Jessica Davis

One way to recruit channel partners might be to offer them attractive discounts, solid protection from channel conflict and treat them well when they are looking for back-end support. Another way would be to stand outside of your competitor’s partner conference and hand out partner recruitment marketing materials. The latter approach is the one that […]

If there’s a recession going on, no one told IT distributor Tech Data. In reporting its fourth-quarter and year-end earnings on March 4, the company announced that it just concluded a year where it posted record net sales for every quarter. And the company is forecasting higher sales again in the first quarter. CEO Bob Dutkowsky said […]

VARs looking to add virtualization to what they offer but hesitate because of the learning curve involved now have a new option from distribution giant Ingram Micro. The company announced March 3 at its Ingram Micro’s Seismic Virtual Services Warehouse event in New Orleans that it would offer a lineup of virtualization assessment and delivery […]

Kaseya will add support for Intel’s vPro and Mac clients as well as provide a new application programming interface to its Kaseya 2008 platform for managed service providers, set to be available at the end of March, the company announced Feb. 29. And later this year the company plans to introduce support for Linux as […]

Even if some of the software is not ready yet, Microsoft partners have been well prepared for the launch of Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008 and Visual Studio, according to channel executives a the software giant. Robert Deshaies, vice president of the U.S. Partner Group at Microsoft said that the channel organization has spent […]

Looking to attract VARs and business domain experts as partners for its build-your-own SAAS offering, Intuit has introduced a formal channel program for its code-free application development and hosted platform, QuickBase. Intuit is pitching the program as a way for VARs to diversify their revenue streams to include software as a service, considered a rapidly […]

In the week following the brouhaha over radical Postini price cuts that rattled the very foundation of many a VAR business model, plenty of rumors are circulating about Google and its plans for the channel. Google just announced its channel program for search appliances last year via a deal with Ingram Micro. Sources say that […]

While software as a service adoption by small and midsize businesses grew at a fast clip last year—58 percent—to total 15 percent by the end of 2007, that strong growth rate may not last much longer. That’s according to a new report from Forrester Research that said while early adopters flocked to the new delivery […]

Popular alternative anti-virus vendor AVG has teamed up with distributor Ingram Micro to provide its technology to resellers in the United States and Canada through direct licensing, retail and OEM channels. The agreement, announced Feb. 20, is in addition to AVG’s existing Reseller Merit Program. The company is offering current U.S. reseller partners the option […]

In spite of the shockwave Postini price cuts sent through the VAR community, it looks like Google may be getting ready to beef up its channel program. Google posted a help wanted ad, looking for an “Enterprise Director of Channel Sales.” The ad, posted on TalentZoo.com on Feb. 19, is looking to hire for a […]

Do your customers like the idea of unified communications but balk at the upfront price tag? A new financing option from Cisco attempts to jump that sales roadblock by breaking down UC costs to a per-user, per-day price for the end user. The program, announced Feb. 25, uses financing from Cisco Capital to create an […]

Avnet Technology Solutions has created a bundled storage solution designed to help VARs improve storage efficiency for their customers. The operating group of distributor Avnet created the inline data deduplication solution with the midmarket customer in mind, from components from Sun Microsystems and Diligent Technologies. The solution is designed to help find duplicated data in […]