The most recent articles from CRN

Infosys abandons Axon bid

Doug Woodburn — 2008-10-13T14:34:00.000Z

Doug Woodburn, CRN, Monday 13 October 2008 at 14:34:00

Bad tidyings for outsourcing sector as Infosys pulls out of bid for UK firm and slashes growth forecasts

Infosys has sent shudders through the outsourcing market by slashing growth forecasts and pulling out of its bid for UK-based IT services firm Axon.

India’s second biggest offshore outsourcing firm has aborted its attempt to buy the London-listed SAP specialist, stating it would not match the £441m bid tabled by rival HCL.

And in a blow to the market, Infosys chopped its full-year revenue growth forecasts from between 19 to 20 per cent to between 13.1 and 15.2 per cent.

Infosys’ fiscal year runs until March and although it reported a 19 per cent growth for its second quarter to September, it said it expected third quarter revenues to be flat.

It is not the first time in recent days that the impact of the financial meltdown on the IT services market has been thrown into sharp relief.

Last week, business applications big daddy SAP shocked onlookers by admitting it had seen a sudden drop in sales in September (Channelweb, 7 October).

IBM unveils datacentre specialisation

Sam Trendall — 2008-10-09T14:17:00.000Z

Sam Trendall, CRN, Thursday 9 October 2008 at 14:17:00

Big Blue tempts VARs to invest in new programme in return for up to $100,000 in business development funds

IBM is hoping to help its partners cash in on datacentre opportunities with the launch of a new specialisation.

Big Blue has developed the programme with guidance from its Business Partner councils. Partners taking part in the programme will benefit from technical, sales and marketing training, as well as up to $100,000 in business development funds.

The programme will focus on three key areas: virtualisation and consolidation, energy efficiency and business resiliency. Participating resellers can achieve Specialty and Specialty Elite certifications depending on their level of investment.

Rich Hume, IBM's general manager of global Business Partners, said: "The new Enterprise Data Center Specialty, part of IBM's company-wide new enterprise datacentre strategy, underscores our ongoing commitment to deliver programmes that help our partners expand their business and profitability. No other vendor has an offering for its partners as complete. This offering includes assessment tools that helps them identify and deliver these solutions in a consistent way. "

CIBER Enterprise Solutions is an IBM Business Partner and Eric Borcherding, vice president of the company's technology solutions practice, added: "IBM's new Enterprise Data Center Specialty programme will help define how businesses, solution providers and IBM will shape the future of the technology industry.

"This new programme further demonstrates IBM's commitment to provide a higher level of skills and cooperation with its partners to generate success. At CIBER, we believe this program will enable us to work directly with our clients to develop a comprehensive strategy to effectively reduce power/cooling, improve security and resiliency, reduce IT costs and build a flexible foundation for the future."

UK firms get tough on outsourcing team changes

Doug Woodburn — 2008-10-08T15:58:00.000Z

Doug Woodburn, CRN, Wednesday 8 October 2008 at 15:58:00

Outsourcing firms’ tendency to change project personnel could prompt end users to insert new contract clauses

Outsourcing firms will come under more pressure to insert legal terms into contracts that limit or control the number of team changes, Fujitsu Services has asserted.

Coleman Parkes Research conducted 50 detailed telephone interviews with large, blue chip UK organisations on behalf of the IT services firm.

58 per cent said they had experienced team changes of three or more throughout the duration of an outsourcing contract, which Fujitsu claimed could impact the success of the project and ruin the client relationship.

A third indicated they are thinking of putting legal paragraphs in the contract to limit or control the number of team changes.

Rob Devlen, head of business consulting at Fujitsu Services, said he had never seen a contract with limits on team changes written in, but claimed this may become the norm in the future.

“More people are looking for outsourcing to drive change they can actually measure. If people perceive that having the same team in place for the duration of the project is a driver of its success, I suspect they will look to do this,” he said.

