October 2018

Reborn in the USA Mike Norris on Computacenter’s new life as a transatlantic company 16

THE CHANNEL IMPACT OF THE US-CHINA TRADE WAR 10 DEVICE-AS-A-SERVICE MAKES HUGE STRIDES IN THE INDUSTRY 18 MALWAREBYTES’ METEORIC RISE FROM HUMBLE BEGINNINGS 20 Bring colour to your customers’ labelling

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Editorial Editor Doug Woodburn 9817 [email protected] Content editor Tom Wright 9797 [email protected] Reporter Marian McHugh 9883 [email protected] The prices bite Channelnomics.eu Content editor Josh Budd 9854 Living in the UK, it is easy to forget comparing it to buying his house. [email protected] that the scope of global politics does He also tells us about the rationale Multimedia editor Nima Green 9781 in fact extend well beyond Brexit. behind the move for Misco’s last [email protected] But while our bumbling system is remaining business. Production trying to work out which day it is, In our second high-profile Production editor Amy Micklewright Donald Trump’s chaotic brand of interview of the month, Production executive Hyrie Mehmet 9779 politics crashes on. Malwarebytes CEO Marcin The president’s ongoing stand-off Kleczynski explains how infecting Advertising sales with China has stepped up a notch, his family computer with a virus Commercial director Matt Dalton 9896 with the US announcing further as a child was his light-bulb [email protected] Head of global sales Nina Patel tariffs against goods imported moment. After visiting old-school [email protected] into the US from China. The chatrooms and speaking to techies Global account director Jessica Feldman 9839 implications for the tech industry to successfully fix the machine, [email protected] are far reaching, with a substantial Kleczynski went on to found Account manager Jessica Richards 9923 number of the largest vendors’ Malwarebytes and employ those [email protected] products being manufactured and same people who had helped him. Incisive Media London assembled in China. On p18 we look at the rise of Group publishing director Alan Loader Vendors device-as-a- Managing director, Incisive Media including “Vendors have already service, with Jonathon Whiteley networking giants confirmed that prices Microsoft finally Juniper and Cisco confirming Circulation, back issues & licensing have already will rise, but the impact rumours and Address changes, circulation, subscriptions confirmed that entering the and back issues 0845 1551846, email on the UK and Europe is [email protected] prices will rise, market with To subscribe to CRN visit: www.wdis.co.uk/crn but the impact still unclear” an offering CRN is available for international licensing. on the UK and that bundles Contact [email protected] Europe is still very much unclear. up hardware and various bits of This month’s Spotlight assesses software. Adoption from end CRN is published monthly by Incisive Media, New London House, 172 Drury Lane, London, WC2B 5QR. the potential implications for users at the moment is relatively © 2018 Incisive Media the channel, with some resellers low, but we speak to partners expecting to absorb any price rises that are convinced we will see a Printed by Stephens & George Print Group. ISSN and some preparing to pass them sharp increase in uptake over the 1744-3156. on to customers. The issue is likely coming months. Printed on paper from sustainable sources in to linger, with Trump planning to Meanwhile on p22, we look into Scandinavia. For custom editorial reprints contact Wrights Reprints further hike tariffs in the new year. the future and ask security experts at +1 877 652 5295 (international toll-free) Email: Speaking of the US, to name the cybersecurity threats [email protected] Computacenter made its long- they expect to become more CRN is distributed free to individuals who meet the awaited North American acquisition prominent in 2019. publisher’s terms. Paid subscriptions UK £120, at the start of the month. We Finally on p30, we get the Europe $150, Rest of World £280 first heard rumours of this a year lowdown on MSP IT Lab’s All images are from www.istockphoto.com, unless stated ago, but didn’t quite have enough acquisition of Content and Code. information to publish a story. As ever, please get in touch with In this month’s Big Interview your feedback via ChannelWeb or on p16, Mike Norris opens up Twitter @CRN_UK. on the deal and its impact on the ■ Tom Wright is content editor at wider Computacenter business, CRN.

OCTOBER 2018 CHANNELWEB.CO.UK 3

Contents

SPOTLIGHT 10 FEATURE 14 As Donald How the channel Trump cracks is adapting to down on the change in Chinese goods, working times how will the and the rise in price war affect popularity of the UK channel? flexitime

FEATURE 16 FEATURE 18 Fresh from his Is DaaS on long-awaited the path to US acquisition, becoming the Computacenter new normal for CEO Mike Norris the channel? talks about it to CRN

FEATURE 20 EMERGING Malwarebytes’ TECHNOLOGY 22 young CEO and A round-up of founder reveals the security that he learned threats to look to code with the out for in the help of a For year ahead Dummies book

CHANNELNOMICS INDUSTRY 24 VOICES 26 BearingPoint’s Josh Budd on Kiumars Computacenter’s Hamidian recent reflects on the acquisition, and advantages Romy Hughes of MBOs on digitisation

INTERVIEW 28 WHAT I SEEK FROM MY IT Cisco’s Wendy SUPPLIERS 29 Mars discusses Nathan Andrew her priorities in of SJ Andrew & her new role as Sons talks about EMEAR channel what he wants boss from resellers

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©2018 Schneider Electric. All Rights Reserved. Schneider Electric | Life Is On is a trademark and the property of Schneider Electric SE, its subsidiaries, and affiliated companies. Things we’ve learned this month

Five things we’ve learned this month

1. APPLE AND AMAZON ARE AT THE HEART OF A CHINESE HACKING SCANDAL Apple and Amazon found themselves in the middle of a political scandal, after Bloomberg claimed that the Chinese government had secretly installed microchips into servers manufactured by Chinese vendor Super Micro. Bloomberg, citing 17 sources, alleged that Apple, Amazon and the US government had discovered the breach in 2015 – a claim denied by all three parties. The vendor duo were reportedly among around 30 global firms that had purchased servers manufactured by Super Micro which contained the suspect chips. On the report’s publication, Super Micro saw its share price tumble by over half. Bloomberg claimed that the microchips, which are only slightly larger than a grain of rice, were inserted into the motherboards of the servers while they were being assembled by a sub-contractor. The Chinese government also denied the allegations.

2. INVESTORS COULD SCUPPER DELL’S PLANS 3. EXERTIS IS SHOWING U.S. THE MONEY Dell confirmed it has explored the possibility of a Ireland-based distributor Exertis conventional listing, after reports that activist investors made good on its pledge to could block its favoured route to the stock exchange. move quickly in the US market, After a lengthy consultation process, Dell announced announcing its second substantial plans to float on the New York Stock Exchange by North American acquisition. acquiring shares in the publicly listed DVMT stock The firm’s parent company DCC – a tracking stock which reflects the performance of acquired AV outfit Jam Group VMware. This transaction would see Dell Technologies at the end of September in a deal that valued the become a listed organisation once more. Canadian firm at $170m (£130m). However, activist investors have reportedly The deal adds Jam’s $323m revenue to DCC’s North scoffed at the plan, with Carl Icahn American sales, with the organisation now claiming to supposedly ready to dig his heels in. Icahn have a $600m business in the territory. is said to own a 1.2 per cent stake Former Dell EMC UK boss Tim Griffin joined in DVMT. Dell confirmed it has Exertis as MD in August – with his appointment put plans in place for a conventional announced days before the acquisition of AV flotation as a contingency. distributor Stampede was made public.

4. CYBERSECURITY BLOWS ARE STRUCK 5. UNEXPECTED PC GROWTH IS A PROBLEM In perhaps the most explosive coming together of It appears that even vendors have been cybersecurity vendors and testers, NSS Labs filed caught off guard by a surprise upturn in PC a triple lawsuit against Symantec, CrowdStrike and demand, with the market concerned that ESET – accusing the trio of conspiring to prevent chip makers may not be able to keep up. independent testing of their products. Analysts predict that 2019 will be the first The tester claims that the year of PC shipment growth in seven years – three vendors are in breach sparking concerns that Intel will struggle to of anti-trust legislation in produce enough chips to satisfy the market. the US, which prevents Intel interim CEO Bob Swan published monopolies on markets an open letter explaining that the vendor would be and promotes fair prioritising the manufacturing of high-end processors, competition. but admitted that supply in the entry-level segment of The vendors denied the market is “undoubtedly tight”. the allegations and Intel’s far smaller rival AMD has already experienced accused NSS of being considerable success over recent times, and has seen a “pay-to-play” firm, its share price more than double since the middle of which NSS in turn denied. last year.

