ARN: Mobile phone Paymentz comes of age

As a journalist at Australian Reseller News:

Application service provider, Paymentz, has kicked-off discussions with local phone resellers, banks and telecommunications companies to on-sell its mobile commerce technology.

Paymentz founder and managing director, Rob Manson, claimed m-commerce was a budding market he expected to come of age. He cited the support shown by major credit card companies, such as Visa and Mastercard, as a catalyst for growth.

"We recently completed a commercial launch at [electronics tradeshow] CeBIT and the response was absolutely overwhelming," he said. "Although m-commerce is still a fledgling concept in this country, especially after its false dawn during the dotcom boom, this level of interest in our product tells me that the market is ready to embrace m-commerce again."

Paymentz complements existing credit card services by enabling merchants to process payments using a mobile phone. The "network agnostic" application is expected to benefit small to medium enterprises and tradespeople, who can use it to process payments from any location with mobile coverage.

The company currently is promoting 3's X-series phones, which Manson said support high-speed Internet connections that best suit the service. The company is also in discussions with other phone resellers including Optus. Manson said response so far had been very positive.

Transactions operate over a 256bit SSL connection. The Paymentz application sends information securely and directly to the bank. Manson said there is also potential for the service to be provided through partner websites. Discussions are currently underway for it to be included on 3's Web portal.

"At the moment, we're 100 per cent focused on direct sales, but that's just while we're in discussion with our partners. We really would like to see 80 per cent or more come through a channel," he said. "We've had a lot of interest from Web developers and computer support people. We're also really looking at banks, because from a customer's point of view, this is really a financial services product and their trust relationship is with the banks."

Besides commissions of up to 75 per cent on sales, Manson said resellers stand to receive affiliate revenue for each paid subscriber to the Paymentz service; a share in ongoing subscription and transaction fees for co-branded services; as well as telco commissions and revenue for phone sales.

While he declined to put a dollar value on the potentials of m-commerce, Manson cited surveys from the Australian Bureau of Statistics and the Reserve Bank of Australia which reported 18 million credit cards had been issued in Australia, collectively producing 100 million transactions per month.

About one billion mobile phones were sold last year, and three million people are expected to upgrade to new 3G devices this year. Already, one in three companies is using mobile data in its business, Manson said.

more

ARN: Arasor readies high speed wireless technology, awaits telco uptake

As a journalist at Australian Reseller News:

Australia may fall in the first-world category, but outside its major cities, there still exists a need for broadband infrastructure that is not dissimilar to the needs of developing nations China and India, according to Larry Marshall, managing director of Arasor in Australia.

"The environment [in China and India] is very similar to rural Australia, where we don't have a lot of infrastructure," he said.

According to Marshall the technological disparity between metropolitan and rural areas has made for an "interesting dynamic" in the Australian telecommunications space.

Based in Silicon Valley, U.S., and with operations in China, Japan and India, the hi-tech optical chip developer and manufacturer has this week announced the acquisition of Sydney-based photonics research facility, the Bandwidth Foundry (BWF). The purchase marks Arasor's first major play in the local market since its October 2006 listing in the ASX.

Currently, Arasor is partnered with telecommunications providers China Netcom in China and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd in India to provide speeds of up to 50Mbps via a wireless extension to optical fibre infrastructure. In Australia, however, Marshall noted more of a reluctance to adopt the new wireless technology in favour of existing copper networks.

"The issue is, for someone to deploy our kind of technology in existing infrastructure, they've got to make a decision not to use existing legacy copper network anymore," he said. "That's a big decision for a carrier to make, and I wouldn't criticize Australian carriers at all for having trouble with that."

In most parts of Australia, Marshall expects Arasor's technology to remain on the backbenches until Telstra is able to deploy its long-awaited Fibre to the Node (FTTN) network. If deployed, FTTN will be good news for Arasor's wireless products, which simply work as a plug-in to augment the optical fibre infrastructure.

"I think because Telstra has made the decision to [consider] FTTN, they are going to spend a lot of money on that, and are then going to have this big sunk cost that they're going to have to leverage, so they won't want to do this kind of wireless for a couple of years," he said.

