The 2009 Annual Report Card Awards

The 2009 Annual Report Card awards event honored overall category winners and named ARC Company of the Year in their given technology areas. Additional awards were given for subcategory wins for outstanding Product Innovation, Support or Partnership. The Channel Executive of the Year was also named.

Everything Channel CEO Robert Faletra welcomes solution provider and vendor executives to the 2009 Everything Channel ARC awards event, which took place in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 19. Faletra noted that the excellent attendance was no mistake: "It is usually during economic slowdowns or recessions when we see vendors hunker down and really focus on driving sales through channel partners, particularly in the SMB space, while also making big investments in the channel."

Everything Channel's Senior Vice President, Media/Field Sales and Marketing Dan Dignam gave a shout-out to the companies that helped make the evening possible, including Cisco, IBM, Samsung, Toshiba, Lenovo and AMD.

Senior Vice President and Editorial Director Robert DeMarzo explained how the winners were chosen for the 24th annual awards. The ARC survey measures the performance of 83 vendor programs across 18 leading product categories. "All in all, we interviewed over 6,300 solution providers who shared with us their intimate thoughts about how vendors performed in three key areas: Product Innovation; Support and Partnership," DeMarzo explained. "To rise to the top of the ARC you must have posted extraordinary results and have outstanding relationships with your partners."

Sophos won the first trophy of the night, earning it for Product Innovation and Support in the Client Security Software category. Matt Fogelgren (left), Sophos director of channel sales, accepts the award from Everything Channel News Editor Steve Burke.

Kaspersky nabbed two awards: the overall award for Client Security Software, as well as the Partnership subcategory. Kaspersky took the Overall honors for the second consecutive year. President of Kaspersky Lab America, Steve Orenberg (right), accepts the award from Everything Channel's Larry Hooper.

Microsoft picked up the Best Product Innovation and Partnership award in Data and Information Management. Director of U.S. Partner Strategy & Satisfaction, Eric Mortorano (left), receives the trophy from Everything Channel's Steve Burke.

There's a reason the adage is, "No one's ever been fired for buying IT from IBM." The vendor was named the ARC Company of the Year in the Data and Information Management category and picked up the subcategory win in Support also. Shaun Jones (right), vice president of worldwide channel marketing in the IBM Software Group, picked up the award from Everything Channel's Larry Hooper.

This marks the seventh year in a row Samsung has won the Overall Award for Display Technologies. Samsung's channel program counts some 18,000 partners in the U.S. and 100,000 worldwide.







Doug Albregts (left), Samsung vice president of sales and marketing, accepts the award from Everything Channel's Steve Burke.

Western Digital swept the Innovation, Partnership and Support categories in External Portable Hard Drives, earning the Overall Award hands down. Jamie Vo, Western Digital's director of channel marketing and sales, accepted the crystal from Everything Channel's Larry Hooper.

Middleware saw a rare tie for overall winner in a technology category. Microsoft and Oracle shared the honors in Middleware. Microsoft also took the Partnership subcategory, Here, Eric Mortorano (left), Microsoft's director of U.S. partner strategy and satisfaction, accepts the honor from Everything Channel's Burke.

While tying with Microsoft for Overall Winner in Middleware, Oracle outshined its competition in Innovation and Support. Accepting for Oracle from Everything Channel's Larry Hooper is John Gray (right), vice president of North America technology channel sales.

Hewlett-Packard swept the entire category and took home the honor of ARC Company of the Year for Midrange Servers. The vendor was one of the first of the tier-one vendors to clarify the division between direct and indirect accounts with its old Hard Deck program, and has continued to do so. HP's Vice President and General Manager, Solution Partners Organization Adrian Jones (left), accepted from Everything Channel's Burke.

Fortinet finished third last year, but the company fought hard to sweep all three categories against much bigger competition. Fortinet earned the victory after launching a revamped leasing program that changed its deal registration program to protect partners' margins from being undercut. Michael Valentine (right), vice president of Fortinet's Americas sales and support, and Kendra Krause, VP Channel Sales, are congratulated by Larry Hooper.

The subcategory winner in Network Security Software for Best Product Innovation touts a broad security portfolio and calls itself the largest vendor solely dedicated to security. Fernando Quintero (left), McAfee's vice president of America's channel sales and operations, receives the award from Burke.

Over the last 12 months, Trend Micro, this year's ARC Company of the Year in Network Security Software, beefed up its portfolio with an array of cloud-based endpoint security offerings and the launch of a new partner program specifically for managed services solution providers. Larry Hooper congratulates Darren Blank (right), vice president of North America Sales and Marketing.