OCTOBER 2018 CHANNELWEB.CO.UK 7 THINGS WE’VE LEARNED THIS MONTH

Channel firms listed in The Sunday Times’ Top Track 250 Rank Company Location Year Sales Operating Staff Main shareholders end £m profit £m 6 Daisy Group Lancashire Mar 684.3 127.3 3,783 Toscafund (41%), Matthew Riley Comms and 2018 (41%), Oakley Capital (9%), others services including management (9%) provider 66 Civica Central Sep 324.7 19.7 3,416 Partners Group (>50%), IT services London 2017 management (<50%) provider 123 Claranet Central Jun 216.5 15.9 1,289 Nasser family (>50%), other IT services London 2017 shareholders (<50%) provider 146 Buy IT Direct Huddersfield Mar 186.8 4.2 330 Nick Glynne and family (88%), Laptop and 2018 Simon Barnett (12%) appliance reseller 155 CCS Media Chesterfield Dec 180.2 5.2 420 Robert Tomlinson (80%), Alan IT & services 2017 Honarmand (10%), Terry Betts reseller (10%) FACTS AND FIGURES The valuation of The last time The increase in The number of years the combined PC shipments sales director since Computacenter Cloudera and saw a quarterly salaries this made an acquisition Hortonworks 2012 increase, until 60% year, according 14 larger than its $5.2bn business Q2 this year to one recruiter FusionStorm deal

NOTABLE AND QUOTABLE “We set up the business to be a disruptive networking and cloud-based distributor, and enjoyed five or six years of growth and taking new products to market, which is what I enjoy. I like to be the first person on the ground and to create something from nothing, and clearly as the years went on Cloud evolved into a far larger distributor with a lot more process and structure, and it just wasn’t my bag.” Departing Cloud Distribution founder Scott Dobson “I strongly believe that the strategy pursued by previous management, if allowed to continue, would have seen the company become insolvent. Furthermore, generally when completing a buy-and-build [strategy], which was IDE’s stated strategy, synergies are part and parcel of the business case. One would reasonably expect that as a result of putting together the three companies that now comprise the group, there would be a smaller number of staff than would have existed across the three companies at the time of acquisition. This is clearly not the case.” IDE Group’s executive director Ian Smith on the firm’s previous management regime

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In his continuing attempt to force the world into Cold War “I would hate to think that it is more than 10 per cent 2.0, Donald Trump recently ramped up hostilities with because that will slow down orders. It wouldn’t stop orders China by slapping a 10 per cent tariff on $200bn (£153bn) coming to us, but it would probably elongate the decision- of Chinese-made goods imported into the US. making process.” These duties – which came into effect at the end of Price increases from vendors are part and parcel of September – will affect most major tech and telecom working in the channel, but these hikes on hardware may vendors, because a huge amount of the components in end up having a side effect – in that they could end up their products are manufactured in China. pushing more customers towards cloud-based offerings. Cisco and Juniper have already announced price hikes Paul Timms, managing director of MCSA, believes that on their networking products of 10 per cent and 3.5 per any price hikes in the US will likely be reflected in Europe, cent respectively. but that public cloud providers such as Microsoft Azure In a statement to CRN, Ken Miller, CFO at Juniper, and Amazon Web Services (AWS) could gobble up a lot of confirmed that it would be passing the costs on to its customers by providing a cheaper alternative. partners and customers. “If the price increase comes across, it will affect demand “Following suit with others in the industry, Juniper will because it is such a competitive space in the UK,” he be passing along the unmitigable portion of the tariff costs explained. of affected products to our partners and customers as “Microsoft and AWS wouldn’t be affected so much by a additional import tax charges,” he stated. tariff increase because their stuff will be hosted in different “While this cost is an unfortunate increase for our geographies – they are not physically shipping kit so cloud customers, we are diligently working to mitigate the could look very attractive to customers.” added burden.” Meanwhile, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) expressed Who takes the hit? its “disappointment” with the latest Trump tariff hike in a When such heavy tariffs occur, questions swirl around statement to CRN. which party should absorb the price jump – the vendor, “We continue to believe that changes to an open-market partner or end customer. More often than not, it ends up system which has worked well for decades are not the way being the third choice. to go and will impact our manufacturing costs and our company’s ability to invest,” it said. “Like most US tech firms, HPE relies on complex global supply chains and is bound to face various challenges arising from these tariffs. In addressing those challenges, we will work closely with all our stakeholders to ensure we deliver the best possible outcome for our customers.” Caught up in the trade war being waged between the two superpowers, where does this leave the UK channel? A bump in the road Martin Jones, MD of Oxfordshire- based reseller Lan3, said he has seen little communication from vendors about increasing their prices, but he assumes that all manufacturers will be affected by the US tariffs. “I feel a bit better that Juniper is throwing around figures of 3.5 per cent because that suggests that this is a bump in the road rather than a catastrophe,” he said.

10 CHANNELWEB.CO.UK OCTOBER 2018 Spotlight

However, David Croft, vendor alliance director at “When customers are buying from a smaller vendor, Daisy, believes that the responsibility will ultimately it tends to be because there is a USP that they are depend on the profile of the partner. willing to pay extra premium for; the bigger they are, “I think there will be an element of us, as partners, the more it will affect them – niche will be protected to absorbing it,” he said. “If you’re selling it as a service, a certain degree.” I think it will be absorbed [by the partner], but if it’s just reselling goods, I think it will be passed on to the The red threat customer,” he explained. The US trade war with China looks likely to heat up Croft added that Daisy “very rarely” makes kit-only further in January, when the import tariffs on Chinese- deals, and so doesn’t expect to feel the margin pressure built goods jump from 10 to 25 per cent. The knock- from price jumps that other VARs might. on effect from this may lead to Europe becoming a Paul Shannon, CEO of ANS, agreed with Croft, battleground between American and Chinese vendors. adding that he has not seen projects with customers Chinese manufacturers have faced multiple obstacles scrapped based on price increases, even when they jump in the US this year, including Huawei and ZTE significantly, such as when vendors increased prices 25 to technology banned from being used by US government 30 per cent after the value of the pound dropped against employees and its military. the dollar in the wake of the Brexit referendum in 2016. This may lead Chinese vendors to follow in the “This happens semi-regularly,” he said. “I think it is footsteps of cloud provider Alibaba, which last month probably newsworthy because of what has triggered it, announced that it could no longer fulfil its promise to but this thing happens all the time. Cisco increases the create one million US jobs due to the trade tensions, prices of import services every year around August and instead focusing its efforts on the European market. the market just deals with it. “The Chinese guys are very strong over here at the “We work on transformational projects with moment and they could well benefit from an American customers. They can’t stop doing this kind of work, price increase,” stated Timms. otherwise the business would go backwards. “I know lots of people in America would be averse to “Will it have some impact on cost-saving for clients buying Chinese kit wholesale, however, all the Chinese in other areas to fund it? Maybe. But the IT projects we manufacturers are gaining quite a lot of traction in work on tend to go on regardless.” Europe. The European market is their next biggest Lan3’s Jones agrees that the vendor price hikes market so the Chinese could be using this cleverly as probably won’t change the purchasing behaviour of they’re growing so fast.” customers, but he sees the increase being passed on to customers, particularly for VARs that concentrate on hardware sales. “The margins on tin these days are very low and getting lower all the time, so I’d expect any price changes for VARs like us to be reflected in the end-user cost,” he said. “We are in transition from a company that does 60 per cent hardware and 40 per cent services to turning that on its head and doing 60 per cent services and 40 per cent hardware. For us, more of our business is coming from the services side. “I think the ever-decreasing markings on tin [pushed us in this direction], but price hikes do make it worse.” MCSA’s Timms also said that another unexpected twist of the cost increase is that smaller vendors might be in a better position to take the financial hit, potentially leading to new customers. “Smaller vendors generally are a bit more disruptive so they are in a better position to absorb that cost increase,” Timms claimed.

“I feel a bit better that Juniper is throwing around figures of 3.5 per cent because that suggests that this is a bump in the road rather than a catastrophe” Martin Jones, Lan3

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Call our specialist sales teams Basingstoke 01256 707070 Burnley 01282 776776 store.exertis.co.uk The death knell for 9-5? As employees demand more flexible working environments, Marian McHugh investigates how the channel is adapting to the changing working landscape

