www.technologyreseller.uk THE MAGAZINE & ONLINE CHANNEL NEWS & RESOURCE FOR MSPS, IT RESELLERS & SUPPORT PROVIDERS TRAs PAGE 04 What you need to know about the Technology Reseller Awards 2025 INTERVIEW PAGE 10 Why Exertis Cloud is on track to be a £100m cloud business M&A PAGE 26 Redsquid expands into Scotland with fifth acquisition in 14 months TECHNOLOGY RESELLER MAGAZINE IN PRINT & ONLINE SINCE 2016 IN PRINT & ONLINE SINCE 2016 Presenting best connections: Philips Screenshare reenergises the wireless experience
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03 CONTENTS technologyreseller.co.uk ISSN 2632-9301 (Print) ISSN 2632-931X (Online) Technology Reseller is published by Kingswood Media Ltd., 7 Amherst House, 22 London Road, Sevenoaks TN13 2BT • Tel: 01732 759725 Email: [email protected] www.technologyreseller.co.uk No part of Technology Reseller can be reproduced without prior written permission of the publisher. © 2024 Kingswood Media Ltd. Editor: James Goulding 07803 087228 · [email protected] Publishing Director, Social Media and Web Editor: Neil Trim 01732 759725 · [email protected] Advertising Director: Ethan White 01732 759725 · [email protected] Events & Commercial activities: Paul Johnson 01732 759725 · [email protected] Account Manager: Jeff Root 01732 759725 · [email protected] Designer: Brian Cloke 07484 288189 If you no longer wish to receive Technology Reseller magazine, please email your details to [email protected] Register online To receive your regular FREE printed copy of Technology Reseller Magazine simply fill in our online registration form at www.technologyreseller.uk/register Read Technology Reseller online, on tablets and smart phones www.technologyreseller.uk Join us : Follow us technology-reseller-magazine technologyreseller.co.uk TECHNOLOGY RESELLER MAGAZINE IN PRINT & ONLINE SINCE 2016 IN PRINT & ONLINE SINCE 2016 04 TRAs What you need to know about the Technology Reseller Awards 2025 06 Distributor News Arrow wins AWS Rising Star Award 08 Distribution Technology Reseller talks to Jamie Brothwell about structural changes at Exertis Business 10 Interview James Yates explains why Exertis Cloud is in a great position to grow into a £100 million business 12 Cloud Giacom hosts 150 MSP partners at MSP Cloud Live 14 Reseller News Outsourcing of security operations on the rise across Europe 22 View from the Channel With Ian Groves, Managing Director of Start Tech 23 MSPs N-able AI Strategist Nicole Reineke highlights five ways AI might impact MSPs in 2025 24 Cover Story PPDS brings secure and seamless one-stop wireless content sharing to classrooms and meeting rooms with Philips ScreenShare 26 M&A Redsquid expands into Scotland with third acquisition in 12 months 28 Telephony How Snom is opening up new opportunities for its resellers 32 AI Why people are the biggest problem when it comes to AI 36 Tech Digest A round-up of new tech news 40 People News faces, new places Cover Story
01732 759725 across the ICT industry. Who knows, you may also walk award with a coveted Technology Reseller Award. Sponsorship opportunities Vendors and suppliers can take their involvement up a notch and position themselves as a leader in the industry by becoming a Technology Reseller Awards sponsor. To find out more about sponsorship opportunities, whether you want to associate your brand with a specific award category or entertainment and hospitality at the awards ceremony itself, call Ethan, Neil, Paul or Jeff on 01732 759725.v the awards website or on pages 30 and 31 of this issue. New categories We have a number of new awards this year, including the first Technology Reseller Award for Circularity, for any business that aids the circular economy and reduces e-waste by recycling, reusing, refurbishing, remanufacturing or supplying used equipment and consumables. Independent Judging Panel Winners are selected by the independent judging panel, with the exception of the Distributor Award categories which are decided by vote. These don’t require an entry to be submitted. Instead, we encourage distributors interested in winning to ask their customers to vote for them online. A night to remember The Technology Reseller Awards evening is taking place on May 22, 2025 at the Hilton London Bankside, an award-winning hotel just a short walk from landmarks such as Tate Modern, Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre and the South Bank riverside. With great food, live music, top-notch entertainment, this is a great opportunity to mix with peers and colleagues from Celebrate your achievements The awards are a great way to celebrate your achievements over the last 12 months and to recognise the invaluable contribution of employees and partners. Winning and even being short-listed can raise awareness of your business across the ICT community and with potential partners and customers, while also making your business more attractive to people with the skills and talents you need to prosper. Free to enter The awards are free to enter, and the online entry form makes the whole process easy. There are clear instructions on what’s required at www.technologyresellerawards. co.uk, but if you need additional information, Susannah is a great source of advice – 07535 513850, susannah@ technologyresellerawards.co.uk – or call 01732 759725 and speak to one of the team. Something for everyone There are a total of 30 awards with separate categories for Vendors, Resellers/MSPs/SIs and Distributors, plus awards for Individual Achievement, Products & Solutions and half a dozen Technology Reseller Special Awards. We welcome entries in more than one category. You can see the full list on The Technology Reseller Awards 2025 are now open for entries. With a deadline of 5pm on February 21, 2025, there is still plenty of time to enter, but it always pays to start early. Technology Reseller Awards 2025: What you need to know 04 TRAS Find out more at www.technologyresellerawards.co.uk
At Nimans, we understand that choosing a Unified Communications provider can involve many considerations. So, as the ‘go to’ people for technology, and as a channelonly distributor, we help our partners make more informed technology choices. Not only are we big on product choice and value, we are really big on knowledge and expertise. This is why our customers trust us time and time again. Think Bigger - Think Nimans Talk to our friendly technology experts to discover how today’s advanced UC technology can help your customers become their most productive and powerful selves. Think UC Think Nimans The ‘go to’ people for technology
