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Recent Articles

  • Young Companies Recruit VARs to Tackle Network Congestion

    When network performance drops, bogging down applications and connections, the finger often is pointed at the administrator. But the causes of performance degradation typically lie elsewhere. Media file-sharing, spam relay, viruses and worms all contribute to poor network performance, slowing applications and hurting productivity. “It’s got nothing to do with network design,” said Bob Quillin,…

  • 45 and Too Old to Work?

    I wasn’t always a journalist. I spent years in IT doing everything from help desk (the horror! The horror!) to programming to system administration to network integration. I was, if I say so myself, pretty darn good at all of it. I’m also 48, and from what my friends tell me, I’d have a heck…

  • Make Managed Services More Compelling

    In recent years, more resellers have latched onto the concept of offering managed services as well as their traditional integration and support. The main draw is the potential for an ongoing revenue stream from service customers as well as a higher revenue-per-customer. Managed services are not just a business opportunity, but a matter of survival…

  • Is There Such a Thing as a Good Sales Lead?

    Depending on your perspective, the channel is either awash in sales leads or completely bereft of them. The shade of gray that represents the truth between those equally true opposites is that leads are everywhere, but customers ready to buy are not. Anyone who has traded a couple of cases of foamy globes or novelty…

  • i2 Plans Data Sync Sales Push

    i2 Technologies Inc. plans to name at least 10 more systems integrator partners over the year ahead, as part of an escalating sales push around its data synchronization technology. i2, a vendor best known until now for its supply chain products, will announce a couple of the new data synchronization partners about three weeks from…

  • HP’s Channel Plan: One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

    I am a big believer in companies having unified messages to their channel partners and end-user customers alike. Mixed signals from different parts of an organization breed contempt and confusion. And all good intentions can wash straight down the sewer if a company is sending different messages to its VAR base. This, in my view,…

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