CHANNEL PERSPECTIVE ThinkTel sees opportunity in UC services PAGE 12
FOCUS ON SERVICES
What to do when the cloud threatens your business PAGE 20
MAY 2012 www.channelinsider.ca
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FEATURED THIS ISSUE
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LOYALTY PROGRAMS – PERCEPTIONS AND IMPACT ITMD’s research shows how loyalty programs affect the channel sales process.
industrY issues BYOD is supposed to give workers freedom, but some say it will upset their work-life balance.
channel PersPective Customers want to implement unified communications, but they don’t know where to begin, says Microsoft partner ThinkTel.
focus on collaboration B.C. company grows into SharePoint
suPPlier Pov Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference is going to be big, and partners aren’t just attending – they’re helping to plan the Toronto event as well.
focus on services The cloud disrupts the channel’s traditional modus operandi – but that doesn’t spell an end to services revenue.
focus on retail Wholesale and retail by the numbers
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4 cco view 6 channel news
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8 on location
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19 tracker networks
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25 Program uPdates
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28 test bed
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30 distractions
Cisco Partner Summit 2012: The networking giant is leaner, having shed 6,500 jobs – and it’s keener than ever to work with the channel.
The first year-over-year analysis of March suggests the channel is increasing its reliance on special bids.
Avaya pumps up the value, not volume. Plus, Saskatoon-based backup and disaster recovery company Datto seeks national representation.
An early example of HP’s new R&D push, the TopShot printer/ 3D scanner encapsulates all the good and bad of first-wave innovation.
Featuring news you can’t use – but should know. This edition: IBM reanimates Eames math expo
may 2012 | 3 | channel insider canada
cco view the show is changing, but the songs remain the same
I
by MiChael o’neil
just returned from the Uptime Institute Symposium, a gathering of the “who’s who” of data centre power and cooling experts. It was my second Symposium – I attended the 2010 session, too – which gave me some perspective on how this corner of IT has evolved. On the surface, the progress has been stunning. In a closing session, Uptime founder Ken Brill noted that the opex efficiency problem that has occupied this community is largely solved – that PUE (power utilization efficiency – the ratio of total data centre power to power consumed by IT equipment) ratings of less than 1.2 are now common for both scientific and “consumer” (think Google, Facebook, or eBay) workloads. His fellow panellist, Dr. Jonathan Koomey, stated that “savings of more than 50%” on IT budgets are achievable today – and indeed, the case studies presented at Symposium demonstrated remarkable savings, and a parade of sub-1.2 PUEs. However, while the Uptime community turns its attention to the next generation of issues (server utilization, the problem of managing storage facilities with the same efficiency as compute facilities), it’s good to remember that the leading edge does not represent the common experience. Many facilities use outdated designs that cost their owners/operators tens (or hundreds) of thousands of dollars each year. In part, this is because smaller operations simply can’t scale to the efficiency thresholds that large facilities achieve; SMBs will need to buy into shared resources to fully “join the future.” There is also, though, a lack of understanding of how to deliver sophisticated solutions. I overheard the vice-president of innovation for one of the world’s largest power and cooling vendors telling a fellow attendee that one of his firm’s greatest challenges was building a route to market for advanced products and designs – his channel was not building enough knowledge to position and deliver the solutions.
These words stuck with me, because they echoed other conversations I’ve had over the past several weeks. Across the IT industry, we are facing very uneven terrain. It isn’t just that the prices and margins of core products ranging from PCs to servers are dropping – there are substitution options (tablets, smartphones, clouds) with very different pricing and distribution models which do not engage the traditional channel in traditional ways. And yet – at the same time, there is a future emerging in which IT is used more broadly, in more different ways, than ever before – and this future relies on IT expertise. When we look at using technology to enhance reality, to replace the need for travel and logistics, to create customer connections that have never been possible before, we see demand for expertise in margin-rich, complex systems – networking, collaboration, analytics, big data management and integration. And when we look at the requirements of businesses that will benefit from integration of cloud services, from deployment of customer-facing technologies, and from mobile connections across both realms, we see mounting demand for advanced technical skills – which translates directly into business opportunity for solution providers and their employees. How will this future treat incumbent VARs as it arrives? There is always uncertainty in transition, and this particular shift – which discounts some traditional skills (procurement, deployment, hands-on management) while emphasizing new types of expertise (remote/managed services, service integration/sourcing/SLA management) is extreme even by this measure. However, while both the nature of the technology and the integration are changing, the VAR’s role of matching new technology options to current business problems is still crucial to a customer’s success. Perhaps we aren’t really looking to learn new acts, but rather, to apply the ones we know on a changing stage.
may 2012 | 4 |
Volume 2, Issue 4 EDITORIAL Michael O’Neil | Chief Content Officer michael.oneil@itincanada.ca Stefan Dubowski | Editor stefan.dubowski@itincanada.ca Christopher Rogers | Senior Staff Writer chris.rogers@itincanada.ca CONTRIBUTORS Jason Doel ART & PRODUCTION Elena Pankova | Senior Art Director elean.pankova@itincanada.ca David Potocki | Art Director davidp@precision-multimedia.com CHANNEL INSIDER CANADA SALES Patricia Bush | National Account Manager trisha.bush@itincanada.ca ONLINE Michael Howe | CTO michael.howe@itincanada.ca EVENTS Sandra Service | Events Manager sandra.service@itincanada.ca CIRCULATION Denys Cruz | Circulation Director circulation@itincanada.ca CORPORATE INQUIRIES John R. Jones | Publisher john.jones@itincanada.ca HOW TO CONTACT CHANNEL INSIDER CANADA Telephone: 905-727-4091 Editorial issues: Michael O’Neil, Chief Content Officer, IT in Canada network michael.oneil@itincanada.ca Business issues: John Jones, Chief Operating Officer, IT in Canada network john.jones@itincanada.ca SUBSCRIPTION INQUIRIES For help with subscriptions, please contact circulation@itincanada.ca To subscribe to Channel Insider Canada in print, as a digital magazine – or to receive our daily e-newsletter – please visit us at www.itincanada. ca/registration Channel Insider Canada is published 10 times per year and is found on the web at www.channelinsider.ca One year subscription rates: One year subscription rates: Canada, $50, US $60 (US) and foreign $90 (US). Single copies $5.00. Please add HST where applicable. Complimentary subscriptions available to qualified Canadian readers. When notifying of an address change, please include address label to ensure continuity of service. All rights reserved. The contents of this publication may not be reproduced either in part or in whole without the permission of copyright owner. The views expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the publishers. REPRINT INFORMATION High quality reprints of articles or additional copies of the magazine are available through IT in Canada. Please contact us by phone at 905-727-3875 x336 Canadian Publication Mail Agreement # 41382532 All rights reserved. No part of this publication can be reproduced without written consent; inquiries should be addressed to circulation@itincanada.ca
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US104020100277_190x267+5_28L.indd 1
18.04.12 12:04
channel news ell adds cloud certification to ParterDirect 1 Dtracks
in one of Dell’s other data centre specializations such as storage or servers.
2
Dell is introducing a new certification to its PartnerDirect program Teradici inks new distribution agreement aimed at “cloud builder” partners. North American partners will get the new certification first, while it will follow “soon” to Dell’s Burnaby, B.C.-based PCoIP developer Teradici has a new worldwide partners. distribution deal for the APEX 2800, a server offload card for zeroDell Canada channels marketing manager Gilles Philippe said client deployments. The company is now working with Arrow that the goal of Dell’s PartnerDirect program is to be simple, for the Europe, Middle East, and Africa region. In North America, profitable, and focused on training and enablement. With that in Australia, and New Zealand, distribution is being handled by mind, the company spent “months” developing the certification EVGA. by collaborating with partners and analysts to ensure it met those According to Ziad Lammam, director of product management for goals. desktop solutions at Teradici, the APEX 2800 card was developed The new certification will include partners who fall under to address a simple need. As companies deploy more users on one of three categories: cloud builder, cloud provider, and virtual desktops, it places increased demands on the servers. cloud service enabler. Builders are partners that develop cloud Lammam said users are also unpredictable in their activity over infrastructure; providers operate cloud networking centres the course of the day. that provide infrastructure as a service, platform as a service, “It’s really hard for IT managers to predict when those moments and software as a service; and service enablers are aggregators of busyness will happen – where users are really going to tax the “identifying, securing, and integrating” technologies and services server.” while operating the cloud for their customers. To alleviate these spikes in CPU demand, Teradici developed Partners that meet the certification requirements will get the APEX 2800, a server-side, plug and play, PCI-express card that to participate in cloud-focused marketing campaigns and shifts graphically intensive processes away from the CPU to the co-marketing funds. They will also get preferred access to Dell’s hardware on the card. Launched in February, the card prioritizes current and future cloud services and solution offers, financing offloads by handling the most active 64 displays. options, and designation as a certified cloud services and Lammam gave the example of users watching videos or quickly solutions provider in Dell’s Find-a-Partner tool. scrolling through PDF documents as processes that will take Dell’s PartnerDirect certification program is heavily focused on advantage of the APEX 2800. By offloading these processes onto data centre but until now it lacked a cloud-specific certification. separate hardware, Teradici says CPU utilization can be reduced The company already provides separate tracks for partners up to 50%. The offloading is automatic; managers only need to focused on storage, server, systems management, and networking activate the cards through the VMware View administrator. and security. In 2009, Teradici partnered with VMware on PCoIP to capture “Our portfolio in the data centre has never been as strong as it the virtual desktop market with the VMware View suite. While is today,” Philippe said. the company started with the power user in mind, typical virtual Dell’s PartnerDirect program continues to evolve. Last desktop users don’t need discrete GPUs; usually the CPU is capable summer Dell introduced the tiering system, separating partners of handling the graphical needs. Teradici then partnered with into Premiere, Preferred and Registered. Since then it has grown from 14 partners in the top tier to 24. According to Philippe, the objective of the program is to help Dell partners reach the Preferred or Premiere level. He said partners in those tiers are more committed to Dell via heavier investments in training and certifications, and therefore have access to more program benefits. Partners looking to attain the new cloud certification must have a particular combination of sales and technical staff, and they must take Dell training. Philippe said potential cloud builders will also need to achieve certification The Apex 2800 reduces the I/O bottleneck on servers in virtualized environments. may 2012 | 6 |
channel insider canada
OEMs to create zero-client devices. These end-user machines generally contain only the decoder hardware needed to deliver the compressed data from the server, and don’t contain any storage. Teradici now has more than 20 OEM hardware partners and its technology is in more than 50 zero-client SKUs. “We…have the largest zero-client ecosystem in the market today,” Lammam said.
