MicroScope articles from September 2007

MicroScope archives from September 2007

01 News.
September 3, 2007... Bell plays for extra time The Nasdaq Listing and Hearing Review Council has granted Bell Micro an extension until 22 October to become compliant with Nasdaq's listing requirements. Although Bell could be delisted after that date, the...

03 Networking.(briefs)
September 3, 2007... Green credibility Channel sales directors might be more tempted to go carbon neutral with the news that Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak was clocked by a California highway patrol doing 104 miles per hour in a Toyota Prius while heading to...

05 Editorial.(Gateway Inc. acquired Acer America Corp.)(Editorial)(Brief article)
September 3, 2007... Gateway acquisition gives Acer last laugh It was not so long ago that Lenovo appeared to have wrong-footed Acer by announcing plans to acquire Packard Bell from its owner, John Hui. Acer's interest in Packard Bell had been touted in several...

08 Storage.(regulations affects UK business )
September 3, 2007... Massive increases in data and the associated rise in regulations on how it should be stored and retrieved is likely to present an opportunity and a challenge to resellers serving SME customers. According to IDC, the amount of data in the...

Configuration decline hurts Dell model claims HP boss.(04 Hardware)
September 3, 2007... A general move by customers away from configuring PCs has made Dell less appealing to the market, according to Hewlett-Packard's EMEA channel boss. But the trend also contributed to HP's recent decision to axe its Smart Choice online...

01 News.
September 3, 2007... x86 is server platform of choice in EMEA The x86 segment broke a record in accounting for half of all EMEA server revenues in the second quarter as firms continued to invest in consolidating their infrastructure to save costs. Data...

07 Security.
September 3, 2007... It can be tempting to see every new security threat as a golden business opportunity. But just because a hacker somewhere has built a proof of concept to show, for instance, a hole in the Blutooth standard or a vulnerability in a mobile phone's...

Bad debt doubles.(01 News)
September 3, 2007... Despite 2007 bringing fewer casualties so far, channel debt has risen dramatically The level of bad debt in the channel doubled in the first half of 2007 to [pounds sterling]10m despite a drop in the number of insolvencies and the outlook...

01 News.
September 3, 2007... Acer opens Gateway to Packard Bell purchase In a move that would impress the most Machiavellian politician, Acer has acquired Gateway and exercised a contractual clause that gives it first right of refusal to buy Packard Bell, target of...

Operatingsystem wisdom.(10 Features)
September 3, 2007... Microsoft's Windows OS still dominates the desktop space, but with confidence growing in open source rival Linux, its long-term future as the system of choice is not guaranteed. Christopher Walton reports When considering the evolution of...

Enjoy holiday freedom without losing touch.(09 Tech Traders)
September 3, 2007... It is all well and good exploiting technology to get to your holiday destination, but the real crunch comes once the luxuries of broadband and office phones are left behind. Increasingly, most business people are issued with a mobile phone...

Microsoft to segment LARs by market focus.(01 News)
September 3, 2007... Software giant presses resellers to increase value in specific sectors Microsoft has revealed plans to segment its LAR channel according to product or vertical market in a move which it admits could lead to some falling by the wayside. ...

US firm spots gap in BI market.(01 News)(business intelligence)(AX Enterprise)(Brief article)
September 3, 2007... US-based Microsoft Dynamics AX partner and business intelligence (BI) specialist AX Enterprise has opened a UK office to exploit what it claims is an under-developed market sector. Mark Thackeray, UK managing director, told MicroScope the...

10 Features.(forecast of Fujitsu Siemens Computers)(Brief article)
September 3, 2007... Fujitsu head forecasts huge rise for third quarter The head of the Fujitsu Siemens consumer business is predicting a massive increase in sales in the third quarter, a year after he took the reins as consumer sales director for the UK. ...

Increasing business complexity drives ITIL implementation.(01 News)(Information Technology Infrastructure Library)
September 3, 2007... Best practice framework finally gains widespread acceptance The ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) service best practice framework is fast becoming a major compliance issue for the channel as increasing numbers of...

SMEs slow to take Intel vPro platform.(01 News)
September 3, 2007... Chip company plans training and seminars to target small businesses Intel has admitted that SMEs have been slow to adopt its vPro chipset and the channel has lacked applications to sell the platform as part of a managed desktop service. ...

01 News.(T-Mobile International AG und Company KG added partners)(WN1 Communications)(Olive Communications)(BusinessMobiles.com)(Brief article)
September 3, 2007... T-Mobile adds BlackBerry scheme German-owned mobile operator T-Mobile has added a specialised BlackBerry partner programme to its existing channel scheme to support growing adoption of the RIM-developed devices. "We've been selling...

