News Channel Life By ChannelMedia Editor Keith Newman kanewman@sbcglobal.net

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Hey, Mr. Vendor, you say you want to build a new reseller strategy? You say you want to build meaningful alliances? You want to know what I say: You want the Channel? You can’t handle the Channel!

You want to make an impact in the Channel? In this environment? Forget it! If you’re still reading this, congratulations, you actually may have a chance. But here’s what you need to do. First, forget everything you know about the Channel. Negotiating discounts, credit terms and marketing funds is out. Way out. It’s not even old school anymore. It’s prehistoric. Instead, ask yourself what specific problem (Technology), at what specific type company (Size/Vertical) do I solve for what specific type of person (Job Title). Sorry. Security, WANs, Wireless Access are not problems They are categories of products that serve markets. Be hard on yourself. Your “channel prospect” will be much harder. This is the litmus test. There are a few other key questions that you need to answer internally before you look to promote yourself externally.

1. Do you solve a meaningful problem?
2. Do you have the ability to promote this product and create demand around your ability to solve a customer’s problem?
3. Are you able to commit sufficient resources to your Channel Partner that will allow them to successfully blend your technology into the customers IT landscape?
4. Are you willing to turn this sale over to your “partner” who will work with your team to integrate your product into the customer’s solution?
5. Are you willing to support your channels just as you would (or do) your internal sales effort?

I believe the companies that have analyzed these questions and came up with the best answers are the one’s who have leading channel practices. Of coups, these are just some of the questions you need to ask before you can truly “handle” the channel. What else is key? What am I missing?

I look forward to your comments, please send to kanewman@sbcglobal.net. Also, I look forward to seeing you all in Hollywood, next month.
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News Launching a Company – Some Real Pros Consera Software By Steve Cross

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One of the perks of being a pseudo-journalist is that I hear about some great stuff before anyone else, and get to interview some very good people in our industry. Recently interviewed Consera Software’s (www.consera.com) VP of Marketing, Pamela Roussos. From management team, channel strategy, pricing, and product, this outfit is really well thought-out, nicely positioned, and professional. Good niche: server management software.

Pricing model is excellent; Consera prices the stuff like a server add-on, rather than some sort of enterprise suite. Instead of $20,000, $40,000 etc. per installation, Consera has priced Agile One, its first product, at $659 per server. Makes so much sense, and is so complimentary to a channel approach. Instead of squeezing some enterprise pricing into the channel and trying to make it fit the reseller business model, Consera has really built a model that supports the channel from the ground up. Agile One is priced like a server-side anti-virus or back-up product, to facilitate ease of sales and convenience for the resellers.

Consera uses in-house Business Development Managers who support partners with pre-sales and post-sales, with marketing, sales, and follow-up. One big difference is that Consera does not have a professional services group to compete with their resellers. I consider that a bonus for resellers, as many of our reseller friends make a significant portion of their revenue (and earnings) from services.

Agile One starts shipping this month and is launching with six key reseller partners. The management team has done their homework, and the legwork necessary to pull this off. Consera is highly focused on the mid-market, working through resellers who call on end-user companies with 40 or more servers. To me, this looks like resellers focused on companies in that $100 million up range.

Consera has put together a team of executives with what seems like decades of channel experience. President Frank Artale was VP at Veritas for the Windows Solutions Group, and served 9 years in various positions at Microsoft, including GM of Windows 2000 Group (he did a great job…Windows 2000 Professional is the best operating system I’ve ever used, and I’ve used them all, starting with CP/M). Pamela Roussos, who I interviewed for this article, is the real deal too; with a great track record at both Pure Atria and Rational, she also has CEO experience at 555-1212.com. The sales guy is VP David Roth, 15 year veteran from Microsoft, Amdahl, and PCSI.

Interesting product, great team, well-thought-out positioning, super pricing model. Let’s keep our eyes on this one.

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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NEWS

Let’s Talk Business
You’re Not Running a Business
By Larry Kesslin

The technology marketplace is littered with companies that are desperately trying to make it through this current market downturn. Many have made it through this past year by the skin of their teeth but their prospects for the future look grim. While there are many good reasons for these business failures, I believe that the main reason is a simple one: most of these technology companies were never really healthy businesses in the first place. The founders of these businesses were good salespeople, or good technicians, or good networkers who took advantage of a rare but powerful technology boom in the 90’s.

Sure, some of the 100,000 plus VARs in the marketplace have built solid companies, but they’re the exception not the rule.

Over my career I have had the privilege to meet and work with thousands of small business owners. I spent the first 10 years of my career in the technology field selling, and I have spent the past eight building a company with three partners with the mission of helping entrepreneurs and business owners improve their businesses. During this process I have learned first-hand that running a profitable and successful business is a challenging task, even in the best of economies. And this is definitely not the best of economies.