3 Dell buys Vancouver’s Make Technologies
Dell has signed an agreement to acquire Vancouver-based Make Technologies, a company that focuses on application modernization software and services. The deal is expected to close the second quarter of Dell’s fiscal year. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Make has approximately 100 employees. Make’s software suite allows companies to modernize their legacy software investments to take advantage of new hardware without changing solutions entirely. Make’s website describes the advantages of re-architecting applications: enabling cloud, creating rich user experiences, extending customization options, and increasing global capabilities. Make’s flagship product is the TLM Enterprise Suite, which is its application migration software suite. The acquisitions of Make Technologies and Clerity Solutions, coupled with existing Dell services should further Dell’s ability to offer hardware and application-migration services, said Steve Schuckenbrock, president, Dell Services, in a press release. “We have the capabilities to help customers with all their modernization needs, from re-hosting and re-platforming to code re-engineering. These offerings will enable Dell to support the thousands of commercial and public sector customers looking to migrate business-critical applications to open, standards-based architectures, including the cloud.” Bill Bergen, president and CEO of Make Technologies, said, “Together, with Dell’s global reach, scale and reputation for customer support, Make’s methodology and tools will become even more accessible to more customers struggling with the dilemma that surrounds legacy environments.”
4 Matrix partners with Vidtel in Western Canada
Matrix Video Communications Corporation (MVCC) has partnered with Vidtel, a provider of any-to-any cloud video conferencing. Matrix selected Vidtel to serve its customers in Western Canada with Vidtel’s any-to-any cloud MeetMe Video Conferencing Service. Vidtel’s solution is priced at the midmarket/SME segment. The solution enables collaboration between users on different devices including room-based video conferencing systems, desktop video systems, PCs/Macs, smartphones and tablets using a combination of video technologies such as SIP, Skype and Google Talk, without the need to dial into a portal. In a press release, Vidtel CEO Scott Wharton said, “Matrix Video Communications is a forward-thinking service provider, well-poised to take advantage of the growing interest in cloud video conferencing. The Vidtel service will enable Matrix Video to provide a disruptively-priced solution to its SME customers that they can easily use on demand, without having to dial into a portal.”
5 D&H Canada extends credit to SMB VARs Competition can be tough for the SMB reseller, especially if the company falls heavily on the “S” side of SMB. A boost in credit can improve a VAR’s buying power and help it compete. A recent program from D&H Canada aimed at a select group of smaller SMB VARs is trying to do just that: help resellers compete and build end-customer relationships by extending credit limits.
Now is the time for resellers to increase investment, says Greg Tobin, D&H. The select group of D&H Canada resellers were between $2,500 and $30,000 with their credit lines, and in some cases were offered as much as $15,000 in incremental credit. Some resellers were moved as high as $40,000 with the program, but the average reseller received $5,000 in incremental credit from D&H Canada. The program is offered in conjunction with D&H Canada vendor partners Lenovo and Cisco. While D&H Canada is known for its attention to the SMB channel community, Greg Tobin, GM at D&H Canada, said listening to partner pain-points is essential. “If your objective is to be the champion of the little SMB these are the things you should do,” he said. Tobin said that now is the time to extend credit. “When other areas tend to contract it’s always the best time to double down and go for your growth.” He added that expansion depends on investments such as these. The added credit is more than a show of good faith from D&H Canada to its partners: the distributor evaluated its customers buying Cisco and Lenovo products and, partnering with the same two vendors, saw a group of customers that were making heavy use of their lines of credit. D&H Canada then chose more than 100 of its customers and extended their credit with the hope they will get more use out of their lines. Partners were informed of their increased credit with letters to the principals of the company and through follow up calls by the D&H Canada sales team.
may 2012 | 7 | channel insider canada
ON LOCATION
Cisco Partner Summit 2012
The networking giant, fresh off its weight loss plan, is back and focusing on partners with renewed vigour. by Christopher Rogers
Q
uickly after Cisco Partner Summit 2011, CEO and chairman John Chambers admitted in a letter to Cisco employees that the San Jose-based networking company needed to shed some weight.
Following disappointing results, Cisco resolved to cut $1 billion in costs (including 6,500 jobs). The goal was to refocus the company and, in turn, make it easier to do business with. Cisco fulfilled its cost cutting goal early, before the 2012 calendar year. It then followed up by beating expectations with its FY2012 Q2 net sales of $11.5 billion, increasing 11% year-over-year, and a net income of $2.2 billion during the quarter, up from $1.5 billion the previous year. Heading into this year’s Cisco Partner Summit, Chambers’ strategy to save Cisco was, by all accounts, working. The 2012 Partner Summit needed to be a partner-focused affair. Cisco had to prove to its partners it was easier to do business with. To that end, keynotes and presentations focused not only on macro-trends such as cloud, mobility and BYOD, but also on how Cisco is helping enable its partners, and included a new partnervaluation model that has the potential to change the way Cisco and its partners interact. In his keynote, Chambers said cloud, mobility and video are driving market transitions. He said that while Cisco needs to stay ahead of the market, he acknowledged that the company has always been about, “the network” – an idea he still feels is at the core of these new trends. To show how the company was making progress on the trends, there were showcases for technologies such as ISE (Identity Services Engine), a mobility/BYOD enabler, VXI (Virtualization Experience Infrastructure), a technology to move customers to hosted workspace clouds, and Cisco Jabber with its cross-device video capabilities. But, partners – not technology – garnered the majority of Cisco’s attention at the summit. The company introduced a new partner-valuation model that values Cisco partners based on investor-facing indicators such as operating profit, growth potential, sustainability, and business risk. Cisco’s SVP, worldwide channels, Edison Peres, said he believes Cisco can proactively influence these four elements in a partner’s business and he will evolve how Cisco deals with partners based the framework. “Our goal, in addition to supporting your profitability, we want to maximize your business value and optimize your ‘return on Cisco,’” he said. “Our focus is helping you build a strong, highly valued business; that’s our commitment.” Jim Sherriff, Cisco’s SVP, Americas Partner Organization, said that in talking to partners at the summit, the general sentiment was positive with partners feeling good about the growth opportunities that the new valuation model offered. Partners are also looking to drive down their op-ex and Cisco is addressing that through initiatives that lower the cost of maintaining partner specializations and certifications, by investing in sales may 2012 | 8 |
productivity initiatives, and also creating a partner program guide to make it easier to navigate Cisco’s programs.
Services Cisco’s services business as a percentage of its revenue over the last few years has remained constant but that metric has more than doubled for its partners. Sherriff said that although partners are selling a lot of Cisco hardware, they’re clearly attaching more Cisco Canada president, Nitin Kawale services such as SMARTnet and Total Care. To further enable its partners, Cisco announced Cisco Services Partner Program (see “The big two,” page 9). Sherri Liebo, Cisco’s VP, services marketing and communications, explained how the new services program folds 47 of the company’s previous programs into a single offering. The new program is globally consistent and places an emphasis on rewarding the quality and value of the partner-to-customer relationship instead of focusing primarily on growth and profitability (although they also remain important). One highlight of the program is a discount plus pay-for-performance rebate program that delivers predictable rebates to partners. “Our leader of services measures us on customer [satisfaction] first, profitability second, and growth third,” Liebo said. “It’s usually the reverse in a services business. And that drives a particular behaviour that’s very focused on customer outcomes and customer satisfaction. Our main mission is that our customers are successful with Cisco technology.” She said that Cisco’s professional services business (Advanced Services) has had to expand its practices to support what Cisco wants to do in collaboration, cloud, data centre, virtualization and borderless networks. “We’re really here to accelerate technology adoption for Cisco,” she said.
Canada It has been a particularly good year for the Cisco Canada team, with the country ranking as the second largest bookings provider for Cisco globally. Michael Ansley, VP, Partner Organization, Cisco Canada, said he was hearing many good things from partners at the summit, starting with the stability of Cisco’s business over the past year. That was echoed by Nitin Kawale, president of Cisco Canada, who said Cisco’s renewed focus on its five core priorities of channel insider canada
“The big two” borderless networks, collaboration, data centre, video and architectures has sped up decision making and increased accountability. Kawale attributes much of Cisco Canada’s success this year to partners and Canada’s positive economic climate. Kawale spent time Michael Ansley, VP, Partner Organization, Cisco Canada at the summit sharing the Cisco Canada country model and how his team is executing. The success has shown Cisco that Canada is a good place to leverage globally in areas such as research and development, Kawale said, emphasizing the importance of our universities, and similarities to the U.S., both physically and culturally. Kawale said he takes talent seriously. He is concerned about the talent gap that will open as current IT workers retire. He said that it is already difficult for Cisco and its partners to find talent, but it will be further compounded by fewer students choosing to enrol in IT related fields and programs across the country. “As Canadians I think we have to look at how we might bridge that,” he said, suggesting an approach that hits at all levels from high school to immigration. To that extent, Kawale said Cisco Canada is investing in innovation centres, and research chairs to generate interest and excitement. On where Canada sits in its adoption of the macrotrend technologies, Kawale said Canadians will move at their own pace, and tend to be a bit conservative by nature. He said countries in emerging markets have been accelerating quickly with the trends because they have few legacy devices and are able to skip technology generations. Returning the focus to partners, Kawale said he had not seen this level of optimism and excitement from partners in a long time. “Not only can we see the hill, we can see ourselves [climbing it] with our partners,” he said.