"From our standpoint, that's not competitive at all; it means we will simply plug in our wireless equipment, and just leverage that presence, so it's actually a good thing, it just means that it will take probably a couple of years before Telstra gets around to getting serious about very high speed wireless access."

In the meantime, Arasor's offerings could appeal to smaller service providers looking to provide wireless Internet access in rural areas, Marshall said, as the product enables a network to be easily extended, which in turn facilitates a pay-as-you-grow model for start-up ISPs.

Providers of other services outside of the traditional telecommunications sphere may also consider expanding their offerings through the wireless product, Marshall said, citing the example of the Shanghai Media Group, which has established a wireless IPTV network in China.

"An interesting thing we're seeing all around the world at the moment is that the lines between telecom carriers, content providers and people like Google are really getting blurred," he said.

"It's possible that some of the TV carriers may look at deploying this kind of technology because they've already got their broadcast infrastructure in place, and it's not really a change for them; it's kind of an extension of an existing service," he said. "They might be a better point of entry than a traditional carrier."

more

ARN: Strix systems takes aim at digital divide

As a journalist at Australian Reseller News:

Strix Systems has expanded its product line-up to provide wall-penetrating wireless mesh connectivity targeted at SMBs and home users.

Now in its second year in the Australian market, the wireless networking vendor has established a foothold in mining, enterprise and transport markets through its two-year partnership with distributor Wireless Tech Australia.

The US-based vendor also expects to provide municipal wireless Internet coverage via agreements with Sydney city councils on the North Shore and in the South-West shortly. It has also submitted plans to provide wireless broadband throughout NSW's most popular cities in the recent NSW government tender.

Strix vice-president of marketing and product management, Nan Chen, called wireless Internet an inevitable progression, much like how telephony had transitioned from wired to wireless services.

"I think we are at the infancy of the overall development [of wireless Internet]," he said. "It took cellular [telephony] 25 years to develop, but I think Internet [services] will be quicker - possibly within the next 10 years.

"The overall market - without considering the government tender - is worth tens of millions to begin with. With that [NSW government] initiative in place, it will probably be worth hundreds of millions."

According to Wireless Tech Australia's sales manager, Eric Gagnaux, Strix currently has up to 15 second-tier resellers deploying wireless mesh products in areas inaccessible to traditional wired networks.

Strix's products were especially suited to systems integrators specialising in certain markets, or ISPs looking to service certain geographical areas, Gagnaux said. For example, Chen named a $250,000 wireless mesh network that was recently deployed in the Victorian Mount Buller ski fields via systems integrator SnowSports Interactive.

The accessibility of wireless mesh networks in areas typically difficult to service could also have potentials in bridging the digital divide between metropolitan and regional areas in Australia, Chen said.

"Certainly wireless mesh could be a significant opponent of that [wired Internet services like FTTN] because it brings equality to areas less served by private ISPs," he said.

While Chen said the Australian market for wireless mesh networking products were said to still lag about 2-3 years behind the US, potential was expanding quickly.

Gagnaux said the use of wireless mesh products by some US municipalities to monitor crime was soon to spread to some local suburbs.

"We are working with city councils in Australia to install video surveillance to reduce crime rates; that's what happened in the US too," he said.

more

ARN: NetBox Blue Braggs global sales expansion

As a journalist at Australian Reseller News:

Following a record quarter, Queensland-based NetBox Blue has appointed its first worldwide sales director to support growth of its local and international channel.

The networking vendor has recruited Steven Bragg, an industry veteran with 19 years sales experience in large corporations, government, manufacturing, and the finance sectors, for the role. He has worked with several IT brands, including IBM and LSI Logic Corporation.

"Steven is joining the team now to really drive the local and international sales for the company," NetBox Blue chairman, John Fison, said. "Our investment in the sales team over the last year has really established the local channel and Steve will look to develop this further and grow it."

Since its inception in 1999, NetBox Blue has recruited business partners across Australia, New Zealand, Europe and the US. The vendor has an expanding local channel of about 50 partners. It is forecasting a two-fold sales increase this financial year.

Bragg said he planned to enhance the vendor's offerings while remaining committed to NetBox Blue's channel-only sales model.

