News Story of the Week: Vendor neutral training and certification programs gain speed. New Program from Symantec receives good reviews from partners By ChannelMedia Editor Keith Newman kanewman@sbcglobal.net

Symantec has revamped its certification program to recognize vendor-neutral industry certifications thereby shortening the time it takes a partner to become certified while still ensuring that customers receive the highest level of certified security expertise. Symantec is also doing away with resellers paying for its training programs. Combined, the leading security software company is hoping to fill in some gaps in its channel coverage, particularly in key verticals, thus selectively expanding its number of partnerships.

“When I was out meeting with Solution Providers and the topic of training and certification programs cam up, the feedback was becoming increasingly onerous. Today, there are just more vendors with certification programs and that represents a major cost to resellers,” said Allyson Seelinger, Symantec's vice president of enterprise and consumer channels.

"Recognizing that vendor-neutral security certifications are proof of a partner's overall security knowledge, we revised our program to accept these certifications. Our program now focuses on testing a partner's knowledge of Symantec's strategy and solutions,” said Seelinger.

To streamline the certification program Symantec reduced the number of Symantec product specific exams into four security segment exams. These exams cover Symantec firewall and VPN technologies, Symantec vulnerability management technologies, Symantec intrusion detection technologies, and Symantec virus protection and content filtering technologies.

"It's great to see Symantec listening to partner feedback and taking the lead to revise its certification process," said Eric Gravett, CISSP, Senior Security Engineer at CompuNet Engineering. "Incorporating vendor-neutral certifications as part of the program requirements will make it easier for partners to become certified in a timely manner. Consolidating the Symantec content into fewer exams and reducing potential classroom time enables our consultants to spend more time in the field with customers."

Partners who have already achieved Symantec certifications will remain certified under the new program. All certifications are valid for 24 months from the date earned. For more information about the Symantec Certification Program and a listing of current classes, please visit http://www.symantec.com/education/index.html.

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Crossbeam Systems unveiled the Crossbeam Authorized Partner Program (CAPP) in North America. CAPP, already successfully launched in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) and Asia/Pacific regions, will greatly extend Crossbeam’s reach in North America by adding reseller partners to the company’s direct sales channels. This comes as Crossbeam announces the availability of the Crossbeam C30, a turnkey security services switch for medium-sized businesses and divisional offices of larger businesses. CAPP will establish Crossbeam’s channel sales efforts in North America, just as it has in the EMEA and Asia/Pacific markets. The program allows resellers to quickly expand their security business by offering Crossbeam’s high-performance security services switches. CAPP partners will also receive significant sales, marketing and consulting training, as well as additional services and benefits from Crossbeam aimed at generating new business and services revenues. “The program’s partner-friendly approach is unique in the industry for ensuring partner margins on projects that are co-sold with Crossbeam Systems,” said Mark Bennett, Crossbeam’s vice president of North American channel sales. “CAPP was created by working closely with our charter partners to develop business, and then rewarding them for the time invested with protected margins.”

InFocus announced the appointment of Phyllis McCullagh as Vice President, Americas Business Unit, which includes the United States, Canada and Latin America. In her twenty-three year career, McCullagh has held diverse sales, marketing and strategic development positions. Most recently, McCullagh served at CompTIA (The Computing Technology Industry Association) as Vice President of Sales and Marketing and Vice President of Member Engagement where she increased membership of IT companies by over 150 percent across manufacturers, resellers and distributors. Highlights of McCullagh's successful executive career include vice president positions at Tradeout.com, Gateway Inc. and Compaq. McCullagh has a proven track record of developing business units from inception to large, multi-billion dollar operations. "We are pleased to announce the appointment of Phyllis McCullagh to the InFocus leadership team. McCullagh brings solid marketing expertise, excellent sales accomplishments and wide-ranging managerial experience to InFocus. Her ability to develop strategic relationships and business opportunities that deliver incremental revenue will be key to our future success in the Americas," said Kyle Ranson, Executive Vice President, Worldwide Sales and Marketing of InFocus. "I look forward to working for an industry leader and helping to build on the great foundation and strategy that InFocus has developed. Their focus on strong customer relationship management is a great fit with my approach to growing business," stated McCullagh. "I welcome the challenge of working with a team that has demonstrated great success with the most innovative and comprehensive line of projectors in the industry."

