Meta is expected to announce further layoffs this week, as part of continued efforts to restructure the company around AI.

An internal memo seen by Reuters suggests Meta will lay off 10% of its employees, with a further 10% set to be transferred to better focus on AI, with staff "drafted" to areas of the business focused on the technology, including Applied AI Engineering (AAI) and Agent Transformation Accelerator (ATA), both of which are tasked with creating AI agents.

Beyond AI, the cuts are reportedly targeting managers in particular. This round of restructuring is expected to be announced on Wednesday, with staff told to work from home; further cuts are reportedly due at the tech giant later this year.

In the document, Meta's Chief People Officer Janelle Gale links the restructuring to improving AI workflows, in particular, the internal transfers of 7,000 staff. Reuters reported Gale saying such changes will become common across the industry as the AI rollout continues.

"As org leaders worked on the changes, many of them incorporated AI native design principles ⁠into their new org structures," she said, according to the report. "We're now at the stage where many orgs can operate with a flatter structure with smaller teams of ​pods/cohorts that can move faster and with more ownership."

ITPro has contacted Meta for comment.

Internal uproar

This week's restructuring efforts follow similar cuts by Meta last year of 3,600 roles, and in 2024, targeting its Reality Labs as well as WhatsApp and Instagram. Big rounds of cuts were seen in 2023 and 2022, making such restructuring an annual occurrence at Meta.

The latest cuts were first rumoured last month, and reports sparked internal protests at Meta, with staff criticising managers for refusing to acknowledge the plans by sending them photos of elephants to raise the issue of the "elephant in the room" going undiscussed, Reuters added.

Similar AI-driven cuts have been seen more widely across the tech industry – however, not all are convinced that redundancies are due to AI but the tech is being used to cover up for overhiring or struggles amid wider economic pressures.

Beyond protesting the cuts, staff have signed a petition against tracking tools used to monitor employee work, intended to help train Meta's models about how humans work. According to one report, flyers advertising the petition that have been distributed in Meta offices ask: "Don't want to work at the Employee Data Extraction Factory?"

The petition calls for a clear commitment from Meta that employee "computer use data" not be collected for training AI. That includes keystrokes, mouse movements, and screen content. "It should not be the norm that companies of any size are permitted to exploit their employees by nonconsensually extracting their data for the purposes of AI training," the petition adds.

Other changes at Meta

Alongside the restructuring, the memo seen by Reuters includes details of a new division dubbed Enterprise Solutions, with further information to be revealed Wednesday.

That comes as rival AI firms, notably OpenAI and Anthropic, battle for a piece of the enterprise market with business-focused AI tools.

OpenAI last week unveiled an AI consultancy for enterprises, while Anthropic has announced software and services tools targeted at specific industries, as well as setting up a new enterprise AI services company that includes Blackstone and Goldman Sachs.

UK business investment in AI is set to skyrocket over the next two years, according to new research from SAP, but many are failing to properly plan – and it could cost them dearly.

Analysis from the tech giant shows UK businesses are, on average, spending £15.94 million on AI this year. Moreover, they expect to increase their investment in the technology by an average of 40% across the next two years.

The report found a good return on investment (ROI), with the average UK business seeing returns of 17% from AI investments, and ROI forecast to almost double to 32% by 2027.

Many said they were already starting to unlock value from AI, with 36% reporting significant improvement in decision-making, 34% in customer engagement, and 31% in time to value.

Notably, businesses are confident in their long-term prospects with AI. More than three-quarters (78%) of executives believe AI will achieve a positive return within one to three years. More than half (52%) say it delivers returns faster than any other technology.

In recent months, agentic AI has become highly popular, with the average UK business expecting an ROI of 11% from agents within two years, equivalent to £2.7 million.

Fragmented AI programs are causing headaches

While the outlook is upbeat, the report warned that a concerning number of AI programs are fragmented, meaning many aren’t unlocking full value from the technology.

Indeed, 42% of UK enterprises described their investment as piecemeal. A key factor here is that around 37% of projects are department-led, according to SAP, while 15% admitted their programs were ad-hoc.

Only 7% have a strategic, enterprise-wide IT plan, the report found. As a result, 70% of UK businesses said they were unsure whether AI is delivering its full potential.

“UK businesses have the ambition, talent, and data to lead in AI, although too many are still treating it as a ‘technology project’ rather than a holistic business transformation,” said Leila Romane, managing director, SAP UK & Ireland.

“The real opportunity is to use AI to reimagine how companies operate, how people work, and how value is created for customers. When UK organizations take that broader, strategic approach to adopting the technology and embedding it throughout their business, the results will become tangible."

Success hinges on a solid strategy

The initial scramble to jump on the generative AI bandwagon may have paid dividends for some enterprises, but those examples are outliers and not the norm.

We’re approaching three years since the arrival of ChatGPT, the big launch that sparked the generative AI race, and yet a concerning number of enterprises still don’t have a clear-cut strategy.

Analysis from Carruthers and Jackson earlier this year found more than a quarter (26%) of enterprises had no formal data strategy. With this in mind, it’s no wonder that many enterprises have grown frustrated at a lack of solid returns.

Research from Appen showed fewer than half of businesses (47.3%) recorded a return on investment with AI in 2024.

While this SAP study paints a positive outlook in terms of ROI, nailing the fundamentals still remains paramount for any IT leader. So what are these?

First and foremost, data quality is a key hurdle for many businesses. In a study from Ataccama, 69% of chief data officers (CDOs) identified data quality as their top challenge.

40% also said they struggle to maintain “consistent” data quality, which has an adverse effect on project outcomes.

Meanwhile, data storage is also another key issue for IT leaders. Analysis from Hitachi Vantara in early 2024 showed data storage capacity requirements were set to surge by around 150% in the coming years, and many enterprises have been woefully unprepared to meet these rising demands.

Accommodating huge AI workloads and storage requirements requires equally huge investment if a “data storage crisis” is to be averted, the company noted.

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The Prime Minister, Liz Truss, is preparing to launch a last-minute push to convince SoftBank to list Arm in London.

The government will seek "high-level" talks with SoftBank executives as soon as the official mourning period for the Queen ends next week, according to The Financial Times, which cites officials with knowledge of the situation.

Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng is also said to be keen to have the Cambridge-based chip giant list in the UK, despite the CEO of the Japanese conglomerate, Masayoshi Son, favouring a listing in New York. Son reportedly prefers a Nasdaq listing due to its high valuations and experience with major technology companies.

The PM and chancellor, however, are hoping to revive talks with SoftBank, which were said to have ended with Boris Johnson's resignation. MPs and senior executives from the London Stock Exchange have continued to lobby SoftBank since the leadership change, though the government's main push was led by former investment minister Gerry Grimstone who left Westminster shortly after Johnson's exit.

SoftBank executives have kept a close eye on the Conservative party's leadership race, according to FT sources, though the Japanese giant was never convinced that a UK listing was worthwhile. At the very least, the British government is said to want a dual listing between New York and London. That was the previous arrangement for Arm before it was acquired by SoftBank in 2016. A final decision on where Arm is floated is expected to come before Christmas, though SoftBank is thought to want a plan in place before the next quarter.

Arm has been stuck in a limbo of sorts since its proposed takeover by Nvidia was cancelled earlier in the year due to regulatory concerns put forward by the UK's Competition and Markets Authority and the wider chip manufacturing industry.

Software and IT provider Kaseya has announced plans to establish a Centre of Excellence in Dundalk, Ireland, which will create 250 jobs over the next three years.

The centre will focus on research and development and will have support from the Irish government.

The project will create high-skilled jobs for engineers, technicians and sales professionals that will concentrate on new customer acquisitions. The new roles will also be open for students as Kaseya will also aim to work with university partners to provide training for potential candidates within the region.

A similar program has been conducted in Miami, where Kaseya has grown an operation from 150 people to 600 with a 150,000 sq ft space. Those plans are also expected to drive recruitment up to 1,200 by the end of 2023.

Launching a new program in Dundalk is another win for Ireland which has quickly become a hotbed for tech talent and global investment. This will be the second round of investment in the country from Kaseya, which already has offices in Dublin.

"We are planning to attract top tech talent and generate a robust workforce pipeline in the local community," said Kaseya CEO Fred Voccola. "We are excited about this partnership that will expand Kaseya's footprint in Ireland, where Kaseya has its roots. The company first established its EMEA headquarters in Dublin in 2016."

With the support of the IDA Ireland, Kaseya hopes to bring further economic growth to the region. The announcement demonstrates the attractiveness of Dundalk as a place to invest, according to Tánaiste Leo Varadkar.

"I'm sure it was their hard work that gave the company the confidence to expand further," Varadkar said. "Kaseya has witnessed remarkable growth over recent years, and I wish the team every continued success with the new Dundalk office."

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has intervened in Microsoft's planned acquisition of Activision Blizzard, citing concerns that the merger could impact competition within UK markets.

Microsoft first announced its intention to acquire Activision Blizzard in January, and, in April, Activision Blizzard’s shareholders approved the deal in a near-unanimous vote. The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) previously announced it would also assess the deal, and determine whether it constitutes a monopolisation of the gaming industry or would limit competition in the tech sector.

According to the CMA announcement, a phase-one decision is expected by September 1.

The outcome of the inquiry is likely to shape Microsoft’s business strategy going forward. Although much has been made of the impact that the merger will have on the particular market, as it would make Microsoft the third largest gaming company in the world, it can also be understood as a symbolic of the company’s expansion strategy for the next decade.