01732 759725 DISTRIBUTOR NEWS Arrow wins AWS rising star award Arrow Electronics’ role in helping customers in EMEA build solutions on Amazon Web Services (AWS) was recognised at the recent 2024 AWS Partner Awards where it was named Rising Star Distributor Partner of the Year EMEA. Marco D’Angelo, Director of Cloud, EMEA for Arrow’s Enterprise Computing Solutions Business, said: “This recognition is testament to Arrow’s unwavering commitment to delivering innovation and excellence in collaboration with our channel partners. The award highlights the dedication of our teams and the strength of our collaboration with AWS.” Recent Arrow channel enablement initiatives include a Cloud Amplification Program to help partners accelerate their cloud business and the ArrowSphere Assistant, which enables partners to unlock new business opportunities through advanced AI capabilities. … Infinigate and Mimecast expand seven-year partnership Infinigate Cloud is expanding its seven-year partnership with Mimecast by becoming the cybersecurity company’s first MSP Distributor in the UK & Ireland as it looks to expand across the region. To meet growing demand for flexible managed security services, Infinigate will give its 2,500-plus MSPs access to Mimecast’s full MSP portfolio, helping them to protect customers with a cloud-first email security solution. MSPs and MSSPs will also be able to take advantage of Mimecast’s Partner ONE MSP Program through the Infinigate Cloud platform. Launched on 12 November, this provides a range of services and additional benefits to support partners’ growth. 06 Denis Ferrand-Ajchenbaum, Chief Growth Officer at Infinigate and MD of Infinigate Cloud, said: “We are delighted to trailblaze Mimecast’s new MSP distribution programme and be the first distributor in the UK to bring this offering to channel partners, representing a sizeable opportunity for growth for all involved. This fits perfectly with our role and mission as a Managed Security Services Distributor (MSSD).” www.infinigate.com … Purdicom to deliver TP-Link networking solutions to MSPs and ISPs Purdicom, a distributor of Wi-Fi, networking and cloud solutions, is building on its strategic investment in the installer market by distributing TP-Link networking products to MSPs targeting the hospitality and education sectors. Through its partnership with ASK4, it will also provide solutions for multiple dwelling unit (MDU) environments such as student, build-to-rent and later living accommodation. MSPs and ISPs will be able to use TP-Link’s advanced networking portfolio to create tailored solutions and Wi-Fi-asa-service offerings for customers in the education, hospitality, care, commercial and leisure sectors. This includes the Omada platform, integrating access points, switches and routers into a centralised cloud-managed interface; Aginet Wi-Fi solutions with remote Wi-Fi management capabilities; and Wi-Fi 7 routers, Mesh Wi-Fi systems and management platforms. Purdicom Managing Director Hugh Garrod said: “Our MSPs rely on us to provide best in class technologies that meet the diverse needs of their clients. The TP‑Link Omada range stands out as an ideal networking solution across multiple verticals due to its reliable, secure and scalable network that is easy to manage. By investing heavily in our networking spend, we’ve supported over 40 accounts since February 2024, focusing our efforts on the ISP and installer markets.” www.tp-link.com/uk … EkkoSense data centre optimisation software now available from Northamber Northamber is expanding its portfolio of IT infrastructure solutions through a new distribution agreement with EkkoSense. EkkoSense data centre optimisation software uses real-time data, AI and machine learning to optimise the energy efficiency and thermal performance of data centres, leveraging gaming technology to present data in an intuitive way to support intelligent decision-making. EkkoSense Global Director Matthew Farnell said: “Partnering with Northamber is an exciting milestone for us. While our solution is already used by major organisations internationally, including Virgin Media O2, Three UK and Telehouse, this new partnership will enable us to significantly expand our reach in the UK market. We believe Northamber will enable more Edge sites to benefit from the EkkoSense Effect – to save cooling energy and carbon, reduce risk and increase capacity – all with rapid ROI. We particularly look forward to helping more businesses and sites in the academic and public sectors optimise the efficiency of their data centres and provide them with automated ESG reporting.” www.northamber.com/ekkosense … Sonar resonates with QBS Sonar has appointed QBS Software to distribute its market-leading code quality and security solutions, including SonarQube Server, SonarQube Cloud and SonarQube for IDE. The partnership will extend Sonar’s reach and give resellers, MSPs and VARs access to advanced tools to streamline the development of high-quality, secure code backed by dedicated resources to ensure seamless onboarding and support. Ikramul Khaled, Head of Vendor Alliances at QBS Technology Group, said: “Sonar’s emphasis on code quality and security resonates perfectly with our mission to empower the IT channel with the best software tools in the industry.” https://www.sonarsource.com/ products/all/ Westcon-Comstor facing the future with confidence Strong demand for cybersecurity solutions and an accelerating shift to a subscription-based recurring revenue model helped Westcon-Comstor boost gross profit and gross margins in the first half of its 2025 financial year, by 6.1% and 12% respectively. In the six months to 31 August 2024, the technology distributor reported a 16.5% yearon‑year increase in EBITDA to $69.5 million, with a 0.6 percentage point rise in adjusted EBITDA margin to 4.0%. Revenue from the distributor’s cybersecurity portfolio grew 22.2%, to $860 million or 48% of total revenue, with software sales up 17.9%, making up 49% of total revenue. David Grant, CEO of Westcon-Comstor, said: “Against a challenging backdrop of uncertain macroeconomic and market conditions, we are pleased to maintain our profit growth trajectory. We can look to the future with confidence as we focus on unlocking new growth opportunities for partners and vendors across EMEA and APAC.” Marco D’Angelo Arrow Electronics David Grant