So what’s wrong with all of these companies? Let me start at the beginning. Running a business is not just selling, or managing people, or leadership, or marketing, or finance, or lead generation, client retention or lead conversion. A business is all of these things -combined !! Unfortunately, most entrepreneurs have talent in only one or two of these areas. These skill sets alone do not qualify anyone to run an effective business.

So what’s my point? My point is that the great technology boom of the 90’s led to the creation of thousands of mediocre companies. While many experienced great short-term success, the feeding frenzy also did a great job of hiding the enormous shortcomings of most of these businesses. In addition, most owners spent the majority of their time looking 6 inches in front of their faces with little or no thought to where the market was going 2-3 years down the road. The resulting carnage has been ugly but predictable and in my opinion, completely deserved.

So, what is the solution to building a REAL business?

First-hire good people ! Identify what you’re good at and then surround yourself with great people, people smarter and more experienced then you, who can add all of the other skill sets that you’re business needs to last though good times and bad.

Second - LEARN! Continuously learn! Get a mentor, or two, or three. Get a personal coach. Develop a mastermind group (a collection of other business owners) and meet with them regularly.

Third-look at the big picture. As Wayne Gretsky always said, “Knowing where the puck is, is not important, knowing where the puck is going to be, and being there, is!” Being a good business owner does not mean coming into the office at 7 AM and leaving at 7 PM wondering what you got accomplished. If you never take any time away from the business to think about how to be more effective as a leader you’ll never be able to survive when the economy goes to hell. And trust me, the economy always goes to hell eventually.

Finally, get off the fact that you think you know everything! Even the best entrepreneurs of all don’t know everything there is to know about running and operating a business, there is just too much to know. Your business tends to be a reflection of you, so if you are good at the sales, then your company will probably get a lot of new customers, but customer service and retention, along with the managing finances etc. will always be a challenge. The sooner you accept this fact and do something about it-the better.

So build a good business, hire bright people, service your clients and have fun. You only live once and taking the risk of starting your own business, in good times and bad, is the only way to go. But always remember, it’s the stuff you don’t know that will kill you J

This article was written for ChannelMedia by Larry Kesslin, President, Let's Talk Business Network, Inc. To comment on the article or to learn more about LTBN contact Larry at Larry@LTBN.com.

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NEWS

Channel Digest
Gartner: Server Shipment Data Shows HP Still on Top
By ChannelMedia Staff

According to preliminary results from Gartner Dataquest, HP maintained its worldwide lead in server shipment during the second quarter. Total worldwide server shipments during the second quarter were 1.28 million units, a 17.6 percent increase over a year ago. Of this, HP captured 29.5 percent of the market with 376,100 units, an increase of nearly 16 percent from the prior year. Dell took second place with 20.5 percent of the market and 261,600 units, a 33 percent increase year-over-year, and IBM came in third with 15.7 percent of the market and almost 200,000 units, an increase of 33.5 percent over the previous year.

Netgear Inc., a maker of computer networking products, raised $98 million in an initial public offering, underwriter Lehman Brothers said. Netgear sold 7 million shares in the IPO at $14 each, the top of the expected range of $12 to $14. Earlier, Netgear raised the anticipated price range from $10-$12, Lehman said.

A support community comprised of vendors of the Linux operating system was formed that initially includes BEA, Dell, EMC, HP, Network Appliance, Novell, SuSE, Unisys, VERITAS, and VMware. The group enables standard collaboration processes and mechanisms for independent software vendors, operating system manufacturers, and independent hardware suppliers, with a common objective of providing mission-critical support to enterprise customers. The Linux group is the fourth open group community formed within the Technical Support Alliance Network (TSANet), the industry’s largest vendor-neutral support alliance.

From the Community: Open Field Software just launched Ella for Spam, with Electronic Learning Assistance. Ella is already winning a lot of users in the IT marketplace because it learns what you think is Spam, what you like to read right away, and what you like to file to read later. No filters, nothing to set. The user just installs, clicks on ten mails in their inbox, so Ella learns what’s what, and that’s it. I’ve been using it for weeks, and it is fabulous. The best anti-spam piece on the market, according to some users. It works with MS-Outlook, and will soon support Express and other mail clients. Active reseller program; contact Robert Bixby, VP Sales, 831-466-6873, bixby@openfieldsoftware.com.

Gateway announced a strategic relationship with IBM Global Services to provide on-site and field support for Gateway’s systems and networking division. Under the terms of the agreement, IBM Global Services will offer premium support on all Gateway server products including field-based support, on-site repair, parts logistics, and infrastructure and professional services. The partnership will enable Gateway to geographically expand its support services and will be a critical component of Gateway’s LifeCycle Services platform that provides organizations with hardware, support, and related services from installation and training to disposal.

