Comms Dealer

Daisy Indirect is offering partners a targeted approach to maximise connectivity upgrade opportunities following its authorisation as a supplier for the Government's SuperConnected Cities scheme.

Backed by Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK), the Connection Voucher Scheme provides financial support of up to £3,000 to small and medium-sized businesses within defined postcodes of the 22 SuperConnected Cities, which they can then put towards superfast fibre connections or Ethernet upgrades for their business' connectivity.

As well as profiling a partner's customer base in order to identify eligible customers, Daisy Indirect will work with its partners to engage with their customers and help them to realise this benefit.

Chris Burney, Head of Daisy Indirect, said: "By providing our partners with data on those customers located within the defined postcodes of the 22 cities, they then have the ability to start a conversation with those businesses about their connectivity upgrade options. If successful, the partner can reap the benefits of increased product penetration into their customer base."

After notifying partners of those customers who sit within the connected areas, they can choose to either contact those customers themselves or invite Daisy Indirect to send dual-branded communications on their behalf, informing the end user of what to do next.

Burney added: "There are a lot of businesses out there that do not realise the high speed connectivity options that are available in their area. And those that are aware may struggle to fund the upgrade to fibre or Ethernet. That is why SuperConnected Cities is such a welcomed scheme.

"By opting into the SuperConnected Cities campaign, our partners can open up new connectivity opportunities within their customer base and if they choose, we can do all the hard work for them."

Virtual1 has secured a place in the final stages of this year's European Business Awards having been named National Public Champion as the public vote opens for the first time.

The company, already named as one of the National Champions in the internally judged part of the competition, has submitted a video of its company online, giving an insight into the story of its business and its successes.

It will now compete against all other country National Champions for the public vote. The company with the most votes will be named National Public Champion for the UK on 3rd March 2015.

Virtual1, CEO, Tom O'Hagan said: "Britain is bursting with entrepreneurial businesses and the technology and telecoms sector is at the forefront of this boom. We hope to count on the support of our partners, peers and friends in getting as many online votes as possible."

Adrian Tripp, CEO of the European Business Awards, added: "The public vote is a very important part of the Awards as it gives these entrepreneurial companies another way of showcasing their achievements to a wider audience across Europe. It was a huge success last year, with over 93,000 votes cast."

All the videos for this year's National Champions can be found at the European Business Awards website.

The video entries from all National Champions representing 33 countries across Europe will be reviewed and scored by the European Business Awards' panel of judges and on 10th February 2015.

The overall European winners of the ten European Business Awards categories will be announced at the same time as the European Public Champion at the Gala Event in May.

To view Virtual1's entry video and to vote click here:

Intel shares fell slightly despite strong server chip sales in Q4, according to the firm's latest set of annual figures.

Revenue of $14.72bn (+6.4% yr/yr) was better than expected, while desktop volumes rose +1% with ASPs flat (notebook volumes were up +11%, ASPs -3%).

Server CPU division performance improved with revenue up +25% to $4.1bn, helped by the Grantley chip launch and cloud demand. Intel expects mid-single digit 2015 revenue growth.

"2014 ended with better results than we expected at the start of the year," said the CFO report.

Revenue of $55.9bn was up 6%, operating income of $15.3bn was up 25%, and earnings per share of $2.31 was up 22% from 2013.

Focusing on our fourth quarter results, we achieved record revenue of $14.7b, up 6% from a year ago. PC Client Group revenue was down 3% quarter over quarter and up 3% from a year ago. The Data Centre Group was up 11% quarter over quarter and up 25% from a year ago.

Gross margin of 65.4% was up about half a point from the third quarter and up 1 point from our prior Outlook. Operating income for the fourth quarter was $4.5B, up $0.9B, or 25% from a year ago."

For full year 2014, both the PC business and the Data Centre business outperformed expectations at the start of the year.

The statement read, 'PC Client Group revenue grew by 4% from 2013. "We saw PC Client Group platform volumes grow 8% year over year and, inclusive of tablets, we saw 18% unit growth. We saw robust growth in our Data Centre business with 8% unit growth and 18% revenue growth on a year over year basis'.

Nimans has added a new data connectivity solution to its network services portfolio.

EtherStream V provides a bridge between FTTC and more expensive pure fibre options, bonding either two or four FTTC circuits.

