The VAR Guy

PartnerPedia — a new social network for solutions providers and VARs — is set to launch in July, though an official launch date is yet to be announced. The VAR Guy got a preview on June 26. Here’s his take on the social networking site, with a few hints on who it compares to OnForce, LinkedIn and other options.

It’s always difficult to predict the success (or failure) of a social network. Basically, the networks thrive (or implode) based on viral invites. If initial members are happy, they pull in more members. If initial members aren’t impressed, social networks rarely get a “second chance” to energize those members again.

The other big challenge: Generally speaking, only 5 percent of social network members actively participate in forums and discussions, and only one percent of members actually lead and drive those discussions, The VAR Guy has observed through his own experience.

Now that you know the risks, lets zero in on PartnerPedia. The user interface seems rich, and the network’s ability to link VARs with one another seems compelling. Another big plus: PartnerPedia is built on open source various open source components (Linux, Ruby on Rails and the MySQL database, just to name a few). As a result, PartnerPedia should be able to rapidly expand its features and functions through easy-to-install plugins.

Will PartnerPedia compete with OnForce — the IT services marketplace where VARs can outsource projects to one another? The VAR Guy doubts it. While OnForce is an eBay of sorts for VARs, PartnerPedia seems more like a LinkedIn approach.

Generally speaking, The VAR Guy likes PartnerPedia’s concept and approach. The site is expected to have a soft launch around July 7, with a more official launch penciled in for around July 22.

Is Dell facing a partner revolt? Not really. But a few VARs allege that customers who buy direct from Dell receive better pricing than solutions providers. Now, Dell has a memo to help communicate its pricing policies to partners. Here’s a look.

First, let’s keep the Dell backlash in perspective. Even as a few partners voice some pricing complaints on Dell’s PartnerStorm web site, thousands more are signing up to work with Dell. And this isn’t just a US trend. More than 10,000 resellers have signed up for PartnerDirect in Europe in a mere four months, claims TechCentralIE.

Of course, The VAR Guy isn’t suggesting that Dell is perfect. Faced with the latest pricing debate, Dell has offered the following statement to partners. The statement is long-winded and thorough — two traits that The VAR Guy lacks. Take a look:

Partner Portal Pricing Clarification

We have recently received a number of questions around pricing variations on prices quoted to Dell PartnerDirect registered partners.

Partners registered with Dell’s PartnerDirect program (registered partners) have access to the PartnerDirect portal.

The Dell PartnerDirect portal store is linked to the SMB online store and provides an additional discount to partners. Prices within the PartnerDirect store match those in SMB on dell.com. You will see your additional partner discount clearly in checkout.

On top of the already discounted pricing customers receive on the SMB online store, Dell registered partners get an additional discount of three percent on all items except OptiPlex desktops and Latitude notebooks. On OptiPlexs and Latitudes, registered partners receive a six percent discount.

SMB does offer online promotions (promos). These promos vary in duration. Because we want to offer partners better pricing than end users, we provide a discount on these promos. So in order to take advantage of the promo price + partner discount you must purchase within that promo timeframe.

Some other points about promos– Promos are only available for a short period of time, generally five to seven days. Once the promo is finished, partners/customers cannot avail of the promo price. Promos are limited to a quantity of five per offer. In addition, promos vary daily, so the same product is not on promo consistently.

There is also some confusion around e-quotes. E-quotes note that they are “good for 30 days.” This means that you can save your configurations online for 30 days, but the pricing does change. This is because Dell runs just-in-time inventory, and pricing on component parts vary from day to day, which impacts product pricing.

Online ordering is often the most convenient, but for larger deals please engage your account rep and remember to register deals over $50K.

Bottom line is that as a Dell registered partner, you get the best possible price, with an additional three percent discount on top of that.

Wow. That’s a mouthful. But The VAR Guy hopes this helps to clarify Dell’s pricing strategy for partners. If additional confusion remains, The VAR Guy is all ears.

Okay, so the headline is a bit of an exaggeration. But here’s the upshot: FedEx — a major economic bellwether — just delivered horrible financial results, and nearly one-third of CEOs expect to make job cuts over the next few months. But OnForce, the online marketplace for IT service providers, is feeling pretty upbeat about business in North America. Here’s why.

Paul Nadjarian, senior VP of marketing and product at OnForce, notes that managed service providers (MSPs) are using the OnForce marketplace to outsource business to one another. Check MSPmentor for more info on this MSP outsourcing trend.

