help it departments get a grip on shadow it

Transcription

MicroScope
October 2014
Indispensable channel analysis microscope.co.uk
HELP IT DEPARTMENTS
GET A GRIP ON
SHADOW IT
PLUS:
PROS AND CONS OF THE
TECHNOLOGY TRADE SHOW
◆ AN INTERVIEW WITH MICHAEL DELL
ON HIS CHANNEL STRATEGY
WAVEBREAK MEDIA/THINKSTOCK
◆ THE
◆
THE MONTH IN IT ◆ OPINION ◆ LETTERS ◆ FIVE-MINUTE INTERVIEW ◆
the month in the channel
Nude photo leak a chance for
channel to talk cloud security
The revelations that a hack led to a
flood of naked celebrity pictures hitting the internet is a timely reminder
that the channel must promote
security to users placing sensitive
and personal data in the cloud. The
celebrities hacked include movie and
music stars, with Jennifer Lawrence
Selena Gomez and Rihanna among
them, with nude images they would
rather have kept private now in the
public domain.
Trend Micro expands numbers
with industry veteran hires
Trend Micro continues its policy of
staff investment to support its growth
ambitions bringing on board two
security industry veterans to take up
senior positions in the UK organisation. Earlier in the year Trend
expanded its regional account manager network and doubled its technical sales team in efforts to widen its
reach in the market and has now
added an enterprise sales director
and a new technical director.
Dell Solutions Summit: Channel
delivers $20bn and growing
Channel to the rescue for Box
Box held its fourth annual gathering
– BoxWorks – in San Francisco,
where 5,000 customers and partners
descended on the Moscone Centre.
Depending on who you speak to, Box
is either a hot and exciting startup,
ready to break free from the shackles
of convention; or, despite being a
decade old, has yet to turn a profit,
pushed back an IPO, has taken
another $150m in venture funding
and seems destined to follow in
Twitter’s footsteps – a cracking idea
that doesn’t make money.
It has been seven years since Dell rediscovered its love of the channel. The
indirect business is now worth $20bn and delivers a third of the vendor’s
revenues. Globally the vendor now can boast a reseller base of 167,000
partners and managed to get 4,255 of those to premier level by the middle of
this year. Speaking at the company’s recent Solutions Summit in Brussels, the
vendor’s founder and CEO Michael Dell said that there was no upper limit on
the level of business that could be done with partners, and said he expected it
to grow beyond a third.
“The indirect business is a third of the business and we don’t have an upper
limit. We have some countries where we are 100% channel,” he said.
“Europe has always been more channel orientated than in the US.” He
added that some of the growth was coming from its relative late entry into
being an indirect player: “We are catching up.”
He also admitted that the growth in channel revenues was already much
larger than the firm had expected: ”We are way ahead of any of the plans we
had back in 2008 and 2009 and I don’t have a lot of complaints,” he said.
“We now have a $20bn channel business and I don’t think anyone would
have believed that back in 2007.”
Xerox channel boss looks for
indirect revenue growth
It has only been a matter of weeks
since John Corley was appointed
channel chief at Xerox but already he
is talking up the role resellers play for
the company. Corley stepped into the
role as president of channel partner
operations to replace Douraid
Zaghouani, who had been running
the channel for two and a half years.
Corley said more can be produced
from working closely with partners.
HP looks to boost sales with
‘Make IT Matter’ campaign
Virgin Media Business shakes up
SME market with new services
Hewlett-Packard has kicked off its
biggest advertising campaign for at
least a decade to stir demand for its
products and services across a reviving UK market. The vendor is promoting its brand across newspapers,
magazines, TV, cinema and advertising hoardings as part of the “Make IT
Matter” campaign intended to
remind customers how much the
vendor offers beyond traditional PC
and printer technology.
Research conducted by Virgin Media
Business found a quarter of SMEs
don’t expect any growth in the next
six months and fewer than one in ten
would turn to the government for
help. Virgin Media Business polled
over 1,000 companies with between
two and 250 staff. Over a quarter of
respondents said understanding the
digital technology required at the
startup stage was one of the biggest
challenges they faced and over half
said that getting the right business
advice was a significant hurdle.
Say goodbye to SQL curriculum
Children returned to school this term
to find their IT lessons noticeably
changed. No longer are they concerned with the intricacies of switching a computer on or the innermost
workings of Microsoft Word. The
government says the new curriculum
will prepare them for “life in modern
Britain” and will teach children to
code from the age of five.
VMware brings Horizon Desktop
as a service to UK
VMware bought DaaS provider
Desktone in 2013, signalling its
arrival into the DaaS scene. Desktone
trademarked the ‘Desktop as a
Service’ and ‘DaaS’ back in 2009, giving some indication of the firm’s
intentions in the hosted-desktop
arena. The buyout proved a slick tactic in the battle to bring an enterprisegrade solution to market. VMware
Horizon DaaS launched in the United
States in March and filled in many
pieces of the ongoing puzzle.
Daily channel news at MicroScope.co.uk
THINKSTOCK
Cisco hands Avnet security remit
Liberata steps in to start the next
chapter at Trustmarque
Business process services specialist Liberata UK has acquired Trustmarque
Solutions, ending weeks of speculation about the destiny of the reseller after it
opted to change its investor. In the last few days Trustmarque has been looking
for alternative investment and landed on Liberata, which plans to run
Trustmarque as a separate entity without changing its current business. Last
summer Trustmarque led an MBO, backed by Dunedin, that enabled it to part
company with its former investment backer LDC in a deal worth £43m but in
recent weeks it has become clear that a new investor was needed to take the
business forward.
Avnet’s decision to set up a dedicated
networking and security division
continues to bear fruit when Cisco
handed it the vendor’s security product brief. Avnet has already attracted
some interest from vendors such as
RSA, which also opted to work with
the distributor because of the promise of a more dedicated focus.
Updates and ‘bendgate’ spell a
very bad week for Apple
With Apple forced to withdraw the
iOS 8.0.1 update after widespread
reports of it bricking iPhones, it’s
apparent that “measure twice, cut
once” is not an adage that made it to
Cupertino. The update was expected
to fix minor faults with the operating
system, but reports flooded in that it
rendered devices incapable of making calls and broke Touch ID. This is
the first time Apple has been forced
to withdraw an update. ■
OCTOBER 2014 | 2
comment
There’s a buzz in the
air for the channel
A
s the temperatures drop and people start
wondering where they stored all their
scarves and gloves last year, things start to
hot up in the channel as the fourth quarter
gains momentum.
Although summer is never quite as quiet as it was
– and there have been efforts to ensure this is not a
seasonal business – there is still a buzz in the air
when it comes to October.
Part of that is probably due to the influence of
consumer technology. All the big releases in home
technology will be released in time for Christmas and
that gets people thinking more in general about IT.
For many firms, the fourth quarter is also the last
three months of the fiscal year and there will be
targets that have to be hit – getting that little bit extra
out of customers will become the ambition.
With that in mind it is interesting to read Billy
MacInnes’s piece about shadow IT and the way that
now, more than ever before, the channel needs to
Increasingly, the IT department is
being sidestepped by other business
units that know what they want and
then order out of their own budgets
have relationships with customers at multiple levels.
