Comms Dealer

Piran Consulting has established a foothold in the heart of London, relocating to the City centre. The move follows the merger of Jam ICT and Piran Partners LLP last year, a marriage that created Piran Consulting.

The company has a particular focus on enabling organisations to monetise mobile technology and its relocation offers easy access to customers and signifies its interest in the emergence of Tech City.

Piran Chairman Andy Dewhurst said: "Our business is developing rapidly as mobile becomes central to business strategy, and this move to the heartland of the financial services industry, close to the emerging technologies of Tech City, gives us a platform to demonstrate our expertise and better serve our client base."

CEO Julian Sawyer added: "Being close to our market in terms of location as well as expertise is critical to the future success of Piran Consulting."

SAP's Q4 and full year showed a changing business. The EMEA region saw high single-digit growth with non-IFRS software and cloud subscription revenue increasing 9% at constant currencies. This was the result of high double-digit growth in cloud subscription and support revenue in this region and strong double-digit software revenue growth at constant currencies in Germany, France and Russia.

The growing cloud business and helped drive a 4th consecutive year of double-digit growth: full year 2013 non-IFRS software and software-related service revenue increased 11%.

"We are proud of having delivered another year of double digit growth, outperforming the market and expanding our margin, while at the same time investing in innovation and the cloud," said Co-CEOs Bill McDermott and Jim Hagemann Snabe.

"Based on our strong global momentum from 2013 we will accelerate the transition to the cloud by offering customers choice. With all solutions moving to the Cloud powered by our real time platform HANA, we will simplify for our customers, extend our lead and drive growth that is more predictable and profitable for the long term."

Analysts expect the European software and IT services market around digital transformation to grow by 11.2% per annum within the next three years.

Software and IT services providers will be facing new skill requirements as well as new competitors and ecosystems, says Pierre Audoin Consultants (PAC) which has released its first market figures for digital transformation.

He also noted that the proliferation of digital technologies is currently shaking up business models, value chains and ecosystems in almost all industries, it says. It is forcing companies in B2C and B2B industries alike to fundamentally rethink their business strategies and organisational structures.

According to PAC, this trend is significantly impacting the IT industry because it is bringing IT to the centre of business strategy. While organisations have to undergo a 'digital transformation', IT providers need to position themselves as their strategic partners.

The European research and consulting firm for the software and ICT services market expects a strong growth in demand for technologies and services that enable and support digital transformation processes in the years to come. According to PAC's recent research, digital transformation software and services currently account for about 9.5% of the overall software and IT services (SITS) market in Western Europe. PAC forecasts a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11.2% between 2013 and 2017.

This growth rate is clearly above the expected growth rate for the overall SITS market of 3.3% (CAGR 2013-17). At the same time, it is not soaring either, as digital transformation projects are often still small and limited to specific areas such as marketing or sales, rather than touching overall organisations.

"Digital transformation has to become a top priority for software and IT services firms," says Nicole Dufft, SVP at PAC. "They have to decide today if they want to establish themselves as strategic partners to business decision makers or remain stuck in the low-margin legacy IT business."

Adaptive Planning, specialist in cloud-based business analytics solutions, announced during its recent Worldwide Partner Summit a global expansion and rising revenue driven by its channel partners.

The company says its channel programme proved to be significant in its continued growth, especially in midmarket and enterprise sectors. In 2013, it saw a 100% year-on-year growth in the number of partners elevated to Gold status, based on revenue generation.

Adaptive also welcomed new partners into its channel programme, such as global SI providers Cap Gemini and Cognizant Technology Solutions.
Altogether in 2013 the company's 20 highest performing partners grew their sales by a combined average of 37%, it says. And the company's number of Platinum status partners grew by 17% year over year globally.

"Partners are the lifeblood of our global successs receive critical product information at the same time as our sales force. We look forward to an even stronger 2014 as we further strengthen our partnerships, both large and small," said Carolee Gearheart, vice president, Global Channels and Partners, Adaptive Planning.

GCI Channel Solutions has launched a new channel-only portal which enables resellers to quote, order, provision and support cloud products from a single control panel. In the first phase of development the portal will facilitate Hosted Lync and Hosted Exchange with additional products such as Ethernet, broadband and virtual desktops coming out of the pipeline soon.

Head of Channel Sales Mark Whitehead (pictured) stated: "The inflexibility of Microsoft Office 365 and the lack of multi-tenanted offerings in the channel has created a barrier for many resellers wanting to sell hosted solutions.

"Resellers who are not familiar with deploying these service are looking for an entry into the market without jeopardising customer relationships through their lack of knowledge.

"Our strategy is to cloud-enable these resellers through a combination of cloud focused roadshows, product training and our Partner Accreditation Programme."

A winter wonderland was the back-drop to Chess' annual Christmas Conference last month where senior board members set the scene for 2014, building on a 23% hike in turnover to £44m last year.

