7. Judgment Day Arrives?: The VAR Guy believes Novell’s board will need to address Elliott Associates’ unsolicited takeover bid sometime in the next three days. The reason: Novell doesn’t need Elliott Associates and takeover talk to become a big distraction at the BrainShare conference, which starts March 21 in Salt Lake City, Utah.

6. This Just In: The VAR Guy heard about this little item 5 minutes ago. XnE. Inc. has quietly acquired MSP on Demand,  a hardware as a service (HaaS) specialist that generated roughly (U.S.)$1 million in revenues and net income of roughly $110,000 in 2009. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The VAR Guy will pursue some more details soon.

5. Two Moves Coming: Intronis, the online backup specialist that offers a white label SaaS storage service to VARs and MSPs, seems to be preparing two key partnerships… one with a Master MSP. The other with an email security specialist that cleans up spam. Interesting times. Perhaps some news will surface at the Autotask Community Live conference. Hmmm…

4. Save the Date: Juniper’s J-Partner Summit is set for May 24-26 at the Arizona Biltmore Hotel. Even if you’re not a Juniper partner, fake it and show up at the rather upscale location… or start an anonymous blog about the IT channel and perhaps they’ll let you in.

3. Sweet for SugarCRM: Verio, the big hosting company, says it recruited more than 650 channel partners in 2009. Many of those partners are leveraging Verio’s hosted Exchange services. But here’s an interesting twist: Verio also seems to be seeing growing demand for hosted SugarCRM — the open source alternative to Salesforce.com and other SaaS-based CRM systems.

2. Cisco, HP and The VAR Guy: Instead of playing favorites, The VAR Guy has registered to attend Cisco Partner Summit 2010 and the HP Americas Partner Conference 2010 — both of which are the same week in April 2010. It should be quite a colorful week of blog coverage…

1. Check the Headline: The VAR Guy still doesn’t play by the rules. This is a top six list. Thanks for reading, and for making The VAR Guy the channel’s most popular daily blog.

Sign up for The VAR Guy’s Newsletter; Webcasts and Resource Center; and via RSS; Facebook; Identi.ca; Twitter and VARtweet.

Read More About This Topic

• Juniper Shifts J-Partner Summit Dates
• Six Channel Blog Entries The VAR Guy Didn’t Write: Jan. 29
• HP ProCurve and Cisco: Getting Along?
• F5 Networks: Strong Financials, New Gateway
• Six Channel Blogs Entries The VAR Guy Didn’t Write: Jan. 8

Cloudvox is all about letting service providers roll their own voice applications like internal 411-style directories – and that capability is now expanded by the ability to have a single app that can be called from countries Europe, Asia, and South Africa. This opens the door for ISVs and VARs to do business in markets otherwise totally inaccessible.

An additional bonus for Cloudvox developers is the ability to have your application initiate a conference call. Through that API, your software can route callers into conferences, remove specific participants, record conversations, or even play an MP3 file.

Of course, Ifbyphone itself already offers a suite of phone applications. But rolling your own VoIP application just makes sense for some ISVs: if you already have the programming expertise, nothing’s ever going to work the way you want it to unless you build it yourself.

Sign up for The VAR Guy’s Newsletter; Webcasts and Resource Center; and via RSS; Facebook; Identi.ca; Twitter and VARtweet.

Read More About This Topic

• Ifbyphone and Cloudvox: Telephony In the Cloud?
• CA Expands Cloud Offering With 3Tera Acquisition
• RSA Security Conference: Day 5 Roundup
• Analysis: Microsoft’s Ballmer Explains the Cloud
• RSA Security Conference: Day 3 Roundup

First, let The VAR Guy set the scene. Some solutions providers are worried about falling prices (and falling margins) for Exchange Online and other SaaS email systems.

In early March 2010, hosted applications specialist Intermedia responded by launching hosted Unified Communications in partnership with Unison Technologies. Intermedia is carefully balancing a continued commitment to hosted Exchange while promoting higher channel margin opportunities on hosted Unified Communications.

