TMT First now has access to Microsoft training, certification, advanced diagnostics, specialized tools, and genuine parts. This collaboration adds to TMT First’s existing partnerships with Apple, Samsung, and JCB Toughphone.

CEO Adam Whitehouse said, “Being recognized by Microsoft is a tremendous achievement and a reflection of the dedication and expertise of our entire team.”

In addition to repairs, TMT First provides device recycling, refurbishment, and logistics support for large organizations. The company has developed software tools to streamline the repair process and improve customer service.

The Microsoft Surface lineup includes tablets, laptops, and desktop computers. The range comprises the Surface Pro, Surface Laptop Series, Surface Book Series, Surface Go Series, Surface Studio Series, Surface Duo, and Surface Hub. Surface devices feature touchscreens and Pen support.

Vodafone will invest £1.18 billion over the next decade in  cloud and customer-focused AI services developed with Microsoft.  Microsoft will use Vodafone’s fixed and mobile connectivity services.

Microsoft will invest in Vodafone’s managed IoT connectivity platform, which will become a separate, standalone business in April. The new company will attract seek to new partners and customers, driving growth in applications and expanding the platform to connect more devices, vehicles, and machines.

The digital services generated by the new partnership will AI technology to provide a differentiated customer experience across multiple channels .

“Vodafone has made a bold commitment to the digital future of Europe and Africa”

Margherita Della Valle, Vodafone Group chief executive(main pic), said: “Today, Vodafone has made a bold commitment to the digital future of Europe and Africa. This unique strategic partnership with Microsoft will accelerate the digital transformation of our business customers, particularly small and medium-sized companies, and step up the quality of customer experience for consumers.”

“This new generation of AI will unlock massive new opportunities for every organisation and every industry around the world,”

“This new generation of AI will unlock massive new opportunities for every organisation and every industry around the world,” said Satya Nadella, chairman and CEO, Microsoft (main pic). “We are delighted that together with Vodafone we will apply the latest cloud and AI technology to enhance the customer experience of hundreds of millions of people and businesses across Africa and Europe, build new products and services, and accelerate the company’s transition to the cloud.”

The five key areas of collaboration are: 

• Generative AI: To increase customer satisfaction, the companies will apply Microsoft Azure OpenAI to deliver a hyper-personalised experiences across all Vodafone customer touchpoints, including its digital assistant TOBi ( Vodafone employees will also be able to leverage the AI capabilities of Microsoft Copilot to transform working practices, boost productivity and improve digital efficiency.

• Scaling IoT: Microsoft intends to invest in Vodafone’s new, standalone global IoT-managed connectivity platform, which connects 175 million devices and platforms worldwide. Vodafone also plans to become part of the Azure ecosystem making the IoT platform available to a vast developer and third-party community using open APIs.

• Africa digital acceleration: Microsoft intends to help further scale M-Pesa, already the largest financial technology platform in Africa, by housing it on Azure and enabling the launch of new cloud-native applications. The companies are also launching a purpose-led program that seeks to enrich the lives of 100 million consumers and 1 million SMEs across the African continent. The goal is to enhance digital literacy, skilling and youth outreach programs, as well as offer digital services to the underserved SME market. The partnership aims to boost financial services innovation, building a community of certified developers.

  

• Enterprise growth: Vodafone will extend its commitment to distributing Microsoft services, including Microsoft Azure, security solutions and modern work offerings such as Microsoft Teams Phone Mobile, as part of its strategy to become Europe’s leading platform for business. This enables business customers to deploy Microsoft’s cloud-based services at pace with low adoption and running costs, as well as support the estimated 24 million SMEs across Europe through the provision of a managed platform that grows with their business.=

Cloud transformation: Vodafone will accelerate its cloud transformation bymodernising its data centres on Microsoft Azure. This will improve its responsiveness to customers, while simplifying and reducing the operational costs of its IT estate. As a result, Vodafone will be able to replace multiple physical data centres with virtual ones across Europe, simplifying and reducing the operational costs of its IT estate, as well as reducing energy requirements and helping deliver against its sustainable business strategy.

Luc Vidal, Head of M2M/IoT Business and Mobility at international connectivity enabler, BICS  commented:

“Vodafone’s partnership with Microsoft shows the sustained growth we are seeing for IoT services and will likely only fuel increased attention in ‘connectivity twins’. They’re the missing piece enterprises need to virtually clone IoT devices, including their connectivity components, for a single real-time view of their end-to-end IoT solutions, along with all device and application components. Digital twins turn device-centric information into a business visualization allowing more efficient decisions.”

