Channel
Digest
By ChannelMedia Staff
1. D&H Distributing announces
it is expanding its distribution relationship with HP and
plans to provide expertise and support for the HP digital
entertainment product portfolio. HP has brought its IT and
consumer expertise together to offer a complete portfolio
of home entertainment offerings, including Media Center
PCs, the new HP Digital Entertainment Center, Digital Home
Theater projectors, the Apple iPod from HP and HDTV-ready
plasma and LCD televisions. D&H is one of the few distributors
selected to carry the new HP Digital Entertainment Center.
Both the z540 and z545b models of the offering as well as
HP's new LCD and plasma televisions are expected to begin
shipping this month. The new HP home theater projectors
are slated to ship in November. "The fact that HP has
accumulated such a wide roster of home entertainment products
clearly marks a paradigm shift we've been anticipating for
more than a year. PC-based devices have become a driving
force in what was once a CE-only universe, seamlessly integrating
the home entertainment architecture," said Dan Schwab,
vice president of marketing for D&H. "The fact
that D&H tops a short list of partners to distribute
these technologies speaks volumes about both D&H status
as a convergence leader and the momentum of our relationship
with HP."
“HP is introducing a suite of products
that transform the average living room from analog to digital:
Consumers can watch movies and TV on large, high-definition
displays, personalize their playlists and manage mega-libraries
of music, photos and movies digitally and virtually without
leaving their couch,” said Bob Pechon, vice president
of consumer sales at HP. “We wanted distribution partners
with a similar focus and D&H not only has that, but
the CE/IT history and expertise to deliver high-value, high-touch
services to its base of resellers.”
2. First Intelligent Array
announced the FIA On3 Pro Digital Media Player and Library.
The FIA On3 Pro is an evolutionary breakthrough in car audio
and video entertainment, and doubles as a home media player,
making the unit truly mobile. The unit’s storage library
has the ability to organize and store thousands of CDs,
photo files, or more than 30 hours of DVD quality movies
in a small compact device that weighs less than 4 lbs.
The FIA On3 Pro can be trunk-mounted, installed
under a seat, or in the glove box, and connects directly
to your automobile LCD or plasma TV. An infrared full-function
remote lets you play your entire music play list or personal
video collection while on long travel trips, camping or
just riding around town. When you have completed your travel,
you can take the On3 Pro into the house, because the unit’s
mobile design works in the car, in the home, hotel room,
or anywhere else you have video and audio outputs. Whether
your medium is videos, music or photos, its high quality
home theater outputs support both analog and digital 5:1
audio connections, and provides quality sight and sound
with HDTV and SPDIF. The On3 Pro can display photo slideshows
with music background, and supports most popular audio and
video formats. Company president and CEO Gene Lu said, “The
On3 Pro for automobile is designed for technology-savvy
customers and auto sound enthusiast who may want to expand
their play list and digital entertainment in the car and
in the home. FIA’s On3 Pro delivers state-of-the-art
quality design in both sight and sound, so customers can
truly enjoy hours of entertainment. Currently no other vendor
provides all these features in a single product at such
an aggressive price.”
3. The recent announcement from the Wi-Fi
Alliance that it has formed a Wi-Fi/Cellular Convergence
Working Group (WCC) highlights a trend identified by ABI
Research, in which many different elements needed
to bring voice over Wi-Fi (VoWi-Fi) to consumers are beginning
to intersect. Last month, the Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA)
Consortium also approved a set of protocols for seamless
handoffs between cellular networks and IP-based wireless
networks such as Wi-Fi. According to Phil Solis, senior
analyst, wireless connectivity, such initiatives by industry
consortia are falling in behind new products from IC vendors
and equipment and service providers that are pushing VoWi-Fi
from the enterprise to the wider consumer market. "IC
vendor Agere, for example, has withdrawn from the general
market," says Solis, "and is focusing all its
efforts on Wi-Fi chips to be embedded in mobile handsets.