Increasingly, the IT department is being sidestepped
by other business units that know what they want
and then order out of their own budgets. Resellers
need to keep an eye on that developing landscape
and ensure they catch that money.
It’s also worth reading Amro Gebreel’s piece
on trade shows because that is where a lot of the
customers will be getting their inspiration from and
finding out about the latest trends and technologies
in the market.
Despite numerous online communication options,
there was almost universal agreement from the
people that contributed to Amro’s article that trade
shows and channel events play a vital role.
As things hot up on the sales floor and get a bit
chillier outside, let’s hope October is a solid month
for the channel and sets things up for a good finish
to what has been a year of increased optimism
and growth. ■
BILLY MACINNES OPINION
What has Microsoft got
against the number 9?
W
hat does Microsoft have
against the number 9?
It’s a question many
people are asking now
the software giant has hopped from
Windows 8 to Windows 10 without
even the briefest acknowledgement
of Windows 9. Alright, not that many
are asking the question but it has
given to the (un)amusing joke about
Windows going straight from eight to
10 because seven ate nine.
I wonder if it has something to do
with The Beatles track Revolution 9.
Those of you fortunate not to have
heard the Fab Four’s temporary eightminute foray into the avant garde will
be unfamiliar with its almost eternal
loop of someone saying “number
nine, number nine” again and again.
Paul McCartney, wisely, argued
against its inclusion on the album
but lost out.
As an aside, John Lennon
considered nine his lucky number. In
an interview with Rolling Stone in
1970, he said: “Nine turned out to be
my birthday and my lucky number
and everything.” Lennon was born
on 9 October 1940. His first home
was 9 Newcastle Road, Wavertree,
Liverpool. Spookily, another track he
released during his solo career
entitled #9 Dream is featured on his
ninth non-Beatles album, was issued
in September (the ninth month) and
reached number nine in the Billboard
Hot 100 chart in the US.
Anyway, Microsoft CEO Satya
Nadella obviously doesn’t have a
thing about the number nine (unless
he believes it’s an unlucky number).
According to an article on CNET, a
number of reasons have been given
but I’m not convinced by most of
them. However, it does provide a link
to a post on reddit which may have
the most plausible explanation for
the decision to bypass nine.
It reads:
Microsoft dev here, the internal
rumours are that early testing
revealed just how many third party
products had code of the form
if (version.StartsWith
(“Windows 9”))
{ /* 95 and 98 */
} else {
... and this was the pragmatic
solution to avoid that.
There’s a lively discussion on the
page suggesting that, while the
theory sounds plausible, not
everyone is convinced.
There is one other reason, of
course: Microsoft realised that by
going straight from Windows 8 to
Windows 10, it would get more
coverage of its plans because a lot
more people would be interested in
why it left out Windows 9 than might
have been interested in the news that
it was preparing the next release of its
venerable operating system. ■
THINKSTOCK
SIMON QUICKE EDITOR’S COMMENT
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 [email protected].
OCTOBER 2014 | 3
comment
NICK BOOTH OPINION
ANDREY POPOV/ISTOCK/THINKSTOCK
The channel needs a complementary
blend of youth and experience
T
here are many hundreds of
tedious jobs in IT that have
to be manually tackled.
According to an estimate by
Firemon – a company which makes
existing security systems work more
efficiently rather than constantly ‘disrupting’ the clientele – a typical corporation has 8,000 processes that are
documented on spreadsheets. This
means some hapless victim will be
assigned to spend their days dragging
information out of people, entering
it into a series of columns and then
manually acting on each entry.
The cloud is creating software
tools that allow people to automate
these drudgeries. But there aren’t
enough people around who can do
the automation, even though the web
tools purport to be easy to use and
intuitive. Surely if they were that
intuitive, there would be no shortage
of people who could do the work.
Like many words in the IT industry,
‘intuitive’ has come to mean something else. As a result, according to
EU sources, there will be a skills
shortage in the digital sector of up to
1.3 million jobs by 2020.
Meanwhile, there is unemployment in the UK. There is a particular
problem with the over-50s who,
despite having years of practical
experience in various disciplines,
one day find themselves deemed no
longer fit for purpose. Unless you can
type LOL or some cliché about
‘engaging content’ into several social
media platforms, you’re regarded as
unemployable.
So, in effect, there’s a massive surplus of experienced people on the
employment market. And, simultaneously, a massive shortage of people
with experience in business processes and a basic knowledge of how
to code using an ‘intuitive’ system
(also known as a system that needs a
few days’ training).
Can anyone spot a gap in the
market? I’m glad I’m not the
only one. Former head teacher
Richard Rolfe and young entrepreneur Jordan Love have launched
#NationalCodingWeek to get people
interested in programming – including those with life experience.
If we live in the ‘information economy’, surely experience is our most
valuable asset. And yet, people with
decades of experience about office
politics, business processes and the
variation of cultures across different
industries are generally shunned, in
favour of people who don’t know
their AAS from their elbow.
The lack of knowledge of business
processes is the primary reason many
IT integration projects fail. Let’s face
it, IT salesmen aren’t the greatest listeners in the world. They only ever
stop talking to think about what
they’re going to say next – meanwhile, your queries wash over them.
At the risk of making a massive
generalisation, it might be said that
women are better listeners than men.
Surely, listeners are what we need in
this industry. Which is why another
movement, Women Who Code, could
be useful too. “Women Who Code
UK is about helping women excel in
tech careers,” says founder Sheree
Atcheson. “Through a week like this,
we can all work on showcasing
amazing tech careers and prospects
to girls and women all over the UK.”
Both this movement and National
Coding Week could be useful to the
channel, if they create an environment where people can learn useful
skills from each other. If they did create that culture, it would be a massive
achievement – as the challenge is
substantial. My personal experience
of government IT training was pretty
grim. They are usually meaningless
stunts to massage unemployment
People with decades of experience are
shunned in favour of people who don’t
know their AAS from their elbow
statistics. The training, such as it is,
usually consists of some failed programmer reading out of a manual he
doesn’t understand.
The movement behind National
Coding Week won’t be like that, says
Rolfe. I’m inclined to believe him, as
he is a head teacher, so he knows infinitely more about the culture of learning than 99% of the goons and chancers so often paid to train people.
Secondly, old head Rolfe and young
entrepreneur Love might make a good
team, as they possess what football
managers like to describe as “the right
blend of youth and experience”.
Another reason why this initiative
might work, and create some useful
talent that the IT channel can harness, is that the culture of IT has
changed since I worked in it. I
remember IT people being meanspirited and selfish – nobody shared
any information as they seemed to
think it devalued their own stock.
That’s all changed now, says Rolfe.
“The millennial generation are not
like that. They have grown up sharing information. They put their entire
lives on social media,” he says.
Besides there are so many opportunities up for grabs – around 750, 000
digital vacancies in London alone,
according to Bloomberg – that
nobody need be greedy, he says.
“The world is big enough for everyone to have a slice of the pie, and
London is the app capital,” says
Rolfe. Let’s hope he’s right. ■
OCTOBER 2014 | 4
shadow IT
COMSTOCK/STOCKBYTE/THINKSTOCK
S
hadow IT is becoming an
increasingly important part
of the IT landscape, even
if, as its name suggests, it’s
not easy to gauge just how important.
But there are a few indicators that
provide some clues.
