MicroScope articles from July 2004

MicroScope archives from July 2004

Channel fears spiralling costs.
July 5, 2004... Cisco partners are apprehensive over rising service charges resulting from the vendor's shared support scheme BYLINE: christopher walton christopher.walton@rbi.co.uk The Cisco channel braced itself last week for the prospect of...

Cisco creates new storage specialisation for partners.(Brief Article)
July 5, 2004... roanna avison roanna.avison@rbi.co.uk Cisco has extended the markets its resellers can focus on with the creation of a storage networking specialisation. Resellers that already have a resale relationship with Cisco original storage...

Exabyte promises renewed channel focus.(Brief Article)
July 5, 2004... Tape drive specialist Exabyte has promised to improve its channel relations and offerings after revealing it is close to turning around a difficult financial situation that has troubled the business for the last couple of years. Following an...

HP adds embedded security tools to PCs.(Brief Article)
July 5, 2004... Hewlett-Packard has added security features and back-up and recovery software to its latest line of business PCs as it seeks to extend its Adaptive Enterprise strategy. The security is provided through HP ProtectTools embedded security, a...

ITNET loses [pounds sterling]83m contract.(Brief Article)
July 5, 2004... ITNET's hopes of expanding out of its local government base suffered a heavy blow last week when it lost its first major central government contract. The loss of the [pounds sterling]83m contract with the Cabinet Office after only a year...

Ignorance over flexibility affects benefits to channel.(Flexible Working Initiative)(Brief Article)
July 5, 2004... Joe O'Halloran joe.o'halloran@rbi.co.uk A MicroScope round table has found that lack of a coherent awareness campaign by government, technology vendors and the channel is preventing the full benefits of the Flexible Working Initiative to...

Ingram Micro launches build-your-own-notebook scheme.(Brief Article)
July 5, 2004... Another distributor seeks to encourage systems integrators and resellers to add notebooks to own-brand portfolios Ingram Micro has become the latest distributor to join the whitebox notebook fray with the launch of a...

Microsoft teched 2004.(Microsoft Corp. unveils products for developers)(Brief Article)
July 5, 2004... At Microsoft TechEd 2004 in Amsterdam last week, the software giant unveiled a number of products and programmes for developers. These include: z Visual Studio 2005 beta 1, which is being released for testing and evaluation z Microsoft...

NCC Group to float on AIM market despite warnings from consortium.
July 5, 2004... christopher walton christopher.walton@rbi.co.uk Manchester-based business continuity specialist NCC Group has stated its plans to seek a listing on the AIM market, despite fears that the window to float has closed on the UK IT industry....

Nokia takes on Microsoft in mobile laptop market.
July 5, 2004... Tony Glover reports on mobile phone manufacturer's plans to challenge global software giant Nokia is currently developing a sub-notebook as a direct challenge to Microsoft in the mobile laptop market. The company has already proven it can...

PeopleSoft attraction was its customers.(Brief Article)
July 5, 2004... Simon Quicke simon.quicke@rbi.co.uk The pressure on vendors to acquire customers in the enterprise application market via acquisition or user migration was illustrated by Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle, in remarks he made in a US court during...

Prepared for consolidation.
July 5, 2004... Networking and security vendors have been urged to ensure their channel strategies are capable of adapting to the consolidation taking place in the security market. The size of the opportunity for those that got it right was illustrated in...

Profits and returns in doubt as results are posted.
July 5, 2004... In the wake of iSoft's rise and Misys' fall, the ability of the enterprise market to deliver profits and returns to suppliers was questioned last week with a wide variety of end-of-year earning statements from UK-based specialists. ComputerLand...

Raby drives JBoss growth.(Brief Article)
July 5, 2004... Open source Java application server specialist JBoss is looking to grow its UK channel in a bid to boost sales. The move comes on the back of Steve Raby's appointment as regional sales director for northern Europe at JBoss (see MicroScope, 28...

Red Hat seeks resellers as it commits to UK channel.
July 5, 2004... Roanna Avison roanna.avison@rbi.co.uk Direct selling vendor appoints distributor and is close to signing its first reseller partners Three months after unveiling plans to sell through the channel in the UK for the first time, Red Hat...

