The Channel Standard May/June 2013

www.thechannelstandard.ca

THE

MAY/JUNE 2013

CHANNEL STANDARD

PAUL BAY, INGRAM MICRO “It’s not just about pick, and pack and ship” PAGE 10

DAN EMERY, ESI

“Cloud computing is rapidly gaining ground” PAGE 12

CRITICAL INSIGHT FOR CHANNEL MANAGEMENT

CLIMBING THE CLOUD

The Channel Standard

YOUR CHANNEL GUIDE TO THE LATEST IN CLOUD COMPUTING www.itincanada.ca

SMB-ready ERP solutions Financial innovation through mobility, Big Data, and the cloud Ingram Micro’s VTN turns 15 Cloud business models that work

Standard

   Do your sales reps spend more time looking for special pricing approvals than talking to customers?

Is your purchasing team struggling to keep up with requests to validate pricing and discounts?

 Is your sales team aware of all your customers’ upcoming maintenance, support and warranty renewals?

Are your client entitlements lapsing, leaving your customers exposed and your accounts vulnerable to your competitors?

We Can Help                  



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CONTENTS

13.05

FEATURED THIS ISSUE

4 EDITOR’S NOTE

SMB-READY: ERP SOLUTIONS

6 CANADIAN CHANNEL NEWS

Helping the channel climb the cloud

14

Salesforce.com, Microsoft, SAP, SYSPRO, Infor and Epicor offer up their best business management and ERP offerings for the SMB market

ON LOCATION: INGRAM MICRO’S VTN 2013 SPRING INVITATIONAL

10

9 CONTRACT CRITICAL

12

21 GLOBAL NEWS FROM CHANNELPRO SMB

24

22 GLOBAL VIEWS: CLOUD BUSINESS MODELS THAT WORK

Ingram Micro’s Venture Tech Network celebrates 15 years in Hollywood, Florida

TECHNOSPECTIVE ON FINANCE: FINANCIAL INNOVATION Canada’s FIs are building better business outcomes through mobility, Big Data, and the cloud

CASE STUDY: FROM PAAS TO VSAAS Montreal-based IP security solutions leader, Genetec, uses the Microsoft Azure PaaS platform to build a new cloud-based Video Surveillance-as-a-Service (VSaaS) for SMBs

CHANNEL UPDATE: CA TECHNOLOGIES CA Technologies works to align its partner program with its product portfolio

May/June 2013

Citrix revamps its channel programs for the cloud, Kaspersky Lab launches a new division to target the public sector, OnX delivers high-availability managed infrastructure for Public Mobile, MSPAlliance launches a new cloud insurance program, and SAP offers partners an update on the company’s growth and channel strategy

David Gammon offers advice on how to engage with a contract staffing agency to find the right Independent Professional

Microsoft gives an update on the affordability and benefits of Azure, GFI Cloud adds patch management capabilities, and Zetta.net introduces new MSP marketing enablement and lead generation

You know you need to get a handle on the cloud, but how do you begin? Learn where some early adopters are gaining traction in the channel

26

30 SPECIAL BID PRICING

Tracker Networks’ Jason Doel identifies a fundamental decrease in the volume of special pricing letters and promotions being used by hardware manufacturers

| 3 | The Canadian Channel Standard

EDITOR’S NOTE

CLIMBING THE CLOUD

BY KEVIN PRIDDLE

I

recently attended an event co-hosted by Gibraltar Solutions, HP and Citrix that invited attendees to ‘workshift in the cloud’ from – of all places – the top of the Toronto CN Tower.

1,100 feet above the metropolis below, men and women sharply dressed in suits and blouses milled about the Horizons Restaurant on the lookout level of the tower and swapped stories about BYOD, MDM, SaaS, cloud and the other tech buzz words trending in the IT space today. Guests were also invited to access their corporate data and applications via secured wireless networks provided by the host companies and their solutions.

Don Lee, CEO and co-founder of Gibraltar Solutions, spoke with me at the event and offered his view on the landscape of mobile work styles, workshifting, and the cloud technologies that enable them. He said many customers still struggle with understanding what the cloud is and how to leverage it in their business.

In his view, organizations and corporate IT staff shouldn’t bog themselves down with trying to become experts in every aspect of cloud; rather, they should focus on adding value to their own core business and should turn to the experts – the channel – to help them figure it out. “Don’t be threatened by the cloud,” Lee said. “Embrace it.”

And that’s what this edition of The Canadian Channel Standard is here to help you do: embrace and climb the cloud.

In this May/June edition, our standard Canadian Channel News feature highlights some of the top news briefs from the country’s channel sector including updates on Citrix’s channel partner programs for the cloud, as well as a new cloud insurance program from MSPAlliance. Our U.S. partner, ChannelPro SMB, also contributes some global news with recent highlights from Microsoft Azure, GFI Cloud, and Zetta. net, as well as a some global views in a

feature article by Lauren Gibbons Paul on “cloud business models that work.”

4FMV Inc.’s David Gammon returns this month with more insight into the world of Independent Contractors and offers up advice on how to engage with a contract staffing agency to find the right IP, and Tracker Networks’ Jason Doel highlights a fundamental downward trend in special bid pricing used by OEMs in his monthly column.

In our On Location feature, I return from Hollywood, Florida with tidings from Ingram Micro’s 2013 Venture Tech Network Spring Invitational. The SMBfocused reseller community celebrated its 15th anniversary this year and I had the chance to catch up with Paul Bay and Mark Snider to learn more about the company’s channel initiatives moving forward.

In this issue readers will also find an analysis of the ways technology is changing banks and financial institutions in our Technospective on Finance, as well as a look into CA Technologies’ ongoing efforts to build partner programs designed around driving adoption of the cloud.

Our Case Study this month examines Montreal-based security technology provider, Genetec, and its use of the Microsoft Azure PaaS platform to build a cloud-based Video Surveillance as a Service (VSaaS) product that will be sold exclusively through the channel.

And finally, this edition of The Standard features the sixth instalment of my ongoing “SMB-ready technology” series, which brings together six leading vendors (Microsoft, Salesforce. com, Infor, Epicor, SAP and SYSPRO) to showcase their best enterprise resource planning (ERP) and business management solutions for the small business market.

I hope you enjoy reading the following pages as much as I have enjoyed researching and writing them and I hope this issue offers you some new tidbits of knowledge and insight that will assist on your journey climbing the cloud.

May/June 2013

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Volume 2, Issue 4 EDITORIAL Michael O’Neil | Chief Content Officer michael.oneil@itincanadaonline.ca Kevin Priddle | Associate Editor kevin.priddle@itincanadaonline.ca CONTRIBUTORS Jason Doel David Gammon Lauren Gibbons Paul Michael O’Neil Mary Allen ART & PRODUCTION Elena Pankova | Senior Art Director elean.pankova@itincanadaonline.ca David Potocki | Art Director davidp@precision-multimedia.com THE CANADIAN CHANNEL STANDARD - SALES Patricia Bush | National Account Manager trisha.bush@itincanadaonline.ca EVENTS Sandra Service | Events Manager sandra.service@itincanadaonline.ca CIRCULATION James Watson | Circulation Director circulation@itincanadaonline.ca CORPORATE INQUIRIES John R. Jones | Publisher john.jones@itincanadaonline.ca HOW TO CONTACT THE CANADIAN CHANNEL STANDARD Telephone: 905-727-4091 Editorial and Business issues: John Jones, Chief Operating Officer, IT in Canada network john.jones@ itincanadaonline.ca SUBSCRIPTION INQUIRIES For help with subscriptions, please contact circulation@itincanadaonline.ca To subscribe to The Canadian Channel Standard in print, as a digital magazine – or to receive our daily e-newsletter – please visit us at itincanadaonline. ca/registration

The Canadian Channel Standard is published 10 times per year and is found on the web at www.channelstandard.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 inquiries@itincanadaonline.ca

The Canadian Channel Standard contains articles under license from EH Publishing, Inc. The EH articles in this issue are reprinted by permission of CHANNELPRO SMB, copyright ©2013, EH Publishing, Inc

The Canadian Channel Standard

ANNUAL LEADERSHIP SUMMIT & AWARDS LEADERSHIP SUMMIT LEADERSHIP SUMMIT BREAKFAST SERIES LEADERSHIP SUMMIT BREAKFAST SERIES

WEBINARS

BREAKFAST SERIES

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ROUNDTABLE

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ROUNDTABLE

LEADERSHIP SERIES

LEADERSHIP SUMMIT

BREAKFAST SERIES

WEBINARS ROUNDTABLE LEADERSHIP SERIES SECOND ANNUAL LEADERSHIP SUMMIT ROUNDTABLE AND AWARDS LEADERSHIP SERIESCEREMONY

At our first CGE Leadership Summit we brought you thought leaders from public and private LEADERSHIP SERIES sectors sharing insights into best practices on leading management change.

CGE Summits feature great networking, thought leadership, and useful ‘take-aways’ – with practitioners, researchers, and consultants from public and private sectors. Learn from exemplars of strong leadership. Our first Summit was highly rated by participants.

Plan to join us in Ottawa for an even better event in 2014. Watch for the program, featured speakers, venue and date beginning in our September issue.

Leadership Award nominations open November 1, 2013.

To view video coverage of our 2014 Summit please visit us at the following link:

http://www.canadiangovernmentexecutive.ca/?rgr=3252 For more information please contact Sandra Service at sandras@netgov.ca or 905-727-4091 Ext.228

CHANNEL NEWS

NEWS HIGHLIGHTS FROM IN AND AROUND THE CANADIAN CHANNEL

BY KEVIN PRIDDLE

1

1 billion reasons to partner with SAP

It’s an exciting time in the marketplace and in the history of SAP, senior vice president of the company’s global channel operations, Kevin Gilroy, told a group of industry analysts and media during an April update on the company’s growth and channel strategy.

The multinational software giant reached a new milestone in 2012 and saw its partners drive more than $1billion in revenue globally, representing a 86% yearon-year growth in channel sales.

