MicroScope articles from April 2004

MicroScope archives from April 2004

Alcatel launches cheaper Gigabit Ethernet switch.
April 5, 2004... Alcatel has extended its range of desktop enterprise switches through the launch of the enterprise-focused OmniStack 6300, which the vendor says will be priced at half the cost of competing products. The new Gigabit Ethernet switch, which...

AltoHiway offers fat margins.(Brief Article)
April 5, 2004... Business only Internet service provider AltoHiway is hoping to double its base of resellers by the end of the year through a margin proposition the company claims can stretch to 30 per cent. The UK-based company, which currently sells through...

Arrest made by police in FNS investigation.(Future Network Systems)(Brief Article)
April 5, 2004... Thirty-one-year-old man arrested in connection with Future Network Systems inquiry Police looking at events surrounding the collapse of London-based reseller Future Network Systems (FNS) have made an arrest in connection with their...

BMC insists its focus is on both storage and systems.(BMC Software Inc.)(Brief Article)
April 5, 2004... BMC has insisted it has not left the storage market despite selling off its storage management application Patrol to EMC and shifting focus to the systems management space. The vendor sold Patrol to storage giant EMC last year amid speculation...

Communications outsourcing market is ripe for the picking.(Brief Article)
April 5, 2004... Communications outsourcing appears to be a market ready for resellers as enterprise and medium-sized customers push out management of their phone and wireless infrastructure. According to Gartner, enterprise customers are already looking for...

Consolidation takes hold of distribution.(Brief Article)
April 5, 2004... The distribution sector is set to undergo another wave of consolidation after reports that owners of a number of "distressed distributors" in the UK are actively looking to sell their companies. Senior staff at three of the UK's biggest...

Enterprises turn to grid computing to cut costs.(Brief Article)
April 5, 2004... The large-scale dream behind grid computing was to link up computers worldwide, increasing power and allowing access to shared global data resources. In the meantime, the option for proponents of grid computing is to push the opportunities the...

Government fails to protect IT industry from CNP fraud.(cardholder not present)(fraud over the net)
April 5, 2004... Despite repeated calls from the industry to tackle cardholder not present (CNP) fraud, the government has not made the crime a priority or ascertained if levels will increase after the roll-out of chip and PIN technology. Responding to...

HP Mobility Club will offer expert help to businesses.(Hewlett-Packard)
April 5, 2004... The first round of resellers have been chosen to lead Hewlett-Packard's mobility programme, which aims to make wireless connectivity straightforward for users. The Mobility Club will launch on 1 May through 20 dealers already experienced in...

IGS encourages partners to offer high-value services.(IBM Global Services)
April 5, 2004... IBM Global Services (IGS) has urged its partners to move into the high-value services space as the enterprise giant continues to utilise the channel for SMB growth. Boom areas such as managed services, Web hosting and disaster recovery are now...

Ingram reshuffle moves Oldersma to China.(Ingram Micro Inc.)(Brief Article)
April 5, 2004... Ingram Micro has reshuffled its European management team for the second time in two weeks and moved senior vice-president for Northern Europe and UK boss Meinie Oldersma to a new position as senior vice-president for the group's operations in...

Intel to change differentiator on future product launches.(Brief Article)
April 5, 2004... Intel will follow AMD's lead and change model numbers on its products later this quarter to take the spotlight off the GHz clock speed and place more emphasis on other aspects of performance. Existing products will remain unchanged and the...

Interface backs up its focus on enterprise with Neoware deal.(Interface Solutions International Ltd.)(Neoware Systems Inc.)(Brief Article)
April 5, 2004... Interface Solutions International has signed a deal with thin client software vendor Neoware Systems, which the distributor believes will boost its enterprise-level offerings. Birmingham-based Interface plans to offer enterprise-level...

Joint IPT offering from Crane and Networks First.(Convergence distributor Crane)(Brief Article)
April 5, 2004... Convergence distributor Crane has teamed up with networking services player Networks First to deliver a joint offering to resellers looking to move into the IPT market. The telecoms-focused Avaya and NEC distributor is working with Networks...

