Avnet Technology Solutions’ Michael Stephens weighs in with ways solution providers can be successful in the growing market for digitalization in the healthcare field.
After a long restructuring, Avaya now has its two core next-gen offerings available, and has a systematic and well thought out plan to take them to market, leveraging both its channel and internal resources better than in the past. They still have to execute on these better than in the past however.
Westcon’s Comstor group teams with Polycom to offer cloud-based video-as-a-service that solution providers can offer under its GoldSeal services label.
The increasing impact of style and functionality from the consumer segment to the commercial PC space is not a new trend, but HP believes it has taken it to a new level with its latest announcements, designed to appeal to millennial customers both in their esthetics and through a new commitment to improving the notebook PC as a communications device.
Essentials for Office 365 now provides a unified backup for Exchange, Sharepoint and Onedrive, all the major applications where content lives.
Avaya recently introduced its new Avaya Midmarket Select Program. But the program itself is only part of the company’s strategy to significantly increase its presence in the mid-market space in Canada.
The mid-market is the key area of focus for Avaya Canada’s channel this year, but networking, cloud and video are also on the priority list.
While HP highlighted its HP ZBook Studio, a brand new model in the ZBook family, the major enhancements to the whole family were arguably bigger news.
Several new desktops, all-in-ones and notebooks were announced, with HP emphasizing new design, security and collaboration features, some of which are unique to them.
The Logitech Collaboration program is aimed at improving integration and planning with vendor partners, but the collaboration also has direct impact on Logitech’s reseller channel.
Microsoft announced long-awaited plans to put its Surface tablets into the hands and onto the linecards of more of its partners.
With a view to both expanding the number of skilled ByDesign people available to partners, and sharpening partners’ ability to use and extend the solution, SAP has launched several ByDesign initiatives, including a partner enablement portal and collaborative tool, and a certification program through Open SAP.
Ricoh, which is building up its services business to offset a decline in print volumes, sees Graycon as providing new capabilities for them in the west. The company also suggested they would be interested in a similar acquisition in the east.
Partners who have been selling A/V gear should like the Surface Hub, which Microsoft is touting as a product that will make traditional high end conferencing systems and displays obsolete, as well as replace projectors, wireless receivers and digital whiteboards.
Esna will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Avaya, with Avaya ‘planning to adopt’ Esna’s over 200 active channel partners. Avaya also said the deal will provide existing Avaya partners with significant new opportunities.
In the U.S., ScanSource will carry Mitel’s entire product line, but in Canada, where the core Mitel products do not go through distribution at all, ScanSource will be limited to the Aastra product line.
The enterprise tool, SAP Predictive Analysis 2.0, now integrates Predictive Analysis and SAP’s InfiniteInsight solution, and SAP thinks it will offer a strong partner play.
HP Enterprise Services’ Martin Risau and Dragan Rakovich offer their view on how enterprises can get the most out of the data their businesses generate.
SMART kapp is a unique electronic replacement for dry erase boards and flipcharts which will appeal to A/V resellers, but could be sold by anyone who sells into an office environment.
A key theme with these releases is the adapation of superior noise cancelling technology, which was originally deployed in the consumer space, for enterprise products.