Of all the announcements made at Cisco Partner Summit, two stood above the rest. Partner Plus Partner Plus is a new global channel program that targets midsize customers. Part of Cisco’s Partner Led strategy, the program provides incremental incentives, virtual engineering support, marketing, sales enablement, and customer intelligence to partners. Interested partners need to commit to a collaborative selling approach with Cisco that leverages Cisco’s sales force combined with the partner’s sales team to capture the mid-market. There are five partner benefits to the new program. Partners will get rewards for growing Cisco business with midsized customers and incentives to help fund business-building activities like marketing, sales training, and cash to stretch growth targets. Partners can access Cisco’s engineers and other technical resources through Partner Help Plus to help pre-sales capacity. Partner Sales Excellence Training will help partners accelerate their advanced sales and management skills. Enhanced customer intelligence provided by Cisco will reduce partner’s total cost of sales and better direct their selling efforts. Co-marketing support including business planning, marketing curriculum and partner marketing funding will also be available to partners. The Partner Led strategy is headed by Cisco’s VP, worldwide Partner Led, Andrew Sage, who said, “For Partners that are committed to collaborating with midsized customers, Partner Plus will offer greater preference, investment and support.”
Global Services Partner Program To get access to its portfolio of smart services, Cisco has created the Global Services Partner Program. The program consolidates 47 programs into a single, globally consistent offering. The new program also rewards the quality and value of partner-tocustomer relationships by providing greater rewards for partners that invest in Cisco. Besides the program consolidation, the biggest evolution for partners will be a compensation model that is based on a discount plus pay-for-performance rebate program to deliver predictable rebates. Cisco has piloted the program with 2,500 partners in Canada and the U.S., with results showing a 15% increase in bookings eligible for rebates and a three-fold increase in partners earning rebates when compared to the previous program structure. Cisco will roll out its consolidated program to all Cisco partners within the next 12 to 18 months. As part of the rollout, an expanded collaborative smart services offering will give partners access to Cisco intellectual capital to provide partners with installed base and contract management, the ability to use APIs and tools for workflow integration and support for large, complex customer networks.
may 2012 | 9 | channel insider canada
Supplier POV INDUSTRY ISSUES Who wants to bring their own device to work?
While the BYOD trend is often discussed, a survey conducted by HP suggests that not everyone is behind the idea for computers. by Christopher Rogers
W
hile the “BYOD” (Bring Your Own Device) trend has been garnering hype in the channel, the BYO “C” (computer) trend is much less prominent. HP Canada and Vision Critical conducted a survey in February 2012 of 1,036 Canadian owners, mangers, and full-time employees at companies with one to 999 employees, and the results are clear that Canadians, at least in SMB environments, don’t want to bring their own computers to work. John Cammalleri, VP, SMB and partner sales at HP Canada, said there are many challenges for organizations that let employees bring their own computers. This can range from basic security concerns to responsibility over data, wiping hard drives, and recovering files. Letting employees bring their own computers also complicates SLAs and management of devices. Cammalleri said these concerns might seem clear to him and HP but the real questions lie with the customers. “What is consistent, and what doesn’t surprise me, is there are real concerns about this type of policy in the Canadian business environment specific to SMB,” he said. “The concerns are not only from an employee standpoint, they’re also from an ownermanager standpoint.” In the survey, only 15% of businesses reported having a BYOC policy that allowed employees to bring their own computers, and only 4% of employees reported that they bring their computers to work to conduct business activities. Furthermore, the idea doesn’t seem likely to take off with SMB owners and managers any time soon, with 78% saying they have no plans to adopt a BYOD policy in the future.
Lack of adoption What’s driving this lack of adoption? The survey suggests employees perceive a potential work-life imbalance by adopting BYOC policies with 63% of respondents citing the desire to keep work and personal lives separate. Also, employees don’t seem up to the responsibility of having to manage corporate data on a personal computer with 43% citing it as a security risk they don’t want to deal with. A further 36% would not adopt a BYOC policy because they don’t want to be responsible for security and maintenance of the device. Employees don’t want to pay for the devices either, with 37% citing that as reason for not bringing their personal computers. Cammalleri said he expected security to be a primary concern but was very interested with the large number of respondents who cited work-life balance issues. It’s a bit of a discrepancy. The survey reported that of the users who had both separate work and personal computers, 71% used their personal devices for work-related tasks such as emailing, editing and reading presentations, and remotely connecting to work computers. Similarly, 72% said they conduct personal
may 2012 | 10 |
BYOD is supposed to give workers freedom, but some say it will upset their work-life balance. activities on work computers such as online shopping, social media, banking, and email. While the results may seem slightly contradictory, Cammalleri said it points to a need for businesses to be flexible, not necessarily from a device perspective but in terms of access.
Caution for SMBs For businesses thinking of adopting BYOC policies, Cammalleri stresses caution. Policies need to be based on what a business is trying to accomplish, he said. According to the survey, of the businesses that do have BYOC policies, businesses perceived the policies as having a positive effect on work-life balance (65%), improving employee productivity (46%), saving the company money (24%), and helping to attract new talent (16%). But, Cammalleri said it is important for businesses to understand these are assumptions and that it is important to understand what the users are really feeling. To this end, he reiterated that the survey shows users want access, but not necessarily the freedom to choose which computer they use at work. “If I’m talking to an SMB customer I’m saying don’t base a policy on hardware, base a policy on access,” he said.
What can partners take from the survey? Cammalleri’s advice to partners is similar: partners should approach their customers understanding that security is critical, and legal issues about data are also important, but that looking at the survey results, employees don’t want their employers to see their personal files either. It may be overstated to say partners should be trusted advisors to their customers but in this case, with a policy that is so widely discussed, partners have a chance to bring leadership and understanding to the conversation. Companies determined to introduce BYOC policies can invest in virtualization as a way to distinguish between the work and personal profiles on the machine. But virtualization is goes well beyond a discussion around devices. SMB organizations are unlikely to adopt such a tactic to address this need. Cammalleri said there is the potential to use cloud-based solutions but like virtualization, that represents a substantial shift in strategy. channel insider canada
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Channel Perspective
ThinkTel intros professional services for UC Customers want to implement unified communications, but they don’t know where to begin, says this Microsoft partner. by Stefan Dubowski
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ontreal-based ThinkTel Communications is launching a professional services practice to assist Canadian businesses in adopting and deploying unified communications technology. It’s a highdemand area with few competitors, according to ThinkTel’s president. “We were finding a lot of customers in Canada, especially in the enterprise, that have a really keen interest in implementing some kind of unified communications strategy but there seems to be a void in the market in terms of expertise on how to get that done,” said Dave Damer during a phone interview. ThinkTel’s professional services include proof of concept, planning, deployment, advanced SIP trunking configuration, customized solutions, and management of Lync, Microsoft’s unified communications software. ThinkTel has been a Microsoft partner since 2008, and currently has a Gold Competency in Communications, and a Silver Competency in Hosting from the Microsoft Partner Network. The service provider says it’s the only Canadian company qualified by Microsoft to deliver SIP trunking to Lync and its predecessor, OCS R2. Organizations making their way from traditional communications systems to UC seek expertise around migration, Damer said. “There’s usually a significant amount of crossplatform communication that has to take place. We have to connect with the existing legacy infrastructure and at the same time we’re putting up a completely new infrastructure right beside it.”
Network readiness Network readiness is an issue for many customers, he said. “A lot of them don’t have the internal expertise to assess their networks properly… They don’t really know what the impact of voice, video and screen sharing will have on the network.” Companies are interested in UC because the technology affords improved collaboration, paving the way to better business practices and a potential leg up on the competition, Damer said. The associated cost savings are attractive as well, he said. “Once you’ve deployed UC you’re not going out to the PSTN at one branch and coming in from the PSTN at another branch. All of the traffic is carried internally on your network… That’s the component that often gets overlooked in the equation.” One of Canada’s few session initiation protocol (SIP) trunking providers, ThinkTel has witnessed increasing awareness of SIP. “We’ve seen the interest boom in the last 12 months. may 2012 | 12 |
Now we have organizations that contact us and say, ‘I need 100 SIP channels; I need DIDs in Vancouver and Edmonton.’… It’s just a matter of writing out contracts.” Microsoft’s Lync has a lot to do with it, he said. Dave Damer, president, ThinkTel Since so many organizations run the Microsoft Exchange messaging system and use Microsoft operating systems on their desktop computers, many of them already have licences for Lync, offered alongside licences for other Microsoft products. Businesses are starting to implement Lync on a trial basis to get their feet wet in UC – and the easiest way to connect a Lync platform is to pair it with a SIP trunking service.
