Recent Articles
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Ingram Trims the Fat for SMB VARs
Distributor Ingram Micro recast its SMB Alliance community for small and midsize business market VARs with fuller support, but for 1,500 fewer partners. The distributor cut the group to 3,500 VARs from a peak of 5,000, but stuffed the program with more benefits and support including financing programs, SMB targeted marketing, customized vendor programs and…
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Profits Drive Loyalty
For any successful solution provider, profitability begets loyalty. In other words, the more a vendor helps drop profits to the bottom line of the solution provider, the more likely it is that the solution provider is going to recommend the products of that vendor to its customers. This is an important fact of life for…
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Striking the Right SMB Managed Services Balance
Two characteristics of the IT industry are the continuous development of more complex technologies and the evolutionary business models designed to capitalize on these advancements. The latest of these business models is the managed services support model. When I speak to VARs about the managed services industry, it is commonly defined by two key services:…
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Arrow Packs 82 IBM Certs into May Days
Enabling VARs and making their lives a little easier is now the name of the game for distributors, according to Mike Nowlan of Arrow Electronics. It is no longer enough to source and move product, said Nowlan, director of product marketing at Arrow Enterprise Computer Solutions’ IBM Business Unit. “The end game is to enable…
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Sun: Java Coming to a PC Near You
Sun Microsystems is close to announcing an effort designed to preload its Java software on more PCs across the world. The Santa Clara, Calif., computer maker is expected to announce on May 16 at its JavaOne conference a streamlined process for licensing of its Java Platform, Standard Edition or Java SE to PC makers. The…
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Access Distribution Jumps into Managed Services
Access Distribution just took a decisive step to define the role of distributors in managed services through a partnership with analytics software vendor Klir Technologies. The distributor, a General Electric subsidiary, is extending Klir’s Hosted IT Analytics platform through a software-as-a-service arrangement to VARs and integrators that want to set themselves up as MSPs (managed…
