5 Companies That Came To Win This Week

The Week Ending July 18

This week's roundup of companies that came to win includes Verizon's savvy channel move to give partners access to more enterprise customers, Microsoft's efforts to form strategic alliances to take advantage of business opportunities, Extreme Networks' channel program overhaul, NetSuite's continued expansion into the e-commerce market and Intel's improving fortunes as the PC industry shows new signs of growth.

Verizon Opens Up 1,700 Enterprise Accounts To The Channel

Verizon Enterprise Solutions said this week that starting immediately it is opening up an additional 1,700 of its top enterprise accounts to the channel. Until now, Verizon's direct sales team exclusively managed those accounts. Under the change, Verizon's direct sales reps and channel partners can work together, with both able to register deals.

The move follows a major redesign of Verizon Enterprise Solutions' partner program, under which solution providers sell Verizon-branded products and services. That program has largely focused on small or midsize enterprise customers. But larger enterprise customers have told Verizon they want to work with Verizon partners at times and that led to the change.

Microsoft Forges Strategic Alliances To Exploit Opportunities

Maybe it's a sign of the new thinking CEO Satya Nadella is bringing to Microsoft. This week, the company struck deals with IT vendors targeting business opportunities it couldn't easily pursue on its own.

Microsoft joined Hewlett-Packard and Intel in an effort to develop and market new products for the exploding commercial mobility arena. Microsoft and HP also teamed up to upgrade the 11.3 million servers running the aging Windows 2003 Server.

Microsoft and Cisco inked a three-year alliance to better integrate and jointly sell their data center products. And Microsoft is working with NetApp to develop that company's Private Storage for Cloud technology to extend on-premise data to Microsoft's Azure public cloud.

Extreme Networks Consolidates Partner Operations After Enterasys Acquisition

Extreme Networks expanded its presence in the global Ethernet switching market when it acquired Enterasys in September 2013 for $180 million. But until now the two companies' partner bases have operated under separate programs.

This week, Extreme launched the Extreme Partner Network that brings together all 2,700 global partners (1,400 in North America) into one program, making it possible for Extreme to fully leverage the Enterasys acquisition through the channel. For partners, EPN is designed to boost partners' service revenue and sweetens deal registration and partner incentive programs. It also will simplify the partner sales process with a single distribution network.

NetSuite Continues E-Commerce Push With Venda Acquisition

Cloud application vendor NetSuite acquired e-commerce software developer Venda this week in a move that continues NetSuite's aggressive expansion into the e-commerce arena. The addition of London-based Venda also will give NetSuite a bigger footprint in Europe.

While NetSuite is well known for its cloud ERP and CRM applications, it has been steadily building up its SuiteCommerce offerings for B2B and B2C companies. Last year, it acquired Order Motion and its order management applications, and Retail Anywhere with its retail management and point-of-sale software.

Strengthening PC Market Boosts Intel Q2 Results

Intel benefited from a rejuvenated PC market in its second quarter, racking up 8 percent revenue growth and a 40 percent surge in net income, according to numbers the chip maker reported this week. The company also said it's on track to meet its goal of shipping 40 million tablet computers with Intel chips this year.

Intel has reported lackluster financial results in the past when the PC market, where its processors reign, took a hit when tablet sales took off. This week, the company raised its forecast for full-year revenue from flat to 5 percent growth.