Are you finding that your organisation has a bit of a 'zoo' of software, with 37 different .pdf readers, 18 varieties of similar security products, and a handful of graphics programs?

The COMPAREX Portfolio Management Platform offers the ability to consolidate functionally-identical software, so that:

• You can negotitate with fewer manufacturers to considerably reduce your purchasing and transaction costs.
• You spend less time and effort on maintenance negotiations.
• Your whole organisation benefits by reducing the time and effort spent on purchasing, administering, maintaining, training and supporting software.
• You will become more efficient at your job and provide more value to your organisation.

Learn more at www.comparex.com/zoo.

With Microsoft's recent annoucement of their merger of Skype for Business with Teams to provide a singular unified platform for communication and collaboration, you may be somewhat overwhelmed -

What is Teams? When is this transition? How does it affect me? How do you host online meetings and chat without Skype?

COMPAREX are hosting a webinar on Tuesday, 7^th November, at 15:00 GMT for a review of:

• Skype vs. Teams current feature sets,
• Teams product roadmap, and the plan for its evolution into a unified communications tool,
• The future of Microsoft's intelligent communication platform, and what this means for you,
• Change Management: getting ahead, and transitioning on your terms,
• How COMPAREX helps ease the transition and drives adoption.

Looking forward to having you join us!

In the latter half of 2018, Microsoft have scheduled the release of Office 2019 - the latest version of the popular solution, including perpetual versions of the Office applications and servers.

Office 2019 will bring new user capabilities for those who aren't yet ready for cloud, including improved inking features, new formulas and charts, and visual animation features, as well as server enhancements.

Analysis of non-Office 365 data allows for organisation to import a case-specific copy of such data, and thereafter analyse it using Office 365 Advanced eDiscovery.

Advanced eDiscovery Storage is a new plan which is to be introduced to allow Office 365 customers to purchase addtional cloud storage on an as-need basis to enable this feature. Each unit of the plan will include 500gb of storage, and organisation may purchase multiple units as per their needs.

In November, Microsoft are expanding their release of 16-pack Core Licences to include MPSA. This SKU will be a convenient option for organisation licensing servers with 16 cores or less, and too serve as an optional base pack for licensing servers with more cores.

In partnership with Global Knowledge, COMPAREX are excited to announce that with Microsoft Software Assurance Training Vouchers, you can have your entitlement doubled free of charge!

As a Global Knowledge Software Assurance customer, you can assess the following benefits at no cost:

• 2-for-1 training vouchers - effectively doubling your entitlement.
• Provisioning of management of vouchers, removing the administration overheads.
• Training Needs Analysis for customer vouchers in excess of fifty days.
• Ability to run on-site courses using vouchers.

Courses and dates can be found at www.globalknowledge.co.uk.

Effective 1^st January 2018, Veeam will be increasing their annual maintenance renewal pricing for perpetual licences and hosting perpetual customers by 10%:

• From 20%, to 22% for basic support;
• From 25%, to 27% for production (24/7) support;
• From 24%, to 27% for hosting perpetual.

This adjustment will not affect customers with active mainenance contracts until such contract expires.

As such, customers may renew their support contracts today before the adjustment comes into play. Veeam also offer discounts on multi-year renewals which you may be able to take advantage of.

Sophos has begun retirement for Sophos for Microsoft SharePoint, with end of sale being 31^st December 2017. After 1st January 2018, existing customers may renew support contracts until the end of 2020, afterwhich time all support for the product will be terminated.

The Antivirus for vShield product is too being retired on 31^st March 2018, with this being the last date for serivce and support.

Adobe has a variety of updates to the Creative Cloud suite, including the introduction of new applications and updated features.

Want to find out more?