Channel round-up Sales of laser printers in France fell four per cent in February compared to January. But the market has grown 14 per cent compared to February last year. Colour laser printers grew 25 per cent compared with a year ago while monochrome printers grew by 13 per cent. The research, from Context SalesWatch, also revealed that the market for colour printers in the top four countries (France, Germany, Italy and the UK) grew by 72 per cent year on year. Average selling prices continued to fall - down 11 per cent compared to February 2003.

Phoenix reward programme

Phoenix Technologies, one of the companies behind machine-independent BIOS, is starting a new reward program for resellers. The Preferred System Builder Program will offer exclusive discounts, lead referrals, extra support, joint marketing and early information on product releases. Any Phoenix Trusted Partner can apply to join the scheme. Phoenix sells Phoenix FirstWare for system recovery.

New Azlan training catalogues

Azlan has revised its catalogues for Microsoft and Cisco training courses for the first time in two years. Nick Dean, European professional services director at Azlan said: “Our Cisco and Microsoft curriculum is comprehensive and detailed and we see a large number of enquiries about the courses on a daily basis. These catalogues will enable customers to keep detailed information to hand, save them and us time and enable quicker, more efficient booking.” The catalogues detail the accredited courses available. Azlan trains half a million people a year in 28 centres in 13 European countries.

Sapphire appoints Ingram

Sapphire Technology has appointed Ingram Micro UK as an additional distribution partner for its ATI-based graphics cards. The deal may later be extended to include Sapphire motherboards. Steve Morgan, sales manager for Sapphire, hopes the deal will extend their market share and "expose our technology to a broader customer base."

VMware rejig

VMware is rejigging its channel partner programme to satisfy customer demand for consulting services. The VMware Authorised Consulting (VAC) Partner Program has already been joined by ExpertServer Group, NewAge Technologies, UCA Systems and Venture Systems. VAC partners have to train and certify their consultants to guarantee high service levels and happy customers.

IBM/Cisco partnership

IBM and Cisco are working together so Cisco Business Ready Data Centre works better with IBM's on demand operating environment. They will launch Cisco's IGESM switch for IBM's eServer BladeCenter and improve server load balancing by getting IBM Enterprise Workload Manager and Cisco's Content Switching Module to exchange information on load levels. In support of this announcement IBM Global Services is offering a bunch of service and support deals. ®