The VAR Guy, however, would like to focus on two other trends. First, OnForce is now publishing a quarterly “State of the Industry” report — in which the company highlights key IT project trends across the US. Since OnForce can track IT service engagements down to the ZIP code, the company can offer a unique look at IT spending and project trends by region, by technology and so forth.

The report, OnForce says, includes Q1 data and analysis on the following topics:

• Most expensive states for IT projects
• Highest volume states IT service engagements
• Most expensive cities
• Highest volume cities
• Highest volume ZIP codes
• Most expensive IT categories
• Most expensive IT sub-categories

In other words, the report is a cheat sheet of sorts for MSPs and solutions providers who are trying to spot key IT spending trends, set hourly pricing, move into new markets, etc.

It’s a safe bet that OnForce will eventually expand its quarterly report beyond US borders. The company’s Canadian marketplace, still in its infancy, is growing 4X faster than the North American marketplace grew during its infancy, notes Nadjarian. (However, Nadjarian concedes that the 4X figure is adjusted to reflect the fact that the Canadian IT opportunity is roughly one-tenth that of the US opportunity.)

Even if you don’t follow the math (The VAR Guy pretends he does), measuring OnForce’s mood is easy. The company remains upbeat.

An old friend sent The VAR Guy a rather interesting YouTube link today (see above). In it, Google describes its software as a service (SaaS) strategy to VARs, IT consultants and managed service providers. Yes, folks. There’s a channel play for Google Apps. Here’s a look at the video. And a big thank you to Virus Woman for sending along the link.

In a single day, legacy channel publication Computer Reseller News posted two glowing stories about Dell’s progress in the laptop and government markets, respectively. Has hell frozen over? Is Dell that hot — or has CRN finally put the deep freeze on all the negative Dell coverage?

First, CRN noted that Dell seems to be turning around its laptop business. A few hours later, CRN was back with a report about Dell solutions providers winning government sector business. Wow. And wow again. A double play. A dynamic duo. Two thumbs up.

Kidding aside, CRN and its army of Everything Channel reporters break a ton of quality news. But The VAR Guy — call him Everything Else Channel? — has always thought CRN spends a bit too much time bashing Dell. As recently as March of this year, CRN declared that Dell suffered from a cultural crisis.

Really? Cultural crisis? With so many experienced channel veterans now running around inside Dell, The VAR Guy is betting that the PC giant figures out how to empower solutions providers with managed services.

Regardless of when oil hits the $200 per barrel figure, it is time to start preparing for the realities of the energy crunch. As such, solutions providers and information technology departments must start preparing to support remote workers.

The cost of employees goes beyond the normal metrics tracked by the HR department. In addition to salary and benefits, smart solutions providers and their customers will also begin to track the energy consumption of their workers.

Every time someone enters and leaves your offices, they are impacted by energy costs. The figures skyrocket when you also include the electrical impact of computers, desktop calculators, personal digital devices, light fixtures, coffee machines, refrigerators, water heaters, electric staplers, printers and all other electronics.

So, the smart enterprise will encourage their workers to telecommute. Your employees will be happy because they will save money on gasoline, tolls and wear on their automobiles. They will also be spared the stress of the daily commute.

Generally speaking, worker productivity is easy to measure so you don’t need to worry about employees wasting time.

What all this means is that IT departments and solutions providers need to start preparing for telecommuting now. They need to adapt to the realities of the energy crunch. While many pundits are touting the advantages of “greening” your IT, by implementing a telecommuting strategy you will be reducing your total business impact on the environment and saving money too.

Contributing Blogger Louis Rosas-Guyon is a business technology expert with R-Squared Computing, Inc. His opinions do not necessarily reflect those of The VAR Guy.

Software competition on the desktop continues to increase. The latest example includes Lotus Symphony, a free IBM software suite that could give Microsoft Office a run for its money in selected business settings.  After introducing Symphony as a free Internet download last year, IBM is now back — offering annual Symphony support contracts at the flat rate of $25,000. Suite! Er, sweet! Here’s why.

Linux and Mac OS X have successfully restored desktop competition at the operating system level. But at the application level, alternatives to Microsoft Office face plenty of pushback.

Sure, Google Apps has had some limited success (especially on college campuses), but some skeptics consider those apps too limited.

Ideally, Sun Microsystems would fill the void by promoting its own OpenOffice open source suite far more aggressively. But Sun has its hands full trying to boost server sales amid skepticism from Wall Street investors.

