2002 Product Of The Year Awards: A Recipe For Success

Once the right assortment of categories was determined, hundreds of vendors were alerted and encouraged to apply with products that met the selection criteria. Solution providers need quality products enriched by detailed channel programs, so applications that vendors filed online were sifted first to strain out entrants with incomplete channel programs or those that had the potential for sales conflicts. Each company that made this cut served up a mix of first-rate products and varied support mechanisms, which often included online and offline assistance, leads, marketing tools and training programs.

Engineers then pored over the applications to select products that fit the technical selection criteria for each category. Vendors that passed this stage were peppered with requests for evaluation samples. An assortment of the products received and tested for each category were then selected as finalists worthy of mention.

In addition to analyzing the potency of each channel program and each product's technical capabilities, the Test Center also examined the potential revenue solution providers could make from the support and integration of each product.

Based on this recipe, a winner was named in each category from among the finalists, based on its overall level of excellence. Finally, the team scoured the individual category winners to pick the most distinctive product of all to honor as the overall winner of the CRN Test Center Product Of The Year.

Offering unrivaled revenue opportunities, innovative channel support and technological ingenuity, the Handspring Treo 300 is the clear choice for best new product of 2002.

An Internet- and e-mail-enabled handheld organizer with phone capabilities, the Treo 300,sold by Handspring and Sprint,offers numerous integration and service opportunities. Software available for the Treo supports e-mail, databases, CRM, supply chain management applications and more, all of which must be integrated behind a company's firewall by solution providers. XML translation of current legacy applications offers another lucrative opportunity. In addition, providing wireless users with 24x7 access often can open the door to infrastructure upgrades, network monitoring services, spam filtering and more.

Another strong attraction of the Treo 300 is the impressive channel support provided by both companies. Sprint's salespeople bring solution providers into sales to handle software integration and service, and solution providers can turn to the sales force for assistance in their own sales efforts. Solution providers can earn margins from the sales of the product and/or service. Also, Handspring works with a sales outsourcer that actively markets the product and pulls a solution provider into the loop to close the sale and do integration.

The Test Center looked at handhelds with a minimum resolution of 160 x 160, a color display, built-in audio, a Web browser, a significant software bundle, security features, Bluetooth capability and expandability beyond contact management and scheduling. Specifically, the Test Center looked at the Handspring Treo 300, Toshiba e740, Sony CLIE PEG-NX70V, ViewSonic V35, BlackBerry 6710 and Hewlett-Packard iPaq 5450.

A well-designed handheld/phone hybrid that operates on the Palm OS, the Treo 300 has a bright color display, 16 Mbytes of memory and an easy-to-use built-in thumb keyboard. The 300 model is smaller than an average PDA and a bit larger than a typical cell phone. The Treo uses a single slot for syncing to a host PC and recharging, and it has an impressive battery life.

Another strong feature of the Treo 300 is its Sprint's PCS Business Connection Personal Edition service. The network-based solution is designed to provide realtime secure wireless access to e-mail and the Web.

To learn more about the revenue opportunities for solution providers from the Treo 300, see page 57.

A notebook should be lightweight, fast, feature-rich and have a big screen. Of the finalists considered for notebook of the year,the Hewlett-Packard/Compaq Evo N800w, Toshiba Tecra 9100 and Sharp PC-UM32W,the Evo N800w stood out with its desktop-style performance, ergonomics and solid channel program. The Evo N800w is fast, based on a 2.2GHz Pentium 4 processor with as much as 1 Gbyte of memory. An ATI Mobility Fire GL 9000 graphics accelerator with 64 Mbytes of DDR video memory drives the 15-inch display, available in UXGA or SXGA++versions. The two-spindle unit contains an internal 60-Gbyte hard drive, and a MultiBay drive bay accepts various peripherals. The sample notebook came with a combo DVD/CD-RW drive, JBL Pro bass-reflex speakers and an S-Video output. Easy to connect to a network, the Evo N800w includes built-in 10/100 wired and 802.11b wireless NICs plus a built-in V.92 modem.