technologyreseller.co.uk DISTRIBUTOR NEWS in a seamless, end-to-end process entirely within AWS Marketplace. Rene Klein, Executive Vice President, Westcon Europe at Westcon-Comstor, said: “As a value-added distributor, it’s important that we empower our partners to tap into the rise of AWS Marketplace by allowing them to transact products from world‑leading vendors in a frictionless process. This agreement with Juniper does precisely that.” A recent Forrester report found that partners selling in AWS Marketplace can close deals up to 50% faster, with an average 234% return on investment. www.westconcomstor.com … Zoom award for PXC Zoom has recognised PlatformX Communications’ achievement in becoming the world’s first all-in-one Zoom ordering platform by naming the connectivity, voice, cloud, security and network provider as its EMEA Distribution Partner of the Year. PXC’s Graham Kedzlie said: “Since announcing our partnership at the end of 2023 we’ve been working hard to onboard Zoom Contact Center and Zoom Phone and enable our partners to adopt these technologies as seamlessly as possible, using end-to-end automation. Following a trial with some of our partners, we’re now ready to make these products available to our wholesale base and are excited to carry on our partnership with Zoom and distribute more of their portfolio in future.” www.PXC.co.uk through a new partnership with the Sherweb cloud marketplace that will give MSPs streamlined access to its advanced password management and cybersecurity solutions. These include KeeperMSP, which is purpose-built to help MSPs protect their own and their clients’ digital credentials (passwords, passkeys and secrets) through multi-factor authentication, end-to-end encryption, random password generation and secure password sharing. Keeper’s platform, powered by a zero-trust framework and zero-knowledge security, scales to meet the needs of any organisation, integrating seamlessly into any data environment (single cloud, multi-cloud or hybrid) and any security stack. KeeperSecurity.com … Juniper Networks joins Westcon AWS Marketplace programme Juniper Networks is continuing to strengthen its partnership with Westcon-Comstor by joining its EMEA Distributor Partner of the Year’s AWS Marketplace programme launched earlier this year (2024) to give partners an easier way of transacting on AWS Marketplace. Westcon-Comstor partners across EMEA and APAC will now be able to purchase Juniper’s AI-native networking products and solutions, including Juniper Mist Cloud Services and Juniper Security Director Cloud, from Westcon-Comstor and sell them directly to their customers Full Viewsonic display range now available from Maverick TD SYNNEX Maverick, the specialist AV and collaboration business of TD SYNNEX, has extended its distribution agreement with ViewSonic to cover the latter’s entire range of interactive flat panel displays (IFPs), LED and LCD screens and projectors. Maverick partners can look forward to specialist pre-sales support, value-added services and TD SYNNEX’s stock-holding, logistics and financial options. Mark Glasspool, Senior Director, UK and Ireland at TD SYNNEX Maverick, welcomed the extended agreement, pointing out that it would enable partners to offer customers more choice and address new opportunities in the commercial and education sectors. He said: “With the value-added services and specialist support that we offer, TD SYNNEX Maverick is ideally placed to drive increased visibility and penetration for ViewSonic across the channel and in key growth areas, such as conferencing and meeting room spaces, digital signage and the SMB market, as well as the corporate and education sectors.” https://uk.tdsynnex.com/ … Infinigate expands Cloudflare partnership Infinigate is building on its successful partnership with Cloudflare in Germany by extending distribution of the company’s connectivity and cybersecurity solutions to the UK & Ireland, Austria, Switzerland, Benelux, France and Nordic countries. Denis Ferrand Ajchenbaum, Chief Growth Officer at Infinigate Group, said: “Our extensive channel reach will pave the way to deliver Cloudflare’s connectivity cloud services at scale, while our channel partners will benefit from Cloudflare’s efficient and easy-to-deploy cybersecurity solutions to help customers manage their attack surface and increase security while reducing cost and complexity.” www.infinigate.com … KeeperMSP added to Sherweb cloud marketplace Keeper Security is extending its reach 07 Arrow and Broadcom take partnership to new level Arrow Electronics has strengthened its European distribution agreement with Broadcom with the addition of new solutions to the Arrow line card and new support capabilities, in-country expertise and value-added services. The former includes an expanded set of enterprise and mainframe software from Broadcom’s CA Technologies portfolio plus Carbon Black cybersecurity solutions for which Arrow will be the regional go-to-market specialist. This agreement builds on Arrow’s success in distributing Broadcom’s Symantec portfolio and is part of a wider cooperation between the two countries that also covers VMware CloudHealth. Cedric Doignie, Vice President of Sales, Global New Models and Services for Arrow’s Enterprise Computing Solutions Business, said: “Over the last three years, our EMEA teams have had great success with the Symantec portfolio, working with the channel to target and support small and medium businesses. Broadcom’s software solutions set the benchmark for digital transformation initiatives, and the addition of these solutions means a better and more complete software portfolio for entrepreneurial valueadded partners who are looking to expand their offer and grow their businesses.” Solutions include Automation, ValueOps, NetOps, API Security, Identity & Access Management, AIOps & Observability, Application Development and IT Service Management and Mainframe software, plus Symantec and Carbon Black cybersecurity solutions. Through the Broadcom Accelerate Program, Arrow acts as an extension of the Broadcom team, providing technical support, specialised knowledge, training and value-added services. arrow.com Cedric Doignie Mark Glasspool Rene Klein Westcon-Comstor Graham Kedzlie PXC