Texas Instruments is making Wi-Fi and VoIP ICs, and has
produced a reference design to make it easier to build future
handsets." "Embedded Wi-Fi ICs are a growth market,"
adds Solis, "with those going into cellular handsets
forming a big part." Over in handset territory, a number
of vendors - Vonage, Net2Phone and Zyxel are three obvious
examples - have offered (or will soon offer) single (VoIP)
mode cellular handsets for the consumer, and a new crop
of dual (cellular/VoIP) mode models are issuing forth from
companies like Motorola, which has an enterprise-oriented
model undergoing user trials. SBC will offer its Cingular
customers such a phone to consumers in 2006; it will be
able to access SBC's own Wi-Fi hotspots as well as many
available via a roaming agreement with Wayport. ABI Research's
study "Voice over Wi-Fi" forecasts the growth
of various VoWi-Fi client solutions and the direction VoWi-Fi
will take in regard to 802.11 and VoIP technologies. Shipments,
ASPs, and revenue forecasts are provided through 2009.
4. ChannelWave announced
that Wyse Technology, the domain experts in server-centric
computing (SCC), has partnered with ChannelWave to launch
PartnerLink, an advanced online resource center for Wyse’s
global channel partners to access customized and consolidated
information on Wyse products, sales, marketing and training.
The online Web portal, built on ChannelWave’s Partner
Relationship Management (PRM) solution, offers all Wyse
Platinum and Authorized partners easy, integrated access
to the information and resources they need to drive higher
sales revenues and profits with Wyse. “We selected
ChannelWave as the foundation of the Wyse PartnerLink program
because of its superior flexibility and configurability
over competing PRM solutions,” said Kristina Lipari,
partner marketing manager at Wyse. “The information,
training, and customized access options are meeting with
considerable success in attracting channel partner interest
and adoption. We've had nothing but positive partner feedback
to date.”
5. PalmOne introduced a new,
updated version of its popular Treo 600 smartphone series.
The new smartphone includes Bluetooth wireless connectivity
and an improved VGA camera for improved photo capabilities
in low-light situations. Further, the 312MHz Intel processor
provides a high-resolution display of 320 pixels by 320
pixels and a seamless, colorful visual experience. Other
additions include a trendy circular design, removable battery,
and VersaMail e-mail software that allows users to connect
remotely to corporate networks to receive wireless e-mail.
Between now and the coming holiday season, PalmOne will
introduce two versions of the Treo 650. One version will
support the CDMA/1XRTT cellular networks used by Sprint
PCS and Verizon Wireless. The other will run on the Global
System for Mobile communications networks that is used by
T-Mobile, Cingular Wireless and AT&T Wireless. The new
PalmOne Treo 650 will be available by the holiday season
and will retail for approximately $400 to $500.
6. The total U.S. Internet access services
market will have strong single-digit growth for the next
five years, according to In-Stat/MDR. The
high-tech market research firm estimates that the market
was $35.1 billion in 2003, and of that total, consumer access
services generated nearly two-thirds of the revenue. Broadband
access services revenues for both the consumer and business
market remain the largest drivers of Internet access service
revenues. "A common theme found across both the consumer
and business market is the continuing decline in dial-up
services," said Daryl Schoolar, a senior analyst with
In-Stat/MDR. "Both markets are continuing to migrate
away from this lower-bandwidth service toward broadband."
In-Stat/MDR has also found that despite the growth in number
of dedicated Internet access (DIA) connections and bandwidth
used, DIA services revenues are declining. DIA services
continue to face downward pricing pressure from the growth
in broadband and the oversupply of DIA service providers.
The study also noted that consumer access services generated
approximately two-thirds of all Internet access service
revenues in the United States for 2003 while broadband generated
50% of revenues in 2003, and will account for over 71% by
the end of 2008.
