PCR January 2016

FOR THE UK’S PC & TECH COMMUNITY • No. 148 • JANUARY 2016

S

A G M N S I I F I N C E E NT V E

SEvEN IS DEADLY

SEVEN IS LUCKY

S N O W

W H I T E

H A D

S E V E N

DALGLISH & BEST were sevens

SEVEN WONDERS

OF THE WORLD a l o n g t i m e a g o i n a g a l a x y f a r f a r a way t h e r e w e r e s e v e n e p i s o d e s

SHAKEN, NOT STIRRED

t h e r e we r e s e v e n b r i d e s a n d s e v e n b r o t h e r s

A RAINBOW HAS SEVEN vip has a promise, a set of values. seven of them in fact...

DELIVERING VALUE IN DISTRIBUTION It’s tough out there! Margins are tight and the competition is tough. We know it! You know it! So what you need is a distributor with a difference that will give your business the edge. VIP is that distributor, because ‘Delivering Value in Distribution’ isn’t just our motto; it’s our mission built upon our 7 values.

VIP WILL ALWAYS

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WE WILL NEVER LEAVE YOU WITH A PROBLEM OF OUR OWN MAKING WE WILL SUPPORT YOU AND HELP GROW YOUR

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EDUCATE YOU ABOUT OUR CHANNEL WE WILL ALWAYS BE FAIR TO YOU

AND BE COMPETITIVE ON PRIC This is our promise to you.

Give your business a head start in 2016.

Come to VIP – the award-winning distributor with a difference.

7 Into the Black Is Black Friday worth it?

We look back on the 2015 sales period

28 Distie Q&A Senior distribution execs answer your burning questions

36 2015 review We look back on the biggest changes over the past 12 months

No. 148 • JANUARY 2016 COMPUTER & IT RESELLERS z RETAILERS z SYSTEM BUILDERS z DISTRIBUTORS z VENDORS

WWW.PCR-ONLINE.BIZ

IS THE CLOUD RIGHT FOR YOU?

18

PCR explores whether retailers should jump on the growing cloud services bandwagon…

“Cloud is the future of computing. It’s the most innovative and secure place to store your data today.”

“You shouldn’t just go with the cloud for the sake of going with the cloud.

Every company needs to decide how best to run operations efficiently.”

CLOUD OPINION AND COMMENT – P15 EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE CLOUD – P18 CLOUD STORAGE AND SOFTWARE GUIDE – P46

WWW.PCR-ONLINE.BIZ z WWW.TWITTER.COM/PCR_ONLINE z WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/PCRMAG

CONTENTS & COMMENT

Follow us @pcr_online Dominic Sacco Editor

CONTENTS

COMMENT

REGULARS

New Year’s solutions

dsacco@nbmedia.com @Dom_Sacco

06 PCR Trader Trust campaign 07 Lessons from Black Friday Laura Barnes Deputy Editor

08 Stats 12 Appointments and events

lbarnes@nbmedia.com @roradrum

15 Opinion 38 Retailer of the Month: PC-PartX 40 Mystery Shopper: Black

Jennie Lane Sales Manager

Friday special

jlane@nbmedia.com

43 Reseller profile: Galtec

@jennielane1

44 Tricks of the trade

FEATURES Sarah Goldhawk Account Manager

18 All you need to know

sgoldhawk@nbmedia.com

about the cloud

@sarzgoldhawk

22 The Big Interview: Alienware 25 Dashcams 28 Distributor Question Time

dbennett@nbmedia.com

Synaxon UK admin team

Our special cloud feature on page 18 explores the market and its various services, and looks at the arguments for and against moving into this sector. There are also some expert opinions and comment on page 15 and a sector guide looking at cloud storage and software on page 46.

We also take a look back on the biggest moments of 2015 (page 36), which should give you an idea of the trends and opportunities heading our way this year. In terms of our other features this month, our tech distributor Q&A special is a personal favourite of mine. We gathered some senior execs at PCR Boot Camp North to talk about your burning issues; our panel was open and honest (a certain Mr Alex Tatham was brutally honest, which made for an interesting debate) and you can check that out on page 28.

Here’s to a prosperous 2016 for you and your business.

ISSN: 1742-8440

Dominic Sacco, editor dsacco@nbmedia.com

32 PCR Woman of the Year Rising Star interview: Abbey Bowen, Overclockers UK 34 How to reach YouTubers

Elizabeth Newton Production Executive

36 Review of the year

enewton@nbmedia.com

PRODUCTS 46 Cloud software & storage 48 HDDs & SSDs Andrew Wooden Interactive Entertainment Content Director

51 Razer & Lenovo gaming PC 53 Recommended products

awooden@nbmedia.com @pcr_online

OUT OF OFFICE 56 In the Hot Seat

NewBay Media is a member of the Periodical Publishers Associations

“Not all independent PC retailers or service companies have embraced it, but there’s no doubting the potential of the cloud.”

27 How to boost staff morale

Dan Bennett Designer

Editorial: 01992 535646 Advertising: 01992 535647

JANUARY is typically a time when people race to the gym – so why not make sure your business is fighting fit as well.

It can be tricky keeping sales strong in the New Year period, especially after the Christmas rush and the buzz of Black Friday (see page seven to find out how popular it was in 2015).

So if coming back to work gives you a serious dose of the New Year blues, it might be an ideal time to step back, take a look at what worked well for you last year and what didn’t.

Maybe try a few new things to gain additional revenues.

One sector continuing to grow is the cloud. Not all independent PC retailers or service companies have embraced it, but there’s no doubting the potential in this area, as more and more SMBs turn to managed services and cloud storage. In the channel, Entatech is launching its first white label cloud offering and service providers are making more money from monthly recurring revenues.

Incorporating

57 Tweets 58 Team of the Month:

READ THE LATEST STORIES AT

PCR-ONLINE.BIZ ANALYSIS

PCR launches Trader Trust campaign We’re calling on vendors, distributors, retailers, resellers and more to help clamp down on unscrupulous PC dealers…

WE’VE BEEN talking about the lack of an industry watchdog for years – but now PCR is stepping up to help businesses avoid dodgy dealers and cowboy traders.

We’re calling on vendors, distributors, retailers, resellers and other channel companies to inform us of any sellers that may be selling illegal or counterfeit goods, or conning customers and partners.

We will help bring unscrupulous PC dealers or products to light, but we need your help – please email PCR editor Dominic Sacco at dsacco@nbmedia.com or online editor Laura Barnes lbarnes@nbmedia.com with any stories or data you can share with us.

While the work of trade organisations such as CompTIA should be commended, the UK PC industry still doesn’t have a watchdog or ombudsmen to police IT. CompTIA’s CEO Todd Thibodeaux previously told PCR it’s not CompTIA’s role to police the IT industry.

“It’s shocking – this industry is one of the few where you don’t need a licence to destroy someone else’s business,” he said. “That’s why being able to look for companies who are a member of our organisation is

TRADER TRUST

“We had one of the UK’s premier resellers who lost an enormous customer, because they put counterfeit products into their servers.”

Alex Tatham, Westcoast

valuable. If a company has our Trustmark, you know they’re following best practices.

Chances are, if you can pass the Trustmark, you’re going to do a good job. “[Policing the IT sector] would really have to be driven by customers themselves, not by the industry. Customers are interested in seeing Yelp ratings and reviews on sites like Angie’s List.”

Derek Jones, MD of dealer group Synaxon, has been calling for a trade watchdog for years – and recently announced Synaxon would be bringing online discovery platform TrustATec to the UK. This allows web users to

search for their local IT services provider, and check their prices and services within a single portal. Plus, each dealer on board benefits from the TrustATec Trustmark.

Of course, Which? Magazine awards various local services companies with its Trusted Trader status, and the Retail Ombudsmen has a Trustmark scheme – but both of these initiatives aren’t specific to the PC industry.

At PCR Boot Camp North late last year, our panel of distribution experts touched on the subject of rogue online traders, who may try to get away with sourcing stock, selling it on and not

registering themselves properly or paying taxes.

Westcoast MD Alex Tatham said: “Pay your damn taxes – it’s immoral not to. That’s the key and that’s the same for every company. If they don’t pay their taxes, then they’re illegal as far as I’m concerned, and I’m hoping the police will catch up with them.

“We had one of the UK’s premier resellers who lost an enormous customer, because they put counterfeit products into their servers in a spare, and lost the entire customer.

As a result, they’ve now legitimised their entire spares business, as opposed to going shopping around. So I’d really encourage you to buy from an authorised distributor because we get our products from the vendors.”

Entatech sales manager Darren Perks added: “I think none of us want to actually go out there and deal with anybody who’s going to be doing anything illegal. So we’ve all got to follow due diligence processes, which are very rigorous, to ensure we aren’t dealing with any rogue or suspect companies.”

Email PCR editor Dominic Sacco at dsacco@nbmedia. com or online editor Laura Barnes lbarnes@nbmedia. com with any stories or data you can share.

PCR Boot Camp heads to Emirates Stadium THE NEXT PCR Boot Camp event for PC dealers will take place at the Emirates Stadium on Wednesday May 18th 2016.

6 | PCR January 2016

Once again it will consist of a morning conference, afternoon expo and networking after-party. This time the expo will overlook

Arsenal’s beautiful football pitch. As always, PCR Boot Camp is free for retailers, resellers, system builders and etailers to attend.

Check out pcrbootcamp. com in the coming weeks to sign up.

For sponsorship opportunities, contact

Jennie Lane or Sarah Goldhawk on 020 7354 6000, or email jlane@ nbmedia.com or sgoldhawk@nbmedia.com.

www.pcr-online.biz

READ THE LATEST STORIES AT

PCR-ONLINE.BIZ ANALYSIS

UK High Street’s £1bn blackout

Black Friday generated more than £1 billion in sales in the UK for the first time in the run up to Christmas, but shoppers shunned the shops in favour of online retail. Dominic Sacco covers off the lessons to be learnt from the evolving sales period and looks ahead…

IT WAS JUST over a year ago when the Black Friday madness first arrived in the UK, but it’s already maturing fast.

Online sales soared during the Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend from November 27th to 30th 2015, with £1.1 billion generated on the Friday and more than £3 billion across the weekend.

Tech etailers enjoyed record-breaking sales; it was the biggest day in Amazon’s UK history in terms of e-reader and Fire tablet sales.

Plus, computing was Ebuyer’s top category on Black Friday, with the HP 250 G4 Laptop the most popular item and the Lenovo B50 selling out.

Maplin also had a strong performance. CEO Oliver Meakin says: “Black Friday 2015 was the biggest day of online sales in the history of Maplin. Our top-selling online item was the Ride-On Convertible Car, with one selling every 30 seconds; sales of the Elgato Game Capture were up 201 per cent compared to last year.

Interestingly, the biggest growth category was CCTV with more than 200 per cent growth year-on-year.”

However, it was a different story on the High Street.

Following the crowds and embarrassing brawls of 2014, where shoppers fought over TVs and the like, several retailers changed their strategy for 2015. Asda pulled out of the sales event entirely, citing “shopper fatigue”.

Sales at US bricks and mortar retail stores also fell (from $11.6 billion in 2014 to $10.4 billion in 2015), according to ShopperTrak.

With most of the attractive deals online, fewer shoppers www.pcr-online.biz

News Bytes BRIGANTIA OFFERS NEW SERVICES Dealer services provider Brigantia has upped its focus on connectivity, cloud applications and the hardware to support these services.

Brigantia’s new wholesale services offering to partners include broadband, leased lines, cloud backup, end point security, hosted email, electronic software download and more. An Office 365 and IaaS offering will also join the line-up during 2016.

A new website has gone live at www.brigantia.com and the partner support team can be called on 020 3358 0090.

INDIES PRICES STILL ‘TOO LOW’ Target Components has found that two thirds of indie PC retailers under-price by 15 per cent on average, compared to the free market.

However, the latest ShopTalk National Retail Price Comparison report also found that half of indies have a range that’s at least as broad as PC World’s.

OVERCLOCKERS TEAMS UP WITH GAME

Some tech stores on the High Street weren’t particularly busy during Black Friday in November 2015

hit the High Street. UK retail footfall fell 2.7 per cent yearon-year during the week ending December 6th 2015, with the High Street and shopping centres recording 4.2 per cent and 3.4 per cent drops respectively.

Diane Wehrle, marketing and insights director at Springboard, explains: “While the last payday before Christmas has traditionally driven a spike in sales for bricks-and-mortar retailers, there is strong evidence that the spending patterns of consumers are changing. For the first time, the Black Friday long weekend was an online shopping experience for consumers, and it appears that click and collect opportunities have not generated the uplifts in footfall that some retailers may have hoped for.”

A survey of 2,030 online shoppers by eDigitalResearch and IMRG found that while 31 per cent of shoppers either

‘like’ or ‘love’ major discount events such as Black Friday, a further 30 per cent dislike them. The other 39 per cent of respondents remain unsure.

Rupal Karia, MD of retail and hospitality at Fujitsu UK and Ireland, comments: “This year’s Black Friday could not have been any more different than last. Instead of hitting

“Instead of hitting the High Street, shoppers instead opted to browse in the comfort of their home.”

Rupal Karia, Fujitsu the High Street, digitallysavvy shoppers instead opted to browse in the comfort of their home – or workplace – with more than £1 billion spent online compared to £885 million in 2014.

“This shift represents an ongoing behavioural change in the consumer mindset when it comes to shopping; Digital Inside Out showed that nearly two-thirds of consumers see online shopping as the most valued digital service, a fact that retailers have woken up to.

“Even with increased levels of online traffic, we saw fewer site outages thanks to retailers’ diligence. They also staggered their deals throughout the week and were expected to do so throughout the Christmas period, rather than focusing all of their resources into a single day.

“Last year, some were still viewing Black Friday as an instore event and looking to Cyber Monday for a spike in online activity. This year, as the lines continue to blur between online and offline retail, the chances are we’ll see them morph into the same event.”

Performance system builder Overclockers UK (OCUK) and video game retailer GAME are bringing PC gaming back to the High Street.

Floor-to-ceiling bays displaying systems have been put up in ten GAME stores initially, with customers able to check out PCs in person, take a purchase card to the till, pay and have a system shipped out to them.

TECH DATA PUSHES PRINT TO RECEIPT Distributor Tech Data UK is urging more retailers to explore the potential of its Print to Receipt software download service. The service works by giving customers a receipt with a download code printed on it, which can then be used online to redeem software products.

12M REVENUE SHARE MILESTONE Security vendor BullGuard has paid out more than 12 million Euros in revenue share to its partners since 2010.

The vendor said in a statement: “We have worked hard to ensure you enjoy a further revenue share every time your customers renew.”

PCR January 2016 | 7

STATS

Number

crunching

A round-up of the most important stats and facts in the tech channel…

42 -8.1%

Worldwide tablet shipments fell 8.1 per cent year-on-year in 2015, estimates suggest.

(IDC)

The number of UK-based technology companies exhibiting at CES in Las Vegas this year.

(CTA)

346,000 -2.1% UK shop prices fell by 2.1 per cent on average in November 2015 – a joint record low month.

(BRC)

40% TP-LINK is the world’s largest supplier of WLAN products in terms of units shipped, with a 39.68 per cent share of the market.

(TP-LINK)

8 | PCR January 2016

The amount of new Windows 10-based PCs shipped through the Western European distribution channel during the first two weeks of November 2015.

(Context)

£3bn HP Inc – HP’s PC and hardware business – generated £3 billion (some $4.5 billion) in net earnings during the 12 months ending October 31st 2015.

(HP)

1in5 One in five Brits have experienced cybercrime in the last year – costing the nation £1.6 billion.

(Norton Cyber Security Insights Report)

www.pcr-online.biz

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RECRUITMENT & EVENTS

Entatech appoints new cloud boss ENTATECH UK: The distributor has appointed PAUL LLOYD to head up Entacloud – its new white label cloud offering.

He has worked within the channel for a variety of service providers over the past 25 years, and will work closely with partners to help them embrace the cloud.

TECH DATA: The distributor has bolstered its Microsoft and HP teams.

EMILY WEST has joined as business development executive, and will work on the Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) business, providing support to resellers and pursuing new business opportunities.

COMPTIA: Four new faces have joined the UK channel community executive council for 2016.

The not-for-profit IT trade association has announced that Inbay’s MD KRISTIAN WRIGHT has been promoted from vice chair to chair of the council, while STEVE ROSS from Shackleton has taken EXERTIS: PHIL BROWN has been promoted to sales and commercial director for IT. He will lead the commercial business units and IT reseller base for B2B and VAD solutions at the distributor going forwards.

The move sees him promoted from the role of B2B sales director.

SMITHIE UK: The distributor’s senior management team has undergone a reshuffle.

STEVE RIORDAN has joined as the company’s new managing director, while former MD and founder SHANE HILDEN has now become chairman for Smithie UK.

12 | PCR January 2016

EVENTS The UK’s channel calendar is full of important events. Here are some highlights for upcoming dates…

Entacloud’s Paul Lloyd

Entacloud is set to launch in early 2016.

