5 Channel Partner and MSP Updates: Tuesday 13 October 2020

Here are five (actually, more) technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to start your day for Tuesday, October 13, 2020. Sip up.

Our Daily Brew

A. What’s Happening Today

1. M&A - Human Capital Management (HCM): Workforce Insight has acquired Hive Tech HR, a an IT consulting firm focused on human capital management (HCM) software, and a certified Ultimate Software partner.

2. Remote Audits, Training Support and Smart Glasses: SHL Group has embraced Vuzix Smart Glasses and Augmented Reality (AR) technology to provide remote support, beginning with its Taiwan locations.

3. PC Sales Trends - Google Chromebooks Win: A surge in remote work, study and home entertainment during the coronavirus pandemic boosted personal computer sales in the third quarter and drove the strongest growth in a decade in the U.S., The Wall Street Journal says. Much of the growth came from Chromebooks, with a roughly 90% surge in the third quarter driven by distance learning, especially in the U.S., according to preliminary data from Gartner, The Journal notes.

4. Wipro Financial Results: The global IT consulting and services provider says revenue was $2.1 billion for the quarter ended September 30, 2020. The figure was essentially flat compared to the corresponding quarter in 2019. The overall results generally beat Wall Street's expectations.

5. IT Services - Facebook Workplace: Crayon, an IT solutions provider that specializes in digital transformation, has expanded its partnership with Facebook Workplace. Crayon has offered the business collaboration tool in the Nordics since 2018. This new agreement will expand the partnership into 20 more countries over the next year, Crayon says.

B. Channel Partner Programs and Strategic Alliances

1. Channel Chiefs - Security: Sophos has promoted channel chief Erin Malone to senior vice president of sales for Americas. Malone, Sophos notes, has risen the company ranks  following a successful position as vice president of sales for North America, where she created and led the company's Partner Advisory Council (PAC). She joined Sophos in 2015, and is based in the U.S. Also, the cybersecurity software company has hired Forcepoint veteran Kevin Isaac as senior vice president of sales for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA).

2. Channel Chief - Digital Infrastructure: Vertiv has hired Dell Technologies and APC veteran Peter Klanian as vice president for the Vertiv Americas channel.

3. Microsoft Azure Expert MSP Partner: CDW, a Top 200 Public Cloud MSP in 2019, has expanded from Amazon Web Services and is now recognized as a Microsoft Azure Expert Managed Service Provider (MSP), the company says. ChannelE2E will release the Top 200 Public Cloud MSP list for 2020 in November. The survey for the list closes on October 23.

4. Partner Program - No-Code SaaS: Fulcrum has introduced the Fulcrum Leverage partner program. The program supports Fulcrum's no-code SaaS platform -- which helps customers streamline data collection, automate workflows, and obtain data-driven insights related to key performance indicators, the company says.

5. Partner Program - Cloud Software Platform: CloudBlue, an Ingram Micro business, has launched the CloudBlue System Integrator (SI) Partner program. Also, more than a dozen new mid-market customers have embraced CloudBlue to scale their cloud services, CloudBlue says.

6. Partner Program - Email Analytics: timetoreply, a SaaS business email analytics company, has launched a new partner program for resellers, consultants, and technology providers.

7. Research - Channel-First Sales Models: A partner-led go-to-market (GTM) strategy — one that leverages channel partners and is supported by distributors — produces consistently higher returns than other GTM strategies, a new report commissioned by the Global Technology Distribution Council (GTDC) asserts.

C. Technology Conferences and Virtual Partner Events