By 2015, SAP aims to serve a customer base of over 1 billion and generate at least $20 billion in revenue; 40% of which ($8 billion) is expected to come through the channel, according to Gilroy. With about 33% of revenue from the channel in 2012, SAP is on track to reach that 40%-mark, but will have its work cut out for it.

While close to 80% of SAP’s customers are already come from the small and medium enterprise Kevin Gilroy, SVP of global channel (SME) space, the operations, SAP software company May/June 2013

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said it is renewing its channel focus in this area to help reach its aggressive growth targets for 2015.

“Many people associate SAP with the Fortune 500, Fortune 1000 or the Fortune 2000, but the reality is that the vast majority of our customers are SME customers around the world,” Gilroy said. “And the majority of those are coming through the channel. The goal is to have the SME space as close to 100% through the channel, with a very predictable go-to-market, which is what all channel partners want to see from their suppliers.”

Along with a continual drive to make SAP a simple and profitable partner to engage with, SAP says it four key goals to help support the North American channel community: building partner capacity; reinforcing the SAP OEM business; focusing on tier two distribution; and concentrating on more opportunities with service-oriented partners.

Gilroy concluded the channel briefing by highlighting SAP’s “maniacal focus” on building a predictable market space for channel partners to attack and predicted that the company’s focus on five key pillars in the IT industry – applications, mobility, analytics, cloud, and database – will enable the channel to “grow faster than SAP in 2013.”

2

OnX delivers high-availability managed infrastructure for Public Mobile

OnX Enterprise Solutions, a leading Toronto-based enterprise data centre IT solutions provider, recently announced that it has signed a significant contract with Public Mobile, an independent Canadian mobile service provider, to deliver a dual data centre hosted infrastructure solution for increased availability and reliability.

Public Mobile’s accelerated growth and increasing data demands have led to a need for a flexible, reliable and The Canadian Channel Standard

CHANNEL NEWS secure dual data centre solution to ensure their missioncritical applications are always available and secure.

“Given our growth trajectory, we required a data centre provider that could deliver with confidence in terms of meeting our timelines as well as security and availability requirements,” Andrew Laidlaw, director of Public Mobile’s IT operations, said in a release. “OnX provided a well thought out infrastructure solution and developed an execution plan resulting in the smooth migration and seamless transfer of data with zero impact to our user base.”

With access to fully redundant and secure managed infrastructure data centres with 24x7 live support, as well as SSAE 16 and PCI DSS compliance, OnX’s data centre facilities meet the most stringent of industry standards and ensure the security and availability of mission critical applications.

“OnX is very pleased to have been chosen by Public Mobile to meet their data centre infrastructure requirements as they continue to build on their success,” Paul Khawaja, EVP and COO, OnX, said in a release. “The successful deployment was possible because we were able to work together and define a detailed transition plan to ensure flawless delivery.”

3

Kaspersky Lab launches new SLED division to target public sector

In a bid to help public sector organizations manage their growing IT and security challenges, Kaspersky Lab is launching of its new State, Local and Education (SLED) corporate sales division.

The creation of SLED follows a 25% growth in Kaspersky’s public sector business in 2012 and is part of a renewed partnerled channel sales strategy announced at the Kaspersky Lab North American Partner conference held earlier this year in Cancun, Mexico. The new division will operate in a 100% channel model.

The new SLED team will be headed up by Jeff Matt Goulet, VP of SME sales, Gaffny who joined Kaspersky Lab, North America the company in

May/June 2013

January 2013 after nearly a decade of experience selling network security solutions to the public sector through senior management positions with both Awareness Inc. and Sophos. In his role as the new SLED director of sales, Gaffny will report to Matt Goulet, VP of SME sales, Kaspersky Lab, North America.

“The public sector faces different challenges than the private sector—from a smaller staff to constant downward pressure on IT budgets. The launch of our new SLED division shows our commitment to addressing those challenges and to ensuring public sector customers have a customized experience and solution,” Goulet said.

“With Jeff at the helm of the team, we are confident that Kaspersky Lab will bring even more value to the public sector in 2013 and beyond.”

Some Canadian partners working with Kaspersky Lab and public sector customers include IT 2 Go Solutions, Rodeus Technologies, Hypertec, InSo, PCMG, Informatique EBR Inc., Softchoice, and CDW. They and other partners will benefit from the roster of new sales reps that recently joined Kaspersky and are exclusively dedicated to the public sector, as well as discount pricing for SLED sales and dedicated renewal, pre- and post-sales technical support.

“Kaspersky Lab is a longstanding, valued partner of CDW, and we’re excited to see their commitment to this important market segment,” Matt Troka, SVP of product and partner management, CDW. “As the marketplace continues to evolve, Kaspersky is demonstrating its ability and foresight to adapt and meet the new expectations of our shared customers. This responsiveness to customer needs is a crucial requirement in what CDW seeks in its partnerships.”

4

MSPAlliance launches cloud insurance program

The International Association of Cloud & Managed Service Providers (MSPAlliance), recently announced the launch of its new Cloud and Managed Services Insurance Program, which will offer comprehensive protection for cloud and managed service providers worldwide.

After its founding 13 years ago, the MSPAlliance has grown to become the world’s largest professional association and accrediting body for the managed services industry with more than 17,000 members globally.

The new program not only delivers insurance to cloud providers and MSPs, but is also designed to protect consumers – the global organizations that rely on cloud and managed services technology to run their businesses day to day.

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Continued on page 8

CHANNEL NEWS Continued from page 7

“This new program will bring low cost, high quality insurance to our members who are in need of such risk mitigation products as they protect their customers from cyber threats,” Charles Weaver, CEO of MSPAlliance, said in a release. “In addition, this program will help expedite the underwriting process for getting coverage, which has typically been a big problem for many service providers.”

Brokered by Lockton Affinity, the program offers liability options that range from $1,000,000 to $10,000,000 per claim and include deductibles from $2,500 to $10,000 per claim. MSPAlliance members who have completed the Unified Certification Standard (UCS) are also eligible for premium discounts, according to a release.

“I am happy to be leading this new initiative to bring affordable managed services and cloud insurance to MSPAlliance members,” Bill Klein, director of insurance services for MSPAlliance, said. “These policies are uniquely created for cloud and managed service providers and can provide tremendous risk mitigation for both the provider and their customers.”

5

Citrix revamps channel programs for the cloud

On May 1, Citrix Systems unveiled its next generation of channel partner programs with an overhaul of the popular Citrix Solution Advisor (CSA) program and the launch of its brand new Citrix SaaS Advisor program (CSSA).

As part of the changes to the CSA program, Citrix is updating its backend rebate program to create a new set of ‘Differentiated Advisor Rewards’ that are based on a partners’ CSA tier level (Silver, Gold, or Platinum).

In addition to these rebates paid to partners for helping to influence customer sales, Citrix is also introducing a new ‘Opportunity Registration’ benefit for its cloud networking products and Citrix NetScaler. Partners certified to sell cloud networking products can register opportunities with Citrix and, once validated, qualify for significant additional upfront discounts.

Previously, entry into the top Tom Flink, VP of worldwide channel tiers of the CSA and market development, Citrix May/June 2013

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program was by invitation only. Citrix has eliminated this requirement and has a refreshed set of revenue and certification requirements for the different CSA tiers in an effort to make advancement in the program easier and more objective.

“Historically, if a partner invested in certification and the time to develop a relationship with Citrix there was no guarantee that they would actually achieve [a top tier] partner level in our program,” Tom Flink, VP of worldwide channel and market development, Citrix, told The Standard in an interview. “Now we’re making that completely transparent and predictable.”

Starting May 1, Canadian Platinum partners, whose minimum revenue requirement was previously defined their individual agreement with Citrix, will now have to sell $1.75 million (USD) annually to retain their status, and Canadian Gold partners will have to sell a minimum of $440,000 (USD) annually, which is up from $175,000.

In the U.S., Gold partners will see their annual product sales goals jump from $225,000 to $850,000, and Platinum partners will have to sell at least $3.5 million annually.

Silver partners in both the U.S. and Canada previously had to hit a $40,000 annual sales target, but Citrix is now letting partners keep this status regardless of how much they sell. Flink said partners have a grace period until January 1, 2014 to ensure they meet the new program requirements.

The new Citrix SaaS Advisor (CSSA) program will be rolled out over the next 18 months and is designed to leverage the local and regional reach of the channel to deliver Citrix software-as-a-service applications as a standalone offering or part of a broader solution.

“The SaaS Advisor program is an offering specifically for resellers, cloud marketplaces, cloud aggregators and telcos that are looking to either sell or integrate our awardwinning GoToSaaS products into their product portfolio,” Flink said.

Key CSSA program features include: • a SaaS resell and referral rewards programs for collaboration, support and data sharing with Citrix GoToMeeting, GoToMyPC, Podio, GoToAssist and ShareFile products • additional ongoing investment in Citrix SaaS Advisors with marketing resources, reference designs and best practices • extended API support for integrating GoTo services into partners systems, cloud marketplaces and SaaS aggregators

The Canadian Channel Standard

CONTRACT CRITICAL

FINDING THE RIGHT INDEPENDENT PROFESSIONAL How to engage with a contract-staffing agency to find the perfect IP

BY DAVID GAMMON

David Gammon, president & CEO, 4FMV Inc.

As mentioned in my previous column, working with an agency to find the right Independent Professional can save you a lot of time and doesn’t necessarily have to be very expensive. A good agency can make life a lot easier by helping you define what you are looking for and they will have strong database of candidates with the skills you need.

But engaging with the wrong agency can be a nightmare…

The staffing industry’s reputation for the most part is on par with used car sales. A reputation it has worked hard to earn. Much like the life insurance and financial planning industries it is much less about the name of the

company and more about the person serving you. There are still a lot of good people in the industry but it is best you do your homework before engaging so you don’t regret it later.

I recommend you consider the size of the agency, ask for references and demand transparency.

Unless you are doing a high volume of hiring you will want to stay away from the bigger staffing agencies.

