Recent Articles
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Basement Ventures Free Conferencing Worth Exactly What You Pay for It
I have no idea what we were thinking. The name of the business is, after all, Basement Ventures. What did we really expect? But the offer of free telephone conferencing for up to 250 callers with no scheduling required was too good to resist. And, as a bonus, Basement Ventures’ free service claims to offer…
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Changing the Managed Services Game
Every now and again a disruptive force shows up in a product category that more or less forces everybody in that category to possible rethink their approach to a problem. So too it is with managed services in the form of an appliance for delivering managed services that is called the IT Control Suite. <!–[endif]–>…
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Microsoft Revamps Partner Program
Solution providers who want to rise to prominence in Microsoft’s partner program will need to sharpen their technology focus and prove their business and customer-service mettle under new program rules being drafted by the software maker’s channel executives. The program changes coincide with an organizational realignment this week that split Microsoft’s U.S. Partner Business into…
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The Rise of the Virtual Solution Provider (or Not)
While catching up on some virtualization news, it occurs to me that a new category of channel company could emerge as a result of virtualization technology: the virtual solution provider. Two seconds later it dawns on me that “virtual solution provider” would actually describe something completely different from a company that sells, deploys and maintains…
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Objectworld Answers the Call for Simplified UC
Objectworld’s unified communications bundles were a big hit when they launched in January 2008. There was just one problem: It soon became clear that many of the VARs selling the bundles weren’t adequately trained and educated about UC, and thus were ill-equipped to deliver the kind of support and expertise their customers needed. "When we…
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FOR ESP: A Question of Trust
It appears the channel and the CIO don’t exactly see eye to eye about who takes the lead on introducing emerging technologies into the organization. Both parties want to take credit for finding more effective and efficient IT solutions. If that’s the case, just how much of a “trusted adviser” role is the channel playing…