7. Just in time to add additional pressure
to rival MP3 manufacturers this holiday season, Sony
launched its first line of MP3-compatible flash memory digital
music players. Sony hopes the new MP3 players will tap into
the larger consumer fan base that is currently dominated
by Apple’s iPod. The new Sony Walkman
NW-E99 and NW-E95 players have a longer battery life (70
hours worth) than rival iPod players and play songs in MP3
format using Sony's proprietary ATRAC technology. Both players
weigh less than 40 grams and are roughly the size of a credit
card. The NW-E99 comes with a one-gigabyte flash memory
drive and retails for about $300. The NW-E95 holds a 512
megabyte flash drive and sells for about $260. Currently
plans are for European sales only. After weeks of speculation
and more than enough U2 commercials showcasing the upcoming
music platform, Apple unveiled its highly anticipated next
generation iPod, the iPod Photo. The new iPod Photo is packed
with a number of unique features, including a digital photo
library. The iPod Photo player features a vivid LCD display
that not only lets users view photos in over 60,000 colors,
its built-in backlighting platform allows them to view photos
indoors or out, day or night. Like its sibling iPod, the
iPod Photo comes in two different versions: a 40-gigabyte
player that retails for $499, and a 60-gigabyte player that
retails for $599. The new iPod can hold up to 15,000 songs,
5,000 more than the older iPod, and can store up to 25,000
photos. Further, users can transfer photos from the iPod
Photo to a projector or television using the included AV
cables. Lastly, the iPod Photo player features enhanced
auto-sync capabilities. Its iTunes feature allows for both
music and photo syncing. Once the iPod is connected to a
PC using USB 2.0 cables or FireWire, iTunes will automatically
synchronize photos into a photo album or slideshow.
8. Location Based Services have been around for several
years. So why is the GSM camp taking so long to roll them
out? By 2005 the GSM camp needs to have LBS in their strategic
plan or they will find themselves at a disadvantage, according
to ABI Research's principal analyst of
semiconductor research, Alan Varghese. He believes that
while the GSM operators settled for less accurate network
positioning solutions such as Cell-ID and TDOA in order
to meet FCC E911 requirements, they better not wait much
longer to mandate GPS in the handset, or they will find
themselves "lost" as far as LBS are concerned.
GPS technology in the cellular handset had some drawbacks
initially - it took about 20 seconds to get a position fix
from a cold start, for example. And GPS ICs added up to
about $15, making them too expensive to integrate into such
a cost sensitive device. Meanwhile the CDMA camp, with Qualcomm
at its helm, had already integrated GPS functionality into
their chipset. Today CDMA operators such as SK Telecom in
Korea and KDDI in Japan offer location-based services that
provide them increased ARPU and market share. Nextel in
the U.S., with its proprietary iDEN handsets, has used the
SIRF GPS chipset to offer navigation as well as asset and
employee logistics to their enterprise customers, who propel
them to the highest ARPUs in the nation. "Does the
price of the GPS IC really need to hit the magic $5 number
before GSM vendors take notice?" asks Varghese "That
may be the case," he says, "but they'd better
not wait that long." ABI Research's studies, "GPS
IC Markets" and "Location Based Services"
examine the state of the market, operators' strategies for
deploying LBS (including telematics in the vehicle) and
the implications of adding GPS ICs and functionality to
the handset. Founded in 1990 and headquartered in New York,
ABI Research maintains global operations that support annual
research programs, quarterly intelligence services and market
reports. Their market research products can be found on
the Web at www.abiresearch.com.
10. ProCurve Networking by
HP today introduced a line of stackable
switching products designed to enable enterprises to securely
deploy the ProCurve Adaptive EDGE Architecture via Gigabit
Ethernet to the network edge. The switches also feature
new 10-Gigabit switch modules and accessories, which combine
to minimize network delay and enable users to take full
advantage of desktop and notebook capacity. The new product
line continues to expand the ProCurve Adaptive EDGE Architecture,
improving security and performance for customers - such
as Oregon State University - who demand more business value
from their networks and offering more affordable speed,
performance and intelligence at the edge. The ProCurve Adaptive
EDGE Architecture is the first to deliver affordable, intelligent
control to the edge of a network, allowing companies to
more effectively manage complex applications, including
mobility, security and convergence.