In news that would delight Dolly Parton, a recent YouGov will never quite usurp the office-based working style. survey revealed that only six per cent of UK workers are “While the idea of working from home sounds great, it now working the traditional hours of nine to five. is a very solitary environment,” he said. The survey polled 1,800 workers across the UK and “It is important to have an office to breed a culture, the results indicate that 58 per cent of them would rather even if not everybody is there all the time. I don’t think start work earlier than 9am and finish earlier than 5pm. home-working is key, but in terms of flexibility on hours Flexible working can span an array of working that is key for people.” styles, including compressed hours, working from For resellers, in particular, flexible working can home, remote working and flexitime, which allows the present a challenge as there are certain regular hours employee to choose when to start and end work so long where employees are expected to be available to handle as they work certain ‘core hours’. customer requests. However, in many channel companies, flexitime Kelvin Kirby, chief executive at Technology Associates, opportunities can be limited in scope due to the nature said his employees are expected to be in the office during of roles, particularly those which require technical skills. traditional working hours, but that flexibility is available. Justin Harling, CEO at CAE Technology Services, said “Our work does require that four to five people be in that one of the more complicated elements of organising one place at the same time,” he explained. policy around flexitime is the fact that there are certain “People know they have flexibility on their work hours roles in the company for which flexible working cannot and we give them the freedom and autonomy to do that be applied, such as the service desk jobs. so long as they can deliver on the goals and objectives Harling is all too aware that this affects the that we set for those individuals. The benefit is that we recruitment of people for these types of roles, get a much higher retention rate because we provide a particularly in the wake of the digital skills gap. lot of flexibility to staff.” “We know the biggest inhibitor for our growth will be attracting and retaining talent; there is a skills shortage Highs and lows and we definitely feel that,” he said. Every individual has their own productivity clock, “In order to be able to attract the right people we meaning that the traditional nine-to-five regime may not realise that we need to be able to offer that flexibility, and suit everyone. Flexible working can allow employees to there have been times when that was the only way to get alter their working day to suit their productivity needs. a particular person.” Last year, HSBC conducted a survey which revealed Marc Sumner, founder and CEO of recruitment that 89 per cent of employees across Britain believed consultancy Robertson Sumner, firmly believes we are in flexibility was “key” to boosting their productivity levels. the death throes of the traditional nine-to-five working The survey also indicated that regions where the day, but added that the solitude of working from home ability to work from home is most popular, such as London (where 30 per cent of workers have the option) and the South East (32 per cent), tended to see higher levels of productivity than those areas, such as Wales (18 per cent), where flexible hours are not as likely to be offered. This suggests that offering employees a better work/life balance can motivate them and thus creates a more productive workforce. Flexibility beyond working hours can often help employers attract and retain staff, as potential employees are more decisive regarding the type of organisation

14 CHANNELWEB.CO.UK OCTOBER 2018 Feature

and culture in which they choose to work. you are engaging in persistent conversations and Kirby explained that Technology Associates adheres workrooms – in a virtual sense – with colleagues, which to this by giving its employees time to work on their is highly productive.” own projects – even funding some of them – which improves the company’s relationship with its staff and Next gen allows it to benefit from that individual’s creative abilities. The shift from the nine-to-five, office-based work “For example, I have one employee who works four days environment has changed significantly, in no small part and has one day off to pursue other interests. There is a due to cultural shifts, including working parents being mutual benefit there because we can see a value in either responsible for childcare and a new generation of workers the intellectual property she is developing – which we who are more savvy and decisive in what they want from a would have funded – or in terms of customers that she is job offer. reaching out to, who might become customers Recruiter Sumner said he is seeing more candidates for of ours too,” he said. roles rejecting jobs that are “too rigid” in their work hours “We aren’t encouraging people to leave the company and and culture. develop their own business, but we do encourage creative “Once organisations start seeing that they can’t attract thought outside the normal boundaries of their day-to-day the staff they want, you’ll see more employers moving to job because we think that adds significant value to their that flexible way of thinking,” he explained. contributions within the business.” If you’re not able to offer flexibility to your working The perks of choosing your own working hours do parents or people with childcare, that is a big chunk of the have their disadvantages, especially as apps such as Slack workforce you’re putting off.” and Microsoft Teams make it easier for individuals to be The power is now with the employee, according to always ‘on’ for work. Sumner. Traditionally candidates may have been happy Paul Cunningham, CMO at Unify, said that it can with a good salary and a nine-to-five job, but nowadays be hard for home-based workers to mentally separate they are doing their homework on companies before they from work. even apply for roles, taking into account everything from “The boundaries are blurring and the pressure is put on pay to benefits to flexible working. people to make their own distinction between work time He believes that due to the technical skills gap, the and personal time, and draw their own boundaries around power now lies with the employee rather than the that,” he said. employer and in order to recruit the right candidates, “But if you approach it in the right way and maintain organisations need to start offering more than just a a sense of ‘otherness’ in the work environment, it works standard contract. extremely well.” “Employees are acting like consumers; looking at Cunningham, who is primarily home-based, added that benefits packages, Glassdoor reviews and culture,” said using workspace tools can help reduce the solitude of Sumner. “If a company isn’t adapting to that, they are going working from home. His team uses its own collaborative to die because the power has shifted to the employee and tool called Circuit to that is because of the talent shortage.” communicate. A new generation of workers who have grown up on “That immediacy, social media are now putting more stock into experiences intimacy and and long-term travelling and are looking for jobs that can focus that accommodate this desire. you can This is a factor that Technology Associates’ Kirby create in a believes will become more dominant in the next few years collaboration as “digital nomads” have the skills required by companies, place is much but do not want to settle in one location. more productive “How do we accommodate the concept of embracing [than working people who have specific technical skills that we need as a via email],” he business to serve our customers, but those people want to explained. travel as well as contribute to the business?” he said. “Rather than fairly “The nature of business now is being more flexible and transactional email I think going forwards we are going to have to extend that correspondence, even further.”

“In order to be able to attract the right people we realise that we need to be able to offer that flexibility, and there have been times when that was the only way to get a particular person for the job” Justin Harling, CAE Technology Services

OCTOBER 2018 CHANNELWEB.CO.UK 15 The land of opportunity After Computacenter announced its long-awaited US acquisition, Mike Norris talks Tom Wright through the rationale behind the deal

“I decided I wanted to move to this area 20 years ago. I under the stewardship of existing CEO Dan Serpico drove into the area on a Sunday and saw a house being until the end of the year, at which point it will rebrand built, which is the one I’m standing in now. I thought as Computacenter and start a six-month transition ‘yeah I’ll buy that’, but then I thought ‘No, don’t be period that will see Serpico hand over the reins to hasty’, and I spent the next four months looking at all Computacenter’s US boss Mike Keogh. the houses that were up for sale, until I came back and Along with the FusionStorm staff comes the firm’s bought this one. It’s a bit like that, really.” customers – some of which operate only in the US. This Mike Norris has been far from hasty when it comes to creates a new dynamic for Computacenter, which had taking reseller giant Computacenter into the US market. previously only worked in the US with its European Rumours that a move for FusionStorm could be customers needing support in America. imminent first came to CRN’s attention last year “Our long-term goal is to have the same capability (on 1 October; exactly one year before the deal was in the US as we have in Europe,” Norris explained. announced), but it wasn’t a case of FusionStorm or “That is mainly because we have a lot of nothing for the firm. international clients that would like to “We looked at a lot of companies – not as many as the see us that way. houses I looked at, to be honest – and had people over to “Not all our clients – we have Hatfield, and we had interesting conversations,” he said. UK-only, Germany-only clients “But we have never made any other offers and we have as well – but a lot of them are found this one as the best fit for what we were looking for.” international, and they want to Never an advocate of the buy-and-build strategy, deal with us internationally. Norris has typically favoured organic growth, “We are still some way off that, supplemented by relatively small acquisitions here and but it materially closes the gap there. The acquisition of FusionStorm goes against between what we are able to do the grain somewhat, being his largest since a deal for €1.2bn-revenue German reseller CompuNet in 2004. The acquisition bookends the first, 15-year-long chapter of Computacenter’s US adventure, which until recently saw it partner with US businesses to cater for clients across the pond – the largest being CompuCom. However, this strategy shifted in 2015. “We basically went to our partner and said that we wanted to do this business direct now, and we transferred all the people who were based on our customers’ sites to us,” Norris explained. The addition of FusionStorm’s employees takes Computacenter’s headcount from 650 to 1,000, including a team of 200 in its Mexico City call centre. Norris was speaking to CRN around four hours before departing for a week- long trip to the US to meet his new employees at FusionStorm’s main offices in New York, Boston, Los Angeles and San Francisco (“It’s nice and easy to get around,” he quipped). FusionStorm is set to continue

“Our long-term goal is to have the same capability in the US as we have in Europe”