Today’s News

Now, Open-Xchange, the open source email specialist, is making a similar move. Open-Xchange expects more than 15 million users to run its software by the end of 2010. At the same time, Open-Xchange is partnering up with 4PSA to introduce a unified communications bundle. According to a joint press release:

“Open-Xchange…today announced enhancements that give users telephone and fax integrated with e-mail, contacts, calendar and task information. By combining Open-Xchange (hosted and on-premise editions) with Unified Communications and Virtual PBX solutions, businesses can replace their traditional phone lines — saving on phone bills. Presence and instant messaging services will be added in the coming software releases enabling users to communicate in real-time anytime, anywhere.”

Sounds intriguing. The Open-Xchange/4PSA effort is the latest counter move to Microsoft’s Office Communications Server. And yes, Open-Xchange has a partner program. In fact, the company has largely left the SaaS market to hosting partners.

But The VAR Guy wonders: How many VARs and MSPs will push beyond hosted email systems to offer customers hosted Unified Communications? It’s definitely a growing market opportunity. But some attendees at the recent Intermedia partner conference in Silicon Valley said they are taking a “wait and see” approach to hosted Unified Communications.

The reason: Customers complain a bit if email goes down but they generally don’t go into panic mode. In stark contrast, customers scream a lot when they lose dial-tone. Even if hosted Unified Communications delivers five-nines availability (about 5.26 minutes of unplanned downtime per year), many data-centric VARs and MSPs still have to get up to speed on VoIP. Then, those same partners need to provide peace of mind to customers that may be wary of IP PBXes and hosted systems.

Like The VAR Guy said: This is a growing market opportunity. But channel partners will also need to overcome some initial customer skepticism. And they’ll also need to address competitive messaging from Microsoft, Cisco Systems and other companies promoting unified communications into corporate IT.

Read More About This Topic

• Intermedia: Hosted Exchange Partner Mailboxes Up 52%
• Open-Xchange: Another Big SaaS Partner Win
• Shifting From Hosted Exchange to Unified Communications: Are VARs Ready?
• Six Channel Partner Blog Entries The VAR Guy Didn’t Write: Feb. 26
• Unison: Preparing a Unified Communications Encore?

From a customer standpoint, a Google app store makes perfect sense. The Google interface is familiar to many users, and unified platforms are good for everyone. It cuts down significantly on the learning curve when a new service is added, and not having to memorize ten different passwords is always a plus.

Buying something works a lot like any other app store: click purchase, agree to the terms of service, and your new cloud service is deployed instantly.

For developers, Google’s offering a significant amount of flexibility. Your cloud application can be hosted on the platform of your choice, so long as it integrates with the Google APIs and supports OpenID for login. A $100 listing fee and Marketplace landing site later, and you’re selling to their userbase of millions.

The Google Apps Marketplace opened with 50 launch partners, including:

• Intuit Online Payroll, a purportedly full-fledged payroll system,
• Zoho CRM and Zoho Projects,
• Socialwok, the social layer for Google Apps that we reported on here…

…and many others. There are ERP apps, and electronic signature apps, and even a fax app.

So far, response seems to be very positive, with some applications already getting user ratings and reviews in the double digits – not bad for a marketplace that’s less than a day old. Who would have thought the killer app for Google Apps would be other apps?

Read More About This Topic

• Google Apps Marketplace: Who’s Jumping In?
• Zoho Connecting With Facebook
• Google Launches Developer Blog; Software Partner Program to Follow?
• Analysis: Microsoft’s Ballmer Explains the Cloud
• RSA Security Conference: Day 3 Roundup

Going forward, Synnex could be a key Digium partner for two core reasons.

• First, Synnex has extensive experience as a specialty distributor of unified communications offerings. So, Synnex’s networking and voice-over-IP VARs could be a natural audience for Digium’s open source telephony offerings.
• Second, Synnex is co-founder of the Open Source Channel Alliance, a group that promotes a dozen different open source solutions to the Synnex partner ecosystem. Initial OSCA members include Red Hat and a range of application providers.

No doubt, Digium has been piecing together a global channel strategy for Asterisk. The company landed near the top of The VAR Guy’s 2009 Open Source 50 report, which tracks the most promising open source partner programs (the 2010 survey is under way now). And Digium significantly expanded the partner program in November 2009.

Reality Check

Still, Asterisk remains a hidden, relatively unknown opportunity for many traditional unified communications VARs. Plenty of folks remain fiercely loyal to entrenched options from Cisco Systems, Avaya and other UC giants. But Synnex sees opportunities for Digium and Asterisk to disrupt the small and midsize business market.