01 News.
September 3, 2007... Instant messaging product integrates anti-virus to allay security anxieties Unified communications specialist Presence Networks has sought to appease concerns over the security of instant messaging (IM) by signing a deal to integrate the...

02 Software.
September 3, 2007... Oracle is banking on resellers to help spread the middleware message as it seeks to woo SMEs using Microsoft's .Net technology with its recently launched 11G relational database and Fusion middleware technology. Although middleware is...

03 Networking.(Internet Protocol Television)(Juniper Networks)(United States. Securities and Exchange Commission)(Fortinet Inc.)(Brief article)
September 3, 2007... UK lags behind France and Spain in IPTV adoption The UK is lagging behind other European countries in IPTV adoption. According to media intelligence analyst Screen Digest, more than 60 IPTV services went live in Europe this year, but the UK...

Microsoft and Cisco: will the peace last?(03 Networking)
September 3, 2007... The recent meeting between the respective CEOs of Microsoft and Cisco, Steve Ballmer and John Chambers, appeared to herald an era of collaboration on seven key areas, including wireless and mobile and unified communications (UC), but...

ZyXEL launches remote certification for partners.(03 Networking)
September 3, 2007... Networking kit vendor ZyXEL has launched an online training facility as the "next element" of its channel programme. The move comes in response to a big increase in the firm's partner base since the launch of the ZyPartner programme at the...

Bacn smells like bull.(05 Editorial)(notification emails)(Viewpoint essay)
September 3, 2007... As talk turns to the burning issue of making bacn, we are left wondering where on earth all the vowels have gone Steve Shipside Opinion Once upon a time the silly season was the preserve of bored hacks desperate to fill the acres of...

05 Editorial.(Editorial)
September 10, 2007... Waiting for people to care over CNP costs Years ago, on a spell of work experience, one of the joys of a two week spell up in Stalybridge near Manchester was a trip to the police station. Behind the desk an old senior copper mused on the...

12 Soap.(causes of holiday blues and its treatment)
September 10, 2007... www.weirdworld this week gets a bit depressed, with PR men recovering from the holiday blues, a lone Swiss reseller with no trade and a vendor putting moody-sounding dealers on 'suicide watch' Cheer up One contact at a vendor last week...

Bad debt is bad news.(05 Editorial)
September 10, 2007... Despite rising debts across the channel, there is still some optimism that the right focus will see resellers through Billy MacInnes Opinion The big story on last week's front page carried the following headline: Bad debt doubles....

04 Hardware.(Diversified Systems Group Inc. reports rise in sales of vista based PC's)(Brief article)
September 10, 2007... PC World parent DSGi has admitted that weak sales of Vista-based PCs have led to price slashing in an effort to clear the shelves. The retail giant has confirmed what the rest of the channel has known since April: that Microsoft's next...

04 Hardware.(rise in demand of computer monitors gave rise for computer peripherals)(Brief article)
September 10, 2007... Entry-level monitor shortages that have plagued the channel for months are set to ease at the start of October, according to distributors - at which point prices are expected to have risen by as much as 35 per cent. In August, MicroScope...

Less is more.(10 Features)
September 10, 2007... Virtualisation, which allows a single server to run several operating systems at once, is set for a tenfold rise within four years. While this may cut hardware needs, more opportunities for services will boost revenue and profit potential for...

01 News.(briefs)(Financial report)(Brief article)
September 10, 2007... Consultant clears [pounds sterling]12.2m IT services consultancy Morse has revealed it made operating profits of [pounds sterling]12.2m, up 16 per cent year-on-year, during its financial 2007, which closed at the end of June. Total sales...

04 Hardware.
September 10, 2007... BladeCenter QS21 launch IBM has launched BladeCenter QS21, which it claimed offers improved power efficiency and twice the memory, density and I/O throughput of the last generation. The product will ship from October. 2e2 to service...

01 News.(Computer 2000 offering credit facility)(Voicecomms Warehouse Ltd unveiling vendor relationship)(Brief article)
September 10, 2007... Briefs C2000 boosts credit Computer 2000 is offering around [pounds sterling]4m of credit to 800 of its smaller reseller customers that have previously been managed as cash-with-order accounts. Some rival distributors poured cold water...

A blast from the past.(14 Miscellaneous)(september month boom period for computer and computer peripherals industry)
September 10, 2007... The month of September always marks that start of the climb to the summit of an ambitious fourth quarter sales target. Minds are focused on product launches that should secure a great deal of interest among both resellers and customers, while...