16 CHANNELWEB.CO.UK OCTOBER 2018 DaaS gut With Microsoft announcing its managed desktop service within days of HP Inc updating its own model, Marian McHugh investigates whether DaaS is on the path to becoming the new normal for the channel Device-as-a-service (DaaS) may not be a new concept device management by Microsoft,” Karagounis said. to the channel, but when giants such as Microsoft and “As we expand the offering, our partners will play a key Computacenter enter into the fray, one can’t help but role in helping us bring MMD to market and support take notice. customers in their transition to a modern desktop.” Last month Microsoft finally confirmed rumours that The day before, HP had announced enhancements it was launching its own answer to DaaS in Microsoft to its own DaaS offering, which was initially launched Managed Desktop (MMD), which pulls together in 2016. hardware, Microsoft 365, Office 365 and various other Neil Sawyer, UK&I channel director at HP, told CRN paraphernalia into a monthly subscription model for at the time that the move to a contractual model by customers. Launch partners for the service include partners would only reap benefits for them. Computacenter, Avanade, Dell and HP. “I’m not exaggerating when I say I don’t see any In a blog post announcing the news, Bill Karagounis, negatives [for partners] whatsoever,” he said. general manager at Microsoft, wrote that the offering is a “I say that because many, if not all, of the partners result of feedback from customers struggling to keep up we’ve spoken to have a long heritage in managed with the rapid rate of technological developments and services, whether that be workplace technology, mobile updating security. technology – much of which is under contract – or “Through MMD, customers will be able to move managed print services. They are used to contractual-led towards a secure, always up-to-date environment with sales, so the transition from selling PCs transactionally to a managed service is not a particularly complicated one.” Making the move The claims from the vendor pair are backed by analysts. According to IDC predictions, some 35 per cent of Fortune 1000 companies will have a DaaS agreement in place and one per cent will have completely transitioned to DaaS by 2019. Kieran O’Connor, sales director at Total Computer Networks, said his firm has recently started actively focusing on DaaS, driving customer engagement around it in the last few months. The organisation has completed four projects and has more in the pipeline, according to O’Connor. The largest of these projects was for 6,000 seats in a corporate enterprise, with most of the interest coming from large organisations. However, he expects this interest to eventually “filter down” into SMBs, adding that the simplicity and manageability of the offering is attractive to customers. “DaaS takes away the worry customers have about supporting devices, looking after them and upgrading them so that the customer can focus on doing what they do best,” he explained. “From our experience, all vendors have programmes around it. HP are certainly pushing us on it and I know Lenovo and Dell are working hard on it too, so they definitely see it as an opportunity for them.” Howard Hall, MD at DTP Group, said that around 10 per cent of the firm’s customer base has adopted DaaS, attributing this to the slow uptake by universities, which he describes as being a “big chunk” of its client device business.

18 CHANNELWEB.CO.UK OCTOBER 2018 The Big Interview

in the US and what we can do in Europe. By making an was us but because it was another reseller that knows acquisition we also pick up some customers and they are their business. important to us now. “We’re not going to throw money at it, but we’re going “Some of those are international clients and we will to make a sensible return in the long term. I walked in try over time to win their business elsewhere on the door and it was literally spontaneous applause; it the planet, because of our international capability, was ridiculous. They were so happy to be rid of their particularly in Europe.” previous owners.” With this unusually active spell for Computacenter Value for money in terms of M&A activity, Norris said that we can On announcing the deal, Computacenter said it would expect things to calm down as he and his team work to pay $70m (£54m) in cash upfront for FusionStorm with a integrate the two acquired businesses. further $20m payable depending on performance, along However, he did not rule out some smaller moves in with $45m towards refinancing the US firm’s debt. the not-too-distant future. Excluding the debt refinancing, the $90m is in line “I’m done for a while now; I have enough to do at the with the eight figures Norris told CRN he wanted to pay moment,” he laughed. for a US firm in July last year. “There are a couple of little things we are looking at, The CEO was candid when asked if he views but they are tiny compared with this, and the only reason FusionStorm as good value for money. I tell you this is so that if one of them comes through you “Look, who knows?” he said. “One thing I do know can’t say ‘but you said you weren’t going to do anything!’ is that if this is a good deal or a bad deal it won’t be “Anything I do now will be small, in the next two years. because of the price. We need to get this thing tucked away.” “If we make this a successful business and it does well, people will say ‘well done’, and if it goes wrong people will chastise us. I can’t believe there will be a situation where people say ‘oh sh*t, if only you got it for $10m less, Recent Computacenter acquisitions it would have been a good deal’. That won’t happen. “You do spend a lot of time negotiating about the ● last million here and the last million there, but frankly, October 2018 that will not be the success or failure. We have paid what FusionStorm, $135m we paid, it is done, now it’s about making a success of what we got.” (including $45m refinancing) Misco SOS Just a few weeks before the US announcement, September 2018 Computacenter threw a lifeline to the last remnant of Misco Netherlands fallen reseller Misco, snapping up its remaining arm in the Netherlands (Systemax held onto the French March 2017 business when it sold Misco to Hilco Capital, and has Team Ultra, since sold this division to Bechtle). £undisclosed The €130m (£115m)-revenue business had been considered the jewel in Misco’s crown, even before the January 2017 subsidiaries in the UK, Sweden, Spain, Hungary, and Citius, £undisclosed Italy had dropped away. While still trading, the Dutch business was not in good April 2011 shape and had endured a torrid time under brief owners ICS Solutions, Hilco, which acquired the business from Systemax in £500,000 (minority March 2017, Norris said. stake) Systemax had initially acquired SCC’s Dutch business in 2014, and rebranded it as Misco. February 2011 The CEO played down the size of the deal when Top Info, €21m announcing it in September, but explained it would allow Computacenter to enter an adjacent market. November 2009 “We are really pleased,” he told CRN. “I think it is a Becom, €2m good little business and it’s had a really tough time under Thesaurus, £900,000 the Hilco management. “They have pared back most of the Misco teleselling January 2007 business and it is almost back to the SCC business. Digica, £15m “I have done a few acquisitions – not big acquisitions, but probably 20 or 25 – and I have never been so ● welcome. They were so pleased, not just because it

OCTOBER 2018 CHANNELWEB.CO.UK 17 Feature

Hall also holds the channel responsible for the configuration services and secure hardware disposal. generally low customer adoption rate, saying that the This opportunity for reseller partners is encouraged transition from a transactional to contractual model by predictions from IDC that the percentage of PCs can be challenging for resellers and clients, the benefits shipped under a DaaS contract will rise from one in are worth it. every 100 to one in every six or seven PCs between “Probably the biggest thing holding up DaaS is actually 2016 and 2020. the channel’s ability to sell it,” he claimed. The model also offers an alluring financial element to “If you think of those people who are making a both customers and their DaaS providers. transactional sell, it’s easier to say ‘I want a price for It gives the reseller a recurring revenue stream, and it this particular PC’. requires less cash investment from the client, according “But to actually construct a business outcome sale, you to Xeretec’s Smith. have to build a business case and demonstrate an ROI, “We position it as the total payments you make over which slows down the sales cycle a little bit, but in reality a three-year plan would be less than you would pay for the benefits to the channel partner make it a lot more that tech [in a lump sum],” he said. profitable and easier to retain customers.” “Finding that budget in a squeezed economy is tough, The reseller boss added that DaaS was a “natural so the conversation about paying for tech as-you-go evolution” from the as-a-service model long employed on a monthly tariff really does resonate and avoids the by the managed print sector, saying that HP is leading investment of big lumps of capital.” the DaaS charge because of its experience with managed Smith claimed that Xeretec is experiencing a rapid print services. DaaS adoption rate from clients, as well as an increasing “From our perspective we prefer contractual business number of manufacturers expressing interest in to transactional business simply because it allows us to employing it as an offering. build and invest in client relationships over a period of As a result, the company expects it to play a “large time, which then helps us retain the client at the end of part” in its continued growth, which will be partly driven the contractual period,” he said. by the large migration of customers to Windows 10 as a “So long as you deliver good service, you can tie your result of Microsoft’s cessation of support for Windows 7 client to you for a contractual period which locks out in January 2020. the competition.” “We are seeing Microsoft recommend people migrate The changing nature of customers could also lead to new hardware, and we are seeing the customers DaaS to move from its current niche to the default themselves thinking that, with all the disruption, it standard model of revenue streams. is a good time to explore a software and hardware Consumer buying habits have changed over the migration,” said Smith. past decade, with as-a-service platforms becoming O’Connor, Hall and Smith all agree that the future more popular. is bright for DaaS and that it presents partners with As a result, a whole generation has grown up using monthly recurring revenue, as well as an opportunity this model and is now entering the workforce – and this to add value through wrapping other services around will have a knock-on effect on the services offered by the the offering. channel, according to David Smith, customer solutions As more vendors hitch their wagon to the model, director at Xeretec. and as a new mind set enters the workplace, it could “This as-a-service generation is really resonating [in increasingly become the new norm. the channel], and I think that is helping more and more “In productivity alone, I think people will get into a companies to accept DaaS,” he said. faster refresh cycle once they move “There’s a whole generation of people where into this model, and it will help ownership is not a thing and we are seeing that impact IT teams because they won’t of millennials and Generation Z coming into the have to spend time and workplace and influencing the IT styles of the businesses money supporting legacy we talk to.” equipment,” said Smith. “I genuinely think that Niche opportunity the market will move to Dell, HP, Lenovo and now Microsoft are some of the this model as the de facto vendors pushing their DaaS offerings, with partners able standard; it will take time, to offer additional services around it, such as helpdesk, but it will get there.” “To construct a business outcome sale, you have to build a business case and demonstrate an ROI, which slows down the sales cycle a little bit, but in reality the benefits make it a lot more profitable and easier to retain customers” Howard Hall, DTP Group

