The VAR Guy

The Super Bowl is nearly here — but The VAR Guy can’t say much about The Big Game since some of our blog team members are lifelong New England Patriots fans. And other bloggers here are far wiser New York Giants fans. (Guess which camp the always-wise VAR Guy belongs to?) While you’re weighing the answer to that question, here are the nine most read technology news and channel partner stories from our blog network — The VAR Guy, MSPmentor and Talkin’ Cloud — for the week ending Feb. 3, 2012.

First, the Bellini Brothers launched ConnectWise Capital to invest in channel-centric companies. Now, the Sorensen brothers — Arlin and Brad — are investing in VARVID, which produces video content for the IT channel. Here’s a look at the players, and the potential opportunities ahead for VARVID.

Here’s another 2012 C-level executive switch-up: Paul Bell, president of Dell Public and Large Enterprise, has announced his retirement, and Steve Felice has been slated to be president and chief commercial officer, commanding of all the customer business segments currently under Bell’s leadership. More details coming right up …

HP is giving its channel an early holiday present with a number of changes to PartnerONE and other programs designed to make HP even more relevant to its networking partners.

His face is generic. His hair is nondescript. He neither smiles nor frowns. He doesn’t know what the two women are saying behind his back. He squints slightly for no apparent reason. And his image somehow appears on dozens of channel-related websites across the world. He is the IT Channel’s most uninteresting man.

So you bought a list of leads in your target market. You may be tempted to simply begin calling those leads and trying to sell your products. Not so fast; there are many ways VARs can nurture those leads, improving your chance of obtaining a successful closure. To get started, I’ve got five tactics to help you weed out the uninterested leads while allocating resources to the good ones — thus preventing your sales force from wasting time.

Amanda Jobbins, VP of partner marketing at Cisco Systems, is focusing on five core priorities to help channel partners more closely engage their end-customers. Jobbins described her strategy during a chat with The VAR Guy earlier today.

My time here at the McAfee FOCUS 2011 Security Conference is just about over. I leave you with the details on two major McAfee announcements around partner profitability and network security before I pack up and hit Dallas for the 2011 Tigerpaw User Conference.

HP remains steadfast in supporting its partners, even as its future is uncertain. The company is bringing a smattering of enhancements to its PartnerOne program designed to make it easier for partners to work with HP, sell new IT products and “fuel profitability,” while focusing on “predictability” in the channel. The VAR Guy has all the details coming right up …

Former Autotask CEO Bob Godgart has launched ChannelEyes, positioned as a FaceBook-type social network for channel partners. Godgart is attending the SMB Nation conference to evangelize ChannelEyes, which claims to be “the first free and secure social network to aggregate Channel Program information.” The goal is to enhance communications between channel partners, integrators, dealers and agents. The big question: Do channel partners have time for yet another social network?

SUSE Linux, now owned by Attachmate, will unveil some partner and customer surprises at Novell BrainShare (Oct. 10-14, Salt Lake City), the company confirms. Meanwhile, Michael Miller, VP of global alliances and marketing, has been polishing partner and cloud services strategies for SUSE. And Miller has been busy meeting with strategic SUSE partners like Microsoft, SAP, VMware, IBM, Dell, HP and Fujitsu. So, what’s the message from Miller to SUSE Linux partners and customers? The VAR Guy got the answer.

Social media has revolutionized the marketing world as we knew it before the turn of the century—before marketers threw a bunch of stuff at customers to see what would stick—and most of it was a one-way conversation. Putting your message out in the market is one thing, but having someone listen is another.  With social media, not only are people listening, but they are engaging, sharing and influencing a vast network of people around the globe. So how do you start? Here are some clues.

Certes Networks is looking to increase its momentum through a compelling offering. For $1,000, Certes is offering its Network Encryption Starter Kit, specifically designed for “tunnel-less multilayer encryption” without a hefty price tag. Does this have channel implications? You bet. Here’s the scoop …

Reuters is reporting that webOS may not be dead, yet. In an interview, the head of HP’s PSG group Todd Bradley hinted HP may not be done with the webOS or tablet. So what does HP have up its sleeve? Bradley was elusive, but here are my top three ideas for what the PSG spinoff could do, along with some channel implications …

Xiotech, the storage company that has been hitting the channel with its ISE storage solutions, is reshaping itself. I spoke to Alan Atkinson, president and CEO of Xiotech about the changes, the first of which is a new name. Xiotech will now be known as XIO Storage, with a new device at the helm, the Hyper ISE. Here’s the quick scoop …

If you’ve been saving your pennies to buy the Dell Streak 5, you’re officially out of luck. Dell has killed the tiny tablet/phone roughly a year after its release. Here’s some perspective on what that means for the mini-tablet workplace and what that may mean for you, dear VAR, if you’re working on a tablet strategy …

E-mail and web security vendor M86 Security is leaning more on its channel partners to help it move deeper into the enterprise, and as such has redesigned its partner program in the Americas with a slew of new tools and incentives to jumpstart the process.

When The VAR Guy last checked in with Merchant Warehouse in October 2010, the company was refocusing its channel partner program. Fast forward nine months and The VAR Guy notices something interesting: It looks like Bob Cellucci has succeeded Jay Chaudhry as VP of business development for partner channel. Here’s the details…

Cisco Systems Inc. finally has a new VP of partner marketing. Her name: Amanda Jobbins (pictured). But who exactly is Jobbins, and how might she influence Cisco’s global partner marketing strategy? The VAR Guy took a closer look and spoke with a range of sources.

Cisco Systems Inc. announced multiple changes to its Worldwide Partner Organization today. Among the moves that warrants a closer look: Cisco has named Amanda Jobbins as VP of partner marketing, succeeding Luanne Tierney, who left to join Juniper earlier this year. Here’s some insight on the move.

Are you familiar with Gordon Summer? You probably are, just not under that name. To most of us, he’s Sting. Now storage vendor Data Robotics is taking a similar approach to its moniker since achieving rock-star popularity. The company is officially changing its name to Drobo, making both the company and the product one singular, eponymous brand. We heard a lot about branding during the recent Sage Summit 2011, so what can we expect now that Data Robotics is Drobo? Read on and find out …

Back in 2009 when I was first cutting my blogging teeth under the watchful eye of The VAR Guy, I wrote about the opening of the first Microsoft Store, in Scottsdale, Ariz. I was skeptical about its success and cited a bevy of problems with running a store that is supposed to emulate Apple’s model. But Microsoft has announced it plans to build more of them. What is Microsoft’s goal, and can the company succeed? Here are my thoughts on the idea …

The VAR Guy was super-busy at the Sage Summit 2011, and not the least of his tasks was a roundtable group meeting with Dennis Frahmann, executive VP of corporate marketing; Himanshu Palsule, executive VP of strategy; and Sage CEO Pascal Houillon. The open-forum Q&A quickly turned into a discussion about Sage’s biggest announcement: the brand. Houillon wasn’t shy in explaining why this change will be the most important and effective change Sage has ever made. But what of the partner reactions, which so far have leaned toward the negative? Houillon said it’s purely emotional. Read on for the details …