MicroScope articles from May 2008

MicroScope archives from May 2008

12 Soap.
May 12, 2008... What is the best/worst advice you have received? The best and most recent advice I received from my father: don't sweat the small stuff. Pretty challenging this, after 15 minutes in the car with my two kids. What is your most elusive...

04 Hardware.
May 12, 2008... Battery supplies will ease, says manufacturer Following last month's fire at an LG Chem plant in South Korea, notebook battery supplies should have freed up by Q3, said Simplo Technology, one of the largest manufacturers of the products....

02 Software.
May 12, 2008... SAP announced partnerships with a number of companies, including RIM - to get its software on Blackberrys - as well as pushing its mid-size suite through HP and IBM. On the services side, partnerships with Infosys and Satyam were designed...

Can you keep a Secret?(05 Editorial)(LG Electronics Inc.)(Editorial)
May 12, 2008... LG is boasting about the durability of its latest 3G mobile, but do consumers really want to use the same phone for years and years? My first mobile phone, an Ericsson analogue brick, cost me nearly a grand. Today you can pick up a mobile...

Face up to virtual sales.(15 Columns)
May 12, 2008... The channel needs to embrace online collaboration tools as a powerful way to streamline sales and maximise margins There is a direct correlation between the purchase price of a product sold and the cost associated with making the sale. As...

The devil is in the details.(15 Columns)
May 12, 2008... To realise new revenues from the next generation of Wi-Fi technology, resellers must understand where and when to integrate it into existing networks Unlike conventional Wi-Fi, 802.11n exploits new techniques such as spatial multiplexing,...

10 Features.
May 12, 2008... Microscope - Surviving SaaS Davey Winder [intro] There is no getting away from the fact that Software as a Service (SaaS) is here to stay, and it certainly cannot be ignored from the reseller perspective. According to Mike Morgan,...

10 Features.(software as a service)(Foundation Network)
May 12, 2008... There is no getting away from it: software as a service (SaaS) is here to stay. For resellers, it is a technology delivery model that just cannot be ignored. According to Mike Morgan, chief operating officer with Foundation Network, the...

Webcam market shrinks.(09 Tech Traders)
May 12, 2008... Mobile computer purchases vastly exceeded those of desktop PCs in 2007, and now, more than ever, with the growth in mobile computing, the desktop PC market is heading towards an uncertain future, writes Iliana Tolia, account manager at GfK. ...

05 Editorial.(Editorial)
May 12, 2008... The first time most people stop to think about the implications of the exchange rate is when they pop into the Bureau de Change to get money for their holidays. At that point the value of the pound against the euro becomes painfully apparent....

02 Software.
May 12, 2008... SAP used its Sapphire event in the US to promote a range of partnerships and product launches, as it tried to regain the initiative after a disappointing set of results. The vendor revealed that profits had dropped in its first quarter and...

01 News.
May 12, 2008... The relentless rise of the euro against sterling has hit Microsoft volume distributors and partners with price increases and left them at a significant disadvantage compared with LARs and OEMs who buy product from the vendor in pounds and...

01 News.
May 12, 2008... The troubles keep mounting at Microsoft reseller Ramesys after credit insurers cut limits following the late posting of financial accounts for 2006, which cast doubt over its long term future. This follows the revelation that under previous...

04 Hardware.(Brief article)
May 12, 2008... The economic slowdown did not impact UK PC sales in the first quarter as the rapid shift to notebooks underpinned double-digit growth, but there were early signs the next period may be more challenging, analysts warned. Shipments grew 11.2...

04 Hardware.(eXpansys)(Micro P)(Brief article)
May 12, 2008... Online retailer eXpansys has sold its wireless and mobile distribution business to Micro P to improve working capital in preparation for any potential change in economic conditions. The deal for Basingstoke-based Portix - which sells a...

07 Security.(Brief article)
May 12, 2008... The proposed launch of a website alert system from Yahoo to warn users of potential spam, spyware and viruses should not pose a great threat to resellers. On paper, the launch of the SearchScan service could take some revenue out of the...

07 Security.(Brief article)
May 12, 2008... One of the UK's most prominent supporters of the Payment Card Industry (PCI ) Data Security Standard (DSS) has claimed UK retailers are showing huge interest in the standard, despite concerns that most of the channel is ill-prepared for it. ...

07 Security.
May 12, 2008... Novell has introduced a range of identity and security management solutions optimised for use with the SAP NetWeaver platform and business software applications. The target of the approach is enterprise customers looking to link up Novell's...

01 News.(Brief article)
May 12, 2008... Acer has hinted the channel-stuffing days that disrupted market pricing, created a headache for distributors and spearheaded its rise to dominance in the notebook space are all but over. At least the strategy should change once Acer has...

01 News.(Brief article)
May 12, 2008... HP ProCurve is targeting its rivals' market share in an ambitious move that doubles rebates to the channel. Partners trading in old switches on behalf of their customer base will receive extra cash back on ProCurve's recently launched Power...

01 News.
May 12, 2008... IBM is lining up partner reward programmes for the third quarter to drive its products and services in the corporate data centre and OEM embedded solutions markets. Partners have already developed skills independently in those markets but...

12 Soap.(briefs)
May 12, 2008... Borising London Oh how we laughed. Even beofr his first officla day as mayor Boris slipped on the platform to announce his victory and then things got even more comical when he turned up for work. Oddly enough he chose to enter his office...