CDW announced average daily sales for May 2003 of $167.845 million, up 1.3 percent over average daily sales the previous year of $16.629 million. May 2003 had 21 billing days with total sales of $353.8 million, while May 2002 had 22 billing days and total sales of $365.8 billion. Although corporate sector business remained slow, the public sector
business had double-digit growth from a year ago. CDW plans to report June sales on July 10, 2003.

Check Point Software recently announced PartnerMAP, an exclusive partner business portal designed to increase partner productivity by making it easier to access business tools and information and grow their business selling Check Point's market-leading Internet security solutions. Additionally, the company is enhancing its Check Point Partner program to bring additional rewards to partners in accordance with their level of investment in Check Point. Both announcements were made at The Check Point Experience, a series of premier business networking and informational events for Check Point partners and users. Check Point PartnerMAP is a customized business portal that improves productivity by instantly linking partners to a wealth of Check Point business tools and product, sales and marketing information. Further, it provides partners with real-time customer account and order tracking information, and simplifies the Check Point partnership processes by enabling partners to update their business profiles and manage their business plans online. These and other benefits are realized through a variety of PartnerMAP features such as:

-- Partner Query Center -- Provides partners with a real-time sales 'snapshot' for managing and tracking customer orders, product subscriptions and services.

-- E-Business -- Enables online processes for partners to manage their Partner Locator profile, as well as specify access rights per individuals on their staff to ensure that the right contacts view and update the right information.

-- E-Order -- Allows partners to order and send Check Point evaluation software directly and promptly to customers through online fulfillment.

Check Point will continue to enhance PartnerMAP functionality with new tools and capabilities that further simplify business and increase productivity for partners. By year's end, PartnerMAP will include the following new tools:

-- Automatic alert notifications of customer subscription expiration and renewals

-- Real-time leads status and information

-- Updated co-op marketing fund balances and expenditure recommendations

-- Extended E-order capabilities to include online collateral fulfillment

"I'm pleased that Check Point is taking additional steps to simplify knowledge transfer and enhance the partnership experience," said Mike Volk, vice president of sales for True North Solutions. "PartnerMAP streamlines required administration processes and provides me with customized, valuable information that helps me sell Check Point solutions -- thereby giving me more time to focus on growing our business." Check Point is enhancing its Check Point Partner programs with a new partner designation, Platinum, and the introduction of the "Check Points" Reward Program. The new Platinum-level partner designation is by invitation and granted to partners in accordance with their level of commitment to and investment in selling Check Point solutions. Some of the benefits include increased co-op funds, rebates for exceeding sales targets, priority listing on the Partner Locator and additional joint marketing activities and dedicated sales support. The "Check Points" rewards system is a joint-marketing program that enables partners to accumulate "points" or reward vouchers for Check Point certification training and testing. Rewards vouchers are earned through the completion of lead generation marketing activities that help Check Point Partners grow their security business. "We are continuously refining and enhancing our partner programs to reward partners and better equip them to sell and provide value-added service for our solutions," said Jerry Ungerman, president of Check Point Software Technologies. "Today's announcement underscores this and demonstrates Check Point's strong commitment to enabling our partners business success." Both PartnerMAP and the new program enhancements are available immediately to Check Point Partners. More information can be found at: www.checkpoint.com/partners.

NetScreen said that its purpose-built, integrated firewall and virtual private network (VPN) security appliances and systems have achieved Common Criteria Evaluation Assurance Level 4 (EAL4) certification. Common Criteria is an important worldwide evaluation standard for security products, recognized in 16 countries and mandated by many government agencies for their critical systems and network purchases. The Common Criteria EAL4 certification – backed by extensive analysis, verification and testing – is designed to assist prospective customers in judging the suitability of a security product measured against a set of security requirements and gives assurance that NetScreen’s certified firewall and VPN appliances have been rigorously tested and validated to meet these requirements. “NetScreen prides itself on building high-performance appliances and systems that meet rigorous security requirements while providing low cost of ownership,” said David Flynn, vice president of marketing for NetScreen. “EAL4 extends NetScreen’s Common Criteria certifications and, in conjunction with other certifications such as FIPS, ICSA labs and OSEC, demonstrates our commitment to deliver full-featured and highly effective solutions for government organizations, enterprises and carriers.”