OCTOBER 2018 CHANNELWEB.CO.UK 19 A thoroughly modern millennial Malwarebytes CEO Marcin Kleczynski tells Marian McHugh about his journey from trying to debug his family computer as a teen to running his own million-dollar company from his university dorm room “That’s a terrible name!” said Marcin Kleczynski, co- founder and CEO of Malwarebytes, when he was first offered the domain name of the company with which he would become synonymous. “At the time I really did hate the name, but I ran with it and started building freeware applications using the name Malwarebytes.biz.” Not yet 30, Kleczynski’s career has evolved with the cybersecurity industry in which he now works, but it had a somewhat inauspicious beginning when, at 14, he infected his family computer with a virus as he was downloading a pirated video game. “This was back when malware was lame and it was just a purple gorilla jumping on your screen, trying to sell you something,” he explained. Although the computer had Symantec antivirus software installed, it was not acknowledging that there was any problem with the system. So Kleczynski searched for a remedy online, stumbling across a message board of “superheroes”, a group of hobbyist programmers offering their time to help people remove malware from their computers. Within days of following their advice, the family computer was free of viruses and Kleczynski had accidentally found his career path. “A few days later I couldn’t shake the feeling of ‘why are we paying for antivirus software if it’s not going to help’?” he said. “So I entered the message board community to learn more and I learned how to programme from a For Dummies book.’ Though the message board is no longer active, Kleczynski has brought on a number of the forum members to work at Malwarebytes, including the Belgian programmer who helped him fix his computer 15 years ago. She is now director of threat research. Fresh-faced founding Another person whom the young Kleczynski met on the forum was Bruce Harrison, who helped him to fine-tune his antivirus tools, leading the two to

20 CHANNELWEB.CO.UK OCTOBER 2018 Feature

eventually co-found Malwarebytes and launch its first revolution because we have these big competitors falling product in 2008. over and we are feeding on their carcasses.” “Imagine being 16 and telling your mother that you’re When pressed if he is tempted to list the company working with this 30-year-old guy online!” he laughed. publicly, Kleczynski said he is adamant that Harrison would eventually become vice president of Malwarebytes is not ready for such a move yet. Although research at Malwarebytes, but the two did not meet he doesn’t completely discount such a move in the in person until a year after launching the company, future, he said that his personal goal is to make the when it turned its first $1m. The CEO does not regard company as big as he can, and if that requires an IPO, this as peculiar, rather that it was reflective of their so be it. partnership. “To go public, you need to be able to forecast, you “We grew up on these message need fiscal discipline and good boards and everything was “As the company was taking corporate governance and I don’t communicated through text, so think we are ready yet,” he stated. we thought it best to continue the off, I was hesitating about “We’re growing like a weed which relationship in that way,” going to college, but after a is hard to forecast and build he explained. predictable revenues. Kleczynski followed in five-minute conversation with “I want to make this as big as the footsteps of fellow tech my mother it was clear I was possible, and if that means going entrepreneurs Michael Dell and public to raise more money to Mark Zuckerberg by working on heading to university” invest in the business then we’ll the company from his dorm room do that. Are we ready for that? at university. He admitted that Absolutely not.” he felt conflicted by the choice to run Malwarebytes He is also reticent about the prospect of being full-time at the age of 18 or go to university to study acquired by a larger company, saying it was something computer science. he would contemplate: “I don’t think I want to work “It was a hard decision to make,” he said. “As the for some of these companies out there, but I would company was taking off, I was hesitating about going definitely consider it.” to college, but after a five-minute conversation with my mother it was clear I was heading to university.” ‘Don’t f*ck the customer’ Malwarebytes doesn’t shy away from either its own Reinventing the wheel youth or that of its founder and chief executive. As a small startup, the Malwarebytes founders knew Kleczynski values honesty and transparency in the they would have to take a different approach to fighting running of the business and has worded this as “don’t malware than their larger rivals did. f*ck the customer” to employees. He claims that setting They simplified the process by categorising viruses up his own company so young has given him a “clean into families, looking at behaviour and algorithms to slate” to set the tone and culture of the firm. detect the malware, and then making tools to recognise “I had no perceived notions of what it is like to and fight different types of malware based on family work somewhere with a bad culture. I just thought characteristics. This is what Kleczynski calls “reinventing ‘How I would like to be treated if I was working for the solution”. Malwarebytes?’ And then I try to espouse those values “We have seen a lot of these traditional antivirus and hire leaders who share those values,” he explained. companies starting to catch up with some of the threats Having worked under the Malwarebytes name since but I think the problem is still out there,” he warned. he was 15, Kleczynski claimed that his age was never “I don’t think they have solved the problem and it has a barrier against him, and that sometimes it was an opened up the doors to the likes of us and other next- advantage as customers and partners saw his energy and generation competitors.” passion for the company. Malwarebytes has made one acquisition every year Much like his ‘college startup entrepreneur’ since 2015, with the latest being software developer predecessors Zuckerberg and Dell, Kleczynski has Binisoft in May. This is not a deliberate move, Kleczynski become the face of Malwarebytes, but insisted that if said, adding that his company “can’t build everything” by he were ever to leave, the company would survive itself and that it would lose focus if it attempted to do so. without him. “A number of these antivirus companies are failing “I’ve learned from the beginning that you need to hire because they lost focus. They build their end-point people who are smarter than you are,” he stated. “I would product – that’s how they were founded – and then rather kick my feet up and delegate than do everything revenues start slowing down so they need to invest myself because decision-making can be exhausting elsewhere and they lose focus on what really brought sometimes. them to be a billion-dollar company in the first place,” “That being said, I bleed this company – I’ve literally he said. been doing it half my life. Can I imagine a world without “They can’t defend their turf because their products me at Malwarebytes? That is something to consider but are not effective. I say that we are in an end-point not anytime soon.”

OCTOBER 2018 CHANNELWEB.CO.UK 21 Threats to watch out for in 2019

Tom Wright asks a host of security partners what threats the channel should be looking out for next year

Dan Bailey, Altinet – whaling What we’re speaking about with customers, and also vendors such as Barracuda, is that gateway security isn’t enough anymore. So we need to work out how we protect high-value users. Whaling is high-value phishing attacks. If you send out the same email to 500 people in an organisation, even if they are really sophisticated emails, you’ll only get a limited benefit because they will be lower-level people. The idea – and this is becoming more common – is that you focus on CEOs, CSOs, board members and people with company credit cards. Their details are so easy to find; whether it is a public or private company you can find out the contact details of the CEO on Google. We are being asked a lot about that, and then along with that I think we’re going to see an increase in the need for cybersecurity training. The era of IT managers trying to solve problems with software alone is over. Moving into 2019 and 2020 people know they need the right protection at the gateway and they know they will need advanced technology, but probably most importantly it is going to be about giving users that awareness. I would say the biggest attacks you’ll see in 2019 will be whaling attacks because of the lack of knowledge in workforces.

Robert Pooley, Saepio – USB attacks David Lannin, Sapphire – high-profile website In terms of specific threats, we had ransomware two attacks years ago, but I don’t think there is a stand-out specific I think we’ll see a real focus on websites that see high- threat now. value, high-volume transactions and exchanges – not There is talk of a rise in USB-based attacks again, just retail sites. We saw the BA website attack recently using USB mechanisms to bypass security. There is chat – that was injecting something into memory and trying that there will be some devices that can bypass USB to steal the transactions as they’re happening on the fly. blocking and still infiltrate the end-points. I’ve heard That sort of thing yields great rewards for the attacker. from a few people that the threat reports that come You can imagine that organisations like BA are doing out at the end of the year will likely say that USB attacks as much as they can to protect themselves, but through are on the up. an exploit in their web infrastructure somebody was It is a really old-school method of compromising able to inject some code that would egress data as a business. Stuxnet is one of the classic breaches, to transactions were happening. do with an Iranian nuclear programme (which was Now that has proven to be successful, it is going destroyed). A piece of code was put on a USB stick and to happen again and again. People really need to littered around the car start thinking more about not just protecting the park of the facility, which web infrastructure, but testing the security of those someone plugged in. transactions as they occur. There are technologies that It is nothing new, are starting to do that – it is called transaction stack but it is criminals security and doesn’t require an agent on the client going back to the ways side, which is great. they know. They will But the fact that they are going for high-value targets still be using malware, means they only have to be successful a small amount ransomware and all of the time to still become very successful in terms of the other things, but monetary gain. The interesting thing about the BA USB is yet another attack was that, rather than trying to install something attack vector to be in the system, it was more of an exploit of how the web used. server executes.