“As the volume of IoT devices continues to ramp up, these connectivity twins will be essential for enterprises to troubleshoot problems faster, better predict downtime and maintenance, facilitate end-to-end security, and improve overall service quality. Without these, businesses deploying IoT will effectively be blind, lacking real control over their systems and devices.

G

Rural broadband provider Voneus Broadband has appointed Francesca Lee as its new chief commercial officer (CCO).

Lee possesses 18 years of experience in the telecoms sector with senior commercial roles at Virgin Media and BT Consumer where she launched many large-scale projects such as BT Sport and Netflix on BT TV. 

In her previous role at BT Enterprise, she also negotiated key strategic partnerships with Microsoft, Samsung, and RingCentral.

Voneus has delivered its broadband to over 10,000 properties across England and Wales and aims to increase this to 20,000 hard-to-reach premises next year.

Voneus CEO Steve Leighton added: “Francesca brings vast experience of delivering effective commercial strategies based on customer and market insights within the telecommunications sector, as well as a passion for delivering change. 

“Voneus is on a rapid growth curve as we look to scale up to provide much needed services to hard-to-reach communities, and I’m confident Francesca’s energy and vision will contribute to us achieving our goals.”

Ofcom will look into the position of Amazon, Microsoft and Google in the UK’s £15bn cloud services market.

Under the Enterprise Act 2002, Ofcom will launch a market study into the UK’s cloud sector and assess how well the market is functioning.

The investigation is part of a new programme of work to ensure that digital communications markets are working well for people and businesses in the UK. 

Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft and Google are the largest of the cloud services and are known as ‘hyperscalers’ and they collectively produce around 81 per cent of revenues in the UK public cloud infrastructure services market.

Ofcom will examine the competition in cloud services, the position the three hyperscalers hold in the market, any market features that could limit innovation and growth by stopping other companies from entering the market, and how the market is working today and how it can develop in the future.

Ofcom will also start a wider programme of work in the next year to examine more digital markets and will look into how services such as Whatsapp, FaceTime and Zoom are affecting the role of calling and messaging.

Analyst comments

PP Foresight analyst Paolo Pescatore commented: “Each area needs to be independently assessed. Ultimately Ofcom is concerned with the dominance of a small number of players which has seen their share grow significantly. 

“It is becoming increasingly harder for new entrants or any emerging player to compete given the established position of the big ones.

“In cloud there are fewer providers with the market dominated by AWS with Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud challengers competing in large part by price.

“Timing is interesting as people have shown a strong appetite to buy and use a slew of connected devices such as smart speakers and messaging services. 

“These have been highly sought after during the pandemic and have now become the norm in everyday usage.

“Therefore, it is hard to see what Ofcom will do if the big tech companies are stifling competition. We might see restrictions, incentives to foster new players.”

Vodafone Business and Microsoft have announced a new five-year collaboration to deliver services to small and medium-sized businesses across Europe.

The companies will provide its customers with tools for hybrid work through cloud-based services that are easy to use, secure and flexible. The tools are designed to boost productivity and keep employees connected while working remotely.

Both companies will collaborate and co-innovate to deliver new services. The first step is to create a ‘Mixed Reality’ by improving training and remote working for employees which is done using Vodafone Business’ edge computing with Microsoft’s software and HoloLens 2 headset.

The joint effort means that Vodafone’s customers will have direct access to Microsoft 365, Teams Phone System and Microsoft Azure.

Vodafone Business strategy and development director for Mark Allinson said: “For businesses to become truly digital, they need network, cloud and security to work in harmony.

“Together with Microsoft we are providing solutions that can be rapidly deployed and easily managed to support new ways of working and constantly improve business processes.”

These services will be available for Vodafone Business customers across Europe from November 4.

Vodafone UK business director Anne Sheehan is to depart the operator to join Microsoft Ireland later this year.

Sheehan will join Microsoft Ireland in October where she will be general manager, replacing current MD Cathriona Hallahan.

Vodafone has confirmed director of Vodafone carrier services Nick Gliddon will replace Sheehan from October 1.

A Vodafone spokesperson said: “Nick Gliddon, Director of Vodafone Carrier Services, will replace Anne effective October 1.  A replacement for Nick will be named in due course.”

Sheehan first joined Vodafone in September 2013, where she was enterprise director for the Irish business.

She has been in her current role as director for the UK business since December 2017.

Prior to her tenure at Vodafone, Sheehan also worked for IBM where she served Ireland and the Nordics.

