Recent Articles
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Amazon’s New Electronics Brand Competes with VARs
Amazon announced late last week that it will sell a new private-label collection of optical media, cables and other consumer electronics accessories in a gambit that’s sure to rile the channel. Known as AmazonBasics, the new line adds another layer of competition in a product niche known to offer VARs particularly good margins. “We saw…
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SMB Surveys Reveal Mixed Results
A trio of new surveys indicates that SMBs will: (a) be reducing their budgets 4 percent this year (Forrester Research); (b) make significant investments in new hardware and software over the next six months (Spiceworks); and (c) believe the economy will improve moderately by the end of the year (PartnerUp). So basically, pick your survey…
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Cisco Looks to Boost Profits for Resellers Serving Small Business
Looking to improve its relationships with channel partners that serve the small business market, Cisco this week has announced a new partner profitability framework that enhances several financial benefits to better serve the needs of smaller channel partners, plus a new unified threat management device and an improved entry-level unified communications system. The moves come…
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Fujitsu, Lenovo Unveil Multitouch Tablets, Laptop PCs Ahead of Windows 7 Release
Touch-screens are certainly nothing new in systems from kiosks to iPhones, but now the technology is more often making its way into standard-sized mobile PCs – tablets and even laptops. Case in point is a set of product releases from Fujitsu and Lenovo this week – systems that provide “multitouch” as an option in anticipation…
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Selling Google Apps: One Partner’s Story
Many solution providers are unsure if there is real opportunity to be had in partnering with Google. The answer is yes. But the ones who will benefit most from the relationship appear will be those willing to make the greatest overall commitment. Just ask Shawn Wilke, president of Sheepdog Inc., a Nova Scotia-based company that…
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HP Unveils Global Business Unit for Managed Print Services
With rumblings of deep changes under way in the printer technology market, Hewlett-Packard has announced a raft of changes to its print product portfolio, alliances, services and channel partner program. The changes include the introduction of a new program to help resellers get on board with managed print services. And the changes are designed to…