Samsung empowers its partners with in-house information resources and portals, UGS adds a new PLM software line and capacity to its channel program to attack midmarket opportunities, Apricorn Corporate Plus gives customers free evaluation products and customized solutions from resellers, MCI expands Site Services to prep enterprises for network solutions, and Red Hat appoints a new head to the Emerging Technologies group.
Samsung Empowers Partners with In-house Research
Samsung Electronics is empowering its partners with information resources previously available only to the device and display maker's in-house units.
Samsung's Power Partner Program members will be folded into the Irvine, Calif., company's Global Samsung Business Network, an internal Samsung online resource of partner relationship management, supply chain management and customer relationship management systems plus B2B portals, the company announced this week. The network is also easier to use and navigate, the company said in a prepared statement.
The network should provide better synergy, communication and flexibility between the vendor and VARs, said Y.J. Park, Samsung's president of Information Technology Division.
Resellers still benefit from Samsung's P3 Power Cash Incentive Program and P3 Big Deal Cash Back Program.
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UGS Launches New Product Line, Channel Program
UGS Corp. launched a new software line and channel program to bring the company's product lifecycle management application to midsize manufacturers worldwide.
The initiative combines both the new software portfolio, UGS Velocity Series, the first offering to combine UGS' Solid Edge and Femap software and its Teamcenter portfolio and the Global Channel Program, which is designed to increase partner capacity 50 percent by 2006, the company announced this week in a prepared statement.
Midsize manufacturers face the same pressures of global sourcing—accurate and timely quotations and regulatory compliance—but lack the resources to effectively manage the data generated by the issues, the company said. The UGS Velocity and Global Channel Program are intended to meet that problem head on, the Plano, Texas, company said.
Spending on PLM solutions by midmarket companies is expected to grow 12 percent annually through 2009, according to a recent AMR Research report.
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Apricorn Corporate Plus Offers Free Evaluation Products
Apricorn Corp.'s resellers will give IT executives free evaluations and customized versions of the company's personal storage and backup solutions to help push sales.
Apricorn's Corporate Plus Program gives resellers the chance to put products in the hands of IT decision makers, with Try It Before You Buy It and the opportunity to craft customized products that specifically address backup/storage and data security issues, and provides a path for disaster recovery that is easy to implement for any desktop or mobile user, the company announced in a prepared statement this week.
The program is an additional sales and solution tool in the reseller's belt, said Mike McCandless, vice president of sales and marketing for Apricorn.
Membership in Corporate Plus is open to companies with more than 25 employees, and participants will be able to order select products for evaluation. Additional resources for VARs include volume pricing, exclusive product offers, dedicated free technical support, extended warrantees, customized products and the ability to coordinate bundles with vendors.
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MCI Expands Site Services
MCI Inc., announced Tuesday it is expanding and standardizing Site Services, its suite of professional services to prepare enterprise customers for network and converged solutions.
The expansion gives MCI a one-stop source for voice, data and converged networks, said Nancy Gofus, senior vice president of IP services at MCI, in a prepared statement. The service suite ensures a well-architected network solution and fast implementation, she said.
New services include Site Audits to inventory existing infrastructure and technology; Site Assessments to the IT environment to support additional applications; and Installation/De-installation Services to prepare the networking environments for next-generation applications, the company said.
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Red Hat Appoints New Head of Emerging Technologies Group
Red Hat promoted Brian Stevens, the Linux company's former head of operating system and storage development, to drive the organization's technology strategy.
Stevens, who had been vice president of operating system, storage and clustering development, will now serve as chief technology officer and vice president of engineering, Red Hat announced this week. He will also head Red Hat's Emerging technologies group.
Stevens and his team will define and leverage open-source projects and technologies that will bring further value to the Linux platform, the company said in a prepared statement.
"Brian's enterprise experience both before and with Red Hat has been instrumental to our continued success in building out the Open Source Architecture," said Paul Cormier, Red Hat's executive vice president of engineering, in a press release. "He's pioneered new technologies that have contributed to the rise of as an industry-standard operating platform. Brian's vision and experience make him the right person to lead Emerging Technologies as our CTO."
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Channel News and Analysis 
