Comms Dealer

Avnet Q1 2014 sales were up 8.1% year over year to $6.3bn, mostly through acquisitions, particularly Magirus in EMEA TS division and taking over Brightstar.

Adjusted operating income of $199.5m increased 38.1% year over year and adjusted operating income margin of 3.1% increased 68 basis points year over year.

Rick Hamada, Chief Executive Officer, commented: "Our team kicked off the new fiscal year with a solid performance as both operating groups leveraged year-over-year revenue growth into increased margins and returns.

"Enterprise revenue increased 8.1% from the year ago quarter and adjusted operating income grew approximately five times faster than revenue driven primarily by our disciplined approach to portfolio actions and expense management throughout fiscal 2013.

"Adjusted operating income margin of 3.1% increased 68 basis points year over year and return on working capital was up 458 basis points to 19.8%. This represents the first time in seven quarters that these two important metrics expanded year over year. With our improving performance and overall financial profile, we were also pleased to announce our decision to initiate a dividend during our first quarter."

EMEA TS division had revenue of $694.3m, a rise of 9.3% because of acquisitions - organic sales were down -10.5%. CEO Hamada says" "In the September quarter, TS revenue was within our expected range, though at the lower end of expectations. Revenue of $2.4 billion decreased 8.1% sequentially while year-over-year organic revenue was down 3.0% in constant currency."

Ingram Micro Europe has launched year three of its pan-European Channel Transformation Alliance initiative, branded CTA V.3.

Ingram Micro Europe, together with all its vendor partners and its educational partners, SNIA Europe and SPC International, have grown the alliance over the last two years into a community of over 2,000 resellers who are actively downloading content on the portal (www.channeltransformation.com), attending business and technology focused webcasts, and participating in field-based events across Europe.

The channel community benefits from free vendor-neutral education, primarily focused on sales, marketing, and service delivery content, all of which is delivered through the CTA training platform.

Ingram Micro Cloud and Ingram Micro Advanced Solutions teams across Europe have conducted on average more than one field-based channel enablement event per week and per country in the past two years, including boot camps, workshops, roadshows, and roundtables.

Jason Beal, Executive Director, Advanced Solutions Division, Europe, said: "In the first year of the CTA initiative, we focused primarily on exposing the reseller channel to all the new business model possibilities associated with cloud computing and IT-as-a-Service.

"At that time in 2011, we wanted to remove a lot of fear and doubt associated early on with the cloud. In the second year of the initiative we broadened the focus onto business and technology solutions-orientation and much more specific demand generation and sales process training."

US-based Ciber is expanding its ISV practice in Europe after seeing its US model taking off.

CEO Dave Peterschmidt said: "We made steady progress on the shift in our business mix to more ISV and managed services projects. As a result we clearly believe in our ability to grow the business in a consistent and profitable way.

"While we still have some challenges, particularly in selected areas of our ADM (Application Development and Maintenance) business, today we are a company with a more stable platform yielding more predictable performance than three years ago when we started our transformation.

"Our ISV business is becoming a significant part of total revenue and growth. In Q3 our ISV revenues was approximately 33% of our total and grew by 10% sequentially. And growth in our ISV practices is also driving growth in Managed Services. Managed Services revenues increased 7% sequentially in Q3."

Ciber is not seeing pressure from the low-cost providers in those verticals especially with the ISV relationships. The ISV business is not subject to the same type of price pressure that ADM is, he says.

"In our international segment, proactive plans to improve the consistency and predictability of this operation are beginning to take hold.

"Our focus continues to be on The Netherlands where our business is stabilising; and we are encouraged that the UK, Germany and Norway posted another solid quarter. Q3 international results included strong year-over-year revenue growth and stable EBITDA margins in this seasonally soft quarter.

"We expect the business to improve gradually as additional restructuring enhances the profitability, consistency and predictability of overall international results."

Red Box Recorders has appointed its first reseller in Oman following an agreement with Mideast Data Systems (MDS), part of the Midis Group.

Under the new arrangement, Red Box will become MDS' preferred partner providing advanced voice and data recording for unified communications solutions that are already used by some of the leading public and private sector organisations within the country.

Lee Jones, CEO of Red Box Recorders said: "We are committed to strengthening and growing our reseller network, which now exceeds more than 200 partners worldwide. Therefore, we are teaming up with likeminded and leading technology businesses such as MDS Oman to provide local sales and technical support."

NTT Com Security AG, a provider of global information security and risk management solutions, has confirmed that Integralis has formally changed its name to NTT Com Security after the initial intention was announced earlier in June this year.

This latest move is a 'natural progression' for NTT Com Security to bring both the previous Integralis and Secode organisations within one corporate structure. The name change reflects NTT Com Security's intention to continue expanding its security capabilities to service global customers, which will mean ongoing investment into products, platforms, services as well as improved career opportunities for its employees.

Simon Church, CEO at NTT Com Security, said: "The name change makes good business sense and better aligns us to one of the world's largest companies and biggest brands. We remain 100% focused on information security and risk management and while other acquisitions throughout our industry have lost some of their identity and expertise, we continue to have the opportunity to become our industry's next powerhouse.

"As NTT Com Security, we are able to engage with customers at all levels across the globe to deliver a clear and consistent message that represents the core of the business and the value we can bring to our customers."