At $68.7 billion, the merger will be the third largest of the 2020s so far, and Microsoft’s largest to date. It continues amidst widespread coverage of workplace misconduct at Activision Blizzard, alleged to date back some years.

Increasingly, Microsoft has used acquisitions to fuel its expansion efforts, with the most significant examples not coming from the gaming space. Of course, there was much publicity in 2014 around its $2.5 billion acquisition of Mojang, the creators of best-selling game ever Minecraft.

The significance of the company’s $19.7 billion acquisition of Nuance Communications, and the myriad other cybersecurity and cloud infrastructure companies it has purchased in the past five years alone lay out the case for Microsoft’s growing use of its vast wealth to obtain firms in sectors it operates in, or otherwise seeks to.

Any software development firm operating in a field in which Microsoft has expressed interest, be that gaming, quantum computing, or cloud system development, should seriously consider the likelihood that they could be acquired by Microsoft.

In an interview with Axios, CEO of Microsoft Gaming Phil Spencer identified it as critical to Microsoft’s next big goal, the casual gaming market: “The board of Microsoft, on the day that we got approval for ZeniMax, asked, ‘What was next?’ And the constant conversation had always been about mobile and casual.”

The mood of the Microsoft board as relayed by Spencer could be the key element of this quote, with the ‘what’s next’ attitude highlighting real enthusiasm for more such mergers and acquisitions in Microsoft’s immediate future.

The CMA and FTC decisions will make or break this strategy, setting a precedent going forward. Microsoft will either be gifted the opportunity to aggressively expand into other corners of the tech and research sector, or be sent back to the drawing board as their diverse and frequent acquisition strategy is deemed a step too far.

In the past year, the CMA announced an investigation into Nvidia’s planned $40 billion takeover of Arm on competition grounds, given the capacity of an Nvidia-controlled Arm to do damage to the competitiveness of Nvidia’s rivals. The planned merger fell through in early February, with unwanted publicity around the deal greatly exacerbated by the CMA investigation.

IT Pro approached Microsoft and Activision Blizzard for comment.

KPMG has signed a 'strategic alliance' with Californian tech firm Alteryx that will aim to boost the accountancy giant's data analytics services.

With Alteryx, KPMG will seek to push forward plans to automate its own systems, while simultaneously ramping up its data handling platforms.

The two firms will combine their expertise in developing data strategies and digital transformation programs to help companies deploy "automated analytics" into everyday business processes so they can make "smarter and faster decisions". All of this will be powered by Alteryx's unified end-to-end analytics automation platform, which is rolling out across KPMG's systems over the coming months.

The two companies will be able to deliver actionable insights and also reduce operational costs, according to KPMG, with shared clients able to accelerate digital transformation plans with data-driven insights powering automation.

"As we adapt to the digital age, we are seeing a cultural shift across the firm to one founded in technology and data," said Emily Watkins, KPMG's head of deal analytics. "But trapping our capabilities in our technology teams is simply unsustainable. Working with Alteryx will put the power of data science and automated analytics in the hands of our people and our clients - empowering the next generation of data workers to capitalise on what their data is telling them."

Alteryx, which was founded in 1997 by the software entrepreneur Dean Stoecker, was originally known as 'SRC LLC'. The company provided demographic mapping systems to the US government for use in its yearly census.

The term 'Alteryx' was a type of data mapping software the company released in 2006, which it adopted as its name four years later. The company went public in 2017, floating on the New York stock exchange, and is headquartered in Irvine, California, with a development centre in Colorado.

The UK's technology sector has raised $16 billion (£12.4bn) of venture capital funding so far in 2022, already more than the whole of 2020 (£12bn).

Globally it puts the UK ahead of China which has only seen $12.9 billion (£10.5bn) since the start of the year, according to figures from Dealroom released ahead of London Tech Week.

The United States still dominates when it comes to technology investment, with $124 billion (£101.3bn) raised in the first five months of the year. However, the UK has enjoyed record-breaking funding pulling in £9 billion in just the first quarter (up from £6.3bn in the same period of 2021), ahead of both India and China and more than double what was raised by the nearest European country, France.

London continues to be the most lucrative location for tech investment with £8.6 billion going to the UK's capital alone. That's more than double raised in Paris (£3.9bn) and over four times more than Berlin (£1.9bn). Fintech was also the country's strongest sector, investment-wise, with £6.2 billion raised by startups.

The US appears to be a keen investor in the UK's tech scene, with an increase in funding in 2022. A total of £6.1 billion has come from America, which is already more than what came from the country in the whole of 2020. Asian investment has also climbed with £2.3 billion coming from various sources across the continent.

"Despite the wider global challenges that have led to a slow down in public markets, private tech investment in the UK is continuing to grow," Yoram Wijngaarde, founder and CEO at Dealroom, said.

"The UK has cemented its reputation as one of the best places to invest in fintech, with more fintech investment going into the country in the first part of this year compared to even the Bay Area. Nearly everything will be affected by the downturn we've entered into, but overall the UK tech sector is in a strong position than it's ever been before in terms of breadth and depth of the entire ecosystem."

Meta's hardware business is reportedly coming under increasing pressure from investors who are concerned that the company is pouring billions of dollars into projects without a clear plan for profit.

This includes Portal smart displays, which are no longer going to be sold for consumer purposes and instead pivoted more towards business use cases, such as video conferencing, The Information reports.

Reports regarding Portal have also coincided with news around the release of the company's first AR glasses – codenamed Orion – which will be distributed to developers, rather than consumers as was previously expected.

The first version of these AR glasses has been in production for around three years with developers and early adopters the most likely targets, initially. However, it's reported that employees at Meta's Reality Labs were only told about the decision to sell them to developers on Thursday (9 June).

Similarly, a Meta brand smartwatch with a camera, which was leaked last year, might never see the light of day, according to a Bloomberg report. No reason has been given for the product's apparent cancellation – nor has it been confirmed by Meta – but the changes to these three projects suggest a more cautious approach to its hardware business.

A hard-line from investors

Meta is primarily a social media company that makes almost all of its money through advertising. Its family of apps, Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, contribute 97% of its total revenues. Much of that profit is then reinvested into its hardware and metaverse bets.

However, there was a period when investors expressed real concern over the amount of money the company was funnelling into hardware and the metaverse, according to Leo Gebbie, principle analyst of connected devices at CCS Insight. In April, Meta reported a $3 billion loss in Q1 from its metaverse developments.

"I think that's why we're seeing a more 'sensible' approach," Gebbis told IT Pro. "Meta is trying to transition to a more sustainable investment strategy for these future technologies, where it's taking the profit from its family of apps (Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp) and investing it gradually rather than burning through that capital."

As its name change suggests, Meta is fully committed to a future in the so-called metaverse, and a large part of that is finding financial results from hardware such as VR and AR headsets. However, recent teasers for products such as project Cambria have done little to win over investors.

"It's a really bizarre approach," Gebbie said. "We haven't seen the final form of it [project Cambria] yet. But there was this very strange video of Mark Zuckerberg using Cambria, but without showing what it actually looked like. I find that a really bizarre way of unveiling, or semi-unveiling, a product.

"It was also quite weird that they have continually billed this as an enterprise product, something that's not really for the average consumer, and yet the application that they used in that video had him playing with a fluffy kitten-type thing. To me, it felt like a very weird way to build up attention around project Cambria."

IMB will start an "orderly" wind-down of its business in Russia, according to a publicly-released memo from CEO Arvind Krishna.

The tech giant suspended its operations in the country in March following the invasion of Ukraine but has continued to keep Russian-based employees on the payroll.

Now, however, with the conflict closing in on almost half a year, and Western governments increasing pressure on Russian leaders through more sanctions, IBM has decided to pull out of the country completely. US sanctions on Russian banks may well have been a key element in its decision, though Krishna said it was a "natural next step" following its business suspension.

As such, from 8 June 2022, IBM will begin terminating the employment of its Russian-based workforce.

"This process will commence today and result in the separation of our local workforce," Krishna wrote in the memo. "Our colleagues in Russia have, through no fault of their own, endured months of stress and uncertainty. We recognise that this news is difficult, and I want to assure them that IBM will continue to stand by them and take all reasonable steps to provide support and make their transition as orderly as possible."

IBM's Russian operation brought in business from a variety of the country's biggest industries, such as federal banks, energy firms and also its railways. IBM had also held its Think Summit in Moscow back in 2019. However, along with a wave of other Western companies, IBM stopped selling and providing its services in March.

Financially the decision to cut ties with Russia will have very little impact on IBM's bottom line, according to its head of finance, Jim Kavanaugh. During an earnings call in April, he told investors that "Russia is a very de minimis part of IBM" and that it only accounted for roughly 0.5% of IBM's total revenue in 2021 - around $300 million out of its total revenue of $57.4 billion.

McAfee has announced that CEO Peter Leav will step down next month and be replaced by Greg Johnson.

The reason for Leav's departure hasn't been specifically explained by the anti-virus company, but his last day in the role will be 13 June.

The appointment of Johnson, however, appears to fit with McAfee's new business direction. Since last year, the anti-virus software giant has looked to streamline itself as a more "pure-play" consumer protection business, which has a greater focus on fewer offerings. This began with the divestment of its portfolio last year, which was swiftly followed by its privatisation, led by the Advent International consortium.

Johnson is a 25 year industry veteran, with considerable experience working for consumer-facing businesses. He previously served as the executive vice president and GM of Intuit, where he helped to build a multi-billion-dollar consumer technology franchise. This included expanding Intuit's consumer group from a singular service into a suite of financial products for consumers.

