Cloud
Zoho Canadian SMB survey shows optimism moving forward
Enhanced productivity is the principal reason for the increased confidence, which is generally nation-wide.
Small Business
Distribution
D&H Canada brings in HP vet Michelle Biase as Canada GM to drive aggressive growth strategy
The GM role, which has not been filled since Greg Tobin’s retirement, gives more authority than the VP of Sales role which has been held by the last two Canadian heads, and is part of a broader effort to drive D&H’s Canadian business.
Distribution
D&H Canada expands BFG into Canada as plan to double business over next two years.
The new initiative involves monthly credit extensions for Canadian partners, new vendor programs, and increased headcount.
Cloud
Sage acquires GoProposal to strengthen accountant partners with unique proposal management software
GoProposal’s software provides a complete client onboarding system, focused on automated pricing, proposal, and engagement letter solutions, and also demonstrates to the customer the value that the accountants’ other software recommendations provide.
Cloud
Sage expands Sage Partner Cloud with new solutions and new strategic hosting providers
Sage 100 Contractor and Sage 300 Construction and Real Estate are now available in the Sage Partner Cloud through strategic hosting partners. Two U.S.-based hosting partners have been announced, with more likely, although probably not in this calendar year.
Channel Programs
Zebra makes big downmarket and upmarket moves, including first entry into SOHO market
In addition to its new SOHO-focused ZSB Series printer, being launched today, Zebra has strengthened its relations with its high-end strategic partners by adding an Alliance track to their partner program.
Cloud
Sage makes Data and Analytics BI integration for Sage 300 and Sage 100 available in Canada and U.S.
Sage Data and Analytics is a BI toolkit designed to appeal to growing interest in this kind of solution downmarket, as well as to make it relatively easy to engage with the product and see a quick ROI return.
Networking
Untangle adds WireGuard VPN connectivity to SD-WAN Router 3.0
WireGuard provides higher end capabilities that have 5x the performance of OpenVPN, while having the latter’s ease of use to configure.
Networking
Untangle looks to significantly upgrade partner support with state of the art portal
Untangle had been using a portal they built years ago, which used Google Drive for document sharing, but it scaled poorly as their partner base passed the 1000 mark, and as they acquired more partners outside North America.
Computers
Lenovo announces enhanced second generation of SMB-focused ThinkBooks at CES
Lenovo’s other big commercial announcement this week is the ThinkReality A3 lightweight smart glasses, Augmented Reality goggles co-designed with Qualcomm for either a PC or Motorola phone environment.
Printing and Imaging
Sharp Electronics of Canada focuses on small office and home office with major expansion of A4 portfolio
The eight models, which will be available in February, are all net-new machines, and six of them are suitable for small office and Work From Home environments.
Cloud
Sage launches Partner Cloud Program to facilitate migrations to Azure
The program, which covers the U.S. and Canada, covers Sage 100 and Sage 300, which in Canada will overwhelmingly be Sage 300.
Cloud
D&H Cloud Marketplace launches in Canada
Eighteen partners are initially available in the Canadian marketplace, and D&H is giving every partner a credit of $100 on account on their first transaction.
Podcasts
Talking SMB resiliency in the pandemic era with Cisco Canada
A year after Cisco began its renewed push on meeting SMB’s technology needs, how have those needs changed? We talk to Cisco’s Erin Hipp and Shamus McDonough about how small businesses have stayed resilient during the pandemic on this edition of the podcast.
Managed Services
Linksys eliminates license fees, improves free technical support with Linksys Cloud Manager 2.0
Linksys has also strengthened their support for the channel selling this Business Division offering by strengthening support for partner business motions and improving its optimization for MSPs.
Networking
Cisco focuses on WFH tech with small business push
As small businesses adapt to the realities of working in the COVID world, Cisco Designed for Business builds on collaboration and security messages.
Backup
Acronis integrates anti-malware into Acronis True Image backup solution
Acronis True Image had anti-ransomware security before, but a full security stack has now been added, replicating the company’s expansion of their enterprise Acronis Backup offering into Acronis Cyber Protect earlier this year.
Servers
HPE unveils three new ProLiant Gen10 Plus MicroServer Small Business/ ROBO solutions
The new solutions are based on the newly released Microserver Gen10 Plus HPE released in February, which is half the size of its predecessor, with significantly greater performance.
Security
Untangle adds new encrypted traffic protection, improved management in NG Firewall 15.0
In addition to the new Threat Prevention App to provide complementary protection against encrypted threats, the new firewall adds new flexibility for admins to customize their NG Firewall email alerts.
Cloud
D&H Canada aims to help VARs add managed services with Canadian launch of Cloud Solutions program
D&H is also launching the related DaaS Lifecycle Management program in Canada, thus bringing two programs north which have been successful in the U.S.