Several months ago, MicroScope
reported on a survey by Cisco
Consulting Services and Intel –
Impact of Cloud on IT Consumption
Models – which claimed the UK had
reached a tipping point, with lines of
business (LOBs) set to overtake IT
departments in spending this year.
The report revealed 45% of IT funding was controlled by LOBs and predicted the figure would rise this year.
Jo Laking, UKI cloud leader at
Cisco, told MicroScope at the time:
“Almost every conceivable business
function can now be delivered from
the cloud as a service, empowering
departments to seize control of their
own spending instead of waiting for a
nod from IT.”
Alain Wiedmar, area sales vicepresident for EMEA channels and
service providers at Polycom, cites
figures from IDC which reveal that
58% of new IT investments in 2013
involved the direct participation of
LOB executives.
While that appears to be a large figure, IDC predicts that LOB executives
will be directly involved in 80% of
new IT investments by 2016 and take
the lead decision-making role in at
least half of those. He believes this
state of affairs will provide a “great
opportunity” for channel partners to
package and tailor services for different LOBs across the organisation.
Graham Jones, UK country manager at Exclusive Networks UK,
quotes figures from Gartner that at
least 35% of enterprise IT expenditure will occur outside the IT department by 2015, adding “so, naturally
this is going to be an opportunity for
channel partners”.
But he stresses that the reseller’s
relationship with the IT department
“is still going to be critical”, which
could cause problems if it ends up
“going behind IT’s back to capitalise
on the opportunities [shadow
Bring IT out
of the shadows
Channel partners can help IT departments get a better grip on shadow
IT and advise on how to deal with the issue. Billy MacInnes reports
IT] presents. It might end up being
counterproductive to long-term interests with those customers if the partner is too hasty about supplying the
LOB and creates conflict”.
Reseller as gatekeeper
There’s no doubt that the channel
could have a very important role to
play if LOBs become more influential
in IT purchasing decisions, although
Rich Phillips, UKI partner and channel director at SAP, believes it’s more
of an evolution in the existing relationships that partners already have
with LOBs rather than something
entirely new.
“The move towards shadow IT is
a good thing for channel partners,”
he says. “Typically, VARs have
tended to have relationships with
individual LOBs anyway, as they are
usually better equipped to deal with
“Almost every business function can
now be delivered from the cloud as a
service, empowering departments to
seize control of their own spending
instead of waiting for a nod from IT”
Jo Laking, Cisco
projects, and often have a deep
understanding of those LOBs’ needs
and problems, rather than corporatewide initiatives.”
Phillips suggests partners will take
on even more of “a gatekeeper role”
between LOBs and the IT department
than they did before. He says there is a
perception that IT acts as a hindrance
to technology implementations, highlighting research from Frost &
Sullivan which found 38% of LOBs
thought the approval process for new
software applications was too slow.
“Channel partners have a unique
opportunity to bridge the gap,” he
adds, “but they will have to work
hard at building these different relationships. They need to be ready to
help LOBs in implementing projects,
whilst at the same time helping IT
ensure compliance with policy, governance and security.”
Tim Patrick-Smith, group CIO at
Getronics, picks up on the concern
that while departmental spending
might generate more innovation than
IT department projects, “the trend
may lead to the use of services
unsuitable for the enterprise, managed by individuals without the
proper authority and poorly integrated with the wider network”.
Exclusive Networks’ Jones likens it
to the situation 10 to 15 years ago
when LOBs were buying and installing wireless access points “out of
petty cash”, but says it’s up to the IT
department to “answer the demand
and manage the risks in an appropriate way as a trusted advisor”.
Practical, strategic advisor
Channel partners can help to ensure
the wrong products aren’t ordered
and the LOB does not have to take
responsibility should there be a mistake. He adds that most enterprise
customers will want resellers “to
provide sufficient practical and strategic support to help achieve their
objectives through IT, rather than
playing the part of the arms dealer
who encourages and profits from
the conflict of these business departments and doesn’t particularly care if
no one wins”.
The comparison to an arms dealer
is an interesting, if controversial,
analogy to make. Richard Potter,
director of innovation at Steria,
makes another interesting point,
arguing that shadow IT gives channel
partners the ability to pitch to LOBs
“on the user experience, without taking into account the full enterprise
technology cost”.
He echoes Phillips by suggesting
that if the IT department regains control of shadow IT, “channel partners
will have to pitch competitively,
reflecting the total cost-benefit case,
including security, infrastructure
and support”.
Ben Barry, director of Coeus
Consulting, turns the issue on its
OCTOBER 2014 | 5
shadow IT
head. It could be argued, he says, that
if channel partners were “well
respected by the business then
shadow IT spend would be less likely
in the first place, as they would be
aware of what the business was trying to achieve and facilitate its delivery through the appropriate central
IT channels”.
The question that needs to be
asked, he adds, is what is driving the
adoption of shadow IT? “Poor IT services and delivery, lack of skills and
innovation or a poor relationship
with a channel partner who is not
interfacing sufficiently between IT
and the LOB?”
Like Jones, Barry believes this
could leave channel partners walking
a tightrope: “It will put channel partners in a difficult place. They would
be expected by their reporting line
[IT department] not to increase
shadow IT. They may not want to be
part of it, which could put them in
direct conflict with their customer
[LOBs].”
Stephen Dorling, EMEA senior
channel sales manager at Okta,
argues that with the role of IT becoming more about enablement and
increasing productivity, rather than
control, channel partners are in a
good position.
“As business units start to procure
their own IT services and applications, channel partners are ideally
placed to provide companies with
the advice and technology to ensure
compliance and security is maintained across the business,” he
claims.
But Dorling agrees with Barry that
there are dangers as the IT spending
power shifts to LOBs and channel
partners “are faced with the decision
of whether to continue targeting IT
teams or branch out to include wider
decision-makers in the organisation.
In reality, they’ll never be able to
scale enough to meet all ends of the
business and would run the risk of
spreading themselves too thin”.
Dorling believes channel partners
“should stick to what they know,
continue to maintain relationships
with IT teams and carve a space by
positioning themselves as a trusted
advisor on solving the problems that
shadow IT presents”. Instead of worrying about potential lost licence revenues, he says they ought to “focus
on engaging and educating IT teams
on how they can obtain better visibility, and secure shadow IT services”.
There’s nothing new for resellers in
playing the role of trusted advisor,
and Dorling is not alone in urging
them to continue to do what they’ve
always done.
“Because shadow IT is a relatively
new concept and there’s such impetus to make cloud apps ready for
business, channel partners which can
act as trusted advisors will win,” says
Eduard Meelhuysen, EMEA vicepresident for sales at Netskope.
“Enterprise customers need assistance discovering shadow IT, understanding their enterprise risk, prioritising remediation strategies,
establishing and enforcing policies,
and ensuring and reporting on policy
compliance.”
Bridging departmental divides
Channel partners also have the capability to act as a bridge between the
IT department and the LOBs.
Dorling remarks that shadow IT
will result in a lack of visibility over
who has access to what across the
organisation. “This presents channel
partners with an opportunity to
bridge the gap between the IT department and other lines of business,” he
argues. “There’s the opportunity to
help IT teams understand what’s
going on in the business and get a
handle on which services are being
used, how frequently, by whom and
how secure they are.”
