Technology Reseller - v15 2018

New premises for Glasgow scanning company On-Site Scanning has doubled its workforce, following its move to new premises in Kelburn Business Park, Riverside Inverclyde’s development in Port Glasgow. Established in Inverclyde in 2006, On-Site Scanning offers document management and secure scanning services to NHS Boards and Trusts throughout the UK and some private sector clients. It employs 47 people and is forecasting sales of £1m this year. Ross Campbell, joint managing director of On-Site Scanning, said: “Our recent contract award for the digitisation of 28 GP Surgeries in nine months is testament to our proven track record and excellent long-standing relationship with NHS Trusts and Boards across the UK. In addition, our Subject Access Request (SAR) managed service is GDPR compliant and has been fully vetted by information governance and security managers on behalf of health boards and trusts across the UK, as well as the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).” www.riversideinverclyde.com NEWS : VENDORS 01732 759725 04 Enterprise Robotics Process Automation specialist UiPath is launching a network of innovation centres where customers and partners can find out more about how machine learning and RPA can be utilised to automate business processes. As part of its Automation First Initiative, UiPath will be building Automation Immersion Labs with pre-installed and ready-to-use showcases involving technologies from the UiPath partner ecosystem. Customers and partners will be able to bring in their own data to use with pre-configured use cases. The first Automation Immersion Labs will open in Bucharest and Bangalore this year, with other locations to follow in 2019, including London, New York, Seattle and Tokyo. Commenting on the initiative, Mike Binder, Vice President of Global Services at UiPath, said: “Customers are eager to explore AI and related technologies but find it difficult to imagine the possibilities beyond their existing RPA operation. Our Automation First Immersion Labs simulate an experience of what lies ahead in automation, empowering our customers and partners to make informed decisions to advance to the next level of their business strategy.” UiPath is introducing a number of other initiatives to develop the market for RPA and AI, including the UiPath Go! marketplace of UiPath-vetted reusable automation components, which has recorded hundreds of downloads since launch in early October, and a $20M investment fund to support the activities of channel partners. This will be split between the UiPath Venture Innovation Fund, set up to invest in AI-focused partners with expertise in machine learning, business process management (BPM), process mining and intelligence, and the UiPath Partner Acceleration Fund, which is designed to help partners inspire and support automation and AI innovation and accelerate enterprise-wide RPA adoption. n A recent survey of 1,000 UK office workers by UiPath suggests organisations are still underestimating the likely impact of robots in the workplace. Almost half (48.5%) said they ‘strongly’ believe repetitive tasks couldn’t be managed by robots; 72% don’t believe robots will make them more productive; and 62% don’t consider the introduction of robots as an opportunity to upskill. Yet, where RPA has been introduced, 58% admit that the impact has been positive. One UK company enjoying the benefits of automation is high street bookmaker Ladbrokes. Its director of customer compliance operations Brendan MacDonald said: “In the first day of live operations, the UiPath robots were able to process 322 applications. That’s a gain of 51 hours each day or the equivalent of six people working an eight-hour shift.” UiPath to showcase RPA use cases in international network of Automation Immersion Labs L-R: Barry Higgins and Ross Campbell, joint Managing Directors of On Site Scanning; Gerry McCarthy, Chair of Ri; and David Martin, Property Asset Manager at Ri Telecoms drives growth in European IT Distribution There is more reason for optimism in the IT channel as the year draws to a close, with new analysis from IT market intelligence company CONTEXT showing a 7.1% year-on-year growth in distribution across Europe in Q3 2018. Accelerating Q3 growth comes on the back of a 5.4% expansion in Q2, which itself was up on the previous quarter’s 4.7% increase. Overall, six countries saw growth accelerate by over 10% year-on-year in Q3: Italy, Portugal, Belgium, Czech Republic, Spain and Sweden. Also notable were the Baltics, Poland, France and Germany, which all grew at a faster rate than in the previous three months. Just two countries, Finland and Norway, were in negative growth in Q3. UK growth remained above 5%, continuing a considerably improved performance compared to the end of 2017. The UK saw strong growth in telecoms (20%), datacentre networking (33%) and mobile computing (4%). Across Europe as a whole, telecoms led the way in revenue growth, thanks to strong performance by Huawei, Xiaomi and Nokia. This is a good news story for distribution, which is increasing volumes when shipments for the industry overall are showing a downward trend for the first time this year, and reflects its logistical expertise and the creation of value-added services such as handling returns and refurbishing mobile phones, which are becoming more popular with consumers.   Adam Simon, Global Managing Director of CONTEXT, said: “It’s good to see the channel building on its promising start to the year. This news is compounded by the findings of our Q2 ChannelWatch survey, which revealed that the majority (63%) of resellers are more optimistic about business in the next 12 months.” www.contextworld.com MARKET CONTEXT