Indispensable channel analysis

MicroScopemicroscope.co.uk

December 2013

AS THE TIDE ROLLS IN ON A NEW YEAR, CHANNEL FIGURES SHARE THEIR VIEWS

ON THE UPS AND DOWNS OF 2013 AND WHAT 2014 HOLDS IN STORE

◆ LOOKING BACK◆ LOOKING FOWARD

◆ THE MONTH IN IT ◆ OPINION ◆ LETTERS ◆ FIVE-MINUTE INTERVIEW ◆

ISTO

CK

/TH

INKS

TOC

K

Fujitsu celebrates year of growthAt the Fujitsu Forum in Munich, Fujitsu UK channel top brass have been reflecting on a year of solid growth in its reseller and distribution organisation, and outlining their plans for the future.

Fujitsu now claims its UK and Ireland indirect business is twice as big as its direct business, and it is booking growth in the UK that, while it remains in single digits, firmly shows it is ahead of the curve when compared with rivals.

Indeed, Fujitsu Technology Products Group UK and Ireland executive director Michael Keegan had harsh words for Fujitsu’s rivals in the hardware space, saying HP was so large its business could only really shrink, and

suggesting that following its recent leveraged buy-out, Dell had taken on so much debt that its attention would be focused on meeting its investors’ expecta-tions instead of on product and channel growth and develop-ment.

“If you’re a Dell partner you want to think carefully about how long they [Dell] can sustain that,” Keegan warned. “We’re sticking to our knitting; we’re a technology lead company, and we’re also now a more joined up, globally consistent company that understands its partners.”

Ingram Micro unveils managed print service to fill gap in marketIngram Micro has taken the wraps off a managed print service that it believes plugs a gap in the market where resellers are losing out on revenue. The distributor’s PrintSense is a subscription-based service that allows customers to pay on a cost-per-page basis with consumables and break-fix included.

Stonesoft outlines merger plansFirewall and intrusion prevention specialist Stonesoft has revealed plans for the future of its channel organisation, four months after its acquisition by security giant McAfee was finalised. Stonesoft regional director of the UK and Ireland, Ash Patel, told MicroScope the firms will continue to work on several initiatives independent of its new owners, and will continue to run separate channels until well into 2014.

Colt to make cloud service portfolio available via ArrowSphereColt and Arrow ECS have announced the availability of Colt’s cloud services portfolio through Arrow’s ArrowSphere channel cloud platform. Colt’s portfolio includes several key components that underpin cloud projects, including compute, backup and recovery through vCloud, replication for customers with onsite VMware deployments, and EMC Atmos cloud-based object storage services, extending on-premises capacity around a number of other vendors, such as CTERA, EMC and Symantec.

Mitel and Aastra join forcesUnified communications software specialist Mitel and enterprise comms vendor Aastra have joined forces in a merger that is set to create a $1.1bn (£688m) revenue company. Mitel will acquire all outstanding Aastra common shares for $6.52, plus 3.6 Mitel shares each, for a total price of approximately $374m (£234m).

AWS to reward close customers Amazon Web Services (AWS) has stepped up the support it provides partners selling its hosted offering devising a set of competencies and rewards for those who work closely with the firm. The web-hosting firm used its re:Invent 2013 event in Las Vegas to show how it will go forward with the channel and improve life for its 8,000 global partners. AWS has introduced competencies for partners which have expertise with Microsoft Exchange, Oracle and SAP and can help manage those solutions on the AWS cloud.

Fortinet names vice-president of northwest Europe operationsHigh-performance networking security vendor Fortinet has named Andy Travers, previously vice-president of sales for the UK, Ireland and South Africa at F5 Networks, as its new regional vice-president for northwest Europe. He will spearhead Fortinet’s growth and expansion across the UK, Ireland, Nordics, Germany and Netherlands.

Veeam to increase resellersVeeam has set out ambitions to grow reseller numbers and its own headcount next year as it looks to further growth in the UK market. The virtualisation specialist has a channel across the UK that totals around 1,350 but it is planning to expand this to 1,600 by the end of 2014, as it looks to reach more partners with VMware and Microsoft expertise.

Logicalis announces new UK CEOLogicalis has named former Logica UK CEO and long-serving BT and IBM employee Gary Bullard as its new CEO, replacing Ian Cook who will become non-executive chairman at the firm in 2014. Bullard’s IT career spans over a 25 years and includes stints as managing director of BT’s corporate business and president of its Global Services wing, as well as general manager of IBM Global Services EMEA and general manager of IBM Global Solutions.

Symantec bases selling approach on solutions to customer needs Symantec is moving channel partners away from a product-centric approach to selling, to one based around solutions that meet customer needs as it gears up resellers for a change in its approach to marketing and sales. The vendor unveiled changes at its recent Partner Engage event in the US and has already taken steps to support its strategy, reducing the emphasis on 150 different products to one around 10 possible solutions that resellers could sell.

Syscap reveals financial support to help resellers restructure Syscap has reacted to the changes in the channel by unveiling financial support packages designed to help resellers change their business models to take advantage of the growth in sub-scription-based packages. The chan-nel finance specialist has worked with resellers to provide credit to users looking to buy technology, but since most channel businesses are SMEs themselves the focus has broadened to include support for firms struggling to make the transition to a managed services model. ■

Acer’s intended CEO resignsAcer corporate president Jim Wong, who was due to take up the post of CEO in January 2014, has handed in his resignation before making it through the door.

Wong was selected to replace the PC builder’s previous boss, JT Wang, who threw in the towel earlier this month after the firm’s mounting troubles were laid bare in a worse-than-expected quarterly results announcement.

Like its peers, the Taiwanese business has been struggling in the face of the growing popularity of mobile devices, and the rot afflicting the PC market also resulted in a major write-down on the value of recent Acer acquisitions Gateway and Packard Bell.

In light of its latest boardroom upset, Acer has called in company co-founder Stan Shih as chairman and interim corporate president with immediate effect.

In a statement, Acer said Shih will take on the duties of the CEO position, which is to be eliminated with immediate effect. This  is expected, it said, to boost its decision-making efficiency.

“Due to the situation that now faces Acer and my personal social responsibilities, I must stand up and take the reign without salary,” said Shih.

the month in the channel

DECEMBER 2013 | 2Daily channel news at MicroScope.co.uk

FLICKR, SBROSCOE

FLICKR, HYTHEM

As the curtain comes down on 2013 there are already signs the economy is starting to gain momentum and the recovery that started this year will pick up over the next year.

That in itself makes a pleasant change, because over the last five years most of these comments made at the end of the year have been hoping that things would improve and dreaming of green shoots, rather than being in a position to look forward with a great deal more positivity.

The megatrends have continued to dominate the technology discussion this year. Cloud, mobility (in-cluding the whole bring your own device – BYOD – topic) and to some extent big data have all dominat-ed headlines throughout the last twelve months.

Cloud can still cause confusion and spark debates about what it means, but most would agree it is something the channel must address. It has also led to a growth in resellers that describe themselves as

managed service providers as they position them-selves to deliver hosted applications and services.

Mobility and the BYOD/application trend has con-tinued to develop over the last year with customers of all shapes and sizes having to turn to the channel to come up with a technological reaction to an un-stoppable wave of device expansion.

On the big data front, the channel opportunity might not have been around the large enterprise pro-jects but, in a broader sense, there has been a lot of interest in tools that help make data management easier. Customers are not only facing a squeeze on budget that makes buying capacity a no-go option, but are now expected to allow the business to ac-cess that information in real time, to provide insights into the direction and strategy of operations. That has been an area that resellers have been able to reap the rewards.

Looking forward, all of those themes will continue to garner debate and generate discussion in the channel and provide revenue for resellers.

