Comms Dealer

Mitel has signed a distribution agreement with Westcon-Comstor to push its portfolio of on-site and cloud-based communications and collaboration solutions into the German market.

They will initially focus on the mid to large-sized enterprise market for on-site solutions, with Westcon-Comstor 'gradually' expanding its reach into Mitel's cloud-based offering.

Data privacy concerns are causing significant sales cycle delays for up to 65% of businesses worldwide, according to the findings in the new Cisco 2018 Privacy Maturity Benchmark Study.

In addition, the study shows that privacy maturity is connected to lower losses from cyberevents -  74% of privacy-immature organisations experienced losses of more than $500,000 last year caused by data breaches, compared with only 39% of privacy-mature organisations.

Privacy maturity is a framework defined by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and is based on Generally Accepted Privacy Principles (GAPP).

The study surveyed nearly 3,000 global security professionals in 25 countries regarding their privacy maturity and any effects of data privacy on their business. A surprising two-thirds of respondents indicated that data privacy was causing delays in their sales cycles, with an average estimated delay of 7.8 weeks.

The pending May 2018 enforcement of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the new law enacted to increase protections of European Union (EU) citizens' privacy and personal data, might also be a factor in these delays.

Customers are increasingly concerned that products and services they buy provide appropriate privacy protections. GDPR's provisions apply to any company that processes, stores, or uses this data.

Respondents were asked to assess their current privacy maturity level, according to the standard AICPA model, which defines five privacy maturity levels: ad hoc, repeatable, defined, managed, and optimised.

The study found that the average sales delay for those with ad hoc maturity was 16.8 weeks, but delays decreased for businesses with higher privacy maturity levels.

Businesses with optimised privacy processes reported 3.4 weeks of sales delay, which is an 80 percent reduction compared to ad hoc organisations.

Geography and industry also appear to play a significant role in the length of delay, said Cisco.

SAP has revealed its biggest acquisition in more than three years, scooping up US-listed Callidus Software for an enterprise value of $2.4bn.

It comes as the company reported earnings for Q4, generating sales of €6.8bn in the period.

SAP's new cloud bookings, a keenly watched metric for future sales growth, grew 31% at constant currencies.

Qumulo and Hewlett Packard Enterprise are to extend their partnership to deliver Qumulo File Fabric to HPE customers in EMEA.

The US headquartered company, which is on track to more than double its year-on-year growth, will offer Qumulo File Fabric (QF2), a scalable file storage system that runs in the data centre and in the public cloud.

The company has appointed seasoned leadership in the EMEA region - Thore Rabe and Stefan Radtke. Thore will serve as Qumulo's Vice President/General Manager, EMEA. Stefan will serve as Qumulo's Technical Director, EMEA. Thore previously held the position of EMEA Vice President of Dell EMC Isilon and Stefan previously served as EMEA CTO at the same company.

Qumulo will open offices in the UK and Germany to service market demand. It will also open a 24/7 support centre in the UK to accompany the existing centres it has across two-time zones in the US. Additionally, a growing ecosystem of channel partners is joining including Qvest and ConCat in Germany and Gegobyte and Escape Technology in the UK.

In June of 2017, Qumulo joined the Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) Complete program so that validated HPE and Qumulo solutions became available from HPE and its resellers.

Downing-backed Kao Data has opened the doors to the first of four planned data centres at its campus in Harlow, Essex. On completion the £200m campus will support an IT load of over 35MW across 150,000 square feet of technical space.

Tech Data's Miriam Murphy has stepped in as SVP for Advanced Solutions in Europe, taking over from Graeme Watt who leaves the company on January 31st to become CEO of reseller Softcat.

Murphy joined Avnet TS in 1999 and has held a number of senior roles including SVP of Enterprise Business Group for EMEA and SVP for the North Region in EMEA. She was most recently SVP for the Benelux region, a role she occupied since Tech Data acquired Avnet's Technology Solutions business a year ago.

Poundworld has benefited from a major communications project following a deal with Cheltenham-based PSU Technology Group which promises to save the retailer circa £360k during the course of the contract.

PSU secured the contract after an audit of Poundworld's existing comms estate revealed scope for more suitable tariffs and more streamlined services across the 359 UK retail stores, while also removing the complex billing set-up.

Using PSU's online billing service Poundworld now gets a single bill that covers all sites.

Computacenter has posted a pre-close trading update for the year ended 31 December, with adjusted pre-tax results 'anticipated to be ahead of the board's expectations' contained in a previous November trading update.

It added that group revenue for the year increased by £408m or 12% in constant currency, and by £548m or 17% on an as reported basis.

Group Services revenue increased by 7% in constant currency and by 11% on an as reported basis. Group Supply Chain revenue increased by 14% in constant currency and by 19% on an as reported basis.

UK sales increased by 9% for the year, with Services revenue increasing by 6% and Supply Chain revenue increasing by 10%. The fourth quarter was particularly strong with Services revenue up 9%, Supply Chain up 18%, with overall revenue growth of 16% - 'the best fourth quarter growth we have seen in the UK for a number of years', said Computacenter.

German revenue increased by 15% for the year overall, with Services revenue increasing by 7% and Supply Chain revenue increasing by 19%, all in constant currency. French revenue increased by 13% for the year overall, with Services revenue increasing by 15% and Supply Chain revenue increasing by 12%, again, all in constant currency.

Final results for the year will be posted by Computacenter on 13 March 2018.

SAP, which claims to be the world's third largest independent software manufacturer, has announced its new 'Cloud Accelerator Programme', a global initiative to help partners expand their cloud businesses.

Accordxing to SAP, members of the initiative will receive support developing and executing a digital marketing plan, the allocation and results-driven spend of business development funds, the expert guidance and active participation of a partner marketing advisor and more.

A spokesperson said the SAP partner's co-funded marketing plan will be put into action throughout the year, to build pipeline, gain new customers, and expand the potential of a fast-growing cloud business.

Any company with a strong commitment to invest in the cloud, demonstrated through a business plan which outlines a yearly target to grow their SME cloud business by at least 50 percent, can qualify for the program.

Federation of Communications Services Deputy Chairman Itret Latif has been appointed interim chief executive of the industry trade organisation following the departure of Chris Pateman, who retired last November.

Latif has an energy utility background and was responsible for the development and integration of the retail telecoms business for Southern Electric and subsequently SSE.

As an experienced FCS board member, he has developed an appreciation and understanding of the essential nature of Business Radio and the Installers Group on top of his understanding of the needs of the Fixed and Mobile communication community.

Latif has been invited to provide evidence to both House of Commons and House of Lords on telecoms and energy.  In his evidence to the House of Lords in 2012 he was first to identify broadband as essential service and a utility.

At the same hearing, he called for restructuring of BT with BT Openreach being separated to become legal entity owning the infrastructure and engineers.