a live issue for many, with 59% reporting that they are worried about increased and more complicated security risks.

"The research points to a new generation of IT professionals who are a powerful, multi-faceted breed, thinking ahead, thinking bigger. For some, this will be second nature, for others it will take some time to get there," says Jonathan Kini. "Collaborating across functions and with other organisations - whether it is suppliers or customers - sharing knowledge and keeping on top of both business and IT developments will help develop this new mindset."

Top performing Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise premium partners spurred the vendor to grow its UK&I data business by 27% in 2013.

All premium partners in the region contributed to growth last year, and most notably Freedom Communications collected the Europe Achiever Award for growth in data as well as an Excellence Award.

The vendor also orchestrated double digit growth in managed LAN across EMEA in 2013, as well as showing significant growth in the wireless LAN market where the company claims to have grown over three times the market rate in EMEA.

Product developments in Unified Access and the Enterprise OpenTouch solution also proved to be significant drivers for growth, supported by the company's channel strategy.

Key customer wins in 2013 were bagged across all market sectors including hospitality, healthcare and the public sector with big data orders including St. Anne's College Oxford, the National Physical Laboratory and the NHS North Bristol Trust.

Peter Tebbutt, Country Sales Director, UK&I, Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise, said:?"All of our UK&I partners that focus on data with Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise have grown over the last 12 months.

"We have seen a significant increase in uptake of our data switching technologies in particular which has equally helped to grow our business. We will continue to focus on data as an area for growth in 2014."