"One of my immediate focuses is developing our channel model to support the demands of a technology vendor growing at our pace," he said. "Our challenge is to ensure we have right partners in place to deliver and support these solutions across our chosen vertical markets."

To better support business partners, NetBox Blue is adding several new sales and pre-sales staff in Sydney and Melbourne. It is also developing a formal certification program designed to equip channel partners' personnel with several levels of technical and pre-sales qualifications. The program is expected to be launch by quarter end.

NetBox Blue currently maintains a single-tier channel model. Bragg said a new platinum partner tier was now in the works for launch in the second half of this year. This would offer further support via joint marketing initiatives, development funds and priority lead referrals.

more

ARN: Market for international mobile services vendor expands

As a journalist at Australian Reseller News:

Mobile data services vendor, Aicent, has announced its 100th carrier partnership. It is now servicing more than one billion mobile subscribers with its data roaming and messaging exchanges.

The California-based vendor provides all of its GPRS roaming, 3G roaming, as well as international SMS and MMS services, through carriers in the Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific. Aicent currently reaches the Australian market through a partnership with Telstra. However, according to its president and CEO, Lynn Liu, the company is in discussion with other operators locally to service a growing market.

Liu quoted figures from Informa Telecoms & Media, indicating that revenues generated from international roaming will rise from $US75.58 billion at the end of 2004 to $US211.81 billion by the end of 2010.

By comparison, data roaming exchange was still a relatively small segment of the global roaming business, she said, but it was increasing at more than 100 per cent per year based on Aicent's traffic statistics.

more

ARN: H3C buy-out could open up new target segments for 3Com

As a journalist at Australian Reseller News:

Networking vendor, 3Com, has flagged broader market penetration as one of the big changes brought about by its $US882 million buyout of Huawei Technologies' share in joint venture, Huawei-3Com (H3C).

As part of the new agreement, 3Com will drop the Huawei brand. However, the vendor has opted to maintain the abbreviation, H3C, in a bid to maintain brand recognition in the Chinese and Japanese enterprise networking markets.

With its manufacturing facilities and about 3000 research and development engineers in China, H3C was expected to provide opportunities to add low-cost products into 3Com's existing offering, vice-president and general manager of 3Com Asia-Pacific, Peter Chai, said.

H3C will also help broaden its enterprise sales strategy. Locally, 3Com is focused on the education and government sectors, which constitute about 40 per cent of its business.

"We intend to put a lot more resources into Australia, and look at new verticals," Chai said. He highlighted manufacturing as a possible target.

As a result of the acquisition, 3Com and H3C's sales and marketing teams have merged. A local country manager has also been appointed to manage the combined team.

The additional resources would enable the company to pursue more direct-touch sales, Chai said, especially with large enterprises which tended to be particular about which integrators they work with.

Meanwhile, 3Com and H3C will continue to look to the channel for most of its sales. Chai said it would work closely with existing partners through regular integrated branding initiatives such as partner and customer seminars.

"We will still be very much a channel company," he said. "Gold and silver resellers will be our main channel to market ... we've focused a lot of our marketing resources into partners who are deemed to be committed and can provide sales and technical support for our products."

The buyout is the third and final chapter of 3Com's partnership with the Chinese telecommunications equipment provider. The joint venture was launched in November 2003. In January last year, 3Com took a 51 per cent majority share of H3C under a $US28 million deal.

more

ARN: Sybase looks to channel as key to enterprise mobility market

As a journalist at Australian Reseller News:

Mobile security is a high priority for IT managers and CIOs, but service providers have to adjust their perceptions of what it entails before demand can be met, according to one software vendor.

Speaking at the Toshiba MobileXchange conference in Sydney last week, Sybase mobility director, Mark Geddes, said IT managers were used to being able to manage and mitigate desktop security by having full visibility and access to everything connected to the network. This mindset should be carried over into the mobile space.

"Our play, and discussions on uptake in that [mobile security] space, is about extending to mobile devices that same degree of functionality from an IT perspective," he said in an interview. "The opportunity is how many mobile devices carriers see themselves deploying in the marketplace. Not many of them have thought a lot about how to manage and secure these devices."

