MicroScope articles from May 2006

MicroScope archives from May 2006

Simple approach will win over silver surfers.(resellers management)(Brief article)
May 8, 2006... If there is a silver lining with the demise of the HCI scheme, then it might well be that it has forced vendors and resellers to look for the next source of large desktop sales in a more determined fashion than they might have done if the...

The knowledge revolution.(Encyclopaedia Britannica and Wikipedia)
May 8, 2006... In December last year the science journal Nature came out with the startling news that the Encyclopaedia Britannica is obsolete, and knowledge is now officially something you can simply make up as you go along. Actually I'm making that up,...

Five Minute Interview.(humour)(Brief article)
May 8, 2006... What is the best/worst advice you have received and from whom? My dad told me: "Do as you would be done by." It means I will never get to the top of the tree, but at least I get to sleep nights halfway up. What temptation can you not...

IBM to segment market.
May 8, 2006... IBM is set to segment its customer base throughout Europe into direct and indirect accounts, echoing the path trodden by rivals Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft, as it looks to avoid conflict and co-exist with the channel in specific clients. ...

Pretty in print.(print services are booming)
May 8, 2006... Nowhere is the phrase where there is mystery there is margin' ironically invented by Hewlett-Packard more applicable than in the printer market, an area that is cloaked in secrecy and one in which many businesses are still ignorant to the...

Mutually beneficial.
May 8, 2006... With our continual drive to increase sales volumes, maintain margins, and at the same time reduce costs, companies such aslike Toshiba have to be sure we have a logistics partner with a sympathetic ear and a can-do' attitude. Our research...

Like clockwork for compulsion.(Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs of United Kingdom using online services for filing tax returns)
May 8, 2006... Tax On-line [degrees] Where Next? Tax is big business. HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has regular dealings with more people than any other organisation. Then there are all the companies and partnerships in the country. This all means a huge...

Razzak pitches for channel team.
May 8, 2006... The chairman at Centerprise is trying to open dialogue between the largest national PC builders about forming a network that would increase buying powers and cover each others' skills gaps to help them compete with tier-one vendors. It was...

Ideal angles for AMD agreement.
May 8, 2006... Ideal Hardware has taken the unusual step of publicly stating a desire to rekindle its relationship with AMD in the UK and across mainland Europe, integrating Opteron chips with server solutions destined for the industrial market. The two...

Step up to storage.
May 8, 2006... Business issues are forcing customers to consider storage software before they even discuss adding disk space, according to several vendors, and that trend will only increase, making it imperative that resellers gain extra integration skills....

NetApp to challenge EMC's reign.
May 8, 2006... Network Appliance is planning to challenge EMC's dominance at the high end with the launch of a range of products aimed at large volume storage. Speaking to MicroScope, Paul Hargreaves, consultant systems engineer at NetApp, said: "The...

Expansive BT causes headaches.(BT acquires Dabs.com Direct, TNS Distribution and Skynet Internet Services)
May 8, 2006... BT's thirst for acquiring resellers continues unabated with the takeover of dabs.com, and the vendor's partners have claimed its expansion poses a "major threat" to their businesses. As exclusively revealed by MicroScope last month, the...

Vendors explore grey market opportunity.
May 8, 2006... The original founders of the Home Computing Initiative (HCI) Alliance have focused their efforts on the grey market the untapped community of technophobes over the age of 50 that do not own a PC. HCI continues to limp on and, despite the...

Enterasys to fine-tune go-to-market strategy.(after the appointment of Mike Fabiaschi as cheif executive officer)(Brief article)
May 8, 2006... Vendor consolidation in the networking market is "inevitable", according to the newly appointed CEO at Enterasys who admitted the newly private and perennially under-achieving vendor needed to change its mindset in order to grow. In his...

InTechnology recruits Evoxus voice experts.
May 8, 2006... InTechnology will build its managed voice business through skills picked up from one of its acquisition targets even though a potential buy did not materialise. The distributor has used the skills as a foundation for the launch of a...

Bell to rebrand entire operation.
May 8, 2006... The Ideal, Ideal Hardware, OpenPSL and MCE brands will be killed off this summer, with the entire operation labelled as Bell Microproducts. Over the years, Bell has acquired numerous businesses and kept the brands intact, leading to...