10. Boise Cascade Corporation
has finalized the sale of its paper and forestry business
to Madison Dearborn Partners, LLC and has changed its name
to OfficeMax Incorporated. The forestry and paper business
will take the name Boise Cascade, LLC and continue operating
in Boise, Idaho. Boise Cascade, LLC has hired W. Thomas
Stephens as CEO and intends to keep all of the former paper
and forestry employees. The completion of this sale allows
OfficeMax to focus on its office products business. OfficeMax
will reinvest the $3.7 billion it earned in the sale into
store improvements and openings to compete with Staples
and Office Depot.
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RESEARCH
Vertical Focus: HealthCare
Although wireless technology adoption among
U.S. healthcare providers is
relatively new, a recent FocalPoint Group study indicates
the industry will
invest $7 billion in this technology by 2010, reported the
Information
Technology Solution Providers Alliance (ITSPA), a national,
non-profit
alliance that helps small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs)
understand how
technology and local technology providers can help them
succeed.
"SMB decision makers in the healthcare
industry are turning to mobile and
wireless technology, combined with WIFI networks and care-critical
applications and content, to improve the quality of their
work and patient
care," said ITSPA Sales Vice President Chuck Sharp.
"The result is better,
faster healthcare at reduced cost. "
"For example, mobile medical technology, when integrated
with healthcare
enterprise IT infrastructure, enables SMB healthcare practitioners
to
quickly locate medical information," Sharp said. "This
helps them spend more
time with patients, make more informed decisions and fewer
errors, and
reduce costs by locating less expensive drugs."
Wireless Applications Plentiful
As wireless technology has evolved, so has the array of
options for
improving healthcare applications and functions. SMB healthcare
decision
makers are looking for mobile technologies that foster faster
and better
decision making, as well as allow them to access patient
medical information
more rapidly.
"Many wireless applications are proving their usefulness
by SMB doctors and
nurses on a daily basis," Sharp said. "Typically,
wireless networks are now
deployed to perform functions such as admission assessments,
bedside
charting, ordering drugs, supply inventory, patient records,
nurse shift
reports and emergency communications, just to name a few."
"The critical function performed by wireless devices
is that they put the
data entry and retrieval capability at the point of patient
care," Sharp
added. "This saves time and ensures accuracy because
the caregiver, whether
a doctor or nurse, doesn't have to walk to another office
or wait until
later to enter new information."
SMB healthcare practitioners use a variety of technologies
in their mobile,
wireless environment. Typically, the workhorses include
wireless local area
networks (LANs) running on the 802.11 standard that support
notebook PCs.
Many handheld devices are used to communicate wirelessly,
as well, such as
palm and sub-notebook-size devices using Microsoft's Windows
CE operating
system.
"The convergence of small computers and cellular phones
is making its way
into this arena, too," Sharp said, "along with
personal digital assistants
(PDAs) and smart phones. Another trend involves healthcare
SMBs moving to
small computing. In other words, they're adopting small-footprint
PCs for
their work environment. They're also looking at the PC to
be more than just
a tool for data crunching. They want something that will
help improve
overall communications and collaboration."
Although handheld devices are the healthcare tools, software
solutions are
the "brains" that provide better care and treatment.
Mobile technology helps
connect SMB doctors and nurses with dynamic information
such as patient
scheduling and management systems, electronic medical records,
e-prescription writers and clinical and drug references.
"With wireless, mobile technology, SMB healthcare providers
are catching up
with financial and manufacturing sectors as far as adopting
automated
processes," Sharp said. "This will enable them
to take advantage of the
efficiency gains achieved by large businesses and banks."