Lloyd said: “There is a great deal of confusion in the market and it is difficult for MSPs to know where to go, or what to do. Entacloud offers a one-stop-shop for cloud services, based on a simple and intuitive interface. This is a significant move forwards.”

Emily West and Sam Trinder

Additionally, SAM TRINDER has been appointed business development executive within the HP team.

He will provide sales support to HP partners bidding for business with HP’s solutions, and will help resellers to coordinate marketing and access HP’s partner support programmes.

David Watson from Evolve

over from Wright as vice chair.

Two new members have also joined the Executive Council – DAVID WATSON from Evolve Computers and MARK WILLIAMS from Pensar.

The CompTIA UK Channel Community works to provide UK technology companies with networking opportunities and meetings.

PCR AWARDS 2016

Phil Brown has been promoted

“This is a fantastic opportunity which builds on my almost five years with Exertis,” said Brown.

“This position will enable me to help develop the Exertis proposition and ensure that all our partners have access to the wealth of great technologies, solutions and services we offer.”

PCR BOOT CAMP 2016

Shane Hilden becomes chairman at Smithie UK

In addition, commercial director GILES LINWOOD has left the business, after working at the firm for one and a half years.

Established in April 2003, Smithie operates in Basingstoke as a trade only distributor, focusing on the etail VAR and subdistributor market.

CES 2016 JANUARY 6TH – 9TH 2016 LAS VEGAS, USA CES is the largest consumer electronics show in the world, showcasing more than 3,600 exhibitors, including manufacturers, developers and suppliers of consumer technology hardware, content, technology delivery systems and more. It will have a conference program with 220 sessions, and more than 165,000 attendees from 150 countries.

BETT 2016 JANUARY 20TH – 23RD 2016 EXCEL LONDON Bett offers an annual opportunity to experiment with the latest educational technology, hear from inspirational figures and experts in the industry and meet peers from around the world. The show is made up of workshops and demonstrations as well as a exhibition and the Bett Arena, which has a seminar programme exploring the biggest educational issues.

DISTREE EMEA FEBRUARY 24TH - 27TH 2016 GRIMALDI FORUM, MONACO DISTREE EMEA brings together over 1,000 delegates representing the leading etailers, retailers and distributors from across 60 countries in Europe. It also attracts various manufacturers of ICT and consumer electronics products, to do business in one place at one time.

MARCH 10TH ROYAL GARDEN HOTEL, KENSINGTON, LONDON The PCR Awards returns once again, featuring a mix of networking, partying and recognition of achievements in the UK PC and tech industry.

Attendees will receive an evening dinner, as well as refreshments on the night. Distributors, vendors, retailers and channel services firms will be recognised in our circus-themed awards ceremony, new for 2016.

May 18th EMIRATES STADIUM, LONDON The UK PC industry’s essential conference and expo returns at the world-class Arsenal football stadium.

Delegates will benefit from a morning conference as well as an afternoon exhibition with the latest products and services on show, plus a networking after party. It’s free for tech retailers to attend.

www.pcr-online.biz

a

Company

OPINION

IT chameleons and the cloud Jonathan Wagstaff, UK country manager at Context, looks at how distributors, vendors and resellers are adapting to cloud services as the market expands…

to be getting a piece of the pie.

THERE’S TALK in the IT world at the Entatech’s new head of cloud services moment that the word ‘channel’ should be dropped as the appropriate Paul Lloyd stated that its Entacloud business had seen “phenomenal” noun describing the route to market. interest. The big players are happy to The word’s critics claim that it set up their own cloud platforms or doesn’t effectively communicate the even acquire existing providers, as lateral functions of distributors. If you Ingram Micro has done with its really want to sow confusion and absorption of Parallels’ Odin Service sound progressive, then you could do Automation platform. In another worse than mention ‘the cloud’. This unique play, Westcoast is now category is arguably far more gnomic teaming up to make ALSO’s cloud than the product pipeline, and only services available to their customers marginally less mysterious than financial derivatives. The effects of the in the UK, creating an impressive new platform for Microsoft’s CSP, which cloud are profound and clear when makes sound business sense. All we look at what companies such as credit has to be given to IT Uber or Airbnb have done to their distributors who respective industry continue to uphold sectors, but its full their reputation as impact on the channel “Many in the industry chameleons. is not immediately Part of the obvious. industry struggle disruption is being led Many of those who with the concept by vendors. Microsoft have worked in the industry for much of and what it fully stopped selling Small Business Server a few their careers struggle years ago and has with the concept and means to the been trying to redirect what it fully means to channel.” the channel.

Jonathan Wagstaff, traffic to its cloud One director of a Context services. From what we have been seeing US-based cloud at Context, the story of distribution provider confessed to me recently and cloud is one where Microsoft is a that a large portion of his business main protagonist. Microsoft’s cloud stemmed from European distributors offerings are no longer restricted by and resellers attempting to set up the older seat-caps – often their own services, before admitting benchmarked around 250 – meaning defeat in the face of complexity and great ease of scalability, aiding the instead choosing to resell. This new predictability of monthly expenditure and burgeoning sector has and removing the necessity for big government regulators scrambling to initial spending on hardware. spot and police malpractice, such as UK distributors can see these trends the ongoing probe of the cloud clearly through the cloudy mist and storage sector in the UK by The are making their moves in this huge Competition and Markets Authority. land grab. Traditional license resellers One thing channel players – ignore this at your peril. frequently agree on is that they need Jonathan Wagstaff is UK country manager at analyst Context. www.contextworld.com

www.pcr-online.biz

Tips for deploying a private cloud There’s no stopping the growing ecosystem of cloud computing, says Qsan’s UK and EMEA managing director David Kao, who explains what’s needed to succeed in this space… meet every requirement of a private THE TERM ‘cloud services’ has moved away from just being used to cloud deployment.

When choosing the storage suggest the direction the storage system for private cloud market is heading – it’s becoming deployment, the support for cloud the reality of most IT estates.

OS APIs such as VAAI and ODX is More and more small and crucial. This cloud OS API support medium businesses are adopting enables offloading workloads from cloud services in some form to the compute element of the system increase the efficiency and to the storage. This creates a more competitiveness of their IT infrastructures. One of the ways they efficient and responsive cloud service. All Qsan AegisSAN series LX, are doing this is by building a Q500, and V100 support VMware private cloud. This process involves VAAI and Microsoft ODX too. several key ingredients: computing Our research shows that virtual power, storage, networking and the machine (VM) operations are 80 per virtualisation hypervisors (cloud OS) cent random and 20 per cent that support cloud computing sequential I/O access. For example, capabilities. virtual desktop According to a infrastructure (VDI) Gartner report, the services require definitive “More and more cloud heavy random I/O characteristics of small and access and low cloud computing latency due to soare elasticity, selfmedium called ‘boot storm’ service, businesses are when all VMs start programmability booting at the same and pay-by-use. adopting cloud time. This makes it Elasticity comes services.” vital that the SAN hand in hand with David Kao, QSan storage supports SSD enterprise features drives and SSD such as high caching in order to meet these availability, dynamic scaling and stringent demands, which all Qsan data protection. The best storage AegisSAN series products can do. candidate for private cloud Intel has also debuted its Xeon infrastructure is disk array processor D-1500 product family – SAN storage. the first Xeon SOC that is designed Qsan Technology is a leading for high density microservers and network storage vendor based in enterprise SAN/NAS storage to Taiwan. Qsan AegisSAN LX series tackle the workloads of cloud service features 10Gb iSCSI and 16Gb Fibre providers. Qsan will leverage the Channel SAN storage with active/ power of the new Xeon D-1500 series active dual controller high as the computing core of our nextavailability, SSD caching, thin gen enterprise SAN/NAS storage provisioning, snapshot, remote platform. The announcement of our replication and a variety of other launch should be around Q2 2016. enterprise storage features that can David Kao is UK and EMEA managing director at storage vendor Qsan Technology. www.qsan.com/en

PCR January 2016 | 15

OPINION

The 7 types of cloud services There are a host of cloud products and services out there, but which should you offer? Myles Gilligan, sales manager at reseller Inspired Technology Services, explains…

provider or as software, which is then IT’S VITALLY important that managed by internal IT departments. businesses develop a cloud strategy DRaaS (Disaster Recovery as a that will create value, reduce IT costs, Service) is when the user utilises the minimise downtime and ensure they cloud to replicate and host physical or stay ahead of the competition. But virtual servers via a third-party – where do you start? helping to provide failover in the IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) event of a disaster. The sees a third-party provider hosting implementation of DRaaS eliminates virtualised computing resources over the need for additional investment the internet. Using a web-based and maintenance of an off-site interface, the customer receives disaster recovery system. processing, storage, networking BRaaS (Backup and Recovery as a capabilities and other basic computer Service) offers the same peace of resources without managing or mind as DRaaS by providing an controlling the underlying alternative to traditional physical infrastructure. The user can receive a media based backup with protection fully outsourced service and will and recovery made commonly be billed easily accessible. only for what they use.

Delivered as a fully SaaS (Software as managed service, a Service) is a “It’s important BRaaS is securely software licensing and incorporated into the delivery model which that businesses user’s network to provides access to develop a cloud maximise their IT software and its infrastructure. functions remotely as strategy that will BaaS (Backend as a a web-based service. create value and Service) addresses the Often referred to as reduce IT costs.” cloud computing on-demand software, Myles Gilligan needs of web and SaaS allows mobile app organisations access to business functionality on a monthly developers, by providing a unified means of connecting their apps to fee basis – often cheaper than paying cloud services. It includes storage, for a license-based application. notifications, user and file management, PaaS (Platform as a Service) is network integration and more. used to provide customers with a With DBaaS (Database as a platform that allows them to develop, Service), the user will not need run and manage web applications database experts or administrators as having to build and maintain the this is all managed by a public or infrastructure. PaaS eliminates the private cloud operator that supports expense and complexity of applications. The application team evaluating, buying, configuring and won’t have to assume responsibility managing all the hardware and for traditional database admin software needed for these customfunctions, and in theory, the database built applications. It is delivered as is able to scale seamlessly. either a public cloud service from a Myles Gilligan is sales manager at reseller Inspired Technology Services. www.inspiredtech.co.uk

16 | PCR January 2016

Why Black Friday is now key Dominic Ashford, senior account manager at GfK, looks at how the sales period is giving the industry a shot in the arm…

products across the IT market in BLACK FRIDAY continues to grow in the UK. significance to the IT market.

Looking at the retail sector in Week 48 in 2015 (November 22nd particular, this year saw retailers to 28th – which includes Black taking differing approaches to Black Friday) increased by five per cent in Friday. Some didn’t participate, value compared to the same week some promoted early and for in 2014. longer, and some marketed without This is particularly significant as actually using the words ‘Black the IT market registered year-onFriday’. Despite the differing year declines for most weeks in 2015. There was growth for both the approaches, consumers responded and based on the GfK Point of Sales online and offline sales channels, Tracking weekly data, this Black demonstrating the importance of Friday has been the biggest yet for this key promotional period to the consumer durables. entire market.

Total sales were up eight per cent Furthermore, the value of IT in value and six per cent in volume products sold into the retail channel year-on-year. by distributors grew by an average In 2014, Black seven per cent Friday madness year-on-year in the in the UK, with five weeks leading “The majority of arrived some ugly scenes in up to week 48 and consumers stores and negative Black Friday, media. This year, showing that it is avoided the inlearnings were key to the whole store chaos of applied and as a result supply chain. in-store shopping In terms of IT previous years.” the experience was more product groups, Dominic Ashford, civilised, with orderly there were some GfK controlled queues key winners on forming outside some Black Friday. The stores on Friday morning. mobile computing market (which However, the real story in 2015 is includes both laptops and that the majority of consumers computing tablets) saw year-onavoided the in-store chaos of year value growth of 23 per cent in previous years and moved to week 48, making it the strongest shopping online. week of the year for that specific Online sales outperformed the product group.

The keyboard market was another total market sales, with growth of 21 per cent in both value and volume area where Black Friday was year-on-year. With 33 per cent more particularly significant in 2015, with value and 27 per cent more volume week 48 seeing the value of this going through online, internet sales market grow by 52 per cent made up a whopping 75 per cent of compared to week 48 in 2014. the overall value increase for this These two examples demonstrate Black Friday. that this sales period is key for Dominic Ashford is senior account manager at GfK. www.gfk.com/uk

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CLOUD SPECIAL

Everything you need to know about the cloud Laura Barnes speaks to industry experts to find out how the cloud can benefit businesses, if it’s right for everyone, and what you need to know if you’re planning to add cloud services to your IT offerings…

I

n 2008, NASA’s OpenNebula became the first open-source software for deploying private and hybrid cloud. Since then, ‘the cloud’ has been a sector of the tech industry that has snowballed at an alarming rate.

According to the Cloud Industry Forum (CIF), 46 per cent of businesses in the UK now use ‘advanced’ cloud services for financial and accounting software, business applications or customer relationship management.

92 per cent of medium sized businesses say they use cloud services in one form or another, according to managed cloud services provider Adapt. Plus, research conducted on behalf of Outsourcery and CIF also finds that 78 per cent of public sector organisations have some form of cloud-based services in use today.

Statista reports that global cloud IT infrastructure revenue in Q1 2014 reached $5.2 billion, while the amount of cloud business traffic is expected to grow to 1,800 exabytes per year by 2017.

18 | PCR January 2016

In its very basic form, cloud computing can be described as the use of networks of remote servers to store, manage and process data. But with a host of different cloud services out there nowadays – including pretty much anything you can think of followed by ‘as-a-service’ – the cloud computing sector can be confusing (see page 16 for a rundown). In this article, we’ll aim to outline everything you need to know about the cloud by asking a number of experts in the field.

CLOUD GROWTH Since the cloud’s emergence in the 2000s, it’s been in the last couple of years that the market has become something businesses simply can’t ignore anymore.

Gartner says the cloud market has grown by an average of 32 per cent in 2015, with a projected annual growth rate of 29 per cent through 2019.

“With tech refreshes, firms are starting to compare the cost of hardware and data centre space to cost of migration to the cloud,” says

“Connectivity and voice are essential for all businesses today.

The cloud is a method of delivering those services in a more efficient, costeffective way.”

John Carter, Cloud Telephones

Stephen Coty, chief security evangelist at Alert Logic.

“We have observed a move from talking about the cloud and early adopters to seeing it going mainstream,” adds Steve Haworth, Teleware CEO. “In cloud communications, we have seen growth in the last six months greater than the last two years and this trend looks set to continue.”

Katie Armstrong, head of marketing at Brightsolid, comments: “We’ve seen the market shift from a fear of the ‘unknown’ to a much greater level of understanding and confidence in cloud tech.

“What’s notable is that a lot of cloud strategies, particularly in terms of applications, are driven by employees. The change to the way people work has created a need for flexibility, mobility and accessibility and cloud collaboration tools like Dropbox, Google Drive and OneNote are a necessity.

She adds: “Service providers realised years ago that not all clouds are created equal, there can’t be a one size fits all approach. So there are more options available.”

John Carter, MD of Cloud Telephones, believes it has taken time for users, and indeed resellers, to start trusting cloud solutions: “That is happening now though and more resellers are starting to make the switch from business models based on selling more products at lower prices, to one based on subscriptions that offer consistent, recurring income every month.”

THE BENEFITS OF THE CLOUD So whether you’re thinking about integrating the cloud into your own business, or planning on selling it as part of your IT service offerings, it’s worth knowing the benefits the cloud can bring so you can determine what your needs are and reiterate to your customers why cloud is right for them.

Paul Lloyd, Evangelist at Entacloud, the new white label service from Entatech, believes agility is one of the biggest benefits: “The ability to have services available quickly and easily and to produce computing power on an adhoc utility basis means, www.pcr-online.biz

CLOUD SPECIAL

over time, users can save costs through budgeting and predicting costs.”

Ravi Thakur, SVP customer success and service delivery at Coupa, agrees there are savings to be made from adopting a cloud approach as well as efficiency opportunities.

“The cloud presents the opportunity to drive things faster within a company with the technology you are picking up. It also eliminates some of the thinking process within a company that often complicates the decision making process,” he told PCR. “As companies get bigger, decision making processes become more complicated.

Cloud solutions eradicate many of these complications as they are more tightly limited on the choices available to users.”

Monica Brink, EMEA marketing director for iland, cites ‘transparency’ and ‘visibility’ as key to getting on board with the cloud.

“From our research conducted with Forrester Research in 2015, 60 per cent of the 275 IT decision makers surveyed said they could not www.pcr-online.biz

grow their cloud footprint due to associated transparency, compliance and support issues. iland’s platform contests this perception, with customers complimenting the visibility of the data on the platform.”

As well as streamlining a business in terms of processes, Ash Patel, director of business transformation at Cobweb Solutions, details the extra support it can receive working with a cloud partner.

“By using a cloud solutions provider, businesses benefit from 24/7 access to IT support, along with increased resilience and reliability. Plus there are fewer in-house IT costs. What’s more, info is always available and there is less risk of data loss.”

