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Long View, telcos win big in Cisco Canada Partner Awards

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April 18, 2012

Award Winner RibbonSAN DIEGO – Alberta-based super- and telco giants and were big winners in Canada’s Partner Awards, announced at its Partner Summit here this week.

Bell took home East partner of the year and managed partner of the year, Telus earned partner of the year and vertical/solutions innovation partner of the year, while Long View carried the West Partner of the year and / partner of the year.

Canadians solution providers were also well-represented on the Global and Americas stages, with Bell Canda also notching global public sector of the year partner, while earned global partner of the year. Enterprise Solutions earned the Canadian partner of the year category in the Americas Theatre awards.

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How Cisco will tackle federal Telepresence mandate

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April 17, 2012

SAN DIEGO – The decision by the Canadian government to make Telepresence a strategic priority was certainly not lost on . In fact, Canada quickly released a statement of support for including Telepresence as a priority in the recent federal budget.

But how is Cisco gearing up to help its Canadian channel partners realize the opportunity that’s likely to come from the government’s focus on Telepresence? I put that question to a trio of the company’s top leadership, including CEO John Chambers, EVP of worldwide (and Canadian) Rob Lloyd, and COO Gary Moore during a press session with channel press during the company’s Partner Summit here Tuesday afternoon.

Lloyd discusses how the company will work to make sure the mandate becomes a reality, while Chambers details the momentum the company is seeing with its partners in the Telepresence sphere.

$20 million down: Synnex’s Stegner on $100 million Varnex goal

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April 17, 2012

NEW ORLEANS – Last fall, said a very aggressive goal. Speaking at the Fall Conference in Las Vegas, Stegner said he would endeavor to drive $100 million in incremental margins for solution providers in the community over the next 18 months.

Six months later, I sat down with Stegner at this week’s Varnex Spring Conference here to find out what kind of progress was being made.

Stegner also talks about what comes next for the growing Varnex Canadian community, plans for a Canada-only Varnex event, and why Canadian Varnex members can expect to see a lot more of the U.S.-based executive over the next 18 months.

Liveblog: Cisco Partner Summit kicks off in San Diego

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April 17, 2012

San Diego Convention CenterSAN DIEGO – kicks off its 2012 Partner Summit here this morning, with a general sessions that includes the company’s worldwide channel chiefs, and , as well as CEO John Chambers.

This year’s event has a theme of “In It to Win It,” and and ChannelBuzz.ca is there to liveblog the day’s events.

Expect the liveblog to start updating shortly after 9 am Pacific, noon Eastern, as the keynotes begin. Want to do some prep work for the event? Check out what Goodwin and Peres told ChannelBuzz.ca to expect when it comes to the agenda and tone for Partner Summit.

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Varnex University soon to take in first class

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April 16, 2012

Mortar BoardNEW ORLEANS – plans to send its member resellers to University.

At the Varnex Spring conference here, the distributor introduced the concept of Varnex University, a soon-to-launch educational program that will (at least initially) focus on providing much-needed skills for solutions providers’ staff.

“The goal is to help you do the you can’t do at home or don’t have the time to do,” said , senior vice president of marketing for North America at Synnex.

Although the program is still coming together, Stegner suggested it would contain at least two tracks – a basic “101” course for new hires, to bring them up to speed with technology sales terminology and best practices; and a “Masters” program to advance the skills of veteran VAR sales professionals.

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HP unveils Converged Cloud framework

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April 10, 2012

Clouds Tuesday morning introduced its Converged framework, an effort to unite its -focused infrastructure and with its long-promised (and soon to debut) public offerings.

, manager of cloud solutions and infrastructure at HP, said that a unified framework for defining and managing cloud, whether it’s public, private or hybrid, is key to avoid falling into the same “IT sprawl” problems that defined the client/server era. If not done well, “cloud could make the IT environment even more challenging to manage,” Guida warned.

The framework covers the company’s existing CloudSystems servers and cloud-building systems, as well as offerings, and for the first time, includes offerings.

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QuickVid: ConnectWise on building community

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April 10, 2012

Sponsored Content – has long made the building of communities amongst the community a priority, and it continues to be key fro the company, says senior product marketing manager .

In part two of my video interview with Sokol, he addresses what the company is doing in terms of community-building: its new GrowmyITbusiness.com site, its quarterly user group meetings, and its flagship IT Nation event each fall.

Also check out part one of my video interview with Sokol, and join us next week for the third and final portion, where we discuss the MSP game in Canada.

SalesBuzz: Why a sales process

By
April 9, 2012
Tibor Shanto, VARCoach and chief sales officer at Renbor Sales Solutions

, VARCoach and chief officer at Renbor Solutions

For some, sales continues to be a mystery, or a black art they continue to practice because their need for the revenue, not because they want to.  Never certain if they are doing it right or wrong, until it is too late; when they get the sale, they must have done it right, and if at the end of the week, month or quarter, they miss revenue goals, they only know they did it wrong, but not why, or how to improve things.

