Hot Technologies, Strategic Choices For VARs

6. OFFICE-PRODUCTIVITY SOFTWARE Another software staple. Microsoft is sitting pretty with a 90 percent market share in this category, but there are options around open source and Sun's StarOffice product suite. VARs have a migration opportunity around the bend, too, with Microsoft's planned release of Office 2005 later this year.

Microsoft--Office System 2003
Sun Microsystems--StarOffice

7. SECURITY APPLICATIONS Judging by the number of appearances on this list, security software clearly remains one of the hottest segments out there for VARs. AV software and firewalls get their own nod. Rounding out the field of security applications includes such software as intrusion-detection and strong user encryption, antispam and antispyware.

These companies offer a variety of applications:
Symantec
McAfee
Trend Micro
Computer Associates

8. SOFTWARE/WEB DEVELOPMENT TOOLS Software-development tools have gotten easier to use and much better able to deliver useful, less clunky applications quickly to the Web. VARs are both selling tools and using them to build solutions for their customers.

Microsoft--Visual Studio.Net (2005 version expected before year's end) IBM Rational--Rational Rose XDE Developer Plus
Oracle--Oracle Developer Suite
BEA--WebLogic Workshop
Macromedia--Dreamweaver MX 2004

9. CRM SOFTWARE Once the butt of every shelfware joke, CRM has come a long way, particularly with the advent of software-as-a-service vanguards such as Salesforce.com. One-third of the VARs we surveyed are selling or implementing CRM software, both packaged and services-based.

Siebel--Siebel CRM and Siebel CRM On Demand
Microsoft--Microsoft CRM
SAP--MySAP CRM
Oracle--Oracle E-Business Suite Customer Relationship Management
Salesforce.com--Salesforce.com (various services)

10. LINUX Though still cautious, an increasing number of VARs are making Linux--and other open-source software--part of their software business. In the government sector, where cost is king and the lowest bidder wins the project, Linux interest is particularly high.

Red Hat--Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Novell--SuSE Linux Enterprise Server