What the Experts Recommend
SMB healthcare organizations that are considering wireless
technology
applications should first identify their business needs,
advised ITSPA's
Technology Committee, which is made up of IT directors from
the nation's
most successful solution providers.
"There's no doubt that medical communities will replace
paper-based
processes with rapid, wireless communications and integrated,
real-time
data, PDAs and a variety of other mobile devices,"
said ITSPA Healthcare
Technology Committee member Robyn Schlabach, RN, who is
a principal with the
Belgard Group, Inc. "But first SMB healthcare decision
makers must ask many
questions early in the process to ensure the wireless solutions
their
companies adopt are appropriate and stand the test of time."
ITSPA Technology Committee members offered the following
recommendations:
- Determine what data should be distributed wirelessly.
Small form factors,
such as PDAs, require less information than, say, tablets
or laptops. SMBs
should assess carefully the data requirements of employees
who have
different mobile devices.
- Decide which mobile devices should be supported. Before
purchasing
wireless devices, it's important to survey who will use
the devices and how
will they be applied to meet specific needs.
- Select a wireless architecture that's easily accessed.
Adopt a Web-based
solution that provides a flexible, multi-channel information
delivery
system. Such a solution can support a variety of healthcare
applications.
Wireless devices such as PDAs, tablets and laptops usually
are bundled with
browser software that can utilize these applications.
- Integrate data to increase efficiency. Mobile devices
should be usable,
efficient and offer a thoughtfully designed interface. In
other words, they
should be simple to use and provide applications that users
really need and
are based on real-world healthcare situations.
- Web-based security and support is best. By providing healthcare
applications and security through Web-based solutions, rather
than on mobile
devices themselves, SMBs can ensure that sensitive patient
data is protected
and HIPAA compliance standards are fulfilled. Because all
business and
healthcare information is housed on the Web, users automatically
have access
to the latest applications and information.
- Get IT support from a solution provider. Managing many
mobile devices can
tax any company's IT capabilities. Solutions providers that
specialize in
wireless can help set up procedures to deploy applications,
upgrades, device
replacements, data storage and virus protection.
- Understand wireless device limitations. Mobile technology
is improving
but devices such as PDAs, tablets and small laptops have
a short battery
life, small screens and limited data capabilities. The next
generation of
these products is slowly reaching the market and will include
expanded
screen size and improved resolution, longer-lasting batteries,
larger memory
and many new peripherals that will enable advanced features.
Sales and Marketing -- A Sibling Rivalry
or Business Partnership?
By Sridhar Ramanathan, Founder - The Pacifica Group
Sometimes sibling rivalry is a good thing.
It can actually push kids to carve out their identities
more distinctly and to perform better. The same is true
in the business world. CEOs often encourage some healthy
tension to push the organization to higher levels of performance.
Between Sales and Marketing, for instance, you want Sales
to push Marketing to define winning products while Marketing
should be pushing Sales to keep prices up despite pleas
for deep discounts. The same tension exists between Engineering
and Support. Support would love more design for supportability
built in, and Engineering would love not to worry about
documentation and supportability needs.
But sometimes sibling rivalry goes too far.
Often I hear CEOs of technology companies talk about the
virtual fist fights between Sales and Marketing when it
comes to handoffs. Having one VP of Sales & Marketing,
unfortunately, does not always remedy the issue. In fact,
some of the conflicts between the silos directly lead to
longer cycle times between first customer contact and final
contract. This clearly hurts revenue growth. So the problem
statement then is: how do I ensure the best, fastest handoffs
between Sales and Marketing? What’s the right goal
congruence between the two functions?
Marketing
|
Sales |
 |
Goal Congruence |
I recommend three areas in particular of goal
congruence to drive the right sense of urgency and mutual
accountability in the context of overall revenue growth.