Large revenues still on offer from; bread and butter security products.(Infosecurity show)(Brief Article)
April 5, 2004... The emerging threats of spam, wireless hacking and instant messaging should dominate seminars and stands at this month's Infosecurity show, but resellers have been urged to keep an eye on traditional technology areas. Later this month, the...

MS appoints new MD.(Microsoft )(managing director )(Brief Article)
April 5, 2004... Microsoft has appointed Alistair Baker as managing director of the UK subsidiary and vice-president of Emea, as predicted by MicroScope (see MicroScope, 29 March). Baker has been with the vendor for eight years and will be leaving his post as...

Microsoft takes action against CRM criticism.(customer relationship management )(Brief Article)
April 5, 2004... Microsoft is moving to silence the critics of its customer relationship management (CRM) software by making strides in the market through a number of strategic partnerships with leading software players. The vendor has weathered a barrage of...

Packaged AV solutions keep overall costs under control.(audio visual)
April 5, 2004... Jon Sidwick, managing director of audio-visual distributor Maverick, looks at the changing market for projectors When a projector cost [pounds sterling]4,000 most organisations purchased one or two and used them as a shared resource. The...

Red Hat lays into Microsoft campaign.(Brief Article)
April 5, 2004... A war of words has broken out in the Linux market after Red Hat attacked Microsoft's "negative" Get the Facts campaign, which is attempting to sway business users away from open source software. The Microsoft campaign, which is based around a...

RedDot seeks partners for SME content management.(Small and Medium-sized Enterprise )(Brief Article)
April 5, 2004... RedDot is to embark on a UK channel recruitment drive to boost its presence in the SME content management space, attempting to overcome the lack of awareness that resellers have about that market. Peter Aylward, managing director of RedDot,...

Resellers sceptical about AGMA.(Anti Grey Market Alliance)(Brief Article)
April 5, 2004... The AGMA will have to demonstrate success at tackling the grey market before it can command support from resellers The vendor-run Anti Grey Market Alliance (AGMA) is expanding across Emea to raise awareness of the unauthorised market, but...

SAN switches designed to lower cost and complexity.(Storage area network)(Brief Article)
April 5, 2004... Storage switch vendors have launched products they claim will lift the cost and complexity barriers that have prevented SMEs from deploying SANs, but experts believe resellers will still require education to take the products to market....

Silver service for McDowell?(Gordon McDowell)(Brief Article)
April 5, 2004... The head of Micro Peripherals, Gordon McDowell, may well make his silver anniversary with the IT industry yet after Irish parent company DCC convinced him to defer retirement and stay on as chairman. Last year, McDowell exclusively told...

Spending back but margins thin.(networking industry)
April 5, 2004... Resellers in the networking space have reported a spike in business levels across a number of vertical market sectors, although many say pricing and margins are still an issue. Speaking to MicroScope at the end of the financial year and first...

Striking the balance.(storage management)
April 5, 2004... Good storage management is vital as data volumes continue to rise and archiving falls under the steely gaze of regulatory bodies It is an on-demand world, we are told by one vendor. You have to be an adaptive enterprise, we are told by...

Value through versatility.(internet security)
April 5, 2004... Mike Smart, European product manager at SonicWALL, explains how it is more cost-effective to deploy an integrated security appliance than to employ a range of single-function solutions Today's established enterprise security solutions...

Vendor investigates warranty grievances.
April 5, 2004... HP reviews its relationship with reseller Connections+ after complaints that users have been left without warranties Hewlett-Packard is reviewing its relationship with Connections+ which provides warranty services, following numerous...

ViewSonic attempts to foster stronger links with SME dealers.(Small and Medium-sized Enterprise )(Brief Article)
April 5, 2004... ViewSonic is working to identify small dealers which on average buy no more than five monitors a month -- a fragmented sector of the channel vendors generally find costly to manage. The biggest third party monitor vendor in the US, ViewSonic...