Terry O’Brien, managing director
of Daisy Wholesale, says channel
partners “have a duty to guide their
customers through the converging
technology landscape”, and this
applies as much to sales, marketing
and customer services as it does to
the IT department.
“As gatekeepers to effective communications, it should be in their
remit to involve other parts of the
business as they see fit, if the IT
“Because shadow IT is a relatively
new concept and there’s such
impetus to make cloud apps ready for
business, channel partners which can
act as trusted advisors will win”
Eduard Meelhuysen, Netskope
Jones: “Partners’ continued success rests
on the strength of their relationships and
their ability to remain both valuable and
relevant to their customer’s requirements”
Phillips: “Channel partners need to be
ready to help LOBs implement projects
and help IT ensure compliance with
policy, governance and security”
department has not already done so
and vice versa,” he adds.
O’Brien goes further, suggesting
resellers need to take an active role in
helping those adopting shadow IT. “It
is not a question of whether they are
willing – partners must be willing to
help shadow IT leaders and embrace
these new relationships to remain
valuable,” he warns.
There’s a strong financial incentive
for doing so. “The technology spend
outside the IT department is said to be
growing two and a half times faster
than that of IT, so the opportunities
are there for the taking,” he says.
Jones says resellers need to be
ready to help LOBs gain more control
over IT spending and direction being
an obstruction is not going to help
anyone. “We see this time and time
again in the channel, with disruptive
technologies, disruptive business
models and disruptive working practices,” he says.
Partners can’t afford to become
complacent, but they also need to
avoid becoming over-zealous in their
enthusiasm for the ‘next big thing’
because it “might just turn out to be a
flash in the pan”, warns Jones.
Coeus Consulting’s Barry also cautions resellers about being too gungho over shadow IT. “The more experienced channel partners will seek to
understand what is driving shadow
IT to try to resolve the issues,” he
says. “Where the LOB requires niche
IT capabilities not provided by IT, the
reseller will try to get the niche suppliers managed by central IT. So the
IT spend does not actually become
shadow IT.”
In effect, the channel partner will
act as a buffer, helping to discover
instances of shadow IT and finding
ways to bring it back into the organisational fold.
According to Getronics’ PatrickSmith, partners can also help the IT
department to get a better grip on
shadow IT and advise on how to deal
with the issue.
“So far, there has been a distinct
lack of client-side consulting services
in this area,” he observes. “In addition, we will soon begin to see the
emergence of departmental job roles
with a responsibility for IT – chief
marketing technology officers
(CMTO) for example.
It’s up to resellers to monitor this
development and engage with
CMTOs and their equivalents to
build relationships throughout the
wider business.”
Retain your value
The cloud has been one of the key
factors in the adoption of shadow IT
because it has provided a means for
LOBs to access applications and services they require without having to
go through the IT department.
But it can also be a way for LOBs to
form new relationships with different
partners if incumbent resellers don’t
stay on the ball and ensure they
remain in the loop. There’s a danger
they could be squeezed out altogether.
Exclusive Networks’ Jones says
cloud has made it easy to commission IT services, but the impact is still
yet to be fully understood.
“It could be argued that some partners might well get squeezed out, but
whether they do or not rests on the
strength of their relationships and
their ability to remain both valuable
and relevant to their customer’s
requirements,” he says.
In other words, whether it’s IT or
shadow IT, the best thing resellers
can do is to do what they’ve always
done and make sure they don’t get
lost in the shadows. ■
OCTOBER 2014 | 6
M
ost people in the channel will open a new
diary and pencil in not
just the birthdays of
their nearest and dearest but also
some of the major industry events
they want to attend.
Whether it be BETT in January,
CeBit in March, InfoSec around April
or IP Expo in October, there is never a
shortage of trade show dates for the
calendar. Along with trade shows
there are numerous partner events
held by vendors and distributors to
keep resellers busy.
But in the age of social media,
instant messaging and video, is there
really a need to walk the halls, press
the flesh, pick up the brochures and
sit through presentations and seminars? The channel is an industry centred around personalities, and vendors invest in trade shows as a
platform for product evangelism and
building channel relationships.
Rowena Case, WatchGuard’s UK
marketing manager, says that, despite
the speed, convenience and low cost
of using electronic communications
and social media, there is still no substitute for meeting people face to face
– and that is why good exhibitions
still work.
“For vendors like WatchGuard, it is
an opportunity to meet partners, existing customers and prospective customers over a period of two or three
days – just add up the time it would
take to do this piecemeal. While people do not have a lot of time at shows,
it is time enough to have a meaningful
conversation, understand their needs
and present an initial concept of a
solution,” she says.
Ian Kilpatrick, chairman of Wick
Hill Group, is a committed trade
show attendee and has attended
InfoSec for many years. He accepts
that there are options for people
to communicate with video
conferencing and instant messaging
(IM), but believes there’s nothing like
face-to-face discussions.
“In particular, trade shows provide
the opportunity to see and evaluate
competing solutions in a much more
effective manner than multiple meetings for different vendors. In our case,
with our portfolio being essentially
The trade show:
Return on investment
or industry dinosaur?
Amro Gebreel weighs up the pros and
cons of the technology industry convention
complementary, it provides partners
with the opportunity to consider other
portfolio products without the formality of multiple product presentations,
which wouldn’t be of interest,” he says.
“The beauty of trade shows is that it is a
collection of people in the same market
sharing their thoughts on its current
state and what the future might bring”
Terry O’Brien, Daisy Wholesale
DIGITAL VISION/PHOTODISC/THINKSTOCK
trade shows
Even some of those in the telco
channel who know all about the
video conferencing and instant messaging worlds agree the trade show
has a place in providing an arena for
the channel, vendors and customers
to meet. The ability to meet a number
of contacts at a single trade show is
an attractive one for channel executives hard-pressed for time.
Terry O’Brien, managing director at
Daisy Wholesale (see Five-minute
interview, p14), says the technological
advancements in video conferencing
are a fantastic way of having face-toface contact without the need to
travel, take time out of the office or
attend to the time-consuming job of
finding a meeting point. But he says
there is also a place for the trade show.
“The environment of a trade show
brings much more than just faces on
screens and voices through speakers.
Video conferences or webinars tend
to be restrictive when it comes to
conversing amongst the audience
and often lack the freedom of having
one-on-one conversations. The
beauty of trade shows is that it is a
collection of people within the same
market sharing their thoughts on its
current state and what the future
might bring,” he says.
But it is not all bright and rosy in
the trade show world. Anyone looking back over old diaries will find
OCTOBER 2014 | 7
some events that formed part of the
channel calendar no longer the mustattend dates they once were.
“In the last decade, trade shows
have become less useful for the channel. One of the largest trade shows,
Internet World, used to showcase all
the prominent channel vendors and
the audience was relevant and consistent. Attending was about making
a statement that you were in the marketplace. As attendance grew, the
audience diluted, and a vicious cycle
took off: vendors saw increasingly
less value in attending as it became
more difficult to target prospective
business efficiently,” says Chris
Roberts, head of channel at MTI.
Diminishing returns
“On the other hand, smaller, more
focused events tend to provide
greater opportunities for channel
vendors because they can offer access
to a more specialised audience.
