September, 2009

Oh wait! There’s more

Still more news from HP just as folks were trying to digest the juicy tidbit that it’s about to meld its printer and PC businesses into one. 

This news is official, however. HP  brought in a former Sun exec to run sales for its  big storage, server and networking business in the Americas. Gee, I wonder what brought that on?  Randy Seidl will be senior vice president of Enterprise Servers and Storage  (ESS) and Networking Group, reporting to executive vice president Dave Donatelli. Continued »

Huge HP changes on deck

Whoa.

Is HP really going to converge its once-sacred printer business with the PC group? Yes, according to a Wall Street Journal report (password required) today. Continued »

Vista-reminiscent marketing blitz starts for Windows 7

When the geniuses behind WIndows 7 marketing came up with the idea for customer-hosted launch parties (and associated Windows 7 launch party prep videos) I’m sure they didn’ t expect the most common descriptor would be “cringe inducing.”

What this not-so-dynamic video foursome needs is not Windows 7 so much as cheap tequila. A lot of cheap tequila.

More on the festivities here.

HP, Microsoft moves irk partners

Hewlett Packard channel partners were unpleased to learn this week that HP will make them foot the bill for new compliance training.

HP wants all its parters to comply with the U.S. Government Foreign Corrupt Practices Act by year’s end. And said compliance will set them back $120 which they will be required to front on their credit card upon registration.

The goal is to make it “easy and affordable..for our channel partners to comply,” according to HP. The problem is, the FCPA is for “U.S. firms seeking to do business in foreign markets” and many of the affected HP partners are not authorized to sell HP products outside the U.S.

Well, at least they can charge it. Microsoft ERP partners were unpleased to learn that, starting in November, tehy won’t be able to fund their software license purchases with credit cards–corproate or otherwise. The reason? Microsoft was sick of the associated charges so now VARs must pay by check or PO.  The news was first highlighted in Bob Scott’s Insights last week. 

Check out more channel news at SearchITChannel.com.

Free help (sort of): CompTIA starts mentors program

Looking for some tips about marketing? Have a human resources question? Need some technical insight?

If you’re a member of CompTIA (there’s the caveat!), you now have access to a set of “Industry Mentors” you can consult about these and other business issues. Here are the people you can consult, as well as the topics they represent: Continued »

Big changes for spawn of Perot

Wow.  it was quite a week for the IT brainchildren of H. Ross Perot.

On Monday, Dell announces a $3.9 billion buyout of Perot Systems to bulk up its enterprise IT services against nemesis Hewlett Packard. Two day later, that same HP drops the venerable EDS moniker it acquired a few years ago for a cool $12 billion and change. Continued »

More shoes dropping at Yahoo

 Yahoo has put Zimbra email on the block, according to All Things D. Continued »

Microsoft starts testing Office Web Apps

Last year Microsoft promised light-weight, browser-born analogues to its Office applications juggernaut.
Today, it’s ready to let some invited outsiders test Office Web Apps. At least some of them. Continued »

Get inside the mind of the CIO with IBM’s latest global survey

I’m kind of guessing that you enjoy hearing about data that helps you get inside your customers’ head. So, here’s a pointer over to IBM’s latest global survey of more than 2,500 CIOs.

Key findings from “The New Voice of the CIO” research include the following factoids:

• 83 percent are investing in business intelligence and analytics technology to help improve their decision-making process
• 76 percent are planning or already in the middle of virtualization projects
• More than half are looking to standardize business processes (and the way technology supports them), across their company. So, it sounds like departments will have less authority to invest in renegade IT projects.

That last item in particular should be concerning to VARs and systems integrators that have managed to get in through the back door with projects in the past. As larger companies look to centralize their infrastructure more, it may be tougher to do that.

Check out more IT channel news on SearchITChannel.com.

Microsoft Golds can still sign up for ARC

It’s not too late to participate in Microsoft’s Analyst Relations for the Channel (ARC) pilot. Qualifying Gold partners can still sign on for Gartner or Forrester Research access until September 30. Continued »