22 CHANNELWEB.CO.UK OCTOBER 2018 Emerging Technology

Stephen Love, Computacenter – emerging tech; old Steve Atkins, Arc Systems – privileged threats access-based threats Most of the threat stuff tends to be an extension of what Privileged access is something I have seen emerge we have seen previously. There are only a certain number more in our market. As an exploit, I started of threats that can be made against an organisation, so it is looking at privileged access management (PAM) usually the same thing. two years ago and it is, certainly in the SME 2019 will be much of the same, but I would say that there market, not being addressed. are advancements in certain technologies – such as artificial The exploits use a lack of PAM to launch an intelligence (AI) and machine learning – and there is a attack. If you can get some code onto a computer limited focus on that at the moment. that has minimal access to the network, there Some will adopt them early and when they do it will make might not be a lot that can be accessed by them vulnerable to new threats that are specific to those that code. However, there are so many small technologies, but the way of attacking those kind of things businesses, and even some large, that don’t is going to be using the same attacks that we have seen for have the security in place that can prevent code over a decade. executing itself. The way we do things will not change until we make a We still see people using legacy applications major leap in the way we deliver technology. In most cases that require administrative rights to run and we will see enhanced versions of the same. generally the way that has been configured means In some respects we could be more vulnerable to the older they have access rights across the whole network. threats than the more advanced ones, because everyone is If code can execute at that level, the firm can end talking about them. The age-old phishing attacks are still up with some serious damage. going to have an impact throughout 2019 and beyond. So much effort is being put into The way the attack happens won’t change because the way malware that everyone assumes we work hasn’t changed. Internet protocol is still internet we have protection in place protocol and it works the same way as it did back when it was for virus and worms. I think founded. What we use them for has changed – cloud and AI more of a focus should – but they are all still based on a world that is fundamentally be put on what we have unchanged. The underlying code of Windows isn’t drastically in place internally for different to how it was a generation ago. privileged access abuse.

Vinnie Booth, Solved IT – IoT Tom Millar, ITC Global Security – third-party The big thing is going to be the Internet of Things (IoT). exploitation Everyone and their dog is getting involved in it; by which The area of third-party risk and how I mean I have seen products such as collars that can track organisations are going to gain access to one’s where your dog goes. data and networks is going to be a problem. There is an abundance of WiFi going around and that is Instead of trying to attack them directly it will going to be the big thing. There is massive uncertainty. I probably be a lot easier via a third-party supplier walked into a store the other day and saw that Colgate has that is connected to the corporate systems. made a toothbrush that connects to your iPhone. In the NCSC’s advice on this issue, one of the There was a casino that spent a fortune top five things is ensuring that your partners and on a beautiful fish tank to impress its supply chain are protected. Information that you customers and they put a thermometer share between you has to be protected as well. in it that connected to your phone to You are only as strong as your weakest link, but tell you the temperature. Someone that is extending out to every single third-party. piggy-backed on that and accessed People can now subscribe to services that the network to steal hundreds of go online and probe an infrastructure for thousands of data entries from the information about what is available to see and high-roller database. what isn’t protected. Everyone associates cyberattackers Using this service, people run automated with wanting money, but that is not tests for what is available to the public, and then correct. The biggest currency to them identify holes in the infrastructure. There are is your processing power. If they find lots of things you can do and you effectively some money they often won’t steal it do it on a mass scale – with the top 100 third- because it makes it quicker to detect them, party suppliers of an organisation – and you are but if they get your processing power, they then able to tell the customer which areas their can use you to attack bigger organisations. suppliers need to improve.

OCTOBER 2018 CHANNELWEB.CO.UK 23 Strength in numbers

BearingPoint has been named one of Europe’s greatest success stories since its management buyout in 2009. Josh Budd speaks to its new managing partner Kiumars Hamidian to find out what’s next for the €712m-turnover IT consultancy

It’s not too often that you find a €700m-revenue-plus independent firm move its headquarters to Amsterdam channel partner that is wholly owned and run by its and make a fresh start. management team. Look at Europe’s largest resellers, Today the Dutch firm is wholly owned by a group of systems integrators and MSPs, and you’ll notice a general 170 partners. It’s present in 22 countries worldwide, with theme that most are either backed by enormous private revenues topping €712m in 2017, a 13 per cent increase on equity and venture capital investors or else listed on one the previous year. of Europe’s main stock exchanges, be it LSE, Euronext or Hamidian took the helm of the company as managing Deutsche Bôrse. partner last month, after he was voted in earlier this year But BearingPoint is a proud exception, according to its to succeed Peter Mockler, who has led the firm since its newly installed managing partner Kiumars Hamidian. very foundation in 2009. The BearingPoint brand came into being in 2002 Speaking to Channelnomics Europe, Hamidian expanded through a mash-up between the consulting arms of on why securing an MBO in 2009 is, even to this day, one ancient accountancy firm Arthur Andersen and KPMG. of BearingPoint’s key advantages over the competition, The company – then called KPMG Consulting – floated which includes consultancy’s “big four” (PwC, KPMG, on the NASDAQ exchange in 2001 and then the New York Ernst & Young and Deloitte) as well as IT giants such as Stock Exchange the following year. Accenture and IBM. What followed were seven years of financial turmoil “We are very proud of it. We came from a corporate which culminated in BearingPoint’s US arm filing for New York Stock Exchange set-up to 100 per cent Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2009. ownership. Where is the advantage? We can fully focus on The BearingPoint of today is the result of a management our clients, we can stick to our promises, we don’t have buyout from its European leaders, which saw the newly to fulfil and make the stock exchange happy. It’s really about creating value for our people, our clients and for our society. Generally speaking, I feel like we have much more freedom, much more long-term planning and we can focus on the long-term execution of our strategy,” he said. The long-term strategy Hamidian is referring to is BearingPoint’s goal of hitting €1bn revenues by 2020. Hamidian responded to the notion that adding just shy of €300m to its top line in just over two years is a little on the ambitious side by drawing attention to the rate of BearingPoint’s growth since it became independent. He said that the firm has almost doubled in size since the MBO in 2009 and has expanded into eight new territories: China, the Czech Republic, Italy, Portugal, Romania, Singapore, UAE and the US. And further expansion is likely on the cards for Hamidian, who claims that the UK – which is a relatively

“We came from a corporate New York Stock Exchange set-up to 100 per cent ownership. Where is the advantage? We can fully focus on our clients, we can stick to our promises, we don’t have to fulfil and make the stock exchange happy. It’s about creating value for our people, our clients and for our society”

24 CHANNELWEB.CO.UK OCTOBER 2018 Channelnomics.eu

under-served market for BearingPoint – is a key target for “We are helping clients develop in a more exciting further expansion. way, develop new business models and use our platform BearingPoint is a dominant entity in Germany and the technologies that can help them monetise new multi- wider DACH region, but currently has only 350 staff in partner products and services.” the UK and Ireland, out of a total 4,343 group-wide. For In a big push for its digital platforms business, Hamidian Hamidian, there’s definitely potential to grow the firm’s said BearingPoint plans to grow its footprint in the US consultancy presence, particularly in the banking and and China; countries that account for around 96 per insurance markets. cent of global digital platform “Right now for us the UK market consumption. is extremely interesting. The Again, buyouts might play a banking and insurance markets are part in carving out a presence in our strongest industries outside the both geographies, but Hamidian UK, especially in Germany, France cautioned that the current M&A and Switzerland,” he said. Year of BearingPoint’s management landscape is extremely “overheated”, “There’s a lot of knowledge, buyout and said it’s hard to find a good capacity and capabilities we want price for companies that are up to use to organically but also for sale. inorganically grow the market in “As a result, we won’t be doing the UK. Of course there is already anything crazy,” he said. “If you a mature market, but we will look at the M&A market, not just focus on certain areas where we as in the UK but overall, the prices BearingPoint are very strong.” Year-on-year revenue growth in 2017 for buying companies is extremely Hamidian went on to explain high. It needs to be a good cultural that, when BearingPoint’s European and strategic fit, but it is not managers split from its US parent, our intention to just overpay for the firm lost its Dutch and UK anything.” offices. Since then, BearingPoint Commenting on BearingPoint’s has had to build up both countries performance last year, in which it from scratch. Revenue target for 2020 hit 13 per cent revenue growth, “Of course that takes much Hamidian singled out Germany and longer,” he said. “And, looking at our France as its star performers. other markets in Europe, we already “We grew by 18 per cent in had critical mass. We have 350 Germany, which was outstanding people in the UK and Ireland, so compared with the pace of the we have a good mass, but looking at market,” he said. “Also, we added the size of the market, we need to Employees group-wide 1,100 people to the firm, which be larger there.” is also a big number, and we have BearingPoint has already made a been able to utilise them pretty string of acquisitions in the UK and quickly on our client side.” most recently snapped up a small But Hamidian was sceptical about supply chain consultancy outfit whether BearingPoint’s buoyant called LCP Consulting in 2017. growth last year is sustainable. Further international expansion Number of partners that own “We are still doing very well, but is also on the cards for the IT BearingPoint it is not as good as last year. There behemoth. Alongside its consultancy are certain markets where we did business sits BearingPoint’s not see the growth that we did last technology and solutions arm, which Hamidian flagged as year, but it has still been a very good year,” he explained. an expansion priority for the coming years. “The UK and Ireland has had a very strong year so With top-level partnerships with SAP, Microsoft and far and Germany and France are doing very well. Some Salesforce, BearingPoint has around 50 vendor brands other countries are not performing as strongly as they under its belt. It claims to specialise in advanced analytics, did last year, but I think we can be very happy with the digital platforms and supply chain management. performance.” Its digital platforms team consists of around 200 Meanwhile, Hamidian said there are absolutely no plans employees and is headed up by Angus Ward. to change the management-led structure that BearingPoint “In BearingPoint we can bring together this consulting has had in place for the last nine years, and said he’ll strength with our own proprietary digital solutions and continue the legacy laid out by his predecessor. that is what I focus on,” said Ward. “We are an independent partnership, and we are going “Many of our clients struggle with low revenue growth to stay an independent partnership,” he said proudly. and are suffering a slow death by 1,000 cuts as digitally adept companies cut into their markets. So they need to ■ Visit www.channelnomics.eu to get daily news and get closer to end customers. analysis of the IT channel across Europe

OCTOBER 2018 CHANNELWEB.CO.UK 25 Industry Voice

Computacenter hits the US

Computacenter’s much-anticipated acquisition in the US has finally materialised. But what kind of company is FusionStorm, asks Josh Budd?

