Archive

The future of healthcare is changing before our eyes, with investments in digital healthcare technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, VR/AR, 3D-printing, Robotics and Nanotechnology. These technologies are uniting to transform the way patients are treated, and how medicines are created.

We have seen technology transform the world we live in, from the way we order food straight to our door, and the way we consume content through our smartphones. Healthcare is not isolated from this digital transformation; a new generation of emerging technologies are set to change healthcare beyond recognition.

The emergence of big data, smartphone adoption, cloud technologies and the huge increase in data capture has suddenly enabled data to be linked together and processed for new insight which previously was not possible.

Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence is redesigning industries across the world, and algorithms in healthcare are being used to design treatment plans, and even create drugs faster than any current method. Recently, Google’s DeepMind created an A.I for breast cancer analysis, with the algorithm outperforming human radiologists on pre-selected data sets to identify breast cancer by 11.5% on average (Hamilton, 2020)

Nanotechnology

It is estimated that by 2024, the global marketing for nanotechnology will exceed $125bn, and by 2025, the global smart pill market will reach $650M (Routley, 2019). These ingestible capsules containing sensors, cameras are already changing the face of healthcare, with technologies including Pill-Cams, Dose Tracking Pills, Vibrant Capsules, Atmo Gas Capsules and MIT’s Smart Sensor Capsules.

Augmented Reality

Augmented reality is seen as one of the most promising digital health technologies, with the potential to change healthcare and everyday medicines for patients and professionals alike. A device, such as your mobile phone, transmits a live or indirect view of a real-world environment, which is then augmented by computer-generated sensory input, such as sound, video, graphics or GPS data. In healthcare, this technology is being used for various purposes, such as showing nearby defibrillators and assisting in medical training and surgery.

Healthcare trackers and sensors

The future of healthcare powered by technology aims to empower patients and carers. Trackers and sensors are being used to manage weight, heart rate, stress levels and overall fitness.

If you would like to discuss Technology in healthcare with one of our specialists, please complete the ‘Contact Us’ form below.  

References

Hamilton, I, A (2020). Google DeepMind. Available at: https://www.pulselive.co.ke/bi/tech/googles-deepmind-created-an-ai-for-spotting-breast-cancer-that-can-outperform-human/5sc7d8r 

Routley, N (2019). The Future of Nanotechnology in Medicine. Available at: https://www.visualcapitalist.com/the-future-of-nanotechnology-in-medicine/  

Many higher education bodies have been investigating remote application delivery in order to provide more flexible working options to students and to reclaim the large spaces consumed by public computer resources. Social distancing requirements have forced most to consider accelerating the use of blended learning, with some deploying solutions at pace in order to support teaching remotely in the coming terms.

With a Virtual Desktop Infrastructure, can you effectively secure your network, and provide a fully managed solution for your end users, staff and students? This is a complex topic with many contradictory messages being provided depending on which technology you’re reading about.

Download our whitepaper which discusses what you need to consider when selecting the solution that is right for you.

A staggering achievement saw XMA employee Marcus Moore run 315km during the month of September to raise money for the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB).

The equivalent of seven marathons, Marcus set himself the challenge as part of RNIB’s Marathon Mates event. With many organised races currently cancelled or postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic, this virtual event allows pairs to split the distance of a full marathon between each other over the space of a month, side by side or miles apart.

Marcus had this to say:

“I’ve worked with RNIB through XMA for over 10 years, so I know the amazing work the charity does to help the blind and partially sighted community. When I heard about this event, I jumped at the chance to give back and raise money for the organisation.”

“It was also a great chance for me to increase my fitness levels, as I’ve been much less active than usual throughout lockdown and Covid restrictions. I don’t normally run regularly, so this was definitely a challenge, and sometimes I found it hard to get going, but I felt much healthier and fitter after running every day.”

“Right now, it can feel like we’re being bombarded with negative news, and that gets overwhelming. I found it very helpful to have an hour every day to just focus on running and the challenge, and it was really fulfilling knowing that I was raising money while doing it.”

