VARBusiness 20th Anniversary: 1987-2007

For the past 20 years, VARBusiness has literally covered the channel as you can plainly see from the covers surrounding this story. Our goal from the launch of this magazine was to help solution providers run their businesses better and it remains our charter and mission to this day. Our intention was to accomplish this task in an innovative and creative way. Back in the day, we were one of the first magazines--and the only business-to-business publication--to publish an entire issue in 3D. It was no doubt provocative for

a magazine serving solution providers--maybe not the readers, of say, Cosmopolitan. But it was done in the spirit of trying to present business information in an exciting and inspiring format.

We also built our publication around solid research that solution providers could use to better manage their businesses. The VARBusiness Annual Report Card was an early research project intended to help solution providers compare which vendors were providing the highest level of satisfaction to their partners. Of course, it also pointed out which ones were falling short. Our State of the Market, which to this day remains the most widely used tool to benchmark a VAR's business, helped usher in the services era when a small slice of the VAR community embraced services and started generating outstanding results. Today, we provide all that and more because we know we must earn your loyalty each and every day. Our research is not only accessible in databases via the Web, but also in studies like the VARBusiness 500, which are brought to life as part of a huge conference and awards ceremony.

We look forward to the next 20 years with a promise to help you better manage your business in ways you never imagined were possible.