Resellers embrace wireless solutions.(Brief Article)
July 5, 2004... Hugh Symons claimed last week that its freedom2:connect venture was succeeding in its aim of delivering commoditised solutions for the wireless mobility market. The Dorset-based distributor spent six months and [pounds sterling]250,000...

Samsung ranks fourth in colour printer market.
July 5, 2004... Christopher Walton christopher.walton@rbi.co.uk Samsung has triumphed its first quarter in the colour printer market as a success, having taken fourth place above Brother and Lexmark in IDC's quarterly shipment figures. With Samsung not...

Snadden takes ; the hot seat.(Fujitsu Siemens Computers' conference)(Brief Article)
July 5, 2004... Resellers looking for ideas about where to discover extra sources of revenue will get the chance to see Fujitsu Siemens' take on the market at its 'breakthrough' channel conference at The Belfry on 14 July. The event is supported by MicroScope,...

The missing links of ILM.(information lifecycle management)(Editorial)
July 5, 2004... Is ILM a new concept or just a reformulation of an old approach? Is it myth or reality, a vendors' pipedream or a real customer concern? Jean-Jacques Maleval, editor of StorageNewsletter, ponders its current inception Want a sure-fire way...

UK healthcare market contracts could force SMEs to look abroad.(small and medium-sized enterprise)
July 5, 2004... roanna avison roanna.avison@rbi.co.uk Current NPfIT contracts for the NHS could run through to 2012, making markets in other countries more attractive SME resellers could find that the Australian, Canadian and German healthcare markets...

Youna persists with direct competition.(Brief Article)
July 5, 2004... The channel can continue to compete and succeed against Dell's direct model, according to Gerard Youna, newly appointed Tech Data European president. In an exclusive interview with MicroScope, Youna said he had targeted four key areas to...

[pounds sterling]10m fund could make dream become reality.(Brief Article)
July 5, 2004... christopher walton christopher.walton@rbi.co.uk Opus Systems seeks out acquisition targets to add intrinsic value to its key vertical markets The dream to amalgamate a nationwide reseller and ISV group remains alive after former Saga...

A lesson in business.
July 12, 2004... The government's emphasis on education is being translated, at last, into cash for IT systems and software, and a degree of autonomy for schools in how they spend it. This presents a business opportunity for education suppliers The phrase...

Ballmer commits to victory.(Ballmer, Steve)
July 12, 2004... Joe O'Halloran reports from Microsoft's partner conference which saw a mixture of aggression and optimism For those who attended the Microsoft partner conference in Toronto, it was almost as if the 1980s were back. A pumped-up chief...

Big Blue experiences sales boom on enterprise servers.
July 12, 2004... IBM told US investors its business had been buoyed by an increase in corporate refresh of hardware platforms, while revenues for its flagship Global Services (IGS) division stalled. Revenues in hardware were boosted by IBM's direct-only zSeries...

Cheaper network products should open up SME market.(Forecast and trends)(Price reduction in Storage networking product)(Small and Medium-sized Enterprise )(Brief Article)
July 12, 2004... Forecast price reductions in storage networking products could open the SME market up to the technology, handing resellers that can offer services and support to a larger number of customers an opportunity for new sales. At the recent Fujitsu...

Cisco reaches out to SMEs.(Small and Medium-sized Enterprise)(Planing)(Brief Article)
July 12, 2004... Vendor to replace problematic SMB Connect programme with more channel-friendly SMB Select Having taken a tight hold of the enterprise networking space, Cisco is looking to extend its reach in the SME sector, aping the recent...

Crane CEO rings the changes.(Product enhancement)(Product introduction)(Brief Article)
July 12, 2004... As distributors in all sectors of the market endeavour to rebrand themselves away from pure product fulfilment, the voice and data space is proving no different. Talking exclusively to MicroScope, David George, CEO at Crane, said shake-ups in...

Dealers told to keep trading.
July 12, 2004... Channel players choosing to shut up shop in the face of financial problems increase insurance prices and credit cuts Resellers opting for insolvency, administration and liquidation have been criticised because they leave the channel to pick...

