Shannon O’Connor, IBM CanadaFollowing in the footsteps of Gary Issacs as director of IBM Canada business partners, Shannon O’Connor is focused on aligning with Americas channel programs and leveraging the resources of the parent company, working with IBM’s Canadian partners for a strong push in the SMB space.
Nick Tidd, D-Link CanadaAlready a channel mainstay, Nick Tidd is the new face of D-Link Canada as its general manager, and is also the de facto channel chief for D-Link in North America. The veteran of 3Com promises to help D-Link’s current partner base capitalize on D-Link’s offerings, as well as fight the perception the company is a retail-only vendor.
Greg Davis, DellSince moving from Dell Canada to Dell’s Round Rock, Tex. headquarters to oversee the launch of the former direct darling’s foray into the channel, Greg Davis, Dell’s Americas channel chief, has been a busy man. By this summer, he’d surpassed 10,000 partners in the U.S. and 1000 in Canada. He has plans for further growth and improvements, including building on its certification programs and better communication with partners.
Conrad Mandala, SAP CanadaAs the new North American channel chief for SAP, Conrad Mandala has the following advice for the company’s partners: be as entrepreneurial as possible. The company has opened all SAP business below $1 billion to the indirect channel, leaning partners lots of room to be entrepreneurial. Mandala plans to put resources into online configuration tools and marketing tools to help the channel bring SAP’s ERP offerings to new markets.
Fred Patterson, Symantec CanadaSymantec’s sweet spot in Canada is the SMB says Fred Patterson, Symantec Canada’s director of enterprise channels. It’s not just large enterprises facing security challenges, but the small and mid-market as well. To help reach those customers, Patterson has been busy improving field engagement with Symantec’s partners and its sales representatives. Now a greater percentage of Symantec’s business flows through partners.
Dave Frederickson, HP CanadaA long time HP Canada employee, David Frederickson advises that in today’s competitive environment, people are looking for resellers that differentiate themselves. IT technical support, purchasing, high level consultants and managed services all offer residual revenues and predictable revenue streams, as well as an opportunity to strengthen the reseller’s relationship with the client by developing more of a trusted partner, said HP Canada’s channel chief.
Please pick up the November 7th issue of CDN for the full chart of 40 top Canadian vendor channel chiefs, their contact information, and key facts and information about their channel programs and product plans.And watch www.computerdealernews.com for the online list, coming soon.
The first annual Computer Dealer News Channel Chiefs feature includes profiles of six of Canada’s leading channel chiefs, along with all the information you need on Canada’s major channel vendors, from channel chief contact information to rebates, margins and product release schedules.
By Jeff Jedras of CDN