Whiteboard sales expected to exceed [pounds sterling]50m and 60,000 units.
April 5, 2004... The whiteboard market is expected to break the 60,000 unit mark in the UK this year, but it may be at least another 12 months before the product breaks out of its education ghetto. Historically, 80 per cent of interactive whiteboard (IWB)...

'There's always room for a good well-positioned channel player'.(Interview)
April 5, 2004... Martin Blaney, acting president of Bell Microproducts, talks to Dominic Hall about changes he plans to make at Ideal When Bell Microproducts made the surprise announcement last month that European president Ian French would be leaving the...

Billion dollar target.(interactive whiteboards)
April 12, 2004... The interactive whiteboard market continues to rise with education providing the mainstay and a corporate market still largely untapped It's rare that you find a market where the influence of government funding bolsters the adoption of the...

CSG invests in JBS purchase.(Computer Software Group )(Brief Article)
April 12, 2004... Wimbledon-based IBM reseller Computer Software Group has acquired JBS Computer Services for an undisclosed sum -- its fourth acquisition in the iSeries space in the past 14 months. AIM-listed CSG believed the acquisition of JBS would boost its...

Channel welcomes Novell DAP -- but not a moment too soon.(Demand Agent Programme )(Brief Article)
April 12, 2004... Novell's partners have welcomed its Demand Agent Programme (DAP) which seeks to reward those partners that influence but do not fulfil an order in the government space. The move has proved popular with the channel, which has suffered a...

Check Point in discussions to choose an Azlan replacement.(Brief Article)
April 12, 2004... Check Point has confirmed it will look to replace Azlan in its UK distribution line-up, and is currently in discussions with a number of companies over a strategy to build a stronger presence in the SME market. The company initially looked to...

Competition hots up in entry-level laser market.(Brief Article)
April 12, 2004... Competition in the entry-level laser market shows no sign of abating after Xerox launched into the 9ppm space and Lexmark threw a punch with a new aggressively priced model. Sales of colour lasers grew by 85 and 77 per cent last year,...

Dell and Oracle team up for SME push.(Small and Medium-sized Enterprise)(SQL server)(Brief Article)
April 12, 2004... Dell and Oracle have extended their alliance in a bid to capture a greater share of the lucrative SME market, but industry insiders believed the union was geared towards promoting Linux on the server against Microsoft's SQL server. Dell and...

Dual strategy works for InTechnology.(Brief Article)
April 12, 2004... Despite a strong second half, InTechnology expects revenues to be down on last year because of a poor performance in the first half of the year. In a pre-close trading statement to the City, the distributor said the first half of the year had...

Extreme Networks in final stages ; of voice/data partner negotiations.
April 12, 2004... Extreme Networks is in final negotiations with a raft of new reseller partners which will be taken on board to implement the vendor's recent convergence-based tie-up with VoIP specialist Avaya. At the same time, the company is continuing to...

Grid computing gathers pace with vertical market pilots.
April 12, 2004... The adoption of utility computing among UK enterprises is to be given a boost by the recommendation of the creation of a pilot Grid Services Consortia (GSC) by IT trade association Intellect and the think-tank Information Age Partnership...

HP cuts link with Connections+.(Hewlett-Packard)(Brief Article)
April 12, 2004... Vendor promises to stand by CarePaq users after ending relationship with warranty specialist following legal advice Hewlett-Packard has severed its ties with warranty services specialist Connections+ a week after MicroScope revealed there...

HP leans on dealers to hit billion dollar growth target.(Hewlett-Packard)
April 12, 2004... Vendor shares 20,000 accounts among resellers in a bid to tap into the 80 per cent of the market not buying its product Hewlett-Packard has completed a nationwide customer segmentation process which will see 20,000 small business accounts...