FSC reshuffles channel management after Basham departs.(Fujitsu Siemens Computers)(Brief article)
May 8, 2006... There has been a shake-up of channel management at Fujitsu Siemens Computers (FSC) following the exit of sales director Mark Basham 18 months after he took on the role. According to sources, Basham was ousted because enterprise sales were...

SaaS in demand.
May 8, 2006... As customers of all sizes seek the benefits of software and vendors try to reach new markets there is a major shift in how users want to buy software, according to research among UK IT executives. The Software as a Service (SaaS) survey of...

Network distributor plans a smarter role.
May 8, 2006... The future of distribution for the networking channel will see the value-add distributor reinvent its role in the supply chain, according to the man who has served at the three largest multi-national networking distributors. Azlan's new...

Phoenix to rejig partner recruitment services.
May 8, 2006... A year after the formal launch of its indirect channel programme, Phoenix IT Services has indicated that its partner recruitment drive is to scale down, but the appointment of a distribution partner is also being evaluated. Over the past...

Vanco looks to data technology after profits rise.(Vanco Inc.)(Brief article)
May 8, 2006... Virtual network operator Vanco has posted a 41 per cent increase in annual sales and a similar rise in pre-tax profits as it points to the increasing prominence of data technology in WAN management. With both the data networking and voice...

Selling a digital studio.(StudioLine PhotoClassic 3 of H and M Systems Software Inc. )(Brief article)
May 8, 2006... One of the first questions a cynical reseller will have in response to a plea to get involved with the digital camera market is that it is already sewn up by the likes of Jessops so what's the point. What they forget is that the camera is just...

Geared up to show off at CTS.
May 8, 2006... It is the time of year when the Birmingham NEC welcomes a plethora of motherboards, media centres and plenty of noise in the halls that house the Computer Trade Show. The show always provides an opportunity to check the health of the...

Driving tape into storage market.
May 8, 2006... O ne of the most important phrases in the tape market is roadmap', without which users will not buy into a standard and the channel will be denied the chance to sell an ever-expanding family of products. With the twin challenges of competing...

Confusion deepens as RoHS deadline looms.(Restriction of Hazardous Substances )(Brief article)
May 15, 2006... It is not often that you encounter deeply polarised views in this industry, but that is the case when deciding how to deal with equipment that does not comply with the restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and...

Vendors push benefits of channel programmes.(Brief article)
May 15, 2006... Resellers looking for tips on increasing sales were the targets of various vendors keen to promote channel programmes. Acorn was signing up a channel from scratch, Belkin was promoting its Connect programme, Centerprise was keen to talk...

Double trouble.(Restriction of Hazardous Substances)(Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment)
May 15, 2006... There is something about the combination of four-letter acronyms and the European Union that always seems to spell trouble for the channel. Two of the most significant pieces of legislation that are destined to have an impact on resellers and...

A spiffing invention.(Radio Frequency Identification)
May 15, 2006... "Cabbage crates over the briny Winco." "Cripes, old man quick, are they ours or are they Bosch?" "Just a ticka yes, yes, I'm getting a signal but it's not clear, sir, it looks like Kinder Surprise." "Damn it, man, that could mean...

Relaunched Acorn to target education.
May 15, 2006... Visitors attending the Computer Trade Show could have been forgiven for thinking they had stepped back in time to the early 1990s with the relaunch of the Acorn brand. One of the most well-known British computer companies of the 1980s...

Turning the heat down.(CPU cooler)(Brief article)
May 15, 2006... Some of the coolers on the market rival a cube PC for size and weight and leave the user asking if the kit has grown out of proportion to the problem it is designed to solve. Then you get an indication that not everything has to be big and it...

Health wealth.(UK healthcare IT market )
May 15, 2006... The UK healthcare IT market is largely dominated by the national programme for IT (NPfIT) and therefore opportunities outside that scheme are sadly lacking. But as the European markets begin to adopt a similar approach to healthcare IT...

Boycott grey and go green.(gray market)(Restriction of Hazardous Substances )
May 15, 2006... The perils of the grey market should by now be well known by now to any business looking to deal in product from an unauthorised source. For a reseller, grey market trading can look like an attractive prospect. Kit is cheaper and, there is no...

The exception to the rule.(Eurpean grey market)
May 15, 2006... "One More Chance Saloon" for grey dealers? A UK High Court Judge has ruled that a grey goods dealer, found to be selling non-European stock will noon't be in contempt of court if itif he does so again as long as ithe asks before ithe sells....

