01732 759725 08 CHANNEL News Record results for Academia Academia, a provider of IT services and solutions to education, business and the public sector, has reported record results of more than £130 million. As well as increasing revenue by 22%, Academia has grown its headcount by 30% and strengthened its leadership team to support projected double-digit growth in 2024. Changes include the promotion of Mark McCormack from Chief Commercial Officer to Managing Director and the recruitment of Peter Heath, ex-Westcoast Group, as Technical Operations Director; Trevor Nickolls, ex-Computacenter and Storm Technologies, as Sales Director, Commercial; and Kris Bunting, ex-Jamf, Redstone and Jigsaw24, as Head of Technical Services. Academia Group Owner Andrew Harman said: “We’re on the launchpad for huge expansion and it’s with great enthusiasm that I extend a warm welcome to Peter, Trevor and Kris as senior managers.” This year, for the first time, Academia was awarded six lots on the CCS TePAS 2 framework, covering Hardware; Software; Health and Social Care Technology; Education Technology; Sustainability & Circular IT; and Technology Catalogue. https://academia.co.uk/ ······ Remanufacturing vs. new Circular Computing is promoting a new peer-reviewed study by Cranfield University showing that its remanufactured laptops have just 6.34% of the CO2 emissions of brand-new devices. www.circularcomputing.com First steps for evo Foundation The evo Foundation, a new charity set up by office products distributor evo, is celebrating the completion of its first fund-raising event after evo UK Warehouse Director Steve Smith successfully completed a 10-day, 274-mile charity trek. Taking in significant evo landmarks along the way, including Sheffield, Lutterworth, Birmingham, Bradford, Leeds and Normanton, the Walk of evo has so far raised £31,000 for the advancement of education and the prevention of poverty globally. More than 100 colleagues from evo businesses, Vow Wholesale, Banner, Complete and Premier Vanguard, joined Steve for different legs of the journey. www.justgiving.com/campaign/walkofevo ······ Crayon selected to offer Microsoft 365 Copilot Crayon has been selected as one of the first Microsoft partners able to offer Microsoft 365 Copilot, its AI-powered productivity tool. Combining large language models (LLMs) with a company’s data, the AI tool offers an array of features, including content generation, graphics design and improved ways to collaborate and share knowledge, plus integration with other data sources outside Microsoft 365, such as Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Power BI and Microsoft Dynamics 365, for better insights. http://www.crayon.com Telcom aiming to transform connectivity delivery Telcom Group, the Manchester-based provider of hyperfast business connectivity, is looking to transform business internet connectivity with the launch of GigaBritain to channel partners. This gives customers access to reliable hyperfast 10Gbps connectivity in as little as 20 days with availability of a 100% uptime guarantee. Telcom has been a provider of hyperfast business internet for over 10 years, building and managing its own full fibre and fixed wireless network in Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool, (soon) Cardiff and in London through its recent acquisition of Luminet. It also partners with national carriers such as BT Wholesale, Virgin Media Business and Sky Business. Telcom has identified the time it takes to get connected, typically from 90 to 120 days, as one of the biggest weaknesses of connectivity provision in the UK and hopes to transform expectations with connection times of as little as 20 days on its own network and 24 hours in hundreds of Preconnect buildings across the country. The new GigaBritain wholesale portal enables partners to access and compare real time availability, delivery lead times and live pricing from all carrier partners 24/7. Will Goodall, Head of Wholesale and Carrier for Telcom, said: “Unlike other channel providers who can’t be flexible, our dedicated partner delivery team and in-house engineering means we can own expectation-setting and adapt to the end user requirements of every partner. We look forward to working with our new channel partners on this exciting journey and to their help in building GigaBritain.” https://telcom.uk IT services company SCC, its sister company Rigby Capital and Lombard, the asset finance arm of NatWest Group, are collaborating on a new as-a-service solution that aims to prevent over a million electronic devices, including company mobile phones and laptops, from becoming landfill over the next five years. With SCC committing to send zero waste to landfill, the end-to-end solution will enable businesses to invest in and install the hardware, software and services they need, with the flexibility of a single contract, and well-established routes to secondary markets for re-use and recycling at end of life. Simon Everidge, Managing Director of Rigby Capital, said: “IT asset finance is no longer just about funding, it’s about full life cycle management of assets and particularly the management of end-of-life assets. Rigby Capital and the operational capabilities in SCC, with its market-leading IT recycling facilities, can provide complete end-to-end management of IT assets for Lombard and its customers.” Each year, approximately 50 million tonnes of e-waste is produced, of which just 20% is formally recycled. If nothing is done, the amount of waste produced annually is forecast to more than double to 120 million tonnes by 2050. SCC partners with finance companies in new tech as-a-service solution
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