The VAR Guy

PC Wholesale, a division of Synnex, has expanded its relationship with HP to give Synnex resellers access to HP’s Renew Program, which provides resellers with the opportunity to sell officially refurbished and certified HP equipment. Here’s what VARs should know …

At Synnex Varnex 2011, The VAR Guy was once again privy to some one-on-one time with Synnex top brass. This time it was Rob Moyer, Synnex’s VP of Cloud Computing Programs, who gave The VAR Guy the lowdown on Synnex’s lofty direction into hosted solutions and a few words about the future of Synnex. Here’s the scoop …

The VAR Guy was given some one-on-one time with Synnex CEO and President Kevin Murai during the Synnex Varnex 2011 event in Las Vegas. Our resident blogger had just six questions for Murai, all of which received complex answers. The VAR guy has the scoop on Synnex’s future, SMB, the cloud and why Synnex doesn’t quite stick out like all those other big distribution companies.

Synnex is big on HP, The VAR Guy knows this. How so? Stephen DiFranco, SVP of HP’s Personal Systems Group, had his own keynote at Synnex Varnex 2011, during which he attempted to do damage control following HP’s turbulent year so far. The bottom line? Partners can trust HP and its product pipeline — PSG is not going anywhere, and HP is still one big, happy family. So what can partners expect from HP in 2012? Here’s what DiFranco laid out …

Synnex CEO Kevin Murai and Senior VP of Marketing Robert Stegner kicked off Synnex Varnex 2011 with their keynote focusing on distribution as a driving force for the channel. So what do Murai and Stegner see for the future of Synnex partners? It’s all about enablement. The VAR Guy has the scoop right here …

Synnex’s Varnex 2011 event will be kicking off with a keynote by none other than Synnex’s own Kevin Murai, president and CEO. What can we expect from Murai’s keynote, and more importantly, what does The VAR Guy plan to ask him when he sits down for a one-on-one? It’s all coming up …

The VAR Guy, in Las Vegas? Again? Of course he is. This time, our resident blogger will be shacking up at the swanky Cosmopolitan for Synnex’s distribution event, Varnex. What does The VAR Guy expect to encounter — in the way of channels news, that is? The top five trends are coming up …

Yawn. It’s just past midnight here in New York. The VAR Guy is getting ready to go to bed — with a big bowl of ice cream, of course. But before our resident blogger signs off for sweeter pursuits, here are six pieces of high-tech news that The VAR Guy didn’t have time to write for the week ending Nov. 4, 2011.

Trend Micro has named Ingram Micro its distributor partner of the year, citing Ingram’s cloud and virtualization solution portfolios. What does this mean for the channel at large, and Ingram Micro? Here’s The VAR Guy perspective …

Time again for the weekly distribution roundup news. This week, Tech Data’s offering new monitors and all-in-one computers, Avnet and Ingram Micro are planning their upcoming fiscal announcements and Synnex is focusing on mobile e-commerce. The VAR Guy has all the sweet distribution details coming up. All you have to do is click that link…

Anybody want to buy a $40 billion PC business? While you ponder that offer, here are six channel partner blog entries The VAR Guy didn’t have time to write for the week ending Aug. 19, 2011.

German remote access software specialist NCP engineering has signed an agreement with Synnex to distribute its full portfolio of VPN products to VARs and system integrators here in the United States. NCP is positioning the deal with Synnex as the first stage of a major American channel push. Here’s the scoop.

Open source software has had a hit-and-miss relationship with channel partners. Major initiatives from Tech Data and Synnex, for instance, have done little to ignite reseller enthusiasm for open source email, ERP, CRM and other applications. So, how will open source march forward with resellers? The VAR Guy has some new insights to share.

HP is launching iQuote, a quick way for distributors and resellers to obtain accurate quotes that factor in a slew of variables, from pricing based on product availability to running promotions for both customers and partners. Read on for the details …

Microsoft is set to launch the Office 365 cloud suite on June 28. Sure, VARs and MSPs can resell the cloud suite directly from Microsoft but those partners can’t control end-customer billing. With that challenge in mind The VAR Guy wonders: Will distributors like Ingram Micro, Tech Data and Synnex provide Office 365 customer billing capabilities to channel partners? Here’s the update and the speculation.

Lenovo and De Lage Landen — two Channel Finance 25 companies — continue to expand their financing programs for VARs and managed services providers. The latest example: The Lenovo Partner Credit program, in partnership with De Lage Landen, now offers U.S. resellers up to 60 days of interest-free credit. The program involves such distributors as D&H, Ingram Micro, Synnex and Tech Data. The bigger long-term question: Will Lenovo continue marching forward and perhaps even launch a hardware as a service (HaaS) effort for VARs and MSPs? Here are some early insights.

The VAR Guy is quietly poking around the Autotask Community Live event in Miami. You’ll find official news and observations over on MSPmentor. But there’s also plenty of background chatter here involving executive strategies, potential alliances and… well… these seven rumors behind the scenes.

The VAR Guy has his eyes on multiple channel partner and IT conferences this week. But before our resident blogger surfaces at more conferences, here are six channel partner blog entries The VAR Guy didn’t have time to write for the week ending May 13, 2011.

Sputter, sputter. The VAR Guy is running on fumes today. The recent VMware Partner Exchange and IBM PartnerWorld conferences, both in Orlando, were high-octane events that drained our resident blogger’s energy. So it’s time to recharge this weekend… before running off to Orlando again — this time for Parallels Summit (Feb. 22-24). In the meantime, here are six channel partner news blogs The VAR Guy didn’t find time to write for the week ending February 18, 2011.

The VAR Guy is scratching his head in confusion. When our resident blogger’s web site officially launched in January 2008, open source was all the rage. And quite a few open source companies were building channel partner programs at the time. Fast forward to the present and it seems like some open source channel partner programs have gone silent — especially as cloud computing continues to generate so much freakin’ hype. But don’t lose hope. Here’s why.

AsteriskExchange, an online marketplace for the open source IP PBX, has attracted more than 50 partner offerings since Digium launched the exchange in January 2010. In a quick Q&A, Digium Community Director Bryan Johns offers some updates on AsteriskExchange and some partner trends involving hardware providers, ISVs (independent software vendors) and VARs. Here’s what Johns told The VAR Guy.

It’s still early in the cloud computing game. And most distributors are still sorting out their strategies. But The VAR Guy has spent plenty of time this year speaking with most of the major distributors about their cloud and SaaS plans. The VAR Guy’s opinion: Ingram Micro seems to be spending more time, money and energy on the cloud effort than its rivals. But will Ingram’s investments pay dividends? Hmmm… Here are the facts and insights that shaped The VAR Guy’s opinion.

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