New Look, Same Mission

This year, Business Solutions magazine has been celebrating its 15-year anniversary. That's 15 years as a 100% channel-focused magazine. That's 15 years of highlighting vertical market solutions that help VARs, integrators, and software developers grow their businesses. And, that's 15 years of showing our channel subscribers how they can make more money by selling technologies that are complementary to their primary solutions. Now, we're making some changes � but not to our content.

In this issue, you'll see we've updated the layout of the magazine. It's nothing drastic, really, and that was purposeful. We didn't want to make sweeping changes that could confuse our readers as to our mission or the organization of the magazine. Thus, you'll still find your favorite editorial sections in the same places throughout the magazine. In the first half of the magazine, our technology editors provide their personal accounts of industry events in On The Road. They also give their unique perspectives on their particular technologies in the From The Editor and Channel News And Analysis sections.

The Channel Success Features and Installation Reviews will continue to provide you with actionable information on how and where your peers are making and increasing sales. For example, in this issue you can read about Dallas Digital Services, a storage VAR that has mastered the art of cutting its upfront operating expenses and overhead costs as a way to increase annual revenue gains. Its approach is so successful, it has enjoyed revenue growth of more than 30% year after year since 2002. Finally, our Tech Trends and Distributor Insight articles tap into the know-how of industry executives who provide valuable advice on how channel companies can grow their businesses.

The main differences with our new layout are some new fonts, colors, and some handy little tabs on the sides of the pages, which help you find editorial sections more quickly. Also, at the top of the pages of our Channel Success Features, Installation Reviews, and Tech Trends, we've added a header that indicates the technologies and/or vertical markets that are discussed in the article. All of these changes are designed to help you locate the articles that will best help you grow your business.

We're also introducing our new logo and tag line in this issue. We felt that "Growth Strategies For The IT Channel" was a more concise way of conveying what we provide in each issue than our previous tag line, "Helping VARs and integrators increase profits by integrating complementary technologies." As for the logo, we haven't changed its font or look since we were known as Business Systems magazine back in 1995. It was time for an update, and we feel the new logo reflects the strong, progressive magazine we have worked hard to become.

And soon, you'll also see a new look to our Web site and e-mail newsletter. The Web site will not only look better, it will include additional content and functionality. For example, each of our core technologies will have a separate Web site with technology-specific articles and industry information.

These days, as many trade magazines are folding, Business Solutions is as strong as ever. We have stayed committed to the channel. We have stayed focused on helping you grow your business. Our new design is our first step toward the next 15 years. We hope you like it.