Experience with consumer growth appears to be the key element of Johnson's CV that has appealed to McAfee's board of directors. He has an extensive track record for increasing customer bases at a number of high profile companies, including Kraft, Kodak, Gillette, and Advanced Auto. What's more, Johnson is also a member of Qualcomm's board of directors.

"Greg holds an impressive track record of cultivating multi-billion-dollar growth strategies for consumer businesses while delivering increasing value to customers," said Bruce Chizen, chairman of McAfee's board of directors. "As we continue to build on McAfee's 30-year history as a global leader in online protection, Greg's proven expertise makes him the leader of choice to spearhead future growth for the company."

McAfee sold its enterprise business to a consortium led by Symphony Technology Group for $4 billion last year. The company has also made five acquisitions since it was spun off from Intel in 2017, with most of those integrated into its enterprise unit. The cash from its deal with Symphony was largely used to pay off part of its debts, but it is also thought that some of that capital will be used for acquisitions to boost its consumer operations.

The Swedish buy now pay later company Klarna is set to lay off around 10% of its workforce amid a global market turndown.

CEO and co-founder Sebastian Siemiatkowski announced the cuts in a prerecorded video message sent to employees on Monday, according to Swedish tech site Breakit. Klarna's LinkedIn page states that the company has "more than 7,000" employees working across Europe and the US, so the cuts could mean more than 700 job losses.

Last week, the Wall Street Journal and another Swedish tech site, Di Digital, reported that Klarna was looking for a new round of investment, with a suggestion the firm wants around $1 billion of fresh capital. In his message to employees, Siemiatkowski said the company needed to focus on its core business amid the global market turndown.

"We are strongly influenced by the outside world," Siemiatkowski said. "When we set our goals for 2022 in the autumn, it was a very different world than the one we have today."

"That is why we need to act. More than ever, we need to show laser focus on what really makes us successful in the future. Based on this, the senior leadership at Klarna has made some tough decisions. Some of the toughest we've ever had to take. Together, we have re-evaluated the organisation to ensure that we can continue to deliver on our ambitious goals."

The cuts have been evaluated in two parts, according to Siemiatkowski. The workforce will prioritise the "right team" focused on the "right things" and those people should be in the "right places".

The CEO also said that those affected will be compensated, though he didn't explain how, and that they will be notified in the coming days. All Klarna employees will also be asked to work from home while the company makes the cuts, "in consideration of the privacy of the people affected by these changes".

Klarna's layoffs are not an isolated incident as the tight economic conditions are hitting several tech firms across Europe. UK online events platform, Hopin, which is one of the fastest-growing startups of the last couple of years, let some 138 employees go in February - roughly 12% of its staff. At the time the company said these cuts were about streamlining its business.

Embattled tech giant Toshiba has said it will set up a special committee to assess potential bids from private equity organisations and other investors.

The move opens the possibility for a landmark deal to take one of Japan's oldest organisations private.

A new committee is to be led by six existing directors, including the founder of Tiga Investments, Raymond Zage, and the ex-chair of Nobel Group, Paul Brough. The role of the committee, according to Toshiba, is to "engage with potential investors and sponsors and review strategic alternatives".

Investors have ramped up the pressure for privatisation, and was mentioned in a recent letter to the board from the company's second-largest shareholder, 3D Investment Partners. Bain Capital is reportedly going to be one of the first investors up for review as the US private equity firm recently secured qualified support for a buyout deal from Toshiba's largest shareholder, the Singapore-based investment fund Effissimo.

Toshiba, which has an estimated market value of $17bn, has seen a growing conflict between its leadership team and its major shareholders. The creation of a special committee effectively kills off plans to split the company into separate entities, with proposals for both three and two-way splits heavily criticised by investors.

Part of the issue was trust, with many investors questioning whether the current leadership team would still be accountable for breaking up the company should it result in a much worse business outcome. Effissimo, in particular, stated that the current leadership structure was in no position to make such an "irreversible and momentous" decision.

Some reports suggest that the company is still split over the matter but senior figures feel that privatisation presents the best way forward for a business struggling to resolve a decade-worth of internal troubles.

The Japanese giant was approached in April for a $14 billion takeover by CVC Capital Partners, but investors alleged that top executives took a "leading role in blocking the proposals", and even went as far as to actively prevent it from being discussed.

Google wants to make the commute more appealing by reportedly luring its US workers back to the office with a free e-scooter.

The tech giant has teamed up with manufacturer Unagi for the "Ride Scoot" programme, The Verge reports.

Google employees will get reimbursed for the full cost of a monthly subscription to Unagi's Model One scooter, which costs around $990. This is the firm's lightweight dual-motor scooter with a top speed of 20mph and a maximum distance of 15.5 miles from a full charge.

To qualify for the programme, and get the full reimbursement, employees must use the scooter for at least nine commutes per month. This will be available to all Google workers based in the US, which includes those that work at its sites in California, Seattle, Texas and New York.

Googlers are due to be back in their designated offices this week, with most required to attend at least three days per week. Despite that being a company policy - a requirement to work for Google - it appears the firm is still concerned that its employees are hesitant to return. That sentiment was also echoed by Unagi founder and CEO David Hyman, who told The Verge that the idea was to help employees get to work or at least travel to the closest bus stop.

"They know there's apprehension amongst employees," Hyman said. "People got really accustomed to working from home. And they're just trying to do everything they can to improve the experience of coming back."

Google's plans to return to the office have been delayed multiple times and have also been met with some criticism as employees have become used to remote work. The tech giant has also invested heavily into new office space over the past two years, signalling its preference for work in person. However, the firm is well known for offering lucrative "perks" which could turn out to be useful leverage for its office plans.

As well as a free scooter, Googlers will also enjoy maintenance and theft and damage insurance, both of which are included with the monthly subscription. What's more, Unagi will also host demo days for employees to try out the Model One scooter at various office locations.

The Dutch Senate has passed a motion calling on the government to temporarily suspend the construction of a Meta data centre.

Plans to build a facility across 410 acres of farmland in the town of Zeewolde were approved in December but were halted on Tuesday due to a mix of environmental concerns and planning regulations.

The facility was set to be a new home European home for Meta's Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp servers. It was expected to run on green energy and use 1.38 gigawatts of electricity but was largely opposed by environmental campaigners who didn't want the country's limited supply of sustainable power being used by a multinational corporation.

The motion was raised by Senator Niko Koffeman and it requests that the government uses its powers to force the municipality of Zeewolde, which is just over 30 miles east of Amsterdam, to put a hold on the preparations to enable the data centre's construction. This is on the grounds of "public interest" with the Senate also seeking tougher rules for large scale data centre development.

The local government in Zeewolde has established a zoning plan for the construction and it is thought that the Housing and Spatial Planning unit of the Dutch government doesn't want to change those plans. However, there are ongoing discussions around the sale of the land, which is owned by the central government. The talks will take into account the planned data centre's energy consumption and other environmental requirements.

Koffeman had a motion adopted in December by the previous government to suspend the sale of the land and he has also put forward an additional argument that the new government coalition should implement stricter requirements for the location of future data centres.

Koffeman has also called for additional requirements for Meta's data centre around its energy generation, use of water and the use of residual heat, before permits are issued.

IT Pro has approached Meta for comment.

Nvidia and SoftBank have agreed to terminate an agreement for the US company to acquire UK chipmaker Arm due to "significant regulatory challenges".

Instead, SoftBank will look to float Arm on the stock market by 2023, the Japanese firm said in a statement.

Since it was announced in 2020, Nvidia's takeover of Arm has been met with scepticism from various parties within the semiconductor industry. and has also been the subject of regulatory investigations from a number of governing bodies around the world.

The UK's Competition and Market's Authority (CMA) said the deal warranted an "in-depth" investigation because it could potentially give Nvidia the power to restrict access to Arm's intellectual property. Similar concerns were cited by regulators in the US and EU, but with the deal now cancelled, the CMA has stated that it is no longer interested in pursuing an investigation.

Finding a way to appease regulators and also justify the $40 billion price tag has proven "overwhelmingly challenging", according to CCS Insight analyst, Geoff Blaber. He said the deal was also disruptive to Arm and its lucrative ecosystem; its licensees collectively shipped an average of 22 billion chips annually over the previous three years.

"As predicted, opposition was considerable and shone a light on the strategic importance of Arm's technology and the vital need for Arm to remain independent," Blaber told IT Pro.

"The $40 billion price tag was such a sizeable premium that it left Softbank with no plan B. An IPO is the best route forward for the Arm ecosystem and will be applauded across the industry but it's certainly not a positive outcome for Softbank."

Arm to go public

The collapse of the acquisition appears to have resulted in executive changes for Arm, with CEO Simon Segars stepping down, effective immediately, according to a company statement. Industry veteran Rene Haas will now step into the role to lead the company through its IPO, while Segars takes up a position on the board of directors.

"Rene is the right leader to accelerate Arm's growth as the company starts making preparations to re-enter the public markets," said Masayoshi Son, the CEO of SoftBank. "I would like to thank Simon for his leadership, contributions and dedication to Arm over the past 30 years."

The company has previously gone to market, making its initial debut in 1998, but it was brought by investment group SoftBank in 2016. It's thought that SoftBank agreed to the sale of Arm so that it could shore up its finances after sling money on other investments, such as the shared office space firm WeWork and even Uber.

January is traditionally a time for reflection and forward planning – not just in terms of trying to convince yourself you’ll definitely stick with your new workout regime, but also for companies defining their goals and strategies for the next 12 months. The last two years have been characterised by turmoil, uncertainty and near-constant change, so it’s more important than ever for business leaders to be cautious and alert.

