Jessica Davis

Dell’s planned purchase of global financial services and advisory company CIT’s 30 percent interest in Dell Financial Services could mean good news for members of the PC maker’s nascent channel partner program. Dell announced plans Dec. 20 to exercise its option to buy out CIT’s interest in its financing arm, with an eye to simplifying […]

Ingram Micro may not have an official booth at CES, but the IT distributor will have a showroom and suites at the Monte Carlo hotel in Las Vegas during the giant consumer electronics extravaganza, turned all-around tech meeting place. And it’s not the company’s first year at the event. Jeffrey Friederichs, Ingram Micro’s director of […]

Unified communications management software company Ensim has announced a connector for Dynamics CRM 4.0, Microsoft’s long-awaited multitenant version of its customer relationship management software. The connector enables service providers and resellers that use Ensim as a platform to add the Dynamics CRM 4.0 service to their hosted lineup of offerings immediately. Ensim’s management software works […]

Intel and LSI plan to broaden their lineup of multigenerational SAS/SATA RAID offerings for the channel. The expansion brings LSI the strength of Intel’s channel presence and broadens Intel’s product line. The two companies began the collaboration in 2003. Under this expanded agreement, Intel will make available to its system builders LSI’s RAID-on-a-Chip and MegaRAID […]

Solution providers view software as a service as a big opportunity that has the potential to change the way business is done. That is according to a forthcoming study from market research firm IDC, “Channel View: SAAS Capabilities and Opportunities.” The study surveyed just over 300 businesses made up of members of the IAMCP (International […]

Cisco Capital and Standard Chartered Bank are offering a new financing program for SMBs in the United Arab Emirates. Under the program small and midsize customers can get loans underwritten by Standard Chartered to purchase Cisco technology solutions. The networking company already offers similar financing deals in other geographies. The program is available through Cisco […]

While many solution providers believe that increased market share and new customers will be important drivers for their growth next year, many observers say that VARs don’t do as good a job as they think they do or that they could do with marketing. That may be because of shifting and differing goals between what […]

IT distributor D&H Distributing is extending its partnership with networking giant Cisco from the United States into Canada, the companies have announced. The partnership will combine Cisco’s SMB (small and midsize business) solutions with D&H’s specialized service and support capabilities for SMBs, officials with the companies said, and it is designed to increase the number […]

Symantec and its partners are still feeling the pain a full year after the company’s channel process systems imploded. In November 2006, Symantec flipped the switch, merging its ERP system with that of acquisition Veritas. At the same time it launched two of its biggest volume channel products. The combination of events was a disaster […]

Cisco Systems is reshuffling some of its channel executives. The networking giant has confirmed that Chuck Robbins, segment vice president for U.S. and Canada channels, has been promoted to senior vice president of commercial, Cisco’s SMB division that serves businesses with 1,500 or fewer employees. Cisco is seeking a replacement for Robbins to run the […]

EqualLogic CEO Don Bulens acknowledged Dec. 7 in a conference call “town meeting” with channel partners that some of them believe that, “EqualLogic is now damned and you’ve moved to hell with the devil.” That’s his characterization of some partners’ response to the company’s pending acquisition by Dell, the PC maker that had differentiated itself […]

One of Dell’s first areas of competency for channel partners will be managed services. Dell announced plans to acquire MSP platform provider Silverback in July and Everdream in November, with plans to combine the offerings into a comprehensive managed services offering for channel partners. Dell’s channel managed services will be led by Dan Phillips, the […]