01732 759725 Brothwell says that last year Exertis increased revenues in four of these specialisms and even in IT Solutions, where sales declined, it outperformed the market. She puts Exertis Business turnover at circa £300 million and is aiming to double that figure to £600 million over the next five years. Integrated teams Brothwell describes the new structure of Exertis Business as a revolution, not an evolution. Two key elements are: i) the integration of sales and commercial teams so that sales people dealing with resellers/integrators and commercial staff looking after vendor relationships and stock management pull in the same direction; and ii) having integrated sales and commercial teams in each of the five specialisms, in addition to a General Sales team. “Each pillar now has an integrated sales and commercial team working as one. In the previous world of Business, AV, which was a specialism, had dedicated sales and commercial focused into a channel. We also had that in mobile; we had it in components; and we had it in print. And guess what? They were our four best performing areas,” explains Brothwell. “What we’ve done now is increase the amount of focus we’ve got in those areas. We’re bringing in more people, in both external and internal roles, and those five channels all now have dedicated sales and commercial. In AV, for example, that won’t just be into the AV channel but into anyone that’s buying AV. And we’ve replicated that across the five pillars. Previously, a large majority of our business teams were selling different things and weren’t specialists in anything.” Brothwell adds that Exertis is also streamlining the customer experience. “Traditionally, in our business, because of our specialisms, customers might have had more than one account manager. We’ve looked closely at our customers to identify their primary function and have given them one point of contact who has the ability to sell other products to them.” www.exertis.co.uk key areas – AV, Components, IT Solutions, Mobile and Print. Management changes to support the new structure include the appointments of Jamie Brothwell as Managing Director of Exertis Business; Jonathan Sutherland as Managing Director of Exertis Consumer; Paul Jacobs as Trading Director; and Lisa Bird as Sales Operations and 3PL Director. All four report to Chief Commercial Officer Phill Turner. Sitting outside the Consumer and Business divisions are Exertis Enterprise, led by Managing Director Jason Chibnall; mobile phone refurbishment company MTR; Exertis Supplies; and business accessories distributor Hypertec. High growth Jamie Brothwell told Technology Reseller that the reorganisation of the Business division builds on Exertis’s growing capabilities in specialist, high-growth areas. “From when I joined the business 10 years ago, we’ve moved from selling desktop print to also selling floor-standing copier products. We’ve gone from 80% retail to 60% business, and we’re still growing. I’d say we’re now the leading non‑HP specialist print distributor in the UK. We continue to be very strong in Mobile and Components, two businesses where we’re in growth. Then there’s the business that I’ve been running for the last three years, our Audio-Visual business. “When we came out of the pandemic, we weren’t where we needed to be, so I came in with fresh eyes, fresh plans and I’m proud to say that at the AV Awards on November 1 we won two awards: DEI Initiative of the Year, in recognition of what we have done in driving cultural change within the industry; and the big one, Distributor of the Year, which is the crowning achievement of my career to date – taking a business where we weren’t recognised as a specialist and effectively becoming the de facto market leader. That is a signpost for our direction of travel in the future. “Our fifth specialism is IT Solutions. And, again, we’re looking to carve out our niche in the PC accessory and peripherals space with a specialist approach rather than a broadline approach. Effectively, we want to have five specialist distributors under the umbrella of Exertis Business.” DCC’s decision to focus solely on the energy sector, which now accounts for 74% of operating profits, has created uncertainty about the future of DCC Technology, trading in the UK as Exertis. While the FTSE 100 company expects to complete the sale of its healthcare division, DCC Healthcare, in 2025, its plans for DCC Technology are less advanced. In a statement, DCC Chief Executive Donal Murphy merely said that DCC would review its strategic options for DCC Technology ‘within the next 24 months’, following completion of its operational improvement programme. It seems likely that DCC Technology will be sold, but in what form and to whom is uncertain. In the meantime, DCC Technology is continuing to streamline operations. For Exertis in the UK, this includes the recent creation of separate, dedicated divisions for Business and Consumer (including Retail), which will enable the distributor to be more agile and responsive to the market and customer needs. In the case of Exertis Business, the new structure will accelerate its shift to become a more specialist distributor across five Technology Reseller talks to Jamie Brothwell about recent changes at Exertis Business Reorganising for growth DISTRIBUTION 08 Jamie Brothwell
This Christmas, Giacom extends heartfelt thanks to all our partners. Together, we’ve reached new heights, strengthened our businesses, and paved the way for a prosperous future. Our Cloud Market now connects over 6,000 providers with products and services from the world’s top vendors and carriers. Our range of automation tools and integrations will streamline your business ops. And, with our enablement resources and tech expertise, you can build the skills you need for the future. Imagine all we can achieve together in the New Year. Wishing you a joyful festive season. 03304 333 888 www.giacom.com what we can do together