In the spirit of the new year, we spoke to the IT Pro Panel to find out what our community of IT leaders are preparing for, how they’re preparing for it, and what they’re most concerned about for 2022. This comes alongside defining the biggest challenges they faced last year, and what they learned from them.

Bridging the hybrid gaps

It probably won’t surprise you to learn that the pandemic was the source of all of our panellists’ biggest frustrations last year. These issues came in many flavours, however; for Studio Graphene CEO Ritam Gandhi, the lack of face-to-face contact with team members and stakeholders was a particular concern.

“It's something that I realised retrospectively as I looked back at some of the challenging situations I faced and how I could have avoided them if I'd had more interaction with the team or resolved them more easily,” he says.

Both SmartDebit CIO Gavin Scruby and Kresten Reeves CTO and operations director Chris Madden, meanwhile, report the biggest challenge was translating the somewhat ad-hoc implementation of emergency remote working practices into a more considered long-term policy. This is especially true for the impact on hardware, systems and physical premises. Madden reported the mass rush to home working also affected hardware availability, with some items of IT equipment on three-month lead times.

This wasn’t as much of an adjustment for others, however. Prior efforts to roll out Microsoft collaboration tools across MKUH Foundation Trust’s estate meant that while there was still some work to be done around cementing adoption, CTO Craig York says that the move to remote working went fairly smoothly. This is also true for Moonpig, where CTO Peter Donlon said it has now become a core competency.

“For me in 2021, one of the biggest challenges was hiring,” he says. “The market for technology specialists and especially engineers continued to escalate and as such, we had to put a lot of effort into hiring. Fortunately, we overcame the challenge and hired well but I only see that getting harder!”

This was also one of the main pressure points for TempCover, says CTO Marc Pell, along with maintaining strong lines of communication between teams. 2021 saw a number of large-scale projects for the company; in addition to the ubiquitous hybrid working initiatives, TempCover also launched an integration with Willis Towers Watson's Radar Live real-time pricing engine. This involved designing a suite of API calls, as well as redesigning how its data schemas are structured in order to support the integration.

“We also took the opportunity to rewrite our internal pricing API so that it acts as an abstraction over the top of the pricing engine in use,” he explains, “making it easier to test and potentially change partners or integrate with additional partners in the future if required.”

Movers and shakers

Other time-consuming projects undertaken by our panellists in 2021 included the rollout of hybrid working equipment such as laptops, docking hubs and videoconferencing equipment for Kreston Reeves staff - exacerbated by the aforementioned stock shortages - and the in Studio Graphene’s case, the exploration of new areas of technology like blockchain.

“For us, a large go-live for new functionality within our electronic patient record system was weeks away when the pandemic hit,” says York. “We finally took this live in September with good engagement from our staff who had been through, and continue within, a challenging time. Digital was seen as an enabler, and those areas not fully utilising tech to the best of its ability were keen to fully adopt. This included a lot of medical device integration, improving staff efficiency and patient safety.”

There were quite a few high-level corporate changes, too; SmartDebit was acquired by Access PaySuite, and Scruby says a considerable amount of IT work was needed to integrate the two systems, particularly in terms of security and data protection. Rooster Money was similarly snapped up by Natwest, and CTO Jon Smart also has a focus on tool alignment, while Donlon says he spent a significant amount of effort on managing Moonpig’s IPO in February.

Dealing with the aftermath of these acquisitions will be a continuing focus for both Scruby and Smart in 2022, while Donlon’s team will be moving one of Moonpig’s own acquisitions (a Dutch business called Greetz) onto Moonpig’s ecommerce platform. This will necessitate a large amount of work in areas such as data migration and feature management, and this is one of the main reasons behind Moonpig’s ongoing recruitment drive.

“We have a lot of new roles, especially in engineering, product, design and analytics,” Donlon explains, “and I don't expect that to slow down throughout the year. We're also looking to take on more apprentices and grads.”

Hoovering up talent

Recruitment will be on the agenda for all of our panellists, in fact, fuelled largely by business expansion and concentrated primarily on technical roles like engineering, testing and product management. All of our panellists plan to recruit steadily throughout 2022, with retention of existing staff also a concern. This is partly driven by the rise of remote working, with staff now able to accept a wider range of jobs without going through the hassle of relocating - as Smart notes, “the additional side challenge with hiring in a competitive market is to make sure existing loyal employees are also valued”.

“Recruitment will be a big issue for us, as will retaining good people,” agrees Madden. “As an accountancy practice, we cannot quickly train up new people as the formal exams take a number of years. We also need to define and embed what hybrid working really looks like post-pandemic to ensure we get the balance between personal wants and client expectations.”

This combination of recruitment and retention is going to be the principal pain point IT leaders are bracing themselves for throughout the year; as demands on IT departments increase, this could present a potential skills shortage our panellists will have to grapple with.

“Plenty of people are using this whole time as an opportunity to reassess their lives too,” Scruby points out. “Some are leaving the industry; some are looking for more lifestyle-friendly roles. Although salaries are going up, it's not the only factor.”

Aside from these skill challenges, Madden expects his main focus for 2022 to be the selection and deployment of a CRM system – a first for Kreston Reeves, which will involve a great deal of change management, as well as investigating the possibility of utilising robotic process automation (RPA) within the business.

“Yep, I'd say the same in terms of automation,” Gandhi concurs; “this is a big focus area for us through 2022. I'm also keen to get out more and go to more conferences or events, to make up for perhaps some of the lost interactions or opportunities to learn from others.”

York says that he wants to spend more time at the coalface with clinical workers this year, to get a better understanding of the challenges that they have to navigate – although he also admits that higher automation is one of his key goals, as well.

“I think Chris has nailed it for me too,” says Pell. “I want to automate more efficiency into what we do. I’m also optimistic that we’ll get a step closer to normality this year, which should make the maintaining of our culture a little easier, as it’s tougher to do when remote.”

“I'm optimistic that 2022 will bring with it an improvement in the number of quality candidates that are in the market,” he adds; “We need more great people to continue on our journey.”

Outsourcing specialist Capita is to sell its IT services and solutions company, Trustmarque, to private-equity firm One Equity Partners for £111 million.

The deal is part of Capita's recovery plans as it looks to switch focus to core parts of its business.

Trustmarque, which Capita brought for just £57 million in 2016, accounted for around 4% of Capita's total revenue, according to its 2020 fiscal reports, but the firm is more concerned with investing in its Capita Public Services and its Capita Experience.

Its public-focused services include contracts with the UK government, such as the collection of BBC licence fees, but also a number of controversial contracts and 'botched' digital transformation projects.

The firm reported annual losses of almost £50 million in 2020, prompting plans to halve the number of business divisions from six to three in a bid to raise £700 million pounds. This included the sale of its software business, AMT Sybex, and its Secure Solutions security services.

With Trustmarque now being offloaded, the company said it has already reached the £700 million divestment target, which was initially set for June 2022.

The pandemic and remote working have also provided the outsourcing firm with cost-saving opportunities. With many of its 55,000 employees taking up working from home, the firm has managed to reduce its office footprint by 11%, which includes the closure of its London headquarters.

"We are now focused on selling the remaining businesses in our portfolio division, with the goal of disposing of the majority by the end of 2022," CEO Jon Lewis said in a statement.

It's not clear how much Trustmarque - which offers IT transformation services - was involved in Capita's most public failures. In 2012, the company was awarded a contract with the British armed forces for recruitment, a project that ultimately led to "several" failings, including mass delays to an online recruitment tool. The British Army failed to hit its recruitment targets for every year of the contract as a result.

The company was also blamed for a number of IT upgrades failures and service delays while working on contracts for the NHS and UK police forces.

A shortage of "job-ready" digital talent and a lack of sufficient in-house training is stalling enterprise innovation across the UK, Europe, and the US.

More than 2,000 managers and 4,000 employees from companies in the US, France, Germany and the UK took part in a survey conducted by training platform Udacity, and the findings paint a concerning picture about enterprise transformation.

The report focuses on four key points of digital transformation: why projects are currently failing, the effectiveness of in-house training, its uncertain future, and the importance of learning new skills. According to the report, 46% of participants - from all four regions - suggested their company's digital transformation projects were failing due to a lack of talent available.

Of the UK-based participants, 36% suggested they were losing talented people to high-tech companies, while 34% said they had let people go because they didn't have the skills the company needed. When it came to recruitment, 52% said they had found it hard to find people with the necessary experience, 51% couldn't find the right technical skills, and another 51% ended up hiring workers without the skills they needed for the role.

The overall picture was also muddled when it came to in-house training; across all four regions, 80% of employers felt their learning and development programmes were moderately successful, but only 45% of employees said they were "satisfied" with the training. The difference increases when only viewing the UK participants, with just 20% of employees happy with in-house training opportunities.

Keeping up with emerging technologies

A number of reports have highlighted a growing skills deficit across the UK, with many concerned the country doesn't have the capacity to develop specialists for advancing technologies. Although the Udacity report avoids naming specific areas, there are a number of technologies that frequently appear in similar research.

64% of IT executives from a recent Gartner report also pointed to a lack of talent hampering a number of emerging technologies. This, it suggested, was proving to be a barrier for business adoption of computing infrastructure, networking, cyber security, automation and storage technology.

"The talent shortage has reached a crisis pitch," said Gabe Dalporto, the CEO of Udacity. "If companies do not invest in talent transformation, they are destined to fail. The lack of job-ready digital talent has become an existential threat to businesses around the world."