EMC made a clean sweep across the product innovation, support and partnership categories and subcategories, no small feat in a crowded field with seven big players. EMC's expansion of its storage offerings and services opportunities for VARs led to its big win. Accepting for EMC is Gregg Ambulos, right, vice president of Americas channel sales, and Pete Koliopoulos, vice president of global channel communications and alliances.

This vendor is no stranger to accepting ARC awards. With top scores in technical innovation, marketability and partner communication, this company's well-rounded channel strategy was once again appreciated by VARs. Managing Editor of the Test Center Ed Moltzen presents the Overall award in Enterprise Networking to Cisco's Senior Vice President of Worldwide Channels Keith Goodwin.

Amid a crowded field that grows more competitive each year, solution providers awarded Toshiba the subcategory victory for Best Support and Partnership in the Notebooks and Mobile Computers category. Managing Editor, Technology, Jennifer Follett presents the trophy to Jerry Lumpkin, Vice President, Business Channel Sales, Digital Products Division.

Panasonic's focus on product quality and technical innovation scored the highest marks with solution providers and allowed the vendor to successfully compete against bigger competitors. Panasonic's Sheila O'Neil, vice president of channels, accepts the award from Moltzen -- and promises to make it a clean sweep in 2010.

The Server Virtualization Software category is new this year in the ARC.







Microsoft, as the subcategory winner for best partnership, has invested heavily in its virtualization practice with solution providers during the last couple of years, putting the company in prime position as the economy forces companies to do more with less. Accepting from Follett is Eric Mortorano, Microsoft's director of U.S. partner strategy and satisfaction.

The ARC company of the Year in the Server Virtualization Software category went to VMware, an organization whose name has become almost synonymous with virtualization. The company also won the subcategories of Support and Innovation. Moltzen congratulated Doug Smith, VMware's senior director of global channels.

Adtran won all of the SMB Networking Hardware awards as well as the ARC Company of the Year Award. Its strong performance with VARs helped them knock off the marketshare leader in the space. Accepting from Follett is Ted Cole, vice president of channel sales.

EMC has acquired some solid software companies and built such a strong suite of application-driven solutions that for many VARs, hardware has become the attachment. The software portion of EMC's channel program has combined the best of the channel programs of many acquisitions, with its own experience in dealing with hardware channel partners. Everything Channel's Ed Moltzen presented the award to Gregg Ambulos, (left), vice president, Americas channel sales, and Pete Koliopoulos, vice president, global channel communications and alliances.

A testament to Cisco's success in this market is the fact that this company captured not only all three categories that make up the ARC voting, but all 18 subcategories as well. Wendy Bahr, senior vice president of U.S. and Canada channels, accepted the honor from Jennifer Follett.

Hewlett-Packard's continued excellence in product innovation, support and partnership made it a clear winner with VARs for its rack, pedestal and blade servers. Frank Rauch, HP vice president, technology solutions group sales and management, Solution Partners Organization, HP, accepts the trophy from Ed Moltzen.

Cisco earned top scores across the board, earning particularly high marks for product quality, solution provider programs and communication with partners. The vendor has also won the wireless category, in one form or another, since it debuted in the ARC in 2003. Follett presented the award to vice president of worldwide channel marketing, Luanne Tierney, holding the award, and Cisco's women's leadership team.

Hewlett-Packard swept Innovation, Support and Partnership in all three categories in this year's ARC award results, thanks to its channel conflict management, exemplary sales support and product quality. Scott Dunsire, HP vice president, Imaging and Printing Group Business Sales, Solution Partners Organization, accepted the award from Ed Moltzen.

Cisco's Keith Goodwin has garnered the reputation as an effective leader, team builder and someone willing to push new buttons to reach success. Most recently, Goodwin also helped Cisco leverage Web 2.0 technology by developing collaboration tools for all parts of the supply chain, including a talent portal where solution providers can post job listings and resumes on his company's Web site.









In addition, Goodwin, Cisco's senior vice president of Worldwide Channels, oversees 60,000 channel partnerships globally, which represents 80 percent of his company's revenue. Everything Channel's Robert DeMarzo, (left), and Robert Faletra presented Goodwin with the honor.

The evening was capped off by the satirical musings of The Capitol Steps. The comedy troupe began 25 years ago as a group of U.S. Senate staffers who set out to satirize the very people and places that employed them. No politician -- from Joe Biden to Sarah Palin -- was spared during the evening's festivities!