Sybase's Afaria software is designed to cater to the demand for security in the enterprise mobility market. Because it is predominantly an infrastructure provider, the vendor is depending on the channel to bring it to market.

"To date, more than 90 per cent of our mobility business is done through the channel in various forms of arrangements," Geddes said, "and we're going to continue to grow in those spaces in 07 and onwards."

Leopard Systems is one partner combining Sybase-developed infrastructure with its expertise in the transport and logistics, retail, and healthcare markets. The partnership, which was announced in October, has seen the Melbourne-based company deliver Afaria frontline management and security product within its suite of mobile application offerings.

"Sybase builds infrastructure that companies like us can leverage without having to go and reinvent the wheel and build that type of technology ourselves," managing director, Alex Koumaras, said. "It allows us to build very feature-rich, targeted applications for the different verticals that we are playing in."

Geddes said it was keen to hear from all manner of resellers and integrators.

"It really comes down to the solution they [customers] require on what sort of device, and in what sort of conditions and what sort of industry," he said. "Every sort of partner model fits into our profile - we don't discount any of them."

more

ARN: People Telecom renews ties with Optus

As a journalist at Australian Reseller News:

ASX-listed telecoms company, People Telecom, has signed a $21 million agreement with Optus to continue to provide mobile telephone services to new and existing customers.

The 18-month deal builds on a previous five-year relationship which saw People Telecom delivering Optus services as a wholesaler as well as directly to businesses. With the new underlying rates and terms and conditions, People Telecom CEO, John Stanton, said it hoped to grow its product and feature set. This would include launching additional third-generation (3G) mobile voice and data services this year.

"This agreement allows us to offer 3G services, which typically haven't been available to resellers in the Australian market so far," he said. "There were customers who were particularly looking for 3G that we couldn't service today, so this is an exciting new development for us."

People Telecom currently boasts more than 15,000 mobile subscribers. It chalked up 16 per cent growth in its mobile telephone business last year. Stanton attributed around half of the telco's revenue to a "very strong dealer channel".

While he did not expect the renewed Optus agreement to change the way the company currently went to market, Stanton noted that People Telecom's new offerings would open up its wholesale channel. He was also interested in recruiting more partners.

"We're working hard on a number of opportunities right now to expand the range of wholesale customers that we have," he said.

The telco is currently in the process of rolling out new capped plans, business plans and retail plans with a range of discounts for bundling, email, and other services.

Besides Optus, People Telecom maintains agreements with Telstra, AAPT, PowerTel and NexGen.

more

ARN: SMS-based anti-truancy product expands to the US

As a journalist at Australian Reseller News:

A text-based school attendance product suite provided by Adelaide-based MGM Wireless is on its way to the US, following a successful five month trial in the US state of Arizona.

The January 1, 2007 US launch comes three years after its launch in Australia, where the product, messageyou, has been well received by schools and parents. Having been adopted by 270 schools nationwide, messageyou currently occupies a 92 percent share of the Australian market for student attendance communication systems, according to MGM Wireless executive chairman, Mark Fortunatow.

"It's a new product category," he said. "We really invented and pioneered this application in Australia; we launched our first school on October 1st 2003, and since then, it's grown from a non-existent product category to today, where we've got 14 percent of high schools across the country using the system."

The product aims to improve attendance at schools by simplifying roll marking and attendance analysis. When students are late or missing from school, messageyou sends an automatic SMS text message to parents and guardians - a strategy that has proven successful in reducing truancy.

Australian schools view attendance as a key performance indicator for institutions and staff members, Fortunatow explained. As student attendance also affects how school districts are funded in the US, he expects US schools to have even greater incentives to boost attendance rates.

"On any one day, if you've got a number of kids away, our system locates those kids and provides that information back to the school -- that's an immediate financial benefit to the school, on top of welfare and economic benefits," he said.

Currently, most of messageyou's sales and marketing occur direct through MGM Wireless, Fortunatow said, as the product is tightly coupled to the attendance and communication processes at a school, and the application requires a high level of professional services to implement.