IS IT RIGHT FOR EVERYONE? There’s no denying the benefits that the cloud can bring, but with today’s businesses coming in all shapes and sizes, needing very different things from service providers and having an assortment budgets, one has to wonder if the cloud is right for everyone.

“There remains an underlying concern among UK organisations around data security in the cloud.”

Ash Patel, Cobweb

“There are many facets to this question,” says Matthew Finnie, CTO at Interoute. “But one thing is for sure, every business is moving towards becoming a digital business in some shape or form and cloud is a big enabler for this.”

“Cloud should be viewed as part of the digital ICT infrastructure platform that can deliver the tools and services that allow this model to happen.”

Cloud Telephones’ John Carter describes how cloud services such as VoIP are essential for businesses: “Connectivity and voice are essential for all businesses today, as are email and web access and many other services. The cloud is a method of delivering those services in a more efficient, manageable, scalable, costeffective way.”

Carter believes that cloud will become the preferred and normal way of delivering IT and communications services, especially for SMBs: “They need the added flexibility that hosted voice and other cloud services give them to be always available and

accessible, to never miss a call or an email, wherever they are.”

Teleware’s Steve Haworth agrees that almost all businesses can benefit from the cloud: “I think the larger enterprises will get more benefit from hybrid implementations where they can use the cloud for some elements and their own services for others. Some businesses may benefit from being 100 per cent in the cloud. It isn’t a one size fits all but everyone can benefit from the cloud in one form or another.”

While Coupa’s Ravi Thakur generally agrees that most businesses will benefit from the cloud, he warns: “You shouldn’t just go with the cloud for the sake of going with the cloud. Every company needs to make the decision about how best to run operations efficiently. It is safe to say that cloud is generally suited to most business processes, there might just be some specialist businesses that on-premise solutions are better suited to.”

Iland’s Monica Brink offers up this advice to those thinking about making the PCR January 2016 | 19

CLOUD SPECIAL

Cloud contributors (clockwise from top left): IDC’s Andreas Olah - IDC, Cobweb’s Ash Patel, Brightsolid’s Katie Armstrong, Solgari’s Marcus Kellman, Entacloud’s Paul Lloyd, iland’s Monica Brink and Interoute’s Matthew Finnie

move: “While most companies will not be moving their entire IT footprint to the cloud anytime soon, there are clear benefits to using cloud agility for appropriate workloads.”

SECURITY ISSUES While cloud is generally considered to be safe by most, there are still some security issues surrounding it.

Andreas Olah, senior research analysis for servers and big data at IDC, tells PCR: “The public cloud is not necessarily less secure, in fact large providers have armies of the best security experts.

Security issues are more around data ownership and worries about snooping by governments and cybercriminals especially when cross-border data transfers take place.”

Iland’s Monica Brink reveals that hacking attacks, viruses and employee negligence are all affecting IT organisations, and companies are struggling to apply the required levels of security to cloud workloads.

“This challenge is felt even more heavily amongst midmarket organisations that 20 | PCR January 2016

may not have the budgets or manpower to throw at managing cloud security risks.

The mid-market needs security that’s automated, simple and always working in the background, as well as security reporting metrics that are highly visible and simple to understand,” she says.

Cobweb’s Ash Patel adds: “There remains an underlying concern among UK organisations around data security in the cloud, particularly in light of a series of recent high profile and widely publicised cyberattacks.” Despite this, Patel stressed that security concerns “should not deter organisations from drawing value from the raft of benefits that cloud computing offers”.

Coupa’s Ravi Thakur believes that most of the security issues around the cloud are based on how much emphasis your cloud provider places on security.

“Most mature SaaS (security-as-a-service) providers have invested hugely in securing the data they house (technology and human capital), perhaps more

than individual companies can afford to invest on their own. While security issues are evolving and hacking becomes more sophisticated, it is important to keep an eye on how the biggest companies are investing and how they are dealing with these security issues.”

“IDC expects cloud infrastructure spending to rise from $4.3bn in 2014 to $5.2bn in 2015.”

Andreas Olah, IDC

THE FUTURE So now we know how the cloud has evolved, what it can do for businesses and what service providers should know about this ever-expanding market, what’s in store for the cloud sector in the future?

“IDC expects cloud infrastructure spending (across servers, storage, ethernet networks and security appliances) to rise from $4.3bn in 2014 to $5.2bn in 2015,” says IDC’s Andreas Olah.

“More and more Big Data and analytics workloads are moving to the cloud. IDC expects that the public cloud share of storage capacity deployed for Big Data in EMEA will rise from 25 per cent in 2015 to 55 per cent by 2019.”

Brightsolid’s Katie Armstrong reveals: “At the

time of writing this, our head of emerging technologies, Kenny Lowe, was in Malta at the 20th EMEA Cloud and Hosting Club Executive Roundtable with Microsoft. I asked him to put this question to the panel and the feedback was: “The evolution of specialist clouds in service providers. Things like the Internet of Things clouds and further evolved community clouds for the public sector are really starting to take off.”

Alert Logic’s Stephen Coty adds: “Cloud is the future of computing. It will follow the trends of the mainframe, Novell, and AD in time as technology advances and innovation occurs. Cloud right now is the most innovative and secure place to place your data today.”

We’ll leave you with this bold statement from Marcus Kellman, head of technical sales and pre-sales at Solgari: “Not since Alexander Graham Bell’s invention of the telephone has tech unleashed such a huge change in how companies operate and communicate through the movement from hardware to cloud software.” www.pcr-online.biz

THE BIG INTERVIEW

Out of

This World Dell’s Alienware brand has established itself as a premium PC gaming vendor over the past 20 years. Now that its products are available through Exertis, retailers such as John Lewis, ShopDirect and GAME are getting on board.

Dominic Sacco asks Alienware EMEA marketing manager Daniel Charbit about its new strategy, competing with UK system builders and what’s next for the brand…

P

C gaming is a growing but extremely competitive market.

What is your strategy in this space today?

As has always been the case – whether it’s a tower, minitower, notebook, or something more progressive like the Alienware Steam Machine or Alpha – we want gamers to love gaming on Alienware.

Today we see our community gaming on a variety of devices and doing it in a variety of places; we are pushing to develop that next device, partner with that next developer and cultivate that next gamer that can empower the infinite potential of gameplay.

What new products should retailers be aware of?

We have launched the Alienware Steam Machine in various countries around the world, including the UK. Last summer, we also announced Alienware portfolio updates, including the next-generation

22 | PCR January 2016

Alienware X51 gaming desktop and updated Alienware 13, 15 and 17 notebooks that address the needs of both gaming enthusiasts – and those that demand the most powerful gaming systems in the universe.

The PC gaming market has its fair share of budget offerings. Would Alienware launch a line of more affordable products, or is it purely focused on the mid to high-end?

Given what Alienware stands for, there are only so many concessions we can make before the solution no longer holds up to the brand.

That said, at Dell, we still want to deliver the best solution for all gamers out there.

With offerings such as the Dell Inspiron 7000 series, we have a chance to hit a great, affordable price point and still deliver a gaming-capable solution as well.

“We’re working with companies like Oculus on Rift, and HTC on Vive, as well as others looking to innovate in the VR space.”

Daniel Charbit, Alienware

Some custom system builders have told us that tier 1 vendors like yourselves aren’t nimble enough to create custom gaming PCs, as you are too focused on creating massproduced readymade gaming systems that become out of date. What is your reaction to that? Are you wary of system builders eating into your market?

We always strive to be first to market, and we proved it recently with adoption of the brand new Intel Skylake processors as soon as they were announced. For us, at the core of Alienware, we aim to deliver apex performance with iconic, innovative system design meant to inspire and delight gamers.

Additionally, we apply the same rigour during development of our Alienware line-up as we would to Dell branded products, such as the flagship XPS range – from the materials used, to the construction, and

the overall design aesthetic.

We’re also able to offer stellar reliability and support. With Alienware and Dell support offerings, users can rest easy that if something goes wrong, they have a team of worldclass professionals willing and able to assist.

In terms of eSports, Juniper Research predicts that streaming services such as Twitch will grow to audiences of over 310m by 2020, making $1bn in subscriptions. Alienware had its own Korean eSports team in the past, so are you going to be doing more in that area?

Alienware currently sponsors many of the elite players in a variety of games across the eSports industry, including Team Liquid, plus Team Dignitas – one of eSports’ most successful and iconic professional gaming teams and organisations.

Team members use Alienware laptops to maintain www.pcr-online.biz

THE BIG INTERVIEW

Gaming products like the 13 (right) and Stream Machine (below) are pushing the Alienware brand to new heights

their practice regimes and keep ahead of the competition, while travelling to tournaments all over the world. It’s great to be involved with a team that is so dedicated to raising the profile of eSports globally and, in doing so, driving the need for ever greater innovation in the gaming technology space.

In addition to supporting various teams in eSports, we are also working towards becoming a hardware partner behind some of the major tournaments and triple-A production teams in the scene.

Tell us about your Steam Machine – what are your sales expectations for that?

With Alienware’s strong heritage in PC gaming, and pushing it to the height of technological innovation, it seemed only natural to develop a machine that can provide the freedom and processing power of a specialised gaming PC as well www.pcr-online.biz

as the comfort and ease of a living room console.

With a similar dedication to making PC gaming the exciting global community that it is, Valve is a natural partner in these efforts. We’re extremely excited about the opportunity the Alienware Steam Machine brings to the market, born from a joint vision and partnership with Valve. The Alienware Steam Machine is currently available to buy through Exertis and is available on Game.co.uk.

With 8K being talked about, and memory on the way that promises to be 1,000 times faster than NAND, the PC gaming sector has an exciting future. What is Alienware’s views on this growing space and where it can go from here?

Alienware continuously looks to be at the forefront of new technologies, on both the hardware and software side of things. And with our history of strong partner relationships,

“We aim to deliver apex performance with iconic, innovative system design.”

Daniel Charbit, Alienware

we’re well placed to make sure that we’re successful in this. Our most recent line-up of laptops and desktops – including the Alienware 13, Alienware 15, Alienware 17 and the Alienware X51 – is optimised for Microsoft’s Windows 10, including features such as DX12 and ingame DVR. And the Alienware Steam Machine is yet another example of how we are working and collaborating with partners to drive the types of innovation that we know gamers crave – not to mention our ongoing work in the virtual reality (VR) space.

What work are you doing there? What does Alienware think of VR and do you have any specific plans around that category?

We’re here to serve our people, the gamers. And part of the responsibility is being on the cutting edge and always pushing the envelope.

For VR it’s incredibly exciting because the technology is

really coming along. We’re working with companies like Oculus on Rift, and HTC on Vive, as well as a variety of other companies that are looking to innovate in the VR space. We feel both companies have very capable technologies and at this stage the experience is heavily dependent on high performance PCs. Each company has a slightly different business model and approach but most agree that gaming will lead the adoption. That fact is a great rallying point for our companies and is inevitably the driving force behind these partnerships – gamers deserve the best. Beyond the hardware solutions, the content is critical. At Alienware we have longstanding relationships with the vast majority of game developers, whether leaders in the industry or independent developers expanding the boundaries of the gaming ecosystem.

PCR January 2016 | 23

DASHCAMS

Dash & grab Sales of dashboard cameras rose by more than 300 per cent in 2015, with drivers and insurers warming to them as they can prove who’s at fault in a road accident. PCR asks if it’s viable for independent retailers to stock the devices…

Paul Singh (below) and Tim Sagar (belowright) believe sales of their respective Smart Witness and Thinkware products will grow

O

VER THE past few years, the market for dashcams has slowly increased – and 2016 could well be the year they hit mainstream adoption.

Dashboard cameras sit inside a vehicle and can record video footage through the windscreen, capturing any accidents. Their always-on nature makes them very wellsuited to this digital age, but what’s the UK market like?

From January to October 2015, the dashcam sector increased year-on-year in volume by 353 per cent, and in value by 381 per cent, according to analyst GfK. Maplin also reported a 500 per cent increase in sales in March 2015, after the Car Crash Britain programme was aired on ITV. Dominic Ashford, senior account manager at GfK, tells PCR: “The strong growth for dashcams is due to a combination of a relatively small install-base for these products and promotions from retailers, manufacturers and insurers.

“The majority of sales of dashcams are through the traditional, offline channel.” www.pcr-online.biz

While the UK dashcam market is growing, it’s nowhere near the likes of other better-established markets such as Korea.

Tim Sagar, business development manager at dashcam vendor Thinkware, says: “The problem with the UK is we’ve got off on the wrong foot with dashcams.

We started with the Chinese and Taiwanese imports and it’s become something similar to the satnav with the suction mount. But the problem is if you have a suction mount, you legally can’t cover up more than four centimetres of the windscreen.

“If you look at the Korean market, those products are all close to the windscreen and can be hidden behind a rearview mirror – and they have parking modes. So when you switch the engine off, the recording stops and you have motion detection. The other thing with Korea is probably 99 per cent of dashcams are professionally installed, so you don’t have wires everywhere.

“Retailers need to be aware of dashcams and to provide an installation service.

“The problem with the UK is we’ve got off on the wrong foot with dashcams so far.”

Tim Sagar, Thinkware

Margins are similar to camera margins and the products are better-suited to the kind of companies that can offer carphone installations.”

Paul Singh, MD of CCTV specialist Y3K, who was one of the first to develop a plug and play CCTV system, agrees that retailers should have dashcams on their radar.

“Make no mistake – this is the next big thing, the next big opportunity,” he explains.

“Every single brand that doesn’t manufacture dashcams is now badging them up – Transcend, Garmin, Motorola etc.

“It’s going to become a standard fitment and insurance companies want that. Dashcams are the only real evidence you can now provide quickly and reliably.

They need to record how fast the car was moving, how the driver was driving, the time and date, have a wide angle lens and show what happened before the accident.

“Retailers and resellers need to decide what they want to sell. A simple camera on a windscreen will do the job, but for other types of companies, anyone running a

small business up to large fleets, you need to go for a professional camera. That’s what we’re masters at.”

Sagar says insurance companies can help grow the demand for dashcams.

“We’re seeing insurance companies offering discounts on dashcams,” he adds. If you’ve got evidence, the company won’t need to go to court,” he added. “The companies that install black boxes for young drivers are also starting to install dashcams too. So I think we’ll start to see mass production of dashcams within the insurance industry, and that will increase the awareness more and more.”

He also said that one in 120 car accidents is the fault of a dashcam owner, suggesting they drive more safely. A category that can reduce road accidents and give retailers a new revenue opportunity is certainly a welcome addition.

Y3K provides its dashcams through its Smart Witness vehicle camera division, while Thinkware supplies its products through Chameleon, Data Select and Northamber.

PCR January 2016 | 25

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STAFF MORALE TIPS

The pursuit of employee happiness Serving customers in the PC industry can be demanding and challenging. In this feature, PCR explores how to get the most out of frontline staff in the tech retail environment…

T

he last 12 months have seen many column inches address the issue of workplace happiness, as well as the debate about the Minimum and Living Wage.

Sometimes it’s both at once, as seen with the press coverage on Sports Direct.

Specifically, the number of low-earning employees it has on zero hours contracts and what the Unite union described as ‘Victorian’ working practices in its warehouses.

Then there’s the New York Times’ high-profile exposé of working conditions at Amazon’s US warehouses – and the effect of those conditions on staff wellbeing and morale. Back on these shores, the UK was ranked 30th on the Global Workforce Happiness Index by employer branding firm Universum. So there’s room to improve.

How should employers in the UK tech retail be looking to get the best performance out of their workforce?

According to independent HR consultant Sarah Jones, it should all start with the development of positive relationships with front line staff members, which she says will be returned to the employer with increased sales and lower recruitment costs. “[High Street retail] is a competitive workplace and good staff can be hard to find and even harder to retain,” says Jones. “The old adage that people don’t leave jobs,

www.pcr-online.biz

they leave bad bosses, is as true today as it ever was.

Develop your line managers to be great people managers, get teams working properly and increase communication and training. Create a vision for yourself as an employer and create an environment people want to be part of.”

Of course ‘employee engagement’ is often banded about as a term to capture how staff feel about the firm they work for – the more engaged someone is with you as an employer, the more they will show that to customers.

But Jones stresses that this basic adage is ignored at the employer’s peril: “Get your employee engagement right and your staff will be your best customer service asset.

Get it wrong and you become a mediocre High Street retailer, with staff who don’t care about you or your customers.”

Then you have the often thorny issue of remuneration.

There is an increase in the National Minimum Wage (NMW) due in April 2016, also known as the National Living Wage, which should not be confused (but all too often is) with the The Living Wage. In short, the former is mandatory and the latter voluntary.

“Clearly, the key disadvantage of paying the voluntary Living Wage is cost – it’s a considerable increase over and above the NMW and less robust business models could struggle with the

Keeping a smile on both the customers and your employees faces isn’t easy

additional overheads,” says Jones.