MicroScope wishes all of its readers a Merry Christmas and a prosperous new year, and looks for-ward to sharing analysis of the main channel market developments in 2014. ■

If you would like details of forthcoming themes running in the MicroScope ezine, wish to share your reaction to this one, or make any other contribution, email squicke@techtarget.com.

community

Daily channel news at MicroScope.co.uk DECEMBER 2013 | 3

Customers of all shapes and sizes have turned to the channel to react to an unstoppable wave of device expansion

The business IT budget hidden in the shadows

BILLY MACINNES OPINION

There was an interesting sur-vey reported in MicroScope recently which estimated companies were spending

up to 40% more than the official IT budget in “shadow spending”.

The survey by CEB estimated that marketing, HR, finance, operations and other departments were splurg-ing the 40% extra cash on technology outside the IT budget and without going through the CIO. Instead, they used their own budgets to buy the technology they wanted.

Understandably, there are con-cerns that shadow spending could present a threat to the organisation, but CEB managing director Andrew Horne preferred to look at it as a “sign of healthy innovation” that presented “a valuable opportunity for IT to work more closely with business partners to develop capabilities”.

While failing to recognise the ex-tent of technology-driven projects outside the IT department could be a cause for concern, Horne warned that “trying to maintain total control is a step in the wrong direction”.

Instead, CIOs should seek to get the balance right and “help the busi-ness to be more flexible, identify po-tential cost savings and ultimately implement change and innovation more easily,” he said.

Given the significant amount of money splurged on technology by shadow spending departments, it is

obviously in the interest of channel partners to try and forge relationships with other parts of their customers’ business. But how do they do that in a way that brings them the extra busi-ness, without upsetting their existing relationship with the CIO?

Seen in a positive light, you could argue that, if channel partners can be-come providers for shadow spenders, they can also act as a conduit to the IT department to provide informa-tion on what is happening elsewhere in the organisation. Also, because they are likely to have an awareness of the overall IT strategy, channel partners should be in a good position to help shadow spending depart-ments choose technology that fits into it or that enables the technology to work in the overall strategy.

Finding the shadow spenders is the hard part but, if channel partners can discover who is looking to spend on IT and where, they could end up in an even more valuable position than today, because of their ability to provide a service to the departments while using their awareness of the wider organisation to assimilate it into the overall IT structure. Because they are more agile than the IT de-partment, channel partners could achieve this objective in a much quicker, more flexible fashion, and in a way that works for both parties.

Perhaps, then, it is time to start looking in the shadows. ■

SIMON QUICKE EDITOR’S COMMENT

Looking forward to a 2014 of building pace

THIN

KSTO

CK

Daily channel news at MicroScope.co.uk DECEMBER 2013 | 4

community

Datacentres have gone power crazy

A range of UK startups have invented new ways to save energy in the datacentre

NICK BOOTH REPORT

I f there is one technology area where the British might possibly have a lead over the Americans, it is in saving power. Mind you,

they never let us have a lead for long. That’s why their IT industry is so much more powerful than ours – they adapt so much quicker.

So for now, savour this moment in history: there is probably more expertise in the UK on how to save energy in datacentres and it might be a good time to exploit the market opportunity.

But let’s have a cup of tea first, while we consider our options. There’s a whole range of UK startups which have invented new ways to save energy in the fossil fuel-guzzling, carbon-belching datacentre sector.

Costly coolingIn the US, $7.4bn is spent on cooling datacentres annually. UK vendors such as Iceotope aim to cut these costs by integrating processors and cooling systems more efficiently. Iceotope does this by providing mas-sive processing power, memory and storage in an integrated computing system cooled with liquid, which saves energy and reduces costs.

For example, environmental cool-ing specialist Iceotope has installed its liquid-cooled servers in Poland’s Poznan Supercomputing and Net-working Centre (PSNC). At 3,200ft2, the PSNC colocation centre offers high-performance computing (HPC) services to scientists, universities and researchers from around the world, and it eats up power. Luckily for Poland, power is relatively cheap given an abundance of coal, but the European Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe (PRACE) Research Project has been looking to cut its environmental footprint.

Iceotope’s liquid cooling system is installed in 46 environmentally-friendly and high-performance blade modules and is so good at cooling it makes it possible to overclock the machines. Overclocking the machine means you get more zing for your Zloty. “We can overclock the machines and still use minimal power resources for cooling; no easy feat, I can assure you,” says Iceotope founder and CEO, Peter Hopton.

Typically, datacentre facilities will use only around 40% of their server’s capacity. At Poznan PSNC, the Iceo-tope system was set up to run at above 90%. It runs a demanding Linux Stress software program which

strains every sinew of memory, cen-tral processing unit (CPU), servers and applications, says Hopton. “Users can run their systems in turbo mode and get higher performance rates,” he says.

Eco innovationIceotope is one of a crop of UK startups taking their energy-saving inventions to the US this month, on a “Clean and Cool” technology mission to Colorado, backed by UK Trade and Industry (UKTI).

But why stop at Colorado? Data-centres around the world are desper-ate to lower their carbon footprint, after all, and one good thing we can thank Britain’s officious regulators for is that our service providers are more experienced at cutting emis-sions in datacentres and providing alternative energy supplies.

In his 2009 inaugural address, president Obama set out his New Energy for America plan, calling for 25% of the US electricity supply to come from renewables by 2025. This is in turn creating demand for new grid-scale energy storage. A battery from Wind Power Performance promises to rise to this challenge by creating lower energy storage costs.

Meanwhile, other energy options are emerging that UK inventors can exploit. Low-voltage direct current (DC) power is becoming an increas-ingly popular option for datacentres as it is cheap, safe and green. All it needs is for equipment to be rede-signed for the new model. Big com-panies are already working on rejig-ging chips and logic to fit the new standard and the first USB PD devices will come to market in 2014, with a big roll-out in 2015, according to Brad Saunders of Intel.

This new USB standard will be a “game-changer”, says Saunders. Big datacentres, with their huge, hum-ming arrays of servers, are already using DC circuits. Homes and offices will follow, he says.

But the options don’t stop there. UK firm Arcola Energy makes fuel cells that convert chemical energy from a fuel (like hydrogen) into elec-tricity. Ultimately this makes electric-ity more accessible and cost-effective for consumers and businesses. Arcola’s technology can be used in the home and within the construc-tion, entertainment, education and automotive industries.

Another fuel cell company is Enocell, which is targeting the grow-ing market demand for both grid and off-grid energy supply. On the other hand, the Merismus micro-grid, from Each For All Productions, works with a smart meter to automatically manage grid and microgeneration energy usage. The end result is low energy bills through very little effort.

Datacentre redesignThe design of datacentre buildings is another area that could be made much greener. UK inventor Flint Engineer-ing has created a building that absorbs energy from the sun to power the datacentre equipment inside.

Flint Engineering blends photovol-taic conversion and thermal collection to create a roofing and cladding mate-rial that absorbs the sun’s energy to heat a building. It’s a sort of heat sponge, which uses ammonia in vapour form to absorb energy from the sun. It could make heating, cooling and hot water bills disappear too.

You know how some people pros-trate themselves in front of the sun? Fullsun Photovoltaics is a bit like that. It wants every joule of energy from the

sun’s 386 billion megawatts, aiming to capture it and convert it into electric-ity. It does this by using high concen-trated photovoltaic (HCPV) technol-ogy in a lightweight solar module designed for utility and commercial/industrial rooftop markets.

It’s not just the buildings; the effi-ciency of the IT infrastructure can also be improved. Magnets make any machine work better. Magnifye’s superconducting permanent magnets are 10 times stronger than their con-ventional cousins, and are both small enough to fit into the palm of the hand and large enough to power a train or a cruise liner. With that sort of versatil-ity they can get into a lot of places in the infrastructure and work their magic on servers and other units.