Agree on the definition of a “lead”
One of Marketing’s most important contributions
to Sales is, of course, generating leads. The source of
the conflict is that there is poor or no definition of a
“lead” for proper handoff. It’s too common
to hear Sales complain that “the leads from Marketing
are just junk.” Or from Marketing you often hear “why
doesn’t Sales just follow up on the damn leads we
give them?” Both are valid criticism. The answer lies
in having an explicit agreement on the handoff. If you use
sales force automation tools like Salesforce.com or Siebel
CRM on Demand, you can even hard code these definitions
into the tool. I recommend agreeing on explicit criteria
by which leads are judged. The table gives you a template
for your teams to develop their own criteria for lead quality.
| Criteria |
Example |
High
Quality Lead |
Minimum
Acceptable |
| Desired
industry |
Financial
services |
Yes |
No |
| Industry
leading company |
Citibank |
Yes |
No |
| Company
Size |
>10,000
employees or >$250M in revenue |
Yes |
No |
| Intent
to purchase |
Plans
to buy in <3 months |
Yes |
Yes |
| Desired
audience |
Director
of IT Operations |
Yes |
Yes |
| Contact
information |
Name,
title, company, phone, email, address |
Yes |
Yes |
The point here is to sit down and have two
representatives from both organizations come up with the
success criteria and build this into the Inside Sales efforts
or other processes used to handoff leads to Sales. You’ll
find that this will not eliminate the healthy tension between
the two teams but it does get them focused on what really
matters—qualified leads for sales action.
Define “success” as a booked appointment
with the prospect
Another great opportunity to drive the right
teamwork is to demand that leads are evaluated on the number
and quality of actual appointments with the customer prospect.
Too often I see Marketing just focus on cost per lead as
the figure of merit in ROI calculations. This approach puts
neither weight on higher quality leads nor emphasis on conversions
to actual appointments both of which are far more important
to driving sales. The other advantage of this is that it
puts pressure on Sales (or Inside Sales) to convert “inquiries”
which are just unqualified leads into booked meetings for
sales action. Again, both Marketing and Sales are held accountable
to maximizing the number of appointments meeting the criteria
above.
Use the $100 test to prioritize product pricing/feature
set requests
Pricing is another classic source of conflict
between sales and marketing. Sales tends to blame pricing
as a sales inhibitor especially in highly competitive deal
situations. Marketing tends to discount the issue as a sign
of poor salesmanship. The problem is that no one is stepping
back and looking holistically and prioritizing what matters
most to customer acquisition which is always a combination
of pricing and product feature set or value proposition.
I recommend getting reps from both organizations together
in a room and giving everyone an opportunity to allocate
$100 across a number of perceived inhibitors to winning
profitable business. The operative words to focus the team
are “winning” and “profitable” business.
Have them write down their spending mix on a piece of paper
to avoid group think. If people are forced to distribute
$100 across, say, the top ten topics including pricing and
some feature gaps, you’ll find that pricing may not
the #1 sales inhibitor or competitive issue.
I encourage you to apply all three practices
here over the next quarter and see what impact it has on
closing business. I promise you that it won’t stop
the bickering, name calling, or even occasional fist fights.
But it will force some goal congruence between two key functions
that absolutely must align to support your business objectives.
Sridhar Ramanathan is founder of the Pacifica
Group, a management consultancy specializing in strategies
and tactics to drive revenue growth. He can be reached at
(650) 355-9700 or sridhar@pacifica-group.com Copyright ©
2004.
COMMUNITY
Channel Partners Join Forces
to Deliver Managed Services
By Casey Hughes, ChannelMatch
We all hear about the increasing IT customer
requirements driving the channel towards rapid integration
of technology into their business processes. Further still,
into the customer business practices! Even federal mandates
are pushing us in this direction with this year’s
latest advent of regulatory compliance (examples include
HIPPA in healthcare and Sarbanes-Oxley in financial services
industries). This increasing trend spells good and bad news
for the channel.
