MicroScope articles from November 2008

MicroScope archives from November 2008

15 Columns.
November 3, 2008... The key to selling environmentally friendly IT is showing that it can bring far-reaching benefits to customerse_SSRq businesses Proving that the grass is greener In business, we are always listening to customers and trying to...

01 News.
November 3, 2008... Are partnership agreements between vendors and their resellers fair? It's a question that has found new prominence after a judge in the California Supreme Court ruled that parts of Cisco's reseller agreement were unfair to partners. The ruling...

10 Features.
November 3, 2008... Last week I popped into the Bluetooth SIG Conference at the Hilton London Paddington. After a heavy couple of days trotting from one press event to another, I was frankly looking forward to a nice doze through a warm waft of TLAs. ...

01 News.
November 3, 2008... Preventing fraud is a headache at the best of times but having the right controls in place to manage such instances could be crucial for resellers and distributors to survive as the slowdown bites. The channel has often battled with company...

01 News.(abusive advertisment of Hewlett-Packard Co. for Touch Smart PC)
November 3, 2008... The furore over HP's ad campaign for its Touch Smart PC demonstrates all too clearly the hazards of promoting a product with any cultural shorthand, be it words, pictures or music. While someone obviously thought it was cool to use Joan...

10 Features.
November 3, 2008... When your background at Hewlett-Packard is in PCs and storage, taking on the ProCurve networking division seems like a technological jump sideways. For Darryl Brick - who was already well known to HP channel partners - there was only one...

10 Features.(United States economy)
November 3, 2008... As product margins have progressively eroded over the past decade or so, providing value-added services has become increasingly important to many channel partners in order to make a decent living. "In the 1980s and 1990s, you could make...

15 Columns.
November 3, 2008... While most businesses increasingly rely on an extensive IT infrastructure just to stay operational, controlling the costs of the infrastructure is a constant challenge. This is all the harder for companies on a global scale that manage multiple...

10 Features.
November 3, 2008... Products that boost the audio experience of music and gaming are well worth considering as Christmas approaches A sound addition to your portfolio If there is one thing that really makes a difference between an average experience and...

Backchat.
November 17, 2008... What is the best/worst advice you have received and from whom? Best - to go round Europe every year on a motorbike. Best mate. Worst - to go down a dodgy French black run in a blizzard after the ski lifts had closed for the night....

Comment.
November 17, 2008... Now that we have a new president, the technology world - like many of the other industries here in the US - is lining up to try and get its agenda in front of president elect Obama. In fact, Silicon Valley has a bi-partisan lobbying arm...

Features.(Column)
November 17, 2008... Earlier this year I wrote a column in MicroScope, saying that although the economy here in the US has been going through some tough times due to the mortgage crisis, the technology economy and especially Silicon Valley's growth appeared to be...

Features.
November 17, 2008... The IT industry may be an innovative, dynamic sector, but it is also an energy-hungry one. We chew through energy at an alarming rate, and our consumption is increasing. Smart 2020, a report produced by the Climate Group, monitored ICT...

Letters.
November 17, 2008... It is more important than ever to secure sensitive data Gary Clark VP EMEA, SafeNet Gordon Brown's suggestion that data loss is unavoidable should be viewed as a warning that companies need to do more, not an empathetic...

Tech Traders.(Brief article)
November 17, 2008... When it comes to developing the next edition of a product, the customers deserve to play a key role in making sure that their wishes are met. A good product development team listens and takes on board the comments that users make about...

Tech Traders.(Brief article)
November 17, 2008... Although a fantastic tool in many ways, the internet also has the capacity to waste a great deal of time. That can be a real problem when it is the time of staff in a business surfing rather than selling and bringing money through the...

News.
November 17, 2008... Hewlett-Packard has lost the second spot in the UK PC market to arch rival Acer as quarterly sales declined for the first time in three years. According to data by Gartner, UK shipments climbed 17.5% in total to 3.4 million units in the...

News.(Jerry Roest to leave DSGi Business's partnership)(Brief article)
November 17, 2008... DSGi Business has parted company with managing director Jerry Roest after nearly three years but he has insisted the decision was based on personal reasons and not connected to the shape of the reseller's accounts. He joined the retail...

News.
November 17, 2008... HP ProCurve said today that the Colubris brand will be phased out over the coming months as it pushes an enhanced line of wireless LAN (WLAN) gear through the channel. Both Colubris and HP ProCurve resellers in the Hewlett-Packard Preferred...

