Labor Day LinksNo matter what you'll be doing, enjoy the three day weekend! Some links to take away with you: VARBusines reports on the top technologies where small businesses are looking for VAR's help. According to our CMP Channel Quarterly Business Spending Survey: "The respondents highlighted five technology categories where they have sought or received help the most from solution providers: Network security, archiving and backup, client and desktop security, network infrastructure, and accounting and supply-chain applications." The biggest story of the week? Kevin McLaughlin's Partners to Microsoft: Don't Make Us Licensing Police: "Several sources told CMP Channel that Microsoft sometimes expects partners to act as foot soldiers in its ongoing campaign against so-called 'unintentional' software piracy by reporting organizations that aren't in compliance, which is threatening their role as trusted advisors to their clients." Our forums have been really hopping lately. In particular, see the threads on Fakes: Can You Tell The Difference?; Dell's Chief Challenges; and VARs Ripping And Replacing Vista For XP At Breakneck Pace. And don't miss this quote from bhancockcpr at the thread Dell is Stealing Customers From Partners: "Having just witnessed a Dell representative calling a customer and telling them (We put them on speaker phone) they should be buying direct because they could beat the partners' price... I was appalled." Next week is the last week to apply for Tech Innovators! If your organization has discovered a game-changing channel product (or if your organization sells a game-changing channel product) let us know, and you could be collecting a major award in October. GovernmentVAR is hosting State and Local Roadshows in Sacramento, Austin and Chicago this fall. If you're looking for insight into these markets, this is the place to start. In other news, Barry Ritholtz has a comparison of the recent market volatility with what real bear markets look like. It's not reassuring. The folks at Adaptive Path write that you can learn alot about attracting customers from "The Pick-Up Artist". And David Ewalt pens a homage to an expansion pack that's strangely moving. Posted by Joe Caponi at 02:44 PM, August 31, 2007 XChange '07 In PicturesI've already mentioned our XChange '07 show, held in Orlando last week, and crowned by the VARBusiness Annual Report Card Awards Tuesday night. Now, to really get the feel of XChange, our largest channel event, we've posted three slide show of the action: a look at what some solution providers were buzzing about at the show; some of the hot products on display at XChange; and at the winners of our 2007 ARC Awards, including Executive of the Year, Oracle's Rauline Ochs. Posted by Joe Caponi at 10:35 AM, August 28, 2007 Wait--Now Hardware's A Service?So it is. Scott Campbell reports that savvy MSPs are already eyeing a changing marketplace where customers can effectively 'lease' hardware along with services and support: "Gavin Garbutt, president and CEO of N-Able Technologies, an Ottawa-based MSP platform vendor, says within three years many end users will buy laptops for $170 a year, a price that includes the hardware, software, support and management. It's a price more affordable now than buying a laptop up front and allows customers to better budget their IT needs. 'You'll get the security system, support and at the end of three years, you'll get a new one.'" And yes, this will be a challenge to many VARs current offerings, and soon. Ingram Micro, for one, is turning this into a business today: "[Ingram's] Seismic Solution Financing allows customers to finance hardware along with Seismic managed service offerings into one bill to the customer. The program allows solution providers to be paid up front for the hardware but accrue monthly recurring revenue for the services portion of the deal.