When a business offers a specific
service it is not financially viable to
showcase to an audience that is too
broad, so a more targeted approach is
simply a better use of money. In turn,
focused events will bring in a better
return on investment,” he argues.
The sense that some trade shows
have fallen victim to their own success is a view held elsewhere in the
channel. As an event grows and
expands beyond its original focus,
the consequences can be damaging to
those booking stand space.
Jim Tyer, AppRiver’s EMEA channel director, says the trade show
model is fundamentally flawed
because it offers the same value now
as it did a decade ago.
“Not much has changed in the way
trade shows engage with the channel,
and that, of course, produces disaffection. General events need to find
new ways to provide value to the
channel and the only events that are
successfully engaging the audience
are small events with a vertical
approach on a topic that attendees
can truly relate to. For that reason, in
my opinion, trade shows are more
about building brand awareness or
customer retention, rather than creating new business,” he says.
“Partners who go to shows are
typically there for special meetings, networking or to catch up with
connections. It might prove difficult
to justify attendance without providing the channel with an exciting level
of engagement. If I’m a channel partner, I’m not at a trade show for customers. There is too much fluff and
noise to sift through. Creating value
for the channel from their current
partners or potential partners is key.”
Anyone working in the channel
knows about the customer’s preoccupation with return on investment and
it is no different with a trade show.
The time and money spent running a
stand or visiting an event have to
deliver a tangible return. The days of
branding are fading. There once was
a time when stories were generated
by the absence of big names from
shows. These days no-one cares as
much about who is there, so long as
the attendees are good and the information on offer draws a quality
crowd. But those questions of return
on investment are increasingly used
to measure events’ effectiveness.
“We are increasingly sceptical
about the measurable benefits of
trade shows in the channel,” says
Patrick Jocelyn, chief marketing
office and general manager UK at
MeetingZone.
“Our recent experience of attending these was not a good one, in that
attendance was poor and the few
‘interested’ punters in attendance
were pursued by everyone. Sure, it’s
good to network face-to-face and
share industry gossip – but in the
end, it’s the return on investment that
really counts.
“It’s hugely expensive to attend
shows in management time and
direct costs of stand builds and
expenses. Online forums, webinars
and digital marketing provide a
much more targeted and measurable
way of promoting a brand message
and providing a call to action. Our
range of conferencing and collaboration services can deliver everything
we need that attending a trade show
can do, but at a fraction of the cost.”
Exploiting lead opportunities
Where there might be problems with
events – whether general or focused
– is not so much in the planning and
delivery stage, but afterwards. What
happens to all those details gained
from the scanned badges, business
“The biggest mistake companies
make is thinking that the job is done
once the doors close”
Rowena Case, WatchGuard
THINKSTOCK
trade shows
Private versus public show
One of the main features of a trade show is the very public nature of the event.
A stand can often be walked round and punters file past in a fairly random
pattern. To ensure you get the audience you want, and the topic is controlled,
the option to hold a private event might prove more attractive.
Graham Jones, UK country manager at Exclusive Networks, says trade
shows still have a role that cannot be easily fulfilled in any other way, but there
can be questions around the return on investment that can be achieved from
attending a trade show, against hosting your own private event.
“By hosting a private event you have the ability to network with an
ecosystem of people who are particularly useful to you. Hosting your own
private event means you can invest more time in those meaningful business
conversations with those that really matter to you. You have the ability to
showcase who you are as a company, which will give you maximum
opportunity to get better engaged with potential resellers and vendor
partners,” he says.
“Having said that, trade shows and private events will always offer the
opportunity to meet with a lot of people face-to-face, in comparison with
digital platforms, therefore enabling a rapport to be built on a personal level. It
would be almost impossible to engage with a large number of people by any
other form of communication other than face-to-face – so why run the risk?
We may be in a digital era where technology does it all for us, but let’s face it,
no amount of technology can beat the good old fashioned handshake
– businesses are still made on them.”
cards dropped in for a raffle or names
gathered from conversations held on
the stand? In theory, those are potential leads that need to be shared with
the channel. But how they are delivered can be a serious business.
“The biggest mistake that companies make is thinking that the job is
done once the doors close. That is
just the start. For channel partners, it
is an opportunity to work with vendors and generate leads. There is
nothing more satisfying than handing
over a fistful of qualified opportunities at the end of the week. It only
takes a few good ones to come to fruition to pay for the show.
The return on investment in
shows starts with choosing the right
ones to go to, followed by creating
a good presence; doing the work in
advance to invite customers and
partners, working the stand and
finally working with resellers to do
the follow-up, straight afterwards,”
says WatchGuard’s Case.
She believes that, as well as the
vendor having to work, there is some
responsibility on the shoulders of the
show organiser to make sure the
event is marketed to the right audience and the halls are full of decent
customer prospects.
“With such a diverse IT industry,
the trend has been towards sector- or
technology-focused events, and this
makes sense. It’s about quality rather
than quantity,” she says.
Perhaps the conclusion of a discussion about trade shows is one where
the decision to attend has to be based
on a strategic decision. If there is still
a desire to gather information, meet
suppliers, prospective partners and
research the competition, it is hard to
beat a trade show. Some might have
disappeared and others could find
they have grown too large to ensure
quality. But come next year, the channel diaries will still be filled with the
dates of trade shows and events that
people want to attend. ■
OCTOBER 2014 | 8
vendor Q&A
INTERVIEW
Michael Dell on channel strategy and
the joys of running a private company
The Dell CEO discussed the vendor's approach to the channel at its recent Solutions Summit. Simon Quicke reports
A
t the recent Dell Solutions
Summit in Brussels, CEO
Michael Dell shared his
views on the current state
of the firm’s channel strategy in a
Q&A session led by the vendor’s vicepresident of global channel alliances,
Cheryl Cook.
Cook started by asking her CEO
about the current state of play with
the channel, seven years after the
vendor took the decision to formalise
its relationship with resellers.
“In 2007, the programme was formalised and we have since acquired
another 40-plus companies, and
each one of those has had a channel
programme,” he said.
“Fast-forward to today and we
have 167,000 partners around the
world, a $20bn-plus channel business and partnerships with all the
leading distributors in the world. We
have tremendous growth across all
countries and across all markets, we
have an omni-channel approach and
we have incentives for our inside
teams to work with channel partners,” added Dell.
“One of the big things our channel
partners have been seeing is we
have the broadest set of solutions of
any of the companies, particularly
for the fast-growing small and
medium-sized businesses. We serve
the largest companies in the world
too. When you get into systems
management, firewalls, backup and
protection, encryption, the datacentre and the client, those are well
covered,” he said.
“The other thing which is simple
and straightforward is we have
been reliable, consistent and
predictable every year, again and
again, with a programme that
partners can understand. They like
it,” he added.
Growing the channel business
Around one-third of the vendor’s
revenues come from its channel business, so Cook asked Dell what he saw
happening with that level and how
high it could climb in the future.
“We don’t have an upper limit.
At some point it becomes an academic question because of the
omni-channel approach we are taking [whereby the vendor’s sales teams
work with partners],” said Dell.
“We have countries where it is
100%, and our US federal business,
which is very important to us, is
about two-thirds channel-driven. The
number just goes up and there is no
ceiling on it,” he said.
Partners key to Dell’s growth
Thanks to resellers, Dell has been
delivering double-digit growth, but
could the momentum in the current
market continue in the future?