David Pollock, Chief Executive of Chess, stated: "2013 has been a great year for Chess, achieving our vision by continuously improving the knowledge, skills and performance of our people, including the introduction of our new Academy training for all new starters which strengthens our ability to provide great customer service."

The company rewarded staff who 'exceeded customer expectations' in 2013 with a £2,000 worldwide holiday, a £1,000 European holiday, a UK break and a pair of iPad Airs.

Nearly 80% of UK small to medium sized (SME) businesses have a positive relationship with their IT suppliers, according to independent research by data centre and communications specialist, Node4.

The survey of 250 IT decision makers in companies between 50-500 employees, revealed that 45% of SMEs are working closely together in a strategic relationship with their IT vendor and a further 34% agreed that their supplier totally understands their business and meets its needs.

This suggests IT suppliers are now becoming more focused on the real needs of their customers, helping SMEs to get the most out of the latest technologies. Half of those SMEs interviewed regularly update their IT infrastructure to take advantage of new technologies and 57% are already making use of at least some cloud services in their business.

Although these findings are in sharp relief to many people's perception of IT suppliers, there are lingering complaints. Nearly 1 in 5 SMEs felt that vendors recommend solutions that are not fit for purpose and 13% said suppliers continue to use confusing jargon. 14% said their IT suppliers are unreliable, and nearly 1 in 10 felt that their suppliers were just after their money.

"I think we can see that the IT industry and the channel has come a long way when it comes to customer service, and now the vast majority of SMEs have a much more positive experience in dealing with IT suppliers today," commented Paul Bryce, Business Development Director, Node4.

"Everyone wins when the focus is on developing long term relationships with customers, and really getting to grips with how technology can help businesses overcome the specific challenges that face them. The IT industry has managed to get itself a bit of a bad name for pushing solutions that customers really don't need, so there is still much more that can be done to improve customer service.

"However, technology like cloud services provide far more flexibility than ever before to meet the challenges businesses face in a very tailored way, and the continued rise of the cloud is good news for everyone in the IT sector."

Airtime provider Daisy Distribution in partnership with BlackBerry is set to mark this week's visionary 'Evolving Solutions' event with the launch of its first partner incentive of the new year.
 
Following a similar format to the BlackBerry accumulator incentive, registered partners must accumulate 'points' which can be earned through the sale of a BlackBerry10 device or a BES10.2 CAL - with added focus on T-Support.
 
The incentive is open to all partners, however, to reward partners attending the Evolving Solutions event, they will also be given a £50 'voucher' for T-support which can be used towards closing their first sale.
 
For every BB10 device sold, partners will generate two points; while every BES10.2 CAL sale will generate five points. Once they have reached the minimum 50 points target, cash rewards will be distributed. Partners can receive up to £1,000 should they accumulate more than 300 points during the period.
 
The promotion will run between 1st February and 30th April 2014.
 
Julien Parven, Marketing Director at Daisy Distribution, said: "This exciting incentive is open to all Daisy Distribution partners, but it also specifically rewards those who attend this month's 'Evolving Solutions' event. We anticipate that those who attend will be then able to use what they learn to make the very most of this incentive and deliver a greater experience to their customers."

Robert Stockford has been promoted to the role of Channel Sales Director, Jabra Business Solutions, UK & Ireland. He was previously Channel Sales Manager.

The promotion to Channel Sales Director recognises his achievements in developing Jabra's existing channel partner relationships as well as the nurturing new resellers, leading to revenue and market share growth throughout his tenure.

Stockford said: "I am thrilled to be part of an organisation that has achieved year-on-year double digit growth since joining. My team looks forward to being part of the strategy to accelerate this growth, by working with both existing and new technology partners in order to take our mutual businesses to the next level."

Nigel Dunn, Managing Director of Jabra UK & Ireland Business Solutions, added: "Rob will now have responsibility for the entire UK Business Solutions channel and this is a reflection of the outstanding year he had in 2013."

Exponential-e has launched its seventh Academy, the second such programme within six months that will see the recruitment of eight young people to trainee sales roles.

Exponential-e's growth in 2013 has led to the creation of 30-40 new vacancies in all areas of expertise, and the Academy aims to not only meet this demand but also kick-start young people's careers in technology.

The programme, which begins with assessment days in February 2014, will commence in March and see the successful recruits participate in an eight week training programme.

Exponential-e has also appointed an academy manager. The programme is designed to ensure the recruits are not only knowledgeable of innovative communications and Cloud services, but will also provide wider commercial knowledge and experience across the business.

Academy recruits are trained to enable them to sell leading ICT and network services into some of the largest businesses in the UK. Successful recruits will be trained on business technology issues and demands for secure, private networks and Cloud solutions, and fully integrated into Exponential-e's sales team.

Lee Wade, Exponential-e CEO, said: "As a successful and growing company, we are able to contribute to young people's careers from an early point and help them begin their careers in technology from a great starting point."