Recent Articles
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Victims of Success: VARs Must Go Beyond Basic Virtualization
Blame VMware. Where once VARs had to hard-sell users on virtualization, today the technology is almost universally regarded as beneficial. VMware and other pioneers pushed virtualization into the mainstream claiming it addresses the needs of all customers in all markets. Everyone has too many servers, too little space and is using too much power. The…
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Best Buy Makes Smart Call in Europe
The move by Best Buy to acquire half of the Carphone Warehouse–a European phone retailer–may look like a strange one. After all, the markets are not much better over there, and the mobile phone market is just as saturated; plus, they are rivals already entrenched with big brands in their respective regions. But the move…
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Making Your Marketing Dollars Go 20 Times Further
How can you get the most bang for your marketing dollar? If you are a Hewlett-Packard partner you may get your big chance to maximize your marketing investment this month. The company is bringing back phase 4 of its Co-Marketing program. The program calls for HP partners to contribute money, to which HP adds 15…
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Hey VAR, You Workin` My Side of the Street?
I’m not old enough to be this old school. The truth is, I’ve worked in the technology trade press longer than I’ve done anything else in my life, but I still don’t trust reporters who don’t have a requisite number of car wrecks and house fires and lost kids and city council meetings in their…
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Cognos Restricts Entry for IBM VARs
IBM VARs hoping to sell Cognos software following IBM’s acquisition of Cognos may have to think again, as Cognos officials told Channel Insider that the company is going to heavily control the number of new VARs entering its channel program. Mel Zeledon, vice president of Global Alliances and Channel at Cognos, said despite IBM buying…
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POS Innovations: Many Ways to Shop
Innovations in point-of-sale technology used to be about as exciting as, well, the unveiling of a new cash register from NCR or IBM. But that’s in the past. Nowadays, the POS market is far more complex and diverse with an abundance of kiosks, self-checkout units and line-busting mobile devices, many of which are part of…