“However, the key advantage is being seen as an employer that supports sustainable living for its employees. This helps to position traditionally lower paid roles such as sales assistants, bar staff and hospitality as opportunities for long-term employment and away from being regarded as transitional roles between jobs or before a career.”

One manager at a medium sized High Street chain who preferred not be named says: “Even if you’ve worked your way up from the shop-floor, things will have changed a lot since then”, he says. “Tech, society and education have all evolved over the last 10 years.

Talk to your employees, really listen to ideas, suggestions, review your processes and procedures and be prepared to make changes.

Concentrate on removing

“Talk to your employees, really listen to ideas, suggestions, review your processes and procedures and be prepared to make changes.”

things that get in the way of people delivering a great job and champion success in as many ways you can.”

Is there a way tech can help boost employee happiness?

James Cullen, CEO of corporate treating service Givvit Rewards, thinks so.

“Making your staff happy doesn’t have to be about grand, costly gestures,” he says. “It’s about taking the time to make them feel valued and recognising their contribution to the company.

Bonuses are great but can seem impersonal and are not always affordable. Team drinks can bring staff together as well as boost morale, but what about non-drinkers?

“Making sure employees feel valued with rewards beyond their pay packets can do much more than providing a shot in the arm – it can help keep a good team together.

Well worth the price of a cup of coffee,” he adds.

PCR January 2016 | 27

DISTIE PANEL SESSION

Distie Question Time Senior tech distribution executives gathered at PCR Boot Camp North 2015 to answer your questions and discuss the shifting PC market. Chaired by Channelstar Media’s Simon Meredith, our panel included Westcoast’s Alex Tatham, Entatech’s Darren Perks, Exertis’ Jon Sutherland and VIP’s Richard Marsden. Here’s what they had to say…

Anthony Lay, AML Midlands: “Some distributors are going into other verticals such as internet connectivity and hosting. What do you think of this and the role of the distie today?”

Rich Marsden, Director, VIP: It’s a very challenging market and margins are slim. So if you’re not looking to evolve or move into different areas, then you’re simply not going to be here. We’ve seen many examples of consolidation or distributors dropping out of the market. A constant change in the business allows you to move forward.

Whether it’s into cloud services or something else, I think any business in tech would be foolish not to be looking at other avenues. In some instances that may alienate some of your 28 | PCR January 2016

customers and I’m sure there will be challenges ahead, but our core business will be components and devices.

The new opportunities are there to ideally supplement our business and potentially our customers’ businesses.

Everyone should be looking to diversify in some format because this is a tough market. Diversification is a good thing.

Rakesh Selarka, The PC Surgeon: “As an indie, why would I want to buy direct from distribution, as I can get greater options, better pricing and flexibility from some of the big etailers?”

Darren Perks, Head of Sales, Entatech: First of all, Ebuyer and Amazon are two fantastic companies and have done very well for themselves. If you look at what distribution

“Price feeds are almost a necessary evil, but the best price should come from your account manager, because it should be built together with your total order.”

Jon Sutherland, Exertis

is about, it’s your gateway to the manufacturer, so if you’re not partnered with a distie, I’d recommend you do so fairly quickly. It also gives you access to all the support, all the programmes, all the rebate incentives and marketing funds, and access to channel incentives.

Jon Sutherland, Sales Director, Exertis: I agree. We give credit too, which is helpful, and there’s a cost to that as a distie. If you want to buy one unit online, okay, that’s your choice. But certainly, value-added services are vital in terms of MDF funds, support from vendors and so on.

Rich Marsden: I think you want to be engaging with a distributor to access benefits.

VIP has its own independent retailer programme which

gives you various benefits and sale or return stock etc. So if going onto Ebuyer’s website or Amazon’s website is your way of wanting to buy a product, then obviously you will be missing out on a lot of support that you can get from the vendor or the distributor.

I think the days of having a huge differential in price are gone, but in terms of getting better pricing, ultimately the vendor also needs to help us.

It’s not always easy to adjust pricing. A lot of the time, market conditions are outside of our control. But I would encourage all resellers to engage with your distributor and try to funnel your business into one, two or three preferred distributors out there.

Alex Tatham, MD, Westcoast: Firstly, whether you buy from a retailer or a

www.pcr-online.biz

DISTIE PANEL SESSION

reputable distributor, I’m still going to get some money by delivering it. The second thing is that you potentially will get a better price from Amazon or a retailer, because of deals.

Westcoast shipped 35,000 Bing SKUs to Ebuyer earlier this year. That is a huge amount of money we made in one go. And if you look at those kind of deals, they will happen. What we’ve seen this year is increasing numbers of sub-distribution coming out of Ebuyer, Amazon, Insight, Misco and the like.

Effectively, a distributor’s role isn’t just to support retailers – it’s also to support the vendor who is making this stuff, and to drop it somewhere and get the sale themselves. As a result of this, it creates this particular marketplace. Is the vendor going to change? I don’t think so. Can I offer you a deal?

Absolutely I can.

Gavin Holder, GHI Computers: “Why do price feeds on distie websites differ to prices offered by account managers? If prices are inaccurate, how are retailers expected to operate efficiently?”

Rich Marsden: If you look back over the years in terms of when I started in the www.pcr-online.biz

industry in 1999, there was a very clear differential in that pricing. Now, a lot of it comes down to your relationship with the account manager. So when you go and talk to them, the account manager can price it how they feel on the day – they could give you a better price. And I’m not a big fan of price feeds to be honest – they can take some value out of what we do. But I don’t think any distributor is going to put the cheapest cost available out there in the market straight away.

Jon Sutherland: I agree with that. Feeds are almost a necessary evil when talking about stock levels, but the best price should come from your account manager, because it should be built together with your total order.

Darren Perks: It all depends on you picking up those deals. We do try to marry up the two prices, but if you’re looking for more volume and some additional help to close the deal, then that account manager is always there.

Unfortunately, data is changing consistently.

Our price feeds are going to change rapidly, so the more you check them, the more up to date that price would be.

“I do not want to take millions of phone calls off you to negotiate all day long, particularly if you’re buying just one machine. I encourage you to buy off our website.”

Alex Tatham, Westcoast

Alex Tatham: I couldn’t disagree more. If you log onto our website, you get a feed from us. If you phone us, you’ll get the same price. I worked at Ideal Hardware and we used to have a website which we called Boris. But it soon became known in the marketplace as ‘better off ringing instead’ – what a waste of time. With the effort and the amount of money I put into my website, [the price] has got to be the same.

I do not want to take millions of phone calls off you to negotiate all day long, particularly if you’re buying just one machine.

I encourage you to buy off our website. Of course you can phone your account manager and of course there will be deals, but actually you can claim all the special bits you need – that are eligible to you – on our website. So I would thoroughly disagree with my colleagues here; I put an enormous amount of effort on making sure the prices are the same.

Keith Sorrell, Airedale Computers: “We can’t afford high priced gaming gear.

VIP has offered to supply indies with £2,500 worth of gaming products on sale or return. Will any other disties have similar offerings?”

Jon Sutherland: We don’t offer sale or return. I’m not keen on putting product in that you’re not going to sell.

Darren Perks: At the end of the day, you want to put product into a store where you’re very confident it’s going to sell. If we put product into any independent, we’re there to support them and make sure it shifts through, but ultimately it’s up to our account managers and our own knowledge of your business to ensure we’re not putting product in, which you’re going to have to return two or three months later.

Alex Tatham: If the vendor supports it, we’ll do it.

Brian Trevaskiss, More Computers: “How much of a problem are rogue online traders to disties? For example, those who may not register themselves properly or pay taxes…”

Alex Tatham: First of all, pay your damn taxes – it’s immoral not to. That’s the key and that’s the same for every particular etailer or retailer or whatever company you are in the UK. If they don’t pay their taxes, then they’re illegal as far as I’m concerned, and I’m PCR January 2016 | 29

DISTIE PANEL SESSION

hoping the police will catch up with them.

And if they’re selling counterfeit product, clearly that is also an issue. It’s much more of an issue for your end users, rather than me as a distributor, because this is a fairly minor problem.

We had one of the UK’s premier resellers who lost an enormous customer, because they put counterfeit products into their servers in a spare, and lost the entire customer.

So I’d really encourage you to buy from an authorised distributor because we get our products from the vendors.

Darren Perks: I think none of us want to actually go out there and deal with anybody who’s going to be doing anything illegal. So we’ve all got to follow due diligence processes to ensure we aren’t dealing with any rogue or suspect companies.

Nic Carter-Jones, New Millennium Internet: “Where do you see the marketplace in five years’ time? And with software vendors moving to a subscription model, where will disties and retailers make their money?”

Alex Tatham: We’ll be significantly larger than we are today with a much larger range of services around Europe, both to retailers and resellers in the channel.

30 | PCR January 2016

Whilst of course we’ll do plenty of accessories, home products and smart home products, you’ll see Westcoast push upwards into more higher-end solutions categories. And we’ll take retailers and resellers there.

“The revenues and average selling prices are up on Black Friday, but I question where the margins sit for any of us.”

Rich Marsden, VIP Computers

Darren Perks: I think we’ll probably see an increase in recurring revenue, the leasing of products, software as a service and hardware as a service. This brings a change for a lot of people, in terms of how you set your company up to cope with going from a transactional based model to a recurring revenue.

You’ll have to change your resources based around that, and also you will have to look at how you deal with your customers and cope with that.

Jon Sutherland: I agree. For me, we’ll also be seeing virtual reality come to life. I’m excited about that, not just from a gamer perspective, but also what that looks like in the educational space, for example kids wearing virtual reality headsets to experience historic events etc. The smart home will also explode in the next five years.

Rich Marsden: We’ll continue to invest in our core markets: gaming, devices and PC components. There are slight differences in terms of what each distie does, and certainly you can’t sell a gaming keyboard on a subscription model. So we want to continue bringing the best brands in PC gaming and assisting you guys in getting revenue out of that market, which will continue to grow.

Should indies get involved with Black Friday and Cyber Monday each year, or should they take the weekend off and leave the deals to the big etailers?

Rich Marsden: It depends what you want to do. The revenues and average selling prices are up on Black Friday, but I question where the margins sit for any of us. If you want to use it as an opportunity to market your shop or site and have some strong offers, get involved.

If you want to make some money, I’d probably say take a sabbatical for the weekend and come back on the Tuesday, because it can get very messy. So I don’t think there’s money in it for any of us, but I do think it’s a good opportunity for a reseller to attract some new customers.

Darren Perks: Definitely get involved. With so much buying activity going on in the marketplace and so much spend to capture, why wouldn’t you want to get involved? Most of the majors I’ve spoken to said they’ve seen uplift across all of their portfolio – not just the products they’ve put into Black Friday deals.

Don’t miss the next PCR Boot Camp conference and expo event, taking place at the Emirates Stadium in London on May 18th. www.pcr-online.biz

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Building success PC system building might be a male-dominated sector, but one lady is proving it doesn’t have to be. 22-year-old Overclockers UK system technician Abbey Bowen won the PCR Woman of the Year Rising Star award last year.

She tells Dominic Sacco how she went from working as a sales assistant to building up to ten machines a day…

F

OR MANY employers, hiring a young enthusiastic worker over a more knowledgeable type can be a real challenge.

Luckily for Overclockers UK (OCUK), system technician Abbey Bowen is both. After starting out as a sales assistant at Gamestation, she worked in OCUK’s retail shop before showing an interest in system building – an area she has excelled at for almost two years now. She was voted PCR Woman of the Year Rising Star by our panel of judges last October, and is over the moon with the accolade.

“The guys at work remind me every five minutes, so it’s hard to forget,” she says. “They don’t call me Abbey anymore, they just call me ‘Rising Star’! The PCR event and all the talks were really inspirational.

As I work with a bunch of guys, it can be hard to relate to them, so it was nice to see other women out there in this business.”

you don’t think I know what I’m on about, then I’ll show you.”

ALL SYSTEMS GO I’m talking to Abbey just after the Black Friday sales period, so it’s still an incredibly busy time for her in the run up to Christmas.

“It went from one day we were standing around, wondering, ‘flippin’ heck, it’s meant to be Christmas,’ to the next day having five or six times the orders we expected.

“I mainly build systems but I also cover the service side, repairs and quality control. But over the past couple of weeks around Black Friday, my main job has been to build. We’re each getting through like eight to ten builds per day. I tried to do as much as possible and worked a few extra Sundays. We just had to keep going!”

So, what does Abbey love about system building and what systems is she particularly proud of?

“There’s nothing nicer than opening a brand new graphics card. System building is a fantastic job.”

Abbey Bowen, OCUK A keen gamer, she comes across very professionally, with bundles of enthusiasm and honesty – Abbey clearly knows her stuff. But not all customers feel the same way, sadly, as she goes on to explain. I ask her what it’s like working as a woman in such a male-dominated environment.

“It’s interesting. I’ve always got on well with guys and I like to think I can fit in with them quite well, but sometimes it’s hard to get the respect, especially with those outside the business – as a female, that’s where all the issues are,” she admits.

“In the past I’ve been on the phone talking to customers, who might ask something like, ‘Is there a guy I can talk to instead?’

“Those comments are frustrating, but I take them more like, well okay, if

32 | PCR January 2016

“I find system building fantastic.

There’s nothing nicer than opening a brand new graphics card, I think!” she beams. “It is a fantastic job.

“In terms of memorable builds, I made a Scimitar watercooled system recently. It took a good eight hours to finish. I think it’s one of the best builds I’ve ever done. It’s one of the legendary OCUK systems we all work towards, so I was pretty happy to finally get the chance to make one.”

So what longer term plans does Abbey have for her career?

She explains: “Over the next year I plan to get all my Cisco certification and maybe get into networking, but if I can stay in system builds and get to a senior tech position or maybe further, that would be fantastic – I couldn’t think of anything better.”

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YOUTUBERS

Video killed the radio (and television) star PCR investigates why technology brands – including vendors, system builders and more – are flocking to woo YouTube content creators and Twitch streamer stars, and reveals how companies of any size can do the same…

I

f you’ve not heard of Zoella or PewDiePie, chances are you’re not fully aware of what’s probably the biggest disruption to take place in media and marketing since, well, the internet brought us pop-up ads and Google Adwords.

YouTube channels and vloggers are a huge phenomenon – and they’re not going anywhere soon.

Millennials (or Generation Y) don’t watch TV – and if they do, it’s via ‘catch-up’ or TV channel apps, skipping past the commercials. And they don’t read newspapers or magazines. They watch Youtube channels or, if they’re gamers, alternative platforms such as Twitch.

And boy, do they watch.

And in numbers that traditional terrestrial, cable and satellite stations could only dream of – even back in the days of the Morecambe & Wise Christmas Specials (see box-out).

Take PewDiePie. This 25 year-old Swedish YouTube sensation has 40 million subscribers to his channel and boast some 10 billion views.

And he basically broadcasts videos of himself playing video games.

[For the record, Zoella is a beauty and lifestyle YouTube blogger who is worth an estimated £2 million.]

The big brands in tech and games (and other sectors) may not have moved swiftly in the early days of this new movement, but the likes of Samsung in particular have recognised the shift in viewing patterns of Millennials and are embracing this Brave New World. They 34 | PCR January 2016

do, of course, have the budgets to woo these online video stars too.

However, on a smaller – but no less impactful – level, savvy technology companies of all sizes are also starting to extend their marketing plans into this space.

Retailer Utopia Computers has enjoyed some strong experiences working with YouTubers and Twitch streamers. And the firm launched the Utopia Alliance Program last year as a way of working with this sector and giving content creators of every size an opportunity to create a revenue stream.

“When you speak to the next generation of gamers, they don’t watch as much TV as you would expect, they would much rather watch their favourite YouTube and Twitch stars,” explains MD Craig Hume. “Companies have a great opportunity to engage with this audience, but it has to be done correctly. In my opinion, typical advertising doesn’t have the same effect as working together to create the correct brand messaging.”

“Build relationships and develop common ground, and they will happily promote your products because they want to, and for free. ” Charlotte Le Rougetel, Big Top PR

Overclockers too, is very smart on how it works with these channels, but also has a distinct advantage in that its PR and partnership manager Mark Purdy is a Twitch streamer himself (and can be found via www.twitch.tv/ valkia - where he regularly talks to almost 15,000 fans).

Even security software vendor Kaspersky Lab teamed up with popular British Youtuber Ali-A to help raise awareness of the importance of threat protection for the online gaming community.

Ali-A showcased Kaspersky Lab’s recently launched consumer solution, Kaspersky Internet Security 2016, in a video (which has almost 800,000 views).

Rachel Gordon, Mad Catz European marketing manager, adds: ““For a company such as Mad Catz, it can be a very cost-effective and also a very organic way of reaching a highly concentrated and focused audience. It is also relatively easy to measure the success of a campaign or video in real time. By using the ‘specialists’

and influential guys in these fields as ‘impartial’ representatives, this can be more effective than any traditional advertising campaign. Activity can vary between simple product placement to a longer term ‘sponsorship’ agreement and anything in-between.”