Intel has announced it is investing $20 billion into a new manufacturing site on the outskirts of Columbus, Ohio, that will develop advanced semiconductor chips.

The tech giant plans to build two fabrication plants across a 1,000-acre site in New Albany, which will house around 3,000 permanent jobs.

The investment is part of Intel's new IDM 2.0 strategy, which includes new plants in Arizona and Ireland to boost its capacity for customers around the world. The plants will help the company tackle growing supply chain issues and meet surging demand for advanced semiconductors.

"Today's investment marks another significant way Intel is leading the effort to restore US semiconductor manufacturing leadership," Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger, said. "Intel's actions will help build a more resilient supply chain and ensure reliable access to advanced semiconductors for years to come."

Gelsinger added that the new factories will create an American "epicentre" for advanced chipmaking with a domestic lab-to-fab pipeline. The initial fee of $20 billion is the first step with the tech giant potentially building an "eight-factory" complex that it said could cost "as much as $100 billion over the next decade".

Planning for the initial two factories will start immediately so that they're ready for construction later in the year. The company hopes its presence in Ohio will attract further investment into the region from its ecosystem partners and suppliers. This, the tech giant said, would not only benefit Ohio but will also have a "significant economic impact" on the broader US semiconductor industry.

The new Ohio site spans nearly 1,000 acres and is considered the largest single private-sector investment in state history.

Chip shortages are expected to last into 2023, partly due to the time they take to build. Intel said production from its new Ohio factories won't bear fruit till 2025, so it is unlikely that Intel's expansion plans will alleviate the current increased demand. In the short term, Gelsinger's plans are more about helping Intel to win back its crown as the top manufacturer of semiconductor chips and put more pressure on leading companies, such as Taiwan-based TSMC.

Apple has scrapped its plans to return to the office indefinitely, having previously delayed its reopening until 1 February.

This is according to an internal memo sent by CEO Tim Cook on Wednesday, Bloomberg reported, citing the emergence of the new Omicron variant.

The memo comes just weeks after the company asked employees to begin returning to the office by February 2022 as part of a hybrid work pilot that required workers to be in the office two days a week before moving up to three in March 2022. Cook first announced the hybrid work model in June 2021, with the company previously aiming for a September 2021 return to the office.

On Wednesday, Cook said that Apple is “delaying the start of our hybrid work pilot to a date yet to be determined”.

The decision had been made due to “rising cases in many parts of the world and the emergence of a new strain of the virus”.

Although employees can continue to work from home, the iPhone manufacturer’s offices will “remain open”, allowing employees to come into the office if they wish.

“Many of our colleagues are coming in regularly, including our teams in Greater China and elsewhere,” Cook stated, before advising employees to receive COVID-19 vaccinations and booster shots, saying that “this is by far the best way to keep you and your community safe”.

All Apple employees, including retail workers, will also receive a $1,000 bonus that may be used for home office equipment, with Cook stating that it’s “in support of our commitment to a more flexible environment”.

“These funds are intended to help you with your home workspace and can be used as you see fit. You will be receiving more information about this shortly,” he added.

Apple’s return to the office has been moved back multiple times, with the spread of COVID-19 in the US delaying plans for October 2020 and January 2021 returns.

The news comes after a Google memo revealed that staff members who fail to report their vaccination status or apply for a medical or religious exemption will be placed on leave and even terminated, as the tech giant prepares for its repeatedly-delayed return to the office on 10 January 2022.

Last week, UK leaders urged people to work from home following the rise of the Omicron variant of COVID-19. First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has asked for people in Scotland to work from home until the middle of January, while Prime Minister Boris Johnson advised people to work from home where possible.

Google is facing an internal backlash over its plans to enforce employees to provide vaccination statuses by December.

"Several hundred" Googlers have signed and circulated a manifesto opposing the plans, according to CNBC, potentially delaying the tech giant's office return, again.

Google is following the Biden administration's orders that all US companies with 100 or more workers have to ensure that all employees are fully vaccinated or regularly tested for Covid-19 by 4 January. According to internal documents, seen by CNBC, the tech giant has asked its 150,000 plus workforce to upload vaccination status to its internal system by 3 December, whether they plan to come into the office or not. This also appears to be the case for employees that work directly or indirectly with US government contracts - also whether they work remotely or not.

"Vaccines are key to our ability to enable a safe return to the office for everyone and minimise the spread of Covid-19 in our communities," wrote Chris Rackow, Google VP of security, in an email sent near the end of October, CNBC reports.

The manifesto spreading around Google has been signed by at least 600 employees, according to reports. It asks the company's leaders to retract the vaccine mandate and create a new one that is "inclusive of all Googlers". It also calls on employees to "oppose the mandate as a matter of principle", informing staff to not let the policy alter their decision if they've already opted not to get a vaccine.

"As we've stated to all our employees and the author of this document, our vaccination requirements are one of the most important ways we can keep our workforce safe and keep our services running," a spokesperson for Google said. "We firmly stand behind our vaccination policy."

Japanese giant Toshiba has outlined plans to break up its business into three independent companies in a bid to add more value for its shareholders.

The company will spin-off its energy and infrastructure units under the new brand Infrastructure Co, while hardware and storage services will fall under Device Co.

All remaining units, and its 40.6% stake in memory chipmaker Kioxia, will be handled under the original Toshiba brand, with the spin-offs set to be completed by the second half of 2023. The firm is also said to be interested in "monetising" its shares in Kioxia, so that it can return the net proceeds in full to shareholders as soon as possible.

The spin-off plans are the result of a strategic, investor-commissioned review into the management of the Japanese conglomerate, following a number of scandals. In June, an independent investigation found that Toshiba's management "colluded" with Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry, to put pressure on activist shareholders at the company's AGM meeting in 2020.

Toshiba was once a global giant for electronics, but the last decade has proven turbulent for the company.

In 2015 it was revealed that the firm had been over valuating its profits by $1.3 billion for almost seven years, resulting in a $60 million penalty from Japan's Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission for accounting fraud.

Most recently, the 140-year-old firm sold off its laptop business to Sharp, which consisted of a 19.9% stake in Dynabook. Sharp had also already bought an 80.1% stake in Toshiba's PC business just two years earlier.

According to Toshiba's president and CEO, Satoshi Tsunakawa, the company has "constantly evolved to stay ahead of the times" and this current spin-off is "no different".

"In order to enhance our competitive positioning, each business now needs greater flexibility to address its own market opportunities and challenges," Tsunakawa said in a statement. "We are convinced that the business separation is attractive and compelling: it will unlock immense value by removing complexity, it enables the businesses to have much more focused management, facilitating agile decision making, and the separation naturally enhances choices for shareholders.

"Our Board and management team firmly believe that this strategic reorganisation is the right step for sustainable profitable growth of each business and the best path to create additional value for our stakeholders. We are grateful for the Strategic Review Committee's thorough evaluation and recommendation on our best path forward."

Each new company will be listed publicly and will have their own separate board of directors and management.

Facebook is reportedly planning to rebrand itself with a new company name that has more focus on its proposed 'metaverse.'

The new name could be revealed on 28 October during the company's annual Connect conference, according to The Verge, citing a source with direct knowledge of the matter.

The move will likely position the flagship social network under a parent company that oversees brands like Instagram and WhatsApp. Google underwent a similar restructure when it moved into a holding company called Alphabet in 2015.

Facebook said it doesn't comment on "rumour or speculation", but the company's CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg has been talking up the metaverse in recent weeks. This is pitched as a digital world where people can move between different devices and communicate in a virtual space.

The tech giant has already invested heavily into virtual and augmented reality technology, which includes the development of hardware such as its Oculus VR headsets and AR glasses.

It also recently announced plans to create 10,000 jobs across the European Union as part of its metaverse strategy. An average of 2,000 roles will be created across the bloc, annually, over the next five years, but very little detail was given about the roles other than the label 'high skilled'.

The term 'metaverse' was coined in the dystopian novel Snow Crash was released in 1992. The rebrand could provide some escapism for Zuckerberg, by separating his work on the company's future from the intense scrutiny it is under.

Facebook is currently being accused of failing to protect its users, particularly children, with regulators and global lawmakers concerned it causes actual harm. Recent testimony from a former employee, Frances Huagen suggested the platform puts "profit before public safety". The claim concerns a change of algorithm that prioritises certain content in its news feed to keep users engaged.

BT has announced that the net zero target for its own operations is being brought forward by 15 years from 2045 to 2030.

The target for its supply chain and customer emissions has been set as 2040.

In order to meet these targets and minimise its carbon footprint, BT said that it will “press ahead” with plans to retire 3G mobile networks by 2023 and the public switched telephone network (PSTN) by the end of 2025.

The new deadline comes a year after BT completed the switch to 100% renewable electricity worldwide, signing a three-year renewable energy supply deal with TotalEnergies in February 2021.

By 2030, the company is also set to transition the majority of its 33,000 strong commercial fleet to electric or zero carbon emissions vehicles. It has also pledged to cut the emissions intensity of its business by 87% by the end of March 2031.

BT Group’s chief digital impact & sustainability officer Andy Wales said that the company is “committed to climate action and today’s announcement will see us not just deliver on our public commitments to date but exceed them”.

“As the world looks to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, we must remember that the global climate emergency hasn’t gone away,” he added.

However, Wales said that getting the company “in order” alone “isn’t enough”. This is why BT also announced the launch of its Big Sofa Summit, which will raise awareness of the need for small changes anyone can make to help the environment. The interactive video series will also showcase how smart tech can be used to fight climate change.