They are set up to manage highvolume business and even if they have good intentions you could end up being pushed to the back of the line. If IBM tells them they need 20 people who do you think is going to get served first? Smaller agencies will value your business much more and are accustomed to working with the unique needs of smaller clients.

Ask for references up front. An agency worth their salt will be able to provide with at least a few happy clients to interview. Ask for references that are similar in size and scope to your company.

The contract staffing process is generally very closed and controlled tightly by the agency. Almost everyone in an agency works on commission so the spread between what you are paying and what the Independent Professional is being paid is of utmost importance and is guarded carefully.

This is where I have seen so-called

May/June 2013

“best practices” that would make you want to go home and shower.

I highly recommend you demand for transparency on rates. Make sure you know what rate they are paying the IP and make sure the IP knows what the agency is charging you. IPs often don’t know what price they are being billed out at and it can cause a lot of angst. Yes, at the end of the day you are most concerned with your total cost, but for all you know you could still be over paying and gotten more for your money or even worse… you could end up with a disgruntled IP on your hands.

Productivity is also at stake. It’s always been my belief that the relationship between the IP and the agency affects productivity as much as the relationship between your company and the IP. In the last year we are starting to see research into the subject and the evidence is quite clear.

You can go to a lot of effort to make sure the IP has everything needed to be productive (i.e. treat them like a full-time employee, pay for training, etc.) but if the relationship with the agency is not solid then productivity is negatively affected.

A lack of transparency is among the biggest concern IPs have working with agencies. By demanding transparency you set yourself and your IP for a successful relationship.

| 9 | The Canadian Channel Standard

ON LOCATION

INGRAM MICRO’S VENTURE TECH NETWORK CELEBRATES 15 YEARS

BY KEVIN PRIDDLE

“If you look at historically how we’ve delivered in the last four to six quarters we’ve continued to outgrow the market… [but] we’re not focused necessarily on what the industry is doing or what the competition is doing,” Bay said. “We’re focused on how we can help our Ingram Micro’s Paul Bay and Mark Snider partners build a better business and where 15 years after its inception, Ingram those opportunities of success are out Micro’s Venture Tech Network (VTN) there.” channel partner community is One of the big opportunities stronger than ever and is poised for pointed out by both Snider and Bay, is continued growth. building up the focus and specializaNow with more than 330 members tion of partners through VTN’s partfrom across the U.S. and Canada, the ner-led peer-to-peer councils like the SMB-focused community hosted its biSIGs (Special Interest Groups) – which annual VTN Invitational in Hollywood, met for the first time at the VTN Fall Florida this past April and drew out Invitational in Boston last year – and more than 650 partners, vendors, and the Mastermind Peer Groups that Ingram attendees. bring VTN partners together to share “It is the 15th year anniversary and intimate details of their organizations’ thinking back 15 years ago when [Inexperiences, best practices, and even gram Micro] designed the community private financials.

I don’t think we could of envisioned It’s not just about “pick, pack and the level of partnership and where the ship,” Bay said. “Rather, it’s about community has gone in this amount adding value.” of time,” Mark Snider, general manCurrently there are five different ager of Ingram Micro Canada, told The Mastermind Peer Groups and six SIGs Standard in an interview.

(Sales Managers; Marketing; Cloud The community is indeed building Computing; Operational Excellence; on its past success, outpacing the Technical Staff Certification; and North American market with VTN Women in Technology), but with the growth of about 9% in 2012 – an allgreat success that the peer groups time high for the community – and have seen in such a short period, over $1.25 billion of Ingram Micro’s Snider said Ingram is looking to global revenue flowing through VTN expand those numbers to bring in channel partners in the same year. greater participation across the VTN While the positive numbers are membership. something to be celebrated, Paul Larry Poirier, president of Ottawa, Bay, president of Ingram Micro North Ontario-based TUC Managed IT America, told The Standard that they Solutions, joined the community in aren’t his main concentration.

1999 and has served as a past VTN May/June 2013

| 10 |

council president. He said the ability to bounce ideas off peers and trade knowledge has been one of the most important benefits of being part of VTN and that he has developed relationships with fellow channel partners that have endured over the last 15 years.

“There are still things we need to improve upon in our own businesses and it’s good to share ideas with likeminded people in the industry. We all have nodes of common problems,” Poirier said. “We compare our actual operational metrics from our own internal company to our fellow Mastermind members, so it gives you a lot of feedback about what’s going well within your own organization versus what could be better.” “[VTN] is the pre-eminent dealer association for VARs in North America, there’s no question,” he said.

“Pushing and handling the Mastermind groups and the Special Interest Groups have all set it way ahead of the competitors.”

Currently there are just over 60 Canadian partners that are part of the Ingram Micro Venture Tech community, including three new members: WW Works out of Burlington, Ontario; Clear Concepts based in Winnipeg, Manitoba; and Duologik Solutions from Richmond Hill, Ontario, which was formerly a part of VTN and has now returned.

“As always, we appreciate what [our Canadian VTN partners] have done for us and that they continue to put trust in Ingram Micro to help service and grow their business,” Bay said. “Without them we wouldn’t be who we are today. We need to continue this journey that we’ve begun and I look forward to the future with the Canadian market and the VTN community.”

The Canadian Channel Standard

We see IT relationships differently

CONNECTING CANADIAN IT www.itincanada.ca

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TECHNOSPECTIVE ON FINANCE

FINANCIAL INNOVATION Canada’s FIs are building better business outcomes through mobility, Big Data and the cloud

BY MICHAEL O’NEIL

I

T Market Dynamics statistics show that the financial services sector is the largest source of IT spending in Canada, and citizens here recognize that the industry is largely shaped by five major financial institutions (FIs) – so it is natural that we look to these organizations for guidance when considering how IT is likely to evolve.

At the same time, though, Canada’s major FIs look to IT itself to guide their path into the future. The major banks may look like monoliths to consumers passing skyscrapers that dominate the streetscape in major Canadian cities – but inside those buildings, sophisticated IT teams dedicate billions of dollars to finding better ways to build out core transactional systems, to improve the power and efficiency of systems supporting key business areas such as stock trading, and to enable hundreds of thousands of staff members to be more efficient, more effective and more connected.

Not all of the initiatives underway at Canada’s FIs can be shared publicly, as IT is a major source of both innovation and competitive advantage for the banks. However, IT in Canada was privileged to receive input from three highlyplaced professionals – Dave Codack, head of employee technology and network services for TD Canada Trust, a senior IT professional working in the risk/trading division at another major Canadian bank, and Dan Emery, owner and principal consultant with services firm ESI, who works as a senior technical consultant with a third bank – who discussed the ways in which IT delivers productivity to Canada’s most important buy-side industry sector. The three executives provided different perspectives on how IT contributes to the evolution of financial services, illustrating the pervasive impact that effective IT management has on growth and competitiveness within the industry.

Snapshots: Technology and business innovation Each of the experts contacted by IT in Canada is active in enabling technology-fueled innovation within their respective organizations. Here are brief descriptions of their current areas of focus: Dave Codack is working on a dizzying array of initiatives – his 950 staff members are active in 178 different projects. Asked to define a key area, though, Codack focused on mobility – which, within TD, references several differ-

May/June 2013

| 12 |

ent deployment models.

One specific initiative that Codack is working on is the deployment of mobile technology within the branch network. At first blush, this seems counterintuitive, but Codack urged us to “look at what Apple’s done in their stores.” Employees using iPads “in essence are mobile, even though they’re resident. They Dave Codack, VP and head have an app [that they of employee technology, show customers, saying] network and contact centre ‘I can look at inventory, I can do order manageservices for TD Bank Group ment, I can do authentication – there are so many things I can do with mobility,’ and the customer’s involved in that experience. And that is the goal that we’re trying to get to.” Codack noted that while at one point the brick-and-mortar branch location was thought dead, “they’re declining, but they’re not declining at the level you would have thought.” He sees opportunities for in-branch mobility to improve relationships with both Gen Y customers (who expect these services) and seniors who are in need of help. Separately, Codack is also in the process of rolling out a BYOD initiative serving three categories of employees – those who are looking for occasional access to bank systems through remote devices, those (like the IT staff) for whom mobile devices are an extension of the work infrastructure, and those (such as investment advisors and mortgage specialists) for whom mobile/remote devices are the primary work infrastructure.

In both in-branch technology and BYOD initiatives, there is potential for enterprise-wide progress leveraging core corporate standards: however, as Codack explained, the size and complexity of the organization acts as a drag to rapid implementation of these kinds of standards, and to delivery of new capabilities.

Our second executive (who has asked to remain anonymous) is focused on trading systems and other risk-related technologies for a major Canadian FI. He sees the most

The Canadian Channel Standard

TECHNOSPECTIVE ON FINANCE significant new activity being centred on data aggregation and reporting on the “Big Data” derived from transactions.

In his opinion, this is “almost by definition, a technologyenabled area.” He cited I/O speed, physical data segregation and indexing as technologies that are essential to delivering business benefit, noting that “advances in storage, data structures and compression technologies are enabling responsiveness for large structured data queries that have previously been supportable only in costly proprietary or vendor applications based on in-memory, multi-dimensional data structures.” In this expert’s opinion, systems of this type drive demand for Big Data engineers (infrastructure and development) and business analysts; the key challenge to deployment, in his opinion, is “stubbornness and protectionism by technologists” that “can result in prolonged lifecycles for legacy patterns and systems” – an issue that might apply to any new IT/business system.

Dan Emery works with a global FI on a recruitment/talent acquisition system. The system is in “high demand” within the bank and makes a meaningful contribution to the bank’s success, but is challenging to maintain and enhance. On the IT side, this type of system requires a broad base of skills spanning both traditional and new technologies: Emery noted that “cloud computing is rapidly gaining ground” as a platform for recruitment systems, and that cloud “combined with web technologies plus standard network and database technologies, requires constant skills upgrades.” There are challenges to providing system support and enhancement beyond the core technologies as well – for example, the system needs to accommodate the many languages used in the countries where the bank operates, which impacts the time required to update or introduce new features.

