The new SonicWALL will see big changes and small ones. The big changes are in how the company does business as it untangles from Dell, and it’s a process that they began well before the company was even sold. On the other hand, the new SonicWALL won’t be making significant shifts from its core markets, and partner base.
Sage continued on the more channel-friendly course laid down last year after Stephen Kelly took over as CEO, and while the strategy itself is not new, the company believes it made some major steps this year towards meeting its goals.
Last year at Sage Summit, newly appointed CEO Stephen Kelly stressed that Sage was returning to a channel-friendly position under his direction. This year, on the first day of the summit, devoted to Sage’s partners, the company repeatedly stressed the same position – and emphasized that progress has been made since last year.
Chris Morgan assessed his success in executing on his priorities in this first year on the job, and considers the channel impact of Nutanix’s emphasis in 2016 of the big picture beyond simply saving money through hyper-converged solutions.
A key part of the Cloud Partner program, now slated to roll out with the new fiscal year in January, will be working out how to best handle joint Citrix-Microsoft partners around Microsoft Azure.
Citrix CEO Kiril Tatarinov, at his first Citrix Synergy since taking over the company helm earlier this year, outlined to the company’s customers where he plans to take the company.
SAP Canada is thinking about dropping its one billion dollar threshold defining the direct space to the 500-600 million range, but is emphasizing that the idea wouldn’t be to take more business direct, but to make SAP direct resources available to assist partners in the upper half of the SME space.
CEO Bill McDermott didn’t exactly promise a kinder, gentler SAP, but he did pledge a company that will be more empathetic to customers, have a more complete vision, and be more focused on simplicity. He also offered a forecast of some trends he thinks SAP will be well positioned to leverage.
Long-time SAPer Scott Jones returns from a short sojourn at another company to take on the job of running SAP’s North American partner network.
ShoreTel’s Canada country manager talks about the new offerings and what they will mean to partners and customers in the Canadian market.
Linksys continues a strategy it began by expanding captive portal from its flagship product to its entire wireless line, to beef up the entire portfolio at a time when small business demand for wireless is strong.
Kaspersky is counselling its channel to take advantage of the increased market opportunities in the enterprise, both to build new business and expand the company’s brand awareness with major new logos. They are also emphasizing that partners need to be more aggressive in delivering security expertise beyond licenses and support.
VAR Dynamics completes a major restructuring with a name change to highlight the company’s focus on its platform rather than the services on top, and to illustrate that the company’s base has also moved beyond VARs to include other types of partners.
SugarCRM has essentially restructured its whole business model, shifting from an open source model with a freemium component and an SMB focus, to a clearly enterprise-focused strategy. While they have recruited new partners for that space, most of their Elite Partners are long-time partners who have made the transition with them.
Both Powered by Avaya IP Office and OnAvaya – Google Cloud Platform have already been available to customers through the channel. Now however, their availability has been opened up to more partners, and both solutions have also been enhanced from their initial versions.
Avaya has reorganized its marketing strategies to emphasize joint go-to-marketing initiatives with partners, with an emphasis on obtaining case studies for customers.
Citrix channel chief Kimberly Martin was brought into the company last fall to restructure and improve the company’s channel operations. She discusses her mission, the changes that she announced at her first Citrix Summit, and what remains on the drawing board.
Citrix said at its partner event that its new focus on its core business – the secure delivery of apps and data – turned around 2015, and led to a very strong close to the year. They then laid out how they intend to continue that in 2016.
SAP Anywhere is going to market in China through a strategic partner, China Telecom. The go-to-market strategy when it goes into general release in the U.S. and Canada in 2016 will be very different however, and the company filled in the details for ChannelBuzz.
The program offers tiers for exclusive and non-exclusive partners, an Exclusivity Program rather than deal registration, and high margins. Their Canadian partners have not been very active in the recent past, but a drive in Canada to change that and expand the channel is forthcoming.