Marcus managed to complete the distance despite having some injuries to his ankles and knees, and continued the daily challenge after his running partner had to drop out due to health complications. He raised over £3,400 for the RNIB which will help provide advice and support to over two million people living with sight loss in the UK during this particularly difficult time.

Every six minutes, someone in the UK begins to lose their sight. RNIB is taking a stand against exclusion, inequality and isolation to create a world without barriers where people with sight loss can lead full lives. A different world where society values blind and partially sighted people not for the disabilities they’ve overcome, but for the people they are.

To find out more about the amazing work they do visit www.rnib.org.uk

The Scottish Government published a Digital Strategy back in 2011, designed to extend connectivity, promote the digital economy, digitise public services and promote digital participation. The ‘Connected Falkirk’ project aims to give children and young people the confidence, skills and knowledge needed to thrive in an ever-changing, fast-paced digital world.

The following plans have been indicated as part of Connected Falkirk:

• Provide a digital device for all Primary 6 to Secondary 6 pupils
• Provide a number of devices to Primary 1 to Primary 5 classes
• Provide a device to every class teacher, supported by an accredited professional learning programme
• Ensure fast, reliable Internet connectivity in all our schools
• Provide families with an opportunity to be digitally connected**

XMA are pleased to confirm that we will be supporting Falkirk Council with their plans for the project, including the deployment of over 17,000 iPads across the local authority and training support services to ensure teachers and learners adopt the technology successfully. These will be supplied through the Scottish Procurement Web Based and Proprietary Devices Framework, helping the council to complete the procurement from XMA with a single contract.

Michael Conlon, Education Transformation Consultant at XMA had this to say:

“I know I speak for everyone in the XMA team when I say how proud and excited we are about our partnership with the council on the Connected Falkirk project. Falkirk Council understand deeply the need to secure the future for their young people in an environment where 13,000 digital jobs go unfilled every year in Scotland and where digital skills for life, learning and work will be paramount in helping them flourish.

XMA bring all of our experience in 1:1 deployments to the project to help make that happen and we are committed to ensuring learning and teaching sits at the heart of what we aim to achieve. We’re more than ready to get started and can’t wait to work with the great staff, young people and families.”

Robert Naylor, Director of Children’s Services, Falkirk Council, said:

“As digital technology continues to revolutionise how we interact with the world around us, it is imperative that we equip our young people, their families, and educators with the digital tools and skills to succeed.

The investment in Connected Falkirk gives increased access to devices, coupled with a suite of powerful digital tools, supported by a dedicated professional learning programme, which will bring learning benefits to everyone.

We are delighted to have XMA as a partner supporting this revolution in learning and teaching, and we look forward to their support in delivering digital learning excellence to our children and young people.”

To find out more about Connected Falkirk, visit the councils website here

References

**https://www.falkirk.gov.uk/services/schools-education/school-life/connected-falkirk.aspx

Brexit Committee News Update – October 2020 Update

Following XMA’s most recent Brexit meeting, we are delighted to submit an update to our customers and suppliers regarding our plans for Brexit. Our preparations are based on the assumption that there will be no European Free Trade Agreement in place by 1 January 2021.

Potential Delays

Whilst it is widely recognised that there will be delays at Channel ports and those heading to Ireland, XMA is working with our major vendors and distributors to mitigate such delays creating new routes of delivery. Whilst this will only be partially successful, together with XMA’s increased warehouse capacity and planning with each supplier – we trust that we can avoid any material delays. Consultation with customers have shown them to be more sanguine about these hold-ups which are unlikely to affect the normal flow of business materially.
Customers with orders due around 31st December should engage with your XMA account manager asap to ensure these can be managed and prioritised to ensure they delivered prior to cut-off.

Tariffs

Our vendors are improving their ability to provide accurate codes and countries of origin. 99% of XMA products now have commodity codes stored in our product database (or the UNSPC code which is a close approximation) and have been looked up on both the UK General Tariff and the EU Common External Tariff with almost all currently displaying no tariff. Some 3D printing products are affected.
These tariffs could change in the months ahead, and we will keep customers informed of any tariff introductions as soon as we can. Any tariffs incurred will be recharged to the customer.