“We must broaden the conversation around climate change by getting households up and down the country talking about it and helping them understand what they can do to help. That’s why I’d encourage all of our customers, colleagues and communities to get involved, by holding their own Sofa Summit, looking at the small, sustainable changes they can make,” said Wales.

BT also announced today that it had joined The Climate Pledge, which was co-founded in 2019 by Amazon and Global Optimism. Signatories of the pledge are committed to three principal areas of action, which are: “regular reporting, carbon elimination, and neutralising any remaining emissions with real, permanent and socially-beneficial offsets to achieve net-zero emissions by 2040”.

The news comes a month after the UK’s technology sector was urged to make a formal commitment to achieving carbon neutrality by 2050, with the UK’s Net Zero Business Champion asking companies to sign a separate, yet similar pledge available on the Business Climate Hub’s website.

Amazon has revealed new details about its second headquarters set across a sprawling campus in northern Virginia.

The company has submitted plans for the second phase of the development that show designs for a "forest plaza" at the foot of the company's 22-story Helix tower, and proposals for new retail and transport infrastructure.

Work began on the campus in January 2020, just before the pandemic hit, but the firm said its construction, and recruitment plans, are "on pace" and that it was ready for the next chapter. The tower was part of Amazon's phase 1 plans and is scheduled to be completed by the middle of 2023. It's said to be 2.1 million square feet of "energy-efficient" office space, which is filled with "state-of-the-art" collaboration areas and leafy terraces.

The Forest Plaza is part of its phase 2 plans and is described as a "botanical experience" with pathways, communal areas and a cascading water feature which Amazon said will provide a cooling microclimate. The area will lead from the Helix office to other segments of the campus, such as transport links and a 500 square foot retail space.

"When the public health situation improves and as regulations allow, we will continue to see value in bringing our employees together in a physical space to cross-pollinate ideas and foster collaboration," the tech giant said in a blog. "With our hiring and construction on pace, we're ready for the next chapter."

Amazon has invested $2.5 billion in the site and currently employs 1,600 workers at the campus. The e-commerce giant is seeking a further 1,900 jobs for a variety of technical and non-technical roles.

These include jobs in software development and high-performance computing, as well as positions working with the Prime Video, Kindle and Alexa teams. There are also listings for Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh store designers.

Amazon hopes to create around 25,000 jobs over the next decade, both internally and around the campus as it grows.

Microsoft's interest in Discord looks to have been rebuffed as the communication platform is no longer up for sale, according to reports.

The popular chat app was thought to be mulling an acquisition valued at around $10 billion, but a Wall Street Journal report suggests the firm has cancelled talks with four interested parties - a list that includes Microsoft.

The other potential suitors were thought to be Twitter, Amazon and Epic Games, but all acquisition plans are reportedly being dropped in favour of a public offering.

Discord has around 140 million monthly users and earned $130 million in revenue in 2020, but it still isn't a profitable business which is the main reason the company began exploring acquisition options. Microsoft was seen as a likely suitor, given Discord's popularity with gamers and Microsoft's strong portfolio within the industry.

The two companies may reignite talks in the future, according to the WSJ, but for now, Discord is keen to pave its own way forward. The San Francisco company is best known for its free service that lets gamers chat via video, voice and text. Naturally, its users have increased throughout the pandemic, and so has its potential use cases; the communications tool has helped people study, take dance classes, join book clubs and other types of virtual gathering.

The tech giant has been very active of late, acquiring game maker Zenimax in March for $7.5 billion and also speech recognition startup Nuance Communications for $19.7 billion. Microsoft was also reportedly in talks to by Chinese social media firm TikTok towards the end of 2020 but ultimately lost out to Oracle, which, in turn, has been put on hold by the US government.

Microsoft's interest in Discord was said to be based around the social element of the app and the personal data it holds. Outside of its Xbox and Surface devices, Microsoft doesn't have much in the way of consumer-facing services or any form of social media.

Ocado has invested £10 million into Oxford-based self-driving car startup Oxbotica that includes a partnership to develop autonomous vehicles for curbside deliveries.

The investment came as part of a funding round for Oxbotica and forms the basis of a multi-year collaboration that ultimately aims to reduce costs for Ocado.

The deal is an extension of an existing partnership between the two companies and will focus specifically on developing new hardware and software interfaces for autonomous vehicles that will be used in and around Ocado's Customer Fulfilment Centre (CFC). This includes a range of logistical drones for use across its factories and loading areas.

Both firms are also interested in "last mile" delivery drones that take goods from vans to front doors.

Data sharing agreements have also been signed as part of the deal, which includes the fitting of "data capture capabilities" inside Ocado delivery vans that will be used by Oxbotica to train and test its technologies. The idea is that the data will highlight which Oxbotica technologies will suit Ocado's needs.

"We are excited about the opportunity to work with Oxbotica to develop a wide range of autonomous solutions that truly have the potential to transform both our and our partners CFC and service delivery operations, while also giving all end customers the widest range of options and flexibility," Ocado's chief of advanced technology, Alex Harvey said.

The partnership could also lead to new jobs with Ocado, which is creating new engineering teams to work specifically with Oxbotica. While no figures have been provided, we do know these roles will be within Ocado's Advanced Technology division, which is already separate from the team that develops the Ocado Smart Platform.

Logistical costs make up a large part of Ocado's overall expenditure, the firm said. Approximately 1.5% of sales in the UK are lost due to the cost of moving finished orders from the fulfilment centre to delivery vans, while 10% of sales are lost when delivering goods from the van to the door. Labour also represents 50% of these costs, according to Ocado.

Ocado expects to see the first prototypes of some early use cases for autonomous vehicles within two years.

The £4 billion stock market floatation of Darktrace has been dealt an early blow after Swiss bank UBS reportedly pulled out due to the firm's ties to British entrepreneur Mike Lynch.

The decision came from the bank's compliance department and is related to a 'Suspicious Activity Report' (SAR) regarding Lynch's current legal battles with US and UK authorities, according to Sky News.

A SAR is a regulatory requirement for banks that must be made if there is any suspicious legal activity in a transaction. UBS was appointed alongside US multinational Jefferies to lead Darktrace's listing in November, but the firm has reportedly said it cannot continue on behalf of the UK firm due to Lynch's proposed extradition to the US to stand trial,

Lynch was one of the first investors in Darktrace through his VC firm Invoke Capital, but it is his previous ventures that have led to UBS pulling out and also his potential extradition to America.

In 2011, HP acquired Lynch's UK startup Autonomy for $11 billion - a fee that was said to be "ridiculous" before and during the takeover. The deal was made while HP was under the stewardship of Leo Apotheker, who was fired not long after the acquisition completed due to the firm's poor financial health under his tenure.

Under the scrutiny of new leadership, the Autonomy takeover was found to be "excessive" and questions were raised over the "misrepresentations" of the company's assets and their valuations. Legal proceedings were then brought against Lynch, accusing him of providing fraudulent statements during the sale of his company.

Those legal proceedings are still ongoing and Lynch is also contesting the extradition to the US. What's more, UBS's stance towards the Darktrace IPO is thought to have shifted after a Dutch court ordered its CEO, Ralph Hamers, to face investigations into money-laundering at ING, the firm he ran before leaving for UBS.

Silicon Valley has long been the US tech industry’s ‘shining city on a hill’, building a seemingly unassailable reputation as the heartland of IT innovation. In recent weeks, however, HPE and Oracle have become the latest in a growing list of companies to announce that they will be moving their official headquarters out of the valley and into Texas.

But what does this mean for the west coast techno-utopia? Why are these companies suddenly getting cold feet, and will there be more to follow? In this episode, we look at the so-called Silicon Valley exodus, the possible reasons behind it, and whether Silicon Valley’s glory days are soon to be behind it.

Footnotes

• How Stanford University is putting humans at the centre of AI
• More widespread tech hubs means more innovation
• What can the rest of the world learn from Silicon Valley?
• What can Silicon Valley learn from the rest of the world?
• HPE becomes the latest tech firm to leave Silicon Valley
• Oracle joins exodus from Silicon Valley
• Starting afresh: Why startups will lead the new normal
• Finding the right co-founder for your tech startup
• How tech startups can present their best selves to investors
• 7 important tips for a successful tech startup
• Silicon Valley’s scandal hunters
• Silicon Valley 'Texit' Is Real: Here's Who's Going and Where
• San Francisco exodus is real, Nob Hill has the most move-outs
• Leaving San Francisco: will Covid-19 spark an exodus?
• California's latest effort to raise taxes on the wealthy could fuel Bay Area exodus
• US Postal Service Data Suggests Significant Population Decline in San Francisco
• New stats reveal massive NYC exodus amid coronavirus, crime

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Microsoft has launched a new campaign that aims to help 1.5 million UK citizens build careers in technology over the next five years.

Get On 2021, which is supported by KPMG, Unilever, and the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP), aims to address the widening digital skills gap in the UK tech sector as well as accelerate technology adoption, drive productivity, and enhance competitiveness.

The campaign aims to advance the skills of anyone interested in pursuing a career in tech, regardless of their previous experience. It is expected to benefit those new to the industry and still in education, as well as tech professionals who are looking to embrace new business models and technologies to drive organisations forward.

Speaking at Microsoft’s Envision UK event, Microsoft UK CEO Clare Barclay said that the company wants “to help people get the right skills to thrive in technology careers, and employers find the right talent to help drive business success and UK prosperity”.