New system directions One questions that applies regardless of the nature or intended outcome of an IT/business project is “where did the impetus for new system originate – from IT, or from business management?” Codack believes that if line of business management works with IT to drive delivery of a new product, “then that gets done…but generally, it’s usually either [IT leading new system initiatives] or a decision made in concert, where [discussion] goes back and forth” between IT and business leaders. He added, “the business is not very [educated] when it comes to anything beyond a consumer devices, so they don’t really know what’s the art of the possible – so I think there’s a big advantage in technology being a consultant rather than just responding…that’s a model for all technology groups to be better at.” Our second large-FI expert agreed, stating that “in general, the business identifies the ‘macro’ opportunity – line of business, sales initiative, etc., as an endeavour worthy of investing in a technology platform. However, in established enterprises

with healthy businesses, technologists acquire an understanding of the business objectives and will, if appropriately positioned, put forward ideas and innovations that directly address business issues. Obviously, the sweet spot is where the business understands the technology constraints and opportunities, and Dan Emery, owner and technology has a clear principal consultant, ESI view of business objectives.” In Emery’s experience, there is a pattern of business leading and IT providing complementary perspectives; he finds that in his practice “about 80% [of new system initiatives] come from business management and 20% from IT.” Emery, like our other experts, sees merit in connecting IT and business perspectives: “The main advantage is the combination of skill sets to come up with ideas, plans, and processes.”

Technology and trust Trust is crucial in financial institutions – and in an increasingly-electronic world, trust is built by, and/or threatened by, the use of technology in commercial interactions.

IT in Canada asked our experts about the link between IT and trust: what customers and colleagues expect, and the key issues involved in establishing this link.

Unsurprisingly, much of this discussion revolved around security. ESI’s Emery said, “the key issue is security. Sensitive data is collected on-line during [transactions] and it’s not only expected, but demanded and legislated that it be kept secure.” Our unnamed expert expanded on this theme, highlighting three issues: staffing and segregation of duties within the IT department (“there are few robust defenses against a rogue system administrator”), mobility (“both policies and technical barriers are required”) and identity (“clients expect full and open access to their data, as well as robust safeguards against inappropriate access”). In a related context, TD’s Codack highlighted what he described as “the underlying current that’s flowing from the regulatory environment and our risk policies.” He noted that a sound approach to security and risk management provides both protection and cost-savings, but added that this comes at the expense of rapid deployment of new business systems, and creates a perception that IT itself is to blame: “for those with great ideas, [a process built around risk and security management] really slows them down dramatically – they will look at IT within TD as an impediment.”

Continued on page 29

May/June 2013

| 13 | The Canadian Channel Standard

SMB-READY TECHNOLOGY

BUSINESS MANAGEMENT FOR THE SMB Enterprise Resource Planning solutions are no longer just for the Fortune 500…

BY KEVIN PRIDDLE

T

raditionally, business management or ERP software solutions have not been in the ‘tech toolbox’ of small businesses. Even the name – enterprise resource planning (ERP) – suggests the software is built for and sits in the domain of the world’s largest enterprises.

But that stigma has slowly disappeared as more SMBs deploy solutions that fit their specific needs, according to Kevin Gilroy, SVP of global channels at SAP. He says the SMB buyer of today is more sophisticated, has a clearer understanding of what options exist, and expect solutions to produce a solid return on investment.

Gilroy isn’t alone. All of the ERP vendors we spoke to for this sixth instalment of The Standard’s “SMB-ready technology” feature believe the time is ripe for SMBs to take greater advantage of the benefits of business management software and for the channel that serves them to cash in on providing that value.

Changes in the market and the need for ERP The Canadian economy has performed comparatively well in the economic downturn of the last few years, but austerity measures, stricter budgets, and greater emphasis on ROI have defined a new economic reality or “new normal,” according to Tom Plewniak, product manager for Microsoft Dynamics ERP. While SMBs may be tighter with their own dollars, there’s also great opportunity to take advantage of emerging economic opportunities, says Mark Humphlett, director, ERP, industry and product marketing, at Infor. He says that the recent recession has caused a consolidation of competition in the market, but says those that surviving competitors are now “more hungry for growth opportunities.”

“It’s a buyer’s market,” Humphlett says. “Customers can make greater demands, expecting higher value, speedier service and more specialization in their products. If the SMB does not keep up with these market pressures, it is at risk of being left behind. Technology is the key to making the most of these emerging opportunities.”

SYSPRO’s founder and CEO, Phil Duff, agrees.

“Organic growth will only take a business so far,” Duff says. “To be competitive in current markets SMBs need to adopt a strategy of technology enablement. No business

is too small to implement sound business processes and systems such as those provided by an ERP system.”

‘Next-gen’ ERP: cloud, analytics and quick ROI The ‘next-gen’ of ERP solutions are here and Renny Monaghan, VP of marketing in Canada for Salesforce.com, says the convergence of major forces like mobility, social media, big data and the cloud is causing companies of all sizes to re-imagine the way they connect with anyone and everyone who touches their brand.

The evolution of technology has not only improved the functionality and power of ERP solutions, but has made the delivery and acquisition of ERP systems much quicker and more cost-effective.

Monaghan says that the ROI of cloud solutions is clear, as a fast time to deployment – typically measured in days and weeks – means a quicker return on investment.

Christine Hansen, manager of product marketing for Epicor, says SMB IT managers should consider a cloud-based ERP application for their business because of the simplicity of deployment and new level of access to business data enabled by the cloud.

“In order to support an organizations’ need for agility, SMBs are able to leverage cloud-based ERP systems for unprecedented access to their business data,” says Hansen.

“This untethered access to data promotes greater customer service and a new level of freedom to do more.”

She says SMBs should compare the costs of managing an IT infrastructure versus the predictable monthly expense of a cloud-based solution, but says that whether they choose a SaaS cloud-based offering or an on-prem solution hosted in their own data centre, the “access to business information will be better than ever before.”

SAP’s Kevin Gilroy believes this need for quick access to business data will be a key driver for small business owners looking to leverage ERP solutions.

“In 2013, SMBs will come to expect enhanced analytics capabilities from their business management solutions,” he says. “As SMBs begin to expand their footprint, more data is sent to employees in new departments. Managing all of this data can burden an SMB without the right tools, which ultimately costs them their most valuable asset: time.”

Continued on page 16

May/June 2013

| 14 |

The Canadian Channel Standard

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SMB-READY TECHNOLOGY Highlight your best “SMB-ready” Business Management/ERP offerings and explain the value proposition for small and medium businesses.

Tom Plewniak: Both Microsoft Dynamics GP and Microsoft Dynamics NAV provide out-of-the-box business management functionality specific for SMBs. These solutions come with capabilities for financial management, manufacturing and supply chain management, sales and marketing, project management, HR management, business intelligence and reporting and much more. They are also designed to get up and running in days rather than weeks What are the feature and functionality highlights?

Plewniak: Microsoft Dynamics delivers powerful and comprehensive business management capabilities that enables SMBs to...

• Streamline their operations and financial management processes with an intuitive RoleTailored user interface and built-in workflows.

• Get a clear view of their business with integrated systems, shared data and drill down capabilities that provide visibility into transactions and provide detailed audit trails.

• Look forward, not backward with self-service reporting tools and real-time business intelligence that help employees make fast, informed decisions that address current issues, and help prevent future ones.

• Cut operational costs and reduce errors by automating key business processes.

• Easily analyze financial data to spot trends and take action to improve cash flow.

• Transform how people work and connect from the desktop, through a SharePoint portal, or remotely over the web, and with the tools and channels they’re used to—such as instant messaging, email, voice, and presence.

• Expand business opportunities with flexible accounting processes • Grow their business without increasing risk, knowing that the systems will scale to match their ambitions in their current and future lines of business.

SMB-READY TECHNOLOGY: ERP

What is the future direction of the product?

Plewniak: In 2013, we plan to release Microsoft Dynamics NAV “8”. The following year, we plan to release Microsoft Dynamics GP “14”. We will focus on driving down the costs of both on premises deployment and cloud deployment. As well as enhance the compelling core functionality in our ERP solutions. In addition we will align those solutions with new product releases across the Microsoft product portfolio including Windows, Windows Server, and SQL Server.

Our ambitions for Microsoft Dynamics extend well into the future. We will continue to ensure that Microsoft Dynamics has the appearance and behavior of other Microsoft products and works with Microsoft products and online services. We will continue to drive simplicity, value, and agility into all that we do. Our success relies on our ability to help our customers become a dynamic business.

Tom Plewniak, product manager, Microsoft Dynamics ERP

Highlight your best “SMB-ready” Business Management/ERP offerings and explain the value proposition for small and medium businesses.

Kevin Gilroy: SAP Business One is a fully integrated ERP solution targeted to the SMB market that is designed to deliver an intuitive, integrated, and efficient user experience. The solution enables SMBs to manage their backoffice operations in a manner that is most efficient for them. Available in more than 80 countries and in 27 languages, and sold almost exclusively through high numbers of SAP reselling and software solutions partners worldwide, SAP Business One’s customer base has more than doubled since 2007. SAP Business One offers over 600 partner add-ons that address specific markets and industries. Continuous and quick innovation cycles are ensured by minor releases in between that can be installed within as little as one hour and prevent costly system downtime for the SMB. SAP Business One is an easy-to-use, affordable and fast-to-implement (2-8 weeks) solution with low total cost of ownership for small businesses as well as affiliates and subsidiaries of larger companies. SAP Business One also offers a starter package that can be implemented in as little as three days. As a solution geared for SMBs, Business One enables companies to capture all of their business information in a single system that maintains its scalability as business grows.

May/June 2013

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The Canadian Channel Standard

SMB-READY TECHNOLOGY The SMB is powered by real-time insights that improve decision-making and customer satisfaction. Business One is also available on-demand, allowing SMBs to harness the power of the cloud as another low-cost option. Additionally, in March 2013, SAP announced SAP Business One, version for SAP HANA, which will harness the power of in-memory technology to provide SMBs with real-time information at the click of a button.