Beyond skill, the underlying cause for this approach to sales lies in the fact that these sellers view sales as an art, rather than a science executed artfully.  Most will tell you it is an art, a god given skill or a personality based trait that allows the seller to leverage undefined skills or procedure.   Unfortunately, without a consistent , they all too often experience ups and downs in sales rather than a consistent predictable stream of revenue delivered in a planned and predictable way.  This may be acceptable to the individual sales rep, but it wreaks havoc on their company, and if they are a rep for a VAR or reseller, it can wreak havoc right up and down the channel.

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Adding expert voices here on ChannelBuzz.ca

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April 9, 2012
Paid Invoice

The new SalesBuzz column will provide expert insights into from renowned mentor

I recently listened in on a presentation from a peer (and nominal competitor) in the channel publishing community. The problem with channel publications, he seemed to argue, is those pesky editors who write the content. It would be better, he suggested, if we just relied on VARs and other industry experts to provide their viewpoints.

Needless to say, I don’t fully agree with the sentiment that editors (journalists, bloggers, whatever we may call ourselves) are an impediment to sharing news, knowledge and insights with this community. The team here at ChannelBuzz.ca will continue to reach out to and talk to members of this community and those who seek to work with and through it. And we’ll continue to talk to folks at the vendors and distributors about the programs and opportunities they see in the ever-changing market.

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D&H Canada boosts small resellers’ credit

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April 3, 2012
Greg Tobin

Canada GM

general manager Greg Tobin poses the question: “When’s the last time you got a call from a trade department saying ‘We have good news for you’?”

Sure, increased consumer lines of credit are pretty much awaiting us every time we go to the mailbox. But for distributors? Yeah, not so much.

To be fair, the “last time” for many D&H resellers was about a year ago, when the distributor raised credit for about 1,000 D&H customers to the tune of a combined $10 million.

And now the distributor is back at it again, announcing boosted credit lines for about 100 of its smaller VARs in partnership with and

“Consider this one to be credit increases for the S in the ,” Tobin said. “We called them up and said we could almost double their lines with us in some cases.”

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ConnectWise focuses on business intelligence with 2012.1 launch

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April 3, 2012
Jeannine Edwards, ConnectWise community director

, community director

With its first release for 2012, vendor ConnectWise is aiming to offer its customers more business information.

As more run their business on the software, it’s become increasingly important for ConnectWise to function as a sort of “mini ERP,” said Jeannine Edwards, director of the ConnectWise community.

“For a lot of solution providers, what you can manage can be a moving target, and it’s hard to manage what you can’t measure appropriately,” Edwards said. “It’s a super-important piece of the puzzle.”

The biggest change is a revamped financial dashboard, which now presents information about customer profitability but also gives users a view of the agreements it has in place with customers, and how the MSP is measuring against those agreements.

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N-able touts backup with N-central 8.2 launch

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April 3, 2012

N-able’s latest version of its flagship tool, version 8.2, has gone live, promising improved , better remote control, and more community documentation.

The biggest addition to the software is the full integration of ’ D2D for backup and recovery, rebranded in N-central as Backup Manager. JP Jauvin, COO of Ottawa-based N-able, said that means “a single pane of glass to allow an engineer to deploy, configure, manage and report on all the backup drops throughout their customers.”

While many offer managed backup, recovery and BDR capabilities, either on their own or through a variety of third-party partners, Jauvin said the company is counting on heavy uptake of the new backup features.

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ChannelBuzz.ca Podcast: WPC Toronto update with Jon Roskill

By
April 2, 2012
Microsoft channel chief Jon Roskill

channel chief

We’re just over three months away from Microsoft descending on Toronto, Ontario for the first Worldwide Partner Conference in this country since 2004, and the company has been promising the biggest and best WPC of all time for this year.

On this week’s edition of the ChannelBuzz.ca Podcast, we catch up with Jon Roskill, corporate vice president of the worldwide partner group at Microsoft, on what we can expect at this year’s WPC in Toronto. Roskill addresses the choice of Toronto, how the company is injecting some Canadian culture into the event, and even shares an anecdote about keynotes at past WPCs. It’s a not-to-be-missed interview.

Also on the show:

  • Canada channel chief discusses ’s new -based unified communications products, the company’s purchase of Radvision, and the channel leadership scene at now that has left the company.
  • New North American channel chief drops by to chat about his new role with the vendor, his goals and plans for his new job, and what to expect at the company’s Americas Partner Conference next month.
  • , who’s heading up the expansion of online and data recovery vendor in Canada talks about the company’s launch and value proposition for solution providers.

Catch the podcast after the jump, or subscribe via iTunes.

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WPC Update with Jon Roskill [ 58:33 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (46)

Dell’s Wyse purchase to extend channel reach

By
April 2, 2012

It’s not a month in this industry unless adds something to its tool belt through acquisition, and the Round Rock, Tex.-based company got April off to a flying start, opening the work month with the announcement it intends to purchase market leader Technology.