Posted by Joe Caponi at 10:29 AM, August 27, 2007 Remote Support With The Bomgar BoxThere are few better ways of testing your patience than talking someone through a computer procedure over the phone. If it's your business, you need a better way. In the latest TechBuilder recipe, Mario Morejon tries out the Bomgar Box, a support appliance with plenty of features to appeal to VARs: "This is a one-stop tech support powerhouse that outperforms all of its Software-as-a-Service competitors. The Bomgar Box can provide on-site service to remote PCs without requiring a solution provider to travel to a remote site, install VPNs or even bypass firewall settings on a corporate site." Posted by Joe Caponi at 09:52 AM, August 27, 2007 VARBusiness' Annual Report Card AwardsTuesday night, VARBusiness presented their Annual Report Card awards at XChange '07. Awards went to top hardware and software vendors, as selected by their own solution provider partners, in fifteen technology categories. The event also featured the presentation of CMP Channel's Channel Executive of the Year Award, won this year by Rauline Ochs of Oracle. You can read all about the winners now, but watch for complete scorecards and category breakdowns online in October. Posted by Joe Caponi at 10:38 AM, August 24, 2007 And I Would Post 500 PostsThe Moveable Type page where I post new Hot Topics items informs me this is the 500th entry. I think you'll find these links worthy of both my modest blog and your valuable time: It's a story we've been hearing for awhile now--Solution Providers Experience Hiring Headaches: "A third of solution providers say hiring and retaining sales and technical staff is their biggest pain point, said Carolyn April, principal analyst with CMP Channel's Institute for Partner Education & Development, in a session at XChange '07 Sunday. 'The biggest challenge for solution providers is the lack of qualified applicants, in sales in particular.'" Jennifer Bosavage looks at The New World Order: Offshoring Today: "Companies are viewing China and Latin America as expansions of their customer base, not just a way of getting product made inexpensively for export back to the United States. The ready-and-willing workforces in these countries are also the consumers." Steven Burke finds four answers to the question, Why Is HP Winning?: "HP is by no means perfect. There are still a lot of solution provider complaints, including frequent HP program compliance audits that raise sales costs and take away from time that could be better spent selling. But no major vendor right now is more aggressively attacking problems. And no one has more channel momentum." And HP, along with the other key vendors, will need to keep that channel momentum. Robert Faletra says that new research backs up his instinct that Solution Provider Shifts Will Change The Game: "My take on this... is that the solution providers that are driving the bulk of the business for vendors today are going to change and change rapidly. Many of you are going to drop the vendors you now view as strategic as you shift your business." Finally, Larry Hooper looks at the man with one of the toughest jobs in technology--Dell's new channel chief, Greg Davis "The fact that he is a Dell insider with no recent channel credentials sets a stage for conflict. If Dell truly intends to become a major channel player that can compete with HP or even Lenovo, Mr. Davis has his work cut out for him. First, he has to change an internal culture built on decades of experience as a channel-bashing direct-only company. Then, he needs to hire some people who know a thing or two about the channel." It's been a privilege! Dare I sing, And I would post 500 more... Posted by Joe Caponi at 03:35 PM, August 23, 2007 Top Tools For Linux AdminsDeploying and maintaining Linux servers and PCs calls for a different set of tools than those needed on the Windows side. Fahmida Rashid runs down 10 Must-Have Linux Tools in the latest TechBuilder recipe. "Whether it's diagnosing a troublesome system, deploying a new device or managing a complicated environment, what's in a solution provider's Linux toolbox can make the difference for tasks that would otherwise be labor-intensive and mind-numbing." You'll find some of my favorites--including Perl and Grep--along with a suite of networking and administrative aids. Most will run on Mac OS X, as well. Posted by Joe Caponi at 10:52 AM, August 20, 2007 This Week's XChange '07It feels like October in New York this morning, but it's hot and sunny in Orlando, where most of our crew will be spending the week. XChange '07, CMP Channel's largest event, brings together hundreds of solution providers with top hardware and software vendors. Look for the Annual Report Card awards to be given out Tuesday night, along with more show coverage all week. To start with, Jennifer Follett provides a preview of what security vendors are bringing to XChange in terms of new products and program updates. Posted by Joe Caponi at 10:02 AM, August 20, 2007 SCO vs. Linux: More Over Than EverPeople haven't been losing much sleep over this for awhile, but you may be interested to hear: "On Friday, Utah federal court judge Dale Kimball rejected SCO's claim that an earlier deal with Novell gave the company full ownership rights over Unix. The ruling effectively gutted a lawsuit that SCO filed against Novell in 2004. To take your mind back to the halcyon days of SCO's legal attack on the Linux community, see our 2003 interview with SCO CEO Darl McBride. Here