Gartner Dataquest’s Michael Haines (Channel
Media SMB Edition Issue # 29) has observed a convergence
of the business focus and business models of VARs, ISVs
and System Integrators, resulting in the evolution of a
new entity, the IT Solution Provider which provides a blend
of services typically offered by the three existing types
of channel organizations. This convergence into a new type
of channel organization is being driven by increased client
demand for complete solutions as well as the economics of
the IT marketplace.
The channel continues to undergo change. As
I look back to the beginning of 2004, I see a groundswell
of change occurring in the financial models of many channel
resellers carving out a living in Information Technology.
Those who are prospering today have moved beyond product
and even moved beyond professional services into the realm
of managed services.
So is 2005 the year of managed services? I’m
not sure, being somewhat reluctant to solidly make this
prediction. I think back when it seemed like year after
year the pundits were predicting the year of the LAN. I
distinctly remember Ray Noorda at Novell declaring 1983
as the “Year of the LAN”. Somewhere along the
line it finally happened. Perhaps 2005 it will for Managed
Services.
I was at the Gartner VARVision in October
in Scottsdale Arizona. One of the most sobering things I
heard was a statistic from a presentation by Michael Haines,
Research Vice President, Gartner and channel consultant
Larry Kesslin, president of Let’s Talk Business. In
recent research they found that “75% of resellers
cannot make the transition” to their next business
model on their company profits alone. The chances are that
3 of 4 of you reading this column may be facing a world
of hurt in the coming quarters.
Perhaps the only way to capitalize on this
emerging trend for technology integration into the business
practice, will be through channel partnerships. Leveraging
the existing infrastructures of channel partners just might
extend your reach well beyond your current balance sheet.
 |
Casey Hughes is the Director of Channel
Business Development for Gartner Vision Events Online.
He has 27 years of channel management experience including
senior vice president roles at KayPro, Tandon and Merisel.
Since the Internet era began in the mid 1990’s,
he has developed numerous platforms for online collaboration,
most recently a web meeting and online events portal
called ChannelMatch. As a senior associate of the CoWorking
Institute and an active facilitator for Hewlett Packard’s
Media Solutions, Casey has unprecedented experience
in helping organizations leverage technology and the
requisite social processes for effective web meetings
and online events. Casey can be reached at casey@channelmatch.com
or by calling his Malibu office at 310-457-2146. |
Channel Must Know When
to say 'NO'
By G. A. "Andy" Marken, President, Marken Communications,
Inc.
You're angry.
You're frustrated.
You feel a physical and emotional
loss. It's not really a personal loss, but for most solution
and system dealers and resellers, the loss of a deal or
a project that has gone from bad to worse is just as difficult
to rise above.
There isn't a dealer or reseller
who hasn't poured time, money and effort into a deal only
to see it sour before his or her eyes. With today's paper-thin
margins, no firm can afford many of these "learning
experiences" without becoming a casualty itself.
"After six years in the
document imaging area, we had a client change the specs
almost every time he turned around. Berne Grush, of MetaConcepts,
a document management/workflow reseller headquartered
in Toronto, commented, "Before we knew it, we had
over-committed and there was no way to recover from the
hole we let the client dig for us. Even though we put
in twice the amount of time we billed for, the client
couldn't understand why we couldn't do 'just a few more
extras."
Even though MetaConcepts did
what they said they would do, it took a while for the
customer to be happy and the company lost most of its
margin.
Been there? Done That? You're
not alone.
This is especially true in
the document management, imaging and storage arena, which
is now becoming one of the hottest application areas in
the industry.
"When we took our first
step into this marketplace," Jim Bach of New Wave
Automation, a Las-Vegas-based network and document management
reseller recalled, "we saw it as a real opportunity
for us to move away from the downward profit spiral of
small network installations and move into an area where
we could get a fair return for our expertise."
"Our problem was two-fold,"
he continued. "The customer really didn't understand
what he wanted to accomplish and neither the supplier
nor we had a complete understanding of how the technology
really changes the way people work together and with their
information."