Under HP's PartnerOne channel program, solution providers selling this notebook are eligible for market development funds and other rewards based on sales, and HP offers seven unique compensation programs.

In the software firewall category, finalists included Microsoft's Internet Security and Acceleration Server, Novell's Border Manager and Symantec's Enterprise Firewall with VPN 7.0. Finalists were required to run on Intel-based server hardware and include complete firewall functionality and VPN support.

Because of its excellent feature set, flexibility and ease of implementation and use, Symantec's Enterprise Firewall with VPN took top honors. The product can be easily integrated into an existing network or substituted for a hardware-based firewall, and it works well with other security products. A central console eases most administrative chores while providing full access to security policies, logs and management reports. The VPN component is based on industry standards. The product also offers deployment flexibility by supporting Microsoft Windows NT/2000 and Sun Solaris. Load-balancing capabilities come standard, and high-availability and Web content filtering are optional.

Symantec's impressive channel program focuses on online and offline training and sales incentives, along with a customizable, resource-rich Web site with co-marketing materials and communication channels.

While small businesses have been fueling sales of 802.11b wireless solutions, a growing interest in 802.11a high-speed access is now driving solutions that support both protocols simultaneously.

The Test Center evaluated several wireless gateway submissions and found that Linksys and D-Link deliver products that provided broadband connectivity and integrated support for both 802.11a and 802.11b networks. The Linksys WRT51AB Dual-Band Wireless A B Broadband Router and the D-Link DI-764 AirPro Multimode 2.4/5GHz Wireless Router provide similar features and ease of use, but the Linksys unit had a slight edge in both setup and management features.

The WRT51AB includes 64-, 128- and 152-bit Wired Equivalency Protocol (WEP) encryption plus 802.1x authentication and authorization. Content filtering, NAT, DHCP, port blocking, a DMZ system and VPN pass-through also are supported. The unit's four-port 10/100 switch and browser-based configuration utility make setup a snap.

Linksys' multitiered channel program concentrates on priority tech support, dedicated account representatives, promotions and Web resources. A recently extended first-time buyer program includes discounts on all Linksys products, and the vendor plans to unveil a new training program in early 2003.

The Test Center looked at professional services automation (PSA) products that combine accounting, project planning, resource discovery, invoicing, document management and customer feedback. The Business Engine Network, Tenrox PSA and Replicon Web TimeSheet were examined as finalists through their Web interfaces. Tenrox PSA's innovative project management features and strong channel program came out on top.

Tenrox's database collects data from its components and Microsoft Project, bidirectionally synchronizing them in realtime. Tenrox resells Microsoft SharePoint and Outlook for integrated document management, e-mail and scheduling. Tenrox has outshone its competitors by adding business-process workflows. Workflow steps are viewable through Microsoft Visio, so designers can easily determine what a process is doing. Also, mangers can create and mail numerous graphical report views using drag and drop of any field.

Tenrox's three-tiered channel program includes marketing, customized market development funds, dedicated sales reps and a strong focus on online marketing and sales training assistance.

Color laser printers have been blessed with incredible improvements in performance and dramatic size reductions, making high-speed color printing now affordable to SMBs.

The Test Center focused on high-performance small-business color printers, and Hewlett-Packard's LaserJet 2500, Minolta-QMS' Magicolor 2300 and Xerox's Phaser 6200 were chosen as finalists.

Small and light, the Xerox Phaser 6200 prints up to 16 ppm in color or monochrome. The HP and Minolta printers are considerably smaller than the Xerox unit and a bit lighter, too, but neither can compete on speed. The three printers print monochrome at about the same speed, an average of 50 seconds for a 10-page monochrome Word document. But a 10-page Word document with color headings revealed major performance differences: Scores for HP, Minolta and Xerox were 2:46, 2:41 and 0:48, respectively.

On the channel side, Xerox specializes in online and in-person training and marketing assistance. Xerox's excellent partner Web site provides marketing support and tools that help solution providers design co-branded sales Web sites, promotions and e-mail campaigns.

