The VAR Guy

Judson Althoff, group VP of worldwide alliances and channels at Oracle Corp., is putting a new spin on old partner training tactics. During a chat with The VAR Guy, Althoff says Oracle’s Enablement 2.0 partner strategy will leverage some lessons from the open source world.

Vendors fall all over themselves to try and land in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant research results. CIOs actually make buying decisions based on the Magic Quadrant reports (no joke). But has anybody else noticed Radicati Group evangelizes a Market Quadrant research strategy? Hmmm. Perhaps it’s time for The VAR Guy to launch the Magic Research Quadrant — to rank those unbiased research houses…

It’s official. Even CNBC says the Wall Street meltdown has spilled over into Main Street USA. Credit is getting tighter. It’s going to be difficult for entrepreneurs to make deeper investments in their own business. But don’t panic, folks. Here are five steps every VAR and managed service provider should take — right now — to generate more recurring revenue during the economic turmoil.

During this weak economy, lots of folks are writing articles describing how you can keep your job. The VAR Guy thinks it would be wiser for you to read articles on how to find a new job. Here’s why.

I recently got together with a group of executives from a company based here on Long Island to discuss entrepreneurship. A number of them already have side businesses going on and therefore I won’t name the company. These are people really itching to bust out and succeed on their own. I took some notes from our flip-chart sheets that I thought would be interesting for any entrepreneurs in the making. Here they are:

Meow. The VAR Guy loves a good cat fight, especially when he has front-row seats to the feud. The latest scratch-fest involves Astaro clawing Symantec and trying to run away with Syamantec partners.

Memo to Symantec: It’s time to change your channel PR strategy. Right now. On the one hand, Symantec was smart to address a swirling controversy around its channel program (as covered by CRN and ChannelWeb). But on the other hand, the more Symantec says about the situation the more CRN and ChannelWeb use Symantec’s own words against the software company. Here’s how Symantec PR should handle damage control going forward.

PartnerPedia — a new social network for solutions providers and VARs — is set to launch in July, though an official launch date is yet to be announced. The VAR Guy got a preview on June 26. Here’s his take on the social networking site, with a few hints on who it compares to OnForce, LinkedIn and other options.

After a slight delay, Dell has launched its channel blog. The company now has a Web 2.0 platform that will be both a blessing and a burden. The VAR Guy cautions most companies against launching corporate blogs. But in this case, Dell has made a smart move. Here’s why.

Even if you’re a small managed service provider or VAR, you still need effective PR strategies. At least, that’s the stance from PR expert Cheryl Snapp Conner. In the May 15, 2008 podcast on MSPmentor, Conner describes some simple ways to launch and measure your viral PR campaigns.