The east event took over the entire hotel. The hot topics this year are cloud and managed services. Over 20 companies presented their products and solutions to the attending VARS. HP was back again for the seventh consecutive year to showcase their growing portfolio of products. HP has dominated the Recent Reseller Choice Awards with over 20 wins and continues to demonstrate that it is the top channel champion.
ChannelNEXT, now in its 11th year, kicked off their 2012 series of events at Chateau Veaudreuil, just outside Montreal. The east event took over the entire hotel. The hot topics this year are cloud and managed services. Over 20 companies presented their products and solutions to the attending VARS. HP was back again for the seventh consecutive year to showcase their growing portfolio of products. HP has dominated the Recent Reseller Choice Awards with over 20 wins and continues to demonstrate that it is the top channel champion.
InfoTrends reports that the Canadian managed print services (MPS) market is expected to grow from $438 million to $667 million by 2014, as more and more companies look for ways to optimize their print environments. Xerox Canada kicked off the ChannelNEXT East conference with Martin Bachant, vice president and general manager, Quebec Region. He presented their solution for managed print services as well as a “game-changer” technology for their printer business. The bonus news here is that Xerox is proactively looking for channel partners to grow their business.
Stephan Richard of Kaseya covered topics such as the market growth potential for managed services and how VARS can grow this part of their business. He presented a strong case for how VARS can profit from IT automation and how Kaseya can help them get the job done. VARS simply need a tool like Kaseya to grow their managed service business and they can do it step by step with their modular solution.
Websense’s Fiaaz Walji presented the results of a report about the latest mobile risk intelligence from 451 Canadian security and IT professionals.This research is from a global study on mobility risks with responses from more than 4,000 global IT and IT security practitioners. Fiaaz also unveiled the temperature of mobile security, how this region compares globally and what is in store for mobile security in 2012, and how to safely enable mobility in the enterprise.
A stronger sales force = Increased sales. Carl Jones of the Channel Test Factory showcased a new tool for VARS to benchmark the skills of their sales reps. Every company has a sales team, but how does each sales representative compare to your team as well as to the industry. The tool identifies their weaknesses and strengths and offers a plan to improve. VARS subscribe to the service on an annual-fee basis depending on how many sales reps that they what to test. See www.channeltestfactory.com
DELL is looking for more partners to sell their growing mix of IT solutions. Younes Belmaachi outlined the various product lines that DELL and Microsoft are offering to help VARS drive revenues. He also presented the suite of powerful on-boarding tools that they offer VARS to become effective partners.
All too often the difference in success or failure comes down to execution. There are many great sales methodologies out there, SPIN, Miller Heiman, Renbor’s EDGE and others. No matter which you choose, they share a common potential weakness, as good as they look on paper, they need to be executed to matter. In the end they fail for one simple reason, lack of execution. Tibor Shanto is offering workshops to help sales people improve their prospecting and closing skills. If VARS are looking to increase their sales they should start here. See Here for the next workshop time and location and get a 50% discount with promo code “DFDAY”.
The good news is, despite everything you have heard about the global economy, changing technologies, shifting business models and increased competition, if you deliver technology solutions you are in exactly the right business – and at a very exciting time! Rick Paul from Autotask shared current research and described the macro social, economic and technology trends that are reshaping opportunities for solution providers – and connect the dots to help you build a more predictable and profitable business for the future.
Ibiz10 showcased their latest version of the popular e-commerce and e-quotation solution for VARS. It saves a sales rep an average of about 2 hours per day. The real-time e-quotation tool allows any VAR to produce professional sales quotes from any web access and manage the full cycle automatically. It also showcased its integration with service management provider Autotask and the Quickbooks accounting application. The goal of ibiz10 is to deliver a total suite solution to help any VAR run their entire business.
“When a VAR combines their product sales with services, they will significantly increase their profitability. They make much more money than doing only hardware or services alone. With Ibiz10 and Autotask, VARS can now do both easily. And, as we expand with other third-party integrations, it will help VARS to run their business much easier while saving a lot of time and costs.” Comments Julian Lee, President of TechnoPlanet and ibiz10.
Dr. Norrie, an Associate Professor at Ryerson University and expert in social media and communications, highlighted a new set of products and services designed to help technology resellers access the power of social channels to increase brand awareness, sales and customer retention. In specific a pay-as-you-go program to help VARS do e-newsletters, blogs and other social media activities. We learned about emerging social media techniques that work to increase brand visibility and awareness with both existing and new customers and how you can begin to immediately improve your online presence. See http://mysocialbyte.com/
Seagate showcased their secure data recovery solutions. StorageCraft presented their amazing disaster recovery and online back up services. Bluestar introduced a total solution in digital signage – a hot market that VARS could easily exploit. Eaton and Tripplite showcased their full line of power management solutions. Zerospam, a Canadian company presented their e-mail spam management solution. VEEAM showcased their virtualization solution. Watch complete video interviews on www.ecntv.ca