TIPS AND TRICKS So why should you consider working with YouTubers, Twitch Streamers and vloggers? How do you go about it? And what are the pitfalls? Along with Hume and Purdy, Charlotte Le Rougetel of Big Top PR (Gadget Show Live, Wearable Tech Show) and Peter McCormack, a digital marketer who’s worked with leading lifestyle and mobile brands, give us their thoughts and advice…

What are the benefits of working with online stars?

Charlotte: “If your product is focused at people under 18, vloggers are the best way of targeting them. They don’t read newspapers or magazines, and they watch www.pcr-online.biz

YOUTUBERS

little television, preferring to stream content, watch clips on YouTube and play games.

Basically, it’s your only choice.

“Get it right, though, and your product can be seen by a very specifically – and organically – targeted audience of millions, putting the power of brands like X Factor in the shade.”

Peter: “It’s a great opportunity to engage with younger audiences who are less exposed to traditional advertising. These kids are on iPhones, iPads and consoles, they dual screen too. Also they seem to love YouTubers as they are a new kind of hero whose life is a more exciting version of their own.”

Mark: “Content creators and streamers are influencers in their own right. They have a fanbase which listens to them, so their word is very powerful. This means you can evangelise a whole audience on a topic through a select few key broadcasters.”

What are your top tips for working in this field?

Charlotte: “My advice is the www.pcr-online.biz

same for working with content creators as it is for any media sector: have a clear understanding of who your audience is and what your objectives are, then look for a content creator who works with both.

“If your budget is tight, keep an eye out for underground and up-andcoming creators who will be as grateful for your publicity potential as you are for theirs.

That way you’ll be operating as equals, you’ll have more control over the messaging and you’ll get more for your money. You will also look cooler – forgive me, I’m old – with your target audience (assuming they are young).

“Better known content creators can make millions and have agents, managers, support crew and merchandisers so be prepared to a) spend a fortune and b) have limited and specific access to them.

“So build relationships with them and develop common ground and they will happily promote your products because they want to, and for

YouTube stars (clockwise from top-left): Ali-A, Linus Sebastian, KSI and PewDiePie

THE LOWDOWN YOUTUBE has over a billion users – almost a third of all people on the internet – and every day, people watch hundreds of millions of hours of YouTube videos and generate billions of views.

YouTube overall, and even YouTube on mobile alone, reaches more 18-34 and 18-49

“It’s a great opportunity to engage with younger audiences who are less exposed to traditional advertising.”

Peter McCormack, McCormack & Morrison

free. They are also, on the whole, very bright and polite.”

Craig: “Do your homework, make sure the person or team you are planning on working with shares your brand values and understands your goals.

It’s also really important to see viewers interacting with them. There is little value in working with someone on Twitch or YouTube if they are not interacting with their audience.”

Mark: “Working with streamers and YouTubers takes as much time networking and building relationships as understanding their day to day operations. As I’m part of

year olds than any cable network in the US. In 2015, Twitch boasted 100 million unique viewers per month and 1.5 million unique broadcasters each month. 16 million minutes were watched on Twitch per month, with over 11 million total videos broadcast per month.

the same community, I’m able to network for business by going to events I’d attend myself to grow my channel.”

Are there any pitfalls?

Charlotte: “They can be cripplingly expensive to work with. They are incredibly busy so you will have to work around them. A lot.

“They have massive and quite passionate fanbases, so you will need to consider security if you’re spending time with them in public. It’s a very fast growing sector, so you do have to invest a lot of time to keep up to date with who’s at the top and who the rising stars are.”

PCR January 2016 | 35

ANALYSIS

Top ten tech stories of 2015 2015 will arguably be remembered for the arrival of a free Windows 10, but there were plenty more goings on within the UK tech channel – including several big acquisitions, diversity drives and the UK office closure of one of the industry’s longest-running brands. Here are PCR’s biggest moments and other surprises of the year…

WINDOWS MAKES ITS BIG COMEBACK AT THE start of the year, Microsoft made a surprise announcement: Windows 10 would be free for a year for those upgrading from Windows 7 or 8.

Some retailers, resellers and distributors were left wondering how they’d make money with such a business plan, but come launch day on July 29th, Microsoft had already reached 14 million devices.

And vendors got behind the launch in style, announcing all manner of new PC systems designed specifically for Windows 10 – giving partners something to focus on and sell.

Microsoft set out an ambitious target of getting Windows 10 on one billion devices by 2018, and announced that gamers would be able to stream their Xbox games to Windows 10. Plus, delegates at the PCR Boot Camp 2015 conference and expo were lucky enough to try out Windows 10 for the very first time in the UK tech channel.

And let’s not forget the return of the Start Menu. All in all, an impressive year for Microsoft.

PC SALES DECLINE WORLDWIDE PC shipments continued to decline in 2015, with tablets falling out of favour with customers in particular.

Worldwide PC shipments totalled nearly 71 million units in the third quarter of 2015, according to IDC. This volume represented a year-on-year decline of 10.8 per cent – slightly worse than earlier projections expecting a decline of 9.2 per cent.

The tablet bubble burst in 2015, with global shipments of tablets falling for four successive quarters.

In Q3, 48.7 million tablets were shipped worldwide, down 12.6 per cent year-on-year. IDC said that tablet users were holding onto their devices for upwards of four years.

However, GfK said that there was still growth on the B2B side.

The drop in sales forced many vendors to rebrand as competition intensified, with the likes of Lenovo,

Corsair, Logitech and more getting new looks and logos.

THE BIG GET BIGGER THE PC market continued to consolidate in 2015, with some of the biggest companies growing in size even further.

Tech distributor Exertis made several acquisitions, including UK gadget and accessories supplier Computers Unlimited in a £24 million deal, Swedish tech distribution business CapTech and French cabling and connectors distribution business CUC Groupe.

It’s also building a 450,000sq ft UK

36 | PCR January 2016

national distribution centre.

Elsewhere, Dell broke records late last year, announcing plans to acquire storage company and VMware owner EMC for £44 billion – the biggest deal in history between two tech companies.

Plus, UK video game retailer GAME bought Multiplay – the gaming services company which is best known for its Insomnia PC gaming consumer LAN/eSports events – for £20 million.

JON ATHERTON LEAVES ENTATECH

ONE OF THE biggest surprises in the UK PC channel was the departure of Entatech’s UK commercial director Jon Atherton, who left the distributor in March after 22 years working at the firm.

Atherton said he “decided to leave the business and take some time out”, and soon after joined rivals Exertis as commercial development director.

Since then, he’s got his head down in his new role. Another

experienced tech exec – Dave Stevinson – replaced Atherton and was named Enta MD soon after.

The news came after Entatech’s owner Jason Tsai was caught up in a court case between his former business Changtel Solutions and HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) over VAT payments.

Tsai reassured staff, telling PCR that whatever happened, it wouldn’t “affect the operation of Entatech”.

www.pcr-online.biz

ANALYSIS

CHERRY CLOSES UK OFFICE

VR OR BUST

LET’S NOT FORGET… BILL GATES DRINKS WATER MADE FROM HUMAN FAECES

COULD 2016 be the year of virtual reality?

Headset developers finetuned their devices in 2015, with the Facebook-owned Oculus Rift device set to launch in Q1 this year. The HTC Vive, PlayStation VR and other units are due too.

There’s been a lot of buzz about this growing sector, and this year we’ll really find out if VR is the next big thing in tech. One thing’s for sure – the top headsets will require powerful PCs to run, giving retailers a great revenue opportunity.

THE BIG ESPORTS BOOM

COMPETITIVE gaming exploded in the UK in 2015, with huge events such as the League of Legends World Championship quarter finals and DreamHack in London.

Crowds flocked to the events in their thousands, and firms such as Intel got behind them in style. GAME acquired and continued to

grow its Multiplay Insomnia LAN gaming/expo events and more UK-based eSports teams formed.

Online, streaming services such as Twitch continued to grow. All of this meant system builders and PC retailers enjoyed strong sales of PC gaming machines, and it only looks set to grow further in 2016.

THE TECH GENDER GAP STARTS TO CLOSE 2015 WAS a fantastic year for women in tech.

The likes of Intel, Dell, Apple, Microsoft, Lenovo and others announced new initiatives to diversify their workforce, highlight women in the sector and better promote the technology industry to girls and young people.

These weren’t small initiatives either – Intel pledged to spend $125 million to “achieve full representation of women and underrepresented

www.pcr-online.biz

minorities” in its workforce by 2020.

The #ILookLikeAnEngineer Twitter hashtag helped to highlight the number of women working in tech and engineering, with women in the sector posting pictures of themselves at work.

Of course, PCR’s very own Woman of the Year awards event celebrated some of the leading ladies in the PC channel in October, with IT Tablet PC’s Nova Smith receiving the top accolade, alongside three others.

KEYBOARD specialist Cherry closed its Luton office at the tail end of 2015, after 43 years of trading in the UK. Cherry’s German parent company ZF Electronics set out a change of business model, and will now deal direct with the UK PC trade.

Despite the office closure, Cherry is keen to express that it will continue to have a presence in the UK. Cherry’s UK operation could follow a similar model to operations in France, where some staff work remotely but there is no warehouse.

SKYLAKE HIT

BY STOCK SHORTAGES INTEL launched its 6th gen Core (aka Skylake) processors in September, but these suffered stock shortages for the remainder of the year.

Intel announced the full boxed retail launch at the IFA trade show, with the company saying the processors “deliver some of the most significant advancements in computing”. However, several UK system builders

PC STORE HIT BY CANNABIS FARM FLOOD Indie computer store Premier Computers was flooded in July due to a hidden cannabis factory above the store.

It was hit by £12,000 worth of damages due to a leakage in the private flat above the shop.

Premier Computers owner Chris Loader told PCR: “We assumed it was just a water tank, but the fire brigade found quite a substantial cannabis factory up there.”

JOHN MCAFEE RUNS FOR PRESIDENT

told PCR there wasn’t enough to go round. There were shortages for both 14nm 6th Generation Core computer processors – the i5-6600K and the i7-6700K. It’s expected that further stock will arrive in early 2016.

LENOVO TURNS AROUND SUPERFISH PR DISASTER LENOVO HAD an incredibly busy 2015, with a few ups and downs.

Back in February, the PC giant came under fire as it was revealed that Superfish software pre-loaded on some of its computers could give hackers easy access to secure browser data.

The vendor handled the situation well, promising to cut adware in the future and offering free McAfee LiveSafe to users affected by the Superfish issue.

Bill Gates drunk water made from human faeces back in January 2015, showcasing tech that could provide clean water to developing countries.

The Microsoft founder tasted water that was created through an Omniprocessor system. The project was backed by the charity WaterAid, which said that 748 million people lack clean drinking water.

It announced a colourful brand refresh in June, and said it would be transforming itself from a hardware-focused firm to a ‘hardware and software’ company, before outlining to PCR its plans to become the UK’s number one PC vendor. Lenovo also posted record revenues of £29.5 billion for its financial year ending March 31st 2015.

Eccentric security expert John McAfee revealed that he was running for President.

During the TechCrunch Disrupt event in September, McAfee was seen lurking around the press room where he began a long-winded speech about how he plans to gain votes for the next election.

He said he had no plans to pay for any mainstream coverage, as ‘there’s the internet’.

SCOTTISH INDIE GOES GLOBAL WITH IRN-BRU Edinburgh-based retailer The PC Doctor received worldwide PR coverage in September, after it built a custom ‘Irn-Bru’ water-cooled PC. Dubbed the Och Aye Mac, the creation was the brainchild of shop owner John Lawson, and featured a 750ml glass bottle of the orange liquid.

However, the liquid used was actually coloured water rather than the famous fizzy fluid.

SYNOLOGY CATCHES NOTEBOOK THIEF Synology had a tricky time at the Computex trade show after an attendee tried to steal one of the company’s notebooks.

The firm’s own Surveillance Station product recorded the entire scene – and the thief was later caught by the police.

PCR January 2016 | 37

RETAILER OF THE MONTH

FACT FILE Year established: 2009 Number of outlets: 1 Contact name and address: Paul Middleton, Flat 77, Bawtry Rd, Bramley, Rotherham, South Yorkshire, S66 2TN Telephone: 01709 701200 Email: paul@pc-partx.co.uk

Directors Paul and Marie Middleton set up the store in 2009

Website: www.pc-partx.co.uk

PC-PartX Tell us about your background…

My background is from the motorcycle industry. I worked in it for about 17 years – I started off as a mechanic and finished as a regional operations manager.

Cutting a long story short, I started my own bike shop.

Then we had a big economic crash in 2000, so that didn’t work and unfortunately I ended up with depression.

Eventually, I went back to university to retrain myself before doing some plumbing and electrical jobs.

And then a chap rung me up – he had some unfortunate news. His brother, who had a computer shop, had died, and his dad was looking after it.

He said: “Do you want a computer shop?”

So that’s how it started, just a phone call from an acquaintance. It’s the shop I’m in now – it was next door to

We speak to owner Paul Middleton to ask him why he swapped the motorcycle trade for the PC industry, why he focuses on refurbished stock and why he’s got a Nintendo 64 on display that’s not for sale…

where I was before. So I took over that business in 2010, I built it up, and then we bought the whole building in October 2014 – then I moved sideways into a bigger shop.

not for sale. We also have a load of old cameras – ancient cameras like Brownies and things like that. It just creates a talking point.

What products and services does PC-Part X offer?

We’re a typical medium-sized computer shop. So we have about 40 laptops and 10 to 15 towers on show, then we also do repairs and servicing. Then we have another company called Gadget Tech, which focuses on iPads and phones.

“In the motorcycle trade, we made a decent 33 per cent margin – I try to stick to that with this shop too.”

You have some used games consoles on display in your shop, including a Nintendo 64. Tell us about that side of the business…

In my glass cabinets I’ve got a few museum pieces that I got out of my loft. It’s a talking point if anything, it’s a way into sales I suppose. People have wanted to buy it but it’s

Paul Middleton, PC-PartX How’s business?

We are doing alright, I think we probably differ from a lot of other stores.

I try to get a lot of refurbished equipment rather than new – because I can’t get good deals on new stock.

All the big distributors talk to me but I’m not putting

£500 into something to get £50 back. So I search and get some quality refurb stock with six months’ warranty. And we probably make £100 on it rather than £50, and it cost half the price.

In the motorcycle trade, we made a decent 33 per cent margin, and I try to stick to that with this shop too. And I think that’s why we have done so well.

Do you sell any cloud services or software?

No. We mostly sell home products. I’ve got to believe in it myself if I’m to sell it. I prefer to sell something like a USB pen and make more money on it. I should be selling it, but Google Drive is free. I looked at LogicNow at PCR Boot Camp North, and I think I will go down that line.

The one thing we do that works quite well is with all our anti-virus customers, a month

before their renewal is due, we ring them all up and let them know. We get quite a good retention from that rather than them pressing a button and buying it online.

What’s next for PC-PartX? We’re looking at opening another shop in Doncaster – that would be our second store. We currently have a load of space upstairs in our current shop and I’m just waiting for the valuation office to give us the go-ahead to use it commercially.

And then we’ve got opportunities to do more business here. I’d love to look at recovery media and stuff like that – hard drive recoveries and data recovery.

But for one bit of equipment you’re looking at £6,000 or so.

We went to a place in Sheffield and those services start from about £280, and it’s not labour intensive.

MYSTERY SHOPPER

Back to Black Who won the battle of Black Friday in the run up to Christmas? PCR’s Mystery Shopper scoured the internet for the cheapest 240GB solid state drive on Black Friday, to see which etailer had the best prices, delivery options and website that could cope with serious consumer demand. Our Mystery Shopper typed ‘SSD’ into Google and picked the first six UK etailers that sprung up…

6/10 SCAN COMPUTERS SCROLLING down Scan’s homepage, I was pleased to see a multitude of deals right there, without having to click on another separate Black Friday section.

However, the only SSD featured on the homepage was the SanDisk Ultra II 480GB priced at £79.98, so I looked elsewhere for 240GB variants.

The ‘Featured Deals’ section at the top of the homepage only contained a list of vendors, so I clicked ‘Special Offers’ to see where that would take me.

40 | PCR January 2016

I found myself scrolling through vendor products here anyway, which wasn’t much help, so I clicked the ‘Hard Drives – SSD’ link at the top instead, followed by the ‘Sale’ link.

There, after searching from lowest to highest priced products, I found a SanDisk SSD Plus 240GB 2.5-inch SATA 3 SSD for £56.69.

However, after putting it in my basket, a £4.57 carriage charge had brought the overall price up to £62.17.

“It was a real shame to see Overclockers offline, as the site is very well structured and packed full of products.”

7/10 NOVATECH THERE WAS a nice-looking virtual ‘Black Friday Deals’ shopping tag on the Novatech homepage, but disappointingly, clicking it did nothing at all.

There was a ’10 per cent off gaming PCs and laptops’ headline on the left, with three subtle tabs below it. The bottom one read ‘PC components’, but it didn’t jump out at me, and annoyingly, as I was about to click it, the carousel changed to a different offer. I refreshed the homepage, entered the components deals page, and

was impressed with the layout. There wasn’t too much on screen and the images were just the right size. A few SSD and motherboard bundles were available, including a Gigabyte motherboard and SanDisk 480GB SSD for £174.98.