10 01732 759725 Vendors have to offer a strong margin and market development opportunity for partners, underpinned by our internal expertise. We support everything we sell, rather than relying on the vendor to do that on our behalf. It’s almost a last resort to bring in a vendor for support or enablement. TR: Could you tell readers a bit more about your value proposition and how this is reflected in the Exertis Cloud team. JY: I’ve spent 25 years in channel roles. I’ve worked in distribution, I’ve worked in retail, I’ve worked in MSPs. Prior to joining Exertis, I was Commercial Director at Highlander, now FluidOne. We built a substantial cloud business there and I’ve been able to lean on some of that expertise at Exertis Cloud, as have other members of the team who followed me across or who came from other MSPs, distributors or vendors. When I was on the other side of the fence and dealing with distribution, I sometimes felt there was a lack of understanding, a lack of empathy, just vendor messaging, unfiltered, passed straight through, without an obvious consequential message or value proposition for us. What is sometimes forgotten is that for an MSP, there has to be a margin opportunity but also a tangible business benefit for the end user, so when we built our value proposition, we had two personas in mind. One was the reseller, the MSP, who we sell to directly, and the other was the end-user business. Probably about 14 or 15 months ago, not long after I came in, we sat down as a collective to work through what our value proposition was going to be, how we were going to differentiate ourselves, where we thought we were already winning and where we didn’t think that we could play as strongly. We identified a huge expanse of SMB resellers that are somewhat unloved, not only by competitors that are more interested in the top 10% or 20% of players but also by some of the vendors, and we thought how can we support Over the last 12-15 months we’ve been restructuring the business, defining our proposition and building a team that can take that to market. We’re now just trying to accelerate that. TR: How many team members do you have now? JY: The core team is around 20, not counting ancillary departments that we plug into, like HR and finance. We have the benefit of the larger PLC business to support us; we are like an entrepreneurial start-up in a PLC. That’s very much the spirit of what we’re doing. TR: How has Exertis Cloud grown over the last three years in terms of products, users and revenue? JY: Obviously, we have started from a relatively low base, but our aspiration is to be a £100 million pound cloud business by the end of 2027, and we’re well on track to achieve that. Typically, we’re growing at between 20% and 30% year‑on-year, with particular growth in our core vendors of Microsoft and Adobe. Rather than being, as some of our competitors are, a marketplace where there is a plethora of cloud and SaaS vendors, we’re trying to keep it carefully curated and build out an ecosystem around our Microsoft core. Anything that we build in there is to migrate, to backup, to secure the core Modern Workplace or Azure workloads that we’re managing. Then, with Adobe it’s about building from what was traditionally that Creative Cloud base with elements such as Document Cloud and Acrobat AI Assistant and some of the recent announcements made at Adobe MAX in the US. We’re seeing a lot of things come together. There are commonalities, for example between AI Assistant and Copilot, and there’s a role for both to play, depending on budget and workload and application, so we’re trying to build an ecosystem. You won’t find 30 different vendors. You’re more likely to find a dozen or so that have been hand-picked based on their technology and the margin opportunity. Technology Reseller (TR): Please could you give me a quick overview of Exertis Cloud and your plans for 2025. James Yates (JY): My remit when I came in 16 months ago was to develop the base that had been built by my colleagues and to really drive the cloud business forward. Exertis are relatively late to the party with cloud – we’re now in our third year of trading – but we’ve tried to turn that into an advantage. I know the channel very well from being on the other side of the fence in the MSP world, and that has given me some insight into how we can build something that brings value to partners and a point of differentiation for vendors, because I don’t think any of our vendor partners are looking for share shift. That’s pretty apparent; if anything, we are hearing from vendors that they want to manage fewer partners, whether that’s distributors or resellers/MSPs. INTERVIEW With James Yates, Managing Director, Exertis Cloud Q&A James Yates Technology Reseller talks to James Yates, Managing Director of Exertis Cloud, about key developments in 2024, including the launch of its new partner programme, and his priorities for 2025
technologyreseller.co.uk 11 programmatic changes with the likes of Microsoft that it is very, very difficult for them to manage licences, renewals and certifications; security is huge as well. AI and security are a burden. Customers of all sizes are demanding help, but it can be challenging for resellers and MSPs to scale up and skill up to meet that demand and provide a return on investment. We’re the sole UK distributor for a new entrant to the UK market called ContraForce, which last year won Microsoft’s Security ISV of the Year Award. They bring a managed MDR service to MSPs in that SMB space, which ties in very nicely with everything we do with Defender and Sentinel. With managed and unmanaged versions, it takes away the onus on resellers to build out a SOC but gives them the ability to move to an unmanaged model should they get to the point where they are comfortable dealing with alerts and remediation themselves. Importantly, it gives them that first step on the ladder, because otherwise SIEM and SOC services are just too complex, too costly and out of reach for an SMB. Some partners come to us because they would otherwise not get the care and attention they get from us and our marketing activities; and sometimes it is because cloud has become quite commoditised elsewhere – often, it comes down to 1% point of differentiation on cost – and we’re trying to move away from that and have value-led conversations. We appreciate we’re not always going to win with that, particularly in the midmarket and corporate space, but we’ve taken an active decision to double down on the value-added investments we make for that SMB partner channel, where we think it will resonate strongly. TR: You’ve mentioned several challenges your partners face, including