, senior vice president of corporate strategy at Dell, called the Wyse deal “an important next step in our end-user computing strategy, the critical area of client computing.”

The deal will also add value to Dell’s enterprise computing business, which provides the infrastructure on which thin client and zero client solutions from both companies run. While Dell has an active practice, it has not offered thin clients to date.

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QuickVid: ConnectWise on the state of managed services

By
April 2, 2012

Sponsored Content – It continues to be an interesting time in the managed business, and I recently had the chance to catch up with senior product marketing manager at their Tampa, Fla. Headquarters to chat all about it.

In the first part of our conversation, Sokol addresses major in the IT space, including the growing importance of mobility, the and the bring-your-own-device movement, and what those mean for ConnectWise’s base of clients.

Over the next few weeks, check the site for parts two and three of our video interview with Sokol, addressing the Canadian MSP market and the ConnectWise approach to community-building, among other topics.

Agile Dudes offers channel-friendly “social media in a box”

By
March 30, 2012

Vaudreil-Dorion, QC – is not about , , where you’re having a coffee or the exquisite nature of that cherry danish you just enjoyed, James Norrie would argue.

Indeed, that’s what Norrie, principal at Toronto-based social media consultancy Agile Dudes, did argue at this week’s event here.

Rather, done right, social media is “about understanding the opportunity for you locally to create expertise and value-added content that will be consumed by your core customer base.”

While solution providers can’t ignore social (Canada has one of the largest social media footprints in the world), Norrie cautioned VARs not to wade into any of the 560-odd social media currently available unless there’s a good reason to do so.

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Dell adds cloud certification to PartnerDirect

By
March 29, 2012
Dell Canada commercial channels marketing manager Gilles Philippe

Canada commercial channels marketing manager

Dell has added a and solutions certification to its expanding channel program.

The new certification is the latest in Dell’s effort to both expand its channel base and the and certification of that base – this time embracing the growing move towards cloud computing in the commercial market as well as the channel.

“Cloud services and solutions are the future, and the time for that future is now,” said Gilles Philippe, marketing manager for commercial channels at Dell Canada.

The program will ultimately have and certification for three types of cloud-centric partners: cloud builders; cloud providers; and cloud service enablers.

The first group, cloud builders, have training and certification requirements already ready to go, and will represent the group of partners who are building public or infrastructure for their customers.

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Avnet bolsters IBM services with Ascendant buy

By
March 29, 2012
Jeff Bawol, president of Avnet Technology Solutions Americas

, president of Americas

Distributor Technology Solutions turned some heads this week with its purchase of $90 million partner . But Jeff Bawol, president of ATS Americas, said it’s not a deal that’s about a distributor buying a VAR. Instead, it’s about a distributor buying capabilities to extend the reach of its own VARs.

Bawol described Ascendant’s own solution resale business as minimal, and noted that the company has already been working with many of Avnet’s solution providers to roll out solutions. By bringing Ascendant into the Avnet house, the distributor is aiming to accelerate that business.

“This gets us in the game from an IBM services perspective,” Bawol said. “They’ve helped our partners grow for a long time already, and they’re very highly regarded both by IBM and by our partners, in terms of their service delivery capabilities.”

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Channel Test Factory aims to grade partner sales skills

By
March 29, 2012
Tibor Shanto, VARCoach and chief sales officer at Renbor Sales Solutions

, VARCoach and chief officer at

Vaudreil-Dorion, QC – Solution providers looking to enhance the sales skills of their team may well be interested in a new service that aims to identify sales people’s strengths and weaknesses and provide a path to improvement.

Introduced at Spring 2012 here this week, Channel Test Factory is an alliance between UK-based , event hosts , and ’s VARCoach team of channel-focused sales experts and trainers.

“Top sales professionals have to be both competent and confident,” said , head of sales for and a business consultant with The Test Factory, at the event. “To make sure they are, you can’t just do , you have to understand their individual requirements and act accordingly.”

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Xerox targets partners for managed print blitz

By
March 27, 2012
Xerox Canada channel chief Ajay Dhingra

Canada channel chief

Vaudreil-Dorion, QC – It’s already the biggest company, both in the world and here in Canada (a move its purchase of LaserNetworks helps to cement), but Xerox is looking to extend the managed print message to channel partners.

Since January, the company has been introducing its (XPPS) strategy to its existing channel partners, and now at Spring here this week, it’s gone public in its drive to recruit solution providers.

Ajay Dhingra, vice president of channel operations at , described XPPS as a flexible approach, designed to help a variety of different types of solution providers add managed print to their solutions offerings.

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Understanding customer perspectives in the “bring your own” era

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QuickVid: ConnectWise on the Canadian MSP market

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Mark Sokol on ConnectWise’s plans to grow its Canadian managed service provider partner base
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