I scrolled down and noticed a Kingston HyperX Fury Series 2.5-inch 240GB SATA 6GB/s Internal Solid State Drive for £54.98. There was a free three to four day delivery option on this too.

www.pcr-online.biz

MYSTERY SHOPPER

7/10 DABS.COM

3/10 OVERCLOCKERS UK

DABS ALSO had a selection of Black Friday deals on its homepage, but as there was only a 120GB SSD featured there, I headed to the ‘more deals’ tab in search of some bigger drives.

Scrolling down to the components section, I didn’t spot any 240GB SSDs, but I soon realised that there was another storage area below it. After scanning through the products listed here, I saw a Kingston 240GB HyperX Fury SATA 6GB/s 2.5-inch 7mm SSD (with a 9mm adaptor) for £54.98, down

from £72.99. It also came with free delivery.

Unfortunately, that was the only 240GB SSD in Dabs’ Black Friday deals.

I clicked the ‘components and storage – SSD’ link at the top in search of more, and stumbled upon the Toshiba Q300 240GB SSD for £56.98, but couldn’t find any cheaper 240GB SSDs on the website.

POOR OLD Overclockers.

Having not long relaunched its website with a fantasticlooking layout and cleaner navigation, Black Friday 2016 was not the system builder’s finest hour.

I tried to access the website around 3pm, but was met by an empty website with a ‘503 Service Unavailable’ message.

I waited 20 minutes and tried again. I was now able to click the ‘Business’ link at the top-left, which luckily loaded.

I rushed into the ‘PC components – SSD’ section and saw two 240GB SSDs at

SUMMARY

STAR STORE

9/10 EBUYER I WAS GREETED by a big Black Friday banner on the Ebuyer website, but as I couldn’t see an SSD on the homepage, I clicked ‘view our top picks’ within the banner.

Lo and behold, the product right at the top of the next page was an SSD – an OCZ Trion 100 240GB SATAIII 2.5inch SSD to be precise. And it had 40 per cent off, bringing the price down to £39.99; what a result.

Ebuyer even had a cheeky ‘Dabs price: £61.63’ within the product box, comparing its prices with its competitors. I www.pcr-online.biz

8/10 AMAZON

clicked through to the product page to find it in stock and available with £6.98 next working day delivery for Monday November 30th. I also had the option for free Super Saver delivery, with the product being delivered within five working days.

Being nosey, I clicked on the ‘Storage – SSDs’ link at the top of the page to look for other bargains. The second cheapest 240GB SSD I could find was a Sandisk Plus SSD for £59.99.

£59.99 each: the Kingston SSDNow V300 Drive and the Crucial BX200 SATA SSD. I clicked the ‘offers’ link at the top-left and found the Samsung 250GB 850 EVO SSD for £62.99. I popped it in my basket and clicked ‘proceed’, but unfortunately, I was met with a white screen and another ‘503’ error.

While I learnt that the site was working at other times, it was disappointing to see it down in the afternoon. The site did partially load at least, but as I was unable to explore any of the deals.

THE AMAZON homepage had not one, but two ‘Black Friday Deals Week’ banners at the top of the site, which I found a little confusing.

Which should I click? At first glance both banners looked similar, but after a few moments I realised Amazon was promoting its own products in the top banner.

I clicked the second banner but this also took me to a page featuring Amazon’s own products at the top, with ‘Lightning deals’ and ‘Deals ending soon’ sections below them. I searched here, but

couldn’t see any SSDs. I soon gave up searching within this section and attempted to find an SSD using the ‘Shop by department – Electronics and computers – Computer components’ links.

I found the SSD section and scanned through to find a 240GB device. The Samsung 250GB 850 EVO jumped out at me with a £59.90 price tag.

Searching for the lowest price, I spotted the same 240GB SanDisk SSD Plus from the Ebuyer website, but this one had a lower £39.99 price tag.

MY HUNT for a cheap solid state drive went very well, considering the tendency for big etail sites to crash during the Black Friday sales period.

Tech etail held out a bit better in November 2015. In the year prior, several sites experienced serious crashes due to high volumes of web traffic, while in 2015 Argos and Tesco saw their sites go offline for only a short while, with Overclockers’ site collapsing in the afternoon.

It was a real shame to see Overclockers offline, as the site is very well structured and packed full of products.

In terms of the SSDs themselves, it was nice to see 240GB variants priced from £40 to £60, down from £80 or so. Novatech and Dabs’ best deal was the Kingston 240GB HyperX Fury SATA, priced at £54.98 on both sites, while Scan had a SanDisk SSD Plus 240GB unit for £56.69, but delivery pushed this above £60.

While both Amazon and Ebuyer had 240GB SSDs at the lowest price point I could find (£39.99), Ebuyer was our star site thanks to its clearer design and better overall user experience.

PCR January 2016 | 41

New venue

R O F T I F T GE IN S S E N I S BU

2016

WEDNESDAY MAY 18TH 2016 E M I R A T E S

DEALERS ATTEND FOR FREE

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FOR MORE INFORMATION AND SOME FANTASTIC PARTNERSHIP OPPORTUNITIES

email jlane@nbmedia.com or sgoldhawk@nbmedia.com or telephone 0207 354 6000

RESELLER PROFILE / OPINION

RESELLER PROFILE: GALTEC SOLUTIONS

From dot matrix printer ribbons to datacentres, Galtec Solutions’ MD Mark Adams has seen it all. We ask him how he stays one step ahead – and why indie PC retailers need to be offering cloud services…

Tell us about your background…

I started my own business as a 20-year-old and built up a telesales team when the industry was in its infancy.

The products around at the time were very large floppy diskettes, dot matrix printer ribbons and typewriter ribbons. Now they’ve died a death, haven’t they?

It’s obviously evolved so much since then, but from setting up a business that was a reseller to other businesses around the country, it then developed into an IT-focused business with Windows for Workgroups, and I got involved in retail and started a PC assembly business off the back of that. And things then grew into a service offering i.e. configuration and build. So from those humble beginnings we

developed into what we are now – a full service provider.

What services do you offer?

Services in and around the datacentre, such as professional services around VMware, Microsoft, virtualization and migration, disaster recovery (DR), business continuity etc. I’m also heavily involved with client services, such as installation, config on site, IT equipment disposal and lifecycle management.

Some indie retailers aren’t embracing the cloud…

My suggestion to those guys is that the smaller end of clients are really open to cloud, so if you have five to 15 user businesses, then cloud suits them so much.

And it’s important to put a service wraparound there, to make sure there’s a return to

the service provider, whether it’s a service contract or managed services or all the renewals that may go with that, such as connectivity or anti-virus.

In the mid-market space – predominantly where Galtec works – we’ve seen a shift towards hybrid. That’s an onpremise or a local datacentre with a cloud element of DR. That seems to be the flavour of the moment.

You attended our PCR Boot Camp North 2015 event.

How did you find it?

It was really good – I enjoyed it! I had a chat with some of the vendors and met some of the TERRA guys on their stand. I made a few appointments off the back of it – I met the Brigantia guys

and made new contacts with M2M Direct. I may be able to put some business their way and save us some money.

What’s next for Galtec?

The adaption of the Internet of Things is here and now, and that’s only going to grow. I also think security is a very interesting proposition.

I think the renewals side of security is appealing to me because it brings annuity within the income stream that can be added to any service provision offering. I think 2016 is going to be a great year for the industry. I feel we didn’t get the surge we expected in 2015 on the back of Windows Server 2003 going end of life. But I feel we might catch some of the wind in the sails this year.

Mark Adams is MD at Galtec Solutions. www.galtec.com

Are you ready for the virtual reality revolution?

In his regular PC gaming column, PCR editor Dominic Sacco looks at the growing virtual reality market this month, with the Oculus Rift headset just around the corner…

OVER THE past few years it’s been full speed ahead for the virtual reality hype train.

Since Oculus announced its Rift headset, and was later acquired by Facebook, a number of other players have joined the bandwagon, with devices including the HTC Vive, Sony’s PlayStation VR, Samsung’s Gear VR and even Microsoft’s HoloLens to name a few.

Google Cardboard came along, essentially turning the smartphone into a portable VR device, creating a more affordable solution.

Cardboard spawned a number of other similar

www.pcr-online.biz

budget VR units, but these merely showcase the tech in its simplest form.

When virtual reality truly lands – and it will arrive soon – it’s going to need powerful PCs to run it. Last summer, Oculus announced the recommended PC specs for its Rift headset. It’s going to need an NVIDIA GTX 970/ AMD 290 equivalent or greater, an Intel i5-4590 equivalent or greater, 8GB+ RAM, a compatible HDMI 1.3 video output, two USB 3.0 ports and Windows 7 SP1 or newer.

The 970 only launched just over a year ago; the one in

“VR presents a tremendous opportunity for PC dealers, independent retailers and system builders.”

Dominic Sacco, PCR

my gaming PC at home still feels brand new and is able to run most new games in max settings. The fact the Rift VR headset lists it as a recommendation says a lot about the power it requires.

This presents a tremendous opportunity for PC dealers, independent retailers and system builders.

The likes of Amazon, Ebuyer, PC World and Tesco might sell tons of computer accessories and tech gear each month, but they don’t focus on custom-built PCs built for VR. They don’t have the deep PC gaming expertise and knowledge

that some indie retailers have. Bear in mind many major retailers are starting to sell higher-end systems, but these are usually in conjunction with a big vendor or system builder.

Of course, it’s not guaranteed whether virtual reality will reach a mainstream audience yet, but in my opinion there’s no reason why it won’t. Since the arrival of the smartphone and tablet, I think we’re due another big tech revolution.

And I think your average Joe is going to absolutely love VR – so make sure your business is ready for him.

PCR January 2016 | 43

TRICKS OF THE TRADE

Tricks of the trade: How to get smart with phone repairs While independent retail has had a tough time in general over the past decade, mobile phone accessory and repair shops have been popping up all over the place. With almost half of Londoners having broken a mobile device, PCR asks repairers, experts and store owners for their advice on this competitive sector…

“Having a plan is key. If you jump on board without too much thought, you will probably end up spending a lot of time and effort to make very little money. It took Utopia a while to work out how to make the mobile phone repair market work for us. We started by finding the right engineer then a reliable source for parts. After this, we priced ourself higher than local stores, but supported this with the best level of service and long guarantees.

“Also, simple things like nice packaging and trust go a long way to supporting that higher price. Believe me, there is still margin to be made in phone repairs!

CRAIG HUME, Utopia Computers

“At Pudsey Computers we do tablet and smartphone repairs – iPhone, Samsung and Nokia etc – and we’re doing about five devices a day at the moment.

So it’s not a bad turnover. I also run another company that refurbishes iPhone screens. It’s not a massively difficult repair, the only time it gets difficult is when it goes wrong. But I’d say nine times out of ten, it doesn’t, so it’s a relatively simple repair. It’s quite an obvious extension [to PC repairs] – if you’re doing laptop screen repairs, it’s the same thing really.

“But there’s massive growth in it, because everyone is smashing phones.

The only problem we come across is it’s massively

PCR ADVISORY BOARD ////////// PCR takes soundings from its Advisory Board on the biggest issues in the industry. The current members are: 44 | PCR January 2016

Craig Hume, Utopia Computers Jason Eccles, SimplyFixIT Mike Barron, Synaxon Iain Shaw, Brigantia Duncan Rutherford, Dabs.com Steve Ling, Overclockers UK

competitive, especially in our area. Bradford is a bit of a hotspot for phone shops. The parts are ridiculously cheap as well.”

STEVEN LIGHTFOOT JNR, Pudsey Computers “I first started simply by offering the service through my own personal social media profiles, and got a steady flow of custom this way purely through recommendations from friends to their friends. “eBay has proved to be a very reliable source for parts, but the only downside is not all sellers offer warranty, which is now why I mainly use dedicated wholesalers of replacement phone parts.

Margins vary between devices so that’s worth considering.”

ADAM SLYTH, The Gadget Doctor Jonpaul Warren, Ebuyer.com Alex Richmond, Maplin CK, YoYoTech Jat Mann, PC Pal Ben Miles, Chillblast Estelle Johannes, CompTIA

HOW TO TURN YOUR SERVICE INTO A PRODUCT SIMON DOBSON from itmarketingspecialist.com shares his marketing advice for retailers.

“The problem with services is that customers don’t have the joy of opening and touching something physical,” he says. “How can you bring the happiness and add value to make your services more attractive?

“Here’s my tip… turn your service into a product. It may sound daft but it certainly isn’t, for example; rather than ‘Bobs Phone Shop which fixes broken things’, why not turn the repair service into ‘iFix’? As if by magic, you now have a product.

“You can now create a flyer, talking about the merits and benefits of iFix, create adverts, service levels and even offers. For example: ‘Dropped your phone down the loo? No problem, 25 per cent off iFix for clumsy folk.’

“You have now differentiated yourself from others, and created a product from a service that can be marketed independently.”

Phil Browes, HMV Phylip Morgan, Network Group Phil Elford, Argos Gavin Holder, GHI Computers Chris Innes, Micro Plus James Gorbold, Scan Computers

John Church, Shop Direct Jason Hockman, Tesco William Jones, John Lewis Vladimir Kuznetsov, DinoPC Steven Lightfoot, Pudsey Computers Mike Fethers, The Hut Group

www.pcr-online.biz

SECTOR GUIDE

Cloud storage and software Like them or loathe them, cloud services are set to continue increasing in popularity. Dominic Sacco rounds up some of the cloud-focused storage products and service opportunities aimed at both consumers and businesses…

MY CLOUD

DELL WYSE VWORKSPACE

OFFICE 365

Distributor: WD

Contact: Dell

Distributors: Ingram Micro, Tech Data and Westcoast

Unlike public clouds, My Cloud personal cloud storage allows the user to keep all their content in one safe place on the home network.

Dell Wyse vWorkspace is a solution designed for organisations of all sizes looking to deploy a VDI infrastructure quickly and effortlessly. The solution allows organisations to deploy, provision and scale users on demand, and offers a private cloud environment to increase security.

Available in either personal or professional versions, small and large businesses can benefit from Microsoft’s Office 365. It comes with the latest versions of Word and Excel, along with 1TB of OneDrive cloud storage.

Specs: Compatible with all operating systems, 2TB to 6TB capacities.

Specs: Supports Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 and Windows 8.1, Secure Access gateway supporting up to 10,000 concurrent users.

Specs: 1TB of OneDrive storage, personal and professional, latest versions of Word, PowerPoint and Excel included.

SRP: £99 to £299

SRP: Varies

SRP: Varies

HPE HELION OPENSTACK 2.0

MY CLOUD MIRROR

MAXFOCUS

Contact: HP Enterprise

Contact: WD

Contact: LogicNow

This is HPE’s enterprise-grade distribution of OpenStack software, the open source cloud computing platform. HP Helion OpenStack is designed to deliver leading open-source cloud computing while adhering tightly to OpenStack software API standards and services.

My Cloud Mirror personal cloud storage comes equipped with two hard drives and is set to Mirror Mode (RAID 1), so your irreplaceable content is stored on one drive and automatically duplicated onto the second drive. In the unlikely event that one drive fails, the data will be safe and sound on the other drive.

This Managed Service Provider (MSP) platform includes integrated remote monitoring and management, hybrid backup, mail security, service desk, managed security, mobile device management and management of cloud applications including Office 365 and Google Apps.

Specs: OpenStack API adherence, third party support, ESX and Ceph storage, NIC bonding.

Specs: Compatible with all operating systems, available in 4TB to 8TB capacities.

Specs: N/A

SRP: Varies

SRP: £245 to £379

SRP: Varies

46 | PCR January 2016

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SECTOR GUIDE

BITDEFENDER GRAVITY ZONE BUSINESS SECURITY

WINZIP 20 PRO

TP-LINK GIGABIT ARCHER C3200

Distributor: PXS Distribution

Distributors: Computers Unlimited, Douglas Stewart, Exertis, Ingram Micro

Distributors: CMS Distribution, Entatech, Exertis, Spire Technology, Tech Data

Using constantly upgraded detection technologies, Bitdefender is able to catch advanced or zero-day threats that can be missed by other programs, whilst all the time having the smallest possible impact on system performance. It’s easy to install and monitor security remotely from a single cloud console.

WinZip 20 Pro lets the user manage all their files, keep data safe and simplify storage across cloud accounts, PC and network. It’s a file management and file sharing application that enables the user to combine local, network and cloud files in one automated backup.

This tri-band router is designed for SMEs and small office/home office users who are using the cloud for storage and want to access their data quickly.

Specs: Server and desktop protection, intrusion detection and web filtering capabilities.

Specs: Compatible with Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8 and 10, and Internet Explorer 8 or later.

Specs: Combined speeds of 3,200Mbps over one 2.4GHz (600Mbps) and two 5GHz (1300Mbps each) bands.

