5 Companies (Plus A Bonus) That Came To Win This Week

The Week Ending March 9

This week's roundup of companies that came to win is focused on vendors who are making big strides to provide their solution provider and MSP partners with the products, training, incentives and capabilities they need to be successful. Many of the companies winning kudos this week made channel-related news at The Channel Company's XChange Solution Provider 2018 conference in Orlando.

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.

Intermedia Seeks Deeper, High-Margin Relationships With Partners In Drive To Be UCaaS Market Leader

Partners stand to make 25 percent margins selling Intermedia's new Unite Unified Communications-as-a-Service platform as the vendor sets its sights on doubling in size in the next three years and dominating the SMB UCaaS market.

"I'm looking to go deeper with our partners, to build a business," Intermedia Chief Revenue Officer Eric Martorano told CRN at the XChange Solution Provider 2018 event this week. "I'm looking for an opportunity for Intermedia to become a greater share of our partners' business. To do that we have to put the right product in the market, but also enable those partners to be successful. The only way we're going to double our business is with partners by our side and going deeper with them."

The UCaaS market is expected to grow at an annual rate of about 20 percent, reaching $15 billion in five years. Intermedia's new Unite product is key to achieving its goal of doubling in size in the next three years, as is the company's commitment to a partner-focused strategy.

D&H Launches Cisco Meraki Channel Program To Help Partners Capture "Vast" SMB Revenue Opportunity

D&H Distributing is rolling out an extensive portfolio of training, marketing and support resources aimed at catalyzing partner sales and growth around the Cisco Meraki cloud networking program.

Under the new "Driven" program, D&H will help solution and service providers win new wireless business at a time when small and mid-size businesses are struggling with connectivity, access and wireless deployment.

D&H is betting that its new partner resources, combined with the Meraki system's ease-of-use characteristics, make an ideal combination for partners looking to capture some of the opportunities created by the high demand for SMB wireless solutions.

And applause goes to solution provider Treysta Technology for working with D&H to score a big customer win, developing a hyper-converged solution for a sports apparel maker that was plagued by server sprawl and outdated IT infrastructure.

APC Making Channel Investments In IoT, Managed Services To Drive Partner Profitability

Sticking with the topic of providing channel partners with the resources to succeed, APC by Schneider Electric is focused on several channel initiatives this year the company says will drive partner profitability around edge computing, managed services and systems integration.

Jarrad Morelli, channel partner strategy manager East for APC by Schneider Electric, outlined three areas of channel investment for the company this year in an interview this week with CRN at XChange Solution Provider 2018.

The vendor is investing heavily in partner enablement around the network edge and Internet of Things, ensuring partners can support IoT environments by driving better resiliency for on-site deployments.

Also on tap is an initiative to help systems integrators implement IT solutions as quickly and easily as possible through pre-deployment testing and configuration. And APC by Schneider plans to create tighter managed services synergies with its channel community in 2018, Morelli said, supporting each partner's own unique type of managed service.

The moves are part of the company's focus on driving new software capabilities for the channel and creating more cloud-based versions of its legacy product lines.

Eaton Doubles Down On Software Solutions, Training To Drive MSP Services In 2018

Data center powerhouse Eaton this week outlined its aggressive product development and training roadmap around software management solutions with the goal this year of providing managed service providers with more skills and tools to win service deals.

More than 600 channel partners have already taken advantage of Eaton's software-focused Learning Management Training System program for MSPs, said Stephanie Durden, Eaton's partner life cycle marketing manager, speaking at the XChange Solution Provider 2018 conference.

The MSP program includes training on Eaton's software management products, including the Intelligent Power Manager, Visual Power Manager and PredictPulse. Durden said Eaton is striving this year to enable MSPs to better identify opportunities to sell power management solutions.

Pax8 Rolls Stax Designer Into Beta, Creating Software Configuration Opportunities For Solution Providers

Cloud services distributor Pax8 this week rolled out its MSP-focused Stax Designer platform into beta testing to give channel partners an opportunity to try out its ability to offer customized and easily configured software stacks to customers.

With Stax Designer, MSPs can quickly combine and configure applications from multiple cloud-based software developers into stacks that can be managed as a whole rather than as individual applications. The software stacks are customizable for individual customers.

The ground-breaking system also creates cross-sell and up-sell opportunities for MSPs, said Ryan Walsh, chief channel officer for Denver-based Pax8, who introduced the platform and its beta program during his presentation at the XChange Solution Provider 2018 conference. MSPs can look at the applications included in one customer's software stack and compare that to others' stacks to see what applications that customer might want to add, Walsh said.

Barrage Of HPE Incentives Driving Partner Profitability

The slew of across-the-board sales incentives Hewlett Packard Enterprise has rolled out recently is leading to big profitability gains for the company's channel partners.

This week Gary Gammon, HPE director of North American distribution, speaking at the XChange Solution Provider 2018 conference, touted the early success of the stackable incentives.

The second-quarter promotions and incentives cover everything from Gen10 servers, to Nimble and 3Par storage systems, Aruba wireless technology and SimpliVity products.