An XChange For The Rest Of Us
To get some of the benefits of an XChange event right at your desk, this week we launched XChange On Demand, a virtual trade show where you can participate in seminars, catch the keynotes, visit vendor booths and interact with representatives from top vendors and solution providers alike.
Available now in XChange On Demand: hear from a dozen top vendors in the 'Solutions Pavillion', link to CRN and VARBusiness coverage and CRN Broadcast News audio from this month's Breakaway XChange in San Diego in the 'Resource Pavillion'; and review half a dozen presentations and keynotes in the 'Conference Hall' on topics including salaries and certification, lead management, deploying technology, gigabit ethernet and partner loyalty.
Finally, it's also a fun application to drive around, and a lighthearted way to get some serious contacts and information. Give it a try and let me know what you think. The next live XChange event, Emerging Technologies XChange, is October 13-15 at Amelia Island, Fl.
Broadcast News
Our website formerly known as CRNNewsRadio has a new name! Frankly, a long-simmering trademark dispute has finally been worked out, and one element involved us changing the NewsRadio name. Hence, CRN Broadcast News! You'll still find the same in-depth interviews, columns, and live event coverage as before, in Real Audio format, with most segments hosted by the "voice of the channel," our own Jeff O'Heir. Tune in.
Cool Award
We're always pleased when our magazines or web sites win editorial and design awards. But the latest came as a very plesant surprise. The ChannelWeb logo (that's it up at the top of this page), has won an American Graphic Design Award from Graphic Design USA magazine. Congratulations to our logo designer, Brian McClean, senior group art director, CMP Media's' Technology Solutions group.
There Goes Early Retirement
It's been another week of dismal corporate announcements and stock market slides, starting with Oracle and winding up, with a bang, with EDS, with Worldcom, Global Crossing and Qwest all along for the ride. Is there any way for you to beat the business blues? Check out Ken Thoreson's Top 11 Sales Management Actions You Must Take for some ideas.
Best of the Week
News from the SunNetwork 2002 show: Scott McNealy took aim at people (including me) who notice a sea change in Sun. He's says he's "beating the same old drum." McNealy also indicated Sun was moving out of the app server market, and introduced their much-anticipated Linux desktop products.
At Microsoft's Stampede conference, the company shuffled some names and prices in its financial market products line, aquired in their Great Plains and Navision deals. Elsewhere, the release of Windows XP Service Pack 1 was greeted with less enthusiasm than a typical service pack, and garnered a lukewarm review from the CRN Test Center's Frank Ohlhorst.
Ingram Micro cancelled credit lines, it said, to delinquent and inactive accounts, but many ChannelWeb readers have been reporting that the cuts were far broader than the company admits.
Network Appliance is launching a new channel program this week, trying to reverse it's "channel-unfriendly" image.
United Linux is also gearing up a channel program of its own as it prepares for the launch of UnitedLinux 1.0 later this year.