"If a business requires robust, high-capacity connectivity without the expense of fibre, EtherStream V provides high performance and resilience at an affordable cost," said Nimans' Head of Networks, Mark Curtis-Wood.

"Many organisations are fighting to get more out of smaller budgets. At the same time, taking advantage of internet apps and Cloud- based services is key to staying competitive, but these technologies need robust, high-speed connections. With EtherStream V they get the bandwidth and reliability they need without the cost of fibre lines.

"EtherStream V uses either two or four FTTC connections bonded together so they offer the performance of a single line. This technology provides downstream speeds of more than 100Mbps without the need for dedicated fibre. The service is available to about half of all UK businesses, a number that's set to increase as the country-wide roll-out continues."

Curtis-Wood says resellers and their customers can take advantage of less expense, robust connectivity and reliable performance.

"There's no need to pay the high prices or excess construction charges of fibre connections. Costs are also fixed so bills are predictable. The service is highly reliable since it is provided over multiple connections, and can compensate if any of the connections go down. Alternative backup options are also available for even greater resilience."

He concluded: "EtherStream V provides high levels of performance even with increased Cloud, VoIP and video traffic. The service can also be scaled up from 160Mbps to 320Mbps quickly and without hassle as needs change.

"Service speed is guaranteed to remain above half the maximum available on a site, (equivalent to less than a 2:1 contention ratio). Maximum speeds of up to 320Mbps downstream and 80Mbps upstream are available, depending on location."

Astro Communications looks back on three decades in comms and sharpens its focus on the time to come...

Dartford-based Astro Communications celebrated 30 years of successful trading in December and marked the occasion with the launch of a new website and staff changes geared around its 'ambitious growth plans'.

Co-founder Steve Smith told Comms Dealer: "We believe it is important that we keep up to date with technology, and to keep our public facing image and content current in order to stay relevant and interesting. Our new website sends a clear message that while we may have been going since Band Aid was in the charts the first time around, we are every bit as in touch with the market, our customers and our employees and will remain so long into the future."

Smith will be spearheading Astro's development plans in his new CTO role and Adam Crocker-White will assume the position of Head of Delivery and Operations. Managing Director Steve Hodges said: "Although we are a relatively small company we now think and act with the underpinning processes and professional standards of a large business while maintaining the flexibility, agility and customer focus we have always had. Giving specific focus to key areas of the business as we realise our growth plans is key to maintaining that balance, and the new positions that Steve and Adam take on will enable us to better achieve that."

Founded by Steve Smith and Rob Trollope in 1984, Astro now delivers complex solutions ranging from safety systems on Fortis Field oil rigs to satellite overlay networks at holiday parks around the UK coast. While the firm now focuses mostly on providing a high quality service wrap around more standard technical solutions, there are opportunities at times to engage in the obscure or technically challenging, such as delivering EFT POS-supportable wireless connectivity to TGI Fridays in Bluewater or wireless connectivity on board Wightlink Ferries.

Astro has recently completed the build of its new ISP grade core network and Virtual Data Centre offering to deliver niche ISP services to customers who are not getting the quality of service or level of support they need from the larger suppliers. Hodges said Astro has big growth plans and exciting targets around customer satisfaction, staff engagement and partner accreditation for technical competency as well as a sharp focus on company culture.

"We would like to be a company our employees feel proud to work for, our suppliers privileged to partner with and for whom our customers have the highest regard," said Hodges. "With 30 years under our belt and a clear strategy I firmly believe we can achieve all of these things - and more."

Pictured above (l-r): Rob Trollope (Co-founder and Director), Adam Crocker-White (Head of Operations and Delivery), Steve Hodges (Managing Director), Dean Bruce (Head of Network Services), Stuart Burgis (Head of Systems and Development), Steve Smith (Co-founder and CTO).

avsnet Managing Director Graham Fry says managed services and hybrid delivery models are driving high levels of IT consolidation and investment, and he's taking action to capitalise on this opportunity.