“With hundreds of thousands of people losing their jobs and some traditional sectors heavily impacted, we urgently need to invest in UK technical skills and capability to help realise our competitive potential,” she added. “Together we can build a future based on long-term sustainable growth.”

The launch of Get On 2021 comes as Microsoft found that the UK requires over three million skilled people in technology careers over the next five years.

The technology giant partnered with academics at Goldsmiths, University of London to devise a new model of competitiveness which scored almost half (46%) of UK firms in the lowest quadrant.

Moreover, 54% of surveyed UK organisations admitted to seeing a decrease in revenue in 2020 compared to 2019, with 22% experiencing a drop greater than 15%. A further 22% had been forced to scrap an existing business model within days of entering the UK’s first lockdown in March.

Meanwhile, 45% of leaders said that they believe that their current business model will cease to exist by 2025 – an increase of 12% over the past year.

However, the model devised by Microsoft and Goldsmiths identified more than £48 billion of opportunity if UK leaders enhance their organisations’ digital competitiveness through sustainable growth practices. This value is expected to further increase under the condition that organisations drive longer-term investment in competitiveness.

The UK’s secretary of state for Work and Pensions Therese Coffey said she is “delighted with Microsoft’s announcement of Get On 2021, boosting the confidence and skills of young people starting their careers and helping experienced workers to upskill or switch jobs”.

“This kind of support – acting locally and in partnership with industry – is not only vital to the future of jobseekers, but also to the success of the UK economy as we build back better.

"It is extremely encouraging that this will complement our comprehensive package of support through our £30 billion Plan for Jobs – with our Kickstart scheme providing hundreds of thousands of good quality jobs for young people and our new JETS programme giving people who have recently become unemployed the helping hand they need to get back into work.”

Google is reportedly set to lease an additional 70,000 sq ft of office space in London's Kings Cross despite telling employees to continue working remotely until at least July 2021.

The company is in advanced talks to lease two buildings near its 330 metre-long office near Kings Cross railway station, according to The Times.

That space, nicknamed the 'landscraper', is still in development and will have capacity for up to 4,000 workers. The building will be longer than the 310-metre height of the Shard, but will only stand 11 storeys tall. It will include a roof garden, a 25-metre pool, indoor basketball court and "nap pods" for tired Googlers.

However, the tech giant is also planning to take over an eight-year lease of two buildings from publishing firm Macmillan, according to The Times. This is reportedly around 70,000 sq ft - IT Pro has approached Google for confirmation.

The reports follow comments made by CEO Sundar Pichai that the firm would move to a 'hybrid' model that would incorporate both remote and in office working.

"We firmly believe that in-person, being together, having that sense of community is super important for whenever you have to solve hard problems, you have to create something new," he said in Time magazine.

"We don't see that changing. So we don't think the future is 100% remote, we definitely value our offices, we value the culture, but we do think we need to create more flexibility, a more hybrid model."

According to The Times, the firm has also agreed to extend a lease at the Central Saint Giles development near Tottenham Court road for a decade. The 160,000 sq ft building has access to gyms, free-for-all fridges and communal allotments, but its lease was due to expire in 2021.

However, not all Google plans are going ahead; the tech giant scrapped plans for a 2,000 worker office in Dublin earlier this month.

In this week's exclusive feature for The Business Briefing readers, Bobby Hellard explores how to get that business idea from theory to reality.

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Starting a business is not for the faint of heart; you need lots of resolve and faith because not all great ideas necessarily make great companies. Many budding entrepreneurs have failed to get to market or simply get off the ground, because running a business is full of obstacles. One of the first challenges they face - and often fail - is securing funding.

The trouble is getting their idea across; venture capitalists are not mind readers and they won't know how good your idea is unless you can bring it to light. What's more, if you can't fully explain the quality of your product or service, how will they?

It's vital for tech startups to present their best selves to investors and fully sell their ideas and products. We've compiled some advice from the other side of the table, on how that can be done.

Be specific and be accurate

No detail is too small when it comes to startups; with many things that can potentially go wrong or hold you back, investors will want to know the ins and outs. You need to be specific about what you do/offer and how you do it. There's no point in trying to gloss over certain things, or over-elaborate on others, either, as VCs have seen it all before and you can't pull the wool over their eyes.

Among the things you need to be specific about are the market you are in and your potential to grow. Iskender Dirik, managing director at Samsung NEXT (Samsung’s corporate VC) gave a number of very specific questions he expects to have answered: “What problem does your solution solve? And how big is that problem in reality? How big can your startup become? Does it have unicorn potential? Does it address a market that is already huge or has the potential to be huge in the future? Does it have the potential to generate significant revenues?”

Oliver Holle, co-founder and managing partner at Speedinvest, a pan-European VC for early-stage startups, says founders should “explain in simple terms why the world needs you. What is the problem that you solve and why is your solution much, much better than what is available today? Plus, have a clear plan for the next twelve to eighteen months. Lay out what you will achieve by then, in terms of traction, product and team.

“And, please, don’t argue that you don’t have any competitors.”

You and your people are your greatest asset

It doesn’t matter how great your ideas are or how much you think you can scale them at speed, as without a great personal approach and the right people in your team it’s all pie in the sky. Your potential investors need to know that you’ve got the right smarts.

Alexia Arts, investment manager at MMC Ventures says: “This is critical at the pre-seed and seed stage so do not undersell yourself. It's worth going beyond listing your experiences and explaining why you and your team are best placed to build this particular startup.”

As for your own skills as the owner and founder, Oliver Holle gave us a vibrant pen-portrait of a great founder., saying: “Great founders exhibit a talent to combine seemingly opposite character traits into one cohesive appearance. They are bullish and very clear about their long term vision, exuding inner confidence that they will inevitably succeed. At the same time, they are highly pragmatic about their tactical path, eager to listen and learn and adapt, showing humility about all the things they don’t know and cannot know.”

Practice makes perfect – but be yourself

While all this might sound like a tech startup has to be pretty formulaic in its approach, getting investment isn’t about behaving like a clone. Alexia Arts explains: “I wouldn't follow a ‘one size fits all template’. This results in founders fitting their story to a mould, rather than thinking about their own narrative and the key points you want to get across.”

It is also important to practice, and Arts says you can practice with practically anyone you know. Doing this, she says, “will ensure that you are getting your points across clearly, help to refine your message and improve your confidence when pitching”.

“As a CEO you will need to pitch your company time and time again over the next 5-10 years so you might as well start practicing,” she adds.

Practicing might also help you get prepared for negative responses. Iskender Dirik says: “Because the default answer of an investor will most often be ‘no’, founders need to create a sense of ‘FOMO’ – fear of missing out. They have to convince the investor that saying ‘no’ will mean losing out on a huge opportunity to invest in ‘the next big thing.’” People you try your pitch out on will be able to give you some experience of handling negative reactions, which will help you in the real pitch.

It’s unlikely to be easy to get funding for your tech startup, and there is no magic formula that will put you ahead of all the rest. But there are some basics that it’s vital to get right, and presenting your best self to potential investors can really help your cause

As COVID-19 continues to create uncertainty around the world, there is a long list of things that need to be done for managed service providers to weather the storm.

You may feel overwhelmed and not know where to start - that is completely normal. We’ve all been forced to learn together.

This comprehensive step-by-step guide outlines the things you can do today to stabilise your business, optimise for efficiency, and maximise the opportunity in front of you.

Download it now to learn more about surviving and thriving in these conditions, including:

• Enabling and optimising a remote workforce
• Stabilising cash flows during a crisis
• Securing your clients remotely
• Building strong customer relationships

So you’ve completed an 83-page report about your company’s IT systems, and it is loaded with insightful information. This was a big project, and it feels good to have it done. You must now get your company’s top-level brass to buy into your findings and suggested solutions.

That’s where the executive summary comes in.

What is an executive summary?

An executive summary is a short, easy-to-digest section at the beginning of the report that lists your process, findings and suggestions.

Your executive summary should be more than just an introduction to your report. It should give anyone who reads it a fair understanding of the report and the inspiration to read it in its entirety.

What is in an executive summary?

Now that you understand what an executive summary is composed of, it's now time to learn how to put it together. Here's the format for creating a basic executive summary and the best way to make each section work for you.

List the main points of interest

The executive summary really needs to highlight the main points you make in your report, and this needs to be at its core.

In order to present this in a manner that is easy-to-read, start by listing a heading for each main point and then following this up with a short paragraph detailing what each point is about.

Review your findings

Once the main points have been addressed, you'll want to focus on the findings in the report, which includes:

• What did you learn about your company during this study?
• What was good?
• What needs improvement?

Going into extreme detail or great depth is not necessary here. It might be better to simply list out in bullet points what the study found.

Introduce and justify your conclusion

From the results in your report, you probably discovered favorable and unfavorable findings that may influence how you operate as you go forward. Maybe your discoveries highlighted where you need to ramp things up, and allow you to think about how to address the negative aspects of the report.

This part is what will interest your execs the most. They may, in fact, leap to this part of the summary so you'll want to make sure it stands out and is thoroughly polished.

Instead of simply stating what changes you would like to implement, use the findings in the report to reinforce your conclusion and, if you can, outline using projections how this will bring improvements to the company.

Whatever your suggestion, it will take effort, money or both. This is your chance to convince the people who have to approve and sign off these decisions to make it happen.

How to make a good executive summary great

If you haven’t figured it out by now, your executive summary is arguably the most important part of your entire document. If it’s not done well, the people who matter most may never bother to dig into the rest of the report.

Here’s how to make your executive summary shine.

