As the industry began its annual wind-down for Christmasthere was no shortage of goings on in the channel, with big names such as DSGi,Microsoft and HP all hitting the headlines on MicroScope.co.uk
DSGi shuts EquanetSurbiton base
DSGi closed Equanet’s Surbiton-based office and shiftedacross all customer accounts to Bury and Borehamwood as part of a costrationalisation process.
Calls to the branch were being transferred to the operationscentre HQ in Bury and a spokesman at DSGi confirmed the move was part of the“ongoing transformation” of its B2B operations.
“The 18 members of staff there have been informed andwe started a 30 days consultation period, during which time they will be ableto apply for other vacancies within the Group,” a spokesman told MicroScope.
“These changes are part of the transformationprogramme that will deliver an efficient, more customer-focused organisationthat will sustain the business for future growth,” he added.
Microsoft on thewarpath
Microsoft took action against four resellers caught sellingillegal software and is looking to tap into a strong customer willingness toreport dodgy dealers.
The vendor has noticed a 600% rise in the number of peoplereporting purchases of illegal software and is encouraging more of the samewith the launch of a consumer action day.
The software giant has actively pursued channel players atall levels that sell illegal copies of its software in a bid to reduce theincome in the UKlost to piracy and the latest offenders were discovered infringing copyright inthe last six months.
Computacenter puts HPserver business out to tender
Computacenter put its sizeable HP ProLiant server businessout to tender but sources doubted ETC will be among the distributors vying forthe contract.
The integrator-come reseller recently sold CCD to IngramMicro but continued to order kit from its former distribution arm until thedeal completed in early December.
“We are talking to everyone about our ISS (Industry StandardServers) spend,” Mike Norris, chief executive at Computacenter told MicroScope.
Changes at HP
Hewlett-Packard announced a replacement for David Wrightfilling the vacancy at the head of its PSG UKand Irelandmanagement team.
Gordon Ballantyne, a former T-MobileUK sales and servicedirector, joined as vice president of PSG UK early in the month.
On his CV Ballantyne also lists Dell as an employer and hewas responsible for helping set up dell.com across Europe.
Meanwhile, the vendor ended months of furious speculationamong its partners, confirming to staff that long serving channel director DavePoskett is to leave the organisation early next year as part of a dramaticoverhaul of its Solutions Partner Organisation.
In a letter to UKstaff, Jos Brenkel, head of Personal Systems Group for the Middle East,Mediterranean and Africa (MEMA) - who had also been caretaking the UK divisionuntil recently – informed them that Poskett would leave on 6 January.
Kavanagh hits out
HP came in for criticism from partners when Kavanagh saidthat an overcrowded reseller market and growth limiting policies influenced itsdecision to end its exclusive 13 year relationship with the vendor and addHitachi Data Systems to its portfolio.
The Bracknell-based systems integrator was one of the lastremaining HP-only houses in the UKbut decided that following a tough year it was time to build the storageportfolio and will sell HDS’ AMS and USP products via its Gold accreditation.
“I think HDS has a strong new business acquisition approach,they have good technologies but more importantly for us is that they don’t havea saturated channel,” Kavanagh managing director Rob Campbell told MicroScope.
NHS IT hits newstumbling block
The chancellor Alistair Darling and the Treasury are toscale back spending on the NHS's National Programme for IT.
Although the BBC reports that the NPfIT "may becancelled in Wednesday's pre-Budget report", the Treasury said that onlyparts of the programme will be scaled back.
Alistair Darling told the BBC that the NPfIT "isn'tessential to the frontline".
Ingram UK profits down
Ingram Micro UKprofits halved in the last full financial year as turnover fell by low doubledigits.
In the twelve months to 31 December 2008, the broadlinegiant made £2.2m compared to £5.6m in 2007 and sales fell 14% to £658m,according to a filing at Companies House.
The directors at Ingram noted that the “UK IT market highlycompetitive” which favoured “large, financially sound distributors that havelarge product portfolios, economies of scale and strong business partnerrelationships.”
Dell tweets to salessuccess
Computer maker Dell has sold $6.5m worth of equipment byusing microblogging website Twitter.
This represents a late surge because in June this year thecompany said it had made $3m of sales on Twitter over the previous two years.
EMC reviewing distieline-up
EMC is reviewing the UK channel to ascertain if it needsto appoint a third distribution partner to concentrate on SME and specialisttechnologies.
Currently Magirus and Avnet Technology Solutions distributeEMC in the UKbut Willem Hendrickx, senior vice president of the global channel office, toldMicroScope it had sent questionnaires to prospective partners.
“In the UKthere is Request for Proposal going on to see if we need hire anotherdistributor,” he said. “We are working with a couple of distributors to seewhich ones we need to add.”
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