"We find that in order to sell the systems in schools, we need highly experienced salespeople that really understand the issues in a school in a lot of depth, and that doesn't lend itself to a reseller network," Fortunatow said.

However, MGM Wireless does have partnerships with telcos, including Telstra, Optus and Vodafone, as well as about 30 integrators and other vendors of student management systems.

The company is currently in discussions with potential channel partners in the U.S., but Fortunatow was unable to discuss the specifics of any U.S. deals at this stage, saying only that "We've been approached by a number of partners, and channel partners in particular, and that will certainly be a key component to our roll-out strategy".

more

ARN: Sybase adds OSC to its list of OEM partners

As a journalist at Australian Reseller News:

Sydney-based software developer, Open Systems Consulting (OSC), has announced an OEM partnership with mobility software house, Sybase.

At the core of OSC's product range is Tplus Mobile; a PDA application for use in the courier industry and other services where data must be sent and received in real-time. OSC managing director, Steven Green, said it had built its application using Sybase' development tool, PocketBuilder.

The partnership was expected to benefit both parties, he said. At its simplest level, the contract guarantees Sybase a license income, and enabled OSC to purchase Sybase's database at a lower fee.

But both Green and Sybase A/NZ director of channels and alliances, Steve Dolan, agreed the license fee and savings were only secondary benefits.

Green said partnering with Sybase would also add credibility to OSC's products, which he predicted would help when marketing to large companies.

"Sybase has a lot of exposure in the mobile workforce market," he said. "It's a win-win type of relationship where they can leverage off our skills and we can leverage off their products and exposure in the market."

Dolan said the agreement added to Sybase's development of mobility solutions partners. It also provided the company with opportunities to utilise its alliance relationships with a variety of mobile device vendors.

According to Sybase figures, application partners generate over half of total partner-based revenue.

"I think in the mobile world, customers are more interested in buying a pre-built solution from a vendor like OSC than buying the database from us and trying to build their own," Dolan said. "Our feeling is that OEM and application partners are going to be very important to our success."

Sybase currently has about 40 OEM partners and application resellers in A/NZ, and another 20 in various stages of partner development. Dolan expressed an interest in continuing to grow its partner base.

more

ARN: SurfControl unveils new channel program

As a journalist at Australian Reseller News:

In one of its biggest channel overhauls in two years, SurfControl has revamped its partner program to help resellers to better support end-users.

The security vendor's vice-president of worldwide channel sales, Dave Harris, said its existing program had been adequate but lacked localised content.
"It didn't have online testing, and for partners, the challenge was keeping it up to date," he said.

SurfControl has introduced an online portal, 24/7 technical support, and new marketing resources for resellers. The vendor has also made available online its compulsory Star sales training and technical certification program.

Harris said the new-look partner portal now featured single sign-on technology and localised content. Partners could also control access permissions for their employees via the website.

The new program was launched at SurfControl's first Asia-Pacific regional partner forum in Sydney. CEO, Pat Sueltz, who was meeting local partners for the first time, said the event was its largest to date, with 50 resellers from Australia, India, Singapore, China and Japan in attendance.

"We started out 10 years ago being 100 per cent direct. Today, we're 100 per cent channel," she said. "We recognise that with more than 15 million users across some 23,000 enterprises, the way forward is to work closely with our partners."

SurfControl had experienced 15 per cent year-on-year revenue growth from Q1, 2006 to the first quarter of the current financial year, Sueltz said. This included double digit grown in Australia and New Zealand. The vendor now has about 100 resellers in the Asia-Pacific region.

"I don't think it's about our numbers, but about the quality. We want to make our certified resellers successful," she said.

more

ARN: Access Providers gets Activ

As a journalist at Australian Reseller News:

Access Providers (AP) has cemented a share acquisition and subscription agreement to acquire Sydney-based telco and IT services provider, Activ. The move follows the Melbourne-based wireless carrier's decision to accept a $2.85 million takeover bid from WIN Corporation for its shares in SelecTV.

Negotiations with Activ began in January this year, AP CEO, Keith Ondarchie, said, but were slowed by processes relating to AP's acquisition of Saise Telecom in September last year.

