Vlad Mitnovetski (Dicker Data) Credit: Dicker Data Networking vendor Netgear has teamed up with Dicker Data to boost its market share in Australia.  As a result of the deal, Dicker Data will gain access to Netgear's SMB and professional AV range of switches, including routers, range extenders and home mesh networking in the Australian market.  According to Dicker Data, the solutions are suitable for the home and gaming markets.  'I'm pleased to welcome Netgear to the Dicker Data business,' said the distributor's chief operating officer, Vlad Mitnovetski.

https://www.arnnet.com.au/article/706120/netgear-seeks-bigger-aussie-footprint-dicker-data/

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Credit: Supplied Vocus has been brought in to supply internet connectivity for Sydney's new $828 million Allianz Stadium, providing speeds of up to 5Gbps.The stadium utilises the telco's 'IP Burst with 95th percentile billing' model, which can boost its 1Gbps connection up to 5Gbps for up to 5 per cent of the time at no additional cost, which Vocus says is a concept from wholesale telco billing. The additional speed is to be used to provide what Vocus claims is "an immersive digital experience" through a Wi-Fi 6 network of 800 meshed wireless access points.

https://www.arnnet.com.au/article/701396/vocus-kicks-off-connectivity-new-allianz-stadium/

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Dave Patnaik (Forescout Technologies) Credit: Dave Patnaik Cybersecurity automation vendor Forescout Technologies has stepped up its channel expansion plans adding Nextgen to its distribution mix in Australia and New Zealand (A/NZ).Since January, Forescout has grown its channel and sales support team to more than 300 per cent and hired regional channel and alliance director Colin Garro along with new global systems integrator (GSI) regional leader for India Viswanath Singh.Forescout Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ) regional vice president Dave Patnaik said Forescout has been on a journey to transforming its business from network to cyber security and modernising its channel strategy along the way.

https://www.arnnet.com.au/article/700703/forescout-steps-up-nz-investment-nextgen-distribution/

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Cynthia Gebert (Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman) Credit: Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman Mobile complaints to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) have hit a five-year high, making up 39.7 per cent of all complaints, with issues about Aussie Broadband, Dodo and ALDImobile on the rise.The TIO's annual report for the financial year ending 30 June found Medion, which offers services under the ALDImobile brand, experienced the largest increase in complaints over the period with a rise of 31.

https://www.arnnet.com.au/article/701677/aussie-broadband-dodo-aldimobile-phone-complaints-rise/

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Credit: Dreamstime NetApp is on the hunt for a new Australian and new Zealand (A/NZ) leader following the departure of Paul Crighton after three years in the top role.While a new leader is being sought, Asia Pacific vice president and CTO Matthew Hurford will be taking charge of the local operations. He will continue to be supported by Dhruv Dhumatkar who is driving local business operations and sales engagements; Jason Daniel who is spear-heading sales activities; and technology evangelist Wojtek Malewski to support customers in A/NZ.

https://www.arnnet.com.au/article/702089/netapp-searches-new-nz-md/

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Shalini Lagrutta Credit: Supplied Pre-fabricated modular data centre specialist DXN has launched a hosted cloud solution in collaboration with infrastructure-as-a-service provider and white label cloud platform OrionVM.Named DXN Cloud, the solution is hosted in its DXN-SYD01 data centre, which is based in Sydney Olympic Park, with the company claiming it offers customers an 'easy' route to hybrid cloud with rack-to-cloud services.According to the company, DXN Cloud allows for the deployment of public, hybrid and private cloud solutions, contains a re-brandable portable and out-of-the-box cloud environment and can also be integrated with a range of other products.

https://www.arnnet.com.au/article/700531/dxn-launches-hosted-cloud-solution-orionvm/

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Itamar Ankorion (Qlik) Credit: Qlik PwC, Integrated Business Technologies and Boon Solutions have been hailed as three of Qlik's top-performing partners in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region. Celebrated at QlikWorld in Las Vegas, the US software vendor's SVP of global partners and alliances Itamar Ankorion claimed partners experienced 'incredible' growth and evolution over the last year. 'Customers are looking to increase their ability to leverage data for insights and action, especially in the cloud and we're thrilled to celebrate our partner ecosystem and our mutual success,' he said.

https://www.arnnet.com.au/article/706700/qlik-crowns-apac-partners/

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Cynthia Gebert (Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman) Credit: Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman Complaints to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) about Optus' services have started to drop more than six months after the telco's massive September data breach. As detailed in the TIO's Quarterly Report Quarter 3 , 5,332 complaints were made about Optus, falling 17 per cent during the third quarter of the 2023 financial year. This made up 30 per cent of complaints about the top 10 most complained about telcos.