Maxtor has enhanced its support and services offerings and rebranded them as MaxServices. Maxtor® MaxServices programs streamline support processes and provides customers with access to Maxtor's worldwide expertise on a regional basis. MaxServices incorporates Maxtor's current service and support programs, which
include:

• Responsive phone and 24x7 online end user support.
• In-country RMA replacement programs for registered resellers in select emerging
  markets around the world.
• Maxtor VIP Partner Program (www.maxtorvip.com) with phone center and online
  support in the European Union (EU) and the Americas.
• MaxLabs -- a global, distributed set of design, integration and test services
  to optimize hard disk drive-based platforms for the consumer electronics market
  for global OEMs and qualified designers.

Included in the MaxServices offerings are MaxLabs testing and OEM customer support centers in California, Colorado, Massachusetts, Ireland and Singapore. MaxServices support programs address individual needs across the range of Maxtor customers and channel partners, whether they are an end user, reseller, VAR or global OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer).

"Offering a global support infrastructure that encourages continued process improvement to our partners and customers is critical for their success as well as ours," said Mike Cordano, executive vice president of worldwide sales and marketing at Maxtor. "MaxServices offerings leverage Maxtor's global infrastructure to support customer qualifications and validate HDD operational environments for consumer and non-PC applications. These services underscore our industry leadership and sophistication in service and support worldwide, as well as our ongoing commitment to the customer."

Dantz Development has selected D&H Distributing to help fulfill rapidly increasing demand for Dantz Retrospect backup and restore software, widely used in small and midsize businesses. The two companies complement each other with their mutual focus on the SMB market. D&H has a strong distribution presence in key vertical markets including consumer electronics, government and education, entertainment, and security. The Dantz Retrospect family of products provides the best-in-class data protection required by these vertical segments, "The demand for applications that are easy to deploy and manage has created significant opportunities for our two companies," said Dan Schwab, vice president of marketing at D&H Distributing. "Data protection is a key profit area for our resellers, and Dantz brings a strong addition to our line with superior backup and restore software targeted specifically for our core markets."

"D&H excels in product availability and technical knowledge, and has a remarkable reputation among its customers, so we are pleased to be included in their offerings," said George McAfee, vice president of worldwide sales at Dantz. "There is a great deal of synergy between D&H and Dantz in identifying the right product and sales strategies to benefit solution providers and delivering quality service and support to end users." Backup, disaster recovery, and business continuity tend to be the sole bright spots within otherwise lackluster technology markets. IDC predicts annual growth of 6.9% in backup and recovery as well as 12.9% annual growth in general business continuity purchasing, including software and hardware, by 2006.D&H¹s distribution facilities throughout the United States now stock the full line of Retrospect products for both Windows and Macintosh.

ACS Software, developer of the AutoEDMS Document Management and Workflow Solution, is offering a low cost service to implement a solution that will automate the synchronization of the AutoEDMS database with AutoCAD drawing titleblocks. "The AutoEDMS Titleblock Synchronization (ATS) solution," explained ACS President, Todd Hays, "will eliminate the time consuming hand-entry of titleblock data into AutoEDMS, giving our customers a sizable return on their investment — which they’ll start realizing with the first titleblock data extracted." The ATS solution ensures that the most current information from AutoCAD drawings will be reflected in the AutoEDMS database. This solution has no limits on the number of users, the number of Forms, or the number of supported titleblocks.

Becky Smith is currently vice president of worldwide distribution sales for Hitachi Global Storage Technologies. She is responsible for sales worldwide with Hitachi’s distributors, integrators, resellers and Tier 2 OEMs.

She previously served as vice president of North America HDD (hard disk drives) Sales for IBM's Technology Group. Becky started her sales career at IBM in 1976 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Since that time, she has held a number of sales and management positions at both IBM and Hitachi.

Q: What's the latest in terms of product news and developments from Hitachi?

A: Hitachi Global Storage Technologies is doing very well and is positioned for growth in key markets worldwide. Our hard disk drive products continue to win numerous industry accolades and awards from technology industry publications, such as PC Magazine, Maximum PC and C/NET. The one-inch Hitachi Microdrive just won a Best of Show award at CEBIT America.

We have introduced some exciting new products during the past few months, including the Deskstar 7K250, which features ATA/Serial ATA interfaces, industry-leading performance and a substantial one-quarter terabyte of capacity. We also introduced new Travelstar hard drives, including the industry’s first 7,200 RPM mobile drive and an enhanced availability model that is designed for use in 24 X 7 environments.

