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A poll of attendees at Cloud Clarity, a cloud-focused educational event for end users run by Node4, found that over half of IT decision makers plan to move to a fully cloud-based IT infrastructure within the next five years. But a significant minority of 27% said cloud would be unlikely for their business.

The survey also found that managing email is a key driver for cloud adoption with 47% of attendees agreeing that it would benefit their business to host mail applications in the cloud.

Data storage and file sharing were also cited by over a quarter of attendees as key applications that would benefit from being moved to the cloud. Telephony and voice communications was the other critical business application that the decision makers would like to see in the cloud.

"More and more businesses are evaluating cloud services as a tool for reducing costs, limiting risk and providing the flexibility they need to run their businesses in a fast paced, technology driven workplace," commented Steve Denby, Head of Sales South, Node4

"Rather than a risk, cloud services are now mostly viewed as an IT solution that gives organisations of all sizes access to the latest and most up to date technology, enabling businesses to gain competitive advantage."

Daisy Wholesale has launched Partner Services, a division solely focused on the provision of end-to-end technology services to the channel.

Bringing together the expertise and scale of three previously acquired businesses - Indecs, Netcrowd and Servasssure - Daisy Partner Services offers a maintenance and professional services capability for partners to support their customers' technology platforms including server and storage, networking and unified communications.

Headed up by Managing Director Jason Spring, Daisy's Partner Services will be able to provide the channel with a range of services that can be used to augment their own core offerings.

Spring said: "While our partners will be helping their customers to develop an IT and communications strategy that sees them focus on the centralisation of intelligence, Daisy Partner Services will provide them with the expertise and scale to offer an end-to-end service solution.

"While cloud spending is growing at five times the rate of other areas of IT spend, in five years time it will still represent less than 10% of the whole IT domain. The demand for on-premise services will continue and the channel's ability to rely on a partner services provider means this is a growth opportunity for Daisy.

"We are offering our partners the operational capabilities, so they can focus on their customer relationships whilst we keep things running in the background."

Terry O'Brien, Managing Director of Daisy Wholesale, added: "The union of these three agile businesses has combined a wealth of experience and skills to allow us to offer our partners an all-round effective support service.

"We have come a long way from our roots as a simple lines and calls wholesale provider. We have invested heavily in all product areas to ensure that we can offer the channel the support and services that it needs. This extension to the Daisy Wholesale offering means that our resellers have access to more opportunities, keeping them happy and profitable."

Virtual1 is ranked 28th in the 2014 Deloitte Technology Fast 50, a ranking of the 50 fastest growing technology companies in the UK.

The rankings are based on percentage revenue growth over the last five years, with Virtual1 notching up 929% growth over the period.

This is the third consecutive year that Virtual1 has maintained a ranking within the Deloitte Tech fast 50. 

Tom O'Hagan, CEO, said: "It's a fantastic achievement for everyone at Virtual1 to see that we are England's fastest growing telecoms company.

"Over the past year we've expanded our network, increased our head count and increased our partner base by a third. Our growth, at a time when we've continued investments is testament to the talent and passion of our people."

The ranking, finishes off a hugely successful year for the wholesale cloud and network services provider, who scooped a total of six awards in 2014.

"In 2015, we plan to build on our recent successes with the launch of new services, the forging of strategic partnerships and plans for a significant office expansion. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank our partners and employees for contributing to such a successful year."

Openreach is certain to garner CP plaudits following the introduction of additional resources and service enhancements that reference actual demand from CPs.

At the heart of developments is the re-launch of WLR PSTN Premium, an Optical Spread Connection offer and the Enablement Library, designed to make information relating to Openreach's products and services more accessible.

The Enablement Library is already a big hit having gained widespread approval from beta users, according to Caroline Hughes (pictured), GM Portfolio Marketing at Openreach.

"The feedback so far has been phenomenal," she said. "We are planning to expand the content and expect the site to become a critical resource for our customers."

