Print.IT Reseller - issue 73

PRINTITRESELLER.UK 7 BULLETIN CityFibre introduces 90- day grace period CityFibre has announced a new initiative that helps channel partners support business customers during the COVID-19 impact by deferring billing on new Gigabit Ethernet installations for up to 90 calendar days. The 90-day grace period applies from the installation date of new orders of CityFibre Ethernet Flex 1Gbps and CityFibre 1Gbps bearer- based Ethernet circuits, unless the customer requests the connection be activated sooner because they have returned to working from their premises. The initiative currently covers orders placed until the end of May 2020, and also includes existing orders that customers have put on hold. Head of Wholesale, Andy Wilson said: “We understand the pressure our channel partners and their customers are facing in the current COVID-19 situation and are finding ways to help them and their customers wherever possible. We’ve listened carefully to partners’ experiences and concerns in recent weeks and developed this initiative to help them overcome customers’ fears about progressing with Ethernet installations when they don’t know how soon they’ll be able to return to their normal premises.” www.cityfibre.com Strong performance for Midwich Midwich has announced the group delivered a strong performance in 2019, achieving revenue and profit growth while successfully completing four acquisitions. Chairman Andrew Herbert, said: “We remain committed to our established strategy of delivering strong organic growth, supplemented by targeted acquisitions, as well as building our expertise in a broader range of markets and products. “The coronavirus crisis has led to very challenging trading conditions over the past two months and we anticipate this will continue at least until lockdown conditions, particularly in Europe and North America, are significantly eased. At this stage it is unclear how quickly overall business will return to more normal levels.” Herbert also stated that the actions taken across the group to preserve cash and liquidity and reduce cost coupled with its strong balance sheet and extensive credit facilities gives the board confidence that the group is well placed to deal with the continuing uncertainty, and that it will be in a strong position to respond once markets start to recover. www.midwich.com Tech Data launches modern workplace Tech Data has expanded its Cloud Solution Factory offering with the addition of Modern Workplace with Microsoft Secure Score that establishes a security baseline for Office 365 users with automated policy enforcement. The addition helps businesses take better control of their security strategies by providing an alternative to the entry-level Microsoft Security Defaults. Among the capabilities enabled by this new offering, Tech Data’s flexible design applies customisable conditional access for multi-factor authentication (MFA). In addition to supporting legacy authentication methods, users can be excluded, and other secure access methods can also be applied. Finally, the offering enables emergency access profiles, also known as ‘break-glass accounts’ and other authentication requirements. With this latest addition, the Tech Data Cloud Solution Factory now includes more than 25 preconfigured ‘click-to-run’ solutions designed to address a variety of challenges businesses face as they navigate the complexity of digital transformation. “These solutions align with our strategy of delivering higher value by providing scalable, secure and robust end-to-end solutions that are fully vetted and can be deployed in less than 30 minutes,” said Senior Vice President, Strategy, Innovation, Cloud and M&A, Sergio Farache. “As experts in cloud and solution development, Tech Data is able to simplify the cloud configuration and deployment processes, so our channel partners can serve their customers quickly and effectively while mitigating cybersecurity risks. Moreover, these solutions are becoming increasingly important as needs for remote workplace technologies grow for businesses across industries and geographies.” Tech Data’s Solution Factory methodology enables businesses to solve business challenges through ‘click-to-run’ solutions designed for simple, fast deployment. These solutions are developed by leveraging Tech Data’s vast technology expertise and ecosystem of vendors to deliver specific business outcomes in the areas of cloud, analytics and IoT and security. www.techdata.com Soabar triples digital label production The Leicester-based printing company’s two Konica Minolta AccurioLabel 190 presses, installed just over a year ago, have been working flat out since the start of the COVID-19 crisis to support customers, and in the process more than tripled output. “The reliability of our two AccurioLabel presses has certainly been tested to the max in the past two months,” said Soabar Managing Director Phil Achurch. “We have seen demand for digital labels go through the roof, and if it wasn’t for the Konica Minolta machines, we would have struggled to support our customers during this difficult time.” Most of the label jobs printed during the crisis are for existing clients who produce hand sanitisers, disinfectants, chlorine tablets and other hygiene products for the health sector. To meet this unprecedented level of demand, Soabar has also increased the running speed of the AccurioLabel presses in effect now giving them the capacity of three machines. www.soabar.co.uk E N T E R TO D AY A N D V OT E – V I S I T WWW. P R I N T I TAWA R D S . C O. U K Andy Wilson