Finding the right-fit vendors for our channel community is one of our most important challenges. We look for channel-friendly vendors that solve big problems and generate sustainable profits for partners. If you would like to stay up-to-date with all of the vendors and products that we find, then subscribe to e-ChannelNEWS.
Here are the 15 vendors we checked out at our recent ChannelNEXT18 in Whistler, British Columbia.
- Aerohive Networks. Good or bad, wireless networks are an integral part of our modern society. Businesses, schools, governments all need it. Some smart cities are moving towards broadband wireless access for all. As such you need a wireless network platform that will be able to deliver reliable access, simple to install, easy to maintain or expand as well as have the best security as possible. This is what Aerohive delivers to countless users every day! With Aerohive, if one unit goes bonkers, the others automatically senses this and takes over the job. Talk to the Aerohive team. Check out their customer success stories. Find out why this is a must-have for you and your customers! www.aerohive.com
- Barrier1. Every security expert knows that preventing cyber attacks require a multi-layered approach and a big dose of user education. Human mistakes is the common culprit in most breaches today. That said, we need to do whatever is possible to block cyber attacks on top of managing human behavior. Artificial Intelligence is one direction that many vendors are already leveraging to mediate the security risks. You need AI to help in the fight and you will need deeper AI as the hackers also leverage AI to attack. This battle is far from over. Barrier1 showcased their AI and how it blocks attacks with 21 algorithms to stay ahead of the hackers. Put Barrier1 to the test. Simply have them insert it into your current stack to see if it catches anything that your solution is letting through. Review the reports to decide if you want to activate the Barrier1 defense solution to start blocking these attacks in real-time. The company also released a new managed service called Vulnerability-Monitoring-as-a-Service for MSPs to monitor their customers’ network and generate a report to share with them. This could be an easy add-on service that also opens up the conversation to offer more services! See www.barrier1.com
- Citrix. 99 percent of Fortune 100 and 98 percent of fortune 500 use Citrix in one way or another. They lead the market by building amazing solutions. Difficult to imagine any digital business transformation without some Citrix. They are doing so much that it is hard to zoom in on any specific solution to highlight. So over the next while, we will be digging into their latest product portfolio to bring you the key highlights through e-ChannelNEWS. Start by watching the first interview with Canada’s New Channel Lead to set the stage. Citrix is going to double down on the channel to ensure partners are up to speed on how they can be a integral part of their solution stack. Maybe it’s time to add Citrix to your playbook. www.citrix.com
- DATTO. With the recent merger of Autotask, they have added a PSA, CRM and RMM to their BDR offering. They also offer networking solutions. Combined, it can be a significant part of the book of business of a channel partner. What will they add next? They are both pros and cons to putting more of your eggs into one basket, but it seems like that they may do it right. For example, something as simple as their smart power bar that allows you to remotely restart a device is a simple and practical solution that can save technicians a lot of time in keeping systems up and running. Datto seems to be listening to their partners and developing solutions to help them fix problems and make more money. With Austin McChord recently stepping down as their CEO, we will see how this ship stays on course. See www.datto.com
- EcoProducts = Printer supplies done right. It almost seems funny to be talking about ink and toner cartridges in today’s digital transformation world, but only 20% of the businesses are on Cloud and people are printing more today than ever. Yes, print is not going away anytime soon and it may never. The problem is how to make money selling print supplies. Original ink and toner cartridges are not cheap as everyone who has bought some knows. ECO Products re-manufactures and recycles printer ink products. And, they do it right! Quality and responsibility describes them well. It is also a lot cheaper than original manufacturer cartridges. Basically, out of the gate you will make a much more profits on these commodity products and there will be no difference in user experience. Actually, their satisfaction may increase as they may be able to squeeze a few more printed pages out of the same cartridge. However, the immediate benefit is to the environment as the cartridge is already recycled and they will recycle it again! That is like 3X out of the landfill just by making one supplier change! On top of this, ECO now offers a full range of printer components so you can keep your printer working longer! More ROI for you and value for your customer! They can also help you implement a full Manage Print Service business practice. They do the work and you generate a recurring revenue on every page that your customers print! See www.ecoproducts.solutions
- EmailPlatform: Marketing Automation Platform. If you are already rocking your digital marketing with a solid marketing automation platform, then skip this, for now. For others, this is your on-ramp to the digital world that will change your game. It’s basically a platform that will manage all of your client’s interest and send them e-newsletters and push content to your social media. In the back-end, it tracks everyone and everything. You can plug this into your web site to feed it leads and it will automatically nurture them with relevant content, while you sleep. You can connect this to all sorts of third-party apps to take this as far as you want to go. This can become your backbone in your marketing playbook. But wait, there is more…You also get a content feed that will allow you to automatically drag and drop original content to send to your customers. You even have a resource of images to use royalty-free! It is an all-in-one dream marketing automation platform and more is yet to come! We are backing this platform 100% with a robust partnership to feed content. See eMailPlatform.