WLR3 PSTN Premium now offers three in-tariff features (Premium Business Helpdesk, Business 2 Plus and Smart Divert), plus two bolt-on options (available at exclusive premium line discounted prices).

"Businesses rely on connections and being out of touch with customers is something they cannot afford," said Hughes. "WLR Premium offers fast, prioritised repair times, call divert capabilities, dedicated service management centre support, tighter appointment slots and named engineer services."

The Premium service is available on a per-line basis and according to Hughes it offers better value for money compared to buying individual service enhancing bolt-on products separately. She also noted that the Premium Business Helpdesk offers CPs a dedicated team of experts who will case manage complex or problematic jobs through to resolution.

This team of UK-based WLR service experts are available at all times and CPs can deal with the same person. The Premium repair service, Business 2 Plus, prioritises faults over other faults with the same SLA. "Repairs are made within two days and if Openreach fails it will pay CPs one month's line rental for every day or part day beyond this (for total loss of service)," added Hughes.

"With Premium, CPs also get our call diversion service for free. They can forward to any UK fixed or mobile or 0800 number, and some overseas numbers, so no call is missed."

As well as the in-tariff features CPs gain discounted access to two bolt-on options: More Focused Appointments (64% cheaper as part of WLR Premium) that provide access to two hour early morning or late afternoon appointment windows; and Named Engineer (50% cheaper as part of WLR Premium) which identifies the engineer that will attend the appointment slot, 48 hours in advance. This information is increasingly required by secure and sensitive sites.

Openreach's round of enhancements also proposes an Optical Spread Connection offer, launched on 1st November, enabling CPs to spread the upfront cost of an OSA Optical circuit over 12 months with no additional charges. The scheme runs until 31st March 2015.

"This offer is driving serious interest among smaller CPs," noted Hughes. "It helps them to take their first step into the optical space and compete with bigger companies.

"It makes the investment decision to adopt our highest bandwidth services easier than ever, and helps to ensure no customer is locked out from meeting the latest market needs.

"With optical products now more accessible CPs can win new business and meet growing bandwidth requirements."

In more good news that will also bring predictably positive results for CPs, Openreach has unveiled an online tool that makes customer facing collateral, educational material and training resources easy to find.

"The Enablement Library allows anyone to quickly locate, save and share brochures, fact sheets, videos and other resources on our range of products and services," commented Hughes.

"With over 130 product, service and solutions pages on our website it can be time consuming for customers to find material or notice additions. The eLibrary provides everything in one place and has a powerful search capability along with other features requested by CPs."

O2 Business has adopted a new partnership approach for its direct and distribution network that marks a big departure from its familiar modus operandi. From 1st April next year O2 Business will work with fewer direct partners, those who are more likely to win and retain high value business. The O2 Direct Partner Network will replace the existing Centre of Excellence programme, and the move reflects 'the need to evolve in an increasingly digital marketplace', said the firm.

The new programme will see O2 Business focus on developing deeper relationships with selected direct partners and key distributors.
Jason Phillips, Head of Partners for O2 Business, said: "The new O2 Direct Partner Network marks the biggest change to our partnership approach in the last five years and we're excited to bring this initiative to market.

"I am confident that this programme will give O2 Business and its partners the agility and flexibility to deliver mobility and digital solutions."

The O2 Direct Partner Network has four key components: O2 Exclusivity (new extended five year contract with additional revenue share and a range of benefits for exclusive partners); Excellence Awards (£8m investment in incentive payments over the next three years for the best partners, with two new annual awards focused on the customer and digital excellence; new commercials and a bigger dedicated support team.

Softcat has broken the £500m barrier with growth achieved entirely organically.

In its full financial results for the year ending July 31st 2014, turnover increased 28% to £504.8m, up from £395.8m the previous year. Operating profit increased 30% to £35.5m, while EBITDA improved 31% to £37.3m.

In the last four financial years turnover has increased from £146m to £505m and operating profit has grown from £10m to £35.5m.

Softcat has now delivered 36 consecutive quarters of year-on-year growth.