SRP: From £1.20 per user per month

SRP: £42.95

SRP: Around £170

ENTACLOUD

INFINIBOX

KASPERSKY LAB TOTAL SECURITY

Distributor: Entatech

Distributor: M2M Direct

Distributors: Entatech, Exertis, Tech Data

Entacloud is Entatech’s first move into the world of cloud-based services. It’s set to launch in early 2016, and will provide resellers with a one-stop-shop solution for cloud, cloud management, infrastructure, business applications, security, backup and storage as a service.

This high performance enterprise storage system eliminates performance, availability and scalability issues. It’s based on a fully abstracted set of software driven storage functions layered on top of low cost commodity hardware. It boasts high performance, throughput, and low latency.

Cloud-assisted security software Total Security protects the family from the latest internet threats and offers protection for different devices. It secures online banking and shopping, as well as identity, photos, files and more from cyber-criminals.

Specs: Varies.

Specs: 2PB usable capacity per rack, 8KW max power consumption.

Specs: Software is compatible with Windows 10, PC, Mac and mobile.

SRP: Varies

SRP: Varies

SRP: Price: £29.99 (per year)

CONTACT

www.pcr-online.biz

CMS Distribution ........ 01423 70 4700

HP Enterprise ...............01793 796026

Spire Technology .........01202 828444

Dell ............................... 020 8392 4076

Ingram Micro............... 0871 973 3000

Tech Data .....................01256 788000

Entatech ...................... 0333 101 1000

LogicNow......................01382 309040

Exertis Home ............... 01279 822 822

M2M Direct .................. 020 8676 6067

Exertis IT .......................01256 707070

PXS Distribution ......... 0844 879 4212

PCR January 2016 | 47

SECTOR GUIDE

HDDs and SSDs Analyst DRAMeXchange expects 256GB SSDs will move close to price parity with mainstream HDDs in 2016, so consumer adoption of SSDs should rise further. Dominic Sacco takes a look at the latest hard drives available…

SANDISK EXTREME 500 PORTABLE SSD

SANDISK SSD PLUS

CRUCIAL MX200 500GB

SAMSUNG SSD 950 PRO

Distributor: Hama

Distributor: Hama

Distributor: Northamber

Distributors: Northamber, Exertis, M2M Direct, Smithie UK

Offering high-performance multimedia storage for content such as photos and videos, the portable SanDisk Extreme SSD is capable of transfer speeds up to 415MB/s through USB 3.0 compatibility., and is small enough to slip into a bag.

With sequential read speeds of up to 520MB/s, the SanDisk SSD Plus helps you to achieve the best performance from your laptop or desktop, allowing games, apps and media to load, run and transfer at better speeds.

The Crucial MX200 delivers 555 MB/s sequential reads, and outperforms a typical hard drive by 400 MB/s. It has an endurance rating that’s up to five times greater than a typical client SSD.

The Samsung 950 PRO boasts exceptional performance for professionals. The V-NAND-based NVMe SSD supports PCI Express Gen 3 x4 lanes, providing a higher bandwidth and lower latency to process more data than SATA SSDs.

Specs: 120GB, PC and Mac compatible, 75.69mm x 75.69mm x 10.67mm, USB 3.0.

Specs: 69.85mm x 100.5mm x 7mm, SATA Revision 3.0 (6 GB/s), shock resistant up to 1500G.

Specs: 128KB read Up to 555 MB/s, Sequential 128KB, write up to 500 MB/s.

Specs: Sequential 128KB read, up to 2,200MB/s, sequential 128KB write, up to 900MB/s.

SRP: £120

SRP: £60 (120GB), £100 (240GB)

SRP: £116.99 Ex VAT

SRP: £149.99 (256GB), £269.99 (512GB) – varies by distributor

WD BLACK/RED/PURPLE

TRANSCEND SSD370S

HYPERX PREDATOR PCIE SSD

SEAGATE 4TB BACKUP PLUS PORTABLE

Distributors: Exertis, Ingram Micro, Tech Data

Distributor: Entatech

Distributors: Entatech, Simms, Tech Data, Ingram Micro

Distributor: CMS Distribution

WD Black 3.5-inch hard drives and 2.5inch mobile drives are designed for enthusiasts; WD Red is for NAS systems that have one to five drive bays; WD Purple Surveillance Hard Drives are engineered for 24/7 HD security systems.

Transcend’s SSD370 SATA III 6G/s SSD boasts fast transfer speeds, large capacities of up to 1TB, a compact and lightweight design, shock and vibration resistance, and has a DevSleep mode for a lag-free experience on journeys.

Faster than SATA-based SSDs, this delivers speeds of up to 1,400MB/s read and 1,000MB/s write for ultraresponsive multitasking. It features a PCIe Gen 2.0 x4 interface for high performance.

The Seagate Backup Plus portable drive offers the mobility of a portable with the high capacity of a desktop drive.

Under a sleek metal design lies 4TB of storage – twice the capacity of comparable 2.5-inch portable drives.

Specs: Available in 2TB to 6TB.

Specs: 2.5-inch, MLC NAND flash, read speed 560MB/s, write speed 460MB/s.

Specs: PCIe Gen 2.0 x4 interface, 240GB and 480GB capacities, M.2 form factor.

Specs: 4TB, USB 3.0.

SRP: £134.99 (512GB), £299.99 (1TB)

SRP: £170 inc VAT

SRP: £119.99 inc VAT

SRP: £69 to £259 (Black), £79 to £220 (Red), £82 to £259 (Purple)

48 | PCR January 2016

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SECTOR GUIDE

ADATA HD720 EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE

INTEL 750 SERIES

ASUS TRAVELAIR N 1TB

SAMSUNG T1

Distributor: Entatech

Distributors: Avnet, Tech Data, Ingram Micro, Hammer, Microtronica

Distributors: Spire Technology, VIP Computers

Distributors: Exertis, M2M Direct, Smithie UK

The HD720 is an ultra durable, rugged external hard drive with a sporty design.

It features a large storage capacity, and also undergoes stringent tests for waterproofing, dustproofing and shock resistance to provide protection of data.

Experience the future of storage performance for desktop client and workstation users with the Intel SSD 750 Series. It utilises NVM Express over four lanes of PCIe 3.0, and is available in add-in card and 2.5-inch form factors.

Designed as an external storage device for smartphones and tablets, the Travelair N creates its own Wi-Fi network for users to stream and share media files, or access stored documents wirelessly.

The T1 is a compact portable SSD designed with V-NAND technology small enough to slide into your pocket, wallet or bag. Samsung has taken the performance of an internal SSD, with read/write speeds of up to 450 MB/s.

Specs: USB 3.0, 2.5-inch drive, 9.79 cm (W) x 12.94 cm (D) x 2.02 cm.

Specs: 400GB, 800GB and 1.2TB, up to 2,400MB/s sequential read speed and 1,200MB/s sequential write speeds.

Specs: 1TB, 140 x 90 x 25.5 mm, USB 3.0, built-in SD card reader.

Specs: 250GB, 500GB and 1TB capacities, 71 x 9.2 x 53.2mm, up to 450MB/s transfer speeds.

SRP: £69.99 (1TB), £94.99 (2TB)

SRP: Varies

SRP: £99.99

SRP: £113.99 (250GB), £188.99 (500GB)

KINGSTON SSDNOW V310 DRIVE

INTEL S3500/S3510 SSDS

SEAGATE GAME DRIVE FOR XBOX

SANDISK 480GB ULTRA II SSD

Distributors: Entatech, Simms, Tech Data, Ingram Micro

Distributors: Avnet, Tech Data, Ingram Micro, Hammer, Microtronica

Distributor: CMS Distribution

Distributor: CMS Distribution

Kingston’s SSDNow V310 solid-state drive dramatically improves the responsiveness of a system. It features a Phison 3108 controller and achieves read and write speeds of 450MB/s.

The Intel Solid-State Drive DC S3500 / S3510 Series combines fast read performance with strong data protection to power video conferencing, big data analytics, cloud computing or virtual client applications.

This full hard drive for the Xbox One console boosts its storage capacity. The Seagate Game Drive is the only external hard drive designed exclusively for Xbox One or Xbox 360.

Consumers can increase their PC’s performance up to 28 times with an upgrade to the SanDisk Ultra II SSD. They can enjoy no-wait boot up and shorter application load and data transfer times than a traditional hard drive can deliver.

Specs: 2.5-inch drive, 450MB/s read and 450MB/s write speeds.

Specs: 75,000 input/output operations per second (IOPS), low read latencies of 50 μs typical.

Specs: 2TB, includes USB 3.0 cable, backwards compatible with USB 2.0.

Specs: 120GB, 240GB, 480GB and 960GB capacities.

SRP: £290 inc VAT

SRP: Varies

SRP: £79.99 inc VAT

SRP: £79.99 inc VAT

CONTACT Avnet ........................... 01344 355 800

Hama UK ...................... 0333 123 4262

Microtronica................ 0118 963 3805

Spire Technology .........01202 828444

CMS Distribution ........ 01423 70 4700

Hammer ....................... 01256 841 000

Northamber ................ 020 8296 7066

Tech Data .................... 01256 788 000

Entatech ...................... 0333 101 1000

Ingram Micro............... 0871 973 3000

Simms ...........................01622 852800

VIP Computers ............ 0871 622 7500

Exertis IT .......................01256 707070

M2M Direct .................. 020 8676 6067

Smithie UK....................01256 844028

www.pcr-online.biz

PCR January 2016 | 49

The circus is COMING The PCR Awards return once again on Thursday March 10th 2016, where the Royal Garden Hotel will be transformed into a circus themed extravaganza.

Kick back and relax during the dinner, go wild at the achievements of the UK PC and tech industry and celebrate at the after-show drinks reception.

Distributors, vendors and retailers will be recognised through a variety of awards and categories.

PLUS for 2016 we’ve added a ‘channel services’ category with new awards recognising PR agencies, analysts and IT buying groups.

So remember to open your diaries and save the date – don’t miss out on the opportunity to get your business recognised.

We look forward to seeing you there.

Be part of the celebrations and join us…

SAVE THE DATE Headline Partner

After Party Host

Frontline Category Sponsor

Gold Partner

Event Partner

Photo Booth Partner

Recommended Dedicated monthly product coverage

The latest tech Editorial planner

The initial concept will feature an easy to open side panel

The prototype will be shown off at CES 2016

The Y series desktop features Razer branding on the front

Lenovo teams with Razer for Y series LENOVO AND Razer have announced details of their first gaming desktop prototype, to be officially launched at the CES trade show in January 2016.

The two companies will cobrand and co-market special Razer Edition models of Lenovo’s Y series gaming devices, combining the manufacturing, supply chain

and channel relationships of Lenovo with the technology of PC gaming vendor Razer.

“We are thrilled to partner with Razer and bring out the best from both companies to deliver a better, more immersive gaming experience for customers,” said Victor Rios, Lenovo’s VP and general manager, Workstation BU, Gaming and Industry Solutions.

“While we bring to the table our engineering expertise, design muscle and scale, Razer adds in the finesse and experience of serving the gaming community for the last decade. We believe our partnership is a strong first step that will lead to the delivery of winning PC gaming solutions and a brand

new experience to our customers.”

Razer co-founder and CEO Min-Lang Tan added: “This agreement opens opportunities to advance the gaming lifestyle through world-class product in unprecedented ways.

“Lenovo is the world’s number one PC maker. Razer is the world’s number one

gaming lifestyle brand.

Together we have the passion, insight and operational capabilities to delight and empower the PC gaming community worldwide.”

All forthcoming Lenovo Razer Edition products will be co-branded to reflect the new aesthetic of the Lenovo Y series, including customisable Chroma lighting.

Contact: Lenovo | www.lenovo.com | www.razerzone.com | Price: TBC

www.pcr-online.biz

PCR January 2016 | 51

SAVE THE DATE THURSDAY, 3RD MARCH BANKSIDE HILTON, LONDON NOW in their 16th successful year, the MCV Awards are the UK’s only computer and video games awards that recognise games publishing, retail, distribution, marketing, PR, events and media – all parts of this industry we love.

Each year these prestigious awards are open to games publishers, retail and distribution, with entries peer-voted and judged by an independent panel of specialists. They are stylishly presented at the ceremony to over 600 of the industry’s leading figures to celebrate the achievements of the top games industry professionals and teams.

Firmly established as the unrivalled badge of excellence for the games sector, these prestigious awards were launched to raise standards across the industry by showcasing top class performance and innovation.

Today, with 24 categories recognising the best in the games business, The MCV Awards remains one of the “must attend” events in the games calendar with the great and good of the market descending on London’s new swanky Hilton Bankside Hotel for a memorable evening.

FOR SPONSORSHIP CALL CONOR TALLON ON 02073 546000 OR EMAIL CTALLON@NBMEDIA.COM EVENT PARTNER

RECOMMENDED

HP takes on Surface Pro with new Elite x2 HP’S NEW Elite x2 offers the productivity of a full notebook with the convenience of a tablet. Designed specifically with the mobile professional in mind, it’s being billed by HP as the ‘world’s first tablet truly built for business’.

Manufactured from milled CNC aluminium, the tablet weighs less than two pounds (about one kg) and is 8.1mm thin. It features a useful built-in kickstand allowing 150 degrees of adjustability, and gives the option of upright viewing and keyboard typing, or it can be laid flat for on-screen typing. There’s also a 12 inch (30 cm) diagonal full HD display which features a 3:2 aspect ratio, with auto adjust to suit different lighting conditions.

Featuring Windows 10, the Elite x2 is built with a 6th generation Intel Core M vPro processor offering high

performance and power efficiency. SSD technology also means there are no moving parts, guaranteeing a noiseless computing experience. There’s also audio by means of Bang & Olsen and HP Noise Reduction Software which gives professionals on conference calls the ability to hear and be heard.

Both Thunderbolt 3 and USB-A ports are included, with the device also incorporating an optional, built-in 4G LTE modem, offering the convenience of connectivity without the need for tethering. It is also supported by all major 3G and 4G networks.

The HP Active Pen with App Launch is a standard feature, which includes integrated pressure points to help control line width when writing or drawing on screen.

App Launch is a programmable Bluetooth operation that allows the user to quickly launch OneNote or any other favourite Windows application.

The Elite x2 also provides a choice of two optional, enterprise-class, full-sized backlit keyboards, layered in a stiff aluminium base providing rigidity. There’s the advanced keyboard featuring an NFC sensor in the touchpad and built-in smart card reader for log-in security, plus a multitude of built-in security capabilities.

“The Elite x2 features a 6th gen Intel Core M vPro processor.”

Contact: HP | www.8.hp.com | Price: Starting from £749 including VAT | Out: January

Three is the magic number for Cherry CHERRY HAS announced two new wireless mice, the MW 2310 and MW 2110, along with an updated version of the MC 2000. All are compatible with Windows 10.

The symmetrical shape and design of the mice means both both right-handed and left-handed users are catered for, with the MW2310 and MW 2110 both benefiting from wireless connectivity.

The MC 2000 connects to a PC through standard USB cable.

All three mice are equipped with precise infrared sensors, giving a direct transmission of movements across suitable surfaces, with the added benefit of being ready straight out of the box, and no installation software needed. The MW 2310 and MW 2110 also offer a threestage adjustable sample rate, with users being able to

choose between 1,000, 1,500 and 2,000 DPI. The MC 2000 is fixed at a value of 1,600 DPI. A bonus with the MC 2000 is the four-way scroll feature that allows horizontal and vertical scrolling, without the need for additional buttons.

The MW 2310 and MW 2110 also benefit from 2.4Ghz wireless technology, which provides maximum energy

“In addition to Windows 10 compatibility, Cherry has also launched a new colour scheme.”

savings across the mice. One battery pack will give the MW2310 an operating time of up to three years, while the MW 2110 will run for up to 12 months. On the delivery side, both mice will work with a Nano USB recover which is compact enough to leave plugged into PCs and notebooks without distracting the user.

In addition to Windows 10 compatibility, Cherry has also launched a new colour scheme, with the MW 2310 and MW 2100 available in deep black and the MC 2000 available in white-grey.

All mice are available now with the MW 2310 priced at Euro 20 (£15) the MW 2100 at Euro 15 (£11) and the MC 2000 at Euro 10 (£8).

Contact: Cherry | www.cherry.de | +49 (0) 9643 18-1424 | Price: £15 (MW 2310), £11 (MW 2100), £8 (MC 2000)

www.pcr-online.biz

PCR January 2016 | 53

RECOMMENDED

Hannspree entertains with new Titan addition HANNSPREE has a new product in the HANNSpad series - the Titan SN14T72B tablet.

It is aimed at the multimedia and entertainment market, and includes a 13.3 inch full HD IPS display and 1920 x 1080 resolution for hosting HD video, gaming and photography. Picture perfecting IPS technology delivers vivid colour and also provides the screen with a super wide viewing experience from any angle.

The Titan’s display also features a responsive 10 Point Multi Touch operation, ensuring a smooth navigation around the interface and fingertip control within apps.