Warehousing

XMA has progressed its discussions and application to have a bonded warehouse within the Andover facility. These preparations are continuing and our systems are being updated. This will allow goods to remain in Europe with the confines of our UK facilities and effectively be imported into the UK at point of order by UK customers whilst allowing European customers/orders to be transacted speedily.

Ireland

XMA can supply into Ireland through our parent company and main distribution partner Westcoast and we are able to utilise Westcoast Ireland’s own distribution agreements to purchase goods direct from our main vendors and then store in Westcoast’s Ireland’s Tallaght warehouse. This may help with large projects, run-rate skus and CTO/bespoke product orders. Please contact us for further details.

International Shipping

XMA are already experts in shipping to the EU – Ireland or Mainland Europe – and are working with a number of freight forwarders to provide services for all UK customers concerned about shipping internationally. Paperwork, tariffs, VAT deferment, regulations can all be handled by XMA’s specialist partners. The EU will be implementing full border formalities on 1 Jan 2021(the UK are phasing them in over 6 months) which means that customers need to be ready.

We will be announcing our standard processes shortly allowing any customer to engage our skills and services. However, if you want a more strategic conversation on how XMA can handle all such shipments on your behalf, engage with your account manager and our team will be in touch.

Other Changes

There are a number of other changes – e.g. the new UKCA safety mark replacing the EU’s CE mark or the recognition of professional qualifications and intellectual property. These internal Westcoast Group matters are being assessed and customers are advised to examine any areas that may be affected.

Two good external sources of information providing a checklist of areas to examine are:

The British Chambers of Commerce: https://www.britishchambers.org.uk/media/get/Business Brexit Checklist.pdf 

EY – 100 Days To Go Readiness Guide: https://www.ey.com/en_uk/ey-brexit/brexit-readiness-guide-for-business-with-100-days-to-go 

All questions or feedback are welcome by email: approvals@xma.co.uk

On the 17th September 2020, the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) issued an alert to Universities and the education sector after seeing a rapid rise in cyber-attacks throughout August. In the run up to student registration which involves new students arriving on campus and moving into halls, the goal of the cyber-attacks is to cause maximum disruption financially and to reputation.

The NCSC stated that a recent spike in ransomware attacks specifically aimed at Schools, Colleges and Universities student intakes has led to issuing this alert.

“The NCSC dealt with several ransomware attacks against education establishments in August, which caused varying levels of disruption, depending on the level of security establishments had in place.”

A ransomware attack will usually involve the cyber criminals targeting your most valuable data, encrypting the data (it has been known for whole virtual servers to be encrypted), and holding your data hostage while they attempt to extort money or information.

So, what can you do?

As an industry, we have moved on from treating ‘security’ as a single item or product. We must continue to critically examine our security capabilities end to end – all the way through to the human being at the keyboard. We must evaluate each component of our technology services:

Internet Edge
Perimeter
Campus LAN
Datacentre services – Production Data
Datacentre services – Backup, Recovery
Processes – Disaster Recovery, Business Continuity and Breach Response
Identity
End-User Device
Human Behaviour

What can you do today?

There are many small tasks that you can do today that will start ensuring you reduce the attack space and minimise risk:

• Patching of all devices, end-user devices, network devices, servers, host servers.
• Review all servers running RDP protocols.
• Review all AD accounts with privileges, should the privileges be granted, are there accounts that are old, unused or unknown.
• Review ANY local accounts on servers.
• Review firewall rules and disable old and unknown rules.
• Check your backups, test the backups and check the permissions/accessibility of the backup data and any accounts with access to the backup.

Consider releasing staff and student communications through email, social media and electronic message boards / VLE as a reminder to:

• Alert IT Support to all suspicious emails. If in doubt – get it checked out.
• Do not download any software not explicitly requested from a known source.
• Recommendation for BYOD students to download an approved AV/AM tool.

Andrew Nickson, Solution Architect at XMA specialising in Hyper-converged infrastructure and back up technology had this advice:

“To reduce the impact of a successful attack, in my experience you need to implement a range of strategies. Backing up regularly, use the same categories as your main production, for instance critical applications need backing up more regularly than appliances that don’t change from day to day. Restore, this is often forgotten if you have been running your backups for a year do you know if you can recover from a day, week month ago? Test your backups does the application still work? Document the steps required to remediate, what steps were required to get the application to run correctly.