What are the feature and functionality highlights?

Gilroy: AP Business One offers users...

• Full ERP Functionality (Financial Management, Warehouse and Production Management, Customer Relationship Management, Purchasing) • Available On-Demand in the Cloud, On-Premise, and through Mobile • SAP Business One, version for SAP HANA harnesses the power of in-memory technology to give SMBs lightningfast results • Simple implementation with low risk, low cost, and rapid time to value What is the future direction of the product?

Gilroy: As SAP continues to increase its presence in the SMB market, the company plans to empower more small and midsize businesses with the advantage of high-powered analytics through in-memory technology. The SMB community is increasingly searching for solutions that enable them to remain nimble while they expand their business and in-memory technology enables them to maintain this agility. Analytics powered by SAP HANA for SAP Business One are intended to provide a cost-effective new combination of a special product version of SAP HANA designed with the needs of small businesses in mind. Targeted at companies using SAP Business One, the channel-only solution aims to offer a small-scale, easy-to-use SAP HANA-based application including operational reporting with SAP Crystal Reports software.

Kevin Gilroy, senior vice president, global channels, SAP

SMB-READY TECHNOLOGY: ERP

Highlight your best “SMB-ready” Business Management/ERP offerings and explain the value proposition for small and medium businesses.

Renny Monaghan: Salesforce.com offers integrated solutions for SMB’s to sell, service, market and innovate using our cloud platforms. No hardware or software; just an Internet connection and browser required. More than 6,000 Canadian companies of all sizes use Salesforce. SMB’s leverage the same technology as the world’s largest firms.

Salesforce sales automation solutions span the spectrum from contact manager software capabilities all the way to full-featured small business CRM. Contact Manager Edition, Salesforce CRM Group Edition and Professional Edition are solutions that acknowledge that SMBs come in many shapes and sizes.

Salesforce Desk.com is a solution for SMB’s to provide complete customer service solutions in one place across all channels – Twitter, Facebook, phone, email, chat and discussion boards, and social channels. An agent can manage them all from a browser on a tablet or mobile device.

Salesforce Marketing Cloud is the complete integrated digital marketing platform that allows companies to listen, engage, publish, advertise and measure marketing efforts on social channels. Marketing Cloud gives SMBs the tools to compete against giants in social without needing billion dollar budgets.

Force.com is the complete apps platform that companies use to not only customize the Salesforce apps, or install apps from the online AppExchange, but build their own custom apps to automate their business. They build apps with just clicks, not code, and they come native with social and mobile capabilities.

What is the future direction of the products?

Monaghan: Here’s the beautiful part of the salesforce.com cloud solutions – we provide major feature upgrades to that service three times a year – and everyone is upgraded automatically. No customizations or integrations ever break. Customers are always on the latest version, and they decide when they want to turn on and adopt the new features, so they have complete control.

We crowdsource the features for our product from our customers using a site called ideas. salesforce.com. Customers suggest features they would like to see, and we post potential features in upcoming releases and gather feedback. In fact, more than 70% of our last release received input from our customers through ideas.

May/June 2013

| 17 | The Canadian Channel Standard

Renny Monaghan, VP, marketing, Canada, Salesforce.com

SMB-READY TECHNOLOGY Highlight your best “SMB-ready” Business Management/ERP offerings and explain the value proposition for small and medium businesses.

Christine Hansen: Epicor Express is a comprehensive software solution for small manufacturers and distributors that is provided in the software as a service (SaaS) model. Express combines broad functionality into a complete end-to-end software system.

Businesses are provided everything they need to manage their opportunities, orders and operations in one integrated solution.

Epicor ERP is a tightly integrated enterprise resource planning (ERP) software solution for identifying and planning the extended enterprise resources you need to capture, produce, ship, account, and service customer orders. Epicor ERP is distinguished by its increasingly broad focus on planning and managing all resources, both within and across location and company boundaries.

This expanded scope is most strongly felt in the areas of customer relationship management (CRM), supply chain management (SCM), product lifecycle management (PLM), quality performance management (QPM), and business performance management (BPM) to name only a few. Midsize businesses have recognized the value of an integrated suite rather than trying to piece disparate solutions together. Epicor ERP can be deployed on premise, hosted, and has a cloud-based SaaS option.

For over four decades, Epicor has provided software to manufacturers and distributors of all sizes. Today thousands of small and midsize manufacturers and distributors use Epicor solutions to effectively manage their businesses. Experience matters when it comes to delivering a product or service that meets the needs of an industry and the right software solution can help you transform your business and operations. Epicor ERP and Epicor Express are these types of solutions - providing broad functionality, specific to the needs of manufacturers and distributors, priced affordably, and delivered in a manner that minimizes complexity.

What is the future direction of the product?

Hansen: Epicor continues to invest in innovative technology that enables Epicor ERP customers – manufacturers, distributors and services businesses – to tailor applications at a business level, increase agility and performance, and drive productivity and efficiency throughout the organization. Through its advanced business architecture, Epicor also strives to protect the investment customers make in its enterprise business solutions, delivering innovative social, mobile and cloud offerings that extend the value of ERP to broader roles within an organization.

Christine Hansen, manager, product marketing, Epicor

SMB-READY TECHNOLOGY: ERP

Highlight your best “SMB-ready” Business Management/ERP offerings and explain the value proposition for small and medium businesses.

Humphlett: Infor ERP offers deep industry functionality across the manufacturing and distribution sectors, making costly customizations a thing of the past and allowing you to work both smarter and faster. For companies in the SMB environment, Infor has a couple different offerings such as Infor VISUAL or Infor SyteLine, which combine the latest technological innovations with a 30-year manufacturing and distribution legacy. These solutions offer the usability and functional depth built in to manage the complex operations that companies face today.

What are the feature and functionality highlights?

Humphlett: With Infor ERP, you’ll be able to...

• Streamline operations and get company-wide visibility.

• Get access to information anytime, anywhere to improve decision making and speed response times.

• Easily adapt to new manufacturing methods, changing customer requirements, and evolving business strategies • Get new products to market more quickly and profitably • Optimize inventory and production resources to increase efficiency.

• Improve quality and customer satisfaction.

Continued on page 20 May/June 2013

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The Canadian Channel Standard

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SMB-READY TECHNOLOGY Infor ERP solutions help you with...

• Service management—Manage your entire customer lifecycle.

• Lean manufacturing—Adopt lean processes across your enterprise and value chain.

• Quality management—Improve quality to increase productivity and reliability.

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• Process manufacturing—Optimize your process manufacturing to protect profit.

• Wholesale and distribution—Make your extended supply chain more responsive.

What is the future direction of the product?

Humphlett: We are increasingly focused on speed - and the immediacy of now. Technology is a huge catalyst in terms of driving the rate of change. It constantly resets the expectations of people: customers, employees, partners, and shareholders. Technology accelerates the rhythm of business: the speed at which customer requests are addressed; the speed at which processes run; the speed at which decisions get made.

Five key areas of focus are delivering more micro-vertical suites, offering social collaboration, specific mobile solutions, detailed industry specific analytics embedded in the applications, and offering cloud-based offerings as a deployment option.

Mark Humphlett, director, ERP, industry and product marketing, Infor

Highlight your best “SMB-ready” Business Management/ERP offerings and explain the value proposition for small and medium businesses.

Phil Duff: Our new Mobile solution SYSPRO Espresso will provide customers access to all their business information as easily as if it were at their desk, and will work on any popular mobile device, including the desktop.

The SYSPRO App Store provides a secure and reliable environment in which the global SYSPRO community can share and collaborate on tailor-made solutions that have been developed in answer to specific customer needs.

Through this, we are providing our customers and partners with the opportunity to engage with one another and develop workable solutions that solve their specific problems, while at the same time making the same solutions available for people anywhere in the world to download.

SMB-READY TECHNOLOGY: ERP

What are the feature and functionality highlights?

Duff: Features of SYSPRO Espresso include...

• The tailored experience enabling customers to customize the look and experience of SYSPRO Espresso applications.

• Always accessible: even when not connected SYSPRO Espresso applications work offline – synchronize later when you have a connection.

• Library of applications available: SYSPRO Espresso applications will be available via the trusted community platform of the SYSPRO App Store.

• For resellers and developers SYSPRO Espresso lowers the time and cost of developing and deploying mobile applications by providing a development environment that is platform- and device-agnostic.

Features of the SYSPRO App Store include...

• User reviews on the App Store by the broader community as well as the stringent terms and conditions ensure a high standard is maintained for all apps published and also makes it easy for consumers to evaluate products and make informed decisions before purchasing.

• The App Store also enables an organization to easily manage and view the applications that have been purchased to run alongside SYSPRO, providing a quick reference for support personnel to understand what 3rd party applications are installed and active.

What is the future direction of the product?

Duff: Espresso will be a fully customizable front-end, available on any device on any platform. As additional mobile Apps are written, these will be made available on the SYSPRO App Store for anyone to purchase. As the App Store is a live site, approved publishers can write apps, which go through an approval process and before being published.

May/June 2013

| 20 |

The Canadian Channel Standard

Phil Duff, founder and CEO, SYSPRO

GLOBAL NEWS NEWS ITEMS FROM CHANNELPRO SMB Microsoft touts affordability and benefits of Azure Infrastructure Services In April Microsoft announced a new release of Windows Azure Infrastructure Services that makes it possible for SMBs to move applications into the cloud.

On Microsoft’s Windows Azure blog, writer Bill Hilf calls the product announcement “a significant step in [Microsoft’s] cloud computing strategy.”

Specifically, Hilf explains that SMB users want both on-premises infrastructures and the flexible benefits of the cloud. “It’s about Infrastructure Services and Platform Services and hybrid scenarios,” he writes. “The cloud should be an enabler for innovation, and an extension of an organization’s IT fabric, not just a fancier way to describe cheap infrastructure and application hosting.”