"We were delighted to break through the £500m barrier," said CEO Martin Hellawell.

"These exceptional growth rates have been achieved against a backdrop of a market estimated at single digit annual percentage growth.

"We have taken significant market share to achieve these results."

The growing popularity of NCONNECT's cloud telephony proposition has forced a staff recruitment campaign that aims to double the current headcount to 20 by the end of January.

NCONNECT, the UK subsidiary of Munich-based NFON AG, set-up just a year ago in west London and has already partnered with more than 30 channel companies, become accredited to the UK Government's G-Cloud framework and added tens of thousands of seats to its service.

"Our reseller recruitment has been successful for the last two quarters, and we're on track to finish our first full year in the UK with more partners than we expected and a significant in-house team with all the skills and resources to support them," said Rami Houbby, MD.

NCONNECT's parent company has operations in 12 European countries. Its founder, Marcus Otto, stated: "We see a big opportunity to invest in the UK market with more people and support for more partners.

"2015 will be a pivotal year in our continuing international expansion as we look to start and scale up in more countries."
 

Tech Data's strong Q3 (ended 31st October) results saw net sales of $6.8bn, an increase of 6% from the prior-year quarter.

Gross profit was $335m, or 4.95% of net sales, compared to $326.1m (5.12% of net sales).

In Europe, net sales were $4.1bn (approximately 61% of worldwide sales), an increase of 8% in the same period last year.

"In Q3 our teams responded to robust demand for PCs in both regions and mobility products in Europe," said Robert M. Dutkowsky, CEO.

"Our operational focus drove good margin and expense management, resulting in excellent operating leverage. Our expansion in Europe has been at a quicker pace than anticipated this year.

"As we have said throughout the year, fiscal year 2015 is a market and operationally focused year for Tech Data.

"This dual focus, combined with our broad product and customer portfolio, have enabled us to capitalise on current market opportunities, improve our operating performance and grow non-GAAP earnings by 25% during the last nine months, while earning a return on invested capital of 11% for the trailing 12 month period.

"Tech Data's capabilities and strategic position in the IT ecosystem are stronger today than ever, and we are pleased with the trajectory of our business as we enter our final quarter of fiscal 2015."  

Dutkowsky said that an 'upside' for Tech Data's model is in the cloud. "Tens of thousands of resellers need a pathway to the cloud and the vendors don't know how to get them there," he added. "That will be our job and our opportunity.

"The Internet of Things represents an explosion of new devices, and all of those devices are going to put pressure on networks and data centres - so more servers, more storage, more networking.

"To make all of that be secure there will be a whole new set of vendors and new sets of technology that will focus on security. Those are areas where we have a strong presence."

Exponential-e has extended its regional reach with a new Manchester office.

The firm plans to double its current northern sales force over the next year.

"With Manchester acting as one of the largest economic areas outside of London, the new office will be pivotal to our ongoing regional growth plans for the UK and will ensure that we have a presence in technology hubs across the UK," said Lee Wade, founder and CEO of Exponential-e.

"The Government's commitment to creating a northern powerhouse has meant forecasts for private sector growth in Greater Manchester outstrip growth for the UK as a whole."

"We can now offer our customers headquartered in Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool and all the surrounding areas an on-the-ground presence being just around corner from them, which gives us a strong base as we grow our business further across the country."

Phoenix IT Group's play in the managed services space continues the step away from unprofitable business with the firm successfully renewing several long-term customer relationships and securing a significant five year deal with South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust.

In an update on the company's results for the six months ended 30 September 2014, Phoenix IT also reported that its net debt is £18.5m lower than the same time last year at £56.1m. Profit before tax increased by 238%.

Phoenix Chief Executive Steve Vaughan said: "We are six months in to the roll-out of our new strategy and our financial platform is more stable, the ways in which we work are becoming more efficient and the quality of service delivered to clients is improving.

"Alongside these efforts, we have also secured important account renewals and a large-scale, multi-year new customer win that are important confirmations of our credibility."