Dropbox and ALSO have expanded their partnership to the UK through the ALSO Cloud Marketplace, adding the market to a wider rollout across six additional EMEA countries.

UK resellers can now sell the full Dropbox portfolio through the marketplace, including core file storage and collaboration products, Dropbox Sign, Replay and Dropbox Dash. The arrangement includes local billing, support and partner enablement.

The expansion builds on momentum in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the Nordic region. Alongside the UK, the broader rollout covers France, Spain, Portugal, Benelux and Italy.

For channel partners, the agreement expands the range of Dropbox products available through a single procurement route. It also gives ALSO a broader software and productivity portfolio in markets where distributors and cloud marketplaces are competing for reseller attention.

Partner Support

Support for partners in the newly added markets includes attractive margins and performance-based incentives, tailored onboarding programmes, multilingual sales, marketing and technical support, market development funds and partner community programmes.

The aim is to help resellers sell more to existing customers while expanding into adjacent areas such as workflow tools and AI-based productivity software. This reflects a wider shift in the channel, as distributors seek to package collaboration, document handling and search tools together rather than sell storage products in isolation.

Through ALSO, Dropbox is offering its main collaboration and content products as well as newer workflow and search tools. The company describes Dash as a context-aware AI product that connects across work applications to help users find content more quickly.

ALSO, which describes itself as Europe’s largest technology provider for the ICT sector, brings a large reseller network to the partnership. Its ecosystem has a potential reach of more than 140,000 resellers and spans hardware, software and IT services from more than 800 vendors.

That scale matters in the UK market, where software vendors continue to rely on distributors and marketplaces to reach small and mid-sized business customers through managed service providers and resellers. A marketplace model can simplify billing and provisioning while reducing the number of separate vendor relationships partners need to manage.

Artjoms Krūmiņš, Group Lead CoC Software & Cybersecurity at ALSO, commented on the broader rollout: “We are pleased to further strengthen our strategic partnership with Dropbox by extending our collaboration into additional regions. Building on a strong foundation, this expansion broadens our market reach, strengthens ALSO’s portfolio and further enhances the value we deliver to partners and customers across EMEA.

“Together with Dropbox, we are well positioned to support the evolving needs of the market and help partners capture new growth opportunities.”

Channel Focus

Dropbox framed the agreement as part of its channel strategy, focused on giving partners more products to take into customer accounts. The company has been working to expand beyond file synchronisation and sharing into search, e-signature and workflow tools.

David Keogh, Global Head of Channel at Dropbox, said the latest expansion is intended to create more routes to revenue for partners. “This expansion with ALSO is an important step for our partner ecosystem. By combining ALSO’s reach with Dropbox’s portfolio, we’re opening up new opportunities for partners to grow, build new revenue streams, and deliver more value to customers.

“Customers benefit from secure, productivity-focused solutions that are increasingly powered by AI to help teams work more efficiently. Together, this is a strategic partnership built to scale and support long-term growth across the channel.

“Partners are looking for practical solutions they can introduce into existing customer environments. With products like Dash, we’re supporting resellers looking to expand beyond storage and collaboration into AI-powered productivity, creating new opportunities for growth.”

Employment Hero has launched HeroForce in the UK, a managed employment model for small and medium-sized businesses.

HeroForce lets businesses hire and manage staff while Employment Hero acts as the legal employer. The client business retains operational control over who is hired, how work is carried out and how long the engagement lasts, while Employment Hero handles payroll, tax and compliance.

The launch brings a model more commonly used for overseas hiring into domestic UK employment. HeroForce is positioned as an evolution of the Employer of Record structure, which businesses use to employ staff in foreign markets without setting up local entities.

In the UK, Employment Hero manages PAYE, National Insurance contributions, pension auto-enrolment and statutory payments including holiday pay, Statutory Sick Pay, and Statutory Maternity and Paternity Pay. Workers employed through the arrangement keep their employment contracts and statutory protections under UK law.