https://www.arnnet.com.au/article/707062/optus-telco-complaints-declining-half-year-after-breach/

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Uma Thana Balasingam (VMware) Credit: VMware VMware has evolved its Partner Connect program featuring a new framework to align closer with cloud services growth and solutions-centric business models. A flexible ‘points-based system' has been introduced that will determine a partner's progress in the tiered program and reward them for different ways they create value, including both performance and capability activities. Progression in the program will be based on the new points system rather than a complex mix of IT pathways, focusing beyond ‘resell' and encompassing the whole customer lifecycle, something that former VMware channel chief Sandy Hogan previously flagged was at the core of its new partner strategy.

https://www.arnnet.com.au/article/700846/vmware-evolves-partner-connect-program/

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Stefan Compagnoni (Extreme Networks) Credit: Extreme Networks Extreme Networks has formally appointed Dicker Data as one of its distributors for Australia as it seeks new partners for the market. The US-based networking vendor inherited Dicker Data's distribution agreement when the latter acquired the Security and Information Technology (SIT) division of Hills, which distributed Extreme Networks locally. Speaking to ARN, Australia and New Zealand (A/NZ) channel chief Stefan Compagnoni explained that Extreme's leadership team and Dicker 'saw an opportunity to really partner strategically together'.

https://www.arnnet.com.au/article/702227/extreme-networks-formally-locks-dicker-data/

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L-R: Selim Ahmed (Bourne Digital) and Damien Bueno (SAP A/NZ president and managing director) Credit: Supplied Melbourne consultancy Bourne Digital has developed a self-service portal for elderly people and their families to manage their home care needs.  Created for start-up HomeMade, the platform is built on SAP's Business Technology Platform (BTP) and claims to automate a number of processes for organising care packages.  Built over 12 months, the portal is said to have improved the efficiency of processes and workflow management and provided greater transparency in terms of service provision.

https://www.arnnet.com.au/article/706696/bourne-digital-lifts-lid-sap-home-care-portal/

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Credit: Dreamstime Amazon Web Service (AWS) has charged its focus on partners with security-related offerings through new the release of categories for its security and managed security service provider (MSSP) competencies.During the annual AWS re:Inforce conference, AWS said it has relaunched its Security Competency featuring eight new categories it claims align with work streams and functional areas that 'customers commonly encounter during their cloud journey'.The new categories are identify and access management; threat detection and response; infrastructure security; data protection; compliance and privacy; application security; perimeter protection and core security.

https://www.arnnet.com.au/article/700171/aws-launches-new-security-mssp-partner-competency-categories/

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Cynthia Gebert (Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman) Credit: Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman Optus' data breach has caused a major spike in mobile complaints about unauthorised disclosures of personal information in the first quarter of this financial year.According to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman's (TIO) quarterly report for the quarter ending 30 September 2022, 498 complaints were recorded relating to customers' personal data. As the breach took place in late September, this sudden rise in unauthorised disclosures took place over the course of a single week and generated five times the level of complaints seen in the quarter prior, the body claimed.

https://www.arnnet.com.au/article/703531/personal-data-complaints-spike-following-optus-breach/

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Southern River, Canning Vale Credit: Photo 65890459 © Mablelo | Dreamstime.com The ‘Partner Spotlight' series explores partners operating in the local channel landscape right around the country, from Cape York to Hobart, Byron Bay to Fremantle and beyond. This edition focuses on Canning Vale-based managed security services provider (MSSP) Zenien. Canning Vale-based managed security services provider Zenien came into its own following a buyout and even though this is when it experienced its "darkest hour", this is when pulled it together to end up as a shining beacon of success.

https://www.arnnet.com.au/article/704886/partner-spotlight-western-australia-zenien/

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Credit: 137760964 © Funtap P | Dreamstime Digital transformation will continue to dominate the discussion around technology spending in the enterprise. However, while the appetite for transformation is overwhelming, uncertainty over how to successfully deliver it means that transformation remains a channel-driven play; customers rely heavily on the expertise and guidance of their partners to avoid the pitfalls of a transformation agenda.Transformation challenges and opportunities: the budgets are there but the capabilities are notAs EY's Global Vice Chair – Transformation, Hank Prybylski, noted: 'essentially, 2020 became 2025 on the digital acceleration timeline.

https://www.arnnet.com.au/brand-post/content/703742/how-juniper-networks-and-new-era-technology-are-collaborating-to-drive-the-next-wave-of-transformation-innovation/