Fears about the future overshadow Sun results.(financial results of Sun Microsystems )(Brief Article)
July 12, 2004... Sun Microsystems resellers have warned that some customers are questioning their loyalty to the vendor, in the light of the latest full-year results which showed the manufacturer had once again made a loss. The US giant last week posted fourth...

Large project dips hit Unisys results.(financial results)(Brief Article)
July 12, 2004... Services giant Unisys posted a "disappointing" set of results for the second quarter, with pre-tax profits diving 24 per cent to $36.6m ([pounds sterling]19.7m) as the group suffered an "unexpected slowdown" in infrastructure services projects...

Last chance to speak out.(Waste Electronic and Electrical Equipment)
July 12, 2004... Resellers, slow to speak up about the implications of the EU waste directive, have three months to influence legislation Resellers have a final formal opportunity to make their voices heard on the forthcoming WEEE recycling legislation that...

Mitel plans c'est tres bon.(Brief Article)
July 12, 2004... A raft of product announcements and several channel programmes were the main focus at Mitel's recent Forum in Paris. Stephen Davis, Mitel Emea vice-president of marketing, described the event as positive. The vendor launched 15 products and a...

Monitor prices tumble as LCD TV and laptop sales slow down.(Forecast and trends of price)(Liquid Crystal Display (display technology) )(Brief Article)
July 12, 2004... The seasonal reduction in demand for IT and a shortfall in LCD TV sales has seen more glass panel monitors, forcing prices down by around ten per cent in the past six weeks. Entry-level monitors have been in short supply for most of the year as...

Monitor vendors win reprieve on DVI duty.(digital video interface)(Brief Article)
July 12, 2004... A working group acting on behalf of monitor vendors is believed to have struck a compromise with the European Union to pay only 14 per cent import duty on screens over 25in that incorporate digital video interface (DVI). Earlier in the year...

NPfIT to build bridges.(National Programme for IT)
July 12, 2004... With the contract awards for the National Programme for IT (NPfIT) now over six months old, the programme is looking to increase its relationship with healthcare suppliers after awarding a contract to industry analyst firm Ovum to provide...

Notebook boom to slow after replacements.(Brief Article)
July 12, 2004... Calling time on the notebook boom of recent years, Gartner has forecast that the Emea market will grow more steadily. But there have been voices of dissent from some corners of the industry. The notebook replacement cycle kicked in during...

PCDoesIT league table charts distributor quote turnaround.(Brief Article)
July 12, 2004... Distributors face the prospect of having their reaction times to reseller requests for quotes widely publicised, naming those that perform well and shaming those that perform badly. Richard Yu, sales director at PCDoesIT, said that it had been...

Packaged services offer resellers user value pitch.
July 12, 2004... Storage services and consulting specialist GlassHouse has revealed that 40 per cent of its services business comes through third parties, with resellers, vendors and systems integrators selling its packaged services. The company, which...

Peapod joins KaVaDo partner line-up.(Brief Article)
July 12, 2004... Web application firewall vendor KaVaDo has added Peapod to its UK channel line-up as it tries to raise its brand profile. Speaking to MicroScope, Ofir Hatsor, vice-president for Emea sales at KaVaDo, said the market for Web application...

Police stem flow of counterfeit product.(Imaging Consumables Coalition of Europe )(Brief Article)
July 12, 2004... The flow of counterfeit consumables across Europe has received a temporary setback after Turkish police raided a factory that was in the process of manufacturing fake ribbons for Oki printers. According to the Imaging Consumables Coalition of...

Poor demand for projector and notebook bundles.
July 12, 2004... Expectations that the projector market would enjoy a significant boost from sales with notebooks have failed to materialise. Despite widely quoted figures that one projector is sold for every three notebooks in the US, the experience of the UK...

Provisioning in demand.(Brief Article)
July 12, 2004... Provisioning software that enables companies to manage employee, partner and customer access to their systems has been identified as a top choice for IT security spend this year. In a Netegrity survey of mid-sized to large organisations across...

Replacement sales to peak.
July 12, 2004... Gartner suggests an end to double-digit growth is imminent and warns resellers to prepare for tougher markets After three relatively buoyant quarters in which the Emea PC market returned to healthy growth, analysts have warned replacement...

