Vendor partner business issues

Tata starts Web 2.0 business practice

Taking a break from writing a couple of presentations for next week's distributor Synnex's Varnex community event to write about an interesting announcement I saw yesterday from Tata Consultancy Services and

Top 3 emerging company success factors

In my last entry we discussed becoming the emerging technology experts in your field, the guys that can fully vet and recommend the right technology to clients. While you can...

Reseller ROI: Becoming an emerging technologies expert

As discussed in an earlier blog post, the next few years are going to be all about making sure your customers know that spending dollars with you is a wiser investment than spending dollars with another...

Why financing or leasing can be a deal-maker

I attended a partner conference last week hosted by distributor Westcon, where I was honored to facilitate their opening industry panel. I'm not allowed to report on who exactly said what, but I can tell you that one sleeper topic (actually, not-so-sleeper but not-so-talked-about) among the five...

Are you leverageable?

I spend much of the week speaking with suppliers about their solutions, and as you can imagine in almost every conversation the subject of the channel comes up. I'm surprised how little manufacturers understand about the channel and how to properly leverage the channel. So the first question is:...

Reseller ROI: Eliminating evaluations

In my last blog entry, I talked about how critical it is to communicate your ROI to customers. But how can you improve upon your ROI? Well, one way is to eliminate -- or at least shrink -- the evaluation...

Circuit City sinks further into sunset

More bad news: Circuit City is shuttering 155 of its 760 stores and laying off their staffs. The cuts will affect thousands of employees and end Circuit City's presence in 55 markets. The stores will...

VARs: What’s your ROI?

Over the next few months, you're going to see a dramatic shift in marketing from your supplier partners. The theme of their marketing will shift from all the cool stuff they can do to how much money they can save customers. Rapid ROI, or ROI now, is going to be the drumbeat. But what about you? Are...

Microsoft fills in some cloudware bits with Azure

As expected, Microsoft started to talk up some details of its cloud computing strategy Monday at its Professional Developers Conference.

Amidst all the cloud talk, there were a few deliverables...

PDC priority: Proving Microsoft’s mojo

Has Microsoft lost its mojo? There's something different in the air. Microsoft is doing its best to drum up an uproar around next week's Professional Developers Conference (PDC). The company's code-name generator is in overdrive -- nothing new there. But it's become painfully obvious that the...