Barlow leaves Computacenter

Doug Woodburn — 2008-10-06T15:36:00.000Z

Doug Woodburn, CRN, Monday 6 October 2008 at 15:36:00

Former Equanet chief said to be looking for next channel opportunity after parting company with corporate reseller

Industry hard-hitter Paul Barlow has left Computacenter just nine months after joining the corporate reseller.

Barlow took up his post as commercial director of Computacenter’s Customer Coverage Unit (CCU) in January nine months after leaving DSGi Business (formerly PC World Business).

Computacenter chief executive Mike Norris confirmed Barlow had left the firm towards the end of September, but declined to divulge any details about the circumstances of his departure.

Norris hinted at last month’s Reseller Leadership Forum that the giant may potentially make some job cuts over the coming year and warned of worsening market conditions in 2009 (channelweb, 24 September).

He also revealed Computacenter had taken a significant uninsured hit from the collapse of Lehman Brothers.

But Norris said it would be wrong to link Barlow’s departure with comments made in the speech.

Barlow, who was formerly managing director of Equanet and has also worked at IBM and Compaq, was unavailable for comment. It is understood he is already looking for his next opportunity in the channel.

Veeam targets VMware channel

Kayleigh Bateman — 2008-10-06T13:01:00.000Z

Kayleigh Bateman, CRN, Monday 6 October 2008 at 13:01:00

VMware management tools vendor plans to recruit 50 partners after touching down in UK

VMware ESX Server management tools vendor Veeam Software has landed in Europe.

The US-based company recently unveiled its EMEA headquarters in Camberley, announcing plans to recruit 50 UK partners by Q209. In addition the vendor aims to sign with a distributor by the end of its first year.

The firm’s European executive team will be led by managing director Colin Wright. The line-up includes a number of executives who have joined Veeam Software from senior positions at VMware.

Wright said: “We want to expand our footprint across Europe so at the moment there are no hurdles in the way of companies wanting to become Veeam Software partners. We want committed, reactive and proactive partners that understand VMware environments in order to get the products to the end user as soon as possible.

“We will use the UK as a springboard for the rest of Europe – we want to be first choice for anything core for virtualisation.”

Veeam is also launching two new products with its European unveiling: the Veeam Monitor Version 3.0 and version 4 of its nworks enterprise management connectors.

The nworks enterprise management connectors enable organisations to manage VMware environments with systems management tools from HP and Microsoft.

IT departments that use HP OpenView of Microsoft Systems Centre Manager can plug in Veeam and manage both their physical and virtual infrastructures.

Wright added: “In the future we will acquire new products that fit in with our portfolio.”

European VMware users will also have the pick of other products from Veeam’s portfolio, including Veeam Backup, Veeam Reporter, Veeam Configurator and Veeam Monitor.

Lenovo boosts partner rewards

Sam Trendall — 2008-10-02T16:37:00.000Z

Sam Trendall, CRN, Thursday 2 October 2008 at 16:37:00

PC vendor and technology partners offer goodies and holidays to channel sales staff

PC vendor Lenovo and a number of its technology partners are offering channel salespeople prizes and holidays as incentives to encourage VARs to sell more kit.

The Lenovo Winners' Club sees the vendor teaming up with several other big names, including Microsoft and Intel, to offer resellers the chance to earn prizes through sales and learning. The scheme is now open to channel sales teams in the UK, as well as France, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic.

Through the scheme's website, VARs can register sales and training courses they have passed, as well as taking quizzes. Points can then be earned which can be exchanged for prizes at online and high street retailers. The programme's double bubble feature offers greater rewards for joint product sales and, once a month, a special quiz will offer top prizes including holidays to New York and official Olympic torches.

Lenovo's EMEA transactional marketing director Mike Etherington said: “As the title implies, the Lenovo Winners’ Club programme aims to be a win-win initiative where all the players involved stand to gain, from the vendor to the business partner and the individual sales people.

“Our channel partners loved our last incentive programme but wanted more opportunities to earn. So we have provided a bigger, better and more exciting programme, joining forces with other major vendors."