commoditisation. What topics come up most often in your conversations with resellers/MSPs? JY: The rate of change – a lot of MSPs are still managing on-premises workloads and have customers that are somewhat slow to adopt new technologies; it can be challenging to find a realistic return on investment with AI; and there are so many these people. Tapping into some of our experience, we built a value proposition around People, Platform and Profitability. People – essentially having the right people, with one-to-one account management, pre-sales people and our own 24/7 UK-based helpdesk; Platform – no cloud business can perform without a platform and we think ours is one of the best, particularly when it comes to ease of integration with ERP systems and finance departments; and Profitability – this is what our Stratos partner program was born out of, and encapsulates where we think we can make a real difference, for SMBs in particular. TR: When was Stratos introduced? JY: It was launched officially in October, and we’ve already onboarded the first 20 partners. We make a commitment that we will help partners grow faster and be more profitable working with Exertis Cloud than with our competitors, and the way we do that is partly through our carefully curated portfolio of vendors and partly through an ecosystem of alliance partners. As a result we are able to offer Stratos partners things like Copilot Readiness Assessments that we can do on behalf of partners, giving them a blueprint that they can then scale. We work with a company called Noteworthy, made up of ex-Microsoft employees, which gives guidance on navigating Microsoft partner programs, specialisations and designations, as well as managing rebates. We partner with Fast Lane, one of Microsoft’s leading certified training partners, and will put people through MS-900, AZ-900 the AZ-104 certification. We have regular CloudConnect events, some in-person, enabling partners to interact with vendors face to face, and some on-demand, including webinars where we distil all the noise coming from vendors into the most relevant content. The different things we have built into the Stratos Partner Program would normally be the preserve of businesses doing more than £100,000 a month in recurring revenue, so it really moves the dial for SMB resellers. TR: As you say, Exertis came late to the cloud. What has prompted Exertis Cloud’s 500 partners to work with you? JY: Obviously, we have the heritage of Exertis, which trades with around 8,000 resellers, so we have the advantage of being able to speak directly to resellers/ MSPs that have traded with other areas of Exertis. INTERVIEW The latest recruits to the Exertis Cloud team: (l to r) Lauren Foster, Chris Cave, Sophie Lockwood and Radhika Dattani continued...
12 01732 759725 INTERVIEW TR: AI is such an open-ended discussion that, it must be challenging for MSPs to scale and make money from those sorts of engagement. JY: Absolutely. It’s about giving people tangible, real life business cases. That’s what we are trying to do with Copilot, because if the enablement isn’t done correctly people will summarise in PowerPoint and Teams, but they won’t get true value out of it. First and foremost, it is really important to make sure the data structure and security are in place, but then it is critical to address the enablement of the users. What we’re seeing with both Microsoft and Adobe is that AI genuinely is allowing people to move away from mundane, menial tasks and do something more productive and ultimately more satisfying. That process requires people being on board, which is why we’re trying to get it down to quite specific use cases. TR: What other priorities do you have for 2025? JY: We’ve established our team, the partner program and a proposition that is structured and programmatic that we can take out to partners consistently, so for us, it’s now about scaling, raising the profile of Exertis Cloud and explaining what we’re doing for SMBs, above and beyond what more established competitors are doing. That’s the strategy. Tactically, we’re just embarking on a service with Microsoft, called the Cloud Migration Factory, where Microsoft engineers essentially migrate legacy workloads and infrastructure to Azure on behalf of SMB resellers, enabling them to keep their customers up-to-speed with digital transformation. Microsoft is prioritising five key pillars this financial year, of which migrations is one. There’s a lot of focus on Copilot and security, but they recognize there’s a huge legacy base that they need to work on. That’s going to be something to keep an eye on. If we can get some momentum behind that, it could be quite exciting. TR: What for you has been this year’s highlight? JY: Trying not to sound too cheesy, it’s having the team in place with the right balance between distribution experience, partner experience and vendor experience. We brought the final leaders into the commercial team in October and being able to close out the year with that team in place, ready to hit the ground running in January is a real positive. We feel we’re in a really great position. ...continued CLOUD Hunting for profit MSP Cloud Live delivers actionable insights for Giacom Partners Giacom, which through its Cloud Market gives more than 6,000 technology providers a platform where they can buy and manage comms, cloud, hardware and billing services from leading vendors and service providers, recently united its partner community and leading vendors for MSP Cloud Live at CodeNode, situated in the heart of London’s Tech City. Designed to empower channel partners to better support small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) across the UK, the forum for learning and networking attracted close to 150 partners. The event opened with a keynote from Giacom Chief Operating Officer Nathan Marke, Hunting for Profit: How to Find Profitable Growth Serving the Dynamic SMB Technology Market. In it, he explored the UK SMB technology landscape, highlighting a market spend of $56.6 billion in 2024, with significant growth in cyber security (7.4% CAGR), business applications (11.6% CAGR) and managed services. Marke provided actionable insights into how MSPs could capture opportunities in emerging markets, create differentiated propositions and add value through bundled solutions and enhanced crosssell strategies. He