Jessica Davis

Less than two weeks after PC maker Dell premiered Dell IdeaStorm, a Digg-like Web site focused on determining which improvements customers want made to Dell’s products and services, visitors have submitted more than 2,000 ideas and nearly 150,000 visitors have voted on those ideas. Visitors’ top concerns relate to the issues of open-source software and […]

IT distributor Synnex has made its second acquisition in less than a week, announcing Feb 27 that it plans to acquire the assets of another IT distributor, PC Wholesale, a wholly owned division of Insight Direct USA, in a deal worth about $30 million. The deal gives Synnex, based in Fremont, Calif., a foothold in […]

iSCSI storage software vendor Rocket Division Software is launching a new program for OEMs and channel partners. The company’s StarWind product runs on Microsoft Windows and allows any server, Microsoft or Linux, to access centralized storage. In addition, Rocket Division Software said, the product can enable easier backups, disaster recovery and simplified storage management. Xiotech […]

With plans to offer technical support as a service to channel partners and their customers, IT supply chain services provider Synnex announced its intention to acquire Link2Support, a technical support and contact center company based in Manila, in the Philippines. Link2Support offers voice, e-mail and technical chat support as well as other value-added services. The […]

EMC is merging the channel program of IT security vendor Network Intelligence, which it acquired in September 2005, into the channel program of RSA, acquired by EMC in October 2005, and now considered the parent company’s security division. RSA said Network Intelligence channel partners have been invited to join the RSA SecurWorld program. RSA said […]

Service and support trump price for small and midsize businesses. Seventy-three percent of SMBs rated the service and support they received from their technology providers as the most important factor in a buying decision, according to Gartner’s “User Survey Analysis: IT Evaluation Criteria and Channel Preferences in the SMB Market, United States, 2006.” With that […]

RSA’s senior management hired Michael Ross as channel chief in October 2005 with a simple directive: to mold the company’s channel program to be similar to the successful one he helped create at Nokia. With that in mind Ross’s input into RSA’s program included building a dedicated channel team with more resources for recruitment and […]

Looking to broaden its mid-market presence for its System X line of storage servers, IBM in 2006 invested $100 million to recruit 5,000 partners around the world. IBM embarked on this mission to improve its market share with one of the fastest growing segments—SMBs. The company’s market share in the space was not as high […]

No need to be a giant VAR these days to take advantage of the benefits of offshoring some of your labor costs and working during the overnight hours. Silicon-East, a Manalapan, N.J.-based VAR serving the regional area between New York City and Philadelphia, is using Intel’s vPro technology together with an employee based in Israel […]

Oracle has hit the gas on its Accelerate program, doing even more to help channel partners bring Oracle applications to small and midsize businesses. The Redwood Shores, Calif.-based software company has taken the program into the next gear with Oracle Accelerate applications solutions—combining Oracle’s applications with partner expertise and Oracle Business Accelerators or other rapid […]

Tech Data has added a printing solutions business unit and realigned several of its other divisions, the IT technology distributor announced Feb. 12. The Clearwater, Fla., company added the printing solutions division—called a “Specialized Business Unit” (SBU)—to create a total of eight such business units. The new Printing Solutions SBU combines printers, manufacturer service agreements, […]

Xerox is expanding its VAR program to target 600 top partners in the United States with new product offerings that focus on the higher-end of the small and midsize business market. The new program adds seven more printers, MFPs (multi-function printers) and fax printers to the line of products available for VARs to sell. VARs […]