ISVs give Microsoft the advantage in Linux fight.(Independent Software Vendor)(Brief Article)
April 12, 2004... Services giant Unisys has claimed that Microsoft's success in the enterprise space is largely due to partners like itself, despite the company being dropped as a large account reseller (LAR) by the vendor at the beginning of the year. Unisys...

Microsoft teams up with iSoft to focus on healthcare market.(Brief Article)
April 12, 2004... Microsoft has made strides into the healthcare arena by joining forces with UK healthcare systems specialist iSoft to jointly deliver its healthcare application Lorenzo. Tim Whiston, CEO of iSoft, said: "This is a significant event in the...

NPfIT re-tenders e-mail and directory service.(National Programme for IT)(Brief Article)
April 12, 2004... The National Programme for IT (NPfIT) has re-tendered its e-mail and directory services contract after terminating its [pounds sterling]90m deal with previous incumbent EDS last month. The Department of Health issued a pre-tender document...

PCWB sets sights on MicroWarehouse UK operations.(PC World Business )(Brief Article)
April 12, 2004... Dixons Stores Group's PC World Business (PCWB) division has confirmed it will buy the UK operations of e-tailer MicroWarehouse should US private investment firm Gores Technology succeed with a bid entered last week. The Los Angeles-based...

Pay-as-you-go sells mobility.(Adventi)(marketing )(Brief Article)
April 12, 2004... Scotland-based reseller Adventi is aggressively marketing mobility computing to Scottish SMEs, citing tariff charging as the main reason for a boom in the adoption of wireless technologies. Three months after Fujitsu Siemens unveiled its...

Philips announces plans to bail out of projector market.(Brief Article)
April 12, 2004... The rapid price decline in projectors has taken its toll on Philips Electronics after the vendor unveiled plans to pull out of the sector and focus on LCD, plasma and liquid crystal on silicon (LCOS). In the first six months of 2003, the price...

Security and mobility driving corporate spending.(Brief Article)
April 12, 2004... The air of optimism recorded in the channel at the end of last month looks set to continue well into the second quarter, following two user surveys both citing further evidence of a return in corporate spending. A survey commissioned by...

Storage players identify biggest business drivers.
April 12, 2004... Business continuity and data availability are the biggest drivers in the storage market. According to a survey carried out by Hitachi Data Systems (HDS), business continuity topped the list of storage priorities across Emea, while research...

Sun and Microsoft agree to work together in harmony.(Sun Microsystems Inc.)
April 12, 2004... Rival software vendors end legal battle and enter broad technology collaboration agreement Sun Microsystems and Microsoft have joined forces to create a proprietary operating systems superteam in the wake of a near $2bn ([pounds...

The big debate: Is all hardware destined to end up the same?
April 12, 2004... Michael Dell's prediction of a standards-based future for hardware sparks a standardisation debate within the channel Dell chairman and CEO Michael Dell has sparked debate within the industry, at a recent press conference, by predicting a...

Vendors and distributors all chasing the IT reseller pound.
April 12, 2004... Dominic Hall visited last week's 2004 Comms Channel Expo to find out what vendors and distributors had to offer Although smaller in feel to last year's event, vendors and distributors were in full force at the 2004 Comms Channel Expo in...

WALKABOUT AT CTS.(Computer Trade Show )
April 12, 2004... One of the attractions of a combined show, with five different events under the same roof, is the larger audience it draws in, providing exhibitors with the promise of numerous leads, writes Simon Quicke. The drawback, however, is that the...

e92plus bolsters portfolio with SonicWall appointment.(Brief Article)
April 12, 2004... e92plus has filled the hole created by the recent parting of the ways with NetScreen through a distribution deal with firewall and VPN appliance vendor SonicWall. The full access distribution contract will see e92plus deal with SonicWall's...

Accounts packages lose to integrated programs.
April 19, 2004... The accountancy software market is one of the oldest in the industry but, as integrated systems become the de facto standard for SMEs, the standalone software package faces an uncertain future. While some argue that there will always be a...

