Recent Articles
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Apple Smoking Policy Has VARs Fuming
Word of Apple and its authorized maintenance partners’ denial of service to smokers broke when the Consumerist reported two instances where Mac users were denied service because they smoked cigarettes. A commenter on this blog said they were a victim of this “unwritten” policy, too, and it wasn’t recent. “You better believe it. They pulled…
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GN Netcom Updates Deal Registration, Training Tools
GN Netcom appealed to the channel early this week with an announcement that it would tweak its Jabra Partner Program for North America in an effort to improve deal registration and learning programs and better support partners focused on Unified Communications. The headset manufacturer has enrolled more than 200 channel partners since first launching its…
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HP, HDS Beef Up Back-Up
In separate announcements, storage heavyweights HP and Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) have expanded their data protection product line-ups. HP Data Protector Notebook Extension enables users to back up and recover data while working remotely and offline, while the HP Backup and Recovery Fast Track Services is a suite of scalable service engagements. At the same…
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Finding Something Good About 2009
OK, it’s an understatement to say 2009 wasn’t exactly a banner year for the economy. The recession hit everybody hard, and the IT industry, including the channel, was no exception. Even as many companies managed to turn quarterly profits—albeit very modest ones—these came mainly as a result of deep cost-cutting, not revenue generation. And not…
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Maintenance Contracts Commoditized as Vendors and VARs Compete
Remember when selling computer hardware was a good business? These days VARs are looking to the sale of services and other items for higher margins. But the recession may have taken the wind out of another business – the sale of maintenance contracts. This kind of sale is becoming more of commodity, according to Tina…
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Survey Links IT Investment to Corporate Success
In the third of four related studies, Ronin Corp., a market research firm with offices in Princeton N.J. and London, has linked the role of IT in separating the winners from the losers as this recession draws to a close. Looking to build on the McKinsey findings that ‘strategic’ companies emerge stronger from recessions while…