Surecall ThinkTel upped its SIP game late last year when it introduced Surecall, a feature that allows customers to receive calls despite outages affecting their Internet connection or on-site PBX software. The service automatically detects an outage and redirects inbound calls to alternate PSTN numbers such as mobile phones or analogue backup lines. “Traditionally businesses have used expensive PBX redundancy equipment to ensure continuity,” said Jim Dawson, VP of sales, in a press release. “We’re essentially eliminating the need to purchase and maintain that equipment.” ThinkTel is a division of Distributel Communications, a national provider of SIP-based voice, video and data services for SMBs, enterprise and wholesale customers. Its network spans more than 1,000 cities across the country. ThinkTel’s clients include Cancer Care Ontario and Subaru. Distributel acquired ThinkTel in 2009. In 2011, the company ported the services that it used offer under the Distributel Business Services brand over to the ThinkTel name, following research indicating that the ThinkTel brand resonated with customers.
channel insider canada
Research feature
Loyalty Programs – Perceptions and Impact Across the channel ecosystem – from vendor organizations, VARs, and the employees of each – we hear about the importance of the programs used to manage relationships through the supply chain. While there are many different kinds of programs, one area – loyalty programs – receives much attention from all parties.
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by Michael O’Neil oyalty programs – the reward systems that incent channel sales representatives (and often, channel business owners as well) to sell a specific vendor’s products – are an integral component of supply chain compensation logic. While channel owners sometimes object to the fact that loyalty programs impact their own ability to direct sales staff, few would argue that the additional compensation awarded
Figure 1
through loyalty programs is meaningful to the reps themselves – and that access to these funds contributes to their total compensation, in effect reducing the commitment needed from the channel owners themselves. IT Market Dynamics – Canada’s most widely read research firm – recently commissioned a series of in-depth discussions with channel sales professionals to gauge the impact of
loyalty programs on their priorities and activities. The research, which was underwritten in part by HP Canada, shows how loyalty programs impact the channel sales process. ITMD’s interviews were conducted with 22 seasoned channel sales representatives, drawn in roughly equal proportion from three communities: direct marketing organizations, national VARs, and regional Continued on page 14...
The impact of loyalty programs and the “very best” loyalty programs
may 2012 | 13 | channel insider canada
research feature Continued from page 13... VARs. Respondents were asked general questions, as well as specific rating questions about nine vendors. On average, respondents had experience with 5.4 (of a maximum of 9.0) programs.
loyalty programs – they work (and the good ones really work!) The first topic of discussion in the interviews centred around the question, “do loyalty programs work?” At an overall level, the answer to this question was a resounding “yes,” with nearly 90% responding in the affirmative. Drilling down, we asked respondents to rate the impact of loyalty programs on sales behaviour, using a 1-10 scale, and then asked the group to rate the impact of the very best programs that they have seen. Results to the first question indicate that these programs have at least a moderate effect on a majority of respondents, and a high level of effectiveness (rating of 8-10) with just more than half of the salespeople surveyed. The very best loyalty programs have an even greater impact on shaping sales behaviour – as is shown in Figure 1, “very
Figure 2
best” programs have a galvanizing effect. While 9% of respondents claim that both all and the very best programs have little effect on how they approach customers, 86% of those surveyed report that these excellent programs have a high degree of influence over the products that they sell to their customers.
the importance of loyalty program components After establishing the impact of loyalty programs, the ITMD research looked to understand the relative importance of loyalty program components, divided into four broad categories: • Ease of access/use – ease of cashing rewards, accessing information on reward status, or registering deals for new credits; ease of registering in the program, logging into the system, and understanding terms and offers • Program communications – communications modes, such as email, messages posted to vendor or loyalty websites, media coverage, direct mail, and social tools like IM and Twitter • Incentives – rewards for longer-term success, short term and contest-based
rewards, SPIFs for non-sales activities like training, and targeted programs aimed at issues like new account or vertical sales • Training and support materials – training on products, solutions, or specific target markets, directories, and case studies and collateral Based on feedback from our respondents, it is clear that effective programs need to address all four issues. ITMD asked respondents to rate each program component on a scale of 1-10, where 1 was defined as “has no impact” and 10 as “this is the most important attribute of a loyalty program.” In ITMD’s research, all of the four program components scored high, with an average rating of 8.30. According to respondents, the single most important category is “ease of access/use.” Channel sales professionals want to have clear and straightforward means of accessing the rewards that they accumulate through the programs. “Program communications” and “incentives” received virtually identical mean scores (8.45 and 8.43, respectively)
iMPoRTAnCe oF loyAlTy PRogRAM CoMPonenTS
may 2012 | 14 |
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Research feature Continued from page 14... from our respondents – though it is worth noting that ITMD believes incentives is the kind of issue that is generally underrepresented in these types of surveys, and that the true (and relative) importance of incentives is likely higher than communications, and possibly higher than ease of use/access as well. Nevertheless, the high rating accorded to communications stands out in its own right: loyalty program users want clear direction with respect to offers and other plan elements.
What makes a program easy to use? In the drill-down sections of the loyalty program interviews, ITMD investigated the importance of specific aspects of each of the four program components. Figure 3 presents the findings associated with ease of use/access. Looking at the Figure, we see that all six of the items resonate with the channel sales professionals surveyed. At the very top of the list, it is clear that enabling program participants to use/cash rewards is a critical element of a successful loyalty program. Sales professionals also want easy access to the system, and within the system, to information on current rewards status, and to the means of registering new deals. By connecting these issues – login, deal registration, status update, and access to rewards – vendors can “connect the dots” for the channel sales professionals who they are targeting with their loyalty programs.
Summing up The results of the survey demonstrate the overall importance of loyalty programs to the channel sales process, and the issues that vendors need to address to attract the attention of channel sales professionals. It is clear that loyalty programs have a meaningful
Figure 3
impact on sales behaviour, and that excellent programs have a dramatic effect on channel reps’ activities. The survey shows that loyalty program excellence in turn results from a combination of connected factors: compelling incentives, provided through an easy to use and understand portal, and supported by effective communications and relevant training and support materials. Left unaddressed in the survey findings is the issue of how vendors can alleviate channel management’s concerns over the potential for loyalty programs to interfere with their own efforts to direct sales behaviour. Some vendors – such as HP, with its industry-leading Blue Carpet program – offer direct incentives to owners as well, which wraps the rep-focused initiatives in a context that is palatable to VAR owners/managers. In broad terms, though, the friction between channel sales management direction and loyalty program qualification and rewards is likely to remain a point of contention – especially for vendors who don’t offer runrate products, and who as a result require channel sales reps to dedicate time to discrete, “all or nothing”-type solution initiatives. These vendors face an uphill climb in the loyalty program arena from the outset, since they can’t offer a meaningful, monthly commission to channel sales staff unless they have very robust pipelines. With VAR management dubious about the benefit of allowing these programs to distract their sales resources, the incline from launch to program effectiveness will be yet steeper. ITMD believes that in future, we’ll start to see alliances between run-rate and step-function product vendors, enabling shared programs to offer both continuity and upside to the sales professionals, and less risk of distraction to the owners/managers of their employers.
Importance index: ease of use/access elements
may 2012 | 16 |
channel insider canada
Focus on Collaboration Brinkman pushing collaboration efficiency B.C. forest management firm needed a way to support employees engaged in a new way of working
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by Irwin Rapoport ew Westminster, B.C.-based Brinkman & Associates Reforestation Ltd. is engaged in an ongoing program to introduce Microsoft’s SharePoint to support its 120 computer users in Canada, Panama and Costa Rica. Bid volumes grew again in March, up from February by 6%. Bid volumes also grew on a year-over-year basis, showing a 5% increase in March 2012 over March 2011. As a result, both the six- and 12-month trend lines for bid volumes are moving strongly upwards. The firm, which specializes in forest land management and reforestation, virtualized its server infrastructure three years ago – it now has 12 virtual servers and three physical servers at the New Westminster headquarters – and just recently expanded its data storage capacity from 2 TB to 12 TB. According to Brinkman’s IT manager, Gordon Grant, the firm did a test deployment of SharePoint in 2010 and installed the collaboration solution at headquarters in 2011. “We’re rolling it out to other business units in Canada this year – especially for our occupational health and safety program,” he added. SharePoint was implemented because Brinkman’s business model had changed to one where employees needed to reach out beyond company walls. Grant explained: “We work as a consulting business that forms relationships with other consultants and businesses and organizations. SharePoint really comes in handy because it provides a web interface for sharing and collaborating on documents. We can work with people in Europe and eastern Canada and the eastern U.S. – everybody’s input is crucial.” Forest land management requires the development of multi-year programs to maximize the growth of new forests, which include sophisticated and detailed planning that must account for many factors. “We work with reforestation and planned development and reforestation data,” Grant said, “and we also work on many RFPs and proposals, which all have deadlines that are time sensitive.”
Shared calendars The ability to communicate with various stakeholders to co-ordinate planning and ensure that all necessary data has been inputted and considered is key; as are shared calendars that help co-ordinate longer-term planning. Brinkman’s central database is located in New Westminster. Branch offices have local servers that transfer information to the central database. Real-time access to this data for all employees has been enhanced by SharePoint, and internal communications have been dramatically improved. SharePoint has eliminated the need for stakeholders, especially long-term seasonal managers, to access specific applications to interact with Brinkman. Now they simply login into SharePoint to access OH&S or BI systems. “Our approach is that we’ll have managers that work in specific areas (B.C. or Ontario) that we want to have business information or knowledge specific to their
areas,” Grant said. “It is also useful when they want information about jobs and past contracts. Rather than having to do a custom search, we can present that fairly easily in SharePoint so that they only see the information that is relevant to them.” Only after SharePoint was brought in were Grant and other users able to fully appreciate how the various solution features could enhance the firm’s efficiency. “You just can’t put your toe in the water,” he said, “you have to jump in in a big way. I’ve been working with our staff to help them better understand and use the tools they now have.” SharePoint, he adds, “is giving our employees better information to make decisions and if they can make better decisions, the business can be more profitable.”
