Print.IT Reseller - issue 75

PRINTITRESELLER.UK 7 BULLETIN CityFibre increases network footprint CityFibre has further increased its service- ready network footprint to business channel partners with the enablement of its full fibre network in Plymouth. Currently a total of 29 towns and cities including more than 180,000 near-net businesses are now serviceable and available to partners. The latest addition is part of CityFibre’s steady expansion of full fibre networks available to the channel as the business continues its up to £4bn Gigabit City Investment programme, a rollout targeting up to eight million homes and business in over 100 UK towns and cities. CityFibre’s rollouts have continued at pace throughout the coronavirus crisis at the request of the UK Government, which declared telecommunications infrastructure as critical to continue to allow both society and the economy to function and to enable rapid economic recovery when the crisis is over. In each service-ready market, channel partners have access to a range of industry- leading full fibre services targeting the business market. Full fibre services are widely regarded as the ‘gold-standard’ technology choice for business connectivity. Head of Wholesale AndrewWilson, said: “As we begin to look to the longer-term, it's critical that we continue to rapidly expand our network footprint, enabling our partners to bring the transformative benefits of full fibre to even more businesses as quickly as possible. Underpinned by future-proof digital infrastructure, it is these businesses that will help drive the UK’s economic recovery.” www.cityfibre.com Acer extends Westcoast relationship Acer has extended its relationship with Westcoast to encompass its entire commercial product portfolio. Westcoast will now stock the company’s full range of commercial notebooks, from the Travelmate B3 up to the enterprise-grade Travelmate P6; Education and Enterprise Chromebook, Chromebox and Chromebase products; and B series and V series displays. For the last four quarters, Acer has experienced growth in all sectors of the commercial market (SMB, mid-market, enterprise and education). www.acer.com UK&I distribution deal PBXMonitor has appointed telecoms wholesaler UC-Reseller as exclusive UK & Ireland distributor for its Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) tool for 3CX. UC-Reseller Senior UC Solutions Specialist, Adam Mathews, said: “PBXMonitor provides a unique solution for the 3CX partner base, allowing them to be proactive and efficient, and essentially saving the reseller time by centrally managing instances, bulk upgrades and centralised backups.” PBXMonitor enables 3CX resellers remotely to manage and monitor customers’ 3CX servers in the cloud and on-premise, with interactive wallboards showing the status of the 3CX estate and providing immediate visual and email alerts. www.pbxmonitor.net Tech Data to offer NETGEAR Insight product range Tech Data is now offering NETGEAR’s Insight Cloud Networking Solutions via its cloud marketplace StreamOne. NETGEAR Insight enables channel partners to build a true smart networking ecosystem with a comprehensive remote network and device management solution. Insight enables businesses to remotely manage and monitor hardware and services using its cloud portal or the Insight mobile app and offers a plug-and-play set-up with a simplified user experience. Providing a broad variety of configurations and network scenarios, the Insight application supports everything from the most basic networks to multi-tenancy and multi-role environment. “We’re excited to partner with Tech Data to offer NETGEAR Insight on the StreamOne Cloud Marketplace,” said NETGEAR Marketing Manager, EMEA, Gary Newson. “Remote management is becoming the norm, and this partnership comes at a perfect time for SMBs and SMEs looking to upgrade their businesses to a worry-free, comprehensive network management solution.” www.techdata.com BOSS launches COVID- secure product portal BOSS, the UK Trade Association for the business supplies industry, has launched a COVID-Secure product portal with its partner BPIF to connect those looking for COVID- secure products with their members in both industries who are providing these products. The search is free to use for those in both the business supplies and printing industries. covidproducts.bossfederation.com Award win for Tech Data Tech Data has been awarded the IBM Global Training Excellence Award for the second consecutive year. The distributor was recognised for its stellar performance during the first-ever virtual IBM Think Digital Event Experience. www.techdata.com Collaboration solutions Exertis Pro AV has added the Lenovo ThinkSmart View to its range of collaboration solutions. The personal productivity assistant powered by Microsoft Teams is designed to be used for voice and video calls, content viewing and administrative tasks, leaving the user’s PC free for notetaking and other work. A built-in camera shutter, microphone mute button and 4-digit access PIN maintain security and privacy. www.exertis.co.uk Returning to the new world of work Almost half of UK employers are planning to stagger return to work based on employees’ own health risks related to COVID-19, whilst 46% will be staggering employees return depending on how critical their role is to the business. The next most popular strategy is the creation of smaller workgroups (40%), followed by changing working hours (34%), a voluntary return scheme (33%), and splitting shifts (28%). Over a quarter (28%) of businesses have stated that they will base their return to work strategy on local infection rates. 87% of employees would like more opportunities to work from home post-return, with 21% stating that they would like to work from home permanently. Whilst 83% of firms have stated that the experience of COVID-19 will encourage business heads to have employees to work from home more often, they also cite concerns over employee productivity (64%), senior leadership preferring traditional ways of working (57%), and the nature of the business e.g. face-to-face sales (36%), as the key barriers to achieving this. A third of companies have admitted to not yet considering what their return to work strategy may be. The findings come from a recent survey from recruiter Robert Walters, with the global findings published in a whitepaper: Returning to the NewWorld of Work . www.robertwalters.co.uk Andrew Wilson