Resellers urged to raise awareness of asset management among businesses.(Centennial Software)(Brief Article)
July 12, 2004... The channel should take advantage of poor user understanding of asset management and advise businesses of its benefits. Following recent calls for clearer licensing programmes (see MicroScope, 21 June) and revelations about illegal software,...

Teaching users the benefits of VoIP will help win orders.
July 12, 2004... Network resellers looking for some revenue from the voice market will need to take on an educational role if they want to open the order books with sceptical customers, but should continue to gain SME wireless sales over the course of this...

Users subscribe to T19Direct.(T19Direct)(Brief Article)
July 12, 2004... The latest twist in reseller attempts to grow revenue is to opt for a subscription-based model that offers users access to kit at cost price in return for a monthly fee. T19Direct is promoting a subscription-based model that charges users...

Watson joins COLT from BTIC.(BT Indirect Channels )(Brief Article)
July 12, 2004... A founding member of BT Indirect Channels (BTIC) has been appointed by COLT Telecom to help spearhead a drive to boost its presence in the data sphere and increase the geographical reach of its partner base. Channel sales manager Neil Watson,...

Westcoast manages assets.(Brief Article)
July 12, 2004... Distributor sets up asset management division to take advantage of increasing market for refurbished IT equipment Westcoast has formed an asset management division to tackle the re-user market in the run-up to the launch of the WEEE...

A quiet year for VADs.(value added distributors)
July 19, 2004... christopher walton christopher.walton@rbi.co.uk Value-added distributors (VADs) will face single-digit growth for the rest of the year, and for the first quarter of 2005, despite a pick-up in enterprise volumes and VARs diversifying their...

Azlan says Spain is next on its list.(Brief Article)
July 19, 2004... roanna avison roanna.avison@rbi.co.uk Azlan has set its sights on Spain in the convergence space after finalising a deal with Nortel that covers France and Belgium. The distributor outlined its plans to expand its market share in the...

C&W awarded NPfIT e-mail and directory services contract.(Brief Article)
July 19, 2004... Three months after terminating its [pounds sterling]90m e-mail and directory services contract with EDS, the National Programme for IT (NPfIT) has appointed Cable and Wireless (C&W) as a replacement. NPfIT re-tendered a nine-year contract after...

Channel told to exploit SME back-up ignorance.(Brief Article)
July 19, 2004... More than half of small businesses do not back up their data once a day, suggesting that many smaller companies have not been convinced of the need to protect their data. A recent on-line survey of 70 small businesses for ImperaData, a...

Channel trust is key to sales.
July 19, 2004... Roanna Avison roanna.avison@rbi.co.uk Clearswift has vowed to raise its brand profile at a user level in a move designed to boost reseller business. The content security vendor admits that the line between direct and indirect sales at the...

Computer 2000 working on white box notebook scheme.
July 19, 2004... The head of Computer 2000's components division revealed the distributor had been looking at the possibility of providing a white box notebook programme for systems integrators and resellers. But the distributor stressed any initiative aimed...

Dealers advised to check out spam filters.(Brief Article)
July 19, 2004... Simon quicke simon.quicke@rbi.co.uk Resellers sceptical of spam filtering products have been urged to install the products for themselves and watch the results. With the benefits of keeping viruses at bay well understood by the channel,...

FSC to extend reach.(Fujitsu Siemens Computers )
July 19, 2004... Simon Quicke reports from the Fujitsu Siemens Computers Channel Conference at The Belfry Fujitsu Siemens Computers has unveiled plans to throw e30m ([pounds sterling]20m) at the European mid-market in a bid to extend its reach outside the...

IBM encourages 'invest to grow' approach with Power5 launch.
July 19, 2004... Christopher walton christopher.walton@rbi.co.uk IBM has unveiled the latest wave of its pSeries server range, the first change since 2001, cementing its commitment to the Unix platform and unleashing the Virtualisation Engine on the world....

Juniper unites partners with channel programme revamp.
July 19, 2004... Roanna Avison roanna.avison@rbi.co.uk Juniper Networks has revamped its partner programme to bring resellers from its NetScreen acquisition under the same umbrella as existing partners. Juniper acquired NetScreen earlier this year (see...

