Innovators Demand Respect And Generate Demand

VARBusiness

But while other publications honor vendors for product design or pure technological breakthroughs, we wanted to delve a bit deeper. We were looking for product upgrades or introductions (year to date through September 2004) that had an impact on the solution-provider community -- ones that could help our readers generate demand. But it didn't seem fair to single out just one product because many of the categories were purposefully kept broad. So, we asked our solution-provider judges -- Robert Cagnazzi, Dimension Data; John Borusheski*, NEC Unified Solutions; Mark Stellini, Info Systems; Sean Burke, GovPlace; Vincent DiSpigno and David Salav, Webistix; Robert Rhodes, Systems Evolution; Ned Stringham, SBI; John Sheaffer, Sysix; Martin Honegger, IGS; Kerry Gerontianos, Incremax; Steve Deutsch), GTSI; Jim Hunt, CapTech Gemini; Vincent Conroy, Fusion Storm; and Tim Huckaby, Interknowlogy -- to identify three products in each category and crown one as the overall winner based on the scores it received.

We honored those vendors at an informal awards ceremony at our XChange Tech Innovators conference last month in San Diego, run by Nancy Hammervick, the channel group's events drector at CMP Media, VARBusiness' parent company. In attendance were not only the executives responsible for a vendor's partner community, but those vendors' product executives as well, who were invited to rub elbows with the channel. We figured maybe they get lonely spending their days in the research lab. In fact, some very high-ranking product executives from Oracle, IBM, Sun, HP, Linspire and Altiris spoke about innovation during a general session led by VARBusiness editors Alexander Wolfe and Carolyn A. April. Afterward, they huddled with us in a closed-door meeting to share their thoughts about innovation today. (You will see all the coverage in our upcoming State of Technology issue that publishes Dec. 13.)

Honestly, I was surprised at the level of channel knowledge these executives possessed. Sun's Larry Singer and Oracle's Mark Iwanowski were emphatic about how solution providers have been integrated into their companies' product development efforts. That stands in stark contrast to how product execs viewed the channel just a few years ago. God only knows where such crazy thinking will lead us.

Juniper Jumble
I went a bit too far in my last column, claiming that Juniper executives have criticized a number of rivals' channel missteps. In naming Avaya, I touched a nerve inside both organizations because Avaya supplies Juniper with some high-end networking gear. While Juniper executives did acknowledge the shortcomings of many firms in this space, they did not specifically cite Avaya. Mea culpa. But let's stay on the subject of Juniper for a moment. The company's expanded distribution agreement with Ingram Micro has more people talking than a yenta festival. Juniper had a relationship with Ingram via NetScreen, the security company it purchased earlier this year, and now the partnership has expanded so that Ingram can start recruiting partners to sell Juniper's networking gear in addition to NetScreen's security products.

Ingram Micro co-president Gregory Spierkel said that was not an easy decision, considering Ingram serves as Cisco's largest distributor. But in a meeting with Spierkel and other Ingram execs, they said it was important for Ingram to represent the second-largest networking company in the market as Juniper embarks on a strategy to become more channel-centric. Ingram executives say they do not expect sales of Juniper's products to cannibalize Cisco shipments, but did acknowledge that many Cisco VARs and other networking integrators were looking for alternatives in the marketplace. Let's face it, this was a bold move for Ingram, considering Cisco is a company that plays hardball. Keep in mind that after Tech Data explored signing with Juniper, insiders say Cisco CEO John Chambers personally thanked Tech Data chairman Steve Raymund for deciding not to do so.

talking tech data
The distributor has been kind enough to invite me to its private partner summit for the past several years. The conference, which brings together Tech Data's top vendors, such as Microsoft, IBM and HP, provides amazing insight into the distribution business today. Recently, Tech Data's top marketing and sales executives detailed all the new initiatives they have cooked up to help spur sales in 2005 and to give the vendors an opportunity to shape a joint go-to-market strategy. (In the spirit of full disclosure, Tech Data also asked me to serve as a speaker at this event at the Gaylord Palms hotel in Orlando, Fla.) These enhancements are not being made for charitable purposes. The vendors must prepare to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars supporting the programs Tech Data uses to stimulate demand from its solution-provider customers.

The company is making a push on several fronts worth noting. It is getting very aggressive in the government sector under the direction of Barbara Miller, who recently took over the company's unit that serves VARs who sell to state, local, federal and education clients. It also plans to use its customer database to better drive sales. Look for a major push from Tech Data here with events, marketing and recruitment. The company is also enhancing its Web efforts with plans to put up more information, sales tools and education material on its site under the direction of John Tonnison.