As an outspoken critic of buy-and-build firm’s interest costs to the tune of $5.2m and models, Computacenter’s Mike Norris is refinance its short-term debt and trade credit perhaps the last person you’d expect to see agreements. next to the headline: “Computacenter makes It sounds like a lot of work for blockbuster US acquisition”. Computacenter. Although the acquisition FusionStorm racks up $600m (£462m) in consists of an initial cash consideration of sales each year. Computacenter hasn’t made $70m, a further $20m will be handed over an acquisition this large for around 15 years, so long as FusionStorm hits EBITDA targets since 2004, when it returned to the German over the next 15 months. On top of all that, Josh Budd market by buying out CompuNet, a €1.2bn- Computacenter will provide a $45m cash Content editor, turnover player with around 4,250 staff. injection into the company. Computacenter’s big splash in the US has All in all, Computacenter’s big splash in Channelnomics.eu been a long time coming. We found out in the US market comes with a tidy financial July last year that Norris was mulling a US commitment of $135m, which seems an acquisition that could run into an eight- enormous price for a company with low profit figure sum. Later that same year, long-time margins and fewer than 500 employees. Computacenter veteran Mo Siddiqi returned But spending too much probably wasn’t to the reseller after a brief spell at Redcentric Computacenter’s concern. The deal gives CC to lead expansion into new markets. top-level status with some of the industry’s Rumours began to snowball this year that largest vendors, and therefore authority in a Computacenter was closing in on a US deal, market where it is relatively unknown. with FusionStorm named as the target. Like its last acquisition announced earlier The UK-based reseller had previously this month, for Misco’s last-remaining relied on a partnership with US firm subsidiary in the Netherlands, FusionStorm CompuCom to serve its European customers will very much lend to Computacenter’s across the Atlantic, which came to an end product business, which has been thriving after Computacenter opened its first US so far this year, accounting for around 75 per location last year and laid out plans to build a cent of sales in the first six months of the year. 1,000-strong team. It’s interesting to compare Computacenter’s So what sort of company is FusionStorm? recent purchase to the international The firm is based in San Francisco and expansion efforts of its European rivals. led by channel veteran Daniel Serpico, Germany-based Bechtle splashed out who previously ran a top IBM provider on €420m French reseller Inmac Wstore called Jeskell Systems. FusionStorm has six this summer, while Dutch IT services firm offices across the US, a subsidiary in the Getronics raised $815m in financing to Netherlands, and a branch in Beijing, China. acquire 4,000-strong MSP Pomeroy in the US. It’s a top Dell EMC partner and one of a Like Bechtle, it’s clear that Computacenter select few resellers, including Computacenter, has opted to make blockbuster acquisitions Bechtle and Atea, which is part of the in relatively unfamiliar markets through vendor’s invite-only Titanium Black club. It’s sticking to its also a Cisco Gold and HPE Gold partner. supply chain roots. It turned over $595.5m in 2017 but TechMarketView produced pre-tax profits of just $3.9m, described meaning the firm logged a profit margin of Computacenter’s just 0.65 per cent. deal as a “relatively In its regulatory filing announcing the bold, but non-risky acquisition, Computacenter took pains to move”, and it’s hard assure the market that FusionStorm’s profits to disagree. aren’t as bad as they appear on paper. With 1,000 Computacenter claims that FusionStorm employees now has an EBITDA of $9.8m to $12.1m on a stateside, Computacenter pro forma adjusted basis once you factor in has certainly risen to become a true its commitments to “materially reduce” the global – rather than European – player.

26 CHANNELWEB.CO.UK OCTOBER 2018 Industry Voice

Digitising the public sector

Romy Hughes of Brightman Business Solutions makes the case for the channel’s crucial role in unleashing SMEs to facilitate digitisation in government procurement

To realise its commitment to direct 33 per higher risk due to having fewer resources cent of public sector procurement straight or lower headcount. However, this does to SMEs by 2022, the UK government must not necessarily mean that there is a greater take further steps to improve its procurement risk. Larger contractors, for example, have model. In our new whitepaper, we note that sometimes shown to deliver less efficient despite the UN heralding the UK’s digitisation service and reliability than smaller firms. of its public sector as world leading, more Be more transparent. To see if public sector steps need to be taken to capture the best of spending is actually reaching the whole SME SME innovation. spectrum, government should report on the Romy Hughes SMEs often have the most cost-effective headcount of each firm appointed. Director, Brightman and innovative approaches to solving Lower the cost of doing business with the problems, and because they aren’t burdened public sector. While the government has Business Solutions with layers of bureaucracy, they are generally made serious inroads into cutting down the more agile. Whenever SMEs are unfairly bidding process, it remains as a deterrent to prevented from pitching for new digitisation many SMEs that don’t have the resources to projects, digitisation is held back. bid for every relevant contract. The challenge for the government is that its Commit more resources to managing SME procurement process moves at a much slower supplier relationships. There is a conflict in the pace than the change happening in the world. government’s austerity policies and its desire IT transformation is a stark example of this. to work more with SMEs. This derives from Government procurement is not agile enough the practicalities of working with SMEs instead to work with SMEs, so it routinely misses out. of large suppliers, since doing so introduces Unwieldy contracts with onerous terms more suppliers to a project. Austerity has led can prevent an SME from bidding since the to reduced headcounts across government cost of a legal review can be prohibitively departments, including those in procurement expensive and not having a review is risky. who manage government suppliers. This Crown Commercial Services is trying to means government is disincentivised from address this with a shorter-form contract, but working with SMEs. it doesn’t go far enough to help SMEs. More honestly appraise the risk of SME While the public sector is actively trying to engagement. Government procurement transform the way it works with suppliers to officers need to evaluate SMEs in terms of make it more accessible to SMEs, the rigid, quality of work, delivery, skills and value rules-based approach to procurement is for money, not just headcount and years of central to the problem. established business. Our recommendations to help redress the Leverage SME consortiums. Many SMEs SME public procurement balance are: have built partner networks or consortiums Don’t stifle existing relationships. Nurturing with other SMEs to help them deliver on relationships with the channel and sharing larger projects. These often consist of information is important so that the best niche skills you cannot find elsewhere, let solutions can be identified. alone in bigger consultancies. Overhaul existing frameworks including Brexit is affecting every aspect of G-Cloud 10, Contracts Finder and the Digital government. The prioritisation given to Outcomes and Specialists systems. The delivering Brexit has naturally resulted in frameworks have brought improvements but some projects being put on hold, but it may could still be easier and friendlier to use. create opportunities for British companies to Introduce fairer terms for SMEs. Often deliver more public services in the future if SMEs are required to wait for payment for the UK government is no longer obligated to 60 days or more while the big boys get paid put out tenders across the EU. within five days; similarly the big boys push Channel partners have an integral role to down SME margins so that the return on play whether fostering relationships with SME public sector work is much lower. the public sector and SMEs or acting as the Introduce more realistic risk analysis conduit to bring SME consortiums together – procedures. SMEs tend to be judged as a they are crucial to the government’s success.

