Transitioning with the times
Picking the brains of its customers helped this company create a plan to build expertise in data availability, message management and disaster recovery
Fueling the need for RFID technology
Years of industry experience paid off for three partners who were able to avoid the pitfalls hit by many upstarts and build a successful business around radio frequency identification
The New Breed
The industry has cooled since the collapse of the high-tech bubble, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t opportunities. We canvassed the country to find four VARs that have carved out promising niches, demonstrating that with imagination solution providers can find new business models
The success of telework
Academics don’t study it anymore, but remote working still has unrealized potential
HP battles celebrity status
Carly Fiorina’s memoir will put her former company in an unwanted spotlight, briefly casting a shadow over Mark Hurd’s achievements
Cisco and Microsoft join forces
The two companies forge ahead with interoperability plan and Cisco unveils a master specialization brand for its channel partners in the security realm
Nortel fosters strategy to attack SMB market
In a bid to help its VARs sell IP-based solutions to small and medium-sized companies, Nortel Networks…
Synnex Canada to push solutions
Determined to broaden the services it offers, Synnex Canada has opened a technology solutions division to go…
Ottawa backs down again
Reverse auctions are gone, says Public Works minister. Meanwhile, confusion reigns over the proposed printer buying policy
The mediator
Access Distribution’s chief executive is happiest being in the middle of the vendor-channel supply chain
Channel defender
Partners have an ally in Toshiba Canada’s Ralph Hyattt, who goes to the mat for them
Five Marketing Errors
Consultant Michael Hepworth, who produces The StreetSmart Marketer newsletter, urges companies to avoid these common mistakes:
Marketing Your Company: Finding the Right Target
VARs have to engage in at least a little marketing to pull in business. But partners we interviewed warn that broad campaigns don’t work any more. And forget about golf. To pull in customers, firms have to stress their ability to assemble solutions and to find niche markets
Pumping a new delivery model
A Calgary solution provider believes offering software as a service products to niche markets is the road to fast growth
A week without technology
Without the Internet to keep us plugged into the world how did we survive? Easily