Workloads & Features As part of its new Infrastructure Services release, Microsoft has added high-memory VM instances (28GB/4 core and 56 GB/8 core). In addition, a number of new Microsoft validated instances have been added to the services, including SQL Server, SharePoint, BizTalk Server, and Dynamics NAV. SMB Pricing Strategy With its new Windows Azure Infrastructure Services, Microsoft aims to meet price requirements of SMBs. For example, Microsoft has committed to match Amazon Web Services for commodity services, such as compute, storage, and bandwidth. The company has also reduced its prices on Virtual Machines and Cloud Services by 21–33%, according to Hilf.

Patch management capabilities added to GFI Cloud Patch management capabilities have been added to the cloud-based services platform from GFI Software. In a press release, the developer says the patch management capabilities provide SMBs with an “automate the process of patching all of their machines, thus keeping their systems up-to-date and using the latest versions of the software they work with.”

GFI Cloud services provide SMBs with antivirus and anti-malware protection, network monitoring, asset and inventory management, and now patch management via an installed agent that links each SMB machine to a management console via the Web. “Cloud gives IT admins one place to see the status and health of all their proactively-managed IT systems, to provide an inventory of hardware and software on and off the

May/June 2013

network and, with TeamViewer installed, a way to remotely access a problem device,” states GFI in its press release.

The latest evolution of GFI Cloud helps IT admins to automatically manage all of their patching needs from the solution’s dashboard. All updates – including those from Microsoft (including Windows, Exchange, Office, Internet Explorer) and third-party applications (like Adobe, Java, popular Internet browsers and non-security updates) – can be managed with GFI Cloud.

“GFI Cloud is our flagship solution for resource-strapped IT administrators at small and mid-sized companies to easily and efficiently manage the needs of their entire IT environment,” said Walter Scott, CEO of GFI Software. “GFI now extends the power and capabilities of our business and security solutions to a single platform, where all these capabilities can be easily accessed and managed in one place by even the smallest IT teams.”

“Patch management is the logical next step in the evolution of making GFI Cloud the only IT software platform a SMB will need to manage the IT resources.”

Zetta.net introduces new MSP marketing enablement and lead generation Zetta.net, a provider of 3-in-1 hybrid cloud backup, archiving, and disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS), based in Sunnyvale, California, has unveiled a new multi-tiered MSP marketing enablement and lead-generation program. The program leverages an inbound marketing model, leading potential customers to Zetta.net’s website through relevant, education content.

There are three levels of support, providing a range of services. The Basic marketing package includes inbound and content marketing foundation training, cloud server backup and disaster recovery value proposition and messaging, content strategy, and a basic conversion optimization workshop. The Advanced support adds advice for SEO optimization, landing pages, enhanced conversion optimization, and community outreach. And Pro support includes consultation and budget for enhanced SEO optimization, PPC optimization, and help with keyword strategy development.

In addition, partners will be invited to participate in a metrics workshop, joint webinars, and have customized content generated by Zetta.net. For more info, visit www. zetta.net.

This feature is published with the permission of our U.S. partner, ChannelPro SMB (http://www.channelprosmb.com).

All rights reserved.

| 21 | The Canadian Channel Standard

GLOBAL VIEWS

CLOUD BUSINESS MODELS THAT WORK You know you need to get a handle on the cloud, but how to begin? Learn where some early adopters are gaining traction in the channel

BY LAUREN GIBBONS PAUL

T

he transition to cloud has proceeded much more smoothly for Bruce Nelson than for many channel partners, putting him ahead of the game. That’s because his 30-person company, Vertical Solutions Inc., made the move from traditional break-fix IT services to managed services in 2007. To hear Nelson tell it, that transition was rough.

“It took us two and a half to three years to really have it nailed down so we knew how to deploy it, monitor it, sell it,” says Nelson. With the migration to managed services complete, last year Pittsburgh-based Vertical Solutions, an R.L. Nelson and Associates Company, began offering hosted Microsoft Dynamics ERP in the cloud for its clientele, which are mostly non-hospital-affiliated healthcare providers.

The numbers have exceeded expectations for a first-year offering, he says. The team booked 75 new cloud ERP users last year. Nelson’s business is only 10% cloud right now, but he expects that to grow rapidly. “We found that once we had the cloud conversation with the customers, they turned around and said, ‘take the rest of it [to the cloud].’”

By reducing the need among SMBs for hardware and software support services, cloud computing has disrupted the business models of many channel pros, setting off a scramble for new and more viable alternatives. Meanwhile, prices on many of the hosted applications (such as Microsoft SharePoint and Office 365) are dropping, cutting into already-slender margins. Many channel partners live in fear of OEMs changing the game further, ending in less and less profit to go around.

What’s more, the large telecommunications companies (AT&T and others) are now selling cloud solutions to individuals and SMBs, perhaps leaving channel pros wondering where they might fit into the picture. To sharpen the view, here’s a progress report from the field that highlights the areas where channel companies are beginning to succeed with cloud. Keep in mind these categories touch one another and even overlap, with some channel partners operating in more than one category.

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Vertical Industry Specialist Like many channel companies (including Vertical Solutions), MG Technology Group LLC, in Bainbridge Island, Washington, has found success offering Microsoft cloud software applications ranging from Exchange and SharePoint to Lync, Office 365, and Dynamics GP. What works best, says solutions architect Grant Thompson, is to sell the more advanced solutions to specific vertical industries like financial services. “We have built out some solutions on SharePoint to address common needs in this vertical,” he says.

Nelson’s strategy at Vertical Solutions was systematic.

Since he didn’t want to have to invest more than $100,000 to get into cloud, he partnered with a cloud provider that has multisite operations and carved out a segment on its virtual platform to sell to his primary focus: small healthcare providers that have not yet made the move to electronic medical records (EMRs), mandated for 2015. (The company’s clients also include law firms, process manufacturers, and restaurants.)

“We started off trying to figure out where the cloud value proposition was. We looked at software as a service and narrowed it down to hosted ERP, Dynamics GP. We saw clear value there,” says Nelson. His clients did not object.

Cloud security issues have gone away, even in healthcare.

“Those organizations can’t afford to have these systems sitting in their office with all the protections required by law,” says Nelson. “Our clients wanted cloud. They were ready.”

As for how things looked within Nelson’s organization, it was easier from a financial standpoint, given employees already had experience selling managed services. Rather than getting paid $15,000 to install and maintain a server, for example, the company receives a few thousand dollars for a software subscription with services bundled in. As for the client, “instead of writing the cheque every year just for the maintenance of software, they get all of that and the services bundled in for a fraction of the cost,” he says.

Nelson fundamentally believes the cloud model is the right way to sell and deliver IT. “That said, capitalizing

The Canadian Channel Standard

GLOBAL VIEWS [on] cloud is not an easy thing to do. I can easily point to $100,000 this first year that would have gone right to our bottom line under the old model. Instead, we got a fraction of that. We do get recurring revenue we would not otherwise have had—the whole thing would have been in and done,” says Nelson. “You have to figure out how you’re going to finance it.” As Nelson points out, his payroll costs are the same as they were under the old model. Channel pros have to find a way to survive until volume takes over, and that usually means having more cash on hand.

High-Volume SaaS/Office 365 Reseller Carl Mazzanti’s company, eMazzanti Technologies, began offering email filtering for its SMB customers in 2003, adding hosted proxy soon after. “We needed to find an inexpensive way to protect our small retail customers,” says Mazzanti, based in Hoboken, N.J. “They would have two computers in their store. They could not afford an expensive firewall.”

After gaining momentum with those services, he started offering hosted Microsoft Exchange in 2004. “Nine years ago we had to convince people of the idea of letting us host their email,” he says. Now, his company has about 114 customers that do hosted Exchange. “We have a couple thousand mailboxes on our private-label hosted Exchange,” he says. “We filter one million messages each day on our email filtering platform.”

Mazzanti admits to some anxieties about the large OEMs potentially changing the game for the worse with little to no notice. When it comes to cloud, “they want to grab as much land as they can,” he says.

Still, for Mazzanti, the bottom line is maintaining a steadfast focus on solving customer problems, cloud or no cloud.

“When we do that, our customers reward us handsomely,” he says. As far as gaining traction with cloud, Mazzanti is bullish. “Every dollar they spend with us is a vote of confidence that we are doing a good job.”

It is clear Mazzanti is doing something right. His 20-person firm has grown at greater than 20% every year for the last 12 years, racking up an incredible 240% growth in the last three years. eMazzanti has been on the Inc. 500 for the last three years and has been a Microsoft Partner of the Year, as well HP Partner of the Year. “As long as you are improving the way [clients] do business, they will come back to you to do more,” he says.

Cloud Services Broker According to Gartner Inc., “cloud services broker,” a term the analyst firm coined a few years ago, is a major new role for channel partners in the cloud. “We see this role emerging in the market,” says Gartner’s Tiffani Bova, vice president and distinguished analyst, sales strategies and channel innovation. According to Bova, there are three primary models for cloud services brokers: •A ggregator: This type of broker brings together multiple cloud services in some unified way, such as by business process, industry, or region. The aggregation may be for billing purposes, single sign-on, SLA May/June 2013

management, or others.

• Integrator: This role gathers and makes multiple cloud services work in a more cohesive way to deliver an integrated result.

•C ustomizer: This type of company alters or adds to a service’s capabilities, such as developing a new look and feel for the service or layering on new data and process functions.

Bova points to “born in the cloud” companies when asked which IT providers are succeeding with cloud. These organizations have offerings that involve professional services, software, and application development. Often founded by a person who worked at an OEM or in a traditional channel business, this new type of cloud-only company has less baggage and therefore an easier time than competitors trying to straddle both the cloud and on-premises worlds.

“They have no historical business to protect and they’re not worried about their medallion status with their partners,” says Bova. Born-in-the-cloud companies such as GreenPages Technology Solutions, in Kittery, Maine, and Atlanta-based Cloud Sherpas are doing well, she notes.

