Your weekly roundup of IT news for the channel
Dimension Data buys Teliris
Dimension Data has acquired another company – the second in the last three weeks – in its ongoing bid to double its current annual sales of $6 billion over the next four years. New York-based Teliris was one of the first companies to offer cloud-based managed telepresence videoconferencing services. The acquisition is the second in the past 20 days for the South Africa-based $6 billion solution provider. On April 23rd, Dimension Data significantly expanded its US presence by picking up Nexus (valued at $471 million). Like the Teliris deal, financial details were not disclosed. According to Steve Nola, CEO of Dimension Data's IT as a Service business unit, the Teliris deal will allow Dimension Data to "accelerate the development of a true videoconferencing as a service offering to the market." The statement went on to say that Teliris will continue to operate under the Teliris brand for now, offering the services it does today and supporting "its current managed services clients using its own proprietary technologies and cloud platform."
Symantec’s Q4 performance reflects positive moves
Troubled internet security and data management vendor Symantec has taken a series of positive steps over the past few months, including a revamped channel program, new products and improved internal sales processes – steps that are reflected in its fourth quarter earnings performance. While revenue is down by 7 percent, profits are up with net income reportedly $217 million generating 32 cents per share. The Mountain View, Calif.-based vendor has been in an ongoing transition as it fights to stay relevant in the market. That transition was undermined in March when CEO Steve Bennet was suddenly relieved of his duties. The search for a permanent replacement – the company’s third new chief executive in four years – is ongoing. In the meantime, interim CEO Michael Brown says he expects to see modest revenue growth return later in fiscal 2015.
HP reorganises U.S. sales and channel operations
In a move aimed at streamlining its sales and channel activities, Hewlett-Packard has reorganised its U.S. sales operations. As of May 1st, HP is focused on three separate geographic zones instead of just one, with a separate team addressing the Fed. Prior to the re-org, HP’s Enterprise Group was running several different sales models for its x86 and Mission Critical servers. The storage, networking and services teams also operated independently and had their own strategies. Going forward, executive teams are streamlined with each territory headed by a single VP to who all support staff, including the regional channel director, reports.
Tech Data Partner conference: Expanded VMware cloud BDR offerings, new Cisco training announced
Tech Data Corporation took the opportunity of its TechSelect Partner Conference in Orlando to announce an expanded relationship with VMware Inc., through which the IT distributor will offer vCloud Hybrid Service – Disaster Recovery. The new disaster-recovery-as-a-service offering is aimed at midsized businesses and is built on VMware’s hybrid IaaS platform -- vCloud Hybrid Service. DRaaS, which is available from Tech Data’s Solutions Store, makes it possible for IT solutions providers to deliver disaster recovery and protection coverage to any end user applications running in a vSphere virtual environment.
Tech Data also announced new educational programs for Cisco partners. Dubbed Core and BOOST, the new programs deliver a range of training from entry level programs to personalized post-specialization offerings in the form of 30-minute webinars. Each Core (basic level) webinar addresses a specific topic that supports one of meta-topics: Cisco 101, Partnering with Cisco, CCW Platform, Programs and Promotions, and Cisco Services. The BOOST program is more advanced, having been designed to support Cisco partners with guidance on Operations, Sales, Marketing, and Services, and require more advanced Cisco qualifications. Qualified solution providers can access a variety of support offerings including: consultation services, case studies, business transformation workshops, industry experts, personalized sales enablement trainings, demand-generation tools, and mobility applications.
Continuum released book on “everything managed services”
The content marketing team at Continuum has been busy. The Boston-based RMM vendor just released an e-book that purports to be the “definitive guide to managed IT services.” The book covers the history and evolution of the MSP and looks at various tools and service delivery models designed to help MSPs better serve clients. Readers also get some insights into costs and third-party vendor evaluation criteria. In amongst all the self-serving marketing messaging – like why you should have an integrated RMM and NOC offering, something that very few vendors offer – and the irrelevant history lesson, readers who have yet to make the move from break/fix to recurring revenues might find some morsels of real value. In particular if you’re an MSP with a really, really good sales team, you may find value using the book as a leave behind with your prospects. Though if you can get someone to read a book, you probably already have the account.