Data storage made easy.(09 Tech Traders)
September 10, 2007... A few years ago, if you so much as mentioned network attached storage eyes would glaze over and hands would tremble as the customer started asking nervously about price and disruption. But that was then and this is now, when the technology...

09 Tech Traders.(Lantronix Inc. information about SecureLink Spider data security device)(Brief article)
September 10, 2007... Spinning a protective web The growth in remote working has its morale-boosting positive side, but it also poses some serious headaches for companies worried about security. But the channel has an increasing number of answers it can offer...

Switch on to the Boom System Box.(09 Tech Traders)(TwinMOS's speakers for iPOD )(Brief article)
September 10, 2007... The world of iPod add-ons grows on a daily basis and those resellers seeking to bolster their product ranges would be wise to pick up some relationships with those targeting the digital customer. The Boom System Box from TwinMOS is a very...

Designed for comfort.(09 Tech Traders)(cordless keyboard from Logitech International S.A.)(Brief article)
September 10, 2007... The world of keyboards is limited to just a few players which offer quality products that users want to buy. Despite the resemblance to the age-old qwerty keyboards of yesteryear, the effort that goes into making a product now limits it to...

Get in the picture with Mustek.(09 Tech Traders)(information Mustek digital photo frame PF-D800)(Brief article)
September 10, 2007... It was only a matter of time before technology went to its logical conclusion and after revolutionising the way people take and print photos took the next step to change the way they are viewed. The Mustek digital photo frame PF-D800 is a...

Ever-increasing demands.(01 News)
September 10, 2007... Insight upsets distributors with intentions to introduce more aggressive Ts&Cs In a move that has angered distributors, Insight EMEA is initiating more aggressive Ts&Cs which many claim are commercially unviable, but it is debatable...

01 News.
September 10, 2007... Police failing to stem rise of CNP crime Cardholder not Present (CNP) fraud is growing and those trying to fight the problem are in agreement that the police have yet to crack the problem. Figures due out next month from APACS, the...

07 Security.(Sony Corp. gives information about virus protected USB memory sticks )
September 10, 2007... The admission by Sony that some of its USB memory sticks have been affected by security flaws will put the debate about security of portable memory back in the spotlight. Vendors promoting the use of USB storage drives, which have seen...

08 Storage.(surveys on information technology managers)(Survey)
September 10, 2007... Survey reveals poor vision More than half of IT managers across Europe continue to lack visibility of the entire infrastructure, posing significant challenges for data consolidation and migration projects as well as risking greater levels...

08 Storage.
September 10, 2007... FAN remains distant for Horizon Brocade will ascertain the long-term impact existing distributors have on its file area network (FAN) devices before expanding new partner Horizon Data Management's contract beyond SAN switches. On top...

01 News.
September 10, 2007... The red tape that deterred UK resellers from promoting Oracle's SME database applications has been entirely removed as the vendor seeks to widen its market. Previously, resellers faced an administrative headache in signing extended...

01 News.(Dell Computer Corporation Ltd.'s financial report)(Financial report)(Brief article)
September 10, 2007... Dell's short term fortunes are slowly improving if its preliminary second quarter results is a barometer, but the turnaround plan to build services and a partner channel will take much longer, analysts have warned. In the period ended 30...

01 News.
September 10, 2007... In a move described as reacting to the changing market, distributor Ingram Micro has shuffled its European management team. Julian Klien, who runs the UK, has landed on the European executive team reporting directly to EMEA president Hans...

US companies set up in UK as hopefuls for acquisition.(01 News)
September 10, 2007... American firms aggressively pricing in bid to attract investors looking for international operation A wave of American IT firms launching in the UK could be trying to make themselves more attractive as a target for acquisition. One of...

Fujitsu first to fund FixITLocal dealers.(01 News)(Fujitsu Siemens Computers)(Brief article)
September 10, 2007... Consortium secures funding for marketing and demand generation At the start of next month, Fujitsu Siemens Computers (FSC) will become the first PC vendor to provide marketing funds, technical support and product promotions to the expanding...

01 News.(Mitel reduces headcount by 200)(Brief article)
September 10, 2007... Mitel reduces headcount by 200 Following its tie-up with US-based data communications specialist Inter-Tel, Canadian IP communications vendor Mitel has confirmed it has axed 200 jobs, representing about six per cent of the global workforce....