Independence IT is another example. Its first cloud workstation came out in the 1990s. By the early 2000s it had developed its own software to manage virtual software environments. The company sold its cloud workstation solution directly to SMBs until a few years ago, when it elected to sell exclusively through channel partners, according to Seth Bostock, executive vice president of corporate development for Independence IT, in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

According to Jim Lippie, executive vice president of business development, Independence IT now has 176 partners, and that number is growing. Lippie’s sales pitch: Partnering with Independence IT is a more attractive option than partnering with traditional technology OEMs. In his view, these OEMs are now trying to go around the channel and sell directly to SMBs. “It’s the ‘channel eclipse’ concept,” says Lippie. “Companies like Microsoft and Google want to take their small business relationships direct. They are trying to take market share away from the partners.” Independence IT won’t step on the relationships partners have with their customers, which provides some peace of mind, he says.

Although his is not a cloud-born company, Nelson is totally dedicated to cloud. “We believe this is the best-case scenario for our clients and our business.” Slightly more than a year after offering cloud services, he believes his business will be 25 to 30% cloud by the end of the year and will reach 100% within four or five years. “We will promote cloud and actively work with as many clients as we can to get them on that model,” he says.

To arrive there, Nelson views his most important internal role as number-one cloud evangelist. “Every single chance I get, every conversation, I talk about how this is the best way to do things,” he says. “You have to constantly hammer away at the education.”

This feature is published with the permission of our U.S. partner, ChannelPro SMB (http://www.channelprosmb.com).

All rights reserved.

| 23 | The Canadian Channel Standard

CASE STUDY

STRATOCAST:

FROM PAAS TO VSAAS Genetec is targeting the SMB IP security space with a new cloud-based Video Surveillance-as-aService (VSaaS) offering powered by Windows Azure

BY KEVIN PRIDDLE

G

enetec is a Montreal-based provider of IP video surveillance, access control and license plate recognition solutions. Over the past 15 years the company has developed its expertise in building largescale, on-prem, enterprise-class systems for customers like airports, casinos, universities and government facilities. For example, one of Genetec’s largest customers currently manages over 150,000 video surveillance cameras on a single system.

In June 2013, Genetec will change gears and focus on an entirely new type of customer – the SMB – with the launch of its brand new cloud-enabled Video Surveillance-as-aService (VSaaS) offering called Stratocast.

The company has had its eye on ‘the cloud’ and bringing the capabilities of its enterprise-class unified physical security suite, Security Center, to the mid-market for the past few years, said Christian Morin, director of Genetec’s Stratocast product group, in an interview with The Standard. But the economics of it didn’t make sense until more recently with dropping bandwidth and cloud computing costs.

“Stratocast is a very big shift for Genetec,” Morin said.

“The cloud is what makes it possible.”

More specifically, it’s Microsoft’s cloud computing platform and infrastructure, Windows Azure, which has made Stratocast a possibility.

Powered by Windows Azure Launched in February 2010, the Windows Azure cloud application platform provides both Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and Infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) services and

May/June 2013

| 24 |

supports a range of different programming languages, tools and frameworks for building, deploying and managing applications and services through Microsoft’s global network of data centres.

When the Genetec team began work on the Stratocast solution over a year ago, they decided to take advantage of their longstanding relationship with Microsoft and leverage both the PaaS capabilities Christian Morin, director, Stratocast of Azure and the technical product group, Genetec expertise of Microsoft.

“Microsoft isn’t just a supplier of cloud,” said Morin. “Microsoft is really putting skin in the game and they’re really helping us build Stratocast. They’re helping, obviously, with the technology that they bring to the table, but also the access that we have to some of their experts to help us make the best use of Windows Azure.”

In terms of Windows Azure features being leveraged in Stratocast, Morin said Genetec is making heavy use of SQL Azure, Blob storage, load balancing and CDN capabilities.

He also they are using Azure Active Directory Access Control to allows users on the Stratocast platform to use their existing Microsoft, Yahoo or Google accounts for authentication

The Canadian Channel Standard

CASE STUDY and signing in.

“If you make intelligent use of Azure you can actually shortcut some of your development,” he said. “It’s a great simplification for us.”

“The idea with Platform-as-a-Service is not having to worry about the underlying operating system and keeping it patched and maintained or how it scales out,” David LeBlanc, product manager for Windows Azure at Microsoft, said in an interview. “[Customers] just need to focus on the application, which is so strategic to their business.”

Design and Delivery Development of Stratocast was started last year in June, a Beta version was released in February, and a Stratocast launch party was held at the ISC West security industry conference held in Las Vegas at the beginning of April.

The first phase of the project focused on the video surveillance capabilities of Stratocast, while the next phase and future releases will add access control functionality (i.e. doors/locks that require a key card or biometric signature to gain access) to deliver a fully unified solution in the cloud for SMB customers.

Morin said the main value of using the Azure platform has been the expertise and support provided by the Microsoft team, as well as the integrity and security of the Azure infrastructure.

“It really allows us to extend our enterprise offering,” Morin said. “For us, it’s a means to take all the great technology we’ve built through the years… and really make it available to people that typically wouldn’t be able to get access to such technology. It allows us to penetrate these new markets.”

“Genetec is not a company that operates data centres,” he said. “By partnering with somebody like Microsoft it really gives us great credibility in the market.”

Stratocast is set for release on June 3 in the initial launch markets of Canada, the U.S., Mexico, the United Kingdom, France, Belgium and Holland, with future expansion focused on Latin and South America. SMBs looking to leverage the VSaaS solution will be looking at entry-level prices of $7-$35 a month per IP camera.

Channel value-prop Because Genetec’s traditional channel partners are specialized security vendors that cater to large enterprisesize projects, the company has had to go in search of new resellers to partner with in the SMB space.

“Most our channel partners today work on large scale

May/June 2013

security projects… and they don’t do a lot of small business,” Morin said. “Less than 5% of our channel partners are actually a good fit for Stratocast, so we have big channel recruitment activity.”

Genetec is currently in talks with about 100 channel partners worldwide that range from existing security dealers that cater to SMBs and traditional IT VARs/systems integrators to Internet service providers (ISPs) looking to differentiate their service offerings.

Genetec is always looking for new partners to work with them on Stratocast, but Morin highlighted the fact that the company prefers forming strong relationships with a smaller tight-knit group of partners rather than “signing up everybody and their mother,” so to speak.

“As we’re looking at our territory map, we’re really looking to ensure there’s as minimum amount of channel conflict as possible,” Morin said. “There’s always going to be channel conflict, but we try to minimize that.”

Stratocast will be sold 100% through the channel worldwide and reseller partners will own and manage the end user relationship in terms of provisioning and installing the systems and invoicing/billing.

“We do not want to place ourselves in between our channel partners and their customers,” Morin said. “The portal itself is built so that our channel partners are fully self-sufficient.”

He also said that development team built Stratocast and its user interface the SMB and channel partner experience specifically in mind.

“We are not only designing the product so that it is easy to use by our end user, but we’re putting a lot of energy into making it easy to use by our resellers,” Morin said.

“This product was designed from the ground up to work with small and medium businesses, but it was also designed to be resold through channel partners.”

In summary, Morin emphasized that Genetec doesn’t just see Stratocast as an ‘experiment’ and that the VSaaS solution is simply the company’s initial foray into the cloud – benefiting both end user customers and channel partners.

“This is really a strategic initiative for Genetic,” he said.

“We’re going to be investing quite heavily in the cloud and this is just our first step.”

| 25 | The Canadian Channel Standard

CHANNEL UPDATE

CA Technologies works to align partner program with product portfolio

BY MARY ALLEN

A

ligning technology offerings with the right sales channel is a fine-tuned balancing act. While direct sales may ensure control, better margins and the implementation consult and support that is appropriate to sophisticated solutions, reach is more limited than with developed channel programs. And as providers continue to evolve products/services aimed at ‘removing the complexity from IT’ for customers beyond the very large enterprise segment, the channel approach becomes more compelling.

CA Technologies has visited this conundrum, weighed the options, and with new technologies and a broader market strategy tipped the scales in favour of building partnerships that can offer access to additional markets as well as advanced solution capabilities.

With its shift into distributed computing five years back, the expansion of CA’s product portfolio was not matched by its go-to-market strategy. Equipped for direct sales engagement in the mainframe world, the company needed a sales strategy that was in synch with its new distributed portfolio. According to David Bradley, SVP, global partners, CA Technologies and architect of the company’s new model, “there was recognition that the days of trying to take an expensive coverage model and scale it down into smaller customers just wasn’t going to be sustainable. We had to take steps. We knew we had a sales coverage model that wasn’t going to take us into the new markets where we had to grow.”

In 2011, CA moved from philosophical recognition to execution mode, re-launching into the partner community and since then has worked to build momentum through formalized programs with clearer rules of engagement and additional support. CA has also created new partner relationships (it currently has 237 Preferred partners and several thousand multi-tier members who offer more standard products such as ArcServe backup protection) and has gradually released additional products to the channel.

While CA will continue to manage some solutions until adequate support for channel sales has been developed (LISA, for examples), other advanced products such as the Nimsoft monitoring or the Clarity project management tools are now available to select partners. Bradley expects to see concrete impact from these program efforts in fiscal year 2014.

On a practical level, CA’s marketing strategy David Bradley, SVP, global partners, will continue to take into CA Technologies account specific customer history and attributes. As Bradley explained, the company will keep its direct sales force focused on very large enterprise accounts, “particularly where we have a long-standing set of relationships with customers and IT strategists and where we have a strong presence in terms of our footprint. Many companies have those 20% of customers that drive 80% of revenue.” However, it will apply direct sales resources against customer set “in a lighter way than we have historically” to address an imbalance in the cost of sales inherent in applying an expensive coverage model to new areas.