01 News.
May 12, 2008... Fears that counterfeit kit could increase as businesses tighten their belts and cut corners have proved to be unfounded in the UK channel after a large batch of fake Cisco kit was found in US government departments. Concerns surfaced in...

01 News.
May 12, 2008... Most results are now early awaited to see if there has been an impact in the economic downturn that started in the US housing market. So far there has been little evidence from the main IT players over recent weeks to indicate that problems are...

01 News.
May 12, 2008... Micro P has signed up Tandberg Data to work alongside existing distributors Northamber and CMS Peripherals. The agreement will cover the storage vendor's entire line-up of tape libraries, tape autoloaders and tape drives, disk-based storage and...

01 News.(Survey)(Brief article)
May 12, 2008... The UK channel saw insolvencies in the first quarter double year-on-year but a number of surveys point to confidence among IT buyers. According to figures by credit reference agency Graydon, 54 resellers went under in the first quarter of...

01 News.(Brief article)
May 12, 2008... VMware has moved to provide better support in the channel following a number of partnerships the company has recently forged with other vendors. In an announcement at its US partner event the vendor said it would provide joint marketing...

01 News.
May 12, 2008... The arrival of US retail giant Best Buy in the UK through its stake in Carphone Warehouse is set to shake up the consumer electronics market. The firm has splashed out [pounds sterling]1.1bn for a 50 per cent stake in Carphone Warehouse's...

03 Networking.(appointment of Clive Sawkins in BCS Global Networks)(Brief article)
May 12, 2008... Sawkins lands BCS role Video-conferencing service provider BCS Global Networks has appointed Clive Sawkins as its new CEO after former boss Allen Preece stepped down. Sawkins joined from Cisco, where he headed the vendor's unified comms...

03 Networking.(Survey)
May 12, 2008... Networkers trying to add value through deploying applications and network services to support remote working may struggle to get their feet in the door when dealing with end users. According to research conducted by 2e2, just 18 per cent of...

08 Storage.
May 12, 2008... The assault on tape gathers pace with an alternative to tape back-up and archive, disk-to-cloud (we could call it D2C) and disk-to-disk-to-cloud (call it D2D2C). The cloud is the generic name for computing resources available across the...

09 Tech Traders.
May 12, 2008... The future of the webcam market By Iliana Tolia Mobile computer purchases vastly outperformed those of deskbound PC in 2007, and now, more than ever, with the growth in mobile computing, the deskbound PC market is heading towards an...

09 Tech Traders.
May 12, 2008... The simple way to set up shop online Even with all the headlines about online fraud that have grabbed the attention recently, the idea of pulling up the drawbridge and stopping trading over the web is a non-starter. However, far from...

01 News.(Stone Computers)(Rock)(Brief article)
May 19, 2008... Stone Computers is ahead of Novatech in the race to acquire UK troubled notebook assembler Rock. The Warwickshire-based company suffered a series of financial blows and, unable to secure additional funding from its US parent Rok...

01 News.(resignation of David Gould and Richard Harrison from DSGi Business)(Brief article)
May 19, 2008... Commercial director David Gould and operations director Richard Harrison will exit DSGi Business as part of a restructure to make way for the newly created interim chief operations officer (COO) role, to be filled by Martin Dorchester. The...

05 Editorial.(Editorial)
May 19, 2008... There are certain moments you know are going to define the next period of the channel and the Hewlett-Packard and EDS tie-up is going to be one of them. Right now the announcement about the deal raises all sorts of questions but what is...

01 News.
May 19, 2008... Hewlett-Packard has made a bid of $13.9bn ([pounds sterling]6.95bn) for outsourcing giant Electronic Data Systems (EDS), in a move that could hasten consolidation in the enterprise market and leaves Dell's services strategy looking shaky. ...

01 News.
May 19, 2008... Research showing a drop in piracy levels has been welcomed by channel players fighting the tide of illegal software. IDC figures have revealed a drop in UK piracy from 27 to 26 per cent of software on PCs, the first drop for three years....

01 News.(appointment of Graeme Watt in Bell Microproducts Inc.)(Brief article)
May 19, 2008... Graeme Watt, Bell Microproducts' EMEA president, has been promoted to the role of worldwide head of distribution, reporting to Don Bell, CEO and chairman. The announcement came in the same week the distributor revealed the investigation...

01 News.
May 19, 2008... The channel management team at Dell is in place and the reseller recruitment activities are all but over, now the US giant will start the process of accrediting upper tier Certified partners this month. Last month Sue Smith, former SCC...

01 News.
May 19, 2008... Microsoft's approach to interoperability with products from rival vendors has come under renewed scrutiny after Becta revealed it had passed on complaints about the OOXML standard to an ongoing European Commission (EC) investigation into the...

01 News.(London, England. Metropolitan Police Office)(Brief article)
May 19, 2008... The Metropolitan Police have closed the case book on the burglary of Repton late last year when thieves ram-raided its premises and made off with [pounds sterling]180,000 worth of Cisco kit in just three minutes. The incident took place on...

01 News.(Brief article)
May 19, 2008... Vanco's competitors have insisted there is still life in the virtual network operator (VNO) model following the events that unfolded around the firm earlier this month. Shares in the business were suspended amid allegations of financial...

01 News.(Brief article)
May 19, 2008... Business communications provider Viatel has warned that a lack of investment in bandwidth means congestion could cripple critical applications and slow uptake of convergence technologies, such as telepresence or VoIP. Viatel polled 100 IT...