Target: Extreme growth.
May 15, 2006... Extreme Networks still has the fight and desire to take on the market dominance of Cisco and is using other vendors' partners to do it. Despite last month's warning that Extreme's global business had missed its quarterly targets for...

Nortel launches cross-selling incentives.
May 15, 2006... Nortel has introduced a pan-European cross-selling initiative for its SMB partners that will see resellers receive an additional 15 per cent rebate if they sell through three different sections of the vendor's portfolio. Under the tag...

Contract conflict.(Brief article)
May 15, 2006... Check Point looks set to miss targets for the transfer of partners to its controversial revised services contract after BT refused to sign in its current form and other major resellers showed signs of dragging their heels to ensure the final...

RoHS presents a rude awakening.(Restriction of certain Hazardous Substances )(Brief article)
May 15, 2006... Vendors that keep their fingers crossed and hope they can avoid the full impact of the requirements of the Restriction of certain Hazardous Substances (RoHS) directive could land themselves and partners in the mire. As awareness in the channel...

Clarity attracts staff from rival distributors.
May 15, 2006... Clarity has lured the director of enterprise storage at Bell Microproducts to spearhead its incursion into the market and is working to poach an additional nine members (nearly half) of the team, according to industry sources. Both...

Dell 'falls short of promises'.
May 15, 2006... The difficulty making money from the increasingly tough PC market was highlighted by Dell last week, as it revealed it would fail to meet its first quarter expectations as a result of "pricing decisions" taken during the period. The move...

Biting the legacy bullet.(extending the life of legacy systems )
May 15, 2006... Biting the legacy bullet Sometimes you have to call time Dale Vile is research director at Freeform Dynamics Developments in the areas of XML-based web services standards, middleware technology and portal frameworks have provided lots...

Resellers hold the key to BI.(business intelligence)
May 15, 2006... There is a letter in this week's magazine that mentions the tenth anniversary of business intelligence and how it has taken a decade for customers to get to grips with the software. You could add that it has taken a decade and counting for...

Big Blue VP responds to partner misgivings.
May 15, 2006... IBM has insisted partners remain the critical coverage model for the SME space and, where appropriate, will be brought into enterprise customers in a bid to ease reseller fears that an emphasis on volume will see direct encroachment into...

Novell and Avnet decision imminent.
May 15, 2006... Six months on, Novell and distribution partner Avnet are still in talks about the future of their relationship, but the vendor has revealed an end is in sight. In December 2005, MicroScope revealed the two companies were in discussions...

BT: direct arm poses no threat to partners.
May 15, 2006... After acquiring channel businesses and halving its reseller base, BT believes partners can co-exist with its direct sales arm, despite dealer concerns that the vendor's strategy was a "major threat" to their businesses. Philip Purssey,...

Acal takes on Edge-Core range.(Accton)(Acal)(Brief article)
May 15, 2006... Networking distributor Acal has taken on the full product portfolio of Edge-Core the branded division of Taiwanese manufacturing giant Accton with a promise to undercut rival branded products. Accton, a whitebox manufacturer of LAN and...

Hailstone to quit Ingram Micro next month.
May 15, 2006... Clive Hailstone, Ingram Micro's head of networking, is set to leave the distributor in June after only nine months in the role, to join audio-visual specialist Steljes. The former general manager of special business at Computer 2000...

Small businesses are paying over the odds.
May 15, 2006... Small businesses are failing to make use of volume buying and are facing cashflow problems as a result. According to the findings of a survey by YouGov and Microsoft, small businesses are not taking advantage of bulk buying when it comes...

InterQuad dives into consolidation wave with [pounds sterling]4.3m purchase of QA.(InterQuad)(Brief article)
May 15, 2006... Once the services darling of the IT industry, the embattled training sector saw another wave of consolidation last week after distributor InterQuad placed a bid of [pounds sterling]4.3m for rival QA. Privately held InterQuad offered 1.5...

Vendors aim to offer a breath of fresh air.
May 15, 2006... Novell is attempting to eat into Microsoft's market dominance with an end-to-end software package designed to meet the needs of enterprises at a lower cost. The software vendor's Open Workgroup Suite of products, which was launched in...

Peapod secures Microsoft gold partner status.
May 15, 2006... Microsoft is continuing to strengthen its relationships with resellers that have expertise in the security sector, with the appointment of Peapod as a gold partner a case in point. Security specialist Peapod has been handed the new status,...