he is talking about the company's suit against IBM: "Our case is up to $3 billion--they'd have to come up from a few hundred million dollars to settle. Every month we keep finding more and more [Linux code that violates our Unix System contract]. We'd want a settlement and royalty [on Linux] going forward." Posted by Joe Caponi at 02:55 PM, August 13, 2007 Making Sense of IBMLast week's CRN took a long look at some of the recent changes at IBM, particularly in terms of their small and mid-sized business offerings: "The cost of doing business with IBM is going up as sales are going down, and the vendor, once the partner of choice and a clear channel leader, simply doesn't matter anymore [to many solution providers]." Steven Burke has been speaking to many IBM VARs and hears much the same story: "VARs tell me HP's PartnerOne program is driving more profitable sales in every market segment. These VARs, which once coveted their IBM partnership, say [IBM's] channel programs have become less lucrative. HP's SMB sales coverage model also is outpacing IBM's and has gotten a lot clearer. IBM's SMB sales coverage model has gotten more confusing and costly." And Robert DeMarzo says VARs are wise to look elsewhere: "If you're running a VAR organization today, you should take a hard look at IBM's product portfolio and how it fits into your business. The organizational changes are irrelevant, but the field coverage is extremely important." Posted by Joe Caponi at 12:16 PM, August 13, 2007 Authentication Times TwoThe latest TechBuilder recipe, When Passwords Aren't Enough, explains how to enhance simple password-based authentication with token-based or biometric solutions, creating "two-factor authentication": "When PC maker Lenovo last year introduced built-in fingerprint scanners in ThinkPads, it brought into the mainstream a strong authentication option that once seemed unobtainable for most businesses. While still not the type of technology that's being embraced throughout the market, two-factor authentication is gathering steam, and finding its way into the conversation between solution providers and their customers." Posted by Joe Caponi at 11:52 AM, August 13, 2007 Virtualization Times FourThe CRN Test Center evaluates 4 Virtualization Suites in their latest "bake-off" review. Products from SWsoft, Virtual Iron Software, VMware and XenSource were put to the test. Products were specifically evaluated in terms of their suitability for distributed application development, and one product wound up on top. Posted by Joe Caponi at 11:46 AM, August 13, 2007 Apply For Our Tech Innovator Product AwardsNew, innovative channel products drive sales, increase margin, and open up solution provider opportunities. So we just love 'em. Apply now for this year's Tech Innovators awards and you may be collecting the trophy at XChange Tech Innovators in October. Entries are being accepted in a dozen product categories, including Managed Services, Virtualization, Storage, and PCs. Don't miss last year's winners, to see what it takes to win. Posted by Joe Caponi at 11:13 AM, August 9, 2007 Data Held Hostage, Company AllegesNow this customer-outsourcer relationship has gone very bad: "A provider of spend management services says one of India's largest outsourcers is holding its data hostage at an offshore location and is refusing to return the information unless legal claims against it are dropped." Though it may provide a marketing opportunity to the competitors...of both companies... Posted by Joe Caponi at 11:17 AM, August 7, 2007 Put The Cork Back On VistaIn our newest TechBuilder recipe, Frank Ohlhorst spells out the smart way to 'downgrade' a new PC for customers that prefer Windows XP: "While Vista comes pre-installed on new systems, many customers don't want it... That leaves integrators with unenviable task of ripping Vista off of new systems and replacing it with the customer's operating system of choice, in most cases Windows XP." The main trick: formatting is not step one. Start by saving Vista for when you'll need it. Posted by Joe Caponi at 03:12 PM, August 6, 2007 Help Us Find The Channel Executive of the YearEach year, CMP Channel selects one individual from the vendor community for our Channel Executive of the Year award. The award recognizes "the influence his or her channel organization has over corporate strategy, demonstrable innovation, major accomplishments, partner satisfaction and visibility within the industry." IBM's Donn Atkins won last year, while Intel's Steve Dallman won in 2005. Which vendor executives are making a difference for your business? Nominate them now and they might soon owe you one very big favor... Posted by Joe Caponi at 04:57 PM, August 1, 2007 Recommend This!Our newest tool--Channel Recommends--lets you submit and review links to the best technology and business content, from ChannelWeb, or anywhere else on the 'net. Nominate any page you think deserves the attention of solution providers. (If you'd like to recommend one of our articles, you can use the handy buttons you'll find on each article.) Then you, and your colleagues, can vote postings up or down. If there's anything to the Wisdom of Crowds, we'll wind up with the best links for VARs. Give it a try! Posted by Joe Caponi at 04:40 PM, August 1, 2007 |
Hot TopicsBy Joe CaponiManaging Editor, Operations, ChannelWeb Email Joe BlogRoll
The Big Picture Feed
Archives By Categories
Books Archives By DateJuly 2008 Recent Entries• Labor Day Links Powered by: |
Subscribe To This Feed
