The VAR Guy

What a difference a day makes. Yesterday, VARStreet was an aging portal — in some ways, a remnant of the dot-com boom and bust — designed to help VARs source products from distributors. Today, the VARStreet website has been completely overhauled, and VARStreet is striving to engage thousands of VARs and managed services providers. Who’s responsible for this overhaul? The answer: VARStreet’s new owner, Autotask. Here’s the story, and the implications for solutions providers.

Sure, hardware and software companies have built numerous portals for their channel partners. Some are big hits. Others are ugly misses. But here’s a twist: Laurus Technologies,  a Certified Dell Partner in Itasca, Ill., has built a rather intriguing portal that could bolster customer loyalty. Here are the details.

Data centers are popping up across the country as a never-ending stream of new Internet applications strain the nation’s information storage capabilities. Worldwide demand for data centers is expected to rise 12 percent just this year, and 17 percent in 2012, according to Tieri Research. How can VARs grab their share of the data center opportunity? Here are some suggestions.

What’s cookin’ at LogLogic? I caught up with Guy Churchward, president and CEO, and Bill Roth, chief marketing officer, to discuss LogLogic’s channel strategy, their market, and why a partner ecosystem works so well in bad (or good) economic times. Here’s a recap.

Isilon Systems, which specializes in scalable storage, network-attached storage, archiving solutions and storage virtualization, is making some channel partner moves. I spoke with Leonard Iventosch, the channel VP who is building Isilon’s partner program. Here’s his strategy.

Arrow Electronics ECS has launched a new professional services business unit. Translation: Arrow ECS now provides technical, education, and other support across their products. Here’s the quick details on this announcement…

With the upcoming release of Office 2010 expected in June, businesses at all levels are considering the upgrade to Microsoft’s latest iteration of productivity software. However, after the adoption problems of Office 2007, Office 2010 might be a hard sell. It’s likely that the many of your clients skipped 2007 altogether and are still using 2003 or perhaps even 2000.  Some clients may view the specter of a new version of Office with more trepidation than excitement.

If you’re out there working with the Tech Data Healthcare Specialized Business Unit (SBU), you’re in for some interesting new. Tech Data has now added a special service for members of the TechMed Alliance. It connects IT resellers to grant writing and tracking services. Here are some details.

Tech Data is working with Sage North America Healthcare Division on the health care vertical. Also news: Sage the first member of the brand new TechMed Vendor Affiliate Program. The aim is to make it easy to build an Electronic Health Records Business. And what does that mean exactly? Well, VARs in healthcare might want to read on…

Cbeyond makes communications and IT solutions; ADTRAN makes networking and communication solutions. A match made in heaven? Maybe. ADTRAN has joined up with the Cbeyond PBX Platform Partner Program at the ‘Platinum’ Tier. Honors and mentions aside, here’s what it means for you, dear reader…

What’s the fastest way to generate more revenue within the SAP partner ecosystem? One answer may involve Softengine, an SAP hosting partner that is building business and SaaS relationships with dozens of VARs across North America. The VAR Guy spotted Softengine yesterday at the SAP Partner Summit in Las Vegas. Here’s the scoop.

ViewSonic, that gaggle of birds that adorns at least one of your monitors, is rolling out a new digital signage reseller and partner program. The goal? Streamlined and easy access to a variety of products and digital signage solutions. Here’s the quick rundown.

Initially, The VAR Guy wasn’t all that impressed with Novell’s latest financial results, announced Feb. 25. But our resident blogger overlooked one important fact: Novell’s SUSE Linux business is now break-even. That’s an important milestone — but what does it say about the broader open source industry’s march to profitability? Here are some clues.

Tech Data puts another notch in their belt as the first distributor in the Americas to ship the Cisco Service Provider Video Technology Group portfolio of solutions. They call it the SPVTG for short, and we think VARs in any sort of video-related niche (or even digital signage) might want to take a look…

As I sit in my home office in the cold Canadian north (well not that far north, just about 60 kilometres west of Toronto), I’m preparing for my upcoming business trip to Latin America (and looking forward to leaving the cold behind). Starting March 1, I’ll be spending 10 days meeting with Value Added Distributors (VADs) in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Mexico. Many of the topics we’ll be discussing will revolve around ‘The Acquisition’ (no relation to ‘The Situation’), increasing operational and sales efficiencies, and finally how they and their customers can continue growing their businesses.

Novell’s latest quarterly financial results, revealed today, were a mixed bag for the SUSE Linux provider. Novell made progress in some areas. But didn’t really thrive in others. Where does the company go from here. The answers will likely surface at the Novell BrainShare 2010 conference (March 21-25, Utah), where Novell will strive to energize channel partners and customers? In the meantime, here’s a look at Novell’s current business condition … through the eyes of The VAR Guy.

Just one day into the Digital Signage Expo (DSE) and the news about Ingram’s foray into digital signage, we already have people jumping on board. Hiperwall Inc. has announced a US distribution agreement with Ingram. Details follow…

AMD, the chip and card maker recently had a webcast emphasizing the importance of not neglecting that very unique specialized piece of hardware: your graphics card. Touting the performance and versatility of their ATI brand, they shared some knowledge on an otherwise unknown channel strategy.

Tech Data has enhanced their Advanced Infrastructure Solutions (AIS) Division, beefing up their data center solutions for VARs with four new solutions groups. Here are some quick specifics.

Ingram Micro has launched a Digital Signage Certified Expert (DSCE) effort, which is geared and tweaked specifically for the Ingram Micro community. And where are they announcing it? A city with big lights and signs. Las Vegas, of course. How apropos.

Astaro, the Unified Threat Management company we’ve come to know over the past few months, is looking to beef up it’s channel strategy. For 2010 Astaro is looking is to implement some new growth strategies and they’re feeling pretty optimistic. Here’s the run down…

Let’s be honest, here. The VAR Guy and friends mainly focus on VARs and MSPs in the traditional IT industry. But there are some hidden opportunities in the Automatic Data Collection (ADC) industry. That’s the message from Intermec’s Scott Anderson, global channels manager and Jim McDonnell, senior VP of global sales. Here’s what they had to say.

Here’s an interesting item that just hit our inbox: The Cisco Marketplace — an independently run site, has launched to focus on the sale of new, used and refurbished Cisco equipment. To reiterate: The site is neither owned nor operated by Cisco. But we’re intrigued. VARs and companies alike looking to potential save a few bucks might want to read on…