Alliance helps F5 iControl developers.(Brief Article)
April 19, 2004... Network management and load balancing specialist F5 Networks is looking to increase its number of software development channel partners through the launch of an alliance programme. The new iControl Solution Developer Alliance Programme is...

Connections+ MBO leaves creditors out in the cold.(management buy out)
April 19, 2004... Management team buys assets but not debts after bank appoints administrative receivers at warranty specialist group Directors of troubled warranty services provider Connections+ have staged a management buyout after the company's parent was...

Dell Services aims to exploit hardware popularity.(Brief Article)
April 19, 2004... Dell has claimed the "huge market share of its products" in the UK will boost its managed and professional services revenues organically, after a spate of service vendors have acquired some of its rivals. Six months ago, Dell stepped into the...

Dell takes a big slice of the year's revenue.(Brief Article)
April 19, 2004... Dell Services was one of the biggest winners in IDC's worldwide quarterly services vendor revenue tracker, growing by 28 per cent throughout last year, as the world's top 30 enterprise service providers just missed out on double-digit growth....

Fewer IT companies fail in Q1.(Brief Article)
April 19, 2004... The number of IT companies failing in the first quarter of 2004 fell by 28 per cent, but changes in legislation, rather than economic recovery, have been cited as the reasons. A survey by Experian revealed that 203 IT businesses failed in the...

Font specialists defend property rights.(movement against intellectual property infringements)(Brief Article)
April 19, 2004... The Business Software Alliance (BSA) has joined forces with three software specialist vendors in a bid to strike a blow against intellectual property infringements. Agfa Monotype, Centennial UK and Ilventory have joined forces to demonstrate...

HP promises action on demand and supply problems.(Brief Article)
April 19, 2004... Distributors have complained that tough Hewlett-Packard Ts&Cs, a poor supply of Wintel-based servers and the vendor's prompt payment rebate scheme are placing too much pressure on the channel. One distributor said it was paying for HP products...

Hewlett-Packard answers user calls for desktop line simplicity.(Brief Article)
April 19, 2004... Hewlett-Packard will refresh its commercial desktop line this year to introduce a more "simplified" product category. The entry-level 2000 and mid-range 5000 series were unveiled in the US at the beginning of March and, according to...

IBM buyout heralds end of Sema in IT.(Brief Article)
April 19, 2004... IBM Global Services has snapped up the last remaining arm of the former SchlumbergerSema, acquiring the European and US operations of the oil services giant's Business Continuity Services unit for an undisclosed sum. The purchase all but erases...

Ingram plans Choice for Europe.(Ingram Micro Europe)(Brief Article)
April 19, 2004... Distributor considers extending price/service options packages it will use in the US to European resellers next year Ingram Micro Europe is weighing up its options over the introduction of a programme rolled out in the US last week which...

Interactive whiteboards move into corporate space.
April 19, 2004... Jon Sidwick, managing director of audio-visual distributor Maverick, looks at the growing use of interactive whiteboards Finally the interactive whiteboard is moving into the corporate workplace. With pricing of less than [pounds...

Late payment of bills hits small businesses.(Brief Article)
April 19, 2004... Despite recent legislation resellers still experience cash flow problems as a result of hold-ups Large businesses and PLCs in the UK are still taking an average of 46 days to pay their bills, causing problems for the thousands of resellers...

Little and large benefit from HCI.(home computing initiative)
April 19, 2004... Martin Prescott, managing director of Red PC, explains the opportunities for resellers in the government's Home Computing Initiative, and how to bid for the business With all the big names and numbers being bandied about at the moment you...

Management a priority for cost-conscious enterprises.
April 19, 2004... At the beginning of the year the security industry pointed to security management as a key driver and anyone walking around the stands at next week's Infosecurity exhibition will see it has remained a priority. As enterprises and SME customers...

More projector manufacturers may bow out as prices fall further.(Brief Article)
April 19, 2004... The projector price war which claimed its first significant victim in recent weeks is set to continue in 2004, placing even more pressure on vendors that do not manufacture core components. As exclusively revealed by MicroScope last week,...