News.(Northern Telecom Ltd.)
November 17, 2008... In spite of increasingly dire warnings from the US and Canada on the future of troubled communications vendor Nortel, signs are emerging that there is still hope for the company. It has been a tough couple of weeks to be a networker by any...

News.
November 17, 2008... When the economy started to really hit weeks ago the buffers the government felt compelled to put its hand in its pocket and bail out banks and building societies. In some respects the IT industry is facing the same choice, with the money...

Technology.(Survey)
November 17, 2008... Ever wished for a crystal ball, so you could find out what your customers really want before you go into the sales meeting? Well, I don't claim to be a soothsayer, but I can give you an insight into the security issues that IT managers and...

Comment.
November 17, 2008... Enterprises committed to a virtualisation strategy need to ensure that management and provisioning of mission critical business applications as well as IT infrastructure technologies are included in plans. They also need to establish...

Backchat.
November 24, 2008... What is the best/worst advice you have received and from whom? Best - leave your current sales job and create a new business from scratch.Worst - leave your current sales job and create a new business from scratch. That advice was from...

Letters.(Letter to the editor)
November 24, 2008... Avoid pre-shared key to keep 802.11i connection secure Mark Smith UK Regional Director, Trapeze Networks Debate about whether Wi-Fi is a viable secure connection has increased with news of Russian firm ElcomSoft's use of NVidia...

Comment.
November 24, 2008... Few phrases could be more British than 'mustn't grumble' but the simple truth is that grumbling is pretty much what Brits do best. Well, that and queuing, which perhaps explains the whole Wossy and Bwand sideshow - a couple of Brits...

Tenders.
November 24, 2008... Fifteen years ago, putting together a network was a mystical process, shrouded in technical wizardry. Today's network is bolted together from off-the-shelf hardware that recognises what it's connecting to and understands what protocols to use....

Tech Traders.
November 24, 2008... Creativee_SSRqs Zen X-Fi MP3 player with wireless LAN capability and FM radio is a more than worthy alternative to the iPod Discover Zen in time for Christmas With Christmas just a few weeks away the gadgets are starting to creep into...

Tech Traders.
November 24, 2008... There are few customers who would disagree with the powerful proposition that is posed by a multi-function printer. In a single package there are not just the print, copy fax and scan functions but also the chance to consolidate hardware...

Backchat.
November 24, 2008... For more than a decade, John Hudson (seen at the back of this photo) has been an avid reader of Microscope. His dedication paid off this autumn, when he won the Microscope-Gradwell VoIP prize of a tandem kayak - which he promptly and very...

News.
November 24, 2008... The UK's two largest broadline distributors are reacting to tough market conditions, with Ingram Micro letting go up to 25 members of staff and Computer 2000 informing employees that it may have to review its cost structure. According to...

News.
November 24, 2008... IBM has vowed to pay distributors' rebates in weeks rather than months to improve their cashflow in a credit-restricted market. It will also lower the clip targets wholesalers receive so that compensation is easier to achieve. The two...

News.(business loans for small companies)(Brief article)
November 24, 2008... The government has faced renewed calls to do more to help small businesses from both the opposition and SME lobby groups. The government has been struggling to get banks to provide finance and Brown said it would "take all measures...

News.(briefs)
November 24, 2008... Samsung has admitted that it has been caught out by high demand for its netbooks and that it is unlikely to satisfy all orders in the retail channel before the important Christmas period. It seems the Korean giant has made the same mistake as...

News.
November 24, 2008... 21CN timeline June 2004: BT sets out a five-year plan for 21CN and begins the procurement process. It hopes to have the majority of phone services running over IP by 2008. December 2004: Industry consultation process begins. ...

News.
November 24, 2008... Downturn calls for a change of attitude for resellers if they are to bank on future business Why customers need tweaks In the current economic climate the channel is being urged to think differently about how to ensure continued...

News.
November 24, 2008... The old saying that every cloud has a silver lining could have been invented for the foreign exchange rate fluctuations that have hit the channel in recent months. The rising dollar has forced most vendors to raise prices in Europe and curtail...

Features.
November 24, 2008... Like a number of other technological trends, print management is probably in a stronger position because of the current economic conditions than it would have been in a period of high growth. There must be significantly more customers today...

Tech Traders.
November 24, 2008... The business-friendly Lifebook S6420 is well-designed, boasting biometric security and a eco-friendly mode Fujitsu Siemens S6420 ticks all boxes You don't need to be an industry analyst to know that laptops have matched then overtaken...