Personal smartphones Security remains a constant concern, however, especially in situations where employees use their own personal smartphones and other devices to interact with IT systems. “We’re fairly old school about that,” he said. “Having everyone use the same uniform equipment makes my life easier, but that is not the way things are going.” Another concern for Grant is the increase in security breaches and infiltrations that are “a lot more hidden and difficult to detect. How do you detect them when anti-virus programs and spam filters don’t really stop that kind of stuff?” he asked. Aware of the growing number of attacks on web sites, Grant is worried that placing information on public sites could give hackers the information they need to breach company defenses. Brinkman has an internal firewall and uses a third party service that scans and monitors ingoing and outgoing traffic to look for behavioural patterns that represent malware. “The crime businesses that are hacking companies have a lot more resources to find vulnerabilities than I have to keep them out,” Grant said. He also has to manage the guest access issue: “how do you deal with guests that come into your office? How do you give them Internet access and still keep your own system secure? We have short-term managers that may only work 10 weeks for us and they use their own equipment. What is a cost-effective way to ensure that they are not infected with something?” With office staff in Canadian and Central American locations needing to interact with consultants and businesses across the globe, Brinkman is providing the necessary communications tools via SharePoint – as well as the defense needed to protect itself from a new generation of security threats. For the future, Grant is considering accessing SharePoint via the Office 365 cloud-based solutions. “It has a lot of potential for a business of our size,” he said. “A cloud-based solution would be ideal, but the economics and locations haven’t just worked out yet.”
may 2012 | 17 | channel insider canada
Supplier POV Being prepared: Microsoft Canada and partners on WPC 12 This is going to be a big conference, if Microsoft has its way. And partners aren’t just attending – they’re helping to plan the event as well.
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by Christopher Rogers or partners that were in Toronto for WPC in 2004: be prepared. This time it’s going to be different. Whereas the previous WPC in Toronto saw approximately 5,000 attendees, this year Microsoft expects upwards of 15,000. Corinne Sharp, national director, Microsoft Partner Network for Microsoft Canada, said that the economic and financial impact WPC will have on Toronto will be positive. She said that even the company’s collaboration with all levels of government coming into Toronto has been good. Microsoft Canada has assembled a team dedicated to only working on preparations for the conference, scheduled for July 8 to 12. The full-time team anticipates so many partners that it has been constantly collaborating with the WPC engine at Microsoft’s corporate headquarters. But partners aren’t being left out of the planning equation. “The involvement of our partners has been absolutely spectacular and quite frankly, overwhelming,” Sharp said. To this end, Microsoft Canada established a partner advisory council specifically around WPC, and partners continue to be actively involved in helping with logistics, events, content, and ensuring it’s all relevant to what is happening in-market. Sharp said Microsoft’s corporate team has flown in to meet with the partner advisory council in Toronto several times to work together ensuring that WPC is a good experience for the worldwide partner ecosystem. Microsoft Canada has set a lofty goal of having 1,000 Canadian partners attend the conference this year. “It’s more than double what we’ve had in previous years,” Sharp said. To make sure they reach that goal Sharp said it’s important to ensure the messages around WPC get out to the partner communities across the country, reaching as many Canadian partners as possible. The focus of that messaging is not only awareness of the conference but also understanding the value they can get from attending WPC.
First timers With so many partners attending for the first time, Sharp said it’s important for them to register early and make travel arrangements. Robert Bracey, president at Toronto-based Quartet Service Inc., said the partners should have a plan or strategy going into WPC. “Figure out what you want to accomplish because there is so much going on,” he said. With so many breakouts, announcements, keynotes, and meetings it can be easy to get overwhelmed. Bracey reminded partners to relax a bit. “There’s no way to see everything,” he said, adding that besides attending keynotes, he usually learns a lot through informal discussion with other partners. “People are willing to talk and listen,” he said. WPC is an environment that breeds collaboration and business-to-business engagements. may 2012 | 18 |
Microsoft aims to have 1,000 Canadian partners attend WPC in Toronto in July. Just as WPC has evolved through the years, so too has Bracey’s experience at the conference. When he attended his first WPC, he said he was impressed by the quality of the speakers, but as a WPC veteran, his experiences have changed. For example, he said last year in Los Angeles he benefited from the informal and strategic elements of the conference: meeting with like-minded people. Sharp echoed this, urging partners to be prepared to grow their businesses by talking with other partners.
Greater MS Canada presence Attendees are also going to have the chance to spend more time with Microsoft Canada than ever before. Sharp said that many Microsoft Canada employees who wouldn’t normally be attending a WPC will get the chance to experience the conference. Partners should be getting their preparations in order and Sharp said they should be submitting nominations for the WPC awards. “Our Canadian partners have great solutions that they’ve done with our customers,” she said. Awards at WPC not only help showcase partners on a global stage, but partners are also able to repurpose them as case studies to help create demand. There are even new award categories at this year’s WPC including cloud and citizenship categories. For partners that won’t be making the trek to Toronto, WPC will again exist online. Digital WPC has been available as part of the conference for a while now but its purpose was more centred around logistics: session signup, registration, maps, videos and slide decks. In Channel Insider Canada’s recent interview with John Roskill, Microsoft’s worldwide channel chief, he said for WPC 12, all the social media efforts including blogging will be available through the WPC website this year, and not just during the conference itself. The WPC site will now exist year-round as regional WPC events are held throughout the year. “There are new things happening all the time so digital WPC allows people who are in this community with us to stay fresh and connected as a community,” Roskill said. channel insider canada
tracker networks sPecial big Pricing in the channel, march 2012 the first Year-over-Year analYsis of march suggests the channel is increasing its reliance on sPecial bids.
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by Jason Doel arch is a quarterend and also the year-end for the Canadian federal government. As a result, March’s bid volumes have historically been so much higher than other months of the year that they can distort the trend lines. With March 2012 now the last month in our graph, we get a clear picture of how bid volumes are growing across the board. Bid volumes grew again in March, up from February by 6%. Bid volumes also grew on a year-over-year basis, showing a 5% increase in March 2012 over March 2011. As a result, both the six- and 12-month trend lines for bid volumes are moving strongly upwards. March’s volumes were in fact the highest monthly totals ever recorded in Canada. We interpret all of this as a continued increase in general business activity and a growing use of special bids as a standard practice in the sale of IT products and services. Software volumes grew at a greater rate in March, up 29% from February. This supports our past observations that software vendors make greater relative use of special bids to close their business in quarter-ends and government year-ends. They also appear to do a greater proportion of their business overall in these time periods. The more modest 6% increase over March 2011 volumes shows that software vendors made heavy use of special bids last March as well.
VenDoR BiD VoluMe By MonTH
Six month rolling trendline
VenDoR BiD VoluMe By MonTH
Twelve month rolling trendline
VoluMe oF SPeCiAl PRiCing AgReeMenTS in THe CAnADiAn CHAnnel
may 2012 | 19 | channel insider canada
FOCUS ON Services
Building the business through services in the cloud era The cloud disrupts the channel’s traditional modus operandi – but that doesn’t spell an end to services revenue.
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by Stefan Dubowski utremont, Que.-based SAP gold partner Forgestik may be a winner in the race to develop robust services based on the cloud, but the company also exemplifies the risks associated with the shift from traditional reseller operations to those suited to the cloud era. Forgestik emerged as the winner in SAP’s most recent Partner Impact Awards designed to celebrate top-performing application and service partners. Forgestik was named the Business ByDesign Partner of the Year, Canada, in the SME category. Business ByDesign is SAP’s cloud-based ERP offering. According to marketing and strategic alliance manager, Bertrand Tougas, Forgestik is embracing the cloud because the writing is on the wall. “Our take is that the traditional VAR will no longer exist in a couple of years,” he said. Forgestik isn’t alone. Industry observers and insiders have long noted that declining margins on hardware, software and installation services are putting the squeeze on traditional VAR profits. Meanwhile cloud adoption means that in the future, customers may not need so many standard PCs and servers. Instead, they’ll use simple thin clients at users’ workstations or even mobile devices, and virtual machines running on far fewer physical servers. And they’ll source all of their computing power from cloud systems, centralized in a data centre either run by their own IT departments, managed by an outside organization, or in a data centre offsite and operated by a service provider. Cloud computing is one of the hottest topics in the IT industry today. But it spells a new business paradigm for the channel. “The cash flow is a lot different,” Tougas said, explaining that while VARs typically bank big cheques when they land large accounts, the cloud’s pay-as-you-go model means little up-front revenue. Instead, success is meted out in regular, small payments over a number of years. Yet resellers still have to pay their sales reps’ commissions, as well as other overhead costs associated with running the business. What’s more, “there’s a lot less consulting services,” Tougas said. Researchers at IT consultancy, Techaisle, have picked up on the same thread. In a position paper, they point out that whereas partners traditionally offer services such as installation, integration, customization, and maintenance, the situation is different in the cloud. Installation is replaced with simple provisioning. Customization is a crap shoot: some cloud platforms afford plenty of customization (paving the way for potential customization revenues), while others aren’t all that malleable.
may 2012 | 20 |
“Maintenance is all but gone,” Techaisle says in “Cloud Computing Challenges the Channel.” How, then, does a valueadded reseller go about developing a successful services practice in the cloud era? Sources say the solution is a matter of beefing up certain capabilities such as business processes, subjectmatter expertise, expense management, and cloudenablement services.