Audio device manufacturer Jabra has revealed new customer cashback offers for quarter four 2013, giving customers money back when they purchase selected Jabra devices. The incentive can be utilised by all authorised partners registered to the Jabra WIN Partner Programme and allows them to offer the cashback promotion to their end customers in the easiest way possible.

Andrew Doyle, Managing Director, UK & Ireland Business Solutions said: "The Jabra Q4 Cashback incentive provides our valued partner community with an easy way to gain incremental revenue and further develop their headset category."

Cisco and IT solutions and implementation partner Dimension Data have joined forces to provide the IT infrastructure for WWF's Living Planet Centre - a sustainable new building which will be the headquarters for WWF employees and an education centre for visitors. The partnership will encourage WWF to adopt sustainable IT, helping to reduce its environmental footprint.

The Living Planet Centre - situated in Woking - will open its doors to the public on 1st November 2013, and showcases the latest in sustainable design, technology and construction. Cisco is providing the end-to-end IT infrastructure incorporating some of the technology used to power the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

In turn, Dimension Data is offering its expertise and services to implement the Centre's infrastructure. The technology design will support WWF's sustainability goals, which include smarter working and more efficient energy management.

The network will be the platform to connect to the datacentre built on the Cisco Unified Computing System, and will help increase the efficiency and utilisation of network and server resources. Combined with the ground source cooling and heating function in the Centre, this will be powered by 100% renewable energy.

David Southern, Head of IT at WWF-UK "The combination of Cisco's borderless network solution, unified communications and video conferencing will allow WWF staff to work in a way we have long envisaged. Our people will be able to connect, collaborate and communicate more effectively from any location and at any time - this flexible and reliable technology will help ensure that WWF will continue to be able to deliver our strategy and objectives, helping to safeguard the natural world."

Zen Internet has staged fourth fourthannual partner event and awards at The Belfry in the West Midlands.

The day opened with Richard Tang, Zen's Founder and Managing Director taking Partners through the company strategy. Guest speaker Matthew Townend, Director of illume Consulting, provided insights into opportunities in the UK voice market.

Partners were able to customise their day by choosing to attend two of five elective workshop sessions.

The awards were presented by Richard Tang, Stephen Warburton and Deborah Wrigley, Channel Sales Manager to recognise the contribution that Zen's Partners make to the business and reward top performers.

Winners included:
Wholesale Partner of the Year won by Nexus Telecommunications
Reseller Partner of the Year won by RivaNET
Rising Star won by Chalvington Communications
Solution Sale Partner of the Year won by Cellpipe
New Partner of the Year - Odyn Systems

Cloud computing is the most valuable skill for IT professionals to have in terms of career path and advancement, according to new research from recruitment specialist Robert Half Technology.

Thirty-nine per cent of IT directors said that cloud computing is the most valuable skill for IT professionals to have, followed by security (37%), project management (33%), virtualization (29%), network administration and engineering (27%), mobile and application development (27%), database management (24%), C# development (15%), business intelligence (14%) and Java development (13%).

The rise in adoption of cloud computing initiatives is driving organisations to employ greater numbers of cloud experts, found the research.

Almost half (41%) of IT directors said that they would hire additional staff to support cloud initiatives. Of these, permanent employees would make up 17% of new hires, while contractors or interims would make up 24%. An equal number (41%) of IT directors said that their cloud initiatives were fully staffed. Just 18% said that they did not have cloud initiatives in place, suggesting that the vast majority of companies (82%) have undertaken or will undertake cloud projects.

As well as hiring new cloud experts, IT directors are investing in training and education to bring their current teams up to speed. Almost half (49%) say that they deliver in-house training and development, while a third (32%) invest in external training courses and 30% provide webinar and e-learning. A quarter of companies deliver on-the-job training while a fifth (20%) rely on previous experience in another company.

Phil Sheridan, UK Managing Director, Robert Half Technology said: "The fact that so many companies are investing in cloud initiatives as well as training for their teams means that there are rich opportunities and a clear career path for IT professionals with cloud skills.

"With such a high proportion of companies planning to hire additional staff in this area, it's clearly a good time to focus on cloud skills as well as security around cloud initiatives and across the technology function. However, project management and virtualisation skills are also highly valued by IT directors so these are worth focusing on too."

VCOMM has rolled out a white labelled engineering services and technical support portfolio designed to help resellers and service providers deliver a range of new Unified Communication products and solutions.

The portfolio offers support services ranging from training, field engineering, 24/7/365 technical support and four hour emergency on-site engineering support and spares management. V

COMM's engineering services are provided as part of a platform purchase or on an ad-hoc basis and include design services, installation services and ad-hoc services. VCOMM's technical capabilities are provided by a team of skilled VoIP engineers who have real-world experience and certification across a wide range of vendor systems and services, said the firm.

Steve Harris, Managing Director of VCOMM Distribution, said: "Since completing the operational integration of VCOMM and SIPHON, we have been able to provide a set of services to VCOMM customers that reflect the principles we established in SIPHON.

"Our customers want more from distribution and want us to support them in driving innovation and new services to their end customers. They also want the peace of mind that they can rely on us to help them design, deliver, deploy and then support the products we sell which we can now promise them."