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Kaspersky launches managed security service offering

By
May 15, 2012
Kaspersky North American channel chief Chris Doggett

Kaspersky North American channel chief

NASSAU, THE BAHAMAS – It took some time for it to go primetime, but formally introduced its managed service offering to the market at its North American Partner Conference here.

First introduced to channel partners at its Americas Partner Conference in the winter of 2011, the managed service edition offers the ability to offer Kaspersky’s endpoint security on a pay-as-you-go basis, with little to no upfront fee. The solution has been in beta with a select group of channel partners for some time now, but is starting to live. Partners at the Conference here will be given first crack at it, with other partners to get access in short order.

Some more thoughts on the launch after the jump, but first, this brief introduction from North American channel chief Chris Doggett.

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Preview: NetSuite SuiteWorld 2012

By
May 15, 2012

SAN FRANCISCO – kicks off its partner and user conference here Tuesday morning, but Monday already featured a lot of action for the company’s channel partners, with a channel-oriented keynote kicking off the festivities.

We caught up with , NetSuite’s channel chief, just after the partner keynote and sessions, to find out what was on the agenda for that session, and what partners can expect from the rest of the event here this week.

Liveblog: Citrix Synergy keynotes

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May 9, 2012

SAN FRANCISCO – As the curtain came down on Citrix’s Summit 2012 partner conference here last night, the curtain came up on its Synergy 2012 end-user conference, which begins in earnest this morning.

And so shifts the focus from partners’ journeys to the , business model transformation, and new opportunities, to some new technologies and products that Citrix will be letting loose into the channel in the near future.

Expect more details on the company’s new approach of focusing on “ workstyles” and cloud , continuing its efforts to position itself as a leader in the BYOD era.

It will be CEO Mark Templeton and likely a number of the company’s product and technology leaders. Expect the liveblog to go live as the keynotes begin – about 10:30 am Pacific time (1:30 pm Eastern.)

At its Synergy Barcelona event last fall, Cirtix promised the first HDX System-on-a-chip products here at the show this week. What will they look like? At Summit, there was a lot of talk about the impact of the company’s acquisitions last year of ShareFile and Podio. How will those products fit into its strategy? Join us for the liveblog, and find out as its discussed here at Synergy.

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Citrix partners: Get ready for a 360 view of yourselves

By
May 9, 2012
Tom Flink

channel chief .

SAN FRANCISCO – Ever wondered exactly how a vendor partner sees your business, and your partnership with them? Not the niceties,the cordial personal relationships, the motherhood and apple pie statements of commitment and support – but the actual numbers, rates and metrics that vendors use to measure their own business with you and through you?

Citrix is getting set to give its partners an opportunity to stand in front of those full-length mirrors, and get a full look at themselves as they look in the vendor’s eyes.

At its Summit event here this week, the company is previewing new , part of its MyCitrix partner portal and set to debut in the second week of June, according to Tom Flink, vice president of worldwide channels and market development at the company.

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HP inks Avnet as first ServiceOne distributor

By
May 8, 2012
Tony Vottima Avnet

, 's solutions group chief

HP has named the first distribution partner in its partner program, a deal that could greatly improve the ability of Avnet VARs to sell and offer HP-branded .

Launched last summer, ServiceOne is a program that allows authorized HP partners to not only sell, but implement HP-branded services. Under previous program, partners could sell those service offerings, but implementation was left to the vendor’s own services arm.

Adding a distributor to the mix opens up an interesting number of possibilities for partners: solution providers can resell the vendor’s services packages, and rely on HP to deliver them, deliver them themselves (if authorized) or turn to the distributor for implementation, should they lack the technical skills or geographic range to meet customer demands.

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Citrix ramps up Canadian services org with TH Consultants purchase

By
May 8, 2012
Todd Hsu, now director of consulting services for Canada at Citrix.

, now director of consulting for Canada at .

SAN FRANCISCO – Citrix Systems is ramping up its services organization in Canada with its purchase of a longtime partner, out of .

The software company formally announced the purchase, which closed April 24, at its Citrix Summit partner conference her Tuesday. Because TH was privately held, terms of the deal were not disclosed.

, vice president of Americas field services, said the company snapped up THC to build capacity for its -focused services in Canada. Although the Canadian services business has been flat year-over-year, it’s not been because of a lack of opportunities, but rather, limited resources to meet those opportunities.

With the 10 TH Consultants staffers on board, the company will now have 15 consultants in Canada, will have its first formal presence in Quebec, and will be able to provide a lot more architecture and design services to enterprise customers in Eastern Canada.

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New Citrix Canada chief looks to fix High Touch model

By
May 8, 2012
Michael Murphy

New Canada country manager

SAN FRANCISCO – Michael Murphy is on his 17th day as new Canadian country manager for Citrix System as he sits down with the Canadian channel press community at this week’s Citrix Summit event here. Okay, maybe he’s actually on his 18th day, depending on whether you define a pre-employment day spent getting to know his new workmates at the company’s Mississauga, Ont. Canadian headquarters.