On a similar note, Moixa Technol-ogy aims to cut peak load demand on the national grid with a few insertions of its own. By putting millions of smart batteries into customer prem-ises it says it can improve the energy efficiency of essential DC devices such as lights and mobile phones.

We have already seen how direct current is going to make datacentres a lot cheaper to run, and storing energy at off-peak times Moixa’s technology cuts bills and improves energy secu-rity still further. But another, quite different, storage offering, comes from the PJH Partnership, which has created a solar power storage unit. Might be useful for those datacentres that have solar panels, or customers who want to store energy available at night and use it in the day.

Renovagen has developed a trans-portable solar power system that can generate 10 times more power than existing technologies, designed for temporary or semi-permanent use in remote off-grid locations where self-sufficient power generation is essential.

Meanwhile, Sunamp’s new high-power heat batteries are super-com-pact but can store heat from conven-tional and non-conventional heat pumps and boilers. They can deliver heat quickly and with maximum energy efficiency as needed.

UK channel partners of these ven-dors will gain valuable experience in the early days of installation. That know-how will take them even fur-ther when the US adopts these tech-nologies and customers start to look for trusted advisors with the rare expertise of installing these systems. There won’t be many of them about and the high demand will drive up the price they can command. ■

CH

ON

ES/F

OTO

LIA

COLOURTHE BROTHER

A D V A N T A G E

* Cloudconnectivitywith9000LEDseriesonly.

**TermsandConditionsapply.Promotionlastsfrom1stNovember-31stDecember2013.

ORDER FROM YOUR PREFERRED DISTRIBUTOR TODAY:

01379 649200www.midwich.com

0871 9733703www.ingrammicro.com

0121 327 2872www.integrityservices.co.uk

01256 707070www.micro-p.com

01752 330044www.jgbm.co.uk

020 8296 7000www.northamber.com

0844 2380000www.spicers.co.uk

0844 980 8000www.voweurope.com

0844 848 0905www.nimans.net

SPEED. COST.CONNECTIVITY.SMALL BUSINESSES AND HOME OFFICE CUSTOMERS DEMAND PROFESSIONAL COLOUR QUALITY, SEAMLESS CONNECTIVITY AND OUTSTANDING VALUE FOR MONEY.

Nottomentionprintspeedsthatmatchthe

‘fullon’paceoftoday’sbusinessworld.

InBrother’sHL-3100and9000LEDseries,

youcandeliverthemall.

Upto22pagesperminute,mono

orcolour.2-sidedprintingasstandardand

highlycompetitiveownershipcosts.

Pluswiredandwirelessnetworkconnectivity

alongsidescanningtoandprintingfrom

mobiles,tabletsandcloudservices*.

WITH BROTHER, THE ADVANTAGE IS ALL YOURS

PROMOTIONAL PRICING

AVAILABLE NOW**

www.brother.uk/colour

I f there’s one thing people like talking about, it’s the future. Ven-dors and channel partners are only too happy to garnish any

conversation with the latest projec-tions from Gartner, IDC et al as they outline the prospects for a certain product, technology or market. Most of those projections are typically for three or five-year periods, but here at MicroScope, because we prefer to concentrate on the nearer future, we asked people to give us their projec-tions for 2014, and this is what they came up with.

But before we move into the area of informed speculation, it might be well to start with something that we know is a certainty: Microsoft will have a new CEO. The uncertainty is over who it will be.

Looking at the product and tech-nology trends that will provide the best opportunities in 2014, there are no prizes for guessing that the cloud and mobility are very prominent in

of compliance obligations,” he says. Headaches for IT departments that the channel could be in a strong position to help cure.

“The channel has another opportu-nity here to provide consultancy to enterprises on how best to tackle these challenges and which solutions would be the best fit for each organi-sation,” he says.

Sukh Rayat, senior vice-president, Avnet Technology Solutions (ATS), North region, says the transition to cloud solutions will continue to be one to watch during 2014.

“Organisations will look to the channel to innovate and educate when it comes to how the cloud can benefit their business and which route to take by sorting the hype from the reality. This is particularly true in the SME (small and medium sized enterprise) market and represents a significant growth opportunity for IT partners in this area,” he says.

Steve Attwell, managing director at

Cloud, mobility and big data: What 2014 holds for the channel

Billy MacInnes asks the industry what will be the highlights of the coming year for resellers and their customers

Sage’s small and medium business division, believes cloud computing is becoming a permanent fixture on the roster for vendors and the channel alike. He says: “It has gone beyond the foundation phase, where partners had to adapt their business and eco-nomic model to accommodate cloud and subscription pricing.

“Now, as we enter the next cloud wave epitomised by widespread adoption and greater innovation, the real challenge for the channel will be customer retention.”

Stephen Scott, managing director of Sentrum Colo, believes that cloud-based services will grow as a conse-quence of the substantial develop-ments in network availability and data centre technologies. He says the biggest opportunities for resellers lie in the SME and corporate segments, where cloud adoption will continue to gain momentum in 2014.

But they need to adapt quickly and start selling applications via

2014 predictions

DECEMBER 2013 | 6Daily channel news at MicroScope.co.uk

people’s thoughts for 2014. “The cloud is set to continue to dominate the landscape and horizon, leading to the continuing decline of on-premise IT solutions,” argues Phil Jones, UK managing director at Brother.

“CMOs will become more influen-tial in shortlisting technology as IT goes off-premise, requiring a greater spread of contacts in organisations and further democratising of decision making. Demand for ‘location-inde-pendent’ products and services will continue to grow as a result.”

Cloud servicesKevin Bland, director of channel and alliances at Citrix, talks of a further increase in the number of cloud services that find their way into the enterprise. “With consumers becom-ing more familiar and comfortable with the cloud, it is inevitable some of those solutions are going to spill over into the workplace and cause headaches to IT departments in terms

THIN

KS

TOC

K

2014 predictions

DECEMBER 2013 | 7Daily channel news at MicroScope.co.uk

cloud-enabled platforms. If they do not, they will become “just a refer-ral partner for the big cloud players, and miss out while competitors reap the rewards.

For large enterprises, the biggest rev-enue opportunities for resellers lie in hybrid cloud solutions. Scott quotes figures from Research and Markets esti-mating the global hybrid cloud market will grow from $21.27bn in 2013 to $79.54bn in 2018.

“The key for resellers looking to grab a slice of this pie is to get under the skin of the IT decision makers and understand their pain points,” he urges. “Resellers need to enable CIOs to achieve the right balance between public cloud and the strin-gent data back-up, redundancy, se-curity and regulatory requirements of the enterprise.”

Mobility and CopeMobility, especially BYOD, is an-other area people tend to focus on, al-though some are starting to talk about Cope (corporately owned, personally enabled) instead (we’ll get to that in a minute). “In terms of trends, 2014 will see a continued proliferation of devices in the workplace,” Bland at Citrix predicts.

“Next year we will see increased recognition of the role that virtual-ised applications play in enabling employees to choose the device they want to work on. We will see fewer and fewer organisations providing the corporate owned laptop or smart-phone as standard and as a result there will be further opportunity for the right channel partners to provide their expertise on how to deliver se-cure solutions.”

David Ellis, director of new tech-nology and services at Computer-links, agrees the enterprise mobility trend will continue, adding that mobility has moved from pilot trials to real opportunities, with devices being used for real business appli-cations, “not just email or corporate bling”. And as employees demand access to more enterprise applica-tions on a mobile form factor, he says, “Products and technologies that enable the channel to deliver solutions around security, content, delivery and applications for enter-prise mobility will start to become

“Users will put sensitive corporate data at risk by using consumer technologies to gain access on different devices” Bob Janssen, RES Software

even more important.”Jones at Brother is the first to intro-

duce Cope into the discussion. While he accepts the concept of BYOD is well established in large businesses and enterprises, hardware provision in enterprises is shifting to a Cope model, he argues, because of security and data issues.