Opsware, the leading provider of data center automation software, recently launched the Opsware Authorized Partner Program, which is designed to enable third-parties to deliver Opsware’s data center automation solutions to IT organizations worldwide. The new program will enable third-parties to resell and provide Opsware deployment and implementation services. The Opsware Authorized Partner Program targets solution providers who are in the business of providing IT optimization solutions. Some of the first partners in the program include EDS and Entessa an e-Business services and solutions company. "We have a strong relationship with Opsware - they are an innovative, cutting-edge company and we are pleased to be a founding member of their Authorized Partner Program," said Steve Lapekas, Offering Executive, Automated Hosting Services." EDS leads the industry with our 100% service level assurance for web and application hosting services and Opsware provides the necessary foundation for automating the management of these highly complex, heterogeneous computing environments." A fast growing category, data center automation software, enables IT organizations to dramatically reduce the labor costs associated with operating servers, software and distributed applications in data centers. According to Forrester Research, an IT organization can reduce the cost of provisioning a server by 80% using automation. Organizations can use Opsware software to automate otherwise costly operations, including provisioning, change management, patch management, application deployment, configuration tracking and other key server and application operations across Windows, Linux and UNIX servers and applications. Customers include Fortune 2000 corporations, government agencies and service providers. “We are pleased to announce the Opsware Authorized Partner Program and will provide our growing list of partners the support they need to resell and provide Opsware-related services to IT organizations worldwide,” said Sharmila Shahani, Senior Vice President of Marketing of Opsware. “This new program will allow us to expand our global presence and provide a new solution for partners providing IT optimizations services and solutions.”

The city of Munich said on Wednesday it would switch 14,000 computers from Microsoft's Windows operating system to rival Linux in a deal estimated to be worth tens of millions of euros. The decision is a blow to U.S. giant Microsoft, whose chief executive Steve Ballmer had personally campaigned for Microsoft's counter-offer to
the city, based on Windows XP. Microsoft has created two funds to discount its products against the emerging Linux software, which is eating into its most profitable business. "This strategic decision makes Munich less dependent on one IT supplier and sets a trend towards more competition," Munich mayor Christian Ude said in a statement. Analysts said Munich's decision to choose open source software, which means Linux, was a breakthrough.

"It is one of the largest desktop migrations to Linux ever seen," said Gartner Dataquest analyst Nikos Drakos in London. Linux suppliers welcomed the move by of one of Germany's largest cities, where many of the country's biggest corporations have their headquarters.

"You can compare this to the fall of the Berlin Wall," said Richard Seibt, Chief Executive of Linux software provider Suse. Suse is bidding for the Linux contract together with IBM. Linux is considered by many to be the only big rival to Microsoft's Windows and can already be found on 15 percent of all computers sold in Western Europe. A Microsoft spokesman in Munich said his company was still at hand if the city found that certain units could not switch over to Linux. "Some applications do not run on Linux," he said. The Munich decision comes as the German government is installing Linux throughout certain ministries and public institutions. In the northern state of Lower Saxony, 11,000 police computers will be switched from Microsoft Windows to Linux from next year, according to the interior ministry.

NEWS

Nexsan Announces Strategic Partner Program to Develop and Co-Market Total Storage Solutions
by ChannelMedia Staff

Nexsan and Arkivio said they will jointly develop and market a complete automated storage management solution incorporating Nexsan's advanced disk-based storage systems and the ARKIVIO™ auto-stor storage management software. Arkivio is the first company to qualify and become a Nexsan Strategic Solutions (S2) Program Partner. The Arkivio-Nexsan partnership will result in an ideal product for resellers that deliver complete data management solutions incorporating data resource management and policy-based automation. Advanced disk-based storage is rapidly becoming the top choice for a variety of industries and applications, including digital film/video/audio, imaging and analytics, and transaction-intensive financial environments. “This is a brand new program, driven by the needs of the channel. We are very excited about this new partner and the overall program. We are seeing strong demand for customers and partners alike," said Rik Mussman, Vice President of Technical Services. The Arkivio-Nexsan solution evaluates and classifies data over its lifecycle and automatically and seamlessly migrates files from heterogeneous SAN/NAS/DAS environments to the Nexsan systems according to pre-defined policies. Customers benefit from reduced cost per managed terabyte of storage as they increase utilization of the Nexsan cost-correct storage systems, as well as improved productivity levels by automating storage management tasks such as data storage discovery, analysis, and migration. The joint solution will carry a "Nexsan certified" designation and be included in the company's award-winning family of products.

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Many organizations are shifting towards an emphasis on business, not technology, as the fulcrum of the sales conversation, and seeing decision making move from the IT department to business unit managers and corporate executives. Many IT Solution Providers are reacting to these changes by investing in the sales training required to compete in this changing market.