Nokia has announced partnerships with Google Cloud, AWS and Azure to expand its cloud offering.

The partnerships with the three cloud service providers will also focus heavily on 5G.

The Finnish telco has partnered with Google Cloud to develop new cloud-based systems 5G radio solutions.

As part of this Nokia and Google Cloud will partner together to develop 5G solutions that combines Nokia’s Radio Access Network (RAN), Open RAN, and Cloud RAN, with Google’s edge computing platform.

This will enable CSPs to drive additional 5G monetisation opportunities.

Nokia is also working with AWS to enable cloud-based 5G radio solutions, to extend reach of Cloud RAN and Open RAN technology, while speeding up the deployment of new customer-focused 5G opportunities.

There’s also a focus on enterprise, with Nokia partnering with Microsoft to develop cloud solutions for Azure.

This will see Nokia integrate its cloud RAN technology with Microsoft Azure to drive end-user 5G deployments.

BT Group has confirmed a number of partnerships with security and technology companies to provide managed security services to its customers.

It comes as part of the group’s largest-ever appraisal of its security suppliers, after a reviewing its security vendor ecosystem.

The telco has named McAfee, Palo Alto Networks and Fortinet as ‘critical partners’.

These three companies will host a range of services and products that will be included in BT Security’s global portfolio.

BT will work alongside these companies to create a roadmap of security solutions which are in line with evolving customer demands.

Ecosystem

BT Security managing director Kevin Brown said: “Our new security partner ecosystem showcases the benefits of BT Security as a Managed Security Services Provider.

“We’re able to use our deep experience and insight of the security ecosystem to help our customers navigate what can be an incredibly confusing market.”

On top of this BT has confirmed Microsoft, IBM and Cisco as ‘strategic partners’, plus an additional nine enterprise partners.

Those partners are Skybox, Forescout, Zscaler, Check Point, CrowdStrike, Okta, Qualys, Netscout and F5.

Apple has topped the charts for being the best tech employer in the UK according to data compiled by Indeed.

Indeed, who claim to be the world’s biggest job site ranked the California-based vendor based on tens of thousands of employee reviews on Indeed’s website.

Apple employs 6,500 staff in the UK, with 2,500 based in London 15 years on from Apple opening its first European store in the capital.

Bristol-based event, research and technology services provider GDS Group came second, ahead of IT, networking and cybersecurity firm Cisco, with Microsoft and Siemens fourth and fifth respectively.

IBM ranked ninth on the list, while Amazon just about crept into the top 15, in 15^th place.

Apple aside, there were no other smartphone manufacturers in the top 15.

Britain’s best tech sector employers top 15

1. Apple

2. GDS Group

3. Cisco

4. Microsoft

5. Siemens

6. Ricoh

7. Oracle

8. Fujitsu

9. IBM

10. RS Components

11. Booking.com

12. Hewlett Packard

13. Xerox

14. Just East

15. Amazon

Indeed UK managing director Bill Richards said: “Jobseekers are increasingly looking to work for companies whose values match their own, which is why we see more researching company cultures before applying for jobs.

“As employment hovers near a record high in the UK, companies need to offer more than just a competitive salary and with its generous perks and flexible work conditions, the tech sector is often an outlier when it comes to employee packages.”

Microsoft founder Bill Gates said Windows Phone losing the race against Google’s Android operating system as one of his “greatest mistakes ever”.

In an interview with Global Village, Gates, made the admission after being asked about work life balance.

He described the software world as one that is “winner takes it all” that requires great personal sacrifice. He then went on to say how he targeted to make Microsoft what Android is today.

Google revealed recently at its I/O 2019 conference in May there are 2.5 billion active devices globally. While Windows Phone was quietly discontinued in January this year, with no updates to be developed in future.

Gates, the world’s second richest person according to Forbes’ 2019 billionaire list, said: “I have a fairly hardcore view that there should be a very large sacrifice made during those, those early years, particularly if you’re trying to do some engineering things that you have to get the feasibility.

“In the software world, in particular for platforms, these are winner-take-all markets. So, you know, the greatest mistake ever is the whatever mismanagement I engaged in that caused Microsoft not to be what Android is, [meaning] Android is the standard non-Apple phone form platform. That was a natural thing for Microsoft to win.

“It really is winner take all. If you’re there with half as many apps or 90pc as many apps, you’re on your way to complete doom. There’s room for exactly one non-Apple operating system, and what’s that worth? $400 billion that would be transferred from company G [Google] to company M [Microsoft].”