Compel released this statement, to be uttered at the reseller's AGM today: "Although performance in the first quarter of the financial year was in linewith our budget, trading conditions, overall, continue to be difficult. We remain positive about our longer term prospects but see no early return to more normal market conditions."

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British local authorities have "finally embraced the personal computer revolution", according to Kable, the market research-cum publishing house.

Around half a million PCs and 11,000 servers are now in use in local Government.

"NT is the main operating system, particularly in the London boroughs, while district councils tend to have a mixture of Unix and NT architectures."

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Sherwood International has bought Promark Software Limited, a software and services company specialising in the general insurance sector, for £3.9 million in newly-issued shares £1,865,000 in cash.

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Bytes Technology Group (BTG) is changing the name of its software licensing business to Pure Licensing. The Epsom-based reseller's South African parent company, USKO, recently said it was rebranding itself as BTG. ®