Bob Janssen, founder and CTO at RES Software, believes Cope is “a middle ground between the wants of users and the needs of IT. The reality is that most users still require the support of IT, no matter what device they use”. But if Cope is to work, IT has to be able to offer different and more attractive devices that give users the flexibility to use the device across their professional and person-al lives.

“It is not that employees will ex-pect Cope,” he says, “but rather that if IT departments don’t seriously con-sider a corporate-owned, personally enabled model, they will continue to see more unsanctioned devices in their IT environments. Users will continue to put sensitive corporate data at risk by using consumer tech-nologies to gain access on different devices (for example, using dropbox, and gmail to send out files).” Janssen suggests Cope is a realistic way to in-corporate a BYOD-style programme in the enterprise without compromis-ing control and security.

But how will users deal with being presented with a corporate device that doubles as a personal one? Given that the BYOD trend has been driven by user choice, it might appear coun-ter-intuitive for businesses to man-date what their mobile devices should be. While it’s natural for or-ganisations to focus on the security and confidentiality aspects of imple-menting a BYOD policy, they need to be aware of how a Cope strategy might transfer those concerns to the user over what their employer does with the information generated by their personal use of the device. And what happens to the device and the personal information when an em-ployee leaves the organisation?

Wireless networkingA number of people also see oppor-tunities in the wireless networking area, specifically around the arrival

Bland: “Cloud will spill over into the workplace and cause headaches for IT departments”

Desmond: “Enterprises must adapt to new

business models using new technologies”

Ellis: “Security, content, delivery and applications for enterprise mobility will be important”

Rayat: “SMEs will look to the channel to innovate and educate when it comes to how the cloud can benefit their businesses”

2014 predictions

DECEMBER 2013 | 8Daily channel news at MicroScope.co.uk

of the 802.11ac standard. “In the area of wireless networking, we are entering a very exciting period with the advent of 802.11ac, which is re-placing 802.11n,” says David Kelly, vice president of international sales at Meru Networks. “We can expect to see a wave of 802.11ac products being launched by vendors through-out 2014.”

Customers that have deployed 802.11ac networks are also reporting improved performance from their 802.11n devices, he adds. “Meru customer Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines is seeing 30% and 40% increased throughput on 802.11n devices,” he says.

As for channel partners: “With customers demanding ever-greater network speeds and instant access to data and applications via their mobile device, the future is bright for channel partners that want to help customers migrate to 802.11ac,” says Kelly.

Big dataWill O’Brien, vice-president for alli-ance and channels at Oracle UK, says big data could present an opportu-nity, although he admits 2013 was the year big data came to the fore: “It made its way into boardrooms as a discussion topic, but didn’t become the business driver many thought it would,” he says.

Nevertheless, skilled resellers will need to tackle the hardware and soft-ware opportunity big data demands in 2014 and find the sweet spot to get customer buy-in. “Even then, it won’t be easy to do as they’ll need to seam-lessly combine the historical, institu-tional breadth and knowledge of ERP systems and the new influx of data from social platforms, content and customer experience,” he says.

“The big data era has presented something of a Catch-22 for many businesses, as a difficult economic climate forces them to cut spending and streamline their operations at the very moment when massive amounts of valuable information have become available to those willing to invest in high-capacity data solutions.”

Jones at Brother UK says the key challenge for big data in 2014 will be getting the big insights. With business intelligence, the first

priority for CIOs extracting usable information from data will become key and demand for big data spe-cialists is set to grow by 243% in the next five years. “Specialists of-fering hosting, analysis and insight under one roof will emerge, taking the headache of big data away from CIOs and CMOs,” he says.

The year of collaborationBeyond products and technology, what does 2014 hold in store for the channel itself? According to Avnet’s Rayat, 2014 is “an important year of change for the UK IT channel. For those willing to grasp new opportuni-ties it will be an exciting year, but for those who ignore the signals it could prove a costly twelve months”.

Attwell at Sage says the role of the IT channel will remain the same as it has always been, as “a negotiator, a translator, transforming technical of-ferings into something businesses can understand and buy. Partners that can demystify technology and focus on communicating long-term business benefits are those that will ultimately win out”.

He believes there will be “much greater collaboration in the channel” next year, as companies move away from being a ‘one stop shop’ and rec-ognise the value of building net-works; both with influencing chan-nels and associates, and with each other where there are specialist skills.

“Channel partners are acknowl-edging customers want an integrat-ed solution and next year we can expect to see a step change in how firms collaborate together to deliver this,” he says.

Ellis at Computerlinks agrees that, as companies demand more and more bundled IT service offer-ings, “we will see the channel forg-ing relationships and collaborating with partners to really add value for their customers”.

The disruptive nature of the com-mercial landscape means internal and external collaboration is high on the agenda of businesses, including the channel, adds Jones at Brother.

“This will further see the rise of collaboration platforms and mobile conferencing solutions to enable fast, face to face communication. New conversations may emerge in the

channel as resellers identify skill gaps and commercial deficiencies, leading to more vertical outsourcing amongst players in non-competing markets, verticals or sectors,” he says.

Steve Kaplan, vice-president of channel and strategic sales at Nutan-ix, believes channel partners will in-creasingly be faced with choices in terms of maintaining the status quo or directing clients toward new cloud and infrastructure solutions.

“The days of easy box sales are coming to an end. The channel, in order to remain relevant, will increas-ingly be forced to take an advisor role in helping clients navigate the myr-iad private and hybrid cloud oppor-tunities as well as to implement much more complex solutions that reduce costs and provide increased business agility and other business-related objectives,” he says.

ConsolidationConsolidation is another trend peo-ple expect to occur in the IT industry (and the channel) next year. “The market will see further consolidation at multiple levels,” Jones predicts. Large vendors will acquire niche ser-vices and solution businesses to em-bellish their primary offers and help open up new horizontal and vertical market sectors. “In the channel, dis-tributors and resellers will continue to consolidate as margin pressure builds among those with hardware heavy business models, lacking posi-tive margin contribution from ser-vices propositions,” he says.

Ellis at Computerlinks says chan-nel partners that invest and develop skills in their core area of expertise to set them apart from the competition will do well. “The losers will be those who stick their heads in the sand and don’t develop or collaborate to deliver value-added services, in the hope that product sales will see them through,” he says.

Moving with the times appears to be a constant theme for many when it comes to identifying what can help channel partners in 2014. “The

winners in 2014 will be those channel partners and vendors that are able to replicate the agility that individuals experience with technology in their personal lives in the workplace,” says Bland at Citrix. “Those set to miss out in 2014 will be organisations that don’t move with the times, fail to spe-cialise and ignore strategic challenges faced by customers.”

O’Brien at Oracle UK says technol-ogy and innovation will continue to grow at an increasing rate and the channel landscape will change sig-nificantly, with those able to move with the times proving to be the win-ners. “This year we’ve seen lots of es-tablished businesses in the channel disappear and redundancies made,” he says.

The trend will continue until re-sellers take on more specialised skill sets and learn to become agile like the businesses they service, he adds. “Additionally, with several major vendors reducing the amount of re-sellers they use, the threat comes from two angles and focus must be applied to ensure survival,” he says.

Avnet’s Rayat says: “The winners will be those who listen to the mar-ket and respond to demand for con-verged and end-to-end solutions, whether premise based or in the cloud. The losers will be those who ignore the signals and carry on with business-as-usual only to find the business is no longer there before too long.”