To provide a resilient backup solution don’t just rely on a single location replicate it to another site creating a secondary copy with different retention policies and if possible to a third the cloud is really an excellent location for long term archives and backups.
Recovery from cyber-attacks and ransomware is time consuming and fraught with obstacles. Once having been attacked have your backups been compromised? To mitigate these potential attacks always keep an offline copy, only expose the backup location to your live systems when absolutely necessary and rotate the backup location if possible, you will always have a backup to go to. Use immutable file systems such a S3 object storage, WORM (Write Once Read Many) drives, Tape will provide a complete air gap between your live data and your backups for a retro solution.

Utilising an air gap will provide protection you can utilise pre and post scripts to enable ports on the firewalls or enable NICs on the servers or backup locations. The cloud can provide an additional physical separation from your live environment and your backup data.
We are always aware that keeping the number of users with access to your live data to a minimum, is the first line of defence, and the same is true about backup keep your systems patched perform an audit of your environment regularly not just the operating systems but appliances and switches as well, as all have had security breaches in the past. Remove any unauthorised devices from the network.”

With such a focus on the need to deliver digital services and online lectures and content in these evolving times, we spoke to Craig Bramley – Lead Educational Technologist for Citrix:

“The consequences can range from losing student coursework, to research and IP data theft, large scale incident investigations, financial and reputational damage. So, it’s really important, probably more important now than ever to place security in the top of an institution’s priorities – if not the top. Especially with users connecting over unknown wi-fi using untrusted devices, the attack vector has dramatically increased, and you can imagine it only takes a single user to open a phishing email remotely, a VPN becomes compromised and that could trigger a substantial cyber-attack.

Moving to a centralised application delivery model significantly reduces the attack surface. Security patching and image management is simplified. With this comes the added benefit of being able to swiftly roll back to earlier image versions in the event of a Ransomware or other type of Malware attack, which if successful can cost a university hundreds of thousands of pounds to remediate. This means that the university has the ability to restore services in a matter of hours, rather than weeks or months, as is the case with a traditional delivery model.

Another advantage of a centralised application delivery model is that all University data is secure in their data repositories, whether on-premises or in the cloud, meaning if a device happens to get lost or is stolen, no data resides on the endpoint device. Universities can also customise university applications and data on mobile devices, even personal devices in the case of BYOD, meaning that the risk of data leakage is also restricted.

Finally, Institutions need to move away from the old-fashioned perimeter-based security model as mentioned above, to a modern multi levelled Zero-Trust security model where absolutely nothing is automatically trusted until verified. Citrix’s approach to security is unique. We address the what, the who, the how and the why of securing all of those resources.

• First, the what. We know what device you’re using. We have endpoint management capabilities and integrations for things like EMS. We understand what the device is, and if it is in compliance or not.
• We also know who is using that device. We broker the identity to a number of identity providers, we give users a single, secure sign-on experience, and we provide multi-factor authentication where it’s appropriate — which is pretty much all the time.
• Then we can see how users are accessing their applications as well. Through the workspace, we can see what virtual app they’re using. We give you control over the environment that is used to access that application.
• Finally, the why. Using our Analytics platform – Why are they accessing that data in the first place? What information are they after? Are they authorised to use it? Is it within their normal behaviour profile to be accessing it? If not, then let’s take automated mitigating actions.

This framework provides institutions with the basis for applying many different types of security policies at many different levels.”

So to summarise:

• Backup Regularly
• Restore regularly; a backup is no good it you can’t restore
• Keep an offline backup
• Patch and update all of your systems
• Review all accounts and privileges
• Lastly, consider security tools for the network. Many organisations will protect the perimeter, the servers, the data permissions, and the endpoints. This may be sufficient, but do you need to consider tools that look at network behaviour across your LAN as well as at the perimeter?

