In This issue:

What’s New: A selection of the month’s best new products and services

Distributor News:  Digital transformation helps distributors meet challenges

Working Together:  This month’s round-up of new distribution agreements

Reseller News: Tech firms invited to join new online marketplace

Interview: Nuvias CEO Simon England on the acquisition of Cloud Distribution

Telephony: Businesses not ready for ISDN switch-off

Zero Trust Technology Reseller talks ZTNA with Appgate’s new EMEA Channel Director

I couldn’t do my job without… Yugabyte’s David Walker outlines his six favourite work tools

People: New faces, new places

The good news is Technology Live is back on. The one-day exhibition and seminar programme will be taking place at the Business Design Centre in London on September 28, 2021, so please mark it in your diaries now. We have a small preview on pages 39 to 42 and will be providing additional information in future issues of Technology Reseller, as

well as online at www.technologylive.co.uk. After all the uncertainty of the last 18 months – and notwithstanding the enormous value and benefits of video meeting platforms – there is genuine excitement amongst the exhibitors we have spoken to about being able to meet customers, potential customers, old colleagues and even competitors face- to-face. You can do a lot virtually, but meeting peers in a relaxed environment is, in many respects, still the best way to learn about new technologies and gauge the temperature of the market. We look forward to seeing you in London on September 28.

Just before writing this piece, I was on a call with Nestle Coffee Partners who, together with productivity specialists Humanyze and workplace design experts Brainybirdz, have been looking
at how office design and particularly the provision of coffee stations can boost productivity by encouraging beneficial social interactions. I will be writing about their research in more detail another time, but for now I thought the following statistic from David Basson, Head of Beverages UK&I at Nestlé Professional, was particularly pertinent to Technology Live and the appeal of face to face contact: if you ask for something face to face you are 32 times more likely to get it at the first time of asking than if you ask for it electronically.

In this month’s View from the Channel, Leon Wheeler, Managing Director of The ICC Group, says that one of the biggest challenges he faces right now is getting customers to commit to spend. The number of people still working from home or

on furlough and uncertainty over future infrastructure/office requirements, as well as question marks over the strength of the UK recovery, are all factors. But could it also be that without face-to-face contact it is easier for potential customers to wriggle off the hook and avoid giving you what you ask for?

James Goulding – Editor, Jamesg@binfo.co.uk