Noted Bob Stegner, Synnex’s VP of marketing for North America, in a prepared statement:

“By working with Digium, we add a differentiated offering for our resellers who focus on the SMB market. Resellers will benefit from the Switchvox offering, which is an affordable, flexible, feature-rich unified communications system. Together with Digium, we look forward to expanding the footprint of this innovative solution to our reseller customers.”

Stegner, by the way, is deeply involved in Synnex’s Open Source Channel Alliance efforts.

Follow The VAR Guy via his Newsletter; Webcasts and Resource Center; and via RSS; Facebook; Identi.ca; Twitter and VARtweet.

Read More About This Topic

• SugarCRM Strengthens Channel Partner Program
• Can Digium Succeed Where Red Hat Failed?
• Tech Data Expands Open Source Partner Program
• Open Source Expert Joins CompTIA’s Board
• Jaspersoft CEO: Targeting 50% Growth in 2010

The Connect Solution Provider (SP) level is a brand new level in Plantronics’ Connect Partner Program focused on providing the right tools to help solution providers fill out their unified communications offerings to their customers. As part of the program, solution providers will have access to business opportunities, sales and campaign support, and advanced product training on the Plantronics’ line of audio headsets that work with UC systems, according to the company.

The parameters of the SP level mimic the rest of the Connect Partner Program, including business development and sales support for campaign participation, market development funds (MDF), sample programs, tradeshow event materials and involvement in the Channel Employee Purchase Program; sales and marketing resources including Plantronics online collateral library, marketing content and sales aids.

The program also offers ongoing communications delivered by ConnectNews Solution Provider Edition and special Plantronics announcements; education and training through sales and technical training, events, webinar and online training; service and care, pre- and post sales support with a customer care hotline, dedicated partner technical assistance; and advance product replacement and best-in-class warranties.

This new level is an addition to an already outstanding channel program from an extremely channel-friendly company. Plantronics dotted all the I’s and crossed all the T’s when it created its channel program, and the fact that it’s recognizing the UC solution provider as a separate class of reseller is a true advantage. Solution providers that have not engaged with Plantronics in the past may want to take a look, especially if they’re considering entering the UC market. Headsets may not be sexy, but they sure can fill out a sale.

Read More About This Topic

• Related posts are coming soon

First, some background. Intermedia is one of the largest hosted Exchange providers, and the company’s partner program has attracted thousands of VARs and MSPs. Amid aggressive SaaS email pricing from Microsoft BPOS (Business Productivity Online Suite) and Google Apps, Intermedia has pushed beyond hosted Exchange to introduce hosted Unified Communications.

Intermedia is carefully balancing its strategy — assuring partners that the company remains committed to hosted Exchange amid continued market growth. Reinforcing that point, most of the sessions at the conference focused on hosted Exchange rather than hosted Unified Communications.

Still, hosted Unified Communications is part of the conversation here. Intermedia is partnering up with Unison Technologies on the hosted Unified Communications effort. Hosted Unison:

“integrates email, telephony, chat, presence, contacts, calendar and more into a single service. The service also supports mobile synchronization of email, contacts and calendar. Intermedia manages hosted Unison service delivery from start to finish, including – through an affiliate telecommunications company — the provision of phone numbers and voice service.  The service is backed by Intermedia’s 24×7 support, migration tools and a multi-million dollar infrastructure that includes four datacenters.”

Money Matters

Although partner pricing has yet to be announced, it sounds like hosted Unified Communications will generate about $50 per seat in revenue, compared to about $12 per seat for Hosted Exchange. Why would customers pay more for hosted Unified Communications? Look at retail pricing for the potential answer:

• At roughly $12 per seat (retail), hosted Exchange supports email, contacts, calendars and instant messaging.
• At roughly $50 per seat (retail), hosted Unified Communications supports email, contacts, calendars, instant messaging, presence and unlimited phone calls in North America. (The VAR Guy doesn’t know how international phone pricing works. But the system certainly supports international calling.)
• (Data points from Rurik Bradbury, chief marketing officer, Unison)

Based on the clues above, when Intermedia and Unison Technologies announce the partner program for hosted Unified Communications, you can bet the margins will be far higher than the margins on hosted Exchange. Still, Intermedia reinforced to partners that no specific partner pricing program has been announced at this time.