The skills required for success today include strategic selling, complex solution positioning, relationship management, collaboration and leadership, and a high degree of business acumen. This in turn means that IT sales people will be required to regularly enhance their skills if they are to remain competitive, and sales training is key part of any skills enhancement program. How they balance sales training alternatives and how effectively they leverage sales training alternatives will greatly dictate the future success of their sales efforts.

Gartner recently conducted research on current IT solution provider sales training initiatives, exploring the objectives that these companies have for sales training, the external companies they use, and the results of their sales training programs.

Many IT solution providers are answering the challenge with multi-faceted sales training programs that leverage best-of-breed training offerings and carefully measure the impact of, and reinforce, the learned skills. Others, though, are still focussed on basic skills and conduct little follow-up.

What the research revealed

• Participating companies are motivated to conduct sales training primarily to develop advanced selling skills, and services and/or solutions selling skills.
• Most participants (66%) conduct sales training internally. Those who conduct sales training externally used a wide variety of providers, with two technology providers, Siebel and IBM, receiving the greatest number of mentions.
• On average, participants spend $2,222, per student per class for external sales training. Participants’ average an annual budget for sales training is $886,000, ranging from $27,000 for small participants to nearly $2.5 million for large participants. Most participants expected their annual sales training investment to remain constant in the near-term. Those that plan a sales training budget increase expect average increases of 62.3%
• Surprisingly, over half of participants’ sales training initiatives are not subsequently measured, assessed, and reinforced after the training is completed (and over 60% for external training initiatives). The primary skills that are measured are the size of the sales pipeline, revenue production, and the closing ratio.
• Two-thirds of the participants experienced a sales productivity increase as a result of sales training efforts. Most that saw an increase in productivity indicate that the increase was in the 10-25% range.
• The selling skills that are reported to be most deficient within the participating companies are prospecting, complex selling, and strategic selling. Two-thirds believe that experience, not training, is the best source to acquire these skills, even though 91% believe that sales training can significantly contribute to closing the gap in selling skills deficiencies within their companies.

What should you do now?

• IT solution providers should increase usage of external training companies, especially for more complex skills. Training is not a core competence for most of these IT firms.
• IT solution providers that simply use available vendor training based on cost should re-evaluate their training requirements and at least evaluate alternatives to insure that they are applying the best training alternative to each area of skill development.
• IT solution providers that have stagnant sales training budgets should increase emphasis and budget or the skills of their sales people will not improve significantly enough to remain competitive. In other words, invest or perish!
• All sales training initiatives should be assessed and measured or not even initiated. Either measure and reinforce, or don’t do it!
• The skills that are measured need to extend beyond traditional revenue and sales pipeline considerations. Strategic measurements should now include business acumen, relationship management, and industry or solution sales results
• IT solution providers should balance recruiting and training in their strategies to elevate and optimize the effectiveness of their selling efforts.
• Sales training programs need to be aligned with the strategic objectives of the company and sponsored at senior executive levels in order to insure optimal impact and cultural application.

Criteria for Selecting Specific Sales Training Companies

N=43
Source: Gartner Dataquest (March 2003)

Sales Training Impact on Sales Productivity

Percentage of respondents
Source: Gartner Dataquest (March 2003)

Louis DaRe has been involved in the PC Software industry for 20 years. In 1984 he joined Government Technology Services, Inc. a major reseller and system integrator of computer products for the US Government Market. During this time Mr. DaRe was instrumental in acquiring the exclusive right to sell IBM PCs to the US Federal Government (the first time in its history IBM did not sell directly to the Federal Government). This contract resulted in $80 million in Sales the first year. Between 1984 and 1990 Mr. DaRe was Vice President Operations, Vice President of Product Marketing, and General Manager while Sales grew from $10 million to $300 million. In 1996 he joined Executive Software International as Vice President of Sales where he has help to expand Executive Software’s Windows Product Sales in the U.S. and Internationally.

Q. Give us an update on the renowned Executive Software, if you please?

A. Executive Software is doing great and poised for growth in its current product lines as well as expanded product offerings. Our Diskeeper Home Edition just won the Editors Choice Award at PC Magazine. We are expanding into the consumer market and our SMB and Enterprise business continues to grow. Executive Software genesis is in the enterprise, mission critical market place. We still deliver in that arena to our Corporate Customers. Now we are bringing our superior technology to the consumer also.

