Quicke Off the Mark

It was with great sadness that we heard about the death of David Hurley, who passed away after a short illness at the weekend.

Hurley had been a long standing contact of MicroScope and the relationship charted the ups and downs of the channel and his own progress as he led Anglia Business Solutions beyond being a major Microsoft partner into focusing on the fresh food market with its LINKfresh solution.

Hurley had been around the channel for many years, helping found Anglia back in 1981, and had a wisdom and perspective that came from being there in the good times as well as the bad.

He was always able to contribute valuable insight to news stories and features and showed that it was possible for a reseller to innovate and breakthrough the mainstream to be an expert in a vertical market.

He will be missed not just by those that have worked with him, and of course by his family and friends who we think of at this tragic time, but also by those of us who knew him as an excellent independent source of expert channel insight.

Where it was once computer adverts that grabbed the attention in the breaks in Super Bowl coverage this time around it looks set to be cars that are being plugged in the moments between the action.

Volkswagon and Audi are just two of those that have secured highly coveted ad spots during next month's highly viewed sporting contest between the New England Patriots and the New York Giants.

The irony is of course that an industry even older than computing, the automobile business, is in a position to spend serious money on promoting its products. Cars have been hammered in the recession but maybe they are bouncing back and for those that have a bit more money to spend a new motor rather than a tablet might be tempting.

Apart from cars expect food to be pushed but when it comes to the ad breaks but for computers maybe this isn't the year to be shouting out. Little to get excited about on the operating system front - too early for Windows 8  -  and inbetween a lot of hardware refreshes maybe this year its about spending on the transport that gets the customer to the reseller.

There are two contests which are currently dominating the television talk shows and radio phone-ins in America. The first is the race for the Republican nomination in the race to be the candidate to run against the President in the next election.

The second, and much more widely debated, is who will come out of this Sunday winning a place to contest the Super Bowl. The final four teams play each other this weekend in one of the biggest games in the American football season, with the two winners knowing that the largest sporting spectacle awaits.

Go to any American bar, and let's face it if you work in the channel a couple of those are an obligatory stop on any city tour, and you will find wall to wall screens showing the action. The city I happened to be in was Boston, where the local team the New England Patriots is one of those playing this weekend.

The usual questions of can they win, who will score and how well will they perform are getting more analysis than PC sales figures ever could, and the talking never seems to stop.

But one thing is for sure; the power of sport to attract attention, interest and opinion is something here that puts the politicians to shame.

No wonder tech companies try so hard to get advertising around these games. No one forgets Apple's famous 1984 ad was screened during a break in the Super Bowl, and you can't help but wonder who will get their branding in this year in one of the most viewed television moments.

Kodak is all too well aware of the changes that have happened in its natural markets that have left it now seeking bankruptcy protection.

The digital revolution has not just touched its film operations but also had an impact on its printing activities.

For those of us that grew up with the brand the announcement about its latest moves will perhaps not come as too much of a surprise when you consider the shift that has happened in the film market.

The computer companies got involved in the market a few years ago and you are now just as likely to purchase a Samsung or an HP camera as you were in the past an Olympus (the problems there would fill a separate blog post with hardly a blink) or a Kodak.

But Kodak didn't just sell the cameras it sold everything to do with it from the paper for the professional dark room enthusiasts to the film we all put in the back of the camera to capture our magical moments.

The collapse of that consumables and peripherals side of the film business has been profound and although Kodak was making a lot of noise about printing and ink it is up against some very well established competition there in the forms of HP, Epson and Canon.

No one wants to see a major brand bite the dust and the restructure coming up is going to be a very important time for the firm but unless the management can get to grips with the fundamental shifts that have happened in their markets then the future is a bleak one indeed.

One of the most challenging things about making sure a network or a business is secure is not just about products and resellers would be wise to include the people element in their conversations.

Sitting in on a panel session at a conference this morning where IT directors talked about what mattered to them it was the comments from the chief security officer at one of the largest health care providers in the US that resonated.

He said that his role was all about making sure that people didn't expose the data in the organisation to risk. The job was a difficult one and it was becoming even harder as a result of consumerisation.

The dangers of moving data onto personal devices, sharing information about the way security worked as well as being sloppy with passwords were all concerns that had nothing to do with products but everything to do with the way people interacted with the network.

Interestingly the other point the CSO made at the session was that when asked what concepts in the technology were hype he included 'regulatory compliance' as one of the areas that was largely untested, difficult to pin down and an area that had the potential to take away a lot of time and effort.

Resellers selling security are all too aware of the first concern about the people element but the fears about compliance are interesting because those in the channel prepared to concentrate and develop their expertise in that area could find more customers queuing up for that service than they might at first have imagined are out there in the large organisations.