Potential Concerns

Plenty of Intermedia Partner Summit attendees sound interested in hosted Unified Communications. But some partners expressed the following concerns:

• If email potentially fails, customers are disappointed. But when phone service fails, customers truly become irate. So pitching hosted Unified Communications may involve overcoming customer fears, uncertainty and doubt. Intermedia executives assured attendees that the company’s commitment to system reliability (well-known in the Exchange market) will be reflected in the hosted Unified Communications market.
• If the customer’s Internet connection goes down, customers may perceive that the hosted Unified Communications system is the problem. In that scenario, customers who already leverage hosted PBXes and hosted Exchange may be more inclined to make the move to hosted Unified Communications — because they’re already true believers in the SaaS business model.

For the most part, Intermedia Partner Summit attendees seem focused mainly on hosted Exchange. But a healthy portion of the crowd is taking a close look at hosted Unified Communications.

Read More About This Topic

• Intermedia: Hosted Exchange Partner Mailboxes Up 52%
• Hosted Unified Communications Meets Open Source
• Microsoft BPOS: When Will Exchange Online 2010 Arrive?
• VMware Prepares Zimbra Email Appliances for Partners
• Microsoft Channel Chief Allison Watson: Cloud Moves for VARs

During his kick-off presentation, Leibholz offered the following anecdotes:

• Intermedia has attracted 4,721 private label hosted Exchange partners. Those partners — VARs, managed services providers, etc. — now offer hosted Exchange under their own brands.
• The number of partner mailboxes grew 52.4% over the past 12 months (February 2009 to February 2010).
• Intermedia’s launch of hosted Exchange 2010 in Q4 2009 was a “first to mark” move for hosting providers. The launch generated an “immediate tripling” of monthly partner mailbox growth. “There’s no other place to purchase [hosted Exchange 2010],” said Leibholz. “And competitors won’t offer it until June or July 2010.”
• Relationships with Dell, Ingram Micro Seismic, BlackBerry, LiveOffice, Level Platforms have allowed Intermedia to grow its channel base.

Still, hosted Exchange is only one piece of Intermedia’s channel partner strategy. As Microsoft and Google introduce aggressive SaaS email prices, Intermedia has pushed deeper into the hosted unified communications market, through a relationship with Unison Technologies. The VAR Guy will be back later today with more thoughts on that effort.

Read More About This Topic

• Shifting From Hosted Exchange to Unified Communications: Are VARs Ready?
• Open-Xchange: Another Big SaaS Partner Win
• Intermedia Launches Hosted Exchange 2010 Partner Program
• Hosted Unified Communications Meets Open Source
• Six Channel Partner Blogs The VAR Guy Didn’t Write: March 12

Basically, it boils down to this: IP PBX manufacturers like ADTRAN can now play nice (they say “interoperate”) with Cbeyond’s voice and data package — BeyondVoice and SIPconnect respectively. The goal? Provide SMBs with voice and data solutions.

ADTRAN and Cbeyond’s relationship has been called ‘mutual’: both partners benefit, since both partners will be side by side in marketing, investment, recruitment opportunities, sales, etc…and the list goes on. ADTRAN certified resellers who are also part of Cbeyond’s Channel Partner Program will have find it easier to generate ‘leads and sales revenue’”

But less about that, more about the hardware “interoperability.” ADTRAN’s NetVanta 7000 Series IP PBX Platforms will be integrating with Cbeyond’s BeyondVoice with SIPconnect service and that means you get the PBX equipment with the network-based calling features you’d come to expect from Cbeyond. That includes direct inward dialing, customized call forwarding and Cbeyond’s Personal Call Assistant. What’s more, both the “end-to-end SIP trunking” eliminates the need for on-premise gateway equipment.

According to the press release, ADTRAN is getting a bit of a boost they never had, too; the Cbeyond’s PBX Platform Partner Program actually allows ADTRAN to streamline their channel support, and ADTRAN and Cybyond will be working together on more ‘mutul’ tech support. It’s all about the best customer experience.