Q. Where are you seeing the strongest demand for your software?

A. Corporate customers are looking for value. The demand is for products which improve productivity, reduce down time, and give a true and substantial ROI. Consumers want to really get something for their money and are getting pickier – less compulsive – in their buying. They want value. Like all of Executive software products, our flagship product, Diskeeper, delivers just that.

Q. And how is the channel playing a role?

A. We recently re-organized some of our operations at Executive Software to better ensure that we are fully supporting the channel. Our aim is 100% through the channel. Recently, after a couple of snafus, a major Fortune 500 corporate customer ended up sending a purchase order directly to Executive Software which was then processed. We immediately contacted the Reseller and within three days delivered a substantial payment to cover the sale they should have received.

Q. Finally, why should people buy Diskeeper when there is a built-in defragmenter in Windows 2000, XP and 2003?

A. The full Diskeeper defragmenter is leagues above what comes in Windows. It is more powerful, more thorough, faster and has many more features. Diskeeper can be scheduled to run in the background and has Smart Scheduling whereby it determines the best schedule to run on your PC. It runs in the background without impacting work you are doing. It defragments some files that the built-in does not touch. Compared to Diskeeper running the built-in is a costly proposition. As they say “free software is not free”. Running the built-in manually (it is not set up to be scheduled to automatically in the background) is not better than nothing. It can choke on large files and just freeze up. We get asked that question a lot. If you understand what the built-in does and what Diskeeper can do for your system, it’s a no-brainer – buy Diskeeper.

RESEARCH

Q&A with Mark Hatton, Vice President of Sales at Sophos, Inc.

Q: Why do you feel that Sophos is a great partner for the Channel?

A: The Sophos Partner Program offers the Channel the key aspects of a partnership that we think they value: higher gross margins, an organization that really wants to work with them and a focus on growing our partners business in conjunction with our own business. Our Channel is not an afterthought; we weigh the impact of every decision on our partners to ensure that we are doing the right thing for everyone. From executive management to the sales force, there is a firm belief that you can still have a healthy partnership between the Channel and the vendor.

Q: How do you feel Sophos gives the Channel a unique presence in the security market?

A: Sophos is focused exclusively on providing a network-centric anti-virus solution that is second to none. Our dedication to the business customer is reflected in the technology, sales and technical support that we provide to our partners and their customers. That is why we don’t charge extra for 24x7x365 live body support because when a virus outbreak hits, that is when you need your AV vendor the most. Unlike other companies in the anti-virus industry, we do what we say we will do, what is best for the customer. We know that the reputation of our partners will partially rest on the strength and value of our product. We are committed to provide the corporate market the best anti-virus product possible, and this helps our partners as well.

Q: Why is the Channel an important part of your sales strategy?

A: Sophos is co-dependent with our Channel. We know that we cannot sustain the 50% growth year over year that we have achieved without the assistance of our partners. We simply could not hire enough direct sales people to have the impact that a good partnership can provide. Our inside direct sales team is compensated for indirect business, along with our Channel sales organization to ensure that the flow of business from Sophos to the Channel and back to Sophos is not impeded.

Q: How are you encouraging the role of the Channel in your organization?

A: Sophos has dedicated significant resources to the Channel organization. In the past year, we have more than quadrupled the number of people that exclusively focus on strengthening our Channel relationships. We are also building a sales organization that has experience working effectively with the Channel. Our top sales people are also the biggest Channel champions so our entire organization sees how valuable great partnerships are to sales and Sophos Anti-Virus.

Q: Why are more organizations are switching to Sophos?

A: Sophos is a world leader in anti-virus solutions for businesses, providing top-quality virus detection, superior customer service and broad platform support. Organizations are often stunned when they uncover their true cost of ownership of their current anti-virus product. With Sophos’ patented InterCheck technology, users are ensured that their systems are always protected with minimal impact on system resources, helping you avoid the unnecessary cost of hardware upgrades demanded by other anti-virus products. Sophos’ virus identity updates are released as necessary on the Sophos website and automatically distributed through Enterprise Manager/Remote Update almost daily and are generally smaller than 1 Kbyte in size. According to a quarterly evaluation customer feedback conducted by Sophos in April 2003, most switched to Sophos from other anti-virus solutions due to their instability and tendency to slow down user’s systems to the point where the users turned off their anti-virus protection. Every Sophos license includes 24x7x365 technical support and comprehensive protection for multiple platforms, including legacy systems and you won’t find any hidden fees or complicated support structures to decipher. Also, with every Sophos license covering five or more users, SAV can be distributed to staff for use on their home PCs at no further cost. Sophos’ increasingly rapid growth internationally is reflected in a user base of well over 20 million and revenues, which soared by nearly 40% in the year 2002-2003. Sophos products are sold and supported in over 150 countries through a global network of subsidiaries and partners. Its solutions are specifically designed to protect businesses and organizations of all sizes against viruses and are widely deployed by corporations, financial institutions, government agencies and academic institutions. In a field where virus numbers typically rise by approximately 800 per month, Sophos’ foresight and innovative approach have kept it at the forefront of the market. All Sophos products provide easily administered, superior virus protection with low performance overhead. Combining outstanding engineering and technology, Sophos software protects all key points in a company’s IT infrastructure:

Q: Why should resellers partner with Sophos?

A: With Sophos, security Value-Added Resellers, system integrators and consultants are not just providing software but rather the highest quality anti-virus solution and services to corporate, government and educational organizations within the North American market. This is what sets Sophos apart from its competition and keeps our Partners’ customers coming back year after year. The Sophos Partner Program (SPP) gives our Partners the opportunity to sell professional services, technical support, as well as network management and maintenance for limitless recurring revenue. In order to make available the best program, we have three levels of partnership: Authorized Reseller, Partner and Certified Partner. Status within the program is determined by factoring new business generation, completion of training courses and professional services provided around the Sophos solution. Partners will receive margin and rebate totaling within between 20% and 40% depending on eligibility and quota attainment. We also offer joint marketing resources and funds, free online training, two-day technical lab training throughout the country and sales incentives to make our program the most attractive in the industry.

Want to Learn More?

Please join us for the Sophos – The Better Partner web seminar, held monthly. Additional information is at http://www.sophos.com/products/training/webseminars/. The Sophos Partner Program represents a long-term investment of time and commitment with tremendous revenue upside potential. If you are up to the challenge and excited by the possibility, we welcome new Partners to join a worldwide network that is already profiting from their relationship with Sophos, the corporate solution to Anti-Virus. Contact the Channel Team at ssp@sophos.com or 888-SOPHOS9 to learn more about this great opportunity.

FROM THE COMMUNITY Changing Channels By Steve Cross

Is Working With Your Company a Pain in the Neck?

I advise some objectivity for this exercise. It's tough to be truly objective about your own company or practices but its really important to take your corporate “ego” out of this exercise and look at how easy or hard it is to work with your company's processes. Why do you want to do this? Well, looking at your processes can turn up opportunities to enhance revenue, turns, and even branding and marketing effectiveness. For example, too long a trial period impedes sales, slow shipping drags out re-orders, poor web-branding forces an increase in inbound phone calls (If they can't spell you, they can't find you: Gazoontite.com comes to mind here. Remember them?).

Some of this stuff is not obvious. Consulting for a software company a while back, I was early for a meeting with their CEO, so while cooling my heels in the lobby I noticed the receptionist got a ton of inbound calls. After listening to the responses, it was evident that about 80% of the receptionist's time was spent telling people how to spell either the company name or the product name. During the meeting with their CEO, I mentioned this problem and the suggested fix: buy some straightforward URLs and redirect. Also, buy the mis-spellings of the words, which they did. During the next month, web traffic was up (not dramatically) but inbound phone calls were way down. They save money, and maybe made a couple bucks. Not a bad call. The company spent a few dollars and helped some customers to find them more easily.

Other examples are pretty darn obvious. There are companies who design their internal processes for themselves rather than for the people (like customers, for example) who will use them.

Recently I had an experience with a company whose evaluation process for software was difficult and slow. These are egregious errors if your objective is to get people to try stuff prior to buying. They had to get internal sign-off for every trial. Of course, this wasn't $20 software, but please! Physical sign-off on evals....hey, join the 21st century. The objective of a software company is to sell software to the target market. If achieving that means short-cutting paperwork, and greasing the skids of evaluations (mixed metaphors, sorry, SC) then that's what you have to do. Do not be a slave to proper paperwork. Rather be a servant of improved customer service.

These are sort of outrageous examples, but are there things that your company could do to fix your business model so that your vendors, resellers, customers, etc can work with you more easily? Give it a try!

Contact Steve Cross at steve@crosschannel.com, 702-492-7472.

Editor's Note: Steve is a top channel consultant who offers services from one-day brainstorming sessions to complete channel strategy plans. He has helped numerous companies to increase revenue and enhance their channel success.

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