Cost pressure

The launch comes as smaller employers assess the impact of changing employment rules and rising administrative costs. Employment Hero cited commissioned research showing that one in five SMEs planned to increase their use of contractors or temporary staff in response to the Employment Rights Act, while others had become more cautious about hiring.

The same research pointed to a broader burden on smaller firms, citing estimates that regulatory compliance costs SMEs £36 billion a year and accounts for 379 million working hours. That backdrop underpins the company’s pitch for a model that shifts formal employment obligations away from the client business.

AI layer

HeroForce uses Employment Hero’s in-house Hero AI system to automate compliance checks, payroll calculations and administrative tasks across the employment cycle. It also includes AI-assisted candidate matching and screening tools designed to help managers rank applicants against set criteria.

The service therefore covers both recruitment and ongoing employment administration. For customers, the proposition is not only about hiring workers but also about managing the legal and payroll framework once those workers are in place.

Employment Hero already provides HR, payroll and recruitment software, and says it serves more than 350,000 businesses and manages more than 2.5 million employees worldwide. HeroForce is available in the UK, Australia and New Zealand.

Kevin Fitzgerald, UK Managing Director, Employment Hero, said: “Employment is one of the world’s oldest and most common legal contracts used by businesses. We all depend on it, yet the infrastructure behind it remains highly manual and fragmented. The EOR model transformed international hiring by simplifying complexity.”

“HeroForce helps bring that same clarity to UK employment,” said Fitzgerald.

“Today, compliance and cost risks, especially in light of the Employment Rights Act, are the number one concern for SMEs,” added Fitzgerald. “Many are so worried about getting it wrong that they’re resorting to workarounds or avoiding traditional employment altogether. HeroForce is built to help restore confidence and backed by Employment Hero’s team of experts in payroll and employment law, so SMEs never have to navigate employment alone.”

Market shift

The launch reflects a broader shift in how employment services firms are trying to support smaller businesses facing tighter labour regulation and higher administrative costs. Software suppliers and outsourcing groups are increasingly moving beyond HR systems alone towards models that take on more direct responsibility for compliance and payroll execution.

For UK employers, one attraction of these arrangements is the transfer of legal and administrative risk. Businesses can still direct day-to-day work and staffing decisions, but the formal employer assumes responsibility for statutory processes and documentation.

That distinction may matter most for smaller firms without in-house HR or employment law teams. It also creates a different competitive position for providers such as Employment Hero, which is seeking to combine software, automation and direct employment administration in a single offering.

According to the company, HeroForce operates as an employment business under the Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations 2003. Workers engaged through the model are entitled to key information documents and retain protections covering paid holiday, pension entitlements, sick pay and protection from unfair dismissal.

Employment Hero says the system behind HeroForce has been built on 12 years of regulatory integrations, payroll infrastructure and employment law expertise. Its argument is that while the technology layer can reduce manual work, the core of the UK offering is the transfer of employer obligations from the SME to Employment Hero itself.

Rumours have been swirling over where popular artisan coffee and bakery chain Gail’s will be opening its newest site in Banbury.

They began after job postings for roles at the new cafe indicated it would be coming to the Oxfordshire town, though the location of the workplace was not specified.

READ MORE: Prince William in Oxfordshire today on royal visit

Now, a building control application for works to refit the new site lodged with Cherwell District Council have revealed more details.

Gail’s Ltd applied to fit out unit 17 of Banbury Gateway, in Acorn Way, Banbury, to form a ‘Gail’s Bakery Coffee Shop’, according to the application.

It will take the place of the Starbucks which previously occupied the unit, but closed last October after a decade of trading from the retail park.

Starbucks at Gateway, Banbury (Image: Google Street View)

Situated between The Works and McDonalds, the shop opened in October 2015.

Starbucks declined to give a reason for the closure but said they ‘regularly review’ their stores for their market relevance.

READ MORE: Chipping Norton firefighters tackle dramatic barn fire

The initial notice for the Gail’s Bakery building works was accepted by the council and they were set to begin on Wednesday, April 22.

No opening date for the new cafe has been announced so far.

Gail’s Bakery was approached but declined to comment on the new opening.