Better business processes
Cash flow is different with the cloud, says Bertrand Tougas, Forgestik.
Business-process enhancements represent a big part of Forgestik’s cloud strategy. As Tougas noted, Business ByDesign isn’t especially customizable, but it does incorporate process best practices, and sometimes customers need help amending their internal operations to optimize the benefits of the cloud service. That gives Forgestik the opportunity to derive revenue from business-process consulting. “It’s a different type of approach,” Tougas said. “In the end it will work well because SAP follows best practices (in businessprocess design).” Renzo Dipasquale, VP, channels at Avaya Canada, pointed out that most partners don’t have the wherewithal to become cloud infrastructure providers themselves – for many, it’s too expensive an undertaking. But he does see good prospects for the channel in the cloud. “I think there’s a tremendous opportunity for partners to leverage the great cloud infrastructure out there and build more immersive applications on top of that environment,” he said. Mike Vizard also seems to think that application development might be the way forward for the channel. In an article for Channel Insider in the U.S., he explained that intellectual property has long been the real “value” added by VARs. One of the clearest paths towards providing unique IP is custom application development. In the past, it was expensive. But now partners can use cloud-based platform as a service (PaaS) systems to reduce the cost. PaaS also provides a cost-effective, scalable system for supporting customer instances, Vizard said.
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Technology manufacturers are on the hunt for partners with PaaS expertise, he said. But most app-dev focused partners have little PaaS experience, and PaaS-experienced partners often lack app-dev expertise. According to Vizard, organizations that can combine the two via partnerships or acquisitions may prove profitable. Profit might also stem from a different set of services, according to Techaisle’s position paper. “Over time the channel must develop and indeed be trained in new competencies…These encompass service provisioning, billing, data-centre management, customer support” and other related items “that the channel did not have to deal with before.” Technology vendors have a role to play as well. “At this stage the onus rests largely on IT vendors…to aid existing channel members to rework their business model, retrain for new competencies and deliver profitability to sustain the channel.”
HP’s cloud-focused programs So far, Hewlett-Packard has embraced this role. The technology maker has a number of cloud-focused programs designed to help channel partners benefit from the shift to cloud. HP research found that 50% of decisions to move to the cloud are made by decision makers outside of the IT organization. The channel has to understand the changing dynamics there, said Sal Giulione, VP channels, enterprise servers, storage and networking, HP Canada. “When they walk into a customer’s office, the first opportunity is to engage in discussion as to why and what the business value is,” he said, adding that these high-level strategy discussions can lead to talk about infrastructure requirements. “Partners are finding that the customer needs to do a technology refresh, or they need to enhance their network to support the
cloud environment. There are readiness assessments, workshops – and the need for new business models to support cloud over the long term.” HP partner Long View Systems adds another perspective: the need to change up the VAR’s internal structure. Robin Bell, CTO, explained that Long View’s ability to provide cloud-focused services hinges on a decision made during the recession to build a converged technology practice. “We decided three years ago to create a solution architecture group,” he said. “It wasn’t really intended to address cloud – it was intended to address what clients were looking for,” namely integrated solutions incorporating various technologies. To do that, the company had to engage in cross-disciplinary training, but it’s in place now – and it supports Long View’s cloud efforts. The company offers to build private clouds, and it provides cloud aggregation services, which bring together services available from other providers to meet a customer’s particular cloud requirement. And though many VARs can’t justify the cost of doing this, Long View also runs its own cloud infrastructure (see “If you build it…” below) so that if a customer using HP’s private cloud technology needs to extend to a public cloud for a burst or two, the partner can support that. Partners running cloud services today point out that the shift from the traditional business model to the cloud requires some heavy investment in technologies and training – and it requires patience. A deep wallet doesn’t hurt, either. “Any partner starting in the cloud space, there’s a ramp up of two to three years before you see your investment back,” said Tougas from Forgestik. But he added that after the initiation, if the business goes well, cloud revenue will likely buoy the company – until the next big tech-biz disruption comes along, of course.
If you build it, will they come? Many channel participants lack the wherewithal to build their own cloud infrastructure. But that doesn’t mean it’s impossible: • Long View (partner of HP, Microsoft, Cisco et al.) runs its own cloud infrastructure, presenting it as an overrun facility for customers needing extra cloud capacity for short periods of time. Robin Bell, CTO, said it’s an extension of the services Long View already offered. “We’re a managed services provider as well, so the cloud infrastructure falls within that group to supply.” • ThinkTel offers Microsoft’s Lync unified communications software on a cloud basis. Like Long View, ThinkTel’s service builds on pre-existing services. “We aren’t nailing up a data centre for Lync,” said Dave Damer, president and CEO. “We already have a data centre.” On the other hand, Canadian Cloud Computing recently announced that it would shut down its cloud infrastructure to become a partner of another infrastructure operator, RackForce, instead. Wally Kowal, Canadian Cloud’s founder and president, said it was simply too expensive for Canadian Cloud to manage its own platform. “We have a great market. Our sales are doing well. We have customers lined up. But we were going broke being successful.” The take-away: for companies already deriving revenue from hosting platforms, it might make sense to extend the infrastructure for cloud services. For companies that don’t already operate in the hosted services space, it probably makes more sense to partner with a vendor or cloud infrastructure provider.
may 2012 | 21 | channel insider canada
Focus on RETAIL
Wholesale and retail by the numbers
Targeting the wholesale/retail sector? Channel Insider Canada has some data from IT Market Dynamics that will help fine-tune your plans.
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by IT Market Dynamics he IT Market Dynamics IT industry forecast is based on supply-side input – which gives us the ability to delve into trends at (and within) the industry-sector level. In this issue’s “by the numbers” feature, ITMD illustrates Canadian IT market conditions in the wholesale/retail sector. The industry in context: Retail is the second largest sector by total employment in Canada (behind only the services sector). It consists of three major segments, retail (accounting for 53% of sectoral employment), wholesale (21%), and restaurants, which are often included in the wholesale/retail category (26%). According to Statistics Canada, total Canadian employment in these segments was 3.488 million in 2011. Continued on page 24...
Figure 1
Wholesale/Retail employment in Canada
Customers choose interactive digital signage by STEFAN DUBOWSKI It’s becoming common for retailers to install digital signs in their establishments to promote products and inform both customers and employees. For insight on the digital signage trend, we chatted with James Fine, president of Telecine Multimedia, a communications company in Montreal that recently completed an interactive-signage project for RadioCanada, the French-language division of the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. Last year, Radio-Canada tapped Telecine to transform the long corridor connecting the media organization’s studios and theatres. For a creative workplace that sees about 80,000 public visitors a year, the corridor desperately needed a refresh. “The walls, floor and ceiling were all grey,” Fine recalled. “It was depressing.” Radio-Canada wanted to use digital signage to enliven the space, enabling employees and visitors to access the organization’s massive cache of Frenchlanguage audio, video and web content. But as with most federal-governmentfunded entities, Radio-Canada had to whittle and shape the concept to fit within a narrow financial envelope. That made the undertaking all the more challenging for Telecine, which finally won the contract in June 2011. With all of the back and forth between the communications company and the
broadcaster – work that was required in order to meet the tight budget – Telecine ended up with little more than two months to complete the project. The company dove into the programming work and began planning the installation, asap. While RadioCanada’s employees sourced and installed the screens that would operate as the front end of the system, Telecine selected Hewlett-Packard’s SignagePlayer mp8200 solution running Scala’s digital signage software for content management. But there were issues. “We wanted it, but the delivery would be too long initially,” Fine said of the HP product. “So we went with another player that we could get faster. That didn’t work out so well.” The alternative system lacked the response time needed for a highly interactive implementation connected to a wealth of content. “Scala is actually rendering content in real time; it’s not just playing back video. When you add the interactivity requirement you need a machine that’s very solid.” Working with HP, Telecine managed to get a hold of the SignagePlayer system in time to meet the project’s deadline. Radio-Canada’s enhanced corridor opened in August, just prior to the organization’s 75th anniversary celebration.
may 2012 | 22 |
The displays not only brighten up an erstwhile dowdy space – it also provides a real-world outlet for Radio-Canada’s latest efforts. As Fine pointed out, many of the organization’s projects are web-based these days, so they aren’t as public-facing as earlier projects might have been. The digital signage in the corridor “is one of the ways they’re able to showcase the advances they’re making,” he said. Telecine is implementing more interactive screens among all sorts of enduser organizations, including retail. In that realm, the screens are used to promote products and services during customer hours, and they’re used for training modules on merchandising and other operations at the end of the day. Interactive digital signage is also making its way into the corporate communications space, Fine said. “We used to think the main application for digital signage in corporations was to communicate with employees who did not have computers. What clients are discovering… is that the computer is not a great way to communicate with employees, because they’re just overwhelmed with email and the Internet. Digital signage is actually a wonderful way to keep employees updated, to increase moral and increase community.”
