Accenture, partner of Celonis in process mining technology

Faster assessments

Celonis makes the task of uncovering a client’s process improvement opportunities faster and more accurate, said Phillip Hazen, senior managing director of Intelligent Platform Services at Accenture. Traditionally, consulting firms would survey department heads or hold a process reengineering workshop to map out a client’s processes, find inefficiencies, and prepare for additional steps such as robotic process automation. This approach was time consuming and depended on institutional memory.

Philippe Hazen

“Investigation and discussion can get insights, but not to the depth of how a business process works in a factory. [or] a business unit,” Hazen said.

Process mining, however, extracts information from a system’s event logs to visualize an organization’s business process, including the nuances of process variations, according to Celonis. The technology provides a “data-driven way to improve performance,” Hazen added.

Integration technology

Accenture now includes Celonis in its MyConcerto and SynOps offerings. With MyConcerto, Accenture provides industry-specific tools and offerings for digital transformation. SynOps is an automation platform for managing back-office operations such as finance, procurement, and human capital management. Other consulting firms also provide operating platforms.

Hazen said he plans to equip Accenture’s business areas – strategy and consulting, technology and operations – with Celonis technology.

MNJ launches digital transformation division

MNJ Technologies, an IT solutions provider in Buffalo Grove, Illinois, has launched a digital transformation division, which will include its managed services business.

Most mid-sized companies lack talent and time.

The division, called Ignyte, will focus on areas such as cloud, security, unified communications and SD-WAN. The division will seek opportunities among mid-sized companies in industry sectors such as financial services, manufacturing, retail and the national, local and education market.

Ignyte marks the latest transformation of the business model of MNJ, which was founded 20 years ago as a VAR. The company began its push towards services in 2017 and has since developed specific offerings such as an SD-WAN demo lab.

MNJ deployed its digital transformation unit to meet the needs of customers struggling with issues such as cloud cost optimization and outdated communication systems, said Ben Niernberg, COO at MNJ. “Most middle-market companies lack talent and time,” he said.

Ben Niernberg

Typically, a business moving from a legacy PBX to unified communications as a service can expect to spend 12 months creating a shortlist of options, selecting vendors, performing proof of concept, and to deploy UCaaS, Niernberg said. But Ignyte’s ability to source and consolidate a range of vendor offerings can cut a one-year project down to three or four months, from initial market definition to implementation, he noted. .

Ignyte’s UCaaS partners include RingCentral and Nextiva.

The launch of Ignyte required a human and technological investment. The digital transformation sales cycle and conversations with customers have required the division to hire specialist salespeople, pre-sales and delivery engineers, as well as marketing and product teams, Niernberg said.

Partner Program Launches and Updates

• Aryaka, a San Mateo, Calif. company that offers managed SD-WAN and secure edge access service, unveiled a unified partner program to house its global channel effort. The company’s Accelerate Global Partner Program enables channel partners to use Aryaka’s AppAssure application control and visibility product to co-manage their customers’ networks. The program also offers account-based sales and marketing programs and will include an updated certification program later this year.
• Puppet, a Portland, Oregon-based provider of infrastructure automation tools, plans to deploy a partner portal, co-marketing technology, and learning management system. The launch of the company’s partners is planned for the first half of 2022. Puppet works with approximately 200 distribution partners worldwide.
• Prosimo, a cloud networking software provider in Santa Clara, California, has launched a partner program for global VARs, MSPs and system integrators. The three-tier Prosimo Next partnership program includes transaction registration; education, training and certifications; marketing resources and campaigns; and a partner portal. The company has appointed Timo Prietto as Head of Strategic Partners and Channels. He was previously the Channel Manager at Aviatrix.
• StorCentric, a data management provider based in Sunnyvale, Calif., has added a certification program to its channel initiative. The Nexsan Partner Certification Program covers products such as Nexsan Unbreakable Backup and Unity Software version 7.0, a block, file and object storage offering.

Partner List Updates

• CyCognito, a cybersecurity company from Palo Alto, California, has added more than 50 distribution companies to its partner program in the past 12 months. The company, which specializes in managing and protecting external attack surfaces, said it has worked with channel partners on security projects for Colgate-Palmolive and Tesco grocery store, among other companies.
• Veristor Systems, an enterprise technology solutions provider in Atlanta, has joined storage vendor Commvault’s partner program as a metal managed services provider. Metallic, a Commvault company, offers SaaS backup and recovery offerings.
• ProLion, a ransomware and data protection vendor headquartered in Austria, has signed a distribution agreement with Arrow Electronics. The pact covers the US market. ProLion’s flagship offering, CryptoSpike, is tailored for NetApp OnTap storage environments.
• Infosys, a global systems integrator and consulting firm, has entered into a strategic collaborative relationship with Safe Security, a cyber risk quantification company in Palo Alto, California.
• Glasswall, a London-based cybersecurity company, has signed a distribution agreement with Nihon Cyber ​​Defense, a Japanese cybersecurity company. Nihon Cyber ​​Defense will offer Glasswall’s content disarmament and reconstruction technology to public and private sector organizations in Japan.

Other news

• Pythian, an Ottawa-based cloud services company, has launched its Google Workspace Security Assessments offering. The service includes corrective actions and recommendations, as well as the implementation of Google Workspace configuration and security settings.
• Pax8, a Denver-based cloud provider, has received Indirect Provider Plus authorization from Microsoft. An indirect provider is a distributor that provides Microsoft cloud offerings and associated support to resellers.
• ConnectWise, a Tampa, Florida-based MSP software provider, has launched an online site that allows partners to connect with business executives, product experts and industry peers. The ConnectWise virtual community covers Europe, Asia-Pacific and North America.
• Barracuda Networks, a Campbell, CA-based cloud security company, has integrated Barracuda Email Protection with Skout Managed XDR. The company said the link enables MSPs to provide email security functionality within the Skout Managed XDR platform.
• MSP360, a Pittsburgh backup and IT management vendor, has released MSP360 Managed Backup 5.7, which supports Amazon S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval. AWS rolled out the Instant Retrieval storage class late last year at re:Invent 2021.

Executive appointments

• Elizabeth McIlhany has joined Pax8 as Senior Vice President of Product. McIlhany previously served as president of product management at Dreamstage.
• Upstack, an online platform that sells cloud services through sales agents, has named Samantha Jacks as vice president of commission operations. She joins Upstack from technology services broker Intelisys.