“Watching the PBX Partner Platform Program grow is exciting for Cbeyond as we add high quality partners like ADTRAN…we will continue to look for partners who share our commitment to providing the small business market with the easy-to-use, reliable, innovative technology….” – Jason Walker, product manager for Cbeyond’s SIPconnect service

Is this a new era of unified communications, or just one hand washing another? It seems at the end of the day, it’s bolstering both companies’ products and may truly be quite ‘mutual.’ It also goes along with what Ted Cole, senior VP channel sales at ADTRAN said to us in December; ADTRAN wants to increase “stickiness” with their users and always make it easier to do business and increase profits.

Worth noting: Cole also said that he believed ADTRAN had everything available to build a “pure” ADTRAN solution. Does this partnership renege on that ideal, or simply supplement it?

Read More About This Topic

• ADTRAN Dials Up Unified Communications Opportunities
• Adtran, Digium: Howdy, Neighbors
• Business Intelligence: Birst Partner Program Meets SaaS
• Alfresco Continues Open Source Partner Momentum
• Rackspace Relaunches Hosted Application Partner Program

If you’re unfamiliar with why TelePresence is such a big deal (and light years ahead of your webcam), Cisco has gone out of its way to provide a “true-to-life” meeting with a “face-to-face” sensation. By using  ultra-high definition video, crisp  audio and life-size screens to enable a life-like view of all participants, Cisco makes Skype look like something out of the stone-age.

The idea was launched in June of 2009, when Starwood partnered with Tata Communications. The original plans laid out building Cisco TelePresence rooms in 10 properties across the world. So with two down, the next project is to build two more to open in the first half of this year: One will be in the Sheraton Towers in New York City, while another will be at the Sheraton Center in Toronto. Later in 2010, plans are underway to add  The Westin Los Angeles Airport, and centers in business markets like Dallas, San Francisco, Brussels, Paris, Hong Kong and Frankfurt.

If you’re up for it, you can make reservations right now using Tata Communications’ online portal. They’re ‘conveniently’ taking all major credit cards.

Starwood’s overall goal with this isn’t just to have the new cool toy on the block; it’s also part of their business plan to incorporate technology, virtual meetings and social media making life easier on the upcoming generations of business workers and travelers.

A few words from Starwood:

“The launch of the new Cisco TelePresence meeting suites at the W Chicago and Sheraton on the Park Sydney is another example of Starwood’s commitment to [a] solution that facilitates a ‘face-to-face’ meeting in the same room regardless of global location,” said Christie Hicks, Senior Vice President of Global Sales for Starwood.

…and  then from Tata Communications:

“This opening is just the first step in that direction with many more in other key markets soon to follow this year,” said Peter Quinlan, Director, Managed Telepresence Services, Tata Communications.

Lastly, from Cisco:

“More businesses are recognizing the value of being able to rent Cisco TelePresence …having meeting facilities in a comfortable setting … can help to take some of the grind out of traveling. The value of public suites facilities increases exponentially as more rooms from more providers come on stream…making these facilities more practical for business,” said Mark Weidick, VP/GM for Cisco’s TelePresence Exchange Business Unit.

Tata Communications also would like to remind you that the public facility can also be used to connect to existing TelePresence rooms (not just hotel ones), and it’s ‘affordable per hour’ though no dollar signs have shown themselves. Tata Communications also has several operational public rooms in India, the UK, and USA, Manila with PLDT in the Philippines and Johannesburg with Neotel in South Africa.

How soon until we stop shipping ourselves all over the place and just commute to the nearest metro area for a TelePresence meeting? Hopefully soon.

Read More About This Topic

• Six Channel Partner Blogs The VAR Guy Didn’t Write: March 19
• RSA Security Conference: Day 3 Roundup
• Tech Data Distributes Cisco Video Solutions
• Cisco Marketplace: Buy New, Used And Refurbished?
• Cisco, NetApp and VMware Team Up For Dynamic Data Centers

During a keynote presentation this morning at Parallels Summit, Unison Chief Marketing Officer Rurik Bradbury offered some dire warnings to solutions providers and hosting providers about the hosted email and SaaS email markets. Bradbury said:

“We’ve got a war going on. Cisco is going direct with WebEx. Google Apps and Microsoft are selling cheap email. Google seems to have gotten some traction, Microsoft cut prices, and hosting partners are caught in a clash of the titans. One of the base problems for hosting partners is email is the “gateway” drug that gets customers hooked. The person who controls email is the person who controls the customer. And it gets worse: It’s not just about email anymore, it’s about unified communications.”

