Jessica Davis

 If the economy is flagging, somebody forgot to tell small and mid-size businesses. Distribution giant Avnet’s Technology Solutions organization reported a 6.9 percent increase in sales on a pro-forma basis year-over-year during its second fiscal quarter – excluding revenues from the company’s acquisitions. On a geographic basis, sales in the Americas were up by 6.6 […]

Fujitsu servers will now be available in the United States through distributor Tech Data. The computing vendor signed a deal with the Clearwater, Fla., distributor to increase its presence in commercial markets in the United States. Fujitsu had been working with less than 100 U.S. partners, and the Tech Data deal marks the first through […]

Silverback managed services partners got the opportunity to ask candid questions about the future of their MSP platform during the first partner conference held since Dell acquired the company last summer. They learned that Silverback Version 8.0 would likely be hosted only by Dell. They learned that Dell plans to sell these services directly to […]

Privately held CDW Corp. reported that its full-year 2007 sales grew by 20 percent year over year and its fourth-quarter sales climbed by 17 percent year over year. Formerly publicly held, CDW reported these results eight months after the company announced its intention to go private through an acquisition by a private equity firm. The […]

Endpoint data protection vendor Credant Technologies has hired a new channel chief — a former EMC channel executive. Greg Clock joins the Dallas-based company as vice president of strategic alliances and worldwide channels. In his new role Clock will be responsible for the channel, alliance and development teams. He will be based in Credant’s headquarters […]

Dedicated hosting provider The Planet has expanded its partner offerings to include a new affiliate program. The Houston-based company has refined its partner offerings over the course of the past year, introducing a formalized partner program and a Microsoft Small Business Server hosting program. Don’t forget to enter now for the Channel Insider Product of […]

Hewlett-Packard announced Jan. 22 that it plans to acquire Exstream Software, which offers "variable data publishing,"—an enterprise system for compiling and delivering customized content and delivering it to an "audience of one." HP officials said in a statement that the technology will enable its customers to better communicate "relevant, personalized information to their customers through […]

After joining Cisco just before the dot-com bust, Wendy Bahr, the company’s new channel chief for North America, is ready to take on new challenges. At the top of the agenda is a Web 2.0 system for partners, as those same partners look at new business models and the technologies they require. Bahr sat down […]

Avnet is introducing hosted Microsoft Exchange Services and within 30 days will introduce a hosted offline storage service, or "e-vaulting"—the first in a series of software-as-a-service offerings the IT distributor plans to roll out this year. The moves mark Avnet’s initial foray into the SAAS space, according to Charlie Babb, vice president of managed services […]

There must be something in the air. As sure as New Year arrives every Jan. 1 and the groundhog looks for its shadow every Feb. 2, so do channel executives seem to move from job to job as vendors get ready to roll out the year’s channel enhancements. And 2008 is no exception. Here are […]

A year after its CEO exhorted staff to "partner or perish" followed by the announcement of its PEAK printer partner program, Xerox is enhancing the benefits offered to partners through that program. New components include deal registration, greater revenue and profit potential through more expansive rebates and access to the manufacturer’s more advanced products that […]

With dark clouds apparently on the economic horizon as analysts predict flattened IT spending, lots of businesses that sell to IT are planning on how to weather the storm. But software vendors apparently may have some ideas about how to circumvent the obstacle of potentially slashed IT budgets. Ingram Micro recently reported that software vendors […]