Power comes from a Quad Core processor and 2GB DDR RAM, with a further 16GB of on-board storage for access to documents, applications and media on the go. Micro SD

“The Titan’s brushed aluminium design means it weighs in at less than 1kg.” expansion offers additional storage space of up to 32GB when required. Powered by the Android 4.4 operating system, the Titan provides

access to online stores such as Google Play when additional applications are required.

Connectivity to the internet is via Wi-Fi and also internal Bluetooth, allowing users to connect with any number of Bluetooth-enabled accessories. There’s also a Mini HDMI port included which allows connectivity with any HDMI wielding TV or large screen monitor.

A rear-facing 5.0 Mega Pixel camera featuring Auto Focus

allows the user to take photos and produce video, while a front-facing 2 Mega Pixel camera allows for conferencing via Skype.

Significantly lighter than its

predecessor, the Titan’s brushed aluminium design means it weighs in at less than 1kg and measures at 9mm in thickness, with a LiPolymer 9,600mAh battery.

Contact: Hannspree www.hannspree.eu | 0871 6660850 | SRP: £169

Samsung kicks into overdrive for DDR4 128GB production SAMSUNG has announced that it is mass producing the double data rate-4 (DDR4) memory in 128GB modules for enterprise servers and data centres.

In what the firm claims to be a first ‘through silicon via’ (TSV) the company’s new dual inline memory module offers ultra-high capacity memory at the enterprise level.

Samsung’s new TSV DRAM module boasts the largest capacity and the highest efficiency of any DRAM modules, while operating at high speed combined with solid reliability.

Through silicon via (TSV) is a new and advanced chip packaging technology that vertically connects DRAM chip

“Samsung’s new module boasts the largest capacity of any DRAM modules.” dies using electrodes that penetrate the micronsthick dies through microscopic holes.

Contact: Samsung | www.samsung.com

“We are pleased that volume production of our high speed, low-power 128GB TSV DRAM module will enable our global IT customers and partners to launch a new generation of enterprise solutions with dramatically improved efficiency and scalability for their investment,” said Joo Sun Choi, executive VP, Memory Sales and Marketing, Samsung Electronics.

The 128GB TSV DDR4 RDIMM comprises a total of 144 DDR4 chips, arranged into 36 4GB DRAM packages,

each containing four 20-nanometer (nm)-based 8-gigabit (GB) chips assembled with cutting-edge TSV packaging technology.

Samsung is responding to growing demand for ultrahigh capacity DRAM by accelerating production of TSV technology in the market

and quickly ramping up 20nm 8GB DRAM chips to improve manufacturing productivity.

The company plans to provide a complete line-up of its new high-performance TSV DRAM modules early next year, including 128GB load reduced DIMMs (LRDIMMs).

Samsung will also be introducing modules with data transfer speeds of up to 2,667Mbps and 3,200Mbps.

RECOMMENDED

ASUS takes gaming up a notch with GTX 980 Ti

Raspberry PI’s $5 PC THE RASPBERRY PI Zero is the latest addition to the Raspberry PI minicomputer range.

Manufactured in Wales, it features a broadcom BCM2835 application processor, 1Ghz ARM11 core, 512MB of LPDDR2 SDRAM, a micro-SD card slot, miniHDMI socket, micro USB sockets, unpopulated 40-pin GPIO header and unpopulated composite video header.

Zero also benefits from being the smallest manufactured by the company, with dimensions of

65mm x 30mm x 5mm. It is, of course, capable of running a multitude of applications, including Scratch, Minecraft and Sonic Pi and many more.

Demand for the Zero is high, with several thousand units already manufactured and many more in production, with demand is expected to outstrip supply before too long.

There’s also a cable bundle available with Zero, consisting of a mini-HDMI cable and a microUSB cable.

Contact: Raspberry Pi | www.raspberrypi.org | Price: $5

CELEBRATING 20 years of making graphics cards, ASUS is launching the GTX980 Ti Golden Edition.

And ASUS is claiming that this will be the last chance to get the limited edition gold card, billed as the fastest GTX 980 Ti on the planet.

The GPU base clock is set to 1,266MHz, and 1,367Mhz for GPU boosted clock. To put that in perspective, that is higher than the ROG Matrix GTX 980 Ti with a base clock of 1,216 MHz and boosted clock of 1,317Mhz/ And this translates to 22.1 per cent more performance in Grand Theft Auto V and 20.8 per cent more frames per second in Witcher 3.

Advanced features include Memory Defroster for LN2 overclocking, colour-coded Load

Indicator to display GPU load level, and Safe Mode for instant VBIOS reload. DirectCU II with 0dB fan tech provides silence for general use, while it is 30 per cent cooler and three times quieter than reference during more intensive gaming. Each card is produced using the new environmentally-friendly ASUS AUTO-EXTREME technology.

Contact: ASUS | www.asus.com | Price: £589.99

Editorial Planner

A look at the biggest features coming up in PCR over the next few months...

FEBRUARY 2016

MARCH 2016

APRIL 2016

NETWORKING SPECIAL

PC GAMING SPECIAL

PCR AWARDS SPECIAL

We delve in to the networking sector and see how the landscape is changing.

As virtual reality continues to increase in popularity, we take a look at how VR is affecting the PC gaming market.

We take a look back on the 2016 PCR Awards evening, publish pictures from the night and provide a recap of all the winners.

In our March issue we also preview the PCR Awards and round up the latest gaming hardware, components and peripherals.

We’ll also be exploring the evolving market for mobile devices, from smartphones to tablets, hybrids, notebooks and wearables.

Advertising Deadline

Advertising Deadline

Advertising Deadline

January 8th

February 5th

March 10th

Also this month, PCR reviews education technology show BETT and takes a look at the managed services sector.

www.pcr-online.biz

PCR January 2016 | 55

OUT OF OFFICE

IN THE

HOT SEAT This month we talk to Sennheiser’s telecoms marketing manager Charlotte Waterworth about crocodiles and Copenhagen…

WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST JOB? A paper round at age 13! Once a week I was up and about delivering the mid-week news to 700 houses. My first full time job was at BMW working as an apprentice recruitment assistant at the Group Academy in Reading. It was a year placement as part of my Business Management degree.

I thought I wanted to be in HR but the year gave me experience in marketing and I realised that was actually the area I wanted to specialise in. My first job after university was marketing executive at HP in the Enterprise Servers Storage and Networking division.

DO YOU HAVE ANY PHOBIAS? Heights... It never used to affect me but the last few years I’ve had a real fear of looking out of windows from the top floors of buildings. Going on the Emirates Airline over to the 02 Arena a few weeks ago was not fun!

WHAT’S YOUR MOST EMBARRASSING OR FUNNIEST MOMENT IN THE INDUSTRY? A few years ago our HQ sent over a few suggestions for a new product name. They are German and Danish so like to get a native English person’s view.

I had to explain why we couldn’t call the next product the Sennheiser VD – quite embarrassing! I copied my manager into the mail and the team haven’t let me forget it since.

WHAT’S THE STRANGEST THING YOU HAVE EATEN? I went to a restaurant in London last year which served strange delicacies. I had crocodile for main (very chewy!) and chocolate covered scorpions for dessert.

WHAT’S THE BEST PLACE YOU HAVE VISITED IN WORK AND OUTSIDE OF WORK? In work, the best place I have visited is Copenhagen. Our head office is over there so fortunately I get to go a couple of times a year. The restaurants, shops and nightlife are all great.

Outside of work, I would say Barbados – I got married there last year. The weather is fantastic, the beaches are beautiful.

WHERE DO YOU SEE YOURSELF IN THE NEXT FIVE YEARS? A lot can change in five years but I would love to see myself at Sennheiser managing a team of marketeers.

The Sennheiser call centre and office team is growing and we’ll soon need to expand – not just our sales team but also the amount of marketing support to keep up with the growing demands. On a more personal level, perhaps a bigger house!

DO YOU HAVE ANY PETS? I have a black cat called Rudi. We got him from a local rescue centre when he was five months old, he only has a stump for a tail (bless him) but is fit and well and doesn’t let it affect him.

56 | PCR January 2016

ELF CARE CISCO’S LIVE video communications technology helped brighten up Christmas for children in hospitals throughout December.

Celebrating its tenth year, Cisco’s Connected Santa programme gave young patients and their families the opportunity to speak directly to Santa, with his elf helpers on hand at various UK and Ireland hospitals to share gifts with children in person.

Word is that Cisco UKI’s healthcare client director Terry Espiner even embraced the Christmas spirit, dressing up as an elf with client

Gareth Bulpin from the Cardiff & Vale University Health Board.

“No more leaving it to the Cisco Account Team,” said Terry. “Now it’s fair to say that perhaps neither Gareth

nor I would have been Spielberg’s first ‘casting’, but so be it.”

Good on you, Terry.

Now, where are those chocolates? They’re not yours, they’re ours.

CUSTOMER COMMENTS RIFT IN THE TIME-SPACE CONTINUUM A review of the Denon AKDL1 Dedicated Link Cable (now discontinued) by George Takei: “THE MINUTE I plugged this cable in, I knew something was amiss. The first evidence? The small wormhole that appeared in our living room, right next to our holstein cowhide recliner. Peering into it I could discern the snarling face of a Ferengi, likely somewhere out in the Gamma quadrant.

“Then things got really hairy. Brad shouted from the kitchen that he was detecting elevated tachyon levels from our Vita-Mix, so we immediately diverted power to our forward Romco Rotisserie array. Set it and forget it, indeed.

“Still no go. The wormhole continued to grow. So I did what anyone in this rather awkward situation would. I recalibrated our George Foreman Grill (about 10 picometers), ejected the warp core from our Dyson Ball Vac, and unplugged all the Magic Jacks in the house. Bingo.

No more wormhole.

“I guess what I’m saying is that you can use this cable, but only if you have substantial Star Fleet training.”

www.pcr-online.biz

OUT OF OFFICE

140 CHARACTERS OF NEWS AND VIEWS What the industry’s been tweeting about this month…

Entatech UK @Entatech We’re looking forward to what we’re sure will be another fantastic event put on by @pcr_ online ! #PCRAwards2016

NOT-SO-SCAREDY-CATS SOFTCAT’S DIRECTORS went all Calendar Girls recently to raise money for charity during the Christmas period.

The IT provider’s MD Colin Brown posted the

brave snap on Twitter.

For every new page visit on the site, Softcat donated £1 to the Tuberous Sclerosis Association.

There was even a little ‘Bah Humbug!’ link hidden at

the bottom of the website to stop the snowing effect on-page.

Looking back at the image, we do hope that’s only the lectern we can see there…

Clare Newsome, Computers Unlimited @ClareNewsome (Retweeted PCR Online’s ‘New circus theme for PCR Awards 2016’ article) Please promise there will be no clowns, @pcr_ online *Shudder* #Coulrophobic Yuanqing Yang, Lenovo @Yuanqing_Lenovo Partnering with @Razer strengthens #LenovoGaming. & will be a winning PC gaming experience Beta Distribution @BetaDist Demand for SSDs and smartphone storage on the rise - GfK http://bit.ly/1ORiEms See more @pcr_online Mike Jennings, tech journalist @mikejjennings (Retweeted PCR Online’s ‘Overclockers UK and GAME’ article) Oh wow, this is surprising and cool. PC software is barely in Game stores, but gaming PCs are doing really well atm Rich Marsden, VIP Computers @Rich_VIPCom The @Razer Blade is coming to Europe & the UK FINALLY!! Looking forward to distributing this product it is going to be huge! #VIPCom CONTEXT @contextworld The building blocks of the smart home must be security, confidence and trust according to @adamcontext http://buff.ly/1lHU8ee #smarthome

CARTRIDGE PEOPLE’S CHARITY CAMPAIGN MORE THAN £6,000 has been raised for Breast Cancer Care following a month-long campaign.

The inaugural ‘Print Pink’ initiative was organised by online retailer Cartridge People to raise money and awareness for national charity Breast Cancer Care.

The campaign encouraged people to

www.pcr-online.biz

send pink coloured emails and print documents in pink ink during breast cancer awareness month in October.

Pledging a £1 donation to the charity each time specific ‘Print Pink’ items were purchased on their website, Cartridge People raised a total £6,715. ExBritish Army platoon

commander Rick MartinBacon (left) who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2014, collected the cheque on behalf of Breast Cancer Care with Emillienne Rebel (centre) and the Cartridge People’s Andrew Davies.

For more info visit www. cartridgepeople.com/info/ print-pink.

CompTIA UK @CompTIA_UK #CompTIA unveils new Executive Council to support and guide UK channel - http://bit. ly/1m0wdpQ

Synaxon UK @SynaxonUK Synaxon service partner DMSL are expanding their cloud telephones service – A big opportunity for Synaxon members - http://bit. ly/1PP7qCg

PCR January 2016 | 57

OUT OF OFFICE

musketeers. We are the backbone of Synaxon UK, we understand the requirements of our suppliers and our dealer members better than any other department. We manage EGIS and our BPM system maintaining all critical business data and we manage everything relating to Synaxon UK accounts.

Who’s in your team?

Carolyn Arthur (right), Nikki Foster (centre) and Jennifer Anderson-Hammersley (left) – aka The Three Musketeers.

In our brand new Team of the Month section, we highlight some of the important faces from across the industry who perhaps aren’t always in the public eye. This month, it’s the Synaxon UK admin team…

What’s been your biggest successes of the past year?

In the joint opinion of our small – but perfectly formed – team, the biggest success for us in 2015 has got to have been the Synaxon UK conference Coordinating the administration around a national conference with almost 400 attendees, 250 room bookings over two nights and a sit down dinner and awards for over 200 guests was a big task. Our team worked around the clock for months to ensure this fantastic event ran without a hitch.

Left to right: Jennifer Anderson-Hammersley, Nikki Foster and Carolyn Arthur

What’s the hardest part of working in the tech industry?

The hardest part of working within the IT industry is keeping up with all of the changes that are made on a daily basis. As a pivotal part of the day-to-day running of the business, our admin team work extremely hard in a fast paced environment.

Who makes the best cuppa?

Certainly not Jen! It’s well known in Synaxon HQ that Jen has a phobia towards the kettle, but fortunately Carolyn and Nikki both make a great brew.

What’s the best part of working in your team?

Camaraderie – we are all mates together, we are the three

THE PCR TIME MACHINE: A CLOUDY FUTURE?

PCR’S TIME MACHINE ON

OFF

Cloud computing may be here and now, but what does the future hold for the industry in 500 years’ time? Let’s hop into the PCR time machine and find out…

THEY SAID cloud was the future – and they weren’t wrong. But did they mean a different kind of cloud?

Cisco Systems said it expected public cloud workloads to grow at a 44 per cent compound annual growth rate to 2019, and public cloud computing reached almost $70 billion in 2015.

Surprisingly, the growth continued. Hundreds of years passed, and the revenues kept on rising. Space on Earth became extremely limited.

The cloud computing market continued to grow at such a pace, companies just kept on building until there were more datacentres on the planet than houses.

This didn’t matter – firms were generating revenues beyond their wildest dreams (Amazon World Services posted a profit of $56 octillion allowing it to buy Microsoft, its last remaining rival), so had to find new ways to build more datacentres.

They soon realised the clue was in the name. By the year

“By the year 2500, Amazon outgrew the land and was instead building datacentres and warehouses in the sky.”

2500, Amazon had outgrown the land and was building sky-based datacentres and warehouses. This also helped it to finally launch the drone delivery service that was questioned back in the halcyon days of 2013.

As part of signing up to Amazon World Services’ cloud offering, customers could receive a free air-chute, from which goods could be instantly dolloped into their own home from the sky – quickly putting Santa and his reindeers out of work.

2516 By this point, the thought of distributors, retailers and vendors was laughable. No, in 2516, there was only Amazon.

There were flying cars, but as Amazon owned the cloud super highways, only its staff were allowed to access them.

This kept them safe from any future New York Times exposés and allowed them to truly dominate the cloud computing sector. But back in 2016, people sat oblivious, confused by a little article in the back of PCR which they naively dismissed as satire.

Editorial: 01992 535646 Advertising: 01992 535647 Website: www.pcr-online.biz Twitter: @pcr_online PCR is published 12 times a year by NewBay Media - Saxon House, 6a St. Andrew Street, Hertford, Hertfordshire SG14 1JA. Fax: +44 (0)1992 535648. © NewBay Media 2016 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage or retrieval system without the express prior written consent of the publisher. The contents of PCR are subject to reproduction in information storage and retrieval systems. Printed by Pensord.

58 | PCR January 2016

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9VIP Club has over 400 members

9Members have claimed over £111,943 in rebates 9VIP club has introduced over 350 credit limits to the value of £1.4m

I would highly recommend the VIP Club Notebook Programme to independent retailers. Our notebook sales have increased substantially and it gives me the opportunity to stock a more varied range for our customers.

Easy PC

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Call your account manager to find out more and ask about the new benefits today!

Sales Hotline 0871 622 7500 www.vip-computers.co.uk

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