01 News.(IT Solutions GB merged with KPMG L.L.P.)(Brief article)
September 10, 2007... IT Solutions GB folds with [pounds sterling]500k debts IT Solutions GB has shut up shop after struggling to pay suppliers and KPMG is handling the administration with a view to selling the assets of the reseller. The Yorkshire-based...

02 Software.
September 10, 2007... Against the backdrop of increasing popularity around hosted services, concerns have been raised that some resellers are struggling to embrace a different financial model. With customers paying on a monthly basis for services like software...

02 Software.
September 10, 2007... Software asset management (SAM) is moving away from being just a compliance tool to a method of reducing costs and increasing the consultancy role for resellers. Using software to check for over-licensing is a feature that vendors are...

03 Networking.(BT Group PLC plans to build a netwok that could connect internet fast)
September 10, 2007... The migration of Britain's fixed-line infrastructure to BT's next generation network (NGN), 21CN, may not be scheduled for completion before the end of the decade, but communications resellers could lose out if they are not already laying the...

03 Networking.
September 10, 2007... Following the acquisition of enterprise group chat applications developer Parlano by Microsoft the software giant has moved to reassure the channel that it will be business as usual. "The partners who work with both [Parlano and Microsoft]...

05 Editorial.(Editorial)
September 17, 2007... Time to turn on those who are switched off When the woman in charge of Cisco's talent initiative (its attempt to get more skilled staff in its channel) stood up in Dublin last week to describe the state of the skills shortage and explain...

12 Soap.
September 17, 2007... www.weirdworld this week sups a Guinness and enjoys the company of Cisco executives in the flesh rather than on Second Life where the chances of getting a job are harder than you think The black stuff Those responsible for booking the...

Mitel confirms a review of UK jobs.(03 Networking)(Brief article)
September 17, 2007... IP communications vendor Mitel has responded to concerns that jobs at its UK arm would come under threat as the result of an announced cull of 200 positions. As reported last week (MicroScope 10 September), Mitel's vice president of...

Monitoring firms set sights on mid-market sweet spot.(03 Networking)
September 17, 2007... Two network monitoring firms with different business models are taking a similar approach to buffing up their SME propositions, offering white labelled products to their channel partners in an attempt to appeal to small firms. Remote...

Giving the web a human face.(05 Editorial)(Editorial)
September 17, 2007... Communicating on the internet is severely limited by lack of sight and sound. However, there are ways to bring back some emotion Phil Wainewright Opinion At the same time as making it a lot easier for people to communicate with each...

04 Hardware.
September 17, 2007... Oki shrinks footprints Oki has launched two monochrome printers with small footprints 30 per cent less than similar models from rivals, it claims. The B2220 and B2400 desktop devices each weigh 4.8kg and feature LED printing technology....

08 Storage.
September 17, 2007... Making a mad dash for flash It is with its low-end capacity and top performance tier being eaten away by solid state disk (SSD) technology that hard drive makers are doing something old and something new: growing capacity is the...

01 News.(briefs)(Comstor UK Ltd. )(Fortinet (UK) Ltd.)(Brief article)
September 17, 2007... Briefs Hailstone joins Comstor Comstor, the Cisco-focused Westcon subsidiary, has appointed Clive Hailstone, formerly of AV distributor Steljes, as sales director for the UK and Ireland. This follows the recent departure of Simon...

Skills gap looms.(01 News)(Brief article)
September 17, 2007... Shortfall of 40,000 engineers threatens to drive up wage bill Cisco has warned that the skills shortage around advanced networking threatens to hold back the market unless more engineers can be attracted into the channel. Quoting IDC's...

01 News.(BT Group PLC)(Brief article)
September 17, 2007... Calls commission reforms well received Having reviewed its compensation structure over the summer, BT has increased voice rebates for partners that could run up to 25 per cent. This is in stark contrast to the telco's decision, taken...

01 News.(British Telecommunications PLC merged with INS Group S.A and Lynx Technology Ltd.)(Brief article)
September 17, 2007... BT set for second acquisition BT is forging ahead with expansion plans after snapping up Belgium-based network specialist INS Group amid suggestions the telco giant is about to acquire UK integrator Lynx Technology. The UK acquisition...

Corporates go mobile.(04 Hardware)
September 17, 2007... The last bastion of the desktop PC may be under fire from notebooks after evidence emerged that corporate client refresh cycles are coming online and many firms are opting to go mobile. In recent years, PC growth has centred on notebook...

07 Security.
September 17, 2007... Anti virus specialist Kaspersky Labs is mulling over its channel as it weighs up its options to attack the broadline market. The vendor has a mixture of specialist security, retail and system integrator-facing distributors, but it is...