With RAD interfaces, back-end ODBC connectivity, sophisticated scripting and low prices, desktop databases are a flexible development environment for small businesses and the focus of the database category.

FileMaker Pro 6 Unlimited, theKompany.com's Rekall 1.1 and Sun Microsystems' StarOffice 6.0 were examined. For each solution, inventory and purchase databases were created and were tied together using SQL and each product's native connectivity.

For superior documentation, ease of use and functionality, FileMaker led the category. The database provides intuitive screens, along with form templates for database design and record entering.

Lists of values for each field or field definitions can be modified but are hidden from the main menu, allowing users to concentrate on building the database.

FileMaker supports intuitive development of complex template forms without using SQL or any formal database design techniques. Since a FileMaker database is driven by forms and not tables, the field types are high-level descriptions of the data and not the usual low-level data-property definitions. Numerical operations and built-in functions are supported by FileMaker, and calculations can be performed easily.

On the channel side, FileMaker helps partners to design marketing programs and provides an easy-to-navigate Web site with sales information and tools.

In choosing a server of the year, the Test Center requested custom-built systems for the channel that offered something more than the typical 1U dual Xeon. Of the three contestants, Aspect Computer, Avnet Applied Computing and Supermicro,the Aspect Century 2610XR Server offers the best bang for the buck plus a terrific channel program. The Aspect Century Server comes with Xeon processors as fast as 2.8GHz and a 533MHz bus speed. Housed in a black 4U pedestal, the slick-looking sample unit had a Supermicro motherboard, two 2.6GHz Intel Xeon processors, 1 Gbyte of memory, on-board Ultra 320 SCSI and dual on-board Gbit NICs. The internal RAID array consisted of six Seagate Cheetah 15,000-rpm, 18-Gbyte hard drives and triple redundant hot-swappable 500-watt power supplies. The server, which came loaded with Windows 2000 Advanced Server, also included a 40X12X40X CD-RW drive and a floppy drive. In the above configuration, the Aspect Century Server's cost to solution providers is just $5,299, with an estimated retail price of $8,999. Aspect also provides the channel support necessary to sell its servers, including a wide array of discounts and promotions, marketing support, generous margins and advanced shipping options.

Portal servers can deliver a unified view of Web sites, applications and any content that organizations use and, as a result, are becoming collaboration platforms for employees and partners.

Test Center engineers reviewed Computer Associates International's CleverPath, Plumtree Software's Corporate Portal Server and Microsoft's SharePoint Portal Server. Engineers examined each product's collaboration environment and document management features. Because of its thorough channel program and its configurable and easy-to-use document management features, Microsoft's updated version of SharePoint Portal Server was the top choice for the portal server category.

SharePoint's powerful document manager includes version tracking, document routing and document tagging functions to enhance text searching using multiple file attributes. Searches are performed by document title, author, category and keywords. The portal also distributes documents using folders that exhibit document management features such as manager approvals and check-in/check-out facilities.

Microsoft supports SharePoint with a broad array of training and marketing tools, plus a wealth of sales and deployment information.

Security for the small-business market is often a compromise between ease of use and cost, so the Test Center sought solutions that provide enterprise-class security for small, broadband-enabled networks. The finalists had to provide virus protection, content filtering, a firewall, VPN support and browser-based management. They included Instagate Pro from eSoft, Fortigate-50 from Fortinet, Edgeforce from ServGate, Firebox SOHO from WatchGuard Technologies and the SOHO3 from SonicWall.

SonicWall's SOHO3 was the standout in this category because of its combination of rich feature set, ease of implementation, low cost and friendly channel policies. Solution providers will find SOHO3 quick to implement and configurable with a full range of options. Many of the options are available on a trial basis to demonstrate their benefits and generate sales.

The unit's browser-based Java console eases administration and reporting tasks, allowing novices to quickly master key features of the unit.

SonicWall's new channel program provides partners with online training, sales rewards paid to a debit card and frequent communication. Partners in the top two partner tiers receive additional discounts, marketing support, leads and a dedicated sales representative.