Q: How is the Channel playing a role?

A: Hitachi maintains direct relationships with our global PC OEM customers, which account for a major portion of the company’s revenues. The remaining sales are generated via our worldwide distribution partners, such as Bell Microproducts, Digiland and MCE.

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

A: Hitachi has dedicated significant resources to its Channel organization and is focused on building win-win partnerships that foster growth in our partners business, as well as our own. We continue to enhance our partner programs with technical training, sales support, marketing, etc.

Q: What trends do you see emerging in the hard disk drive industry?

A: Within the PC realm, mobile computing continues to drive growth in the 2.5-inch HDD space. We are seeing significant interest in gaming PCs that require high performance desktop drives and mobile drives. Hitachi just launched a 250GB Serial ATA drive and the Travelstar 7K60 drive, both of which are optimized for this type of system.

Another interesting trend is toward video surveillance systems that record data on hard drives, as opposed to tape. Hard drives offer the reliability, cost-effectiveness and capacity points necessary for this type of data storage. Finally, we are seeing hard drives used in automotive and other consumer electronics applications. Hitachi recently introduced 1.8-inch and 2.5-inch mobile HDDs that are well-suited for these environments.

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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:

Sophos' flagship product, Sophos anti-virus (SAV), has always achieved consistently high detection rates, as confirmed by independent testing organizations such as the ICSA, West Coast Labs and Virus Bulletin. SAV is also hailed for its low rate of “false positive” virus alarms. And Sophos Anti-Virus provides integrated virus detection and disinfection on servers, desktops and laptops for more operating system platforms than any other anti-virus vendor. The MailMonitor suite of software checks all email traffic passing through SMTP gateways, and Notes and Exchange 2000 email servers, including attachments compressed with Zip and other popular utilities. Virus detection and disinfection are performed by the high-speed Sophos virus engine, which allows central, transparent updating of virus identity files. Comprehensive messaging enables MailMonitor to notify administrators, senders and recipients of any viruses found. Threat Reduction technology in MailMonitor for SMTP allows users reduce their exposure to virus threats even further by blocking potential carriers at the gateway. Sophos Anti-Virus offers on-access, scheduled and on-demand scanning. Its unique architecture intelligently determines which files need to be virus checked, maximizing user transparency and minimizing performance overhead. Sophos Anti-Virus (SAV) incorporates powerful management tools, which enable centralized installation, configuration, updating and reporting.

Sophos Enterprise Manager comprises a suite of powerful management tools. It enables the secure, automatic download and distribution of SAV and the latest virus identity files from the Sophos databank – a dedicated Sophos website – to local file servers and desktops. Allowing remote users to update their laptops while away from the office further reduces the exposure of businesses to virus outbreaks. Network administrators are put in full control and can monitor their network at all times. Unprotected computers or those running an out-of-date version of Sophos Anti-Virus can be immediately and automatically updated. SAV Interface allows users to benefit from the wide range of industry-standard firewalls, gateways and similar solutions, which have been designed to integrate with powerful Sophos virus protection. It satisfies the requirement of high-bandwidth environments for minimal performance overhead and, through its high-speed channel into the Sophos virus engine, provides detection of all virus types. SAV Interface incorporates disinfection capability and gives comprehensive information when a virus is found. SAV Interface’s integration capability also allows Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and Application Service Providers (ASPs) to offer integrated protection to their clients.

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. Please join us for the Sophos – The Better Partner web seminar, held monthly. Dates and registration information can be found 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 Updating Business Practices By Steve Cross

I’m helping some folks launch software products. They are splitting their focus between resellers who sell into the SOHO market, and resellers who call on departments of colleges and mid-size business. Nice market. Resellers in this niche are friendly, and very open to the new concepts of the product. Their customers seem to be willing to try the product prior to buying. You can’t ask for much more than this in a product launch. Here’s where the idea of Business Practices comes in; we’re tailoring the program to exactly match the reseller needs. We’re taking all input and implementing it, immediately. The feedback has included requests for web site enhancements (done), streamlined reseller agreement (done), specific support grid issues (in progress), and some other stuff. What we’re doing is matching Business Practices in a complimentary way with our target partners. This isn’t new, or even radical, but the response has been really positive and crisp, as measured by the increase in closed site licenses. It strikes me that the difference in perception is because we’re fast. The CEO is very incisive, very quick, and the whole team moves fast, and stops on a dime when they have to. That responsiveness is making a big difference to the new and potential partners.

Funny, but even though I’ve been doing this for 20 years, I keep learning new stuff. I’m learning that it isn’t enough to just respond. In this age of FedEx, and high-speed internet connections, you must move fast. Real fast. And the faster you move, the more your customers and partners appreciate it.

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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