Put your finger on it.(USB flash drive)
May 15, 2006... Security fears around USB storage devices have spurred on the development of encryption and biometric defences that are designed to keep data safe. The SanDisk 512MB Cruzer Profile is a classic USB flash drive with one big, fundamental...

Show plugs the digital home.
May 15, 2006... If there was a theme that united the disparate companies at the Computer Trade Show in Birmingham, it was a concerted push to encourage the channel to sell technology that is targeted at individuals. The digital home and gaming were the...

Agenda.(International Conference)(Calendar)
May 22, 2006... May 23-26 May WWW2006 Edinburgh International Conference Centre Web: www.www2006.org June 6-8 June Retail Solutions 2006 NEC, Birmingham Web: www.retailsolutions2006.com Tel: 01435 873080 13 June Butler Group Strategy Briefing:...

Five Minute Interview.(Brief article)
May 22, 2006... What is the best/worst advice you have received and from whom? My parents "honesty is always the best policy". Except the time I got a hiding for scrumping apples from Mr Newman's farm when I was nine! What is the thing most people do not...

The only way is up.
May 22, 2006... It is 26 years since Stanford University engineer Bill Yeager developed the first multiple-protocol router software, and 19 years since he licensed the code to an emerging manufacturer called Cisco Systems to form the basis of its first...

Acquisition plans on hold.
May 22, 2006... Telindus has the cash for potential acquisitions following its takeover by Belgian service provider Belgacom earlier this year, but the pan-European systems integrator insists it is not planning to make any further purchases at the moment. ...

Invitations at a glance.(Public notice)
May 22, 2006... 90733, Tender Invitation IRL-Dublin: communications cable Commissioning of fibre optic cable. 90797, Tender Invitation IRL-Tralee: networks Broadband duct and fibre optic network. 90268, Tender Invitation IRL-Dublin: computer and...

The generation game.
May 22, 2006... The Generation Game As we approreach the summerpring of 2006, the market for VoIP is finally taking off, which is not a statement many within the channel would have been confident making one year ago. According to a Vanson Bourne...

Tailored to the target.
May 22, 2006... Readers of MicroScope know that they need to keep abreast of the latest IT advances. And yet when it comes to the way they market their businesses, many VARs are still using techniques that were all the rage when Windows XP was a distant dream...

Consolidation for competition.(trends regarding mergers and acquisitions)
May 22, 2006... The spectre of consolidation cast its shadow in the application acceleration space last week after Expand Networks acquired US manufacturer DiskSites for an undisclosed fee while rival Packeteer agreed to buy privately held Tacit Networks...

ScriptLogic aims to grow partner numbers for productivity gain.
May 22, 2006... Network administration software vendor ScriptLogic is planning to bring its UK partner base up to 50 by the end of the year. Having formalised its channel structure five months ago, the vendor believes it can adopt a wider reseller base and...

Latest weapon in AMD/Intel battle is energy efficiency.
May 22, 2006... Cranking up the pressure on arch-rival Intel, AMD has unveiled a roadmap for standard and small form factor desktop processors which it claims provides significant energy efficiency gains over the existing generation. Reducing power...

HP treads softly in thin client space.
May 22, 2006... Hewlett-Packard is playing the long game in the thin client arena and has limited the number of resellers entering a new training programme to six, with no immediate plans to open up the scheme to the wider channel, despite lagging behind...

World Cup marks HDTV kick-off.(High definition television)
May 22, 2006... For the past two years resellers in the hardware arena have been urged to start looking at the digital lounge and do their homework on the solutions that will fit into the home office and entertainment world. Last year the product to use...

Hard work ahead.
May 22, 2006... In the year since Lenovo acquired IBM's PC division the company has developed the brand, product range and go-to-market models, but more hard work to improve lead times, simplify SKUs and get more price aggressive lies ahead. The Chinese...

IBM opts for partner uniformity.
May 22, 2006... Despite an aggressive and expansive recruitment strategy to promote volume sales in the SME channel, IBM has no plans to differentiate partners and accentuate those with a broader and deeper skills base. Three months after the formal launch...

EC proposes second chance for failed bidders.(European Commission)(Brief article)
May 22, 2006... The European Commission is attempting to ensure that contracts are awarded correctly by proposing a means for failed bidders to object to the winner before the tendering process is completed. The proposed directive would require public...