Written by Jennifer Norman, Infrastructure Solutions Director @ XMA

References:

News update:
https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/news/alert-issued-following-rising-attacks-on-uk-academia
NCSC Guidance:
https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/news/alert-targeted-ransomware-attacks-on-uk-education-sector

No, I don’t have Nostradamus like powers. I only wish I did. Then I’d have seen Covid-19 coming from a long way off and I would have done something about it, but yes; 1:1 is the future of education and it will eventually be as ordinary a thing as having a pen or pencil in class or at home, wherever learning happens to take place.

It’s not an idle claim or one made to challenge or upset the status quo, but rather a clear reflection of the world we now inhabit and the sometimes-inconvenient facts which should help us recognise it as a necessary step, as opposed to a luxury. Just to be clear, we still need to read and write and cut things up and touch real things like paint and textbooks. However, when technology is so pervasive in our lives and the economy facing the onslaught of a virus and uncertainties around Brexit, we need to have a strategic response to ensure every generation can participate in whatever the future looks like. A level playing field is vital.

Let us look closely at some of the things that are driving this approach:

• 1.7 billion students were displaced as lockdowns spread across the world. 1 in 5 students didn’t have access to data or a device. Many more shared the small screen of a phone or shared the family device that was also being used for parents just to keep their job. What it communicated to our young people and families was this: if you can’t connect you can’t participate in your own education.
• The virus will be present for a considerable time and there is likely to be disruptions for individuals, classes and perhaps entire school communities. We desperately need a resilient education system that affords a consistent experience no matter where the learning happens. 1:1 helps build that resilience.
• Over two thirds (67%) of UK companies across the UK have unfilled digital vacancies. Only a third (31%) are confident UK businesses will be able to access the digital skills they need in the next three to five years. Here in Scotland we have 13,000 unfilled jobs every year. Schools shouldn’t be factories for business or FE/HE but we have a duty to ensure positive destinations for our young people and that they are ready for the jobs that are actually there. 1:1 lets us plan a curriculum that regularly develops these across disciplines.
• 1 in 5 existing jobs in UK cities are likely to be displaced by 2030 as a result of automation. Many organisations have accelerated this move due to Covid-19. What our economy will need is a digitally adept and flexible workforce that can create and sustain innovation and services like never before and make us a lighthouse nation for digital industries and inward investment. We can more easily build a pathway of upskilling for our young people when we have a robust 1:1 program in place.

This only scratches the surface in terms of a perfect storm that is building around education, challenging our ideas about how learning happens and asking us to look at what we’ve learned from the past 6 months from teachers and learners. It has developed a sense of urgency about the kinds of transformation our system needs.

What’s even more important, is to spend some time looking at what technology can bring to learners and learning, and how teachers can leverage it to reduce their workload, improve their workflow and make learning happen.

Across the UK we have a rising population of young people with additional support needs. In England alone there are over 1 million students who have a defined SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities) profile. That rise is rarely matched by supportive funding. Across Apple, Google and Microsoft, technology can empower young people to take charge of how they overcome their learning challenges and personalise their learning environment. That personalisation is made possible with 1:1 and so important for helping them in their life, future learning and work.

Study after study reports that a creative & innovative mindset, digital literacy and computational thinking are some of the most important skills that businesses desire in their employees. We need to establish those skills as our learners move through their schooling. The breadth of opportunity to develop these through 1:1 is boundless and, in many cases, simply impossible otherwise; Augmented reality, infinite paint, rich coding tools across all ages and the kinds of creative tools that move children away from technology for consumption to technology for creation. All of our young people deserve to be able to grow these skills, to tinker and be curious and creative, at any time.

If we pay attention to how learning actually works in the brain, we can really accelerate learning, using digital tools to deliver high quality feedback to students, use adaptive learning apps, develop mastery and open up the kind of parental engagement that engages with the best home learning. Devices don’t teach children, teachers teach children, and they have a battery of pedagogical approaches that can be enhanced significantly through technology. That works best in a 1:1 environment where consistency of access allows the deployment of new approaches that are built on a strong pedagogical foundation. For teachers, the ability to model knowledge in deeply engaging ways, use self marking assessments, manage and distribute resources, collaborate with colleagues and generate assessments that are authentic and meaningful for their students is only the tip of the iceberg in how technology transforms their job for the better. 1:1 opens up a whole new world – not the usual 1 hour a week in the IT suite but an environment when you can make the very best of a consistent technology approach.