Repton hits £40m turnover

Kayleigh Bateman — 2008-10-02T14:35:00.000Z

Kayleigh Bateman, CRN, Thursday 2 October 2008 at 14:35:00

Infrastructure reseller celebrates spike in top and bottom lines

Reseller Repton claims it has closed the books on its most successful year yet having breached the £40m turnover mark for the first time.

The reseller said it has banked a preliminary pre-tax profit of £800,000 for the year to 30 September, double its previous best. Last year it hit a profit of about £200,000 on sales of £31.5m.

Greg Carlow, managing director of Repton, said: “We are disgustingly happy with the results. We had about £9m of back orders on the books when we entered the year and we will finish with £11m.

“We are aware we are on thin ice with the credit crunch – it feels like a false paradise because we have achieved good results from securing our biggest contracts to date this year.”

HP partners hail LeftHand takeover

Kayleigh Bateman — 2008-10-01T16:34:00.000Z

Kayleigh Bateman, CRN, Wednesday 1 October 2008 at 16:34:00

Acquisition of iSCSI SAN and virtualisation outfit will allow HP to compete with Dell, partners claim

HP resellers have greeted the vendor’s $360m (£203m) acquisition of virtualisation and iSCSI storage area network (SAN) vendor LeftHand Networks.

The purchase will allow HP to add midrange offerings to its suite of iSCSI solutions and LeftHand will be integrated into the HP StorageWorks division within the vendor's Technology Solutions Group.

LeftHand currently has 215 employees and more than 500 resellers and distributors worldwide.

Alan Brown, business strategy director at reseller Panacea Services, said: “It is not a surprise that HP is looking to strengthen its iSCSI SAN and storage virtualisation offering as it is an area it does not currently cover.

“The acquisition of LeftHand Networks looks like it will be a good move for HP in an increasingly exciting and competitive market, allowing it to compete with the likes of Dell EqualLogic.”

Dave Roberson, senior vice president and general manager for StorageWorks Division at HP, said: “The acquisition of LeftHand Networks significantly expands our storage portfolio, enabling HP to deliver customers an expanded suite of storage functionality, scalable capacity and interconnect options for every budget and performance requirement.”

Many of LeftHand Networks’ solutions are already certified to work HP products, including HP ProLiant servers, HP BladeSystem infrastructure, HP ProCurve Networking and HP Insight Control management software.

Bill Chambers, chief executive officer of LeftHand Networks, said: “Joining with HP is a natural fit for our customers and channel partners, giving them an expanded portfolio of server, storage and networking products and services that are already supported by LeftHand Networks’ solutions.

“The combination of LeftHand Networks’ virtualisation technologies with HP’s has the power to significantly accelerate server consolidation projects by making the deployment of shared storage much easier and more cost-effective.”

“The acquisition of LeftHand Networks looks like it will be a good move for HP in an increasingly exciting and competitive market, allowing it to compete with the likes of Dell EqualLogic.”

The transaction is expected to be completed in HP’s first fiscal quarter of 2009.

With the exit of LeftHand’s two top European directors in July, speculation mounted over the vendor’s next move.

Last month, speaking to CRN, LeftHand claimed it had put its European expansion plans on hold to throw weight behind its UK and Benelux operations.

VAR Letrex wins wind-up appeal

Sara Yirrell — 2008-09-29T12:16:00.000Z

Sara Yirrell, CRN, Monday 29 September 2008 at 12:16:00

New hearing set for 18 November

VAR group Letrex Holdings Limited has won its appeal to stop the company being wound up.

As reported by CRN earlier this year, distributor Bell Micro had applied for Letrex Holdings to be closed down due to unsettled liabilities (CRN 23 May).

he initial hearing in August appeared to be a success for Bell, as a judge ordered that the company should cease trading.

But immediately afterwards, Letrex appealed the decision on the grounds that it was not present at the hearing and was unable to defend itself in person (CRN, 4 August).

A new hearing has been set for 18 November, after the appeal was heard on 19 September by district judge Watson, at Bristol Crown Court.

Letrex has been ordered to supply another copy of its first statement by the end of September and Bell has once again been asked to submit its documentary evidence.

A Letrex representative told CRN: “This is a positive development considering we didn’t get the chance to attend the last hearing.”