Then there’s Lotus Symphony, a nice little free suite. Ma Yue, chief architect for the IBM software suite, is earning respect in developer circles and recently landed on the MSPmentor 250 nominee list, which highlights thought leaders who are helping to define next-generation markets like managed services, software as a service and Web 2.0 applications.

At $25,000 a year for support, IBM is hoping Lotus Symphony will catch on within midsize and large enterprises. The VAR Guy doesn’t think that will happen anytime soon. Unless, of course, IBM partners up with hardware suppliers and open source advocates who further bolster Symphony.

However, it’s nice to see (and hear) Lotus Symphony creating even more customer choice on the desktop.

Dell surprised lots of folks with a strong quarterly earnings report yesterday. But the company didn’t surprise The VAR Guy. He knew Michael Dell would begin to turn the company around. Still, is Dell’s recent momentum most associated with cost cuts — or is the company beginning to gain some traction with managed services and IT channel partnerships?

Frankly, The VAR Guy thinks Dell is still in Stage I of its turnaround: Effective cost cuts.

After all, look at this blanket statement from Dell, which essentially says the US market for computers is weak right now:

The company is seeing conservatism in IT spending in the U.S. particularly with its global and large customers as well as public, small and medium business accounts.

Ouch. Doesn’t that cover just about everyone? (Except The VAR Guy, of course, who continues to spend money he doesn’t have on new computers.)

Next Moves?

In Stage II of Dell’s turnaround (2009?), The VAR Guy expects Dell to speak far more vocally about its success with selected solutions providers and managed service providers. That assumes Dell will actually have success with those audiences.

Unlike some channel reporters, The VAR Guy thinks Dell will get its partner strategy right — because the channel is key to driving Dell sales higher, and ultimately Dell’s stock higher.

But it’s still early. And there will be plenty of opportunities for Dell to stumble with channel partners in the months ahead. All it takes is one rogue Dell sales manager or one comment taken out of context to set off solutions providers, many of whom remain wary of Dell’s direct sales heritage.

The VAR Guy is keeping an open mind. Will solutions providers?

After a slight delay, Dell has launched its channel blog. The company now has a Web 2.0 platform that will be both a blessing and a burden. The VAR Guy cautions most companies against launching corporate blogs. But in this case, Dell has made a smart move. Here’s why.

Most corporate blogs are nothing more than vendor hype and highly polished marketing jargon. Even worse, they don’t accept reader comments or constructive criticism.

Watch Your Mouth

Alas, corporate blogs often lack everything that’s GREAT about Web 2.0 technology — reader interaction, cross links, gossip, speculation, debate. Maybe even a little profanity sprinkled in here and there.

But let’s give Dell some credit. The company understands the point of Web 2.0 sites: Share your vision, solicit feedback, and adjust your strategy based on healthy debate. Dell does this all the time on its Direct2Dell site. And The VAR Guy expects that to continue on Dell’s new channel blog.

Of course, The VAR Guy is hoping for a little drama and sensationalism as well. Reading the Dell blog should be like watching a NASCAR race. He hopes to see fast-moving dialog, with the occasional horrific accident, where emergency workers have to save Dell from its own words as the company plows into a wall.

(Dude, that was a sharp turn…)

Kudos to Dell for having the guts to launch another corporate blog that actually accepts reader interaction from the most skeptical audience of all — the IT channel.

The PC giant is going to take some lumps from reader comments. But ultimately, that’s a good thing. And — surprise, surprise — we may actually see quite a few VARs stand up and cheer Dell for a change.

The VAR Guy has to tip his hat (and he doesn’t do that often). Dell insiders say the company plans to launch its channel blog on May 16. Smart move. Here’s why.

If handled properly, the Dell Channel Blog could be a forum that builds an ongoing, honest dialog between Dell, current partners, target partners and lingering skeptics.

Give Dell credit. The company’s IdeaStorm site remains a valuable destination for customers to sound off and post suggestions. Dell has listened carefully to IdeaStorm, and productized many of the visitor suggestions.

Still, the Dell Channel Blog will likely face a far more skeptical audience. Although Dell has worked overtime to communicate with partners through Webcasts and managed services events, plenty of naysayers remain.

Win or lose in the channel, Dell partners will certainly have a soap box to stand on once the Dell Channel Blog launches May 16. And, unlike many corporate blogs, Dell encourages reader comments and user-generated content. Let’s hope Dell’s channel managers have thick skin as they listen and learn from partner feedback.