If you are unlucky enough to have a break-in then prepare yourself for the disappearance of your tablet, laptop, smart phone and ipod.

But console yourself with the way that your music collection, which might have taken years to build up and catalogue, is likely to still be there waiting for you as you survey the damage.

It was not always the case but times have changed and the value that thieves could once get from CDs and DVDs has plumeted and now the value is all around technology.

Recent figures from the British Crime Survey insicate that now computer items are stolen in around 35% of burgularies and less than 10% includes a haul of CDs and DVDs.

Nine years ago the situation was not far the other way round but with technology being larger and more cumbersome to steal. Now of course in the age of the slimeline tablet and ipod nano it's not that difficult for thieves to slip the products into a holdall and make good a getaway.

The warning as a result that resellers should perhaps be giving their customers is that if they are approached by someone with a deal that is too good to be true, has a dodgy feel about it and involves technology that could have been liberated from a home or office then questions should be asked.

It's also perhaps a good idea for the channel to review the security policies it has. It's been a while since we wrote about warehouses being broken into or vans having their contents stolen but that lack of headlines does not mean the threat has gone away.

 

Back in the days when all that really mattered was plugging your firewall in and switching your anti virus on there were still plenty of people who could not be bothered to protect themselves.

That left resellers often embroiled in the task of having to provide user education to those that were being laissez faire about their security and led to revisions of security policy and in some cases a discussion with staff about data protection for the first time.

But as things became even more complex the need to switch on the defences, keep them up to date and review their effectiveness became even more vital. So when you find out that people are still not bothering to take the required steps it p[perhaps does not come as that much of a surprise given the history.

According to the Office of Cyber Security a whopping 80% of attacks could be kept at bay if companies invested in simple defences. The stress is on the word simple there because disappointingly this is not rocket science firms are being asked to do just a case of making sure the firewalls and anti-virus is in olace and doing its job.

The conclusion is that of course there is an opportunity for the channel here but in many respects it involves doing what they have been for the last decade and knocking on doors and delivering some education. Mind you back when they were doing it first time round that education was the free part of the pitch that hopefully ended up with  sale. These days with the buzz words around managed security the chance might be to get a bit of money for that education.

But for many in the security channel it feels all a bit 1990ish as they go back to the conversation about doing the basics. For most companies the consequences of not doing it right are far more worrying than just a few teenage virus writers trying to show off.

This blog has been used before as a platform to point out the growing love in the channel for two wheels and clearly Norton has picked up on the trend as well.

The security vendor is encouraging resellers to sell its products with a promotion. Nothing new in that but the theme of the promotion is the Tour de France and the prizes are cycling connected.

A VIP trip for two to see next year's Tour, Trek bikes, Garmin bike computers and a host of other goodies are on offer with one of the most sought after, apart from the trip, surely the 2011 winning racing bike, a BMC Team Machine.

The three month long promotion starts today and those selling the Norton products can go to the portal and sign up and earn coupons for prizes.The "Sprint to the Finish!" promotion will take place in eight European countries: the UK, Germany, Italy, France, Austria, Spain, Belgium and the Netherlands.

Shelagh McManus, Head of UK Marketing from Norton said "We are really pleased to work with our resellers and offer the opportunity to win such amazing prizes, and at the same time help consumers to stay protected against online threats in our battle against cybercrime."

Good to see that the love of cycling is spreading and who knows the promotion might convert a few more in the channel to a love of two wheels.

 

One of the classic lines that is often used in a channel conversation is about services. Vendors tell resellers to do more of them, distributors look to support them and customers will pay for them.

But the problem has often been trying to define what a service looks like, involves and how it can be charged for,

With managed services it appears to be different. The reseller sells a defined package of services to look after specific applications. The user knows what is being provided and the charges are clear.

For the reseller there is predictable revenue and for the customer predictable cost. So far so good but it does get even more attractive. 

With bring your own device impacting on the network and the perimeter extending there is a growing opportunity for resellers. That should sound attractive and the interest we have seen with the roadshows we have been running with Kaseya up and down the country proves that it is for many dealers trying to find out more.

For those that have wondered for years how they make services work for their channel business the answers are becoming clear and now is the time to get involved.

The more conversations I have with channel bods the more cyclists come out of the woodwork. It really does seem to be the sport of choice for those trying to keep trim while avoiding the demands of team sport schedules.

As a fan of two wheels - as a commuter rather than a Sunday day tripper or sportive rider - it's great to see so many people sharing a passion for such a great sport.

With British cycling doing the best it has for years with Mark Cavendish, Bradley Wiggins and Sir Chris Hoy doing the business on road and track it is perhaps no surprise that cycling is being dubbed in the channel as the new golf.

With the Olympics coming next year and the Cycling team expected to win a few golds those channel riders can expect to be joined by more colleagues as the two-wheeled bug takes a tighter grip.