“Our growth looks like it is two to
three times that of the industry. We
just introduced the 13th generation of
PowerEdge and the reception to that
has been very strong. We are six weeks
through our third quarter and the
growth is better than it was in the first
half, which is a delight for us – and
somewhat unexpected,” said Dell.
“More and more partners are going
all-in with us. If you go back to 2008
and 2009, the partners were a little
bit cautious because this was a new
thing. We had a number of big partners working with us, but if you
asked them it was a sort of ‘hushhush’ thing. If you ask them about
Dell now, it is all out in the open.
“When we meet with our top partners they regularly tell us, ‘You are
our number one vendor’ or ‘Last year,
you were number six and now you
are number three’. We have staggering growth with some of these
“We have 167,000 partners around the
world, a $20bn-plus channel business
and partnerships with all the leading
distributors in the world”
OCTOBER 2014 | 9
vendor Q&A
partners, and I don’t see any reason
why that won’t continue,” he said.
“We are still under-distributed.
When you look at the raw data there
is still tons of upside and we have a
powerful brand, very strong products and have invested heavily in
innovation,” Dell added.
“It’s not just the core product lines
that people have thought about Dell
being in for 10 years. We have a
whole array of solutions now that go
into systems management – security,
information management, a great display business and thin clients are
growing rapidly. All the things going
on in converged infrastructure, the
workloads are headed our way.
“Dell financial services – the bank
of Dell – is open in 14 countries in
Europe, and partners are using that,
so it’s another accelerator. We just
have lots of good news here,” he said.
Europe more channel-focused
When comparing the European
region to the US, Dell was keen to
stress that the channel did display
differences in behaviour.
“Europe has always been more
channel-orientated than the US.
Maybe it’s one of the reasons why our
growth has accelerated here, because
we weren’t very channel-friendly up
until 2007, so we have been catching
up for some of that time. I think part
of that is there is an element of time
and trust and relationships and consistency. It has taken some time, but
people have moved decisively to
work with us and the growth has
been significant,” he said.
“Overall, we have growth all over
the world. One thing that is different
in EMEA is we have parts of EMEA
where we started with channel in the
beginning and are 100% channel.”
The freedom of going private
A question posed by MicroScope
once the open mic session started
was whether or not going private
had enabled Dell to take a more strategic view of channel relationships
and invest in emerging areas rather
than just backing proven revenue
providers to hit quarterly targets.
“You take more risk and you
are not as fearful of the quarterly
guidance, which is a pretty predominant feeling that you get inside big
public companies,” said Dell.
“Look at all the things that are
going on today with the market for
big public companies. You have
shareholder activism. You have small
shareholders buying up 1% of a company, and then all of a sudden they
have a position on the board and they
are advocating that you do less of
this, more of that, sell this and buy
that – and then they leave and go to
the next company.
“We are not doing any of that. No
thank you. We are 100% focused on
our partners and customers and
growing our business and have a
long-term focus,” he said.
“[Going private] has freed up about
20% of my time – and it was the 20%
of the most annoying things you
could ever imagine, and that is all
gone. You get that time back to spend
“It is just a delight to be private. Our
growth has been accelerating, we have
very good cashflow and, 10 months in,
we absolutely love being private”
with partners and customers and to
spend on developing new products.
It is just a delight to be private. Our
growth has been accelerating, we
have very good cashflow and, 10
months in, we absolutely love being
private,” he added.
“There is a speed of decision-making. Here’s a way of thinking about it:
let’s say you have a company about
the size of Dell with roughly $15bn of
quarterly revenues and roughly $1bn
of quarterly profit. What happens is
the managers and the leaders in that
business are thinking about the next
time when the company is going to
report the quarterly earnings.
“Sometimes, in small ways and
not so small ways, decisions are
affected to make sure those targets are
met. The cumulative effect of that
can add up to some interesting
things. For example, let’s say one of
our leaders has a great idea to grow
our business. If we are so caught up
in our focus on the quarterly process
but that idea requires some investment now, we might not even hear
about the idea.
“Now, we are hearing about the
ideas and we are making the
investments and are not obsessed
about the quarterly target. That’s the
way you should run a business,”
Dell concluded. ■
OCTOBER 2014 | 10
technology
DIGITAL BRITAIN
Firms should stop waiting for better
broadband and opt for 4G instead
C
an businesses afford to
wait for the UK to become
fully effective in the field
of digital technology?
If the government’s statements on
digital strategy could be believed,
even the most rural outpost should
be enjoying high-speed broadband.
But in reality even those operating in
towns and cities are struggling to get
a decent broadband speed via ageing
copper networks.
So-called Digital Britain is fast
becoming Divided Britain. And,
while the impact on house prices
of poor broadband connections is
well established, it is the impact on
businesses that is most damaging.
How can a company exploit lower
cost and more agile cloud services
without reliable, resilient highspeed networks? And how can UK
companies struggling with 2Mbps
compete with global competition
that already have 100Mbps and a
commitment to 1Gbps soon?
Digital Britain is not working and
4G is a real alternative. So don’t just
wait for BT – take action today and
step across to the other side of the
Digital Divide.
Falling behind
An inadequate communications
network is placing UK businesses
at serious risk of falling behind the
competition in Europe and across
the developing world. As more
organisations exploit the cost and
agility of cloud-based deployment,
too many UK businesses are
constrained by slow broadband
– and not only in rural locations.
Cloud services are too high-risk
for businesses that cannot access
reliable, high-speed broadband.
The government’s Digital Britain
pledge back in 2009 insisted there
would be broadband coverage across
the UK by 2012, with a minimum
speed of 2Mbps. Yet, towards the
end of 2014, significant parts of the
country are still waiting. During
those intervening five years, the
landscape has changed: with the
dominance of cloud computing,
2Mbps is barely adequate to
support a business running all its
applications and storing all of its
data in the cloud.
This is a fact recognised by the rest
of the world. Even countries with
struggling economies, such as Spain,
have a phenomenal communications
network, both wired and mobile. In
China and Japan, 100Mbps home
connections are commonplace,
with promises of gigabit-per second
speeds to the home shortly. How
can a UK business struggling with
intermittent 1Mbps compete?
Taking control
Today, most businesses think the
only option for broadband is fixedline delivered by BT. If BT has no
plans to upgrade the network soon,
the business is scuppered. But this
is ridiculous – especially in an
era where 4G networks can offer
download speeds of 10 to 30Mbps.
So why are firms not using 4G? Costs
are not prohibitive; deployment is
not an issue, but businesses still
believe they need to wait for the fixed
infrastructure to be upgraded.
4G is being used widely across the
world – especially in South Africa
and Australia – to bring broadband to
rural areas, but also as a quicker and
cheaper way of expanding highspeed communications. Indeed, the
UK’s evolution has been constrained
by its early lead in the provision of
copper networks, but the perception
remains that hard wired is more
reliable than mobile. Other countries
without this wired infrastructure
have invested in mobile
communications because it is quicker
4G is more efficient, can cater for
higher bandwidth and can be used to
back up fixed-line services as standard
THINKSTOCK
Mike Van Bunnens asks why businesses should put up with poor broadband when they could be using 4G
The roll-out of 4G continues fast, with coverage in hundreds of UK cities already
and less disruptive to add a 4G mast
than laying cable in the road. As a
result, these countries are ahead of
the UK in providing universal highspeed broadband via 4G.