MBO frees Marshal.(Management Buy-Out of Marshal)(NetIQ)
May 22, 2006... Security vender Marshal is in the throws of its journey back into the world of nimble private enterprises after its management buyout (MBO) from NetIQ. The company was founded in New Zealand, bought by US company NetIQ, and is now under UK...

A VAT merry-go-round.
May 22, 2006... The Ggovernment has been trying to tackle missing trader intra community (MTIC) fraud, or carousel fraud, since 2003 when it introduced measures in that year'sTthe Bbudget to address the problem. The scale of this type ofe fraud was...

TV storage: a race for first place.
May 22, 2006... The technology industry thrives on battles between alternatives, and the fight between HD-DVD and Blu-ray looks set to rumble on throughout the early stages of the digital television revolution. The stakes are high for the winners. After VHS...

System builder OS incentive.
May 22, 2006... System builders struggling to make money in the whitebook market will receive additional support through cut-price Windows in a scheme launched in the US, which is likely to be replicated in the UK. In support of Intel's push to increase...

McAfee tailors support to suit reseller needs.
May 22, 2006... Security vendor McAfee is to dissect its partner programme and mould it to fit the needs of particular reseller types, after a channel survey revealed the importance of more targeted support. The changes kick off with the introduction of a...

Management boosts in channel.(mobile market)(Brief article)
May 22, 2006... A management buy-out led by the chief executive at Basingstoke-based reseller Panacea may enable the company to reach new verticals and create more intellectual property (IP). As part of the deal, venture capitalist ISIS Equity Partners has...

HP banks on boom in wireless networking.
May 22, 2006... Hewlett-Packard is to gamble that wireless networking will become mainstream in the enterprise as its ProCurve division broadens its portfolio and embarks on a market share grab. However, the vendor, notorious for its desire to grow its...

Westcon's parent seeks AIM listing.(Alternative Investment Market)(Brief article)
May 22, 2006... Datatec, the South African parent company to distributors Westcon and Comstor and systems integrator Logicalis, is to seek a secondary listing on London's Alternative Investment Market (AIM), which could pave the way for a round of funding for...

Websense to adopt pure US channel model.(market strategy of Websense)(Brief article)
May 22, 2006... Websense is mirroring its EMEA go to market strategy in the US, in a bid to emulate the success of its pure channel model on this side of the pond. The vendor is moving from selling 85 per cent of products in the US through the channel to...

HCI Alliance to redirect its efforts.
May 22, 2006... The Alliance of vendors driving the Home Computing Initiative has finally publicly conceded defeat in the fight to save the scheme and will focus its efforts on exploring employee purchase programmes and new target markets. The...

Microsoft invests in training.
May 22, 2006... Microsoft's decision to increase the availability of technical services skills around its products is a clear indication of the link between customer confidence and access to support. With a lack of skills seen as a hurdle for many software...

Merger progresses smoothly.
May 22, 2006... The integration of software vendors Symantec and Veritas has entered a new phase as the united company's account management capabilities merge and its UK head departs. As revealed by this magazine last week, UK country manager Steven Rose...

No stone can be left unturned in this battle.
May 29, 2006... The decision by some marketing bright spark to send stones in a box to resellers warning them that Microsoft would leave no stone unturned in its fight against software piracy must have seemed like a brilliant idea at the time. All the...

Port card RoHS-compliant.(Adaptec offers RAID arrays and data security software)
May 29, 2006... With the advent of the restrictions on hazordous waste that come into effect on 1 July there are already plenty of concerned resellers scratching their heads about product compliancy. Those that sell the Adaptec Serial ATA II RAID 2420SA card...

A pointless exercise?
May 29, 2006... The big news over the past week hasn't been Dell's decision (finally) to start selling systems with AMD chips inside, but the announcement from Apple and Nike that they will enable fitness fanatics and wannabes to link their iPods with their...

Patent absurdity.
May 29, 2006... In an industry predicated so heavily on innovation and ideas, it can be frustrating when someone comes along and claims that you have been stealing their ideas for years. This is exactly what happened in the mid-1990s, when Unisys decided to...

It's a small world.
May 29, 2006... Several years ago, the big IT and telecoms vendors declared their intention to focus on SMEs, and with good reason: small companies, as a whole, represent a huge percentage of UK businesses, employ more than 12.6 million people, and this year...