Barrie Desmond, director of marketing and global accounts at Exclusive Networks Group, is a tad more dramatic, suggesting it’s a question of “adapt or die!”.

“Do we, as businesses, want to be-come the Polaroid or Blackberry of the channel? Why is Zoopla revolu-tionising the property market? I’ll tell you why – it has a new business model using new technologies and applications. The channel needs to take its head out of the sand and start on a journey where they become cloud aggregators or whatever the term will be,” he says. ■

“Those set to miss out in 2014 will be organisations that fail to specialise and ignore strategic challenges” Kevin Bland, Citrix

THIN

KS

TOC

K

When the history books are written about 2013, there will of course be mentions of Steve Ballmer deciding to

step down as Microsoft CEO and Michael Dell winning in the battle to take the firm he founded back into private hands. But plenty of other things have happened in the channel this year, so in the first part of a two-part feature we have given the space to as many voices as possible to share how the year went and what the highlights were.

Petra Heinrich, vice-president, partners and alliances, EMEA, Red Hat

For Red Hat, 2013 has been an important year for growth and expan-sion in the channel throughout EMEA. As a result of the acquisition of new technologies in 2011 and 2012, our focus over the past 12

months has been bringing our partner eco-system up to date with our expanded prod-uct portfolio, growing into a true multi-product organisation.

We have been expanding and consolidat-ing our partner base in line with our new solution areas, welcoming new partners and educating existing ones on new tools and capabilities, together exploring how these apply to enterprises in various con-texts and industries.

The ongoing development of our chan-nel strategy in line with the evolution of Red Hat’s business this year culminated in the introduction of our EMEA Partner Program 3.0 in October. This impor-tant change in the programme is designed to encourage and reward partners to build multi-product knowledge within Red Hat’s three core partner special-isations: datacentre infrastruc-ture, middleware solutions, and cloud infrastructure. It is no longer appro-priate to work on a single-product basis that promotes

2013: Review of the yearChannel figures reflect on the ups and downs of 2013 and ponder on what 2014 holds in store. Amro Gebreel reports

2013 review

DECEMBER 2013 | 9Daily channel news at MicroScope.co.uk

silo-based knowhow, so we are changing that with the refreshed programme and making it easy for partners to gain knowl-edge, particularly for skills inside the new specialisations. Areas we have seen gathering special interest are cloud and middleware.

Rami Houbby, UK managing director, nconnectThis has been the year resellers found their voice, with many beginning the process of reclaiming the £100m-plus in lost revenue we believe has been lying dor-mant. Previously, voice vendors have conspired to alienate IT and data-orientated partners from taking full advantage of enterprise voice opportuni-ties, setting the bar too high on in-house technical skills and having prohibi-tively expensive vendor accredi-tations. That is over now, with solutions like our cloud telephony ser-vice, which we launched in the UK earlier this year, helping resellers

BA

NK

-BA

NK

/FO

TOLI

A

“2013 has been the year resellers found their voice” Rami Houbby, nconnect

2013 review

DECEMBER 2013 | 10Daily channel news at MicroScope.co.uk

to leverage those voice opportunities previously disregarded.

2013 has also seen IT players become more receptive to telecoms services, due to cloud applications receiving wider adoption in this area. The previous challenges of unreliable networks and lack of confidence have been overcome, with the bene-fits now outweighing any perceived disadvantages. The cloud may well have been a grey area for many in previous years, especially in the tele-coms and voice sectors, but 2013 has been a watershed year.

Kevin Bland, director of channel and alliances, Northern Europe, Citrix

This year saw the proliferation of smartphone and tablet use, fol-lowed by the implementation of tools to harness these devices for business produc-

tivity. Many enterprises were faced with a huge number of different form factors, proprietary platforms and devices coming into the workplace. Businesses had to deal with the growing number of personal devices and applications employees used in the workplace – and decide how they fitted into their overall business IT structure. As a result, the focus for many IT teams shifted to the manage-ment of data and applications, with a lesser focus on devices. Desktop and application virtualisation became key elements to mobility solutions – taking the emphasis away from devices and endpoints and placing more focus on centralised and “as a service” solutions.

For us, 2013 has seen the mobile enterprise come to the fore. Industry trends such as bring your own anything (BYOX), the rise of IT consumerisation, and the enabling power of smart devices have all resulted in enterprise mobility becoming one of the leading boardroom issues.

To assist resellers with resolving this issue, we launched our Mobile Enterprise Eco-System (MEE), including a variety of solutions designed to optimise, secure and enable the seamless and cost-effective evolution of enterprise mobility across any organisation. Providing visibility, control, management and compliance all in one place, resellers now have the ability to take the mobility challenge head-on.

2013 was also the year I joined the company. I went from being a consul-tant based in Malvern at the beginning of the year, to picking up Exclusive Networks UK and driving its growth by the end. From a one-man band to 100 staff; from Malvern to Alton; a slow start to a quick finish. What’s next? Who knows, but I have a plan and a promise: that 2014 will be an even better year for Exclusive Networks UK.

Graham Jones, joint country manager, Exclusive Networks UK

Further, in this age of mobility, cus-tomers expect their channel partners to become strategic advisors, and not just “tactical” resellers. Customers want to work with technology experts who are able to provide con-sultancy, not only for specific IT pain points but to help that organisation get ahead of the competition. As a result, in 2013 we have seen channel firms looking to develop expertise and specialisations that will allow them to drive long-term growth.

Dave Joplin, head of indirect channel, Expontial-eIt has been the year of transition for resellers. We have seen movement in terms of mergers and acquisi-tions, including MDNX and Griffin earlier in the year, and more recently Recentric’s acquisition of InTechnol-ogy. The reduced number of ven-dors in the market has resulted in a reduction in solely channel-focused partners, hence two routes to market strategy – direct and indirect – is now the norm, so partners need to choose the right vendor with the relevant protections in place.

Over the past 12 months there has also been a clear acceptance in the channel space that the future is cloud. More and more resellers are looking for network providers with a cloud-ready network to deliver their cloud services. I expect this trend to continue well into 2014, with resellers offering a broader portfolio of services.

Ian Finlay, vice-president of product, AbiquoWe saw a sharp decline in hardware revenues for the channel this year, due to users increasingly using the public cloud for compute and

storage. This is backed by Gartner, which recently reported a drastic decline in the number of servers sold in EMEA throughout the third quarter. Because of this, we are seeing traditional hardware resellers looking to transition their business, working towards becoming cloud service providers – providing service-based offerings, instead of traditional hardware and kit.

Another key trend and talking point this year was around users provisioning Amazon accounts/Amazon Web Services (AWS) independently of the IT department. This had a detrimental effect on the IT organisation, not to mention the unforeseen costs involved. As a result, we have seen a demand from the IT department to regain control and visibility through the adoption of management platforms to gain

visibility around what resource has been acquired and where. They also started to direct their attention to spending in the cloud, and therefore acquiring systems which include robust reporting functions.

There have been many predictions around the rise of the hybrid cloud model, but it has not taken off. Yes, we saw users start to embrace a mix-ture of cloud models – for example, using half public and half private cloud or hybrid multi-provider cloud – but not the hybrid model that many had predicted. What we have seen and will continue to see is users choosing where to put critical resource – and interestingly, we’re seeing more and more opt for public cloud. In my opinion, the idea of the hybrid cloud is not going to be a question of on or off-premises, pri-vate or public cloud. It is going to concern the use of multiple clouds, and the challenge will be how to manage and control all of them from one centralised point of view.