The good news is the roll-out of
4G continues fast, with coverage in
hundreds of UK cities already. But
there are barriers to overcome.
Some firms have been scarred by
inconsistent 3G experiences, with
complaints regarding performance –
and businesses believe mobile
data isn’t as reliable as fixed-line
offerings. Critically, cloud services
and hosted applications require more
bandwidth and greater reliability –
therefore, firms need to be convinced
that 4G networks will offer a true
fixed-line alternative.
New communications reality
In fact, 4G is ideal for businesses. It
is more efficient, can cater for higher
bandwidth and be used to back up
fixed-line services as standard. There
is also the option to bond multiple 4G
connections from multiple providers
– linking multiple 4G networks can
achieve a stable 50Mbps, with the
benefit of extra reliability in uptime
and throughput plus the resilience
of different providers. 50Mbps
may seem low when single 4G
connections can almost deliver the
same speed in certain locations, but,
by carefully controlling the latency
and taking control of the connection,
stability that isn’t available on a
single connection can be attained.
Alternatively, a company can opt
to bond the existing fixed-line
infrastructure with 4G – or 3G for that
matter – to improve existing speeds
and provide extra resilience.
Of course, a big sticking point for
most companies is the data cost. But
mobile data costs have plummeted
with the arrival of 4G – today a
business using 30GB per month via
Microwave and BT line (8Mbps) can
have a 4G solution for the same price
and achieve far higher data rates.
Critically, the firm can perform
effectively, exploit innovative
cloud‑based deployments without
fear of business compromise and
compete on a level playing field
with the global competition.
Many companies are complaining
about broadband speeds but doing
nothing about the issue. BT’s timing
and location of the fixed-network
upgrade appears arbitrary at best, so
why wait? The issue is reliability.
No firm can afford to move into the
cloud without high levels of network
availability. When all data and applications are online, a lost connection
signals the end of business until it is
recovered. UK firms require not only
faster speeds than those on offer from
standard fixed connections, but
also better resilience.
UK firms cannot afford to be on
the wrong side of the Digital Divide.
Rather than waiting for BT to
upgrade local services, UK firms
need to consider the alternatives. ■
Mike Van Bunnens is managing director
of Comms365.
OCTOBER 2014 | 11
channel evolution
OPINION
Channel principles remain the same
Burkhard Hensel looks at how the indirect channel has evolved to handle demands of today’s complex IT environment
THINKSTOCK
T
he phrase “the network
is the computer” has
never been more true.
Technological trends –
including mobility, big data, collaboration and compliance – are driving
the IT mandate. But all require the
underlying technology, tools and
business models to run effectively.
To keep up with the latest developments, organisations are increasingly
introducing complex IT solutions
offered in private, public or hybrid
clouds. In turn, this means businesses need to start addressing topics
such as security and compliance. To
complicate things even more, cloud
services run in heterogeneous networks with different bandwidth and
virtualised architectures.
Adding value
As we navigate the transition to a
hyper-connected world, the indirect
channel is again called on to redefine
its role and help both users and vendors navigate the evolving IT landscape. However, this is nothing new.
Over the past 25 years, the main purpose of partners and resellers has
always been to add value.
For example, when I started the
indirect channel business for Europe
at Sun Microsystems in 1988, most of
the premium vendors worked
according to a direct business model.
The biggest partners were original
equipment manufacturers (OEMs)
that integrated core technology and
products into their own solutions
and sold products as complete
vendor-based solutions.
Then came the independent software vendors (ISVs), which developed applications and drove customer demand that addressed
specific business needs. In turn,
this generated a whole new channel
industry, the value-added reseller
(VAR). The VARs and systems integrators (SIs) based their business
models on hardware, software and
their own service revenues. They
became the link between the vendor and the IT departments of the
customer, offering customer-specific solutions.
For a long time, vendors have
understood the value of strategic
indirect channel models. Integrating
channel partners into their own
The needs and motivations of the
indirect channel have not changed
in the past 25 years – partners
and resellers need to remain focused
on adding value by combining
demand with execution
go-to-market strategies has enabled
them to generate substantially better
customer coverage, better customer
service and incremental revenue.
Ultimately, a solid channel model
for a vendor needs to address two
aspects. First, the value proposition for the end customer. Second,
the business proposition for the
partner. It is the vendor’s responsibility to generate demand and
educate customers on the values of
technology and related products.
Simultaneously, vendors must
decide what to invest in their own
customer coverage and what they
want to leverage over partners.
Channel partners can then judge
vendors on their ability to generate
demand, invest in coverage and willingness to integrate partners into
their go-to-market models. For a partner, it is critical to trust the indirect
channel strategy of the vendor.
Changing indirect models
However, since early 2000, the internet has been slowly changing the
indirect channel model. Notions of
the internet of things and XSP models have come into fashion and generated new business models.
There are demands for new
solutions that enable businesses to
eliminate the blind spots in their
network, so they can remain in
control of the IT estate. It is
impossible to be secured and
compliant without having insight
and knowledge of the data traffic and
content in the datacentres.
As IT becomes more hyperconnected, the reaction of the channel will determine its success or failure. Instead of selling IT infrastructure, the new channel philosophy is
focused on delivering IT services. Yet
the needs and motivations of the
indirect channel have still not
changed in the past 25 years. Partners
and resellers need to remain focused
on adding value by combining
demand with execution. ■
Burkhard Hensel is EMEA vice-president
of network visibility solutions at Ixia.
OCTOBER 2014 | 12
community
READERS’ LETTERS
CONTACTS
Corporations have become too
accepting of data breaches
MicroScope
1st Floor, 3-4a Little Portland Street
London W1W 7JB
Charles Sweeney, CEO, Bloxx
It’s time to give smaller UK firms
a chance at running IT services
Mark Colonnese, director, Aquarium Software
The government’s plan to incorporate
specialist businesses into the
replacement IT system responsible
for collecting £500bn worth of
income tax is a wise move. The
current solution is bulky and rigid,
but Whitehall now believes it would
be more efficient and effective to
split the project into 100 separate
contracts, calling on the expertise,
experience and knowledge of some
of the smaller and more agile UK
technology firms.
As a small to medium-sized
enterprise and technology platform
developer, Aquarium Software
knows how to play an important
part in making huge projects work
by completing elements assigned
to us on time and within budget.
Employing dynamic businesses with
the enthusiasm and commitment to
deliver, while working collectively,
WEB
www.microscope.co.uk
GENERAL ENQUIRIES
Office Manager Monique Robinson
020 7186 1401
EDITORIAL
Editor Simon Quicke
020 7186 1412 [email protected]
Senior reporter Sean McGrath
THINKSTOCK
August was a grim month for data
breaches. From UPS to Community
Health Systems, the headlines
relating to attacks were unrelenting
– not unlike the hackers themselves.
What strikes me more and more is
that, as data breaches become more
widely reported, corporations –
regardless of the industry – display
a degree of acceptance that seems
to say, ‘Yes, personal data has
been lost, but it could have been a
much worse’.