Activ is ASX-listed AP's third acquisition to date. Prior to purchasing Saise, the company also acquired ISP, Online 2000, in July 2005.

Activ would provide a platform for growth in the Sydney market, Ondarchie said, with AP providing networking expertise and Activ providing data, voice and mobile services.

"At a much larger scale, [we will be able to] offer to our customer base more complex solutions," Ondarchie said. "Activ brings a much higher level of customer and channel partnerships."

Ondarchie expressed an interest in growing the company's nationwide reseller base, but said it was currently too early to confirm how it would achieve this. Its first step would be to enhance Activ's channel model and adopt it nationally.

"They [Activ] have a different type of reseller model, where their resellers of complex engineering solutions refer to Activ to design and deliver them," he said.

AP reported a 170 per cent increase in revenue to $10.8 million in the 2006 financial year. With Activ under its wing, the company forecast in excess of $22 million in full-year 2007 sales.

The acquisition of Activ and its 19 staff brings AP's headcount to 70. While the company currently has zero debt, Ondarchie said it was looking to reorganise its finances for a more flexible balance of debt and cash.

more

ARN: Anthology closure nears completion

As a journalist at Australian Reseller News:

Yellow Machine vendor, Anthology Solutions, may have closed its Sydney operation more than a month ago, but final stages of the closure have yet to be completed.

Former country manager, John Robinson, was unable to comment on the proceedings. However, he said that the company's sudden departure from the storage industry had not been problematic so far. The company's website now automatically redirects to its discussion board, where a "reasonable amount of communication on technical matters" is still held, he said.

Existing customers are also being supported by its distributors, Tecksel, BMS Technology and J Mills Distribution, who previously indicated they would honour the 12-month warranty on sold units.

Based on his experience with the hardware, Robinson was confident the demand for product support would be negligible. The only problem consumers have historically encountered is with the machines' Seagate-manufactured hard drives, which are covered by the manufacturer's usual five-year warranty, he said.

Distributors have only a small amount, if any, of Yellow Machine's inventory left, he said.

Robinson, who before joining Anthology Solutions has previously served as country manager of AMD, expressed a desire to remain in the storage industry.

"I'm looking at my options at this stage, with a number of storage vendors," he said. "I'd like to stay in storage."

more

ARN: Alloy and engin roadshow tackles VoIP

As a journalist at Australian Reseller News:

A new road show is offering resellers an opportunity to learn about the hardware and services aspects of VoIP.

VoIP Solutions Systems for SMBs will travel the East Coast from October 31 to November 14. The events will be co-hosted by networking and communications equipment distributor and manufacturer, Alloy Computer Products, and broadband phone service provider, engin.

Presentations will cover system trends, implementing infrastructure, underlying technology and opportunities for reseller revenue streams.

The two companies have been collaborating on road show presentations at 3-4 month intervals since March, according to Alloy marketing director, Karl Baker.

"Our objective is to educate our existing resellers with a more hands-on approach and attract additional interested resellers," engin marketing operations manager, Naomi England, said.

Baker said IP phones and PBX devices offered higher margins than traditional hardware like PCs and printers. Furthermore, these devices typically required specific technical expertise to implement and maintain.

"VoIP is a rapidly expanding market and, when it achieves mass penetration, it will be an area no reseller in the IT or telecommunications industry will be able to ignore," he said.

Despite the size of the market opportunity, he claimed a lot of integrators with basic data networking skills still lacked a strong background in VoIP technology.

more

ARN: CDCS seeks resellers for HSDPA routers

As a journalist at Australian Reseller News:

Sydney-based mobile vendor, Call Direct Cellular Solutions (CDCS), has launched a series of HSDPA routers based on its successful CDM823seu EvDO platform. The company is now on the lookout for additional resellers to tackle its expanding line of products.

Managing director, Barry Mitchell, said it had previously distributed its products through a nationwide internal reseller channel of about 30 resellers and integrators with associations in the mobile phone industry. Existing key partners include Telstra, United KG, Superior Scarda, and Control Wave.

Mitchell said CDCS products were most in demand as temporary or backup communication paths, and in remote areas where there is no broadband coverage.