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Focus on RETAIL Continued from page 22... Total industry IT spending, 2012: $7.375 billion. The wholesale/retail market is expected to grow slowly, both in absolute terms and relative to the Canadian market, in 2012. Wholesale/retail IT spending growth, at 2.47%, is a full percentage point below the overall Canadian growth rate of 3.49%. Spending on acquisitions (purchase of new hardware or software) is expected to be even more sluggish, increasing by just 1.98% in 2012. Composition by size category: It’s often said that Canada is an SMB-centric market – and this is especially true in the wholesale/retail sector. SMBs account for more than 80% of Canadian wholesale/retail IT spending, and small firms (1-99 employees) account for more than 75% of this SMB IT investment. Unfortunately, as Figure 3 illustrates, the small business segment is expected to deliver very low growth in 2012. IT acquisition allocations, 2012: When we position (as we have in Figure 4) Canadian wholesale/retail 2011 and 2012 IT acquisitions side by side, we are struck by the sameness of the magnitude and distribution of spending. The percentage distribution across the three categories used in the chart is identical across the two years, with personal technology accounting for just over 50% of total spending in the industry. ITMD is anticipating only about $60 million in new product spending in retail in 2012, versus 2011 levels. The chart reflects this expectation of a “business as usual” – or at least, “as it was last year” – pattern in Canadian wholesale/retail IT product spending. Outlook and channel advice: There is little current appetite for new spend within Canadian wholesale/retail – but that doesn’t mean that new spend isn’t essential to competitiveness. While small retailers squeeze budgets, larger firms are investing in technologies that increase their connections with customers – digital signage, social marketing, mobile applications, electronic channel options, and analytics. Small retailers need to be made to understand that “business as usual” may not deliver “viability over the long term;” better marketing by competitors will expose the small retailer’s assortment limitations, and e-channels reduce the small retailer’s time/place delivery advantages. VARs that are active in the wholesale/retail space will need to develop and focus their efforts on customers who “get” the future and are willing to invest in it; those who don’t react to a changing and increasingly IT-dependent competitive environment will increasingly be poor prospects for long-term relationships.
Figure 2
Four year growth trends in the Canadian wholesale/retail IT market
Figure 3
Wholesale/retail IT spending and 2012 growth rates by e-size
Figure 4
Wholesale/retail IT acquisition allocations, 2011 and 2012
may 2012 | 24 |
channel insider canada
PROGRAM UPDATES Comm-tech maker pumps up the value, not volume Avaya is recruiting partners that pride customer value over sales volumes – and shedding partners that can’t get with the program. by Stefan Dubowski
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vaya is in the midst of adjusting its partner program to highlight “value” instead of product-sales volume, says the company’s Canadian channel chief. That means recruiting value-focused partners – and parting ways with others. In an interview, Renzo Dipasquale, Avaya Canada’s VP, channel, said the communications technology manufacturer aims to make a success of the market by going beyond high sales volumes. Lately the company has taken to rewarding partners that invest in multiple Avaya technologies, a mix of subject areas, and growth in certain geographic locations. For instance, a channel participant familiar with Avaya’s unified communications portfolio would do well to invest in developing call centre capabilities. “You need to be certified and authorized on those solutions,” Dipasquale said, and because call centres are complicated entities partners entering that market face a steep learning curve. “But it will give you a bigger footprint with the customer and more value at the end of the day.” Avaya has more than 250 channel partners across the country, but the company has been shedding partners even as it recruits based on geography and capability. “We have divested some partners over the last year, where they haven’t continued their investment in Avaya, they’ve changed their direction, or they aren’t adding value to the customer base,” Dipasquale said. In the last 18 months the partner count is down by about 10%. “But we’re always looking to recruit in certain areas,” he said, explaining that Avaya’s acquisition of video communications company RADVISION opens opportunities for partners experienced in video.
Go west As the economy goes, so goes Avaya’s partner program: the company is looking to grow in the western provinces, although central Canada still an important driver. “Some of our largest partners are expanding across the country, and the west is the first place they expand. But we’re also seeing expansion in the Quebec marketplace.” Avaya is currently working on the first phase of its valuedpartner transformation, beginning with new requirements for customer-satisfaction surveys. Depending on the level, partners have to submit a number of surveys (10 for platinum partners, six for gold partners, three for silver and authorized partners each year) in order to receive rewards such as discounts on Avaya products. The surveys cover topics like partner capabilities, project management, technology delivery, and execution, Dipasquale said. Phase II of the program evolution will emphasize the need for partners to increase their investments in a mix of technologies, subject matters and geographies. It’s all in aid of addressing customers’ requests, Dipasquale noted. may 2012 | 25 |
“Customers are telling us they don’t want three or four partners on a project. They like to have a go-to partner and maybe a specialized company delivering that solution. No one wants to chase too many technologies and providers on a project.” Renzo Dipasquale, VP channel, This isn’t to say that Avaya Canada Avaya will no longer reward high-volume partners. Nonetheless, it’s a piece in an increasingly sophisticated partner puzzle. Dipasquale explained that in addition to the value focus, Avaya has introduced a new rewards program: “Connect and Win” lets individual partner sales reps collect points based on their achievements; the points can be redeemed for products such as gift cards or cash. “We’re still working on ease of doing business in the program, improved access to information and support, and growth opportunities,” Dipasquale said, indicating that Avaya is adding better search functionality to its Partner Portal website so the channel will have an easier time connecting with and finding information from the manufacturer.
Speed of business Dipasquale said speed of business is one of the big issues facing the channel. “The main challenges are making sure their sales folks are properly trained on the current portfolio of products. The industry is moving very quickly, so staying abreast of all the changes is difficult.” He also pointed to two big IT trends: bring your own device (BYOD), whereby end users employ their own personal devices in business settings (instead of using company-supplied technologies) and cloud computing, where applications and data are stored and accessed from a centralized data centre instead of individual computer hard drives. Does BYOD diminish the role of the IT department – and the partners that normally serve IT? According to Dipasquale, not at all. “I think it increases their visibility as they are needed to help the IT department deal with it. They’re being asked to deliver it. Walk into any office now and you’ll see all sorts of devices. Users say they want to use this on the network. Well, it needs to be secure. It needs to be accessible. Does it have the software that allows you to collaborate? You’re using tools that you may not have in the corporate workplace… A partner that can educate the customer on leveraging this technology to make your user community more effective, that’s where the value comes in.” channel insider canada
PROGRAM UPDATES Datto to offer all-Canadian, channel driven BDR Saskatoon-based backup and disaster recovery company seeks national representation. by Christopher Rogers
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ackup and disaster recovery solutions (BDR) are essential for today’s businesses that operate on high-availability models. Canadian companies need highly available IT systems and, in the case of disaster, peace-of-mind to know that their critical data and applications can be restored quickly. Most Canadian companies also need their data to remain on Canadian soil during backups. The solution is of no use to them if the data is sent to the U.S. or another country. Enter Datto Canada, a new Saskatoon-based BDR provider. Not only will Datto be providing BDR capabilities for Canadian MSPs, it will also be delivering dedicated Canadian technical support, product training, and customizable sales and marketing collateral. Datto Canada is committed to making its offering a 100% channel-driven business. It should come as no surprise then that the company’s CEO is a familiar face to the Canadian channel: Modest Mycyk, president and CEO of Nova-Tek Innovations. Mycyk said that the companies are separate entities, but through Nova-Tek, he had a good pulse on what the MSP community needs and wants. For starters, Datto is coming to the channel with a full-fledged partner program. While free to join, the program offers many benefits to Canadian MSPs and VARs that are interested in adding BDR to their offering. All partners receive benefits such as partner portal access, dedicated account managers, marketing materials, end-user demos, and technical knowledge-base resources, while there are additional benefits for Gold and Platinum tiered partners. The tiers are based on the number of devices the partner is currently managing. Datto Canada’s account executive, Marlene Mullowney, said that the company has been building its Canadian partner base for over a year. “We definitely have aggressive numbers,” she said. Interested partners can be seasoned MSPs or newcomers to BDR solutions. Mycyk said Datto Canada has worked with both. Typically, MSPs with a good sales and technical base are most active with Datto, but the solutions are appropriate for almost any size business.
A unique approach Datto Canada’s technology has a distinct approach to BDR. Delivering the service through its product, SIRIS, it offers instant on- and off-site virtualization and screenshot backup verification. The innovation comes from its “inverse chain technology” where data is stored in “vmdk” format on the local device. According to Datto this means no conversion process is necessary to virtualize failed servers, workstations or desktops. “The inverse chain technology stacks your last incremental as the base of your backup chain so you’re never in a situation where something along the chain can corrupt your backup and make it unusable,” Mycyk explained. “Basically, ensure that you are always able to recover.”
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There is a hardware appliance that goes on-site at the customer, and the MSP then installs an agent on the servers for endusers. Through the agent, backups are preformed to the appliance, which is also responsible for handling offsite replication. Although Marlene Mullowney, Canadian account Datto Canada executive, Datto Canada is based out of Saskatchewan, the company is looking to partner right across the country. There are no geographical limitations to the solution. In fact, Mycyk said the company’s two data centres located in Saskatoon are well positioned. They are far from the coasts and are in an area that is relatively untouched from natural disasters that can affect other areas. Partners should also take note that Datto Canada will keep a Canadian stock of equipment so turnaround time on equipment is quick. It means partners don’t have to deal with customs or pricing calculations when ordering from the U.S.
Committing to the channel To help get MSPs and VARs accustomed to the Datto BDR solution, the company provides all of the training to get them up to speed. “We truly want to partner with our MSPs,” Mullowney said. “So when they come onboard we provide them with access; we can set them up with a training call or a webinar. There is a full knowledge base, which would be accessed through the partner portal. That is also where [partners] would manage their clients’ devices as well. But it’s an ongoing partnership where they would always have access to the latest updates on the solution as well as any training. So there is both post-sales and technical training as well.” Beyond white papers and technical documentation, partners also have access to sales and marketing collateral to help the sales process. “This is always going to be a channel product for us,” Mycyk said. “Supporting the channel is a business decision and we are a channel-based company. I really like working with the channel and that’s going to be the plan.” Mullowney added that Datto Canada will work with MSPs to help them build out recurring revenues, build profits and create stickiness with clients.