Well, I beg to differ. As we hurtle
towards a more connected future
with the world of big data looming
large, it is worrying that a hacker
could use personal data to apply
for a credit card in my name and
potentially damage my credit
rating. Any pretence to the contrary
is short sighted and out of step
with consumer feeling. We trust
companies with our details and they
have an implied duty to protect that
data. Companies that do not realise
this will lose customers and see their
bottom line take a battering. You
need look no further than Target as a
prominent example of this point. No
data is OK to lose.
Vendors should focus on expertise
Luca Allegranza, freelance consultant
I read with interest your recent piece about Kaspersky’s partner programme
and its decision to focus on technical certifications. There seems to be a
temptation in some programmes to only reward those generating maximum
revenue and catch the efforts of the entrepreneurs in deal registration.
Whether or not those big revenue generators are offering high levels of
technical expertise is debatable and so it is interesting to see a vendor go out
of its way to ensure that element is covered. It should not only be a positive for
customers – who get to talk to someone who knows what they are doing
– but should also translate into a better relationship for the partner with the
user. Everyone wants to have a “trusted relationship” and what better way of
getting it than showing you really know your stuff?
Of course, there needs to be a balanced approach with that technical
expertise combined with an awareness of the business issues customers are
facing and the creation of a rounded solution. But it will be interesting to see
just how the customer base reacts to Kasperksy Lab’s shields of technical
accreditation and if they deliver some value across the channel.
is the key. These types of businesses
are better equipped to meet the
requirements of Whitehall at a much
lower cost. It’s time for the money
to go back into smaller businesses to
prop up UK firms.
The fear-inducing element for
the tax payer is the scale of the
task at hand in breaking up such
a large system and incorporating
these smaller businesses into it.
There is no doubt that the process
needs to be carefully planned and
to underestimate its size would
be a great risk. However, with due
consideration and the appointment
of project managers well versed in
“Resellers need to tell customers how
potential downtime will be minimised”
Ian Wells, vice-president, Veeam
handling multiple smaller contracts,
the government can, and should,
make the desired cuts and improve a
dated tax collection system. For years
we have seen the large computer
companies fail on an epic scale time
after time – it’s time to try a new way.
Go for it Dave.
Providers can give customers
confidence with more insight
Ian Wells, vice-president, Veeam
Gartner has predicted IT spending
will grow to $4.3tn (£2.7tn) by
2018. This is good news for the
channel, since IT services offer
more opportunities for new revenue
streams than ever. But the journey is
not going to be easy.
Becoming a service provider
should be a matter of adding IT
services on top of existing sales,
which should come easily to many
resellers. However, these extra
services also have to match the
expectations of businesses. Crucially,
the modern business is always on
Production editor Claire Cormack
Senior sub-editor Jason Foster
Senior sub-editor Craig Harris
Sub-editor Ben Whisson
ADVERTISING
Sales director Brent Boswell
07584 311889 [email protected]
Account manager Martin Upson
EVENTS
Events manager Tom Walker
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.
and demands IT services 24/7. But
there has been a gap between the
level of IT availability firms need and
what IT can provide.
Resellers need to tell customers
how potential downtime will be
minimised and how the amount of
recovered data will be maximised.
This alleviates outage concerns the
customer may have in two ways:
first, it assures them that their
business can remain productive if
a service is down and, second, that
long gaps between backups will not
entail lost data when they attempt to
recover it.
The more insight providers can
give, the more confident customers
will be. IT services represent
ripe territory for the channel. But
encouraging customer confidence is
what will turn the opportunity into a
steady revenue stream. ■
› Send your letters and comments
to [email protected]
OCTOBER 2014 | 13
backchat
FIVE-MINUTE INTERVIEW
What’s running on your smartphone?
Email, Facebook, LinkedIn, BBC
News, YouTube, a share price tracker
and the Man United app, just to name
a selection.
What is the best book you have
ever read?
It would have to be the autobiography of
Jack Welch, a chairman of GE.
And the worst film you’ve ever seen?
Sleepless in Seattle – I am not one for
romcoms.
Name your Desert Island MP3s?
Happy by Pharrell Williams, Masterplan
by Oasis and anything by the Happy
Mondays.
Terry O’Brien
Daisy Wholesale
What temptation can you not resist?
It would have to be fast cars.
What was your first car and
how does it compare with
what you drive now?
It was a white Ford Orion 1.6 Injection
Ghia and it was a lot cheaper than what
I am driving at the moment.
MicroScope puts its questions to Terry O’Brien,
managing director of Daisy Wholesale
Tell us what you do for a living
I am the managing director of Daisy
Wholesale, a provider of telecoms and
IT services to the channel. My role is
to ensure we are offering our channel
partners the innovative solutions the
SME market demands. However,
more specifically, it is my responsibility
to ensure that I have a great team of
people around me with a clear direction
and the motivation to ensure success.
Why are you the right person
for this job?
Simply because I love it. I have the
desire to stimulate a change in the way
businesses can work. By playing a key
part in the channel, working closely with
our partners, we can increase flexibility
in the way SMEs operate.
What gets you up in the morning?
Usually one of my four daughters! I
have genuinely always been a morning
person. I believe it is the best part
of the day, waking up with a clear
head, raring to go and get stuck in
to a job you love.
work to people’s strengths and aim
to manage weaknesses.
Who helped you get to where
you are today?
Many people in all honesty. My family
in particular has been a big driver and
has supported me in everything I do.
In business, there have been mentors
and colleagues that have shaped my
thinking, but I also think that, without
the drive to want to make a difference, I
wouldn’t be where I am today.
What advice would you give to
someone starting out today in IT?
I would tell them to create an offering
that centres on flexible working. By
investing in mobility you can support
the SME market in the future ways of
working.
What is the best or worst business
advice you have received – and
from whom?
The best piece of advice was given
to me by a former boss of mine who I
worked with for a long time, and that
was to always do the right thing. The
worst I have received – which I think
is common in a lot of workplaces – is
focusing on weaknesses rather than
strengths when developing
people. You should always
“If I could be any animal for a day,
I’d be a duck because they
always look like they are smiling”
Who would you least like to be stuck
in a lift with? Why, what did they do?
My mum, but that is only because she is
claustrophobic and would lose the plot
in a lift.
What does the next five years hold
for the channel?
A boom in opportunities. We are at
a really exciting time for the channel.
More and more innovative products will
come to market that focus much more
on enhancing the way users can work.
We will see real growth in the market, as
new technology and different ways of
working allow the channel to own and
dominate the SME market.
Tell us something most people do
not know about you
I like to eat raw Oxo cubes – they make a
nice square meal.
What goal do you have to
achieve before you die?
I have always wanted to be in a
position where I could make a
real difference, so something
like prime minister – but that
time might have passed.
If you could be any animal for a day,
what would you be and why?
A duck because they always look like
they are smiling.
If you could take part in one event
in the Olympics, which would you
choose and why?
The gymnastics floor event, purely
because I would like to have an amazing
body and be able to do incredible
somersaults.
If you were facing awesome peril
and impossible odds, which real
or fictional person would you most
want on your side and why?
I should probably say Superman, so
that I would have the best chance of
surviving, but I think it would have
to be Mr Tickle, so I could get some
giggles in there before I go.
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?
I think my money would have to be on
the silverback. They just seem to be
sheer muscle. ■
› Click here to read more
five-minute interviews online
OCTOBER 2014 | 14

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