Technology Insights
AI for Business Operations: Remove Process Friction & Improve Efficiency
Every Manual Process Has a Cost. Most Businesses Just Can’t See It. Every organisation has processes. Some are documented. Some live in spreadsheets. Some exist only in people’s heads. And almost every one of them contains hidden friction. A manual approval that waits until Monday morning. An invoice that sits in someone’s inbox. A report […]
AI for HR: How AI Gives HR Teams More Time for People
HR has never been more important. Today’s HR leaders aren’t just responsible for recruitment. They’re shaping culture, improving employee engagement, supporting wellbeing, driving organisational change, developing future skills and helping businesses navigate an increasingly complex world of work. Yet despite becoming more strategic, much of HR’s time is still spent on administration. Recruitment. Interview scheduling. Policy […]
AI for Marketing: How AI Helps Teams Make Smarter Marketing Decisions
Marketing has never been more demanding. Teams are expected to create more content, launch more campaigns, manage more channels, report on more metrics and deliver greater ROI than ever before. Yet for many organisations, team sizes and budgets haven’t grown at the same pace. The result? Marketing teams are becoming incredibly busy – but not […]
How AI Can Save Your Team Time Across HR, Sales, Marketing & Operations
Across every department, employees spend hours every week on repetitive administration, manual processes and low-value tasks that keep them away from strategic thinking, customer conversations and creative problem-solving. As workloads increase and expectations continue to rise, businesses are asking the same question: where can AI make the biggest difference? HR: How much time is lost […]
Training starts change. Communication sustains it.
By Ed Devine, Head of Sales at CI Group In my last blog, I talked about why sales-floor engagement only truly sticks when it’s built around training and enablement, not giveaways and one-off momentum builders. Because behaviour doesn’t change just because people were excited in the moment. It changes when confidence, clarity and capability […]
Training-led, not swag-leg: How agencies create sales floor engagement that sticks
Training-led, not swag-leg: How agencies create sales‑floor engagement that sticks By Ed Devine, Head of Sales at CI Group There was a time when sales‑floor engagement meant one thing. Turn up with a strong brand, a few boxes of merch, a half‑hour pitch and the hope that enthusiasm would do the rest. If […]
The hardest thing about exhibiting at a channel event isn’t the build. It’s knowing how to present a joined-up brand message when the business behind them is anything but simple.
The hardest thing about exhibiting at a channel event isn’t the build. It’s knowing how to present a joined-up brand message when the business behind them is anything but simple. Sophie Hughes, Client Services Director, CI Group I’ve been delivering events in the IT channel for over a decade, and the question I hear most often from vendor marketing teams in the run […]
How AI is really impacting the EMEA IT Channel: Insights from the GTDC Summit
How AI is really impacting the EMEA IT Channel: Insights from the GTDC Summit By Richard Sapsed, Head of sami at CI Group Last week I attended the GTDC Summit EMEA 2026 in Noordwijk, one of the most important gatherings of senior technology distribution executives in the calendar. This year’s theme was Empowering the Digital Evolution, and if there was any doubt that AI […]
Designing Incentive Strategies That Drive Behaviour – Not Just Sales
Written by Ed Devine, Head Of Sales of CI Group Incentives have long been a staple of channel performance. They rally sales teams, boost engagement and create the much-needed focus to push results when it matters most. Yet many programmes still follow a familiar pattern: a big launch, glossy prizes, a spike in activity, and then a sharp drop-off. A few months later, […]
Six data security guardrails every brand using AI needs in place
Data Privacy Day is a timely reminder for brands that how they use data is as important as the campaigns it powers. With this year’s theme, Take Control of Your Data, many organisations are asking how to harness AI confidently without compromising the trust of customers. When getting it wrong can result in hefty fines, legal action and lasting reputational damage, responsible data use is essential – and brands using AI must understand […]