Few doubt the power of a video call over an audio call, but the industry has been held back by past realities where systems were often complicated and unreliable, according to Fry. "Now there is no reason for this to be the case and video is becoming business critical," he stated. "The customer is the main driver and the user experience has to be as intuitive as possible. Organisations also need their business critical solutions to deliver long-term value. For us this means developing a team that understands the challenges facing modern businesses and has the specialism and knowledge to deliver bespoke technology solutions. We then work with the customer to develop the applications they need and drive user adoption and deliver maximum return on investment."

avsnet's roots are in audio visual technology and visual communications solutions, and for nearly a decade the company has followed a clear growth strategy. Fry founded AVSolution in 2005 having spotted a gap in the market and rebranded as avsnet in 2012. "The purpose of our rebrand was to better reflect the broad range of business solutions we provide," said Fry. "We wanted to maintain our strong AV and VC heritage while also increasing our focus on collaborative unified communications. I knew that if we remained solely as a specialist video communications and AV company we might struggle to convince the market of our capabilities in unified and network centric communications. We have seen significant growth in this area as well as continued growth within VC due to intuitive, lower cost and high quality VC solutions."

Along with the rebrand Fry also brought in a management team including Alistair Johnston as Financial Director and Mike Mason as Non-Executive Chairman to help strengthen the business and achieve a long-term growth strategy. A key feature of this strategy became visible when, around four years ago, Fry responded to the demand for unification with UC and intelligent network infrastructures driving growth. "Managed services and hybrid delivery models are driving high levels of IT consolidation and investment," he added. "Cloud-based video, UC and voice services are maturing rapidly and becoming a valid consideration for many businesses. I believe there is growth potential in that area and we have already begun to capitalise on the business and IT demands around deployment flexibility. Vendors are improving their interfaces and with great training visual communications tools are becoming as easy to use as a telephone."

avsnet's revenue is up 82 per cent this year with turnover expected to reach £12 million. The majority of growth has come from managed services and cloud solutions (hosted video and cloud-based unified communications), as well as interactive collaboration deployments and end user focused professional services. The firm's customers are generally mid to large organisations with complex communication and collaboration challenges. They span a range of vertical markets including the enterprise, public sector, manufacturing, medical and clinical services, education providers, oil and gas specialists and professional services companies. Partners include Polycom (avsnet has been a Gold Partner for the last five years) and Cisco, which has enrolled avsnet onto its Elite Partner Plus Framework. This represents the top 20 fastest growing partners. The rise of Microsoft in the comms space also features large in Fry's thinking.

"This coming year we see significant growth opportunities in Microsoft Lync, or as it is now officially known, Skype for Business," he commented. "Roughly 80 per cent of the companies we engage with are planning deployments. We are in a strong position to assist our customers with their Lync strategies. That could involve supplying Lync-optimised systems, integrating Lync with other technologies such as Cisco Call Manager and UC, and other related services like developing high impact onboarding strategies to aid end user adoption."

Driving employee productivity and efficiency also remains an important growth factor. "We aim to share the successes of our customers, partners and suppliers, both from a technology point of view and from a general deployment perspective," added Fry. "Listening and learning about our customers' day-to-day challenges is an important part of our growth strategy. We have grown because we are aligned with their business needs and provide a service that meets these requirements effectively.

"We are constantly investing in our technical services team and strengthening our managed services portfolio. Finding talented individuals that match our corporate philosophy and have a shared drive for success is always challenging, but we have a solid recruitment process to ensure we grow our workforce with the right people."

avsnet's policy of plugging gaps in the workforce with the right-fit people is reflected in the organisation's ongoing strategy to keep its product and services portfolio in line with user requirements. "We are currently adding new security management tools to our managed services portfolio to meet customer demand," said Fry. "More generally, a common area of the comms industry that needs improvement is the user experience. This is another reason why we have been so successful. Many providers state they are customer centric, but few actually deliver on that promise in a sustainable manner."

Although the Internet Services Providers' Association (ISPA) marks its 20th anniversary this year it came of age many years ago as the voice of the UK Internet industry. Here, Secretary General Nicholas Lansman looks at the big issues facing this sector in 2015.

The General Election on 7th May is currently too close to call and the major parties are yet to set out their plans for the sector. ISPA, however, sees a number of political and regulatory issues dominating in 2015 including consumer switching, privacy, broadband and digital skills. We still do not know the Opposition's plans for the sector should they win, but the Labour Digital Policy Review provided some clues. Covering a range of topics, recommending a universal service obligation for broadband and a strong focus on skills, and while this is light in detail, and the document's role in shaping formal party policy isn't clear, it is encouraging to see a more joined-up strategic approach. However, Labour has signalled a willingness to intervene in other sectors, such as energy, and this could extend to communications too.