Big public sector IT deals to slacken off.(01 News)
September 17, 2007... Change in government emphasis opens opportunity for niche firms There are fewer public sector mega-deals on the horizon and IT growth rates will slow but tier-two integrators and application developers may gain from the government's drive...

Avnet lining up third acquisition.(01 News)(Avnet Technology Solutions)(Brief article)
September 17, 2007... Despite having made two high-profile acquisitions in Europe in the past year, US giant Avnet has confirmed it is about to take over a third enterprise distributor on this side of the Atlantic. In the past 12 months, Avnet has bought Sun...

01 News.
September 17, 2007... Barcelona reaches UK after delay The long-delayed Barcelona chip has reached the UK channel at the same time it reaches major OEMs and been hailed by AMD as the first "true native" x86 quad-core server chip on the market. The quad-core...

Cisco urges partners meet skills demands.(01 News)(Cisco Systems Inc.)
September 17, 2007... Networking firm moves to discourage poaching as talent gap looms Cisco is keen to get the channel to move to what it has identified as the next level of market development - "the age of collaboration" - but faces a challenge in making sure...

Enta says Microsoft is over-distributed.(01 News)
September 17, 2007... Eight distributors considered too many but consolidation not a prospect Enta Technologies accounted for nearly half of all Microsoft OEM sales in the last quarter and has called into question the vendor's strategy of partnering with seven...

01 News.(Brief article)
September 17, 2007... VADition equipped for 802.11n Emerging technology specialist VADition has added Colubris WLAN mobility solutions to its distribution portfolio in a move that pre-empts the debut of the 802.11n wireless standard next year. It has been...

01 News.
September 17, 2007... Financial focus Computacenter's six-month interim results to the end of June have painted an improving picture for the firm's continental operations, with group sales up 4.1 per cent to [pounds sterling]1.16bn and operating profits up 12...

Microsoft presses users to register Vista on time.(02 Software)
September 17, 2007... Microsoft is putting increasing pressure on customers that continue to sidestep the accredited channel and buy counterfeit products by reducing the functionality they can enjoy in Vista. The software giant has been actively pursuing those...

02 Software.
September 17, 2007... Red Hat aims sky high Open source specialist Red Hat has inked a deal with Spanair, one of the largest air carriers in Spain, which has selected the vendor's Enterprise Linux to support its recent IT initiatives. VAPP from Vizioncore...

Selling services.(10 Features)
September 17, 2007... It is meant to be the channel panacea, but is commoditisation creeping into this market making it harder to use services to make a difference to winning business? Davey Winder has been asking the people with all the answers When it comes...

09 Tech Traders.
September 17, 2007... If you love technology, you'll buy one of Intel's Core 2 Quad processors to revel in the fantastic ability of the human race to push the boundaries of what's possible, amazed at the 580 million transmitters that pack this processor full of...

09 Tech Traders.
September 17, 2007... The Xbox 360 was released more than 18 months ago, gaining Microsoft a headstart over its main competitor Sony, with its own PS3 offering. This time has been well spent with more than 11.6 million units in circulation, but now it's time to...

09 Tech Traders.(Brief article)
September 17, 2007... Apparently history allows us to understand the mistakes of those who came before and by using this knowledge avoid doing the same thing. However, it would seem the people behind Blu-ray and HD-DVD haven't been paying attention. As with VHS and...

09 Tech Traders.
September 17, 2007... We've reviewed a few LCD-TVs here but never really gone for the aspirational products, so this time we've gone big - very big - with the LC52XD1E 52in LCD-TV from Sharp. Most people are used to the HD-TV moniker and the expectation of...

White-knuckle ride.(10 Features)
September 24, 2007... Google got to where it was going fast - really fast - but, as Danny Bradbury discovers, the network of paths to its next destination are littered with business obstacles and risks It's easy to forget how bizarre the internet has made our...

01 News.(VADition)(briefs)(Brief article)
September 24, 2007... Cisco makes Cognio buy Cisco has splashed out an undisclosed sum on Maryland-based Cognio, a market-leading wireless spectrum analysis and management specialist, in an attempt to enhance its wireless unified comms proposition. Cognio's kit...

Microsoft server could trigger UC upgrade trend.(03 Networking)
September 24, 2007... The upcoming debut of Microsoft's Office Communications Server 2007 later in the year could launch a wave of unified communications (UC) upgrades in the business world. Speaking last week at a roundtable conference hosted by communications...