also emphasised the importance of operational efficiency, recurring revenue models and leveraging AI-driven advancements to drive profitability and increase business valuations. Also included in the day’s agenda were a series of expert-led sessions, offering attendees deeper insights into key industry topics: Securing Tomorrow with Barracuda, SkyKick and Acronis explored the latest cybersecurity trends and threats anticipated in 2025; a panel discussion on Multi‑layered Defence for SMBs with usecure, Bitdefender and OpenText highlighted strategies for managing sophisticated cyber threats and keeping customers protected; while Microsoft’s FY25 Partner Power-Up session focused on strategies and growth opportunities aligned with the tech giant’s FY25 vision, delivering essential guidance for partners aiming to capitalise on the growing cloud market. There were also sessions on critical topics such as the role of AI in business transformation and strategies for minimising operational disruption and financial loss. In the exhibition area, Giacom partners had the opportunity to engage with leading vendors, including Microsoft, Acronis, Bitdefender, Barracuda, Exclaimer, Webroot, usecure, SkyKick and CompTIA, who were showcasing innovative solutions designed to enhance SMB operations and mitigate risks. James Baker, Managing Director – Cloud, said: “Our aim with MSP Cloud Live was to create a platform for collaboration, learning and innovation. The cloud industry is growing rapidly, and it’s vital for MSPs to develop sticky, differentiated propositions for SMB customers. Together with our vendor partners, we are committed to equipping resellers and MSPs with the tools and insights they need to achieve this and deliver exceptional value to their customers.” As SMBs increasingly turn to MSPs for packaged managed solutions to navigate the complexities of modern technology, MSP Cloud Live reaffirmed Giacom’s role as a strategic partner, enabling resellers and MSPs to seize market opportunities, achieve growth and enhance their customers’ cloud capabilities. You can watch edited highlights at https://vimeo.com/1031577420. www.giacom.com Nathan Marke James Baker
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14 01732 759725 RESELLER NEWS Version 1 helps transform public sector purchasing in North-East Following a successful pilot with Sunderland City Council in June, NEPO has successfully moved 12 local authorities across to its Open procurement platform with the help of digital transformation company Version 1. The strategic procurement partner for public sector organisations in the North-East says the implementation of its Open procurement platform, supported by Version 1 managed services, cloud and application development, will empower public sector buyers and suppliers with smarter, more efficient procurement processes and greater transparency. Adam Smith, Head of Digital and eProcurement, said: “Transitioning all our local authorities to Open has been a major positive step for the way public sector procurement is delivered in our region. The benefits available via the new platform are vast, making the NorthEast a more competitive and inclusive procurement environment for our procurers and suppliers.” The modern, cloud-based system will gradually replace the NEPO Portal, which has supported procurement across the region for more than 20 years. Outsourcing of security operation on the rise across Europe The growing skills shortage combined with regulations’ tendency to increase personal accountability are making the outsourcing of cybersecurity operations to MSSPs an increasingly attractive option for UK businesses, reveals new research from Logpoint. A survey of 1,762 senior IT decisionmakers for the SIEM solution provider’s European Cybersecurity Sector 2024 report suggests that UK businesses are more reliant on third parties than their European counterparts which, while becoming more open to outsourcing, still prefer to have in-house security operations. More than half (52%) of UK businesses already outsource security operations, compared to 48% who manage security in-house. Of the latter, 28% plan to use a third party for cybersecurity operations over the course of the next two years. In Germany, by contrast, only 23% outsource their cybersecurity, compared to 77% who manage it in-house, with 27% of the latter intending to outsource in the next two years. Respective figures for France are 35%, 65% and 23% and for the Nordics 54%, 46% and 14%. Perceived benefits of outsourcing include access to external skills and knowledge; cost efficiencies linked to clear and predictable pricing; and effective security management. More than half (60%) of businesses that outsource security management do so because they lack internal skills and knowledge; 48% are unable to recruit candidates with the right skills/ knowledge; and 30% say they do it to shift accountability. The main selection criteria for choosing an MSSP are the quality of the service offering (46%), followed by the reputation of the provider (19%), price (12%), breadth of offering (11%) and the ability of the customer to influence the technology used (9%). http://www.logpoint.com … Thrive adds Cyber Essentials certification to services offering Thrive, a global technology outsourcing provider for cybersecurity, cloud and IT managed services, has become a Cyber Essentials (CE) and Cyber Essentials Plus (CE+) certification body. In addition to assessing CE compliance using the Integrity 360 adds to services offering and expands into DACH Pan-European cyber security specialist Integrity360 has expanded its services offering with two new additions: a Managed ASM (Attack Surface Management) service to address the growing complexities of securing diverse environments, including IT, OT and IoT; and a unified Managed Cloud Native Application Protection Platform (CNAPP) service to secure multi-cloud environments and protect cloud-native applications against evolving risks. The end-to-end Managed ASM service, powered by the Armis Centrix Cyber Exposure Management (CEM) platform, gives complete visibility into an organisation’s attack surface, including asset discovery and intelligence, continuous threat exposure management, remediation support and threat detection. The CNAPP service provides automated cloud workload protection, visibility into cloud