OCTOBER 2018 CHANNELWEB.CO.UK 27 Feature

Mission to Mars Cisco has just promoted its EMEAR channel boss, Wendy Mars, to the top post in the region. Doug Woodburn quizzes her on her priorities

Cisco’s newly promoted EMEAR SVP has talked up the Mars’ previous role, that of vice president, EMEAR mainstream digital transformation opportunity facing Partner Organisation and Digital, saw her head both the the networking giant and its partners. partner business and engineering and sales engineering Wendy Mars has snared the post of SVP EMEAR for Cisco in the region. Her previous responsibilities following the promotion of predecessor Edwin Paalvast have been carved in two, with the former brief already to a global role. She previously headed up Cisco’s partner having been filled. Cisco is currently seeking a new organisation in the region. EMEA channel boss. Cisco conducts 85 per cent of its business through “In the short term, I’m doing both of those roles and the channel globally, and Mars – who worked as will continue to do that in the new role naturally. But we CTO of Cisco partner ThruPoint before joining the will be hiring a dedicated full-time lead for the partner networking giant in 2008 – said her promotion echoes organisation,” Mars said. its commitment to partners. Cisco’s EMEA business grew by six per cent in its “I ran the [EMEA] partner organisation, plus the most recent quarter. architectures and SE areas, for one year, and prior to Quizzed on growth hotspots for partners, Mars picked that worked extensively with our partners. I’m a strong out network intuitive and cybersecurity. believer in the power of the ecosystem and our partners,” “If I look at EMEA, we are one of the most diverse she told CRN. regions, which is fantastic for us. Different markets will “This appointment reconfirms the importance for us adopt different technologies at different paces but if you of our partner landscape.” look at the momentum around network intuitive, we Turning to her priorities, Mars highlighted driving are seeing interest from customers in all segments and customers’ digital transformation as “the most important geographies – that’s one we are watching closely,” she thing [Cisco and its partners] can solve together”. said. “Also, from a portfolio standpoint the opportunities “If you look at this principle of digital and how and challenges we face around cybersecurity is an area organisations adopt and consume that, rather than without question where we see strong growth. It remains having to champion that cause with our customers, a priority for us and independent of geography there is we are now in the thick of it, and they accept that it is strong appetite in the market.” required and are asking for help and support on the ‘how’,” she said. Recurring revenue rose to 32 per cent of Cisco’s overall sales in its most recent quarter. Although that figure was up just one per cent year on year and flat quarter on quarter, Mars said she felt Cisco is “on track” with its plans to embrace subscription models. On this note, Mars claimed that end users are seeking more regular contact and guidance from partners. “They want Cisco and our partners to be with them through the journey of the life cycle,” she said. “It’s no longer just ‘one of you sell me something and I don’t see you again for another four or five years when I buy something again’. I want you to stay with me on the journey.”

“If you look at this principle of digital and how organisations adopt and consume that, rather than having to champion that cause with our customers, we are now in the thick of it, and they accept that it is required and are asking for help and support on the ‘how’”

28 CHANNELWEB.CO.UK OCTOBER 2018 What I Seek

What I seek from my IT suppliers Nathan Andrew, director, SJ Andrew & Sons What does your company do, and what is your building out a service-level agreement and defining role there? expectations and deliverables. After that, SJ Andrew & Sons is a steel stockholding it’s all about clean execution. The vendor and industrial supplies specialist based who consults with me first, outlines in Cornwall. The company was founded their plan and has a clear strategy for in 1914 and has since remained in the implementation is most likely to win my family, growing over the years with business. numerous investment and expansion milestones. Today it employs 33 staff Can you give us an example of a with an average service of 17 years each. project where an IT supplier has I am the company director and great- really impressed you? What did they grandson of the founder. I hold dual get right? responsibility for protecting the company’s We were recently the target of a legacy while also propelling the business ransomware attack. It was terrible. We were forward into the future. flooded last year, and I remember opening the door to the building and water flowing out. What traits do you seek in your IT suppliers? That was awful, but ransomware was much worse. I In the current business environment where cyberattacks knew with the flood that we could clean it up, but I was are a constant threat, it is more important than ever for really worried and uncertain about how the ransomware organisations to have solutions in place to prevent and attack would end. What was shocking was that I thought prepare for ransomware attacks. we had taken good security precautions. We’d moved From first-hand experience, I can say that it is crucial to Office 365, and had good anti-virus and firewall for IT suppliers to offer a solution that: protection in place. ■ Offers powerful and flexible data protection The first action was to shut down the PCs and ■ Provides total business continuity and orchestrated call the service provider who quickly assessed the recovery with a single click damage and concurred with my diagnosis that this ■ Is capable of restoring entire infrastructures in minutes was a ransomware attack. As a senior member of staff ■ Ensures minimum data loss and downtime owned the compromised PC and had high-level access, contamination was widespread. What are your main dos and don’ts for resellers and While a ransomware attack is not something any other IT suppliers when they are selling to you? company wants to experience, for us this was a good ■ Be sensitive to the size of the business and offer a outcome. solution that’s in line with this. ■ Don’t underestimate the opportunity for advising Do you generally prefer to procure as many IT goods customers how to navigate the technology landscape. If and services as possible from a single supplier, or we feel better educated, we are more likely to choose the work with multiple specialists? right technology to fuel future growth. It’s important to us that the technology we implement ■ Where feasible, offer a scalable solution that can be is tried and tested, and we also prefer keeping things dialled up in parallel with business growth. simple with a limited pool of trusted experts who know our business well and can contribute to our business How can IT suppliers best influence you early in the success. With that in mind, we work with a handful of IT sales cycle? suppliers that are specialists in their respective areas. In From the very beginning of the process, IT suppliers our opinion, it’s very valuable to have expert guidance on should be transparent and upfront about costs and critical business infrastructure. requirements. The important thing is to build a For example, a general IT contractor might have relationship and establish a trusted partnership with an recommended a different approach to dealing with organisation that can provide comprehensive IT support our ransomware situation. Working with experienced in order to protect business revenue in the long term. professionals who are not guessing, but who positively This process begins with an initial proper assessment of know how to resolve a situation we have never the business needs. From there, it’s about agreeing on experienced before trumps working with a smaller an appropriate solution that meets the requirements, number of suppliers. Your business depends on it.

OCTOBER 2018 CHANNELWEB.CO.UK 29 Q&A

‘This gives us great scale’ MSP IT Lab recently acquired Microsoft Sharepoint and Office 365 specialist Content and Code to form a £60m-revenue powerhouse. Their respective CEOs, Peter Sweetbaum and Tim Wallis, explain the logic of the deal Peter (pictured, right), we’ve heard you’re gunning to PS: I would echo that, and that’s where the depth of build a £100m-revenue business under your new private understanding – particularly of Office 365 and Microsoft equity owner [ECI Partners]. Your recent acquisition of 365 – Content and Code has is valuable to internal IT. Content and Code takes you to a £60m run rate, but just how ambitious is IT Lab? You’ve been made chief digital officer of IT Lab, but how PS: As an organisation that is private equity-backed we long do you plan to say on for, Tim? are looking to build to a scale. Those sort of numbers you I’m 100 per cent committed. I completely believe in what are talking about are the right sort of target, but frankly we’ve done. I completely believe in IT Lab and love their the financial performance and scale of the business culture and ethos around service obsession. We originally comes second to delivering what clients need. went out to look to acquire a company that had the managed services capabilities we wanted, and we couldn’t Tim (pictured, left), you founded Content and Code in find anyone good. IT Lab is a great fit for us. I talked to 2001. Why did you feel it was the right time to sell up? a lot of people at Microsoft about the deal and they are TW: Customers wanted us to digitally transform them – really excited about it. which is where we are very strong – but they also wanted someone who can run the solution for them after it has The last accounts you published on Companies House, been transformed. That’s where we said ‘we need to for the year to 31 March 2017 show revenues of invest in this, and either buy a company or join one’. And £34.4m, but you’re now billing the company as having a the best company we found by far was IT Lab. £60m-revenue run rate. You have obviously grown a lot It’s a natural evolution for Content and Code. We’ve since then... always been strong in the enterprise space and typically PS: Our accounts to March 2018 showed £40.2m compete against Capgemini, Fujitsu, Atos, and all the revenue, so yes, we grew significantly, both organically outsourcers. We’re a relatively small company of only 100 and through an acquisition of a cybersecurity business people, but what this gives us is great scale to give the called Perspective Risk in May 2017, which was a circa customers what they really want. £1.2m-revenue business. And what was the rationale for IT Lab? Can you comment on the terms of the deal? PS: Content and Code is a business with exceptional PS: Unfortunately I can’t comment on that. depth of capability within the Microsoft stack, particularly around Office 365 and Sharepoint Are we likely to see further acquisitions from IT Lab? capabilities. It’s extremely well regarded in the PS: Yes, but we want to identify businesses with excellent marketplace, but also within Microsoft itself. And when capability that will extend the breadth and depth of Tim and I first spoke four or five months ago we realised what we do. quite quickly that there was a strong cultural fit between the two organisations. When looking at how much of their estate IT departments are entrusting to MSPs, how is that equation changing? TW: It’s definitely moving in favour of MSPs. The one thing IT departments are typically struggling with is the massive amount of new features and products coming from Microsoft. They used to only have to manage two or three products a year, and now they are managing 40 products every single year and Office 365 and Microsoft 365 have about 200 or 300 new feature enhancements every year. So the skills are changing from patching servers to actually doing change management and user adoption, and those are the things where IT departments are typically weak.

30 CHANNELWEB.CO.UK OCTOBER 2018 6 November 2018| Moorgate Place, London

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