Unison, Intermedia Make Their Move

To compete, Bradbury says hosting companies and solutions provider need to offer “fully unified communications” solutions. No surprise, he pointed attendees to a new Unison offering, hosted by Intermedia. But wait, there’s more.

Manlio Carrelli, chief marketing officer at Intermedia, made a surprise appearance during Unison’s keynote. He described why Intermedia is partnering up with Unison to provide a unified communications offering to the channel.

For solutions providers that plan to offer email as a service, the question becomes “what kind of email?” said Carrelli. He says solutions providers need to push beyond POP to offer more and more premium email services. Move beyond groupware, he noted, and get into unified communications.

“I like UC for a couple of reasons,” said Carrelli. “There’s plenty of margin for [partners]…. Talk to your customers; 30 percent of SMB employees work out of the office some of the time, one in six spend most of their time out of the office.” Those are UC opportunities, he added.

The Competitive Landscape

So what are the UC options for hosting providers and solutions providers? Carrelli’s points and assertions included:

• Microsoft does not have a full UC service today, he asserted. Microsoft has email and instant messaging and the products are good, he said. But if you resell Microsoft Online or BPOS (Business Productivity Online Suite), you don’t own the customer and you don’t own the billing.
• “I’m not saying go out and build this infrastructure… [instead] look at at private label services.”
• Intermedia, he noted, already offers Exchange 2010, in an approach where VAR and MSPs control the customers and the branding.
• Looking ahead to UC, Carrelli claims Unison is the most compelling option, built from the ground up for solutions providers in the unified communications market.

No surprise, Unison and Intermedia are partnering to bring SaaS unified communications to channel partners.

Equal Time

Admittedly, The VAR Guy didn’t reach out to Google and Microsoft for comment. But our resident blogger things he can summarize both technology giants’ SaaS strategies. Google Apps now has more than 1,000 channel partners and seems to be catching on with some MSPs. Meanwhile, Microsoft continues to balance a direct sales and indirect sales effort for BPOS, which includes Exchange Online, SharePoint Online and several other offerings.

Read More About This Topic

• Related posts are coming soon

Founded in 2003, the Philadelphia-based Alteva has made a name for itself among 300+ seat enterprises for providing more than just the standard set of features that people have come to expect from a managed telephony solution.

Through that Microsoft partnership, Alterva can also offer hosted Exchange, the ever-hotter hosted SharePoint, and, in what Alteva VP of Sales Louis Hayner claims is an industry first-and-only, hosted Office Communications Suite.

This means that Alteva’s channel partners can offer a messaging and collaboration solution that’s entirely integrated with their VoIP system, to the point where end users can dial in from any phone and have their Exchange mail read to them. Hayner says that by integrating all these services, Alteva can provide a true unified communications product with one bill and a lot of recurring revenue for a VAR.

“This will be the future of telephony,” he says.

As far as the day’s international number porting announcement, VARs who work in foreign markets should take note, since it means a business abroad can have an American phone number. This means that any Americans making the call only have to dial local, which could mean more calls, which could mean more business.

Moreover, as Hayner points out, number porting can make it easier to consolidate billing across all offices. Canada will be the first, but they plan on rolling out support for other countries over the span of 2010.

While they do a significant amount of sales directly, Hayner says, Alteva wants to enhance their relationship with the channel: they offer white label solutions, but they prefer to train “Master Agents” through an intensive on-boarding process.

Alteva’s solution seems to cover all the angles: the cost and infrastructure benefits of hosted services; the flexibility of VoIP; the Microsoft compatibility guarantee. But resellers aren’t biting on hosted VoIP as much as everyone thought ; Hayner conceded that Alteva’s growth wasn’t as strong as the company had wanted it to be as enterprises continue to go with on-premises solutions.

That leaves me with one question – “why not?”

Read More About This Topic

• Rackspace Relaunches Hosted Application Partner Program
• OnForce: Break-Fix VARs Remain In Demand
• Five Reasons VoIP Market Growth Is Slowing
• Cloudvox: Pay-As-You-Go Pricing, Worldwide Phone Numbers
• Wipro Cloud Strategy Promotes Microsoft BPOS