5 Companies That Came To Win This Week

The Week Ending Feb. 19

Topping this week's roundup of companies that came to win is Cisco for its aggressive push into security with a wave of new products and services.

Also making the list this week are Mojo Networks for its new channel program designed to recruit partners from bigger competitors, RSA's recommitment to the channel, SAP's acquisition of a popular mobile business analytics application, and a cloud services provider that's helping solution providers make the jump to the cloud,

Not everyone in the IT industry was making smart moves this week, of course. For a rundown of companies that were unfortunate, unsuccessful or just didn't make good decisions, check out this week's Five Companies That Had A Rough Week roundup.

Cisco Goes On Security IT Offensive With Wave Of New Products

Less than a week after reporting an 11-percent surge in its Q2 security business, Cisco launched a slew of new security hardware, software and services – all aimed at providing channel partners with more market firepower to drive security technology sales.

The additions to Cisco's security portfolio include new security appliances for high-performance applications, a new Firepower Management Center with a unified security and network management console, a new Cisco Firepower Next-Generation Firewall, and segmentation advisory services.

The expanded lineup provides partners with more opportunities around security services, from pre-sale security posture assessments and penetration testing, to integration opportunities and managed services opportunities such as managing a customer's security infrastructure.

Wireless Provider Mojo Networks Launches Partner Program, Alliance With Ingram Micro

Cloud-based wireless specialist Mojo Networks launched a partner program this week, actively seeking to recruit new cloud and wireless solution providers that partner with larger competitors. And it's offering 20-percent margins as an incentive.

The new Mojo Force two-tier program also offers partners close collaboration with the vendor's sales teams, a new partner portal and other resources. The company also announced an alliance with distributor Ingram Micro to help drive channel sales.

Mojo's executives believe that the big wireless companies are over-distributed and some solution providers are looking for an opportunity to move to a smaller, more innovative company.

RSA Recommits To Partners By Shifting Sales Incentives To The Channel

Mojo Networks wasn't the only company making savvy moves in the channel this week. RSA, which has gone through a lengthy period of contention with the channel, announced several steps that recommit the security technology company to partners.

RSA is revamping its sales compensation structure to favor a partner-led go-to-market strategy by paying RSA salespeople solely on product billings. The announcement, made by Senior Vice President of Worldwide Sales Dave Castignola at RSA's Virtual Partner Kickoff, means that RSA sales representatives won't be compensated for professional services.

Castignola said the changes would transform RSA to be more aligned with its channel community. The company plans to roll out a new RSA SecurWorld partner program in July to simplify core competencies and drive net-new business. Channel sales managers will bridge the gap between the vendor's customer-facing and partner teams. And new solutions are being developed that will provide partners with more profitable margins.

SAP Acquires Mobile Data Visualization App Roambi

Cloud computing and business analytics have been two of SAP's core technology initiatives of late. This week, the company made a savvy move that advances its position in both areas by acquiring Roambi, a suite of popular mobile data analytics and visualization applications.

The Roambi application suite taps into back-end business analytics software, including SAP systems. SAP isn't saying much just yet about its plans for the software, although an obvious plan would be integration with SAP Predictive Analytics and the just-announced SAP HANA Cloud Predictive Services 1.0.

SAP has found itself in a competitive dogfight with Salesforce.com and its Wave Analytics Mobile App. Acquiring Roambi should boost SAP's position as these two cloud giants go head to head in mobile analytics.

Cirrity Helps Channel Partners Expand Their Cloud Computing Businesses

Transforming into a cloud computing business with a recurring revenue model can be a challenge for solution providers. Cirrity, a channel-only cloud services provider, is going the distance to help its partners make the move.

This week a number of solution providers and strategic solution providers, including GreenPages Technology Solutions, BlueWave Computing and Insight Technologies, credited Cirrity with helping solution providers offer their customers such cloud services as Backup-as-a-Service, Disaster Recovery-as-a-Service and Infrastructure-as-a-Service.

Cirrity wins kudos for not just offering its cloud services to partners, but for providing sales assistance, technical training, customer support escalation and other they've-got-my-back services.