Watson Wows Editorial Cabinet

Editor's Note: Early next year, will publish its third annual ranking of the most effective--and controversial--Channel Chiefs. As an ongoing component of that coverage, we've inaugurated a monthly spotlight featuring the channel executive who had the most impact in terms of programs or other activities during the previous month. This selection will be made each month by the editorial cabinet.

The slate of executives considered for the August spotlight included Allison Watson, vice president of the worldwide partner sales and marketing group at Microsoft; Paul Mountford, senior vice president of worldwide channels at Cisco Systems; and Tushar Kothari, vice president of worldwide channels at Juniper Networks.

The responses were actually a whole lot closer than in the previous month's contest, but in the end, the cabinet went with Watson, citing her ability to rally more funds for partners as well as senior-level executive mind share at Microsoft.

"I believe the moves and investments that Microsoft has made over the past 12 months and, more importantly, over the past quarter merits this month's recognition," wrote Terry Petrzelka, founder of Tectura, a Microsoft Business Solutions partner in San Mateo, Calif. "I am a little biased here, for I personally know the efforts, energy, passion and commitment Allison has [devoted] to the Microsoft initiatives in this area. There is no other choice in my mind."

Oli Thordarson, president of Alvaka Networks in Huntington Beach, Calif., said that money talks. "Not many can put forth $200 million," Thordarson said, referring to the additional investment Microsoft said it would make in its channel during its worldwide partner conference in July. "Microsoft also seems to have the best-balanced program as far as accommodating the needs of large and small solution providers. They also seem to be working hard to reach out and match solution providers that possess complementary skill sets."

Elsewhere, diehard Cisco partner John Freres, president of Meridian IT Solutions in Schaumburg, Ill., said the efforts by Paul Mountford and his U.S. counterpart Chuck Robbins to improve partner profitability won over his vote. "Paul and Chuck have done a great job of furthering Cisco into the SMB [market], where the majority of the regional partners live for both product and professional services solutions," he said.

Jennifer Wright, owner of Wright Business Technologies, a Houston-based managed services and infrastructure solution provider, said that although she doesn't represent Cisco, she's increasingly impressed by the "hard line" that the vendor takes to protect its channel. "I know I'd appreciate it if some of my top vendors drew a tight circle around their top VARs and propelled their success by weeding out lower-performing VARs," Wright said.

There was one write-in candidate put forward by the cabinet: Novell.

Lesley Taufer, president of storage integrator Boulder Corp. in Boulder, Colo., said she's impressed by the vendor's communications policies. "They are the first OEM that we have dealt with that actually reports to us on a weekly basis the amount of funds that are due to us in their partner rewards program," Taufer said. "Additionally, they are actively investing in our services business by constantly adding in-depth training for our consultants and by actually recommending our consulting services to accounts."

Finally, I promised to share the online polling results related to last month's Channel Champ Of The Month poll. Although the CRN cabinet chose Allyson Seelinger, more than 55 percent of you actually chose Mike Borman, IBM's former channel chief and now general manager for the iSeries, as your top pick. Allyson Seelinger came in second, with slightly more than 33 percent of the vote.