Communications data comeback
A communications data law is a matter of 'when' and not 'if' for the next Government. The Home Office wants to re-introduce the Communications Data Bill which ISPA had a number of issues with and was vetoed in 2013. The Counter-Terrorism and Security Bill is in the last stages of a very rushed parliamentary process and will require ISPs to retain identifiers to help match an IP address to a specific device. But we don't expect this to be a major impact on smaller and medium sized ISPs.

2015 will also provide opportunities for industry to engage in debate. A new oversight body was created, and the Anderson Review of future laws will be published ahead of the election, with detailed proposals and scrutiny following in the next Parliament. ISPA recognises that there is a need for law enforcement to access data, but any laws should be proportionate, have strong oversight and not become a cost burden for the sector.

New processes - new costs
The customer switching process will change to the Gaining Provider Led (GPL) model in June 2015. This new process will see customers able to switch providers by informing the new (gaining) provider they intend to leave, whose provider will have to work with the incumbent to process the switch, with no disruption or involvement from the customer. While ISPA supports anything that fosters competition, ISPs expressed concern over the cost of building the new process into their operations, and that customers may leave while owing money. Other consumer protection powers remain high on the agenda, with Alternative Dispute Resolution cases being an issue for ISPs. While no one disputes consumer should be able to seek redress, the cost of case fees and acceptance of vexatious complaints can lead to high costs and a system that acts as a disincentive to fairly resolving disputes.

Government intervention
While politicians will always have an urge to tinker, ISPA would argue against too much interference in the industry, and to be mindful of the cost to business when devising new rules. Compared to other sectors, the communications industry is competitive, high-tech and fast-growing, and ISPA is concerned that excessive intervention could hinder industry. Our sector has flourished so well in the past 20 years because of innovation rather than regulation.

This year will continue to see Government providing money for broadband rollout, so expect lots of good news stories from the Government on milestones and uptake for superfast as more county-based projects complete. Funding for all broadband programmes is due to end in 2017 with no promises beyond this date. ISPA calls on the political parties to spell out their policies for digital infrastructure, as networks, ISPs and communities want to know where they can and cannot viably invest in their networks. We also call for a more inclusive procurement process and reiterate the need to listen more to the whole industry.

Looking ahead
For ISPA, looking ahead into 2015 is an opportunity to look back at where we've come in the last 20 years. With the organisation now 20 years old our membership now represents over 96 per cent of residential users and a huge percentage of the business market. We've seen the Internet evolve from being a niche product to being fundamental. The technology has evolved beyond all recognition, but many of the issues we deal with remain the same.

ISPs underpin how we live and work and this has always made them a political target for blame. The debate around parental controls, copyright, communications data and liability for the things people put over the networks has been a constant and ISPA has seen some big wins. Cost recovery is an accepted norm, resulting in big compliance savings as rules become ever more complex. The 'mere conduit principle' has been somewhat eroded over the years by the courts but still remains in place, and is a key point of principle for Internet regulation. Further, B2B providers are not subject to the same rules and regulations larger companies often are.

ISPA UK was established in 1995 and currently has 200 members. It operates as the voice of the UK Internet industry to Government, parliament, regulators and the media.

Visit www.ISPA.org.uk

Collaborative channel relationships stand to make great gains in the cloud environment. To prove the point, Steve Ellis, Managing Director at channel-only distributor 5i, provides an insight into how close working partnerships with vendors can bring success to resellers.

The need for greater levels of collaboration between channel partners is a given, especially in an environment where technology areas are becoming increasingly complex and the need for integration goes beyond systems and extends to management and support. Network, data centre, collaboration and security requires expert skills and knowledge to support them as standalone solutions, but when they are integrated to create a single ICT environment in-house management and support is not enough, believes Ellis. "That's where we see true value added distributors playing a key role," he said. "A critical part of this is around delivering programmes and services that add value to these distributed solutions, and that increase their value or worth both for reseller partners and ultimately for end customers."

5i has done business with over 200 unified communications resellers but there are a core of around 20 that the company is transacting with regularly. These include Central Networks and Technology (CNT) and Montal (primarily in the housing association market), Kelway and Octopus (more generally across the spectrum of the firm's target audiences). "We see it as a key part of our responsibility not only to train all the organisations and employees we work with regularly in the unified communications products that they are selling, but also to support the development of the whole go-to-market strategy of these businesses," added Ellis.

