IMSN Members Tapped to Help Women-Owned SMBs

The program intends to help build one million women-owned businesses earning $1 million or more in annual revenue by 2010 and is co-sponsored by Cisco Systems, which is providing $20,000 in equipment to each of the winners. Five winners were announced this month and an additional five companies will be selected Oct. 24 in New York. IMSN members install the networks for all 10 companies.

Cisco, along with program founders Count Me In for Womens' Economic Independence, a non-profit organization providing business loands and resources, and OPEN for American Express, the small business team at American Express, chose the winners from 500 applications, said Ann Sun, senior manager for Global Small Medium Business marketing at Cisco.

The program's sponsors hope the IMSN solution providers will help the small businesses prepare their businesses for future growth and support them long term, she said.

"The focus we had was to bring channel partners in a consultative way to help them understand what business challenges these award winners may have and have a discussion around how technology can be applied to solve those challenges," Sun said. Over the last 18 months, Cisco has been training solution providers in that area, she said.

"It gets them understanding their [customers'] businesses as opposed to just selling some more product. It brings a value to the customer as well as the VAR community," Sun said.

Cisco Systems approached IMSN because of its nationwide reach and expertise serving small businesses, Sun said.

"Ingram Micro has been a partner for a long time. There was a mutual desire to service the marketplace. We had discussions across the team and Ingram Micro stepped up to say they'd like to be a part of it," Sun said.

Creative Business Concepts, an Irvine, Calif., solution provider and IMSN member, has set up its first conference call with one of the winners, Peace Talks Mediation Services, a Playa del Rey, Calif.,-based family law mediator, said Larry Boyd, vice president of sales at Creative Business Concepts.

"There's a certain allocation [of product] and we want to make sure it does the job for them. It takes planning, services, time to make sure it's done properly. It's not a huge deal for us, but I'm happy to do this," he said.

Other VARs selected to install the Cisco networks for winners are Sierra Associates, Sarcom, CPI Technologies and Northwest Computers.

Solution providers will receive approximately $2,500 to install the Cisco equipment for the winners, according to Ingram Micro.

VARs were selected based on their IMSN status, Cisco certifications and geography, according to Ingram Micro.

Ingram Micro will give preference to women-owned IMSN members when choosing VARs for the program, but members' expertise, geography and standing within the organization are also considered, said Jason Beal, IMSN group manager at Ingram Micro.

"IMSN has Cisco-certified members with expertise in VoIP and who are accustomed to serving small, growing businesses. We will provide support now and going forward," Beal said. "There are a few elements where we could add to the winners outside the installation, such as site assessment, recommendations and ongoing support of those environments. There's a lot of good value Ingram Micro can provide connecting local VARs with the end users," Beal said.

The small businesses are strong candidates as a future revenue source too, Beal said. "They get the installation, the site survey. But as companies grow, they need more phones or more routers," he said.