Pedro Pereira

New Energy Star conservation standards for computing equipment will go into effect July 20, but Hewlett-Packard isn’t waiting. The vendor introduced PCs in March that comply with the stricter standards and also has vowed to reduce its products’ power consumption by 20 percent come 2010. The company says it is packaging print cartridges more efficiently […]

Cisco Systems told channel partners the week of April 2 that it would help them tackle one of their most vexing problems—finding skilled IT workers. Among other initiatives, the vendor is considering creating a portal for sharing with partners the resumes of candidates for jobs at Cisco. Meanwhile, a bill was being introduced in the […]

Cisco Systems is testing a managed services program that will designate participating partners as Cisco-approved MSPs. The company is running a pilot of the program with three major partners and is on track to formally launch the program in the fall, said Surinder Brar, senior director of channel programs and strategy for Cisco, based in […]

Vendors of large, complex network management systems are watching the managed services market with a hungry eye, and it’s only a matter of time before one of them makes an acquisition, according to Kaseya International CEO Gerald Blackie. CA, Hewlett-Packard and IBM, whose managements systems—Unicenter, OpenView and Tivoli, respectively—realize they can’t touch the SMB (small […]

Cisco Systems on April 3 introduced a new layer to its channel program with a designation for partners focused on the small and midsize market. Calling the SMB market a huge opportunity worth about $10 billion, Cisco executives acknowledged the networking and security vendor traditionally has focused primarily on enterprise and midmarket companies while getting […]

Kaseya International is planning a multitude of improvements and added functions for this year and next as the managed services vendor vies to become the platform of choice for MSPs (managed services providers). To aid in this quest, the vendor is making its API available to third-party software developers for integration with their products, Kaseya […]

Law firm Scott & Scott, of Dallas, is encouraging managed services providers to add software license compliance and asset management to their remote monitoring and management offerings. And the firm has just the thing for it. Scott & Scott the week of March 26 released its Managed Compliance Services, a software asset management package that […]

Keeping track of and cashing in on market development funds from vendors ranks high on the channel’s list of frustrations. CMR Ltd., a software developer and channel management consultant based in San Diego, aims to change that by automating the process of logging and tracking the data related to MDF (market development funds) and co-op […]

If you’ve been around the channel long enough, you’ll recognize those times when the scent of change becomes so intense it is hard to ignore. We are at such a juncture. New channel models are emerging, vendors are adjusting their attitudes toward partners, technologies previously out of channel reach are no longer so, and consolidation […]

IT trends such as managed services and software as a service have already disrupted the way the software industry does business and are also transforming the overall technology market. Customers’ expectations for IT services have shifted from remediation to prevention, according to Jeff Kaplan, managing director of analyst firm ThinkStrategies. No longer are customers calling […]

The average person can tolerate e-mail downtime or cell phone dropouts, but if the regular phone doesn’t work, it’s a whole different story. Tempers quickly flare. “People get very angry when their phones are down,” said Allen Rappaport, CEO of Associated Communications Resources, a VOIP (voice over IP) service provider in New York. Rappaport should […]

As VARs, integrators and IT service providers move into the role of trusted adviser, it makes sense for vendors to recognize channel partners for more than product fulfillment. Often a channel partner plays a role in the sale but doesn’t actually make the sale. In these cases, the partner fulfills the role of “influencer” by […]