- FileFlex. This may change the way to do Cloud. This tool converts your servers into a secure Cloud. Allows people to securely access, share and collaborate with files on the organizations current storage infrastructure! It’s silicon to silicon, fully encrypted with no duplication, no uploads or third-parties to deal with. You always know exactly where your data is! Especially important in today’s privacy compliance regulations. This can be the answer to many problems in the business community and since only 20% of the business are on the cloud, maybe this can be a catalysis to grow. Check this out and understand how it fits into your Cloud strategy for your customers. It has smart cloud sense written all over it! See www.fileflex.com
- itcloud.ca is a Microsoft CSP distributor that targets smaller VARs/MSPs. They will help you generate more business out of your current Microsoft book of business. They also offer back-up and disaster recovery services and IT security services. Their are also helping MSPs to take their business to the next level as some of their in-house experts come from successful MSPs. They know how to help MSPs to reposition their offering to add more recurring revenue and managed services. What is also cool is that they can offer MSPs a hands off experience since they can do all the work for you and act like your representative. You just get a check every month. I saw their admin dashboard and I think it is a big deal for MSPs to view their activities and revenue streams in real time. Support is always on so you may not even need to notify them if there is problem. They are out front monitoring and fixing them before it blows up. See www.itcloud.ca
- Idiligo. Sales pitch perfect every time is what they deliver to channel partners and vendors. It takes a bit to wrap your brains around this product as other products seem to do what they do, but when you take a closer look, you will see the difference. Idiligo has developed a better mousetrap for sales reps to improve their game and close more deals. In a nutshell, you can teach the system to learn the best sales pitches from your top sales reps and transfer this knowledge to the entire team. It can book sales calls and share presentations online. It can even managed contracts with e-signatures. It can also integrate with your CRM. It is like a sophisticated digital sales assistant that never sleeps, always reminding you of everything you need to do to close the deal. See www.idiligo.com
- Purplesoft. Insane as it sounds, many VARs and MSPs are using an antiquated accounting platform that is not connected to anything! This should have been the first mile to fix, but it seems like it is the last. In comes Purplesoft with a customized version of HansaWorld (from Sweden) for the North American market. This platform is solid and proven in over 80 countries. It has all of the good stuff that you would expect from any ERP system, but this one is affordable and customized for VARs and MSPs. Purplesoft will do the work to get you migrated and up and running. Once done, you will look back and say “how and why did I ever run business with out this”. The amount of business intelligence and efficiencies that you will gain to exploit is simply incredible. If you are not running on an ERP, you are running your car on a 1 cylinder engine. It’s moving too slow, revving too high and overheating. Eventually it may break down as you add heavier loads. If you are not sure what an ERP is, find out. While this tool is optimized for channel partners, it can also be customized for end customers! See www.purplesofterp.ca
- QNAP. They make some of the best storage cabinets in the industry. They win Reseller Choice Awards. They make the foundation of NAS solutions. If fast and reliable storage is critical to your business, then this is the tool. Our team uses it in their video production services and it just works. Since we are storing more stuff than ever before, this may be a solution or alternative to pushing everything into the Cloud. With tools like FileFlex, these NAS storage units can also be accessed in the Cloud! One cool feature is its ability to easily expand by adding bays and drives as you need. See www.qnap.com
- Sherweb. They are probably the #1 Microsoft CSP Distributor in North America. They got there by helping their partners to make more money and manage their Microsoft business easier. They are a powerhouse in helping their clients to improve their Microsoft game and scaling up with Dynamics 365 and Azure. They are now expanding with VOIP and Unified Communications with a solid mix of vendors. Their support is hands-on and they want you to succeed. You definitely want to get to know Sherweb and experience how they can help you get the most from Microsoft. See www.sherweb.com
- TP-Link. They make a wide range of networking devices and web cameras for the connected lifestyle. They are constantly ranked #1 by research organizations like IDC in WLAN and Broadband CPE devices. For the small business and home market, they can be a solid choice. They also have an interesting Managed Cloud solution. They are constantly innovating and bringing out more smart devices. With a distribution network in over 120 countries, they have the market presence to properly support the channel. See www.tp-link.com
- Viewsonic. What can I say about the line up of Viewsonic displays and virtualization desktop devices? They have everything you need and their are already building the stuff that you will need in the future. They are one of the World’s top providers of visual solutions and they are all-in with the channel! Channel partners can make solid margins. Their quality and support is top notch. The team is crazy good and friendly. Their channel manager Noah Jacobs is one of the very best and professional channel people that I know and I know a lot! As important as the product is the channel team who supports their partners! It is one important attribute to look for when you select any vendor to do business with! See www.viewsonic.com
- WEBROOT. This security vendor is well-tuned for the MSP business model. Their on-boarding and self-help dashboard makes it so easy to buy, sell, deploy and manage their products. Every vendor can take some lessons from them. It is no wonder that their security platform is one of the fasting growing in the channel. Their product is also rock solid and can be an integral part of any security stack. Their team is all channel-friendly so it is a sure bet. They also put on a great hospitality suite for partners! If you are looking to beef-up your security services offering, WEBROOT is an obvious choice to consider. See www.webroot.com
Special shout out to The Channel Partner Alliance that was just unleashed to help channel partners pay for their membership fees in the Elite 300 Mastermind Peer-Group/business building academy. Members also get an e-commerce platform to check price and availability and place orders with all major IT distributors in real time. It’s one step closer to offering every channel partner the most powerful business building services at no cost! 100% supported by our vendor and distributor community. You will be hearing a lot more about this! If you are a VAR or MSP, then you want to join Elite 300 to get into your peer group of 8 members and build your business 365 days a year! It will change your business and maybe your life!