Eddie Pacey, director of credit at Bell Micro, said: “We have agreed to the hearing on 18 November and will be attending personally.”

Norris warns of worse to come

Sara Yirrell — 2008-09-24T14:57:00.000Z

Sara Yirrell, CRN, Wednesday 24 September 2008 at 14:57:00

Computacenter boss warns channel to brace itself for a bleak 2009 at the inaugural CRN Reseller Leadership Forum

Despite constant talk of the credit crunch in 2008, the real impact of any downturn is not going to be felt until 2009, according to Computacenter's chief executive Mike Norris.

Speaking in his keynote at the inaugural CRN Reseller Leadership Forum event at the Four Seasons Hotel in Hampshire today, Norris also hinted that the services and infrastructure giant will be making redundancies over the coming year.

"2009 is going to be tough. I think 2008 is a good year. I am expecting it to get worse in 2009, particularly for the IT market. I hope I'm wrong. We at Computacenter continually try and drive costs out of the business, and I am expecting our headcount to reduce."

Other issues touched on in his keynote included the recent rise in product prices - initially lead by HP but closely followed by Acer and most recently Dell. Also the fact that the PC market will be dominated by Asian manufacturers as the US firms focus more on the high end space. He also hinted that outsourcing is shrinking in popularity with a growing "anti-outsourcing" mindset emerging.

Norris also admitted that Computacenter had taken quite a large uninsured hit when Lehman Brothers went down last week. The Lehman Brothers business was worth £15m a year to Computacenter.

"It was a painful day and I don't expect to see any of the money that they owe us," Norris said.

However, he also offered some words of advice to his peers. The main wish of most channel customers, Norris said, is to keep their jobs.

"It is not about changing a business or business redesign anymore. There are a lot of scared customers out there who just want to keep their jobs," he said. "The focus has to be where we can add value and also help take the cost out of business. It can appear a bit boring, but our customers want heroes that can help them keep costs down.

"The industry will consolidate further," he added. "Particularly of very large global companies that are going more upmarket. This in turn creates space for us [the channel] in the 2,000 to 15,000 employee space. Customers with 5,000 to 10,000 seats don't want to deal with those larger players. They want to deal with people that they can look into their eyes and see that their business means something to them. Therefore global mergers create space and opportunity for us all to step up into. I still have enormous optimism in the marketplace."

Seagate Services morphs into i365

Kayleigh Bateman — 2008-09-23T16:00:00.000Z

Kayleigh Bateman, CRN, Tuesday 23 September 2008 at 16:00:00

Data recovery vendor undergoes facelift

Data recovery vendor Seagate Services has undergone another image change after transforming into i365, A Seagate Company.

The re-branding involves the consolidation of the vendor’s Evault, Metalincs, and Seagate Recovery Services companies.

The newly branded company will offer i365 Evault Data Protection, i365 Metalincs E-Discovery solutions and i365 Retention Management solutions.

Carolyn Crandall, director of operations for worldwide channel at i365, said: “These areas are growing markets and we plan to invest more in them. The re-brand is the first of many thundering messages to roll out.

“The i365 is for information 365 days a year – our partners and customers can always access a human being for support.”

In 2006 after acquiring vendor ActionFront Data Recovery Labs the company was known as Seagate Recovery Services, which changed again in 2007 to Seagate Services.

2007 saw Seagate acquire data backup and recovery software and software as a service (SaaS) vendor Evault, along with the Open File Manager product line from St Bernard and E-Discovery software from Metalincs.

FSC JV partners reportedly clash on price

Sam Trendall — 2008-09-22T17:00:00.000Z

Sam Trendall, CRN, Monday 22 September 2008 at 17:00:00

Reports claim Fujitsu is unwilling to pay the amount requested by Siemens for its share in the FSC joint venture

Siemens are Fujitsu are locking horns over the amount the German company wants for its 50 per cent share in Fujitsu Siemens Computers (FSC), reports have claimed.

