John Hazard

Douglas Nassaur imagines many scenarios for using his company’s hosted solution. “Try opening an e-mail with a file for a program you don’t own, renting the program for the day and installing it on your desktop in seconds, all while running Windows from your Mac at a Starbucks,” he spells out. “With our technology, you […]

Google this week entered the channel with the launch of a partner program to advance Google’s search applications behind the corporate firewall. Using Google Inc.’s search appliances – Google Mini and Google Search Appliance —12 initial VARs, ISVs and integrators have developed unique solutions designed to deliver Google’s ability to index and retrieve unstructured information […]

More is less at NFR Security. To expand its channel program, the maker of intrusion security and prevention appliances actually cut its partner roster in half. “Everyone thinks more is better,” said Tim Koubek, NFR Security Inc.’s executive vice president of worldwide sales and marketing. “Becoming a partner is as easy as picking up an […]

Microsoft Corp., in a nationwide sting operation, nabbed eight resellers it said were pedaling pirated software, the company announced this week. Microsoft filed eight lawsuits against companies in Arizona, California, Illinois, Minnesota and New York alleging copyright infringement and trademark violations for selling pirated Microsoft software, including Windows XP, Windows NT Server Version 4.0, Office […]

Microsoft on Tuesday announced a sharp reorganization of the company into three divisions in order to streamline decision making and speed to market. The software giant will realign several existing units into three core divisions—Platforms and Services; Business; and Entertainment and Devices—that better represent Microsoft’s goals, said Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO. In addition, Ray Ozzie, […]

Oracle has its eye on capturing a share of the market for medium-size business, but before it gets there it must craft a channel strategy that takes cultivates its partners, VARs say. Oracle has established a high-volume channel in conjunction with distributors Avnet Inc., Ingram Micro and Tech Data Corp., to create greater access to […]

Setting its sights on the small and midsize business marketplace, Oracle Corp. has called on three large distributors to build a channel to reach those customers. The software giant also signed a reselling agreement with PC maker Dell Inc. to carry the Oracle E-Business Suite and JD Edwards applications. The distributors are Avnet Inc., Ingram […]

Ed Chapman says most vendors and VARs fail to make the most of their channel partnerships. According to Chapman most vendors treat their channel programs like a “bolt on,” adding VARs and training them to sell more of what they’ve already created a market for. Most VARs, meanwhile, treat their partners like a manufacturer, simply […]

IBM and Red Hat, Inc., today, announced a joint channel program aimed at accelerating the adoption of Linux in emerging markets. The effort will provide solution builders with additional tools to help them develop Linux-based applications and bring them to market sooner. Aimed at accelerating the adoption of Linux solutions in markets such as Brazil, […]

Vendors and VARs building and selling business intelligence solutions say their businesses are booming. BI solution providers have found themselves thriving, building solutions that make data easier to access, navigate and analyze for companies looking to capitalize on the vast amounts of data they collect to gain an edge in the market. “In the past […]

Oracle’s purchase of rival business applications vendor Siebel made waves, and headlines, on Wall Street, but the merger is unlikely to have any impact on the channel, VARs and one analyst said. “Siebel doesn’t really have a product a reseller would sell,” said Jim Shepherd, vice president of research at AMR Research Inc. “Maybe down […]

IP telephony is the wave of the telecom future for businesses, even if it seems to have stalled at VOIP. That’s according to VARs and analysts in the field, who said return on investment and a lack of understanding of the potential have left businesses stuck in a limbo between traditional telecom and full IP […]