Write it last

Even though your executive summary will be the first part of your document, you want to save it for last. If you try to write it first, you’ll likely have to go back and update it as you make new discoveries throughout your report.

Write the report in its entirety and take notes of the most essential points. These essential points will be the skeleton of your summary. That way, when the report is complete, you’ll know what the most critical pieces of information are and how much room you can dedicate to each in the executive summary.

Hook ‘em

Like a great novel or any other piece of writing, you’ll want to hook your reader from the beginning. If there is an amazing statistic, finding or projection relevant to the study lead with it. Pique their interest.

Don’t be afraid to bring up profits, losses or other things you may think are “sensitive.” These are exactly what the top-level executives must focus on.

Once you’ve hooked your readers with a great opening, keep the writing interesting throughout the summary. It doesn’t have to read like Shakespeare, but it should flow naturally and be interesting to read.

Don’t give everything away

While you want your executive summary to highlight the most important parts of your report, you want people to read the rest of the report too.

Keep the spoilers to a minimum to entice them to read the whole report. Think of a great movie trailer: It tells you what the movie is about through great snippets, but it makes you want to buy a movie ticket to see the whole thing.

Be succinct

We know. This may sound contradictory to our earlier point of keeping the writing interesting, but the two are not mutually exclusive.

Succinct writing can be very interesting because it stays on track. A great way to do this is to not worry about succinctness during your first draft but go back and cut your word count by 25% afterward.

You’ll find it’s easier than you think, and your writing will be a lot better when you’re done.

Remember your goal and knock it out of the park

The biggest key to writing a great executive summary is to remember why you are writing it in the first place.

You’re writing to get the executives and others to read the summary, learn what they really need to know and want to learn even more from the rest of the report. You want them to understand why you’ve come to certain conclusions and why you are making the suggested changes.

As long as you keep that in mind, you’ll do fine. But add in a few of our other tips to refine your writing and focus, and you can knock your executive summary out of the park.

Listed as number one in Gartner’s top 10 strategic technology trends for 2020, hyperautomation

is the use of automation with a litany of different technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI), robotic process automation (RPA), digital process automation (DPA), machine learning (ML), integration-platform-as-a-service (IPaaS) solutions and decision management systems, to optimise workflows.

“In many ways, it’s an acknowledgment that the initial simplistic view of surface automation is insufficient for most real-world tasks,” explains Sean Chou, co-founder and CEO of Catalytic, a US-based automation technology firm. “Consequently, hyperautomation is the inevitable convergence of multiple categories driven by the fact that real-world processes are seldom neatly categorised into RPA, DPA or IPaaS, and all could use a healthy dose of AI.”

According to Chou, hyperautomation allows employees to work in tandem with technology by augmenting existing workflows. It also drives digital strategies that provide value beyond time savings associated with traditional methods of automation. While technology handles the time-consuming administrative functions of a role, employees are free to focus on the parts of their job they’re passionate about, like strategy or people management. Not only does hyperautomation transform how we work and optimise productivity, it results in happier employees who are more engaged at work.

Happy customers, happy employees

Multinational professional services network PwC is already harnessing these benefits. It’s using hyperautomation to relieve employees of tedious, repetitive tasks and allow more focus to be put on providing added value to customers. “Hyperautomation is a wonderful opportunity,” says Raphaël Hélion, PwC’s chief information and technology officer for France and French speaking Africa. “The workforce is changing and the one of tomorrow will be slightly different of the one we have today. Giving back time to our employees is key.”

Meanwhile, multi-channel customer management business CXP is using hyperautomation to reduce handling time for customer calls, improve accuracy of results and enhance the customer experience. “It’s evident that this type of technology, working alongside human agents, will become ubiquitous and those that don’t embrace it will be left behind,” says Robert Adie, the firm’s chief technology officer.

This is just the start of what hyperautomation can do for a business.

Multinational engineering company Rolls-Royce is experimenting with it across a variety of different business units. It’s civil aerospace business, for example, is using hyperautomation to optimise its supply chain.

This part of the firm’s operation works on a services-led model, with Rolls-Royce providing long-term maintenance services to operators, and takes on the engine maintenance burden and associated risk for a variety of different customers. The overall goal is maximising aircraft availability – essentially keeping aircraft flying.

“AI and machine learning are instrumental for this,” explains Muhannad Alomari, who leads Rolls-Royce’s London-based R2 Data Labs – the data innovation catalyst inside Rolls-Royce. “We also use advanced algorithms to automatically check the health of our engines. This helps us to perform predictive maintenance scheduling including performing engine inspections while it’s attached to the plane. The digital thread and digital lifecycle help Rolls-Royce to understand how all those components and systems are operating in service.”

Rolls Royce is also teaming RPA and automated scheduling and planning to help build and develop new technology for power generation called Microgrids. Microgrids combine clean and cost-effective renewable energies with generator sets and are important to the future of the power industry. “The most crucial component of a microgrid is an intelligent control system, which determines what power sources are to be used at what time in order to supply energy to the end user or top-up the battery system,” explains Alomari. “This will be orchestrated by AI being developed by Rolls-Royce.”

Meanwhile, automotive giant Ford is experimenting with how hyperautomation can enable it to become more agile.

“We have used basic RPA for years, but only to automate existing processes, not to optimise those processes,” explains Seonhi Ro, global data and analytics manager at Ford of Europe. “We’re now investigating how we can use hyperautomation to orchestrate all business process management dashboards, with the aim of creating greater agility. We are also piloting emerging tools for automated AI and machine learning that, if successful, will democratise intelligence across the business.”

Automating the future

While firms are already reaping rewards from hyperautomation, the future promises even more potential. According to Chou, hyperautomation will expand automation use cases available by handling more variable processes, long-running processes, semi-automatable processes and processes involving unstructured data and human judgment. “Hyperautomation will lead to more sustainable, resilient automation by identifying issues and either self-healing or bringing in a person to help,” he says.

Digital twins will be advanced through the technology too. “Leading organisations will be able to combine process and decision models with the situational context of work to control and optimise the execution of that work in real time,” predicts Brian Burke, research vice president for enterprise architecture and technology innovation at Gartner. “This information can be fed into a digital twin of the organisation, which then drives the execution of processes and tasks.”

In the end, hyperautomation will empower forward-thinking companies to rethink how they buy and implement technology. IT will continue to become more of a strategic partner, leading the charge to bring in innovation through technology. “But rather than bear the full brunt of every technology implementation, hyperautomation will enable the business to develop their own capabilities,” says Chou.

While only the most pioneering of organisations will realise hyperautomation’s full promise in the short term, Ford’s Ro says that every company can ready themselves for its use by following a few key steps.

First, she says, organisations need to ensure they have an accessible, secure database. This should comprise real-time data that is clean and organised. They then need an automated machine learning tool which is verified by domain experts to deliver predictive maintenance, all feeding into a digital twin of the business.

“Risk should be understood, and system reliability needs to be proven,” she said.

Ultimately, however, Ro believes that hyperautomation will make our lives much easier. “Success requires firms to put the human at the heart of their hyperautomation efforts,” she says. “Hyperautomation should work with workers, not against them.”

Managed service providers are here to stay. Their benefits to clients include improved security, cost savings over in-house IT, and better uptime. Unfortunately for MSPs, they may be seen as interchangeable.

Software-as-a-Service is one of the fastest-growing MSP segments. But the move towards SaaS lowers the barriers to changing providers.

This whitepaper looks at how MSPs can measure performance and evaluate their relationships with clients, delight those clients, and increase loyalty.

Basing pricing solely on a market-driven strategy can be risky, but there’s no easy way to establish the ‘going rate’ for comparable services.

This whitepaper takes you through how to set a pricing strategy that makes sense for your business, in four simple steps. It explores how to account for billable staff, the ongoing business operating expenses and annual billable hours to help set a fair price for your IT services.

There’s a lot of buzz around the cloud as more and more applications are making the move from on-premise to cloud-based.

As a technology solution provider, it’s up to you to stay ahead of the curve by proactively offering cloud services as a new practice area for your clients.

This whitepaper guides you through the benefits of the cloud for you and your customers, and how you can find the right way to sell cloud services.

Adding to your service offering can be challenging. This whitepaper will help you navigate these important business expansions by covering everything from business planning to client retention, as well as exploring:

• Why you should expand your service offering
• How to design an agile business plan
• Getting clients on board with new services
• Adapting your sales strategy

As a value-added reseller in the technology space, the impact of rapid changes in the VAR landscape may have hit home with you, with pricing becoming increasingly competitive and numbers shrinking, putting pressure on the bottom line.

To remain competitive and be in a position for growth, it is time to look outside the traditional VAR business model, and expand your offerings to include managed services.

This whitepaper details why you should consider putting resources into this business model, and what your business can gain from it, from a monthly recurring revenue stream to enhanced customer satisfaction, and ultimately a healthier bottom line.

Smart pricing based on a sound business strategy is fundamental to the success of your business. Can you afford to keep your business running without implementing a pricing strategy?

This whitepaper shows how addressing just one or two points has the potential to substantially impact your bottom line, and explores how tools from templates and spreadsheet imports to catalogue management can come together to bring about a more profitable business.

If you’re a VAR in the technology space struggling with quoting, you aren’t alone. Quoting projects for clients means navigating a lot of complex variables, complicated costing formulas, and manual upkeep.

This whitepaper explores how a cloud-based configure-price-quote (CPQ) solution can save hours on quoting and streamline the process for procurement and service delivery.

Download it now to speed up your fulfillment process and boost sales rep productivity and effectiveness.