Editor's Notebook
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Top Quotes From Archie Manning’s VARTECH Keynote
9/22/2014
Archie Manning is best known for his football prowess and the success of his NFL quarterback sons Peyton and Eli. But he proved today during his keynote speech at VARTECH 2014, the annual conference hosted by value-added distributor BlueStar, he knows something about teamwork and leading an organization. Manning spoke to an estimated crowd of more than 1,000 channel executives Friday morning at the Hyatt Regency in New Orleans.
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VARTECH: Live Polls Offer Insight On Biggest Reseller Challenges, Shrinking Margins
9/19/2014
Solutions providers attending VARTECH 2014, the annual conference hosted by value-added distributor BlueStar, participated in two interesting live polls during a partner meeting Thursday afternoon at the Hyatt Regency in New Orleans. Resellers used their smartphones to submit their responses via text, Twitter, or a web page, and the results were posted on a giant screen as they were received.
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BlueStar Executives Reveal Channel Trends At VARTECH
9/19/2014
I appreciated that BlueStar executives cut to the chase during their regional update meeting with a few hundred U.S.-based VAR partners Thursday afternoon at their annual VARTECH conference in New Orleans. So I’ll cut to the chase and get right to some of their most insightful statistics and quotes.
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VARTECH 2014: 9 Social Media Tips For VARs
9/18/2014
Do you recall the 1939 version of The Wizard Of Oz when a fearful Dorothy, played by Judy Garland, exclaims, “Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!”? Today, solutions providers — especially those old enough to remember the 1939 version of The Wizard Of Oz — are saying “Facebook and Twitter and LinkedIn, oh my!” as they face an avalanche of social media options.
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Lively Media Panel Opens VARTECH 2014
9/18/2014
Value-added distributor BlueStar turned the tables on members of the channel media at its VARTECH conference in New Orleans Thursday. The day one general session opened with BlueStar Global Marketing Manager Dean Reverman asking publishing executives and editors questions about trends and best practices for solutions providers and IT vendors.
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Recommended VAR Reading: The Challenger Sale
11/18/2013
I read The Challenger Sale about a year ago and have been testing its principles and techniques whenever I can. I think the business-to-business sales methods taught in this book are the real deal and could have a significant impact on VAR organizations as they strive to be trusted advisors.
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Challenges Still Exist For As-a-Service Adoption
10/15/2013
During Monday night’s Welcome Reception/Solutions Expo at the 2013 ScanSource Partner Conference, I had a conversation with a solutions provider and a vendor executive about financing the as-a-Service model. The VAR said selling Software-as-a-Service is a no-brainer, but hardware is a completely different story because financing that part of the deal still hasn’t taken shape. The VAR was hopeful because he felt distributors are positioned to partner with a third party to finance Hardware-as-a-Service. The vendor concurred, adding: “We [vendors] are not bankers.”
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First Thoughts From (And On The Way To) ScanSource’s Partner Conference
10/15/2013
The obvious benefits of channel conferences are the networking, education, and new product information. Another more subtle upside is you’re typically trapped on a plane for hours, affording the opportunity to read and reflect without the typical business interruptions.
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8 Channel Threats, 6 Opportunities For Solutions Providers
10/9/2013
The panel discussion “Future Channel Opportunities & Threats” at the ASCII Success Summit in Austin, TX featured several excellent points and lots of give-and-take. Here are some highlights from the discussion.
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SYNNEX Keynote Herm Edwards Shares NFL Lessons That Resonate With Break/Fix VARs
10/4/2013
I’ve been to my share of industry conferences and have sat through my share of keynote speakers. So, when I saw that Herm Edwards, ESPN analyst and former NFL coach and player, was speaking, I expected a speech filled with touching and humorous NFL stories tied to life lessons and motivational wisdom. Edwards delivered all that, but in a way that exceeded my expectations.