John Moore

About 10 years or so ago, IBM executives started repeating the phrase, “Use what you sell.” The idea, of course, was to project the notion that IBM wasn’t just foisting its technology on other businesses—Big Blue was an active user too. Some industry wags came up with a more vivid (and less appetizing) metaphor to […]

Walt Disney Co. has divided the IT fiefdom of its Magic Kingdom out to two outsourcing vendors. Affiliated Computer Services and IBM Global Services have captured seven-year outsourcing contracts valued at $610 million and $730 million, respectively. Both companies confirmed the Disney business this week. Published reports have been suggesting for about a month that […]

Like many sophisticated networking technologies, it has taken a while for 10-Gigabit Ethernet to become the market force analysts predicted when it debuted in 2002. It took more than three years for the U.S. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers to certify a standard after 10GbE was proposed, and there still isn’t a standard for […]

Switchvox Signs Resellers for SMB VOIP Switchvoxthis week formally launched a reseller program designed to promote the company’s open-source-based private branch exchange systems to small and midsize businesses. The San Diego-based company has been marketing its Switchvox VOIP (voice over IP)-capable PBX systems since February. During that time it has signed more than 200 resellers, […]

In 2002 and 2003 virtualization was so hot a concept that it was hard to imagine that, within two or three years, IT resources would be managed any other way. The idea seemed to make sense: turn physical IT devices into logical resource pools that could be dynamically assigned to applications and users. Well before […]

Emerging software players seeking to penetrate the midmarket enterprise resource planning space are inking deals with resellers to make an initial dent. 3i Infotech Ltd., a maker of ERP software, last week announced a VAR deal with Infonetics Corp., a move that marks the software company’s channel push in the North American market. 3i Infotech […]

Harry You, 10 weeks at the helm of BearingPoint Inc., must hope the company’s recently troubled past isn’t a prologue. The integrator’s difficulties started last November, when the company announced a $92.9 million accounting error. BearingPoint corrected the glitch, but the problem pointed to broader issues with the company’s financial systems. That was a bit […]

BearingPoint, which has been rebuilding its management team since the departure of senior managers last November, now finds itself with another role to fill. Joseph Corbett on Tuesday resigned from his post as chief financial officer, which he had held since January. Corbett’s departure “was through mutual agreement,” according to a company statement. He will […]

At a time when outsourcing deals draw comparisons to failed marriages, perhaps it’s not surprising that one consultant recommends that parties moving toward a contract pursue a prenuptial agreement. Jeff Kaplan, senior consultant with the Cutter Consortium, said end-user companies should evaluate how they would be able to take back their IT operations—or other outsourced […]

Demand for services remains healthy in areas such as outsourcing and health care, but integrators grapple with issues ranging from contract management to turnover. That’s the word from executives presenting at the 33rd annual JPMorgan Technology Conference this week. Executives were generally upbeat about the industry’s growth prospects, with some citing interest in large-scale projects […]

In recent years, more resellers have latched onto the concept of offering managed services as well as their traditional integration and support. The main draw is the potential for an ongoing revenue stream from service customers as well as a higher revenue-per-customer. Managed services are not just a business opportunity, but a matter of survival […]

Resellers have been lectured on the merits of solution selling for years, but some industry executives are pointing in a new direction: demand innovation. Traditional sales organizations typically enter into alliances with product suppliers and push solutions to customers. A demand innovator, in contrast, researches the market to determine customer needs and then tracks down […]