All we need now is a channel sportive to get us all out together.

In a chat with anti virus specialist GFI Software the vendor was talking up its latest product release Vipre 5.0 and pitching a function that sounds like an idea that is too good to be ignored by the rest of the software community.

The idea of rolling out a new anti virus suite across a network of potentially hundreds of machines is one that can give the IT administrator a real headache. Add to the upgrade path the likely problems with conflicts if two AV programmes come into contact with each other on machines and you can imagine for many it's a scenario they would do best to avoid.

The result is perhaps to stick with the existing software for longer than the customer would wish to as well as making a hurdle for the channel to try and get over.

Vipre 5.0, and don't worry this is not an extended product plug, comes with the ability to clear out old rival AV agents and allow the user to start afresh.

From a channel perspective this is a positive because they can go into any customer - both their own and rivals- and talk about a product with the knowledge that those migration hurdles can be cleared with ease.

Hats off the GFI and don't be surprised in a market which is so much these constrained days about getting market share to see more offering the same kind of functionality.

Energy seems to be growing in popularity as a buzz word again as more customers look to get their data centres running as efficiently as possible. It has been a while since a sales pitch included a green element but it does appear to be a good idea for resellers to include it in their pitches because customers do genuinely care about the subject.

Not just from a money saving point of view, although that does of course remain crucial, but increasingly from a corporate social responsibility standpoint. Get the energy usage as low as possible and it's something to be promoted and used as a brand asset.

Of course from a channel perspective this creates an opportunity because there are plenty of existing data centres that don't cut the mustard energy wise that will need to be upgraded. Plus thanks to the cloud there remains plenty of growth in the demand for the infrastructure which is keeping those in the channel with a server expertise fairly busy at the moment.

The energy agenda has always come out of the data centre world and it appears to be doing so again as the focus returns to energy usage and the need to show-off green credentials becomes not only topical but sellable.

 

One of the interesting recent developments in the tablet market is the way that, just as some of the most well known names in IT raise up their hands and pull out or express difficulties competing with Apple, other new entrants come into the market.

The latest name to mount a challenge to Apple is Amazon which, let's be honest, has the muscle to make some impact, with the e-tailer due to launch a product of its own.

Amazon is big, but then of course so is Hewlett-Packard, which canned its TouchPad just a couple of weeks ago.

Then the recent sales figures from RIM showed that its Playbook had hardly been flying off the shelves.

But with the Amazon tablet the key word people are already talking about is price, and potentially it could pose a challenge if they get that right. When HP dumped its TouchPad stocks at £89 they sold out in minutes indicating that if it's good value people will pay.

We wait to see what Amazon will deliver. Of course it's a direct sale, so not much good for the channel, but if it revives an interest in the form factor in the run up to Christmas then there might be a halo effect for resellers. Hope so, otherwise if Amazon really does get it right then it's not much good for anyone other than their customers.

It looks as if Apple is going to take the wraps off iPhone 5 on 4 October according to sources that are desperate to reveal the launch schedule from the vendor.

That is good news for anyone who sells the phones and the accessories because it means Christmas is going to be pretty busy but for those of us who had to wait a long time to save up our pennies to get a 4th generation phone it's going to be a winter feeling like old news.

There will now be the inevitable embarrassment as iPhone 4 users sit down at meetings and social occasions and pull out their phone only to find themselves trumped by a smug looking 5 owner. I've been there before when 4 was all the rage and it left me feeling like some sort of technological pauper.

No doubt there will be a better quality camera and a quicker processor but for many it will be the simple fact it's an Apple product and it's new. That will be enough to get them queuing up at the tills. For those of us dealing with more challenging bank balances we will have to wait and go through the pain of being technologically outclassed all over again.

You have to wonder why the prospect of a sale of Hewlett-0Packard's Personal Systems Group was even raised if ever since it was mentioned the vendor has done all it can to quash sales talk.

I have been at events where resellers have shared the view that HP has left the PC market as not only a fact but as if it has already happened. They are surely not alone in taking that view and it must be doing quite a lot of damage to the vendor.

Competitors have already chipped in to add to the uncertainty as well to make sure they can reap any channel and customer defections.

So over the last few weeks it has been no surprise to see the idea of a spin-off, presumably much like Procurve was, gaining ground with HP executives giving briefings indicating that's the way things will go.

But the repeated calls of commitment and 'in it for the long-term' type statements keep bringing you back to that original strategic statement from the CEO Leo Apotheker.

He could have avoided a lot of the current fire fighting if he had moved quickly to calm the sale talk and could have helped his UK management a lot more if he perhaps hadn't been so keen to talk about it in the first place.

Resellers might now be getting more clarity around the non-sale but there are plenty in the market yet to get that message and plenty of opportunities for the confusion to continue.