(4 votes, average: 7 out of 10)
Loading ...Local reseller event hits a high note
The other day I attended the KLM Solutions open house in Toronto and I am glad I did. I always enjoy being with channel partners. I know I sound like a broken record, but I believe these people provide amazing value to the computer industry and the Canadian economy.
KLM is celebrating its 20th anniversary and has moved into a bigger facility in the southern part of Toronto.
This company listed as the No. 96 solution provider in the CDN Top 100 list is doing everything right in my opinion.
Just one look at its client base and it tells the whole story. KLM has developed business solving solutions for the Barrie Police Force, Harequin Enterprises, Hydro One Brampton, Legal Aid Ontario, Nike Canada, North Bay Police, the Ontario Bar Association, Rogers Communications, Suzuki Canada and World Vision Canada.
This is the third time KLM has upgraded its facilities and the new office will have a green touch to it. It will also have virtualization, a testing lab, and a lock down room for customer computing care and monitoring. It is all part of an investment phase for the solution provider.
KLM has also been smart to realize they need to specialize. The company has focused its vendor partnerships on just a few: Microsoft, Cisco, HP, IBM and Panasonic.
It is this hyper-focus that has enabled the company to win awards such as the Microsoft Impact and the Ingram Micro VTN Top Sales award.
CDN wants to congratulate KLM on 20 great years in the channel.
One quick hit before I go. AMD today promoted AMD senior vice president Gustavo Arenas to AMD chief sales officier. Arenas reports now to the office of the CEO.
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(4 votes, average: 5.5 out of 10) Loading ...Charlie Giancarlo becomes Avaya boss
Lets face it Avaya has not set the world on fire, but I think it has a chance now more than ever.
With Charlie Giancarlo being named its new CEO, even if it is on an interim basis, it will bring some much needed vision to the organization. Also Avaya is going to name a worldwide channel chief tomorrow and it will not be Nick Tidd, formerly of 3Com, which was rumoured.
You can argue that Cisco had its greatest era of technology advancement while Giancarlo was chief technology officer. Many of Cisco advanced technology offerings came under his watch.
Giancarlo will bring some more credibility to Avaya. His high profile name will give Avaya clout in the market-place. Many, many times when big deals were hanging in the balance a call was made by either John Chambers (Cisco CEO) or Giancarlo which pushed it through in favour of Cisco.
It is that kind of presence that was lacking at Avaya. A similar situation occured with Apple a decade ago. After Gilbert Amelio left the company, Steve Jobs took over as an interim CEO. Say what you want about Jobs, but he has presence and the market place looks up to him. Giancarlo is in my mind slightly below that level of a Jobs, a Chambers or a Bill Gates. But, he is miles ahead of what Avaya had before in terms of a chief executive.
One quick hit before I go and it just so happens it is on Avaya. The company has appointed Christopher Formant as president of Avaya Global Services. Formant was formerly with BearingPoint.
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(5 votes, average: 8 out of 10) Loading ...The price is not right for Apple iPhone
The news out of San Francisco that Apple and Rogers will release the iPhone 3G in Canada on July 11th will be welcomed by the many Mac faithful who have been waiting for a long time to get their hands on this device.
The other bit of news from Apple is that they are slashing prices on the iPhone. While this is good news for consumers who always want to save a buck, I am puzzled why Apple is doing this. The iPhone was an expensive device, but people were willing to pay for it. Some people lined up for hours to drop hundreds on the product. Others drove for hours to the U.S. to purchase an iPhone and then unlock it.
I was in Taiwan recently and I heard similar stories from many Europeans who traveled to the U.S. and purchased an iPhone no matter what the cost. Read the rest of this entry »
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(4 votes, average: 10 out of 10) Loading ...Top 100: Watch the video, see the pictures
Couldn’t make it to last month’s CDN Top 100 Solution Providers awards gala in Toronto, or want to relive the experience?
Now you can now go behind the list with full event photos and video coverage of the gala, including video interviews with Softchoice, the top solution provider for 2007 and with EPIC Information Solutions, the fastest riser.
It’s the next best thing to having been there.
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(3 votes, average: 7 out of 10) Loading ...Has the North American market priced itself out of innovation?
By Paolo Del Nibletto
I had a very interesting briefing with about ten of the top executives of Giga-Byte Technology Group last week in Taipei. Richard Ma, senior vice-president of corporate strategy for Giga-Byte, told me that the North American market is the last priority for the company.
This was quite a surprising statement to make because Giga-Byte is a half billion dollar world player in computing. It has many products such as notebooks, motherboards and other computing components. One of its more interesting new products is a smart phone called the GSmart. It has a GPS, motion sensors, a five mega pixel camera and finger touch screen capability, and that’s just for starters.
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