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Vlad Mitnovetski (Dicker Data) Credit: Dicker Data Publicly listed distributor Dicker Data has expanded its unified communications (UC) and collaboration portfolio to include Yealink in the Australian market. Dicker Data will have access to the full range of Yealink products along with providing training and drive certifications to help upskill the existing Yealink partner base.  'Our strength in the SMB [small- to medium-sized] and mid-market aligns well with the solutions offered by Yealink,' Dicker Data executive director and chief operating officer Vlad Mitnovetski said.

https://www.arnnet.com.au/article/705172/dicker-data-expands-uc-portfolio-yealink/

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Credit: ARN / Foundry ARN is proud to reveal the winners of Innovation Awards in 2022, featuring a leading and diverse line-up of partners, vendors, distributors and individuals across Australia.Celebrated during a black-tie event at ICC Sydney on 15 September that brought together more than 700 members of Australia's channel community, this year's Innovation Awards celebrated the accomplishments of more than 39 winners and a new inductee into the ARN Hall of Fame – Tara Ridley.The winners were selected from 354 finalists (including 120+ individuals) which made the shortlist from a pool of over 200 organisations and more than 480 nominations, spanning partner, start-up, telco, vendor and distributor businesses.

https://www.arnnet.com.au/article/701535/arn-innovation-awards-2022-winners/

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Kee Ong and Arthur Gimisis (Synnex) Credit: Synnex Synnex has named Arthur Gimisis as its new A/NZ CEO following Kee Ong's promotion as the group CEO at the distributor's headquarters in Taiwan.  Reporting directly to Synnex Group president Evans Tu, Ong will be responsible for business management and product planning. Ong has held the leadership role in A/NZ since 2006, initially joining Mitac International Corporation in 1989 as a software R&D engineer, and later relocating to the UK in 1992, where he served as a product manager in Mitac Europe.

https://www.arnnet.com.au/article/708297/synnex-promotes-kee-ong-group-lead-arthur-gimisis-takes-over-nz/

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Partner education and demonstrating customer value are a couple of the foundations that cyber security vendor CrowdStrike is emphasising in its ‘partner central' approach. 'Activating, energising and inspiring the partner ecosystem is more critical than ever before and will help take us further in the market and multiply our efforts,' CrowdStrike chief business officer Daniel Bernard said during the vendor's APAC Partner Conference in Thailand. Bernard laid out CrowdStrike's key partner priorities in helping them leverage its 23 modules and areas of specialisation on its Falcon platform.

https://www.arnnet.com.au/article/708358/delivering-value-in-crowdstrikes-partner-centric-approach/

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L-R: Bryan Stibbard, Janet Docherty (Palo Alto) Credit: Supplied Palo Alto Networks has re-jigged its channel leadership in Australia and New Zealand (A/NZ), with both Janet Docherty and Bryan Stibbard assuming new roles.  Docherty, who became Palo Alto Networks' commercial and channel sales director for Asia Pacific and Japan (JAPAC) in 2021, will now assume the role of director for channel and alliances A/NZ.  Meanwhile, Stibbard, formerly director for channel and alliances in A/NZ, will now take on the role of director across go-to-market shared services.

https://www.arnnet.com.au/article/708413/palo-alto-networks-reshuffles-nz-channel-leadership/

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Vlad Mitnovetski (Dicker Data) Credit: Supplied Dicker Data has inked a new agreement with unified observability and application acceleration vendor Riverbed Technology.  The deal involves Riverbed's entire range of products and solutions in the Australian and New Zealand (A/NZ) markets, including its Alluvio Unified Observability and Acceleration portfolios. 'The innovative products and solutions that Riverbed brings will enable our partner community to increase their customer satisfaction levels and unlock new revenue streams within their existing end-customers,' Dicker Data executive director and COO Vlad Mitnovetski said.

https://www.arnnet.com.au/article/708835/dicker-data-inks-riverbed-deal-across-nz/

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Bruce Hara (Enable) Credit: Bruce Hara Digital workflow provider ServiceNow has bought the Toolbox OH&S technology assets from Enable Professional Services, a Fujitsu company. The ServiceNow Elite partner created ToolBox OH&S which is native to the Now Platform, in 2018 with a vision to plug the health and safety gap in the platform offering.  With ToolBox OH&S integrated into the Now Platform, customers can create safer, more connected and compliant workplace experiences on the intelligent end-to-end platform for digital transformation.

https://www.arnnet.com.au/article/708916/servicenow-acquires-ip-enable-toolbox-oh-technology/