Despite his short tenure in his current job, the executive (best known, of course, for spending more than a decade and a half at the helm of Canada) already has his first major initiative for the company’s partner community.

He’s got to refine the company’s controversial program, and make it more suited for Canada.

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Citrix CEO to partners: Focus on solutions and specialize

By
May 7, 2012

SAN FRANCISCO – In his own inimitable way, Citrix chief Mark Templeton delivered a strong message to the company’s channel partners today: and solutions are key to a thriving, successful partner base.

It’s a story that’s been told before, but with an interesting wrinkle, as most things have when Templeton is involved.

You see, for Templeton, re-architecting his company and its partnering efforts around a solutions focus is a familiar journey, dating back to a previous life as an Apple dealer in 1984.

The company was successful, he said, not because it sold a lot of Macs, printers, and software. The company was successful because it sold the vision of desktop publishing.

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Liveblog: Citrix Summit 2012 keynotes

By
May 7, 2012
Citrix channel chief Tom Flink

channel chief

SAN FRANCISCO – Citrix kicks off its 2012 Summit and Synergy events Monday afternoon with the keynotes of its Summit partner conference here.

Expect program and market updates from Citrix CEO , chief and channel chief Tom Flink, and probably a bit of Moody Blues – it is Templeton’s show, after all.

And of course I’ll be live in the keynote hall, bringing you the updates as they happen. The blog should go live when the keynotes begin – 4:00 pm Pacific (7:00 pm Eastern) so join me there if you’re not at the Moscone Center yourself.

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Ingram sees growing cloud momentum in Canada

By
May 7, 2012
Renee Bergeron

and chief Renée Bergeron

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before, but Canadian businesses aren’t turning to the at quite the same rate as their U.S.-based compatriots.

But Renée Bergeron, ’s North American cloud chief (and a Canadian herself) sees that shifting. The distributor doubled its cloud business in 2011, and is ahead of schedule to do so again in 2012, she said in a meeting during the Spring Invitational late last week in Colorado Springs. Things may have been progressing more slowly in Canada than elsewhere historically – but that all changed in the fall of last year.

“We’re really seeing growing momentum,” Bergeron said.

And that’s particularly true in the area of remote infrastructure management – far and away the most popular category of cloud-based solutions Ingram is selling to Canadian solution providers.

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QuickVid: VTN’s three-year journey

By
May 7, 2012

When the community got together late last week in Colorado Springs for their spring invitational, it did so with a theme of “Partner. Prosper. Repeat.”

It’s a cute tagline, to be sure, and one that proved popular with members. Canadian council president Rob Bracey of Quartet Service proclaimed it the first of the themes that Ingram marketing comes up with that has really resonated with him. But many partners said it was a theme that really got to the heart of the strength of the community.

Also, the event marks the beginning of John Fago’s third year as the lead for the reseller community. I sat down with Fago to discuss the evolution of the community, and how that’s been reflected by the themes of the last three years of activity in the community.

Preview: Citrix Summit and Synergy

By
May 7, 2012

SAN FRANCISCO – Monday is the kickoff of Systems’ annual Summit partner event here, to be followed by its Synergy end user-focused conference.

As the show opens, I sat down with , North American channel chief at Citrix, to get a quick rundown of what to expect at Summit, and a bit of a hint at what’s on the agenda for Synergy as well.

Interested in more? I’ll be at the event today through Wednesday – along with other coverage, expect to see liveblogs of Monday evening’s Summit keynote as well as Wednesday morning’s Synergy-opening events.

SalesBuzz: Managing time in sales without time management

By
May 7, 2012
Tibor Shanto, VARCoach and chief sales officer at Renbor Sales Solutions

, VARCoach and chief officer at

Every business is different, every businessperson is different, and each sales person has unique attributes than the next.  But there is one thing that is absolutely the same for all, and that is time.  Every one of us has 24 hours at the start of each day, good, bad or between, we all get that exact same amount every day.  The question then comes down to how you use it, which is where you have not only an opportunity to differentiate your company from the next, but to determine your success.

At this point many start thinking about time management, but that is not what this is about.  In fact I’ll state right here that I think “time management” is a stupid and dangerous concept.  You can talk about time in different ways, but in the end, if you are in sales, or a business owner responsible for generating revenue for your company, there are only two things you can do with time:  you can use it or waste it!  Which is why talk of managing time is just a waste of time.

Time already comes managed, 24 hours to a day, 7 days per week, 52 weeks per year; whether you are in Chilliwack, Chile or China, it is settled and managed.  It is much more productive to talk about allocating time to specific activities, and then managing your activities in the time allocated.

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IBM makes PureSystems more channel friendly

By
May 3, 2012

IBM PureSystemsLAS VEGAS – While ’s Impact 2012 SOA and WebSphere conference is more of an play, with bigger if fewer channel opportunities, the company held out a potentially significant opportunity with its next set of announcements. In addition to unveiling new offerings to make it easier to create the “patterns of expertise” software capability that debuted a couple of weeks ago with the family of expert integrated systems, Big Blue announced that both clients and partners will be able to access through the IBM SmartCloud to create and test their patterns. These patterns are intended to streamline the set-up and management of hardware and software resources.

