Skype

Unified Communications

Jabra brings first wireless earbuds to commercial headset market with Evolve 65t

December 13, 2018 Mark Cox Comments Off on Jabra brings first wireless earbuds to commercial headset market with Evolve 65t
Jabra resellers get access to a wireless earbud headset that has appeal to consumer product users, but at a much higher quality that is certified for Skype for Business, and which can spare them a long series of support issues compared to the kind of products in this form factor that have been available until now.

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Cloud

SherWeb relaunches their Office 365 offer, announces new UCaaS offering

November 12, 2018 Mark Cox Comments Off on SherWeb relaunches their Office 365 offer, announces new UCaaS offering
SherWeb’s first RMM integration, with ConnectWise, is scheduled to go live in Q1 of next year, a major step for the Cloud Services Provider, who previously had no direct integration with ConnectWise.

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Unified Communications

Jabra extends new Engage franchise to corded phones with Engage 50

November 5, 2018 Mark Cox Comments Off on Jabra extends new Engage franchise to corded phones with Engage 50
Jabra’s first corded model in their next-gen Engage franchise is aimed at the more price-sensitive part of the market, but still contains some interesting technology innovations.

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Networking

Ottawa’s Martello Technologies adds new capabilities with acquisition of Savision

October 15, 2018 Mark Cox Comments Off on Ottawa’s Martello Technologies adds new capabilities with acquisition of Savision
From a product perspective, Savision’s IT Operation solution that integrates and controls monitoring, cloud, and service management tools data in a single pane of glass will enable Martello’s UC/SD-WAN offering to have this same seamless capability. From a business point of view, it doubles Martello’s sales and marketing resources, strengthens their channel, and turns their European presence from minor into a real strength.

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Hardware

Plantronics broadens headset use cases with three new series

October 9, 2018 Mark Cox Comments Off on Plantronics broadens headset use cases with three new series
The newly announced ones are the Voyager 4200 UC, aimed at the ‘corridor warrior,’ and the Savi 8200, which extends the range of the Plantronics line that supports deskphones, mobile phones and PCs. They also recently announced the Elara 60 series, which is a mobile phone station.

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Hardware

IGEL refreshes workhorse UD3 series with second generation AMD Embedded G-Series SOC

June 12, 2018 Mark Cox Comments Off on IGEL refreshes workhorse UD3 series with second generation AMD Embedded G-Series SOC
While IGEL introduced a splashy higher-end AMD powered device earlier this year, which has been selling well since its inception, the less expensive UD3 is the bedrock of IGEL’s business, accounting for three-fifths of their sales.

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Hardware

Lenovo expands Smart Office initiative with ThinkSmart Hub 700

June 7, 2018 Mark Cox Comments Off on Lenovo expands Smart Office initiative with ThinkSmart Hub 700
Lenovo continues their strategy designed to make them a major Smart Office player, with the announcement of their second ThinkSmart offering for the Smart Office, following up their first, which just was released to General Availability.

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Unified Communications

Sennheiser fills gap in unified collaboration headsets with high-end SDW 5000 Series

June 1, 2018 Mark Cox Comments Off on Sennheiser fills gap in unified collaboration headsets with high-end SDW 5000 Series
Sennheiser is looking to their first unified communication and collaboration headset to further stimulate their Canadian business, which has already been showing strong momentum.

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Hardware

Lenovo reboots Smart Office message with ThinkSmart Hub 500 general availability

May 28, 2018 Mark Cox Comments Off on Lenovo reboots Smart Office message with ThinkSmart Hub 500 general availability
Lenovo announces the GA of the Smart Office videoconferencing device, developed in partnership with Microsoft, that was announced last fall at Microsoft’s Ignite event. What they deem more important however, is their message to the market that this product is only the start of an initiative designed to make Lenovo a major player in the Smart Office space.

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Managed Services

HP vet Ken Archer lays out vision and plans as new Nectar Chief Revenue Officer

January 12, 2018 Mark Cox Comments Off on HP vet Ken Archer lays out vision and plans as new Nectar Chief Revenue Officer
Nectar creates a new Chief Revenue Officer position to coordinate the company’s different channel routes to market.

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Cloud

IR makes updated UC assessment and testing solution available in the cloud

September 25, 2017 Mark Cox Comments Off on IR makes updated UC assessment and testing solution available in the cloud
Last year, IR introduced a network assessment and testing tool. It is being well received by Microsoft partners, and the new version is switching from software to a cloud-based tool.

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Cloud

Five9 announces major new version of cloud contact centre platform

July 13, 2017 Mark Cox Comments Off on Five9 announces major new version of cloud contact centre platform
The Summer Release expands Five9’s global capabilities and expands the number of apps available on their microservices architecture.

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Mobility

Nutanix-powered Dell XC Xpress for VDI highlights flurry of Dell VDI announcements

July 12, 2017 Mark Cox Comments Off on Nutanix-powered Dell XC Xpress for VDI highlights flurry of Dell VDI announcements
Dell also announces a new Latitude VDI notebook, upgrading of its ThinOS 8.4 software, and new management software.

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Cloud

Quest unveils new Quest on Demand SaaS platform for Microsoft solutions

July 11, 2017 Mark Cox Comments Off on Quest unveils new Quest on Demand SaaS platform for Microsoft solutions
Quest is releasing the new platform at Microsoft Inspire, because they see it as a strong channel offering, and are looking to recruit new partners to sell it.

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Cloud

Do your customers love Office 365, but avoid the cloud?

June 13, 2017 Robert Dutt Comments Off on Do your customers love Office 365, but avoid the cloud?
A Softchoice survey finds that while customers accept Office 365 as a way of licensing software, many aren’t moving their infrastructure into the cloud.

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Distribution

Westcon to exclusively distribute unique Embrava UCC productivity tools in North America

April 3, 2017 Mark Cox Comments Off on Westcon to exclusively distribute unique Embrava UCC productivity tools in North America
Embrava makes status indication tools, with the main focus being Skype for Business, although they support a broad range of United Communications-as-a-Service solutions.

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Virtualization

Dell refreshes low end of thin client lineup with new quad-core Wyse 3040 model

March 28, 2017 Mark Cox Comments Off on Dell refreshes low end of thin client lineup with new quad-core Wyse 3040 model

The quad-core processor in the Dell new low-end thin client will be able to handle demanding apps like Skype for Business, which strained the resources of earlier models with less powerful processors.

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Channel Programs

Citrix outlines channel priorities for 2017 at Summit partner event

January 9, 2017 Mark Cox Comments Off on Citrix outlines channel priorities for 2017 at Summit partner event
Citrix’s new global channel chief also indicates that some simplifications of the program are in the works to make it easier to do business with Citrix – but likely not until 2018.

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Unified Communications

Sennheiser moves into commercial noise cancellation market with MB 660 Series

September 26, 2016 Mark Cox Comments Off on Sennheiser moves into commercial noise cancellation market with MB 660 Series
The new Sennheiser headsets, designed specifically for knowledge workers in noisy open offices, feature high end adaptive noise cancellation capability.

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Channel Programs

Addition of competencies to HPE Partner Ready program highlight GPC announcements

September 12, 2016 Mark Cox Comments Off on Addition of competencies to HPE Partner Ready program highlight GPC announcements
Other important changes include the integration of programs for other groups which used to be outside the old umbrella program and the integration of the Aruba PartnerEdge and HPE Networking channel programs into the new Partner Ready for Networking program.

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