Versatility and flexibility are fundamental elements of the service that any value added distributor should be focused on delivering. In terms of working with resellers, that manifests itself in the pre-sales, implementation and support, as well as enabling them to white label products and services. "Flexibility should also be the keynote of any end customer relationship, whether it is fundamental to that company to maintain its systems under their own roof, or whether it is engaged or interested in moving elements of, or all of their IT systems to the cloud," commented Ellis.

A key element of this approach is to ensure that 5i offers best-of-breed contact centre solutions such as the Enghouse Interactive Communications Center (EICC), for example, that enable end customers to reach out to and engage with their own target audiences. "The key to our success in working with this solution is around the flexibility that it gives us in driving solutions through the channel and ultimately in engaging with our target vertical markets," explained Ellis. "The solution is suitable for contact centres of all sizes and the software is vendor independent in terms of how it can be rolled out at the back-end, but most importantly we can leverage it purely as a service, purely as an on-premise solution, or, if required as a hybrid mixture of the two approaches."

Ellis believes that cloud will become the dominant delivery model, bringing new opportunities for value added distributors because it opens up the market to organisations that have no capital expenditure plans but do have an expense budget. This scenario, pointed out Ellis, plays into the hands of the collaborative relationship 5i has developed with Enghouse. "We have fostered a close working relationship that has enabled us to build our approach to this rapidly evolving marketplace and plan our go-to-market methodology for the future," he said. "We have quarterly business review meetings but also close face-to-face engagement on a weekly, and often daily basis with the Enghouse Interactive team. There is also a joint marketing plan in place and Enghouse runs a range of incentive programmes for the 5i sales teams."

In terms of target markets, the 5i sweet spot is organisations that run contact centres of between 10-200 agents. Often these are regionalised organisations and the company has developed particular expertise in servicing the needs of public sector organisations such as housing associations or primary care trusts. "These kinds of organisations often have complex needs," said Ellis. "Typically, they have a broad and expanding range of regulations that they need to comply with. Call recording and quality monitoring is therefore important to them. And they may have a duty of care to their tenants or patients. A flexible feature rich solution has proved successful in these specific environments."

Ellis is planning to meet continued demand for cloud and contact centre solutions. Even smaller businesses are becoming more comfortable with the cloud, he noted. "Equally, we are now starting to see some of our existing on-premise customers moving capability into the cloud," commented Ellis. "The use of EICC can help us achieve this transition successfully for customers. At the same time, however, the ICT environment will remain complex. There will always be some customers who want to retain a more traditional on-premise or a hybrid approach that blends the two environments. And it is in these complex environments that versatile value added distributors such as 5i working with flexible communications vendors come into their own."

By Anton Le Saux, Head of Connectivity and Partner Sales at O2 Telefónica UK: During the last two years our active SIM base has grown by over 80 per cent and revenue has increased by over 50 per cent, but this represents only two of our 17 years of experience in the M2M sector.

Recent growth has been driven by this technology becoming recognised, trusted and more accessible to small businesses, and this is likely to be the area that sees significant growth. A few years ago M2M solutions were only considered viable by enterprise businesses, whereas now the SME sector is one of the fastest growing group of adopters.

Looking elsewhere, growth is mostly within businesses looking to optimise their operations. M2M solutions can assist companies when it comes to getting better control and visibility of their connected assets. This facilitates a reduction in operating costs and brings added value through the insight that allows them to do business differently. Even small businesses can achieve true transformation through digital technologies.

We predict that the next wave of growth will be triggered as businesses begin developing end user products to bring smart or connected solutions to consumers. These sorts of innovations will raise competitive advantage and vastly increase audience engagement.

We'll see exponential growth and we need to be prepared. Our focus will be on strengthening our partner relationships, ensuring they are reliable, tested, and trusted, so that our service will not falter. This is when our Global Partner Programme will come into its own as a platform that allows the M2M market to expand into adjacent markets via structured processes and with the support of like-minded experts.

anton.lesaux@telefonica.com
partnersdigital.telefonica.com

Devising a holistic strategy around converged infrastructure, security and services should be the channel's top priority, according to Dieter Lott, VP Business Development EMEA at Avnet Technology Solutions EMEA.