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HP TopShot LaserJet Pro Some of the first evidence of HP’s R&D push, the TopShot is all the good and bad of a first-wave innovation by Christopher Rogers
Specs from HP Speed: 17ppm black (letter), 4ppm colour (letter) First page out: 16 sec (black), 27.5 (colour) Scan resolution: 8MP “TopShot” camera Copy resolution: up to 600x600 dpi Paper handling: 150-sheet input tray, 50 sheet output bin Connectivity: Wi-Fi, USB 2.0, Ethernet
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t the HP Global Partner Conference in February 2012, HP president Meg Whitman reaffirmed the company’s commitment to R&D. She committed HP to increasing its R&D spend across all its critical business units including IPG (Imaging and Printing Group), the unit responsible for the new HP TopShot LaserJet Pro M275. While the device’s name might not be a differentiator, the product itself is certainly innovative and forward-looking in its hardware and software. If this is the first wave of innovative products that will come along with increased R&D spend at HP, we say, “keep it up.” While the TopShot is far from perfect, it could be a welcome addition to a user’s workflow given the right application. HP has billed the device as a 3D scanner, which is a bit confusing. The TopShot actually takes two-dimensional pictures of 3D objects using a downward-facing, top-mounted 8 megapixel camera. Users place the object to be scanned on the TopShot’s white scanning surface and the camera (with built-in flash) makes a scan. The included software can even remove
the white background, but more on that later. Users of e-commerce solutions with a need to easily upload images of new products to their website would be the perfect fit for such a device, but how does the TopShot actually fare in real-world tests?
Hardware and print speeds As far as MFPs (multi-function printers) are concerned, the TopShot is about average in size. The device measures a maximum size of W18.4 x D18.5 x H19.5 inches, which means in fits comfortably on a large desk but it is probably more suited to its own space in an office environment. It looks like a standard MFP at first glance, but includes a folding silver-coloured arm that houses the 8 megapixel camera and flash for scanning. Rounding out the design, the front of the TopShot features a 3.5 inch LCD touchscreen display for controlling printing and scanning. There is a 150 sheet input tray centred in the bottomfront of the device and a 50 sheet output bin which is also in the front. The white scanning bed can be easily removed from the top so that supplies can be changed. Access to maintenance features are through the top of the device. Once the scan bed has been removed the TopShot easily opens up to reveal its LaserJet toner cartridges. The TopShot has a high-end feel to it, while the black plastic gives it a sleek look. The top-most portions are dark brown and fit well with the overall look and feel of the device. The design should not look out of place in any setting. Printing speeds are good for the mostpart on the TopShot, with the only lag being in colour printing. In our tests of a two-page Word document using “Print color as gray” option in the printer preferences it took 15 seconds to the first page and 18 seconds to the second
may 2012 | 28 |
channel insider canada
The TopShot is a bit big to fit comfortably on a desk.
Controls are accessed through a frontmounted touch screen. (slightly faster than HP’s specs). Colour printing of a two-page PDF document using default settings was between 37 to 38 seconds to first page and between 51 to 53 seconds to the second page (slightly longer than HP’s specs). Real-world circumstances always change printing speeds but HP’s predictions for print speeds seem to be fairly accurate.
3D object scanning The most important piece of hardware for the TopShot is perhaps not the printer but the top-down 3D object scanner. Users place the device to be scanned on the white scan bed and either activate the scan using the built-in touchscreen or through the HP software on their PC. Scans can be preformed over a Wi-Fi network connection directly to the user’s PC but in our tests using OS X Lion 10.7.3
A scan of headphones using the HP TopShot.
The stationary nature of the camera can also produce some unwanted distortion when shooing certain objects (see image of headphones). Despite these gripes, the results from the TopShot are delivered quickly and in a utility (HP Scan 3) that allows users to quickly scan and batch process a number of images of products and then output to a format that allows for speedy posting online. It should be noted that while the TopShot is perfect for scanning smaller objects, larger products are out of the question. The effective scan area is approximately the size of a standard A4 sheet of paper, and effective height is only four to five inches. Despite the size limitations these dimensions should suit most needs.
Software the TopShot needed to be connected via its USB 2.0 cable to unlock the higher scan resolutions above 200dpi. Oddly, We couldn’t determine how to scan an image using the HP Scan 3 software at a resolution higher than 300dpi on our MacBook. However, in later tests including scan to Box.net, the printer allows resolutions to be set as high as 600dpi. Bringing up the HP Scan 3 software utility, users have the choice to select a number of preset scanning preferences including “Three-Dimensional Objects,” “Document With Text,” and “Photos, Graphics, Etc.” Each of these can be modified or new presets created and saved for future use. We set the TopShot up manually to scan objects using the 300dpi setting and selected the “remove background” option to have HP’s software automatically remove any white background in the image. When users choose to scan the object, the TopShot activates its flash and takes a picture of the object. The included software from HP does a good job of recognizing the white background and removing any trace, but some additional touch-up may be required. The utility has some basic rotating, cropping and image adjustment options. While the editing options are nice, the images at 300dpi using the 8 megapixel camera produces are quite noisy and the flash can sometimes produce an unwanted glare on objects with a glossy finish.
The TopShot comes with software and drivers for both Windows and OS X environments. We tried installing the software on our MacBook running OS X 10.7.3 but needed to download an updated version through the HP website. The software includes the HP Scan 3 application, an HP printer utility, a firmware updater and a shortcut to HP’s wireless printing centre, which assists in setting up the wireless printing capabilities. All the software works as advertised and the scan utility surprised with its ability to effectively remove the background of scanned objects, eliminating the need to do it manually. The TopShot is also ePrint enabled so users can take advantage of printing from their mobile devices such as a smartphone or tablet. In our test using an iOS device, we downloaded the HP ePrint application from the Apple App Store and (after setting up the necessary options using the printer’s touch screen) were able to immediately locate and print from our device. The entire process from setup to printing is uncomplicated and should be able to be completed with minimal effort. The ePrint app lets users define how the image or document will be printed and how it will appear on the paper that is being used. Delivery of the document or image to the printer takes slightly longer given the Wi-Fi transfer but print speeds remain similar.
may 2012 | 29 | channel insider canada
The TopShot also takes advantage of a number of applications that can be downloaded to the device itself such as Box.net and Google Docs integration. Using these apps, users can scan objects directly to their online storage accounts and access them from any browser. In our tests the apps functioned as advertised and upload speeds were fairly quick. We uploaded a number of scans to a Box. net account and then accessed them through a browser. There were some times however when we got the message “temporarily unavailable please try again later,” especially when trying to scan and upload 600dpi images.
Conclusion Overall the TopShot is an innovative product for the market HP is trying to capture. If a user has a large number of products to photograph and upload, and the objects fit within the TopShot’s size requirements, than it would be a very useful device. For company’s that do e-commerce regularly and other specialty applications, we can see the TopShot creating signifiant efficiencies. The included software does a good job at cutting down additional time by automatically removing backgrounds and providing quick batch exporting options. If HP decides to update the product, it should start by upping the resolution on the camera and updating the HP Scan 3 software utility to include more easily accessible options for increasing dpi settings.
PROS: Innovative top-down camera Wi-Fi and ePrint enabled Software well done CONS: Highest DPI setting unavailable on OS X Touch screen difficult to navigate
Distractions
Distractions, May 2012:
Featuring news you can’t use – but should know. This edition: IBM reanimates Eames math expo
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by Channel Insider Staff o celebrate the history of math and its impact on the world, IBM has released Minds of Modern Mathematics, an iPad app that re-imagines the classic 50-foot infographic on the history of math created by husband and wife design team Charles and Ray Eames displayed at the 1964 World’s Fair in New York City. The app illustrates the connection between math, art, science, music and architecture, reimaging the Eames’ massive timeline on the subject covering 1000 AD to 1960 that was part of IBM’s 1964 World’s Fair exhibit. Users can click through more than 500 biographies, milestones and images of artifacts from the Mathematica exhibit. The app includes the “IBM Mathematics Peep Show,” a series of animated films also created by the Eames offering lessons on math concepts such as exponents and the way ancient Greeks measured the earth. IBM developed the app with the Eames Office, an organization that works to preserve and extend the legacy of Charles and Ray Eames.
Mint offers digital currency challenge The Royal Canadian Mint has launched a program for developers across North America to test and challenge a digital currency technology. The MintChip Developer Challenge, running until Aug. 1, invites developers to create innovative mobile payment applications on the MintChip technology. MintChip uses a secure chip to hold monetary value and a secure protocol to transfer value from one chip to another. The challenge will test the robustness and applicability of MintChip, to help guide the technology’s development. The challenge offers three categories: best person-to-person app, best business-to-consumer app, and best micropayment app. Winners will be selected by a panel of judges, while members of the public will get to vote for the popular-choice award. Winners will be announced in the fall. Full details are at www.mintchipchallenge.com.
may 2012 | 30 |
channel insider canada
IT asked to fix toilets, recommend drycleaners IT help desk agents are fielding some odd calls, according to a survey conducted by Robert Half Technology. The company asked CIOs to report the unusual requests that their support staff have received. Some of the responses: “Can you help me fix my toilet?” “I need help drilling holes in the wall.” “I dropped my phone in the toilet. What should I do?” “How do I pirate software?” “We need you to fix the microwave in the lunchroom.” “Can you recommend a good drycleaner?” “I’d like to download the entire Internet so I can take it with me.” “Will you show me how to use the mouse?” “My computer won’t turn on or off.” (The computer was unplugged.) Robert Half regional VP Lara Dodo said that while the requests are entertaining, they illustrate the strong interpersonal and customer-service skills required to work in the technical support and help-desk fields.
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