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Credit: supplied A vibrant partner ecosystem is playing a critical role in Oracle's cloud success, centered on customer outcomes, taking the focus beyond the technology that supports it. 'We've had double digit growth across all lines of business, even tripling some very strong business,' Oracle senior vice president of cloud engineering for Japan and Asia Pacific Alistair Green said. 'Central to all of this and a central theme at CloudWorld 2022 was customer outcomes, not technology, but how we enable outcomes and do that with our partners.

https://www.arnnet.com.au/article/703828/partners-play-critical-role-oracle-cloud-strategy/

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Credit: 129732065 Funtap P | Dreamstime In 2023, the contact centre will remain critical to the customer experience, with the bulk of engagement running through it. However, it faces several challenges that are formidable for organisations to address within their workforces. The solution needs to be technology-driven, and with Gartner predicting that worldwide IT spending will increase by 5.1 per cent in 2023, many organisations will be looking at the opportunity for bringing advanced IT to their contact centres in the year ahead.

https://www.arnnet.com.au/brand-post/content/703812/driving-better-customer-engagement-through-ai/

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Yancey Spruill (DigitalOcean) Credit: DigitalOcean Cloud infrastructure-as-a-service vendor DigitalOcean has set foot in Australia, launching its services in a co-location data centre based in Sydney.DigitalOcean said the launch of its services in the data centre would support its customers based in Australia and New Zealand, as well as end-users.Despite being a co-location arrangement, the service is being referred to as a data centre named SYD1. The vendor declined to comment on which data centre provider or hyperscaler its services are hosted with.

https://www.arnnet.com.au/article/703319/digitalocean-sets-foot-sydney/

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Ghazal Asif (Rubrik) Credit: Rubrik Rubrik has launched a new global partner program, which focuses on a combination of a point-scoring system and booking volumes. Dubbed the 'Rubrik Transform Partner Program', the program mirrors its previous Velocity program by using three tiers. However, Velocity's old Select tier is gone, with the new tiers being Authorised, Elite and Elite+. Initial progression through the tiers is based on gaining points by partaking in various activities, including certifications, pipeline generation and attending Rubrik events.

https://www.arnnet.com.au/article/706102/rubrik-launches-global-transform-partner-program/

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John Hanna (SXiQ) Credit: IBM SXiQ, an IBM company, has been called on by Australian Catholic University (ACU) to merge multiple Microsoft 365 tenancies into one.Currently split between separate tenancies for its approximately 25,000 staff and over 33,000 students, the merger started in mid-August and is expected to finish in early 2023, with the end result anticipated to streamline communications, improve collaboration for students and staff and simplify IT operational support and scalability.Meanwhile, its current environment is hindering learning and preventing collaboration between students and teachers, which according to a SXiQ spokesperson can only be avoided by specifically enabling collaboration prior to each lesson.

https://www.arnnet.com.au/article/701563/sxiq-merge-microsoft-systems-acu/

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Credit: 127452233 © Funtap P | Dreamstime Recent events have reminded Australians of just how important security and the protection of customer data is. Following a data breach of almost unprecedented scale, a massive percentage of Australians have found themselves needing to change driver's licenses, passports, and even freeze their credit reports. The long-term impact of what this will do to security expectations for businesses of all sizes will be profound.Currently, the cost of a data breach in Australia is pegged at close to $3.

https://www.arnnet.com.au/brand-post/content/702413/security-a-bigger-risk-for-smes-than-ever-and-a-bigger-opportunity-for-msps/

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Craig McGregor (Mimecast) Credit: SailPoint Mimecast has celebrated partner success across Australia and New Zealand as it doubles down on its resources in the Asia Pacific region. Held at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Sydney, the awards acknowledged partner performance across four categories from Australia and New Zealand. The email management and security vendor said it has grown its channel team by 20 per cent in Asia Pacific (APAC), and has also invested in the development of channel resources in Australia and New Zealand.

https://www.arnnet.com.au/article/701672/mimecast-honours-nz-partners-channel-investment-rises/

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Credit: Photo 218031047 © Rafael Ben Ari | Dreamstime.com Macquarie Telecom has been signed up by auto services vendor mycar Tyre & Auto to roll out National Broadband Network (NBN) and SD-WAN services to over 270 stores.Under the deal, Macquarie Telecom provided VMware-backed SD-WAN with 4G backup and business-class NBN services to enhance the connectivity of its stores, with the roll out lasting from September 2020 to April 2021.'mycar is both growing and diversifying as a brand. For example, with the launch of our online service booking portal and the rollout of electric vehicle servicing in select stores,' said mycar chief financial officer Keith Toms.

https://www.arnnet.com.au/article/700384/mactel-revs-up-mycar-tyre-auto-connectivity-roll/

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