Channel catch-up: News in brief
Developments this week at CMS Distribution, SoftwareOne, Dell, Integrity360, Evolve IP and Softcat
Before the laptops are turned off and the weekend begins, there are a few stories that are worth catching up on. These include activities across all tiers of the channel, with acquisitions, partner events and fundraising all taking place.
CMS Distribution
The firm has been named a distributor for the Red Hat Certified Cloud and Service Provider programme, which means it is in a position to support resellers and ISVs that are looking for open source expertise.
The Red Hat Certified Cloud and Service Provider programme enables managed service providers (MSPs) to deliver hosted and managed services based on the vendor’s offerings.
Sophia Anastasi, head of enterprise sales at CMS Distribution, welcomed the development: “This allows us to enable our partners to deliver services across Red Hat’s flexible, enterprise open source solutions, helping them to drive innovation and scalability.”
Simon Mead, ecosystem leader for Northern Europe at Red Hat, said CMS would provide greater market coverage: “At Red Hat, we are committed to enabling partners to deliver IT managed services using Red Hat’s open hybrid cloud, virtualisation and AI technologies, helping organisations more easily navigate today’s evolving IT landscape. With this collaboration, we can help to empower cloud service providers to accelerate digital transformation with greater flexibility, innovation and security.”
Integrity360
The security specialist has expanded its geographical reach with a move to acquire French player Holiseum.
The addition of Holiseum brings group revenues to over €160m and a dedicated cyber security team of more than 700 employees. It not only gives a deeper foothold in France but underlines the wider ambitions by Integrity360 to be seen as a major European player.
Ian Brown, executive chair at Integrity360, said that the firm had been impressed with the track record and skills of the Holiseum team.
“The enhanced group will significantly expand Holiseum’s considerable expertise in OT/IoT environments for the benefit of customers both in France and across all other EMEA locations. Paris will also serve as an additional Integrity360 key regional hub from which we will deliver an expanded set of services for the benefit of our combined customers over the coming months and years,” he said.
In response, An Nguyen and Faiz Djellouli, founders and directors of Holiseum, said the deal would be a positive: “Holiseum is delighted to be continuing that journey but with Integrity360’s support, allowing us to further expand our team, our services and our market coverage. Our skills combined with those of Integrity360 will provide an extension of our portfolio of services for OT environments.”
SoftwareOne
The firm has announced the expansion of its Digital Sales Hubs to support SMEs, with fresh locations, including Bogotá, Colombia, and São Paulo, Brazil, joining hubs in Nashville, US, and Barcelona, Spain.
The hubs help customers to access to the latest Microsoft technology and support from SoftwareOne.
“Building on our long-standing partnership with Microsoft to launch these SoftwareOne Digital Sales Hubs is a natural step as we double down on our commitment to SME clients,” said Raphael Erb, CEO of SoftwareOne.
“SMEs face the same cost pressures, the need to modernise their businesses with AI, and cyber threats as large enterprises, but have often limited resources to address them effectively. We aim to level the playing field by providing the localised access, attention and expertise that SMEs need to succeed.”
Dell
The vendor has marked one year of the launch of its AI Factory with Nvidia with the announcement of a wave of AI PCs, infrastructure, software and services.
Fresh PowerEdge products, along with an AI data platform, were some of the highlights that Dell is looking to its channel to start pitching.
“We have the Dell AI Factory with Nvidia that’s going to make 2025 a year of growth for Dell partners. In addition, our newly branded AI PC portfolio, including the extended Dell Pro Max lineup means that we are uniquely positioned to seize the PC refresh opportunity – and our partners are too. A huge part of the modernisation effort is going to come through the channel – the opportunity for partners is immense,” said Ian Heath, UK head of channel and distribution at Dell Technologies.
Evolve IP
The unified comms specialist is holding a partner day at the National Space Centre in Leicester on 1 April.
The centre is a suitable venue to talk to partners about taking sales to greater heights and about the firm’s ambitions for the rest of 2025.
“We recognise the importance of partnerships, which is a key cornerstone of our ethos and evolution. Partnerships help to create best-of-breed solutions and can unlock new doors, opportunities and deliver greater customer value and service,” said Paul Harrison, managing director across EMEA at Evolve IP. “The event will be all about powering and inspiring our partners to aim even higher and reach for the stars.”
Softcat
The channel player’s Dublin office has made a a donation of €25,014 to the Jack and Jill Children’s Foundation, with the funds equating to 1,390 hours of in-home nursing care and respite.
The fundraising event included some of Jack and Jill’s staff sharing inspiring stories about how the donations supported children and their families across Ireland. Louise Keenan and Sinead Bourke, Love2Give network leads at Softcat, said the company had gained an insight into the difficulties the children faced.
“Through this collaboration, we’ve seen firsthand the incredible impact they make in the lives of seriously ill children and their families. Working alongside them has allowed us to not only raise vital funds but also deepen our understanding of the challenges these families face daily,” they commented.