What do we want our nation to look like by 2030? How do we imagine the future for our own children and our communities? How can we come together to solve the problems of tomorrow? These are all questions we need to ask as employers, educators and parents.

A favourite quote of mine comes from Grace Hopper, an eloquent and wise Naval Officer and computing scientist: “The most dangerous phrase in the language is ‘We’ve always done it this way’ “. Transformation is challenging and requires rigorous thinking and smart leadership. There is also a sustained financial cost but that is manageable compared to the cost of doing nothing. There are real implications in doing nothing, both for the individual child and the wider society.

The great thing about working for XMA is the support and flexibility they offer in making such transformations happen, understanding the need, and knowing the routes through to that destination. We believe in doing better and making our education system the best in the world. We believe in young people and in our schools’ capacity to turn the page. We’re absolutely ready to meet with schools, ready to have the conversation that begins the new chapter that comes with 1:1.

Written by Michael Conlon – Transformation Consultant @ XMA

September 10, 2020 – XMA, announced today at Nutanix’s Global .NEXT Digital Experience conference that it has been awarded 2020 Global Momentum Partner of the year.

Nutanix recognized XMA as the sole recipient of the award. XMA was recognized for continually delivering Nutanix solutions at the highest levels of service and throughout the business.

XMA have worked in partnership with Nutanix since 2015, just 1 year after Nutanix opened their first UK office and have delivered Hyper-converged Infrastructure (HCI) solutions based on Nutanix technology to customers throughout that time. With XMA achieving and maintaining the highest level of partner accreditation with Nutanix, XMA provide the highest level of service to customers. This experience coupled with the extensive technical capability and thought leadership means when customers work with XMA and Nutanix they can be sure they are in safe hands.

“We’re thrilled to have honoured XMA at Partner Xchange this year for their continued success with our customers” Christian Alvarez, Senior Vice President of Worldwide Channels, Nutanix.

“We are very proud to be recognised at a global level by Nutanix.  This is fitting recognition for all the effort of XMA’s sales, marketing, commercial, services, solution, finance and logistics teams that have been a part of the effort to deliver solutions that allow our customers in the private and public sector across the UK to focus on the outcomes that they need to deliver.” Andrew Wright, XMA.

As Nutanix continues to expand its offerings beyond HCI to support customer needs and requirements XMA’s specialists work closely with existing and new customers providing update sessions, virtual labs and proactive education. Nutanix complements XMA’s approach of working with their customers to help enable them to evolve and transform the way they work across all areas of technology from end user devices, through to data centre and cloud, invisibly.

For more information email: info@xma.co.uk or call: 0115 846 4000

Brexit Committee News Update – September 2020 Update

Welcome to the latest update from XMA’s Brexit team. Due to recent focus on Covid-19, XMA have not updated our Brexit page for some time. However, with the deadline for Brexit transition still due for January 2021, XMA’s Brexit Committee met this week and we can issue the current information / guidance below.

Whilst the UK has exited the European Union at the start of 2020, no real changes in trading conditions has been experienced as a result. This will not be true if the UK and the EU cannot agree a trade deal by the end of 2020. Recent reports have shown the Cabinet Office preparing for widespread disruption should such a scenario coincide with a second wave of Coronavirus in the UK.

XMA’s approach is to prepare for the worst and hope that the situation is considerably better.

Delivery Delays from Europe

Recent studies have shown that some delays at ports of exit/entry are likely. Given that the majority of goods supplied by XMA are currently imported into the EU via mainland Europe and shipped across the English Channel, such disruption is bound to have an impact. Hence XMA and our parent company Westcoast have taken or will take the following mitigating actions:

1. New increased storage – XMA’s new 346k sqft facility in Andover has been fully operational since the start of the year and has allowed increased space for XMA and our Customers; increased services (e.g. configuration, PDI, storage, bundling) and will provide reduced cost outsourcing opportunities for our OEM partners and Customers. The appropriate EORI number and TSP status are in place.