Andrew Mennie, general manager EMEA, Moxie Software

We expect multi-channel communications to continue transforming key market sectors, including retail, financial services, telecoms and

energy. In the past, customers were predictable. If they had to lodge a complaint or make an enquiry, their only channel of communication would have been the front door or the telephone. Now, the customer is free to access an enterprise via any number of social media channels,

“Over the past 12 months there has

been a clear acceptance in

the channel space that the

future is cloud”Dave Joplin, Expontial-e

THIN

KS

TOC

K

2013 review

DECEMBER 2013 | 11Daily channel news at MicroScope.co.uk

as well as email, text, instant messenger (IM), in addition to the traditional methods.

The demand for multi-channel customer service and support is not a trend that is threatening to explode – it is already happening, and the abil-ity to address each of these channels using a single platform will be a driv-ing force in 2014. Enterprises are embracing the need to connect with customers through their preferred channel of choice, ensuring optimum customer experiences.

Kenneth Fox, chief technology officer, Channel MechanicsWe have successfully rolled out our promoIT and demoIT modules with Motorola Solutions EMEA, which helps to streamline manufacturers’ channel operations, and we are work-ing closely with another large manu-facturer at the moment, looking to do the same.

Earlier this year we also won a National Irish Business award from Ulster Bank in the “innovation and emerging technology” category, which we we’re really pleased with.

We launched the latest version of our channelIT platform in Septem-ber, which includes multi-language and multi-currency capability.

2014 is looking to be a year of sig-nificant growth for the company, with a number of new customers at an advanced stage in the pipeline.

Anthony Webb, vice-president of channels, EMEA, Juniper NetworksAs I reflect on 2013 and look ahead to 2014, I am struck by a number of key highlights from this year that tee

us up for next. For many, the market remains cautious, but at Juniper we have delivered a number of key offer-ings in the past few months that put us on a strong trajectory for next year. The recent launch of our MetaFab-ric datacentre capabilities and the widening of our software-defined networking (SDN) product portfolio position us as a central player in both these key markets. We have a com-plete datacentre offering, as well as an innovative security product port-folio, which should help us continue to build momentum into next year.

2013 was a tough year for many, and partners across the EMEA region have a constantly changing market to navigate. Many of our partners have chosen to upskill and cross-sell a wider portfolio, certainly as new markets such as SDN and cloud have developed over the past few years.

New opportunities are created requiring some new investment. Resellers and distributors should take the time to consider which vendors offer the best business opportunity, supporting partners as they invest and increase the portfolio they sell. They should also consider which vendor has the better technology and with whom should they invest to build their strategy for the long term. Distribution will be a key element of these discussions, and Juniper acknowledges that its partnership with distribution is more important than ever, as is the service and sup-port it provides to its partners.

Juniper also encourages its part-ners to provide their own special-ised services to support end custom-ers. This is an important part in growing their enterprise success and being much closer to the customer business. Our partners are a funda-mental element in that success, and next year we will focus on simplify-ing ease of business, support and services partners receive, and the offers we make to them with accred-itation programmes, training and education with a key awareness on profitability and margin.

Looking ahead to 2014, Juniper

will continue to build momentum in the datacentre market and security space, working with existing partners but also investing in new partners to grow our channel support in the datacentre market, increasing the capabilities we have to scale to our end customers. As our portfolio grows, technology converges and becomes virtualised, and the size of the market opportunity increases, we will continually respond to these trends and strengthen our ecosystem of partners as we maintain a focus on collaboration.

Sean McCarry, senior director, CA Technologies

It has been a really positive year for CA Tech-nologies, with strong acquisition of new partners across different areas. This has been especially

dominant in the managed service environment, and within our Nim-soft service management technology, where we have definitely seen a buzz in the channel since the launch of the free Nimsoft Snap tool.

We have also seen consistent growth for our security portfolio this year, with continued demand in the market in the areas of compliance and insider threats. ■

Look out for the second part of the review of the year online later this month.

“In 2014, Juniper will continue to

build momentum in the datacentre

market and security space,

working with existing partners but also investing

in new ones” Anthony Webb,

Juniper Networks

VE

GE

/FO

TOLI

A2013 was intense and exciting. We took a long look at our channel processes and the tools we make available to support our partners – essentially it was all about “reviewing and refining”.

We fine-tuned our campaign structures and content, and made further investment in our Partner University programme. We also committed to extending our channel marketing support, which now enables us, in turn, to improve strategic planning and execution with our partners. The Global PartnerAdvantage Awards continued to run and we were delighted that EMEA partners Datacore, ADN, Oriium and Fujitsu were recognised for their outstanding contributions.

2013 closed with a Channel Forum event and a strong and exciting message to our partners that next year needs to be about improving the levels of strategic consultancy that is available to customers and prospects. We absolutely believe that there is a fundamental opportunity for partners to add real value here by not just being satisfied with making the short-term sale. For us it is not just about the leading-edge, award-winning technology on offer – it is now also about being agile in the market and taking that professional level of service one step further.

2014 will, no doubt, be another fast-moving year.

Mark Johnson, UK and Ireland channel director, CommVault

opinion

Why the channel cannot afford to ignore the network any longerThere are still plenty of networking opportunities – alongside continual challenges – for the channel

technologies that can cope with the demand and deliver the flexibility and reliability businesses need today. But as with most things, it comes down to a question of cost. Many businesses are worried that they cannot afford the necessary network investment, when the reality is they cannot afford not to.

Problems with virtualisationVirtualisation and cloud models can provide a much better utilisation of current assets, and enable a more cost-effective connection to services and applications. However, they also require greater network agility and performance. This is where software defined networking (SDN) comes in, promising significant improvements to how networks can be managed

and making them more responsive to changing business needs. But this requires a more automated, efficient and flatter network topology than traditional legacy three-tier architectures can provide.

So how can the channel ensure it is supporting organisations that are looking to bring the latest technological innovations into their business? How can VARs and resellers ensure the equipment they are selling to businesses will help the network cope with the anticipated extra pressure that virtualisation and cloud models will put it under?

The answer is to embrace a different approach to network design – that of fabrics. Ethernet fabrics meet immediate and future datacentre requirements, so services and

applications can be deployed and accessed “on-demand”. Highly interoperable technologies combined with flexible financing solutions are making it much easier and more cost-effective for organisations to bring the datacentre into the 21st century.

The networking industry is being transformed by intelligent, automated and scalable solutions that overcome the complexity and architectural limitations of traditional networks.

If the channel can empower organisations to adopt network infrastructures purpose-built for highly virtualised and cloud computing environments, then they will relegate downtime to where it belongs – firmly in the past. Those brave enough to embrace this new approach to networking will benefit significantly, helping customers successfully embrace the  latest IT trends and profit from the huge commercial opportunities they herald. ■

John Mitchell is senior channel sales manager for Western Europe at Brocade.

John Mitchell, Brocade: “Global research shows that many organisations still depend on antiquated datacentre infrastructures”

Virtualisation and cloud models can provide a much better utilisation of current assets, and enable a more cost-effective connection to services and applications

NETWORKING

For those of us who work in the networking industry, and have had the benefit of so many customer insights

and experiences, we know that we cannot afford to ignore the network. It seems strange therefore, that in a world where commercial viability equals reliable connectivity, some people still do not appreciate why the network matters.

This is particularly poignant for the channel industry. The network has never been more important here, with the continual challenge to find new ways to sell and support businesses to make the most out of the latest technology innovations. So what is the network opportunity for the channel?

The ramificationsSimply put, network downtime affects profitability. Yet global research released recently showed that despite this commercial reality, many organisations still depend on antiquated datacentre infrastructures, with a third of respondents admitting their organisation experiences multiple network failures each week.