environments, proactive threat and exposure detection and compliance alignment, integrating across multi-cloud setups and providing 24/7/365 protection through Integrity360’s Security Operations Centre (SOC). Integrity360 has also announced its expansion into the DACH region with the acquisition of Adsigo, a European PCI QSA (Payment Card Industry Qualified Security Assessor) and cyber security services company. Serving customers in Germany, Austria and Switzerland from offices in Stuttgart, Hamburg and Zurich, Adsigo will complement Integrity360’s existing PCI practice. Over the next 12 months, Integrity360 plans to turn Adsigo into a regional hub offering the full suite of Integrity360 services supported by a new SOC in Germany that, in combination with existing SOCs in Dublin, Stockholm, Naples and Sofia, will be able to deliver a broad set of managed cybersecurity services including EDR, XDR and MDR. Ian Brown, Executive Chairman at Integrity360, said: “The enhanced group will significantly expand our existing activities and cyber services across the DACH region, as well as offering the wider range of Integrity360 services to the existing customers of Adsigo. With the addition of Adsigo, group revenues in 2024 will exceed €135m, significantly up on 2023, and increase group resources to circa 550 employees.” Ian Brown
RESELLER NEWS technologyreseller.co.uk 15 Information Assurance for Small and Medium Enterprises (IASME) Cyber Essentials control framework, Thrive offers an array of services to help organisations protect themselves better, from managed detection and response to autonomous penetration testing and cloud services. www.thrivenextgen.com … Evolve now Purple’s patch Managed network solutions and IT services provider Evolve has formed a strategic partnership with fellow BGF portfolio company Purple, a leading provider of WiFi and analytics solutions. Henceforth, Purple will leverage Evolve’s experience in providing industryleading Guest Wi-Fi as it expands into new sectors, including hospitality, and Evolve will adopt Purple Wi-Fi for its own Wi-Fi services, giving its customers in the retail, hospitality, food-to-go (FTG) and petrol forecourt sectors additional functionality, such as personalised promotions and automated customer surveys. Purple CEO Gavin Wheeldon said: “Evolve has an established and respected role in the hospitality industry, among other sectors, and we are confident that our joint offering will provide real added value to those businesses. By working together with Evolve to provide an improved Guest Wi-Fi service, we are creating a unique and best-in-class solution for the market.” www.evolve.com … Heimdal integrated into ITHealth Dashboard ITHealth, a provider of cybersecurity and access management solutions to the NHS, is helping NHS organisations improve security operations and build greater resilience by integrating Heimdal’s advanced threat protection and mitigation capabilities into its ITHealth Dashboard. The partnership with Heimdal will enable ITHealth to provide NHS customers with a complete solution to improve compliance, strengthen security and support operational efficiency, starting with third party and OS patching and later adding advanced Unified Endpoint Management (UEM), Ransomware Encryption Protection (REP) and Application Control and Endpoint Privilege Management. Frederik Seemann Jensen, Head of Enterprise, UK & Ireland at Heimdal, said: “We partnered with ITHealth to create an integrated, automated system for assessment, mitigation and reporting. By combining our platforms, we aim to secure and future-proof the NHS.” Heimdal already provides cyber security technologies to Birmingham Women’s & Children’s Hospital, NHS Northumbria, Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Trust and Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. www.ithealth.co.uk … Cisco first for Logicalis Logicalis has become the first global Cisco partner to launch Cisco Extended Detection and Response (XDR) as a managed service (MXDR). This addition to Logicalis’s recently launched Intelligent Security portfolio boosts its threat detection abilities with advanced visibility into cyberattack chains, AI-driven automation and global threat intelligence data. It is managed through Logicalis’s global network of Security Operations Centres (SOCs), including its EMEA SOC which has recently grown its headcount by 30% to support growing demand for managed security services. Logicalis CTO Toby Alcock said: “We’re extremely proud to be the first partner offering Cisco MXDR globally as part of the expansion of our managed security services. Through our SOC, customers can leverage industry-leading expertise and solutions tailored to their digital environment through one unified platform.” www.logicalis.com continued... The old school tire A team of cyclists led by Darren Ridge, founder of Onecom, Onestream and WeBuyAnyPhone.com, has raised over £30,000 in a sponsored bike ride to support young people at his former school, exceeding the initial £20,000 target by 50%. Ridge’s colleagues and friends, who completed the 30-mile roundtrip between Ridown’s headquarters in Whiteley and Havant Academy in Leigh Park (previously known as Wakeford Comprehensive School), were waved off by Southampton legend Matt Le Tissier and welcomed back by Pompey player Matt Ritchie. The funds raised by The Ridge Foundation will purchase an immersive multi-sensory space that students can use to reduce anxiety. This builds on a previous donation of £30,000 which was used to set up The Ridge Centre at Havant Academy to support students who find it hard to work in a classroom environment. www.theridgefoundation.com From partner to customer Digital transformation company Sopra Steria has selected ServiceNow to transform its IT service management platform as it seeks to become the first MSP in the UK to have a fully AI-enabled platform. Already a ServiceNow Elite Partner and newly registered Build Partner, Sopra Steria is now also a ServiceNow customer after choosing a full implementation of the company’s AI‑enabled Now Platform to help it deliver first class managed services to public and private sector clients across the UK. www.soprasteria.com Darren Ridge (centre) with Matt Le Tissier and the cycling team at Ridown headquarters in Whiteley
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