2. Short-term deals – Previous ‘false Brexits’ were covered by stocking deals with OEM partners to mitigate the immediate disruption to normal trade. XMA have already started working with Suppliers to ensure inventory planning over the change period.

3. XMA are working with freight forwarders, vendor logistics managers to ensure the smoothest possible importation through UK ports of entry. This includes correct commodity codes, country of origin information and paperwork.

4. Tariffs – Most (but not all!) IT products supplied by XMA in the last 180 days had no tariffs applicable on WTO terms or the UK Global Tariff (applicable from 1st January 2021).An accurate commodity code which allows tariff application to any goods imported is an important part of XMA’s work at present with Suppliers is encouraging them to provide a complete library of codes for every live sku. XMA are currently looking at automating a tariff look-up procedure to apply an appropriate tariff to the cost of the product if applicable. These can clearly change with little notice.

5. Other costs -VAT deferment costs, import management and transportation costs may also increase cost of goods after 1 January 2021 and will be applied systematically.

6. Finally, XMA and Westcoast are working with vendors to arrange direct delivery into the UK from the Far East (i.e. avoiding the EU altogether). Westcoast can act as a master distributor, importer or merely a 3PL provider to a wide range of suppliers.

Westcoast Exports

XMA and Westcoast now have warehousing in the UK and across Europe (inc Ireland). We are investigating the possibility of having a bonded capability in the UK for Irish goods and those for re-export to Europe. All Supplier contracts are being amended to allow for such transactions. We can manage the nuances of exporting to the EU including tariff application and shipping administration. Customers will be asked for standard information in advance of quoting whether the order is received by EDI, web or via Westcoast sales.

Ireland

The new Brexit arrangements for Ireland and Northern Ireland are well understood and we are working with our logistics provider/freight forwarder to ensure we minimise delays when delivering across the Irish Sea. There are no plans to enhance Westcoast’s current cross-stocking facility in Tallaght, Dublin.

Conclusion

Our recent Brexit Committee has reinvigorated our Brexit plans and the committee will meet every month in the run up to 31st December 2020 and will report back via ‘Brexit News’ every month. We will have updates on the progress of plans outlined above.

All questions or feedback are welcome by email: approvals@xma.co.uk

XMA have been awarded the opportunity to provide a wide range of off-the-shelf IT products to meet a variety of requirements across the Welsh Public Sector. Named sole supplier for the supply of a Commodity IT Hardware Catalogue, this framework is the All Wales Framework Agreement for the Supply of IT products and Services (ii).

The objective of the Agreement is to create a 1-stop-shop for IT commodity products and related services, enabling IT service departments to meet all requirements from a single framework; It also aims to reflect current technology, whilst ensuring sufficient flexibility to meet technology changes in the digital and IT market.

The catalogue range will include the supply of (but not limited to):

• peripherals (i.e. printers, scanners, USB memory sticks, external hard drives, web cams, keyboards, mouse devices, speakers, digital cameras etc.);
• consumables (i.e. storage disks, cables, spares/ replacement parts, tools for repairs/ cleaning materials);
• ancillary products (digital cameras, Dictaphones, etc.); and
• low volume hardware purchases (smartphones, monitors, tablets, laptops etc.).

The full agreement consists of five lots, of which XMA have been named sole supplier on Lot 1, as well as achieving a place on Lots 2 and 5.
Lot 1: Commodity IT Hardware Catalogue
Lot 2: IT Hardware
Lot 3: Licensing and Subscriptions
Lot 4: Audio Visual
Lot 5: Solutions

Ian Cunningham, Sales & Marketing Director at XMA had this to say:

“XMA are delighted to be selected as partner to the National Procurement Service for Wales in the provision of a National IT commodity products eCatalogue. Our appointment is a reflection of the commitment we have to providing Public Sector customers in Wales with the most cost effective, broad ranging IT products, all delivered through our market leading eCommerce platform.”

The catalogue is accessible, secure and offers value for money. The catalogue is now live and you are invited to register your interest here.