Furthermore, 61% of datacentre personnel confided that their corporate networks are not fit for the intended purpose, with almost half (41%) admitting that network downtime has caused their business financial hardship. Some 91% of IT decision-makers said their current IT infrastructures still require substantial upgrades to meet the networking requirements created by virtualisation and cloud computing. It is clear that the datacentres based on 20-year-old technologies are being held back from keeping up with the demand.

With this realisation comes a significant opportunity for the channel to offer new datacentre

Daily channel news at MicroScope.co.uk DECEMBER 2013 | 12

opinion

Accelerating growth through vendor and reseller relationsVendors and resellers need to work together to drive revenue growth as the economy improves. John Kelly considers the key elements of this partnership

exhibitions. The best channel-focused vendors will also provide sales sup-port to resellers; in effect, a reseller can think of a vendor user salesforce as an extension to their own.

3Incentivise the sales teamFinancial incentives, rebates,

promotions or product giveaways can help motivate the sales team. If a supplier offers a salesperson £100 to sell X product, the individual will tend to make sure they have good product knowledge and look for the opportunity to sell it over a compet-ing product. These incentives should not be offered at random, but should form part of a coherent strategy mapped out by both the supplier and the reseller.

Push for vendor supportSuppliers and resellers should not work in silos and should share infor-mation on forward planning and sales opportunities where appropriate.

Below are three tips for resellers to help them make the most of a vendor partnership:

1When forming your growth strategy, consult your vendor

Where appropriate, a partner should share its business plan with the ven-dor because it is difficult for a supplier to offer tailored support if it does not know what the partner’s goals are. For example, if the reseller is looking to expand its print offering, the vendor can help tailor the reseller education and customer marketing material to help the partner achieve this.

2Use vendor support in a big sales pitch

A vendor should be brought into a big sales opportunity at the earliest stage to help add weight to the deal. If, during a negotiation, the reseller has the supplier on hand to offer the customer a joint value proposi-tion, including set-up support and technology maintenance, it will have a more convincing case than if the partner goes it alone.

3Explore customer requirements to expose upsell opportunities

The best results are often hard earned. A customer may contact

a reseller and buy 30 printers, for example. That may seem an ideal scenario, but wouldn’t it be better if the salesperson had a conversation with the customer and found out that they previously had cost issues around sourcing printing supplies such as paper and ink cartridges? You could then upsell a managed print service, potentially cutting the customer’s printing costs. That would not only net you, as a reseller, more than just the value of selling 30 printers, but it would also mean the customer would see you as a trusted advisor for purchases moving for-ward and might be more inclined to consider you in future.

Both parties want to secure more business and to do this the vendor and reseller need to work together to drive revenues in a challenging mar-ket. These collaborations are easy once initiated and drive immediate and lasting return, both in the rela-tionship and in revenue growth. ■

John Kelly is business manager at Epson UK

CHANNEL RELATIONSHIPS

We are turning a corner. The CBI has found that UK business optimism last quarter grew at the

fastest rate in 15 years, with the IT sector singled out for success. We have been trapped in a depressed economy for years, and while we have all been hardened by recent difficulties, it is often worth being reminded of what it takes to succeed. You will all have been told about these and other similar considera-tions time and again, but it is impor-tant to continue to keep competitive, future-proof and add value.

One key way of delivering these objectives, often overlooked, is through a robust supplier-reseller rela-tionship. As the economy picks up, both vendors and resellers need to work together to drive revenue growth.

Greater vendor involvementBefore the recession, suppliers could almost drop product off with a reseller and leave it to them to go and sell. Unfortunately, we are not quite back to those comparatively easy and prosperous times. We are in a highly competitive market, with a huge number of VARs, so vendors need to work hard to make sure their products are front of mind for their reseller community. A central part of this is delivering reseller support throughout the sales process.

Below are three ways in which the vendor needs to support the reseller community.

1Provide training supportA salesperson should not advise

customers without adequate product training. A vendor could play a key role in this process, getting under the skin of the reseller’s business and its customer base, and helping match product or service capability with user needs. For example, with business inkjet now being a highly viable alternative to laser, resell-ers can evolve a more consultative sales approach to focus on total cost of ownership and help customers achieve big savings. Insight from vendors can enable partners to offer this informed consultation, win cus-tomers and differentiate themselves.

2Deliver marketing and sales support

Vendors and resellers are battling to be heard in a competitive market. Vendors need to help resellers get the message out there because, if they are not, they can be sure their competi-tion will be. Channel partnerships can be a crucial way for vendors to communicate to their customers. They can offer resellers a range of support programmes, customisable collateral, and work with partners at

Daily channel news at MicroScope.co.uk DECEMBER 2013 | 13

ISTO

CK

/TH

INKS

TOC

K

CWEuropeCWEurope is an E-Zine developed exclusively for our European audience

covering all the major areas of change within IT. The monthly E-Zine focuses on

themes relevant to the European market, offering both local language content

as well as English. Whether it’s building a new data centre, considering cloud

computing, developing a more secure infrastructure, CWEurope discusses key

management questions for IT pros to explore as they consider upcoming

IT purchasing and technology decisions.

Access this month’s issue today!

From the publishers of

community

DECEMBER 2013 | 15Daily channel news at MicroScope.co.uk

Resellers can add value by identifying products such as mobile printers and scanners to create a complete “office in your pocket”

READERS’ LETTERS

BYOD: driving agile working Phil Jones, managing director, Brother UKThe recent Pearlfinders IT Index highlights a great sales opportunity for resellers as businesses look to invest in flexible IT to support remote workers.

The concept of work/life balance is being replaced with work/life blend as more and more people work out of hours and away from the office. Employees now expect to be able to use whatever technology they want, any time and anywhere. Our research among IT buyers found that 40% operate a bring your own device (BYOD) policy already*.

As a result, resellers need to think about how they can shape their busi-nesses to survive and thrive with the changes. We have already seen sev-eral forward-thinking resellers adapt to the dramatically changing market-place, shifting from selling units of technology to broader services.

We have also had to evolve and adapt at Brother to make sure we’re at the heart of collaborative working and digitisation.

For savvy resellers the opportuni-ties around agile working and BYOD are seemingly endless. Many busi-nesses need their employees to be

able to work as productively on the road as they do in the office. While the primary focus might be on tablets and phones, the peripheral setup is equally important. Our research found that half of corporate IT buyers think that being able to print from anywhere, from any device, to any printer will become increasingly important in business document management during the next decade.

This is where resellers can add value, identifying products such as mobile printers and scanners to create a complete “office in your pocket”. This will truly enable work-forces to be more agile in the mobile space, while also contributing to workflow and productivity.

The BYOD trend also provides a good opportunity to get involved with organisations championing agile working. Brother’s partnership with Anywhere Working allows us to network with other companies which realise how important remote working is in terms of increasing

Martin Sugden, CEO, Boldon James There has been much talk of customers losing faith in organisations which have experienced data breaches. Indeed, MicroScope reported findings that customers are less trusting of businesses that fail to look after their data. The problem is organisations need to exchange valuable and sensitive information all the time.

If you are a supplier of goods or services, your customers and partners need to give you some knowledge of their business, activities and people, so you must be able to demonstrate that you can be trusted with this information. But how?

As a starter, understand the sector. A high-end government department or agency will have different security needs to an online retailer. Understand the consequence of something going awry with information. If you provide similar services to different sorts of organisations, do you need an enhanced security offering? Does your company need to be independently certified – maybe via the ISO27001 route? Should you have your systems independently – and regularly – test-ed, by using a credible CREST (or CHECK, if that’s your target market) company.

Look at your own arrangements. Would a customer be impressed if they found your IT had been outsourced to a local company and you had not tested their provenance? Do you let your staff work on customer information remotely? On their own equipment? Take a step back and look at yourselves through your custom-ers’ eyes. If they look just a bit more than skin deep, will they be happy with what they see?