Maxdata pitches dealers with desktop alternative.(Brief Article)
July 19, 2004... Maxdata has revealed ambitions to mimic Fujitsu Siemens' approach to the market, taking share from rivals and offering an alternative for resellers looking to widen their portfolios. Warren Lewis, sales and marketing director at Maxdata, said...

Microsoft raises channel spend to $1.7bn.
July 19, 2004... joe o'halloran joe.o'halloran@rbi.co.uk Flying in the face of recent reports that the software giant was to embark on a huge cost-saving programme, Microsoft has unveiled a large investment in its channel support programme. At its annual...

Morse tables offer for Diagonal.
July 19, 2004... christopher walton christopher.walton@rbi.co.uk Despite renewed interest from an earlier bidder, SAP consultancy Diagonal considers Morse acquisition offer of [pounds sterling]50.2m The UK's largest SAP consultancy Diagonal has...

Opportunity knocks.
July 19, 2004... christopher walton christopher.walton@rbi.co.uk Resellers told to sell notebooks, security products and smartphones as market growth starts to return to the channel The channel is living in competitive times rather than the difficult,...

Plasmon signs Jarvis ESG as distributor.(Jarvis ESG )(Brief Article)
July 19, 2004... Plasmon has added to its distribution roster with the appointment of Jarvis ESG as an authorised partner for its Raidtec Solutions product line. The appointment is Plasmon's first since it took over Raidtec three months ago. Jarvis ESG joins...

Poor sales offset by profits.(Brief Article)
July 19, 2004... Almost half of the top 1,000 UK computer hardware companies have suffered a decline in sales, but the gloom has been offset by the disclosure that close to a quarter doubled their profits. According to the latest Plimsoll analysis for the...

Quark announces summer sale for education market.(Brief Article)
July 19, 2004... Vendor promotion means education purchasers are set to benefit from huge discounts on QuarkXPress software Quark has launched a summer promotion aimed at the education market, offering discounts of more than 90 per cent on its QuarkXPress...

Scotland is latest area in hSo sights.(Huntsville Symphony Orchestra )(Brief Article)
July 19, 2004... Managed IT and communications service provider hSo is on the hunt for resellers. The company is preparing to expand beyond the M25 and hopes to offer a national service by October. Channel business devel-opment manager Simon Weise-O'Connor...

Strikes could derail Siemens and BBC outsourcing deal.(British Broadcasting Corp.)
July 19, 2004... The National Outsourcing Association (NOA) has warned that the BBC and Siemens Business Services could face industrial action unless both parties communicate correctly with staff involved in the [pounds sterling]2bn outsourcing deal that was...

UK outsourcing spend trend.(Brief Article)
July 19, 2004... Outsourcing spend in the UK continues to accelerate as enterprise class customers look to change their service supplier and more IT managers consider managed services, according to separate pieces of research by Computacenter and Gartner....

Voice market hung up.(Brief Article)
July 19, 2004... simon quicke simon.quicke@rbi.co.uk Resellers find VoIP take-up held back by lack of application integration and business processes Resellers hoping for a large shift to VoIP are finding it difficult to get customers to embrace the...

all the News from Microsoft's worldwide partner conference.(finance)(Brief Article)
July 19, 2004... Microsoft is increasing investment in its worldwide partner ecosystem. The company will increase its investment in the partner channel from $1.5bn ([pounds sterling]800,000) to $1.7bn over the course of the fiscal year. The increased investment...

epinx.com eyes consumer electronics.(services)(Brief Article)
July 19, 2004... Existing e-tailers have given a sceptical welcome to the latest launch into the market, epinx.com, which has been set up to sell into an apparent gap in the consumer electronics market. epinx.com sells a range of IT products, including...

financial results round-up.(financial reports of Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Apple Computer Inc., Intel Corp., Nortel Networks Corp.)(Brief Article)
July 19, 2004... Apple reported a 30 per cent increase in revenues to $2bn ([pounds sterling]1.1bn) in the third quarter to 26 June. Net profits rose from $19m last year to $61m. The results included an after-tax restructuring charge of $6m. CEO Steve Jobs...