"The integrators who work in remote applications will benefit the most, as well as people working with backup systems," he said.

The new HSDPA router series will cover all of Australia's HSDPA frequencies of 850/2100MHz. The series includes the 1.8M 2100MHz CDM821seu, the 1.8M 850MHz CDM885 and the 3.6Mbps Tri Band HSDPA CDM882, which will operate on EDGE, GPRS and standard GSM on 800/1800/1900MHz.

Telephone-based product support is provided by the vendor directly.

The product launch coincides with news that telecommunication giants such as Telstra, Vodafone, Optus and 3 intend to switch to HSDPA over the next few months.

more

ARN: Security appliance battles porn in Brisbane

As a journalist at Australian Reseller News:

To combat time wasted at work, Internet security and productivity firm, NetBox Blue, has produced a security tool with a twist. Besides acting as a gateway that protects against viruses and spam, the NetBox also monitors traffic and generates reports that tell managers how employees have been using the Internet.

"Spam, firewall, etcetera has been done to death," NetBox Blue CEO, Trent Davis, said. "Our focus is mainly on monitoring usage with email and general traffic, blocking inappropriate access, and compliance by recording activity."

According to a recent survey, Brisbane residents conduct the second largest number of porn searches in the world.

Separate studies conducted by Brisbane-based NetBox Blue found that one company spent 18 per cent of Internet time browsing pornography sites. Porn sites were found to be among the top 10 websites used by staff of another large company.

"Firms are losing thousands of dollars in productivity because staff are viewing pornography and other non-work related websites instead of focusing on their proper tasks," Davis said. "The NetBox puts managers back in control of their network. It's designed to do everything to do with managing an Internet connection."

The NetBox is available in a range of models to cater for small and large businesses. Small offices with 5-10 users are typically recommended the NetBox appliance, retailing at $1290. Larger companies with up to 2000 users may purchase $300,000 IBM-certified NetBox software, which has been designed to work on IBM servers.

NetBox Blue has a direct reseller model with more than 60 resellers Australia-wide, although most of their resellers are located in the Eastern states. Margins range from 15 to 30 per cent, depending on the appliance or software model.

NetBox Blue also manages virus definition updates on all NetBoxes to simplify the support role of resellers, who are typically expected to provide end-users with product installation and support.

more

ARN: Great Bay Software signs inTechnology

As a journalist at Australian Reseller News:

Queensland-based distributor, inTechnology, has entered into an exclusive agreement to distribute Great Bay Software's end-point profiling solution, Beacon.

The platform is a software and hardware application designed to facilitate the timely deployment of 802.1x, and systems that rely on this framework, by allowing a network manager to control all devices on the network from a centralised location.

Great Bay joins major vendors Juniper, InfoExpress, Cisco and Microsoft in the distributor's five-step Endpoint Security (NAC) solution. According to inTechnology director of sales and marketing, Mark Winter, Beacon is a fitting addition to its portfolio.

inTechnology was approached by Great Bay Software about three months ago, Winter said.

The distributor is looking for new channel partners to help it grow the brand locally. The product is expected to generate revenues of more than $1 million in the coming 12 months.

Services that could be offered by resellers include training programs and marketing campaigns. inTechnology already has a product awareness campaign planned for the first week of December. Following that, Winter expects there to be a market for training programs held at channel partner venues or as webinars.

The partnership is Great Bay's first step into the Australian market, which Winter said was a perfect launch pad into Asia-Pacific.

more

ARN: GPS devices: this summer's new iPods?

As a journalist at Australian Reseller News:

They find restaurants and golf courses. They locate your child or pet. They navigate in the bush, across the ocean and through the urban jungle to wherever you want to go - all to the maximum accuracy of about one centimetre.

And with Synnex reporting an overall market increase of over 80 per cent from 2005 to 2006, there is little doubt that the consumer market for GPS (Global Positioning System) devices is heating up.

While the Australian market is not yet displaying a demand for other GPS applications, Dick Smith Electronics' buyer for navigational devices, Tyson White, said the retailer was experiencing good results across its current GPS unit range.

