Good Times/Bad Times

We round up who's played a blinder and who's made a blunder in the IT channel this week

Good Times

Channel HR teams
There was a welcome fillip for the hard-working HR folk of the channel this week with the annual Great Place to Work report recognising a number of familiar industry names. IT consulting house DMW Group was named the best small business workplace in the UK, while Softcat finished second in a large companies category that also featured Microsoft and EMC.
Software outfits Magdex and Intuit, hosters Peer 1 and UKFast, and vendors Autodesk and NetApp all made the top 25 in the mid-sized employers bracket.
If any of the above firms have a vacancy for a jaded IT hack who'll do almost anything if the pay is right, we may know of someone who'd be interested. Ahem.

Kelway
It was champagne and caviar all around as Kelway smashed through the £500m turnover barrier in its latest financial year. The London VAR posted a whopping 49 per cent revenue growth as sales expanded to £526m. The firm has made no secret of its aggressive growth plans to become a £1bn business, and is currently looking to get a new VC backer on board, as its existing backer Core is understood to be seeking an exit in the next year or so. And might now be tempted to stick an extra zero on the asking price. Kerching!

Rehabilitation
Computers4All, run by serial channel entrepreneur Mark Abrahams, is looking for resellers to supply it with old kit to help its scheme - which gives prisoners the chance to refurbish PCs - become a national success.
The firm has kicked off at HMP The Mount in Bovingdon, where inmates will refurbish and upgrade end-of-life PCs before they are sold to charities, disadvantaged communities and schools at low cost.
CSR for VARs, and prisoners giving something back while gaining skills. Everyone's a winner.

Bad Times

Wannabe Surface VARs
The adage "no news is good news" could not be further from the truth in the Microsoft channel community.
Resellers tuning in to watch the software giant unveil its latest tablet offering - the Surface Pro 3 - were left disappointed after the firm remained tight-lipped on the device's distribution strategy.
Since the vendor unveiled the first Surface back in 2012, resellers have been desperate to sell it. Microsoft eventually opened up distribution to a handful of resellers in the UK last summer, but the majority of VARs were still left hanging as to whether they will ever get a chance to flog it.
It seems the wait is far from over.

Co-operation
If any NetApp folk you come across seem a little glum over the next few weeks, remember to cut them some slack as the vendor is still recovering from a high-profile break-up.
According to reports, the vendor was unceremoniously dumped after IBM decided it would rather push its own kit to customers instead of NetApp's. The duo had been working together since 2006 when Big Blue agreed to provide customers with NetApp's FAS series products and software in its IBM N series offering. But ait seems IBM has called time on the relationship.
Don't worry, NetApp - it's nothing a night in with a giant slab of chocolate and a stack of Hugh Grant films won't fix.

Viruses
You can run, but you can't hide - we will find you, and take you down. That was the message Symantec sent to computer viruses this week, after promising its Norton Small Business product will provide 100 per cent virus removal, or it will give customers their money back.
The offer applies to firms with fewer than 20 employees and Symantec has promised "there is no additional risk to partners", as the vendor will handle any issues - including potential refunds in full - directly.
The bold move comes weeks after one of its senior execs declared the anti-virus market "dead".
CRN understands that next week Xerox is to offer a similar money-back guarantee on its crank-operated duplicating machines.