IBM has created a ‘ sandbox’, the PureSystems Trial, that will be available to developers for 90 days, to create and test applications through SmartCloud that are ready to run on the new systems. The company says by removing the hassle of server provisioning, operating system and middleware set up, and the complicated cycles of permissions and procurement associated with software development, a developer can take an idea and be creating and testing it within minutes, instead of the days something like this would normally require.

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Ingram to build North American mobile practice on Canadian strength

By
April 24, 2012

In building ’s new North American business unit, is calling upon the Canadian practice’s experience.

Case in point: just six weeks into his new role, Romero visited the company’s Canadian headquarters in Mississauga, Ont. with his team. That’s where I caught up with Romero and Ingram Micro Canada chief to discuss the synergies he sees between the two businesses, what lessons from the Canadian business he’s taking back to headquarters, and how VARs can approach their own mobile practices successfully.

Also be sure to check out part one of my video interview with Romero and Snider for their thoughts on building the Ingram mobile strategy.

Ingram’s Romero: You can’t not be thinking about mobile

By
April 23, 2012

has upped the ante on its growing business with the hiring of industry veteran to head up its North American business.

The distributor has been focused on the mobile opportunity for some time in Canada, including inking deals with “the big three” Canadian telcos, but with Romero coming on at headquarters, expect Ingram to get even more serious about the business.

I caught up with Romero and Ingram Micro Canada general manager during Romero’s recent visit to Toronto, to talk about the mobile opportunity as he sees it, and Ingram’s strategy for pursuing that opportunity.

Check out part two of my video interview with Romero tomorrow, where he and Snider discuss the lessons of the Canadian subsidiary’s well-established mobile practice, among other topics.

SalesBuzz: Profit from your Process

By
April 23, 2012
Tibor Shanto, VARCoach and chief sales officer at Renbor Sales Solutions

, VARCoach and chief officer at

Last time out I talked about the need and upside of having a sales process.Once you embrace a sales process, define the basic elements outlined, you can look at taking the benefits further in your revenue generating activities. One of those benefits, one that many without a process struggle to archive, specifically alignment.

Alignment not only helps remove obstacles and friction from a sales, it allows for more efficient use of resources, including time, faster sales cycles, and more solid relationships.

First and foremost is alignment with your buyers.  A sales process is half of the revenue equation, this is hard for some sellers accept, the other half, the buyers’ BUYING PROCESS is more important.  Don’t believe me, where does the revenue (money) come from?  Exactly!  So aligning your selling with the buying process will give you a tangible advantage over competitors, I would argue, if all things were equal between you and a competitor, but they were selling without a process, unaware of the buyer’s process, you’ll win every time.

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Cisco to partners: What’s your business worth?

By
April 18, 2012
Edison Peres, Cisco's global channel chief

, 's global channel chief

SAN DIEGO – Cisco partners know – and if they don’t, company staff from on down will remind them – that Cisco loves to measure things.

The company has made measurements of customer satisfaction key to its partner recognition programs, as a measure of the value solution providers bring to the company and their joint customers.

But now, it seems like Cisco is poised to provide partners with some tools by which to measure the networking giant, and the value it brings to its solution providers. Global channel chief Edison Peres used a good part of his keynote discussion at the company’s Partner Conference here to discuss the concept of “return on Cisco” and using its programs to help partners add to their own valuation.

“Our goal in addition to supporting your profitability … is we want to maximize your business value and optimize your return on Cisco,” Peres told partners at the event.

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Canadian Varnex ranks swell

By
April 18, 2012

NEW ORLEANS – As this year’s Spring conference here is just the fourth at which Canadians have been in attendance, it’s tempting to think about the Canada group as the newbies in the reseller group world.

But the group is growing rapidly, having gone from 32 members at last year’s fall event in Las Vegas to 60 in the Big Easy this week, said Mitchell Martin, president of Canada. And it’s done that despite remaining selective, and focused on smaller, -focused solution providers.

“We’re working hard to get to where we want to be in terms of membership, and we’ve made great progress,” he said.

“Where we’d like to be” is about 80 members in the short term (say, by the time the group returns to Vegas this fall) and closer to 100 in the long term, said , vice president of marketing.

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Liveblog: Cisco outlines BYOD plans at Partner Summit

By
April 18, 2012

SAN DIEGO – After spending most of Tuesday on strategy and , Cisco turns its attention to products and solutions Wednesday at its annual Partner Summit here, kicking off the morning with a keynote session anchored by CTO Padmasree Warrior.

Chief among the topics of discussion: the trend towards , and what it means for Cisco and its partners. Warrior will be joined by other executives, including collaboration chief Barry O’Sullivan and global boss (and former channel chief) .

And, of course, we’ll be there liveblogging the events as they happen – starting at about 9 am Pacific time, noon Eastern time.

We’ll see you after the jump in the liveblog

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