GPS consumers fall across a wide range of demographics, White said, including young, technologically savvy people and retirees who might be doing a round-Australia trip and need to know how to get from one road in Alice Springs to another.

"[There exists] a pretty broad offer [of devices], and the units are usually pretty easy to use for different levels of understanding," he said.

While some units include many high-tech features, others were fairly simple and well-suited to those less acquainted with button-pushing, he said.

National sales manager of Synnex, Arthur Gimisis, said GPS products were categorised into different channels, with PDA/GPS units dominating the IT consumer base. The pure navigational systems enjoyed most popularity in the retail space.

"My understanding is that the retail space still occupies around 85 per cent of GPS sales," Gimisis said. "This is mainly from dedicated GPS, but we are seeing subtle changes to buying behaviour where the traditional channel is starting to promote and sell feature enriched, pocket PC GPS units to enthusiast and business users."

But will GPS devices this Christmas enjoy the popularity of iPods last year?

"It wouldn't surprise me," Dick Smith's White said.

Gimisis noted that a recent Sensis forecast predicting 108,000 GPS sales this year had recently been updated to 150,000 units.
"It's expected to be a GPS Christmas," he said.

The market was expected to continue to expand to 420,000 units in 2007, Gimisis said.

But IDC research director of telecommunications and consumer markets, Landry Fevre, wasn't so sure.

"It is certainly a hot product," he said. "Price points have come down so I guess it becomes affordable to the mass market.

"But I see the GPS devices more as a utilitarian device ... I doubt this will reach iPod fever; the brand and status are nowhere close to iPods."

more

ARN: WIP portal to connect wireless industry

As a journalist at Australian Reseller News:

The recently established Wireless Industry Partnership (WIP) has launched an online communications portal for the wireless community.

The WIPConnector aims to enable businesses to bring new technology to market faster through a collection of online resources. It is targeted at businesses, developers, venture capitalists, analysts, and consultants.

WIP founder and CEO and wireless industry consultant, Caroline Lewko, said success was driven by having the right connections in today's fast-growing wireless industry.

"The wireless industry continues to be very segmented, with each affected by disparate technologies, platforms and operating systems, different regulatory conditions and environments, lack of standards and so forth," she said. "Such conditions make business development challenging for many entrepreneurs."

Alongside a forum and member directory, WIPConnector will host resources and tools via a series of developer programs. Application program interfaces, source code, developer tools, and technical and marketing support will also be available online. Lewko encouraged application developers to use the programs to ensure new applications were compatible with the hardware they are designed for.

WIP was launched last month to capitalise on predicted growth in the industry and has a membership spanning North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Lewko estimates as many as 50,000 wireless businesses worldwide - many of which are in Australia.

"There are many untapped markets," she said. "Given how well our pilot membership program was received in the UK, across Canada and in the US, we expect the exposure we hope to get in Australia to grow our Aussie membership numbers right away."

more

ARN: Accucom takes wireless to Wenona

As a journalist at Australian Reseller News:

Accucom Systems Integration has teamed up with networking giant, Cisco, to provide uniform wireless coverage across a girls' school in North Sydney.

During the last three years, Accucom has worked with Cisco and the Wenona School to implement 49 Cisco 1200 Series wireless access points across the school's three campuses. The campuses are connected by a fibre optic network that also links the school's desktop computers.

The network is based on three Cisco Catalyst 3750 Series and about 40 Cisco Catalyst 2950 Series switches. It is connected to the Internet via two Cisco 800 Series integrated services routers.

Besides designing and implementing the network infrastructure, Accucom also manages the network and provides all tech support.

A fully functional wireless network has been up and running for the past 12 months, connecting about 500 Wenona students and 80 teachers.

However, there is still much to be done before the project is complete. Accucom has so far only executed the first of a three-stage rollout plan by installing the access points and reasonable security. The next stage, which is currently in testing, is to implement multiple radio servers and 802.1x security.

The second stage will involve the re-imaging of all laptops and the phasing out of 3Com switches. This is expected to be completed by end of year. The final stage is to implement a lightweight access point that will provide thin-client wireless acces, giving Cisco more control for managing the network centrally.

Accucom has been a Cisco partner for 12 years.

more