Networking and security lines blur in dual purpose.
April 19, 2004... NetScreen is positioning its ISG 2000 firewall, VPN and intrusion detection and prevention box by looking to both the networking and security sectors as part of what the company sees as a process of ongoing convergence. Like rivals Enterasys...

Next stage of the grey battle will be fought in cyberspace.
April 19, 2004... As the Anti Grey Market Alliance moves into Europe its president outlines the success and the challenges for the group The recent decision by the Anti Grey Market Alliance (AGMA) to recruit representatives in Europe to bring the fight...

Sales and revenues up in strong first quarter.(Brief Article)
April 19, 2004... In a trading statement update for the half-year to 31 March, Sage revealed revenues up 23 per cent to [pounds sterling]332m and pre-tax profits up 17 per cent to [pounds sterling]87m. Intel reported a 20 per cent increase in revenues to $8.1bn...

Strong prospects for data management and storage.
April 19, 2004... As businesses produce increasing amounts of data the management and storage of it has become more critical. Recent research has suggested that this area of the market will continue to grow. Figures from market research firm Macarthur Stroud...

Web filtering competition increasing pressure to forge solid channel sales.
April 19, 2004... Internet security specialist SurfControl has reshuffled its channel sales team to improve performance amid suggestions that it is coming under pressure from competitors. Martino Corbelli, director of marketing UK and Ireland, admitted that...

Web services come of age without a fanfare as BT Global Services identifies it as a key technology.(Brief Article)
April 19, 2004... Two years ago Web services was the most hyped solution for enterprise customers, with one analyst infamously claiming in 2002 that implementations would make the dot com boom look like a warm-up session. Today enterprise service providers are...

Fujitsu Siemens decision to reduce partners is delayed.
April 26, 2004... paul kunert paul.kunert@rbi.co.uk After Fujitsu Siemens Computers (FSC) added Computer 2000 to its distribution line-up last year, it appeared to be inevitable that one partner would be dropped -- a decision will be made this quarter. The...

C2000 improves service for top tier resellers.(Brief Article)
April 26, 2004... Computer 2000 has kick-started a scheme to give its top tier resellers a more extensive service by appointing a nominated member of the board to oversee the business relationship. The scheme will see one of C2000's board act as an executive...

Civica reveals intention to expand services offering.
April 26, 2004... Top tier software reseller Civica has outlined plans to grow its services business over the coming year. The announcement comes on the back of its recent trading statement for the six months to 31 March 2004. Following the reseller's flotation...

Convergence remains; a big mystery to many.
April 26, 2004... Omnetica research highlights need for channel to adopt long-term strategies over quick sells The channel selling IP telephony and convergence systems into corporate and SME accounts needs to develop a long-term strategic view rather than...

EU states face public procurement investigation.(Brief Article)
April 26, 2004... Intel has been caught in the crossfire as the European Commission moves to crack down on member states which have purchased supplies from the chip giant without going through an open tendering process. Several countries, including Germany,...

Ex-Microsoft manager joins MS reseller IT Partnerships.(appointments)(Brief Article)
April 26, 2004... Ambitious Reading-based reseller IT Partnerships has appointed former Microsoft strategic partner manager Chris Bantock to head up its business solutions division, as the reseller looks to boost its share in the mid-market software space....

Expand seeks to recruit SAP, Oracle and Siebel resellers.(Brief Article)
April 26, 2004... Traffic management group Expand Networks is aiming to raise its game in the application space and recruit resellers currently involved in the SAP, Oracle and Siebel markets. The hunt for new partners comes as Expand widens its product...

HP cuts contact complexities with single channel division.(Brief Article)
April 26, 2004... Vendor combines services and product management roles in a bid to create one point of contact for the channel A large shake-up at Hewlett-Packard this week is expected to see the roles of channel services and product managers at the vendor...