In November last year Avnet Technology Solutions decided to align its sales and vendor-facing arms in EMEA more closely - a shift of strategic focus that saw Dieter Lott, VP Business Development, take on more responsibilities for the Enterprise Business Group, managing the core strategic supplier relationships. Lott continues to be responsible for strategy, pan-EMEA account management and global SI sales, but his extended remit is to sharpen the distributor's sales and customer focus. "Vendors drive change in the industry," he said. "And having our EMEA sales account team and our strategic supplier teams under one umbrella means I'm at the centre of developments."

On taking his new role Lott's first job was to fix his calendar. "There's a lot of travel required and it's essential I plan my time effectively," he said. "I gain deep insights from vendors in areas such as the cloud and how these developments and trends will change the channel. A challenge is keeping pace with the speed of change, and harnessing technology environments where we need to align every vendor under one roof."

Lott's task is to take the knowledge he gains from core vendors, instil these insights into the various countries under his wing and convert that knowledge into sales strategies. "It's about profitability and organic growth," added Lott. "We have a solid strategic plan in place that defines my priorities. For example, converged infrastructure and security are very much growth areas we're working on to accelerate opportunities for our partners. The number one objective for us, as a distributor, is how to convert this market knowledge into business opportunities for our partners."

Having led the pan-EMEA sales force Lott has gained much experience of building relationships with large partners, managed service providers and ISVs. His aim is to apply this know-how into a medium-sized customer base which is core to Avnet. "Listening to partners and hearing their challenges helps me to understand them better," added Lott. "We can then use this knowledge to validate with resellers what and where the challenges are that need to be addressed."

Lott is well qualified to do this. His previous experience as a management consultant taught him to focus on strategy consultancy while contextualising all scenarios. He also worked in procurement, and a subsequent move into a selling environment proved apt as he already understood how people buy and how markets evolve. "This helped me to understand the channel market," he commented. "I've also lived and worked in many countries. The cultural differences are important as I take a helicopter view and look at the EMEA business as a whole."

Taking an aerial view of the comms/IT landscape, Lott observes in particular that the pace of change within data centres is 'spectacular'. "There's a bigger focus on software and services in the channel," he stated. "This doesn't mean that hardware isn't important, but nowadays I believe you need to lead with software and services. Avnet has already been on that journey for the last few years. Our number one role when working with partners is helping them evolve in this direction.

"For example, we work with partners to help turn server hardware specialists into virtualisation experts, and network specialists into Software Defined Networking (SDN) experts. This enables them to meet the industry trends and demands of end user businesses. That's the common theme we're seeing, and that's how we're aligning our business strategy in EMEA."

The drive for more scalable IT architectures and the convergence of data centres and networking technology is driving this market shift. "We're experiencing a radical change in how data centre infrastructure is designed and implemented and we're still in the early stages of adoption of these new technologies," added Lott. "There's a question over whether the channel has the IT skills to address these market demands. In 2015, not only will the channel need to educate themselves on emerging growth markets and technologies such as SDN and converged infrastructure, but they'll need to address skills shortages. Delivering efficient, reliable converged infrastructure and SDN requires new knowledge. This is where we will be trusted to provide both enablement and even the skills required."
Nor can the channel ignore security issues. With IDC predicting 30 per cent annual growth through to 2017 of smartphones purchased under a BYOD/A (Bring Your Own Device/App) approach, this year the focus will move further into addressing security inside the firewall and not just around perimeter IT defences, believes Lott. Gartner, in its Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for 2015, called this a 'new multifaceted approach' which will lead to 'new models of building security directly into applications'.

"Resellers will need to learn about these new approaches to address this growth area effectively and to help end user businesses overcome the huge challenge of how to secure apps," said Lott. "Distributors can help by enabling partners to take a more holistic data centre-centric approach, taking BYOD and IOT (Internet of Things) requirements into account. Such value added services include not just technical training but also sales enablement activities. The channel needs this kind of help to address the demands of fast evolving data centres where security and network efficiency is paramount."

The move to software and services means less reliance on hardware. In terms of sales it's now a consultative approach rather than just about selling products. "As IT becomes more integral to how businesses are run resellers need to speak with line of business owners because they're increasingly involved in buying decisions around technology," noted Lott. "Resellers also need to have a finger on the pulse of trends. One thing I've learnt, and got right and wrong during my career, is that you need to get your timings right with trends. It's easy enough to identify when trends are occurring in the market, but spending the time working out when you should enter that market is paramount. This is where we fit in. Our key role is to offer this consultancy."