Businesses sharing information must be aware that people – competitors, hacktivists, criminal organisa-tions or the merely curious – will want that information. Recognise that all information has some corporate value – what happens if that piece of information is not kept private or if you cannot get access to your information where and when it is required? Know which information is out of your control – once it has

been sent to a partner, you have lost control of its safekeeping.

Being able to demonstrate that you are trustworthy is a critical investment that can deliver competitive advantage. And actually, it is nothing more than common sense. You can trust me on that – after all, I’m a data security expert...

Gain customer trust with data security management

PH

OTO

DIS

C/T

HIN

KS

TOC

K

productivity and efficiency and bringing cost savings. Larger organisa-tions are also on board – the recently launched Agile Future Forum is a partnership between the government and the likes of Tesco, Lloyds Banking Group and HM Treasury, which helps businesses consider how agile work-ing can produce tangible benefits. A recent report by the forum found that flexible working can cut costs by up to 13%.

It is clear that agile working is building momentum in businesses of all sizes, supported by a number of different organisations. So it is time for resellers to capitalise on this con-siderable opportunity. By supporting businesses in the early stages, it is easier to become a partner for life.

* Research quoted was conducted online in January 2013 among corpo-rate IT decision-makers. ■

CONTACTSMicroScope1st Floor, 3-4a Little Portland StreetLondon W1W 7JB

WEBwww.microscope.co.uk

GENERAL ENQUIRIESOffice Manager Anna Peters 020 7186 1401

EDITORIALEditor Simon Quicke 020 7186 1412 squicke@techtarget.comSenior reporter Alex Scroxton 020 7186 1413 ascroxton@techtarget.com Production editor Claire Cormack 020 7186 1417 ccormack@techtarget.comSenior sub-editor Jason Foster 020 7186 1420 jfoster@techtarget.comSub-editor Craig Harris 020 7186 1416 charris@techtarget.com ADVERTISING Sales director Brent Boswell 07584 311889 bboswell@techtarget.comAccount manager Martin Upson 0207 186 1451 mupson@techtarget.com

EVENTSEvents manager Jonathan Palma 0207 186 1430 jpalma@techtarget.com

MicroScope is produced monthly by TechTarget, First Floor, 3-4a Little Portland Street, London, W1W 7JB, UK. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in any form of retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means mechanical, electronic, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior written consent of the copyright holder. All rights reserved, including translation into other languages.

› Send your letters and comments to squicke@techtarget.com

backchat

answers – you just have to know how to find out and provide the information when you said you would.

The worst advice I received was from a business advisor: That you need a formal business plan prepared before you start your venture. The real world is too dynamic to rigidly stick to any plan that was made before you start.

What advice would you give to someone starting out today in IT?Think about the business as a whole: what do you need, apart from IT skills, to run it effectively and efficiently on a day-to-day basis?

Think about where your skills are most effective and add most value – if you are a phenomenal coder and solutions innovator, are you also able to sell to the general public? Use your skills in the right places and hire for other positions.

Lastly, hire only the very best people every time. Don’t be frightened to employ people who know more than you. Good people do not come cheap and there is a reason for that.

What’s running on your smartphone?Sorry to say, it’s an iPhone. That might seem strange for someone dealing with open source software!

Tell us something most people do not know about youI like Flamenco Dance and have tried my hand at it. Sadly, it requires more time than I was willing to give it. It’s on my ‘try again later’ list.

What does the next five years hold for the channel?3D printing will revolutionise manufacturing much as desktop

printing revolutionised printed documentation in the 1990s. We already have 3D scanners available and sub-£1,000 desktop 3D printers, so the next evolution will be 3D printers that can fabricate with non-plastic components. It will have a massive effect on the supply chain and how products reach the user.

Improved wireless communication will give rise to the internet of things. Every conceivable device will be connected to an internetwork, generating enormous amounts of data for manipulation and interrogation to unleash true value for the client. However, making it easy for the user to manipulate and extract information to give them the leading edge over the competition will be key; otherwise storing the data will just increase cost.

Security will still be at the forefront of everyone’s agenda as long as users still exist and require access to systems. The channel has a vital role to play to ensure organisations are as secure as they possibly can be.

What is the best book you have read?The Illiad and The Odyssey by Homer – I have re-read them many times. You can find the best and worst of human nature in these stories and they are inspirational – set your goal, overcome all obstacles as they arise, however daunting they appear, and eventually you will triumph.

And the worst film you have seen?The Exorcist - it terrified me. I think I kept my eyes shut through most of it.

What are your Desert Island MP3s?The Jungle Book soundtrack to keep my spirits up; Gayatri Mantra as I would have plenty of time to

master meditation; a few of the Now compilation albums to dance around to; My favourite operas – Madam Butterfly, Tosca, Turandot, Barber of Seville and La Traviata – to sing along with. What goal do you have to achieve before you die, and why?Reach my 100th birthday with a healthy and reasonably fit body and an active mind. And complete Ashtanga yoga series one. Why aim low?

What temptation can you not resist?The opportunity to sing along with the radio when I am driving – usually when alone as I have a terrible singing voice.

What was your first car? How does it compare with what you drive now?My first car was an ancient Ford Cortina GXL. It was an enormous emerald green rust bucket which ensured you got wet feet if it rained heavily. No comparison to my current car where everything is reliable and comfortable.

Who would you least like to be stuck in a lift with? Why, what did they do?Gordon Brown – I think he would be hard to be at ease with. Derren Brown – who knows what he would get everyone doing. Robert Mugabe for every bad thing he has done, though Derren Brown might be able to work on him.

If you could be any animal for a day, what would you be and why?A cat, wild or domesticated. They are nimble, strong, flexible, alert yet relaxed, and exert effort only when needed. A good model for business.

If you could have taken part in one event in the Olympics, which would you have chosen and why?The 100m freestyle swimming because, despite my best efforts, I am a poor swimmer. Olympic swimmers appear totally at ease and as one with the water, unlike me.

If you were facing awesome peril and impossible odds, which real or fictional person would you most want on your side and why? Superman. He would swing things in my favour. Always choose the right person for the job.

And finally, a grizzly bear and a silverback gorilla are getting ready for a no-holds-barred rumble. Who is your money on and why? The silverback every time, mainly due to my perception of their differing agility. ■

FIVE-MINUTE INTERVIEW

Tell us what you do for a living.I run Reconnix, an open source ecosystem and digital delivery company.

Why are you the right person for this job?I have spent the whole of my working life in and around IT. I understand its unique opportunities and challenges and the different personalities attracted to this type of working environment. However, though I’m IT-literate, I’m not overly technical, so I focus my skills on ensuring that we deliver excellent service levels and additional value to all our clients. As a service business it is imperative that both sides of the equation are fully covered.

What gets you up in the morning?Apart from the alarm clock, the desire to create a company that everyone associated with it can be proud of. Also the challenge to succeed during difficult trading times is really exciting.

Who helped you get to where you are today?Many of the usual suspects: my husband (and business partner), my parents, and former employers. Also, I must mention the clients who turned up for the aerobics classes I ran some years back. They taught me that whatever you do, you have to be reliable, trustworthy and deliver good service, however hard your day has been or under the weather you may feel. With self-belief, you can succeed at anything if you try hard enough.

What is the best or worst advice you have received? Who from?Best advice: A former boss taught me that you don’t have to know all the

Pat NiceReconnixMicroScope puts its questions to Pat Nice, CEO of Reconnix

Daily channel news at MicroScope.co.uk DECEMBER 2013 | 16

› Click here to read more five-minute interviews online