Technology Reseller v51

01732 759725 08 NEWS : RESELLERS Upskilling staff is investment priority for resellers Upskilling workforces through training and recruitment is the number one investment priority for resellers in the UK and US as they face rising demand for cybersecurity (40%), SaaS application management (38%) and public cloud (33%), according to a new survey by digital accounting software specialist Sage. The Channel Landscape – Partnering for Success reveals that over the last 18 months, 39% of US and UK resellers surveyed have invested resources in the upskilling of their workforces. When it comes to recruitment, UK respondents identify cloud computing and cyber security as the most sought-after technical skills from new recruits (each cited by 39%), followed by coding (35%). One third (36%) of UK resellers are also recruiting for essential business roles. Almost half (46%) of UK respondents in the process of recruiting say they are having difficulty finding skilled management-level staff, with 40% finding it hard to attract skilled entry-level talent. www.sage.com/en-gb/ Onecom Group expands strategic partnership with Vodafone Hampshire-based Onecom Group, a leading provider of mobility and cloud communication solutions, is extending its £500m+ strategic partnership with Vodafone to the reseller channel it gained with the acquisition of 9 Group in March 2021. Those 450 channel partners will now have access to an expanded portfolio of Vodafone products and services that Onecom already offers to direct customers, including wholesale and distribution mobile airtime, SIP and SD-WAN connectivity, IoT, 5G, and emerging connectivity solutions such as FTTP and SoGEA. Onecom CEO Martin Flick said: “Following investment from LDC in 2019, the Onecom M&A strategy has been executed to build out geographic reach, enhance capability and open new routes to market through numerous acquisitions. The purchase of 9 Group in March 2021 provided access to an established partner channel, which perfectly complements our direct customer offering. It makes perfect sense to extend our long-standing relationship with Vodafone to those partners. Our unrivalled scale, capability and award-winning proposition will empower our channel partners to scale up and win greater market share together.” Onecom employs more than 600 people and has more than 100,000 customers for which it manages in excess of 800,000 mobile, hosted telephony and connectivity end points. www.onecom.co.uk FluidOne invests in Marathon FluidOne has strengthened its Connected Cloud offering with a strategic investment in Marathon Information Technology Services Ltd (Marathon), a Microsoft Gold Partner for cloud services management. Specialising in cloud transformation, modern workplace, security and contact centre, Marathon was founded in 2010 by CTO Paul Hepburn. In 2020, CEO Iain Maclean and Chairman Tim Thrower invested via a management buy-in as they realised the business was a great platform to build out cloud-managed IT services to enterprise clients. Since then, Marathon has grown annual revenue from £4m to £11m and increased its headcount to 80 staff, delivering IT managed services to enterprise clients with up to 17,000 employees. The investment by FluidOne, a provider of connectivity, SD-WAN, cyber security, IT managed services, mobile, IoT, UCaaS and CCaaS, broadens Marathon’s offering to its own clients and gives it the opportunity to provide managed services to FluidOne customers with more than 200 employees. FluidOne’s investment in Marathon is part of the company’s on-going buy and build strategy that has so far created a £68m revenue group with 310 staff serving more than 1,350 customers and resellers. It follows the acquisitions of managed SD-WAN network provider SAS Global Communications in December 2021 and IT Managed Services and Unified Communications provider PSU Business Technology Limited (PSU) in October 2020 and investment in cyber security consultancy and managed services specialist Cyber Security Associates Ltd (CSA) in November 2020. Maclean will continue to lead Marathon as CEO, with Tim Thrower as a non-executive director. FluidOne CEO Russell Horton is to become Chairman of Marathon, with the FluidOne Directors Brendan Lynch, Chris Rogers and Roy Hastings also joining the Marathon Board. Russell Horton said: “Investing in Marathon allows us to complete the IT element of our Connected Cloud solutions portfolio alongside our market-leading connectivity, mobile, UCaaS and cyber security. When combined with our IT capabilities from the acquisitions of PSU and SAS Global, we are now able to serve our entire customer base, including our largest multinational customers.” Marathon CEO Iain Maclean added: “It was time for us to take things to the next stage. We saw a great opportunity in FluidOne’s investment to support our ambitious growth plans allowing us to expand our service offering to our current client base whilst also reaching new customers.” www.fluidone.com • www.marathon-ms.com Russell Horton Sustainability first for Forfusion Forfusion, based in Newcastle Upon Tyne, has become the first supplier in the North of England to achieve Cisco Environmental Sustainability Specialisation. The specialisation was created by Cisco earlier this year to reward partners who support Cisco’s sustainability pledge, educate customers on the benefits of migrating to cloud-enabled solutions, and participate in its global initiative to responsibly repurpose or recycle end-of-use products. Established in 2007, Forfusion designs, implements and manages mission-critical networking infrastructure for large public and private sector companies. Its services include switching customers from traditional MPLS networks to SD-WAN technology, to ensure robust site-to-site connectivity, and providing access to on-ramp services from AWS and Microsoft 365 via Express Route. https://www.forfusion.com

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