As Bradley noted, this new approach is also a response to recognition that within the existing enterprise segment, a “fairly sizable proportion of new product bookings that come each year that are booked through a partner or sold with the assistance of a systems integrator, or sold through a global service provider in the form of outsourcing or cloud services.” CA’s intent, Bradley claimed, is to apply this Continued on page 28

May/June 2013

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CHANNEL UPDATE “lighter weight direct sales model into these enterprises that are new to us... in a highly collaborative way with the customers’ partners” - established systems integrators, service providers and regional solutions providers that in some cases “may be just as well established in multi-million dollar accounts as the very big guys.”

Beyond the very large enterprise segment, CA targets customers at the upper mid-market level that also have sophisticated requirements. With global operations, multiple business units and channels, Bradley explained, these unnamed accounts tend to be “tech savvy in the running of their IT operations” and buyers of on-premise software sourced through regional solution providers. These will serve as CA’s exclusive channel for developing this market.

In addition, Bradley pointed to the thousands of customers who are looking to consume IT resources as a managed service or as a SaaS offering. For this core mid-market buyer, who may not have the staff or budget to run software on premise, CA views the service provider as the primary conduit to market for advanced CA functionality.

According to Bradley, “the service provider industry is also going through a model change, where they are increasingly thinking of companies like CA Technologies less as technology vendors and more as go-to-market partners.” A key piece of channel news at CA World 2013 was CA’s intent to formalize managed service, or cloud service offerings that a provider can communicate and offer to their customers as a co-branded solution that is a visible part of their “benefit bundle.” If CA has expressed commitment to SaaS architecting of its products (as it did in CEO Michael Gregoire’s keynote at the event), direct SaaS distribution does not necessarily follow; rather CA is investing in programs such as the service provider to explore the new means to approach the mid market.

Bradley explained: “server monitoring, network monitoring and the dashboards that go with it, disabilities and how that communicates to service level agreements and application monitoring are all important to a midmarket customer that may be just as dependent on a business application as a large customer but may not have the IT budget, or the shop or the skills to want to deploy these kinds of things themselves.”

So what is CA looking for in its partners? Beyond some established account relationships, the company requires implementation experience: “we need our partners to deliver servicNicholas Ellis, SVP, global service es,” Bradley explained, “we providers, CA Technologies need our partners to grow

May/June 2013

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our implementation capacity because as an independent software company, every dollar of revenue mix that goes from product licensing to professional services is diluting our margins. It’s not in our shareholder’s interests to grow a large professional services business.” At the same time, a systems integrator may bring a different set of skills to a customer engagement - change management expertise that CA services might not readily deliver, Warren McCall, president and CEO, for example - or the ability PureSCM to integrate CA tools into the systems that are being built specifically for customers. In Bradley’s view, these partner value-adds will ultimately serve to drive and speed product deployment.

A good example of this value add may be found in the services offered by PureSCM, a Victoria, B.C.-based partner that specializes in IT service management integration and consulting for Fortune 1000 clients across Canada, the U.S. and South America.

PureSCM has a number of focus areas, including cloud, service management, infrastructure management, automation and orchestration, and has been a Preferred CA partner for a decade, reselling CA software (CA also resells some of their software) and providing services and education around this.

According to PureSCM president and CEO Warren McCall, “we are a smaller company in comparison to a lot of the other CA channel partners, but we do a lot more than channel sales. We work very closely with CA from a pre-sales, proof-of-concept, direct delivery point of view. We were placed into that category [Preferred] based not on revenue, but on our prior partnership and on what we actually bring to the partnership that is outside the scope of just selling software.”

Specifically, PureSCM works with CA product teams to design new solutions, and offers deep services expertise. From its services origin, PureSCM has transitioned to a product company and now offers an application lifecycle management framework that integrates and synchronizes bestof-breed products from a number of third party providers, including CA. As example, McCall pointed to CA’s Service Catalogue service request system that PureSCM uses to help companies manage access to cloud apps, and its Process Automation Manager, which automates delivery of that app - to provide an alternative to rogue LOB adoption of SaaS offerings. In this kind of deployment, PureSCM would consult with the customer to understand policy and governance which flow from business need: “That’s where we bring a

The Canadian Channel Standard

CHANNEL UPDATE lot of value,” McCall noted. “We understand the business side, but we also understand the IT side. And you need to sit down with both... and figure out what makes sense from a business perspective.”

PureSCM also brings a number of capabilities that McCall believes CA’s large, global partners (Tech Mahindra, Wipro, Accenture, PWC and Deloitte) will never deliver, namely, specific industry and tool expertise. The company’s ability to implement solutions on a horizontal basis - and across customer business units - also generates CA referrals, while PureSCM’s experience with clients such as the RBC or ING Direct has worked, McCall believes, to raise his company’s profile with CA. And while CA has made some strategic acquisitions (of Layer 7 Technologies, announced at CA World 2013) designed to develop its own integration capabilities, McCall explained that this integration will likely occur on a vertical level in parallel with CA’s internal business unit responsibilities.

Beyond programs for distribution partners, CA has also developed solutions (outsourcing, managed services and cloud) over the past couple of years aimed at helping the service provider community develop their own offerings.

According to Nicholas Ellis, SVP, global service providers, CA Technologies, the company has evolved these solutions in response to service provider interest in meeting growing end user demand for cloud: “each of these organizations [telcos, outsourcers, hosters, resellers and distributors] is in some way venturing and hurtling towards producing some type of cloud-like capability.”

CA’s aim with this group is to capitalize on cloud by helping these companies provide offerings - as opposed to simply resell software - with solutions that Ellis described as “packaged and repeatable, don’t require a great deal of customization and get the provider to market more quick-

ly.” In this new phase, he explained, “software is not resold, but positioned as a service-capable piece of a solution” that is delivered by partners.

As part of the service provider program, CA has developed managed service offerings including software products such as AppLogic, a provisioning solution for the delivery of IaaS based on the Xen hypervisor, reference architectures, books to run and deploy the software as well as go to market, demand generation and deployment materials. A new component of the program, announced at CA World 2013, was the Cloud Service Delivery Platform, a pre-configured and pre-integrated solution that delivers automation, self service capabilities, an approvals process and monitoring - “the automatic cartridge that drops in as a platform” that CA is now piloting and building out.

According to Ellis, service providers will continue to differentiate within the market through domain expertise or other value-adds; however, “since the cloud platform is already basically commoditized,” the automation that its new platform can provide is an increasingly important foundational piece that can help customers simplify cloud deployment and accelerate the introduction of new services to market.

CA service provider partners run the gamut from companies, like Logicalis (former reseller), to Savvis, a managed service and cloud specialist which has implemented CA’s AppLogic, to the telcos, which Ellis described as having “reach and scale and a trusted relationship with clients.”

In Canada, CA works with Bell Canada and other Canadian partners would include Empowered Networks, an Ottawa based integrator with relationships with many top Canadian companies, Toronto solution and services provider, Softchoice Corporation, as well as Oakville, Ontario-based solution provider, Central Technology Services.

Continued from page 13

The future – innovative technologies on the horizon

The bottom line

Each of our expert interviews ended with a question about the “big picture” technologies that will impact financial services in 2013 and beyond – and they, like professionals in other sectors, see the need to stay abreast of the technologies that dominate trade press headlines. A common belief in mobility as a transformative technology emerged from these discussions: ESI’s Emery cited cloud computing and mobile/handheld technologies as having the greatest near-term impact, and TD’s Codack highlighted mobility (“the big one”) and HTML5, as well as the advantages of integrating edge networking systems with active directories into a sort of neural network; our third expert pointed to Big Data and mobility as the technologies that will have the most impact on his risk/trading functions within the bank.

As noted above, Canada’s IT industry looks to major banks for leadership. These organizations have the scope and budget needed to take advantage of most IT-enabled solutions, and an urgency derived from operating in highlycompetitive domestic and global markets. In this context, the results of IT in Canada’s exploration of the industry are reassuring with respect to the overall trends in the Canadian IT industry. Companies of all sizes, and across all sectors, are investing in solutions like cloud, mobility and Big Data to drive increased productivity, efficiency and competitiveness; and the snapshots that we’ve taken from inside Canada’s FIs demonstrate that leading Canadian IT experts are betting their own resources on the benefits that can be gained from each of these areas.

May/June 2013

| 29 | The Canadian Channel Standard

TRACKER NETWORKS

SPECIAL BID PRICING UPDATE Are lower bid volumes representing a softening in business activity?

BY JASON DOEL

The March bid volume numbers appear to confirm clearly that there is a fundamental decrease at work in the volume of special pricing letters and promotions being used by hardware manufacturers.

This is in stark contrast to software vendors, who continue to grow in their use of the promotions to close deals.

Overall bid volumes in March were flat over the previous month of February 2013. Looking closer at the numbers shows that the volume of bids from software vendors was higher in March (as would be expected), while the volume from hardware vendors actually dropped 5% from February.

This represents a significant break from what has been observed in the previous years, when bid volumes from hardware manufacturers spike in quarter ends – and especially the March year-end for the Canadian Federal government. This point is evidenced by the 28% year-over-year drop in hardware bid volume from March 2012 to March 2013.

We have been waiting for some time to see what the March hardware volumes would look like, as March is such an important month in the year for bids. Incorporating these results, we can clearly see that the trend line over the last 12 months is showing a significant drop in bid volumes by hardware manufacturers.

Bid volumes are still relatively high in absolute terms and the number of manufacturers using special pricing continues to grow, but the total number of hardware promotions is definitely dropping.

While it is difficult to determine what is causing this decline in hardware bid volumes from these results alone, our detailed analysis on the source data shows that the drop in hardware bid volumes in March 2013 was seen broadly across most hardware vendors (rather than just a few large manufacturers).

Combined with anecdotal feedback from channel members, it is possible that lower bid volumes represent a softening in business activity and/or a slow government year-end (i.e. less transactions overall). The drop cold also represent ongoing pressure on hardware profit margins, such that manufacturers may have less room left to provide further discounts. Manufacturers tend to offer bids and promotions to gain market share when they are ahead on profitability targets. Lower bid volume could reflect a situation where manufacturers do not have the excess margin to offer as many bids.

May/June 2013

| 30 |

The Canadian Channel Standard

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