"Something about this
first deal didn't feel right and we should have gotten
up from the table mid-way through the first meeting. But
we wanted the business and really felt we could help them
solve their problem," he added.
You may call it a gut feeling,
a sixth sense or intuition; but whatever it is, it's one
of the key ingredients that separate successful VARs from
those who didn't quite make it.
There are other red flags that
need to be observed.
Leading the list is the completely
dishonest customer.
"I don't like to think
of how many free proposals we wrote in our early days,"
says Serge Gravel, MulitProcess Computer Corporation,
a document management software supplier based in Connecticut.
"We've probably provided 1,000 hours of free consulting
and analysis and had our people do major software customization
work, only to see the project not go forward."
Gravel emphasized that today,
this doesn't happen because MultiProcess makes it a point
to emphasize that for the project to succeed for the user,
it must be a long-term partnership.
While it sounds extremely simple,
MetaConcepts' Grush claims that success starts with trust.
To establish the trust and
ensure expectations (for both parties) are realistic,
the key is to write a very specific letter of agreement.
Gravel says that there are definable stages of the relationship
that need to be spelled out. These are:
pre-sale - needs analysis,
requirements definition, business process redesign and
cost justification
sale - hardware, software and
services
post-sale - implementation
consulting, system integration, application design and
development, user and administrator training, and support
Only after each area is clearly
defined and agreed upon do successful resellers proceed.
Too many resellers have gone
out of business by winning too many of the wrong contracts.
Whether it's a project outside your target market or that
intangible something that tells you it won't be a mutually
successful relationship, office solution and system resellers
have to know when to say "No."
Andy Marken is President of
Marken Communications Inc. He can be reached at marken@cerfnet.com.
Back to the top
Top-Selling Software
Week of October 17 – October 23, 2004 |
| All Categories |
|
|
| Rank |
Title |
Publisher |
ASP |
| 1 |
Norton
Antivirus 2005 |
Symantec |
$43 |
| 2 |
Norton
Internet Security 2005 |
Symantec |
$66 |
| 3 |
MS
Office 2003 Student/Teacher Ed |
Microsoft |
$145 |
| 4 |
Spy
Sweeper |
Webroot |
$28 |
| 5 |
The
Sims 2 |
Electronic
Arts |
$48 |
| 6 |
MS
Windows XP Home Ed Upgr |
Microsoft |
$97 |
| 7 |
Norton
System Works 2005 |
Symantec |
$63 |
| 8 |
VirusScan
9.0 |
McAfee
Inc. |
$45 |
| 9 |
Spy
Sweeper TechBench |
Webroot |
$15 |
| 10 |
The
Sims 2 Special Edition |
Electronic
Arts |
$49 |
| |
|
|
| Business |
|
|
| Rank |
Title |
Publisher |
ASP |
| 1 |
MS
Office 2003 Student/Teacher Ed |
Microsoft |
$145 |
| 2 |
QuickBooks
2004 Pro |
Intuit |
$274 |
| 3 |
QuickBooks
2004 |
Intuit |
$200 |
| 4 |
MS
Office 2003 Pro Upgr |
Microsoft |
$300 |
| 5 |
MS
Office 2003 Pro |
Microsoft |
$450 |
| 6 |
MS
Office 2003 |
Microsoft |
$388 |
| 7 |
AD
Guard |
Valusoft
(THQ) |
$18 |
| 8 |
1000
Best Fonts JC |
Cosmi |
$8 |
| 9 |
Defender
Pro 5 in 1 |
Global
Star Software (Take 2) |
$20 |
| 10 |
Logo
Creator |
Summitsoft |
$22 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| List is based on units sold by
twenty-three channel partners. For more information,
please contact The NPD Group at (703) 376-6226. |
2005
– The Year of Managed Services Arrives 
TCO
Drives Services Revenue Through the Channel