Rumours began circulating this summer that Siemens was getting cold feet about the joint venture and was considering walking away, (Channelweb, 18 July). If that was to happen, Fujitsu would have first refusal to buy the German firm out, otherwise it might be left looking for a new partner or a company that could take over the entire business.

News agency Reuters reported earlier today that it had learned from sources in Japan and Germany that Fujitsu has baulked at the amount Siemens wanted for its share of FSC. A Fujitsu source told Reuters: "We would like to continue with the business but only if the price is right."

A source close to Siemens claimed that there was a significant amount of interest in its share of FSC and the company was not under pressure to sell at any price. The firm is now reportedly in talks with Chinese vendor Lenovo, the source claimed, and other companies, possibly including Dell and Acer, had expressed an interest in buying into FSC. The current joint venture agreement runs out next year and will be automatically renewed for a further five years if neither Fujitsu nor Siemens pulls out before the end of this year.

FSC remains steadfast on UK prices

Doug Woodburn — 2008-09-17T14:31:00.000Z

Doug Woodburn, CRN, Wednesday 17 September 2008 at 14:31:00

Vendor keeps distribution prices on hold, despite Acer and HP’s recent price hikes

PC giant FSC will continue to keep its UK prices on hold, despite this week’s turbulent events and a further weakening in the pound against the dollar.

At the beginning of the week, both HP and Acer raised their prices to UK distributors by a minimum of 5 per cent, citing the strengthening dollar. HP also complained of the rising global cost of doing business.

However, Ian Newall, SME and channel sales manager at FSC, confirmed the Germany-based vendor isn’t budging for now.

“We want to be as competitive as possible. If things change we may have to react and for projects we may have to put in some caveats on exchange rates,” Newall said.

It is thought that HP and Acer’s distribution price hike will not feed through to resellers until October.

Dell’s Irish plant under threat

Doug Woodburn — 2008-09-15T10:45:00.000Z

Doug Woodburn, CRN, Monday 15 September 2008 at 10:45:00

Production carried out at Limerick plant could be transferred to Poland as part of cost-cutting drive, Wall Street Journal report claims

Dell’s Irish production plant could be shut as part of the PC vendor’s reported plans to sell off its assembly plants, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.

The Limerick facility employs 3,000 workers, but sources close to events told the newspaper that Dell is keen to transfer production carried out at the factory to Poland.

Reports emerged earlier this month that Dell is in talks to sell off its plants to contract manufacturers in a bid to cut costs - something the vendor has yet to openly confirm. But it is thought the vendor would encounter problems finding buyers for factories situated in developed countries, including Ireland, and may simply opt to close them.

According to the article, the goal for Limerick is to move production capacity to a recently opened factory in Poland. The paper said Dell executives have privately discussed closing the plant for two years, citing sources with knowledge of the discussions.

Dell also employs over 1,000 office workers in Ireland, but these positions are not thought to be under threat.

The vendor opened the Limerick plant in 1991, lured by the country’s low rate of corporate tax and generous grants. Rising labour costs in Ireland have, however, diminished its appeal as a manufacturing base.

Acer joins HP in UK price hike

Doug Woodburn — 2008-09-11T13:37:00.000Z

Doug Woodburn, CRN, Thursday 11 September 2008 at 13:37:00

Strengthening dollar prompts Acer to up UK notebook distribution prices by 5 per cent, following on from HP announcement

Acer has confirmed it will raise its notebook prices through UK distribution by a minimum of 5 per cent on Monday, following a similar announcement from HP this morning.

As exclusively revealed by CRN, HP will hoist prices of its desktops, notebooks and servers by mid to high single digits on Monday in response to the strengthening dollar.

Acer said in a statement: "We expect the price our distribution partners pay for new product to increase between 5-8 per cent depending on the product, but we do not expect this increase to reach the end consumer until the fourth quarter.

"We have met with each distribution partner to make them aware of this change and have worked with them on their stock profile to ensure they are in a competitive position in the channel."

Acer added that LCDs would remain unaffected. HP also confirmed that prices of its printer and storage portfolio will remain on hold for now.

Similar moves are imminently expected from the other major system vendors.