(6 votes, average: 5 out of 10)
Loading ...Can Nick Tidd make a difference at D-Link?
Nick Tidd is the new D-Link Canada GM as well as its channel chief for North America.
Tidd will get an opportunity to work his magic at D-Link, an opportunity he wasn’t so fortunate enough to have in his last job at 3Com.
CDN still needs to talk to Tidd about this opportunity, but I think it can be a perfect situation for both him and D-Link because they both sort of need each other right now.
D-Link is stuck in a retail funk. For example, they have a Try Before You Buy program, which is great for the Harry Hard Luck or Sally Sob Story type of customers who source their own IT products. But for channel partners who do real business in the SMB or the enterprise these gimmick programs are not taken seriously.
It is this change in perception where Tidd can definitely help. He has the experience and the know-how to change and enhance the market’s view of D-Link and its products.
When you think of enterprise or SMB networking players you do not automatically think of D-Link, but the company is trying to sell more into this space. D-Link has released more than 40 new business solution SKUs from 2007 through 2008.
Hiring Tidd as general manager for D-Link Canada and vice-president of North American channel development is the next step in this evolution process for D-Link.
However, the next big market opportunity for D-Link is in VoIP and unified communications and it is here where Tidd can really help a player like D-Link.
Tidd was able to cobble together a channel network of more than 100,000 worldwide partners for 3Com at a time when everyone wanted Cisco gear. That’s quite impressive, and I believe he can do the same kind of work for D-Link.
The company already has VoiceCenter, which is ideal for small businesses. It’s a phone system with Microsoft Response Point Service Pack 1 aimed at customers with 50 phones or less. This area is the sweet spot in the market and especially in Canada, with more than a million businesses in this segment.
The biggest challenge will be to build on the VoIP business with unified communications. In May, I had a chance to interview J.C. Liao, the D-Link CEO in his headquarters in Taipei and he told CDN that a build-out in unified communications products was a key priority for D-Link.
The margins in unified communications are between 50 and 60 per cent for the company. This margin range nearly approaches Cisco’s average of 70 per cent.
Liao said D-Link will enhance switching capabilities to start to deliver unified communications solutions simply because the profit margins are high. He anticipates that D-Link channel partners can get 50 per cent and higher margins in the SMB market globally.
I think it will be Tidd’s job to execute this and enhance it. This is where the money is and D-Link needs a channel executive such as Tidd to go out and get it.
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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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(3 votes, average: 9.33 out of 10) Loading ...Golden opportunity in the data centre
By Paolo Del Nibletto
Cisco’s latest announcement on Data Center 3.0 may look from the outset to be a lucrative opportunity for just Gold partners, but there will be an opportunity for premier and other Cisco partners.
When Edison Peres, Cisco’s VP of worldwide channels, tabulated the money opportunity for partners in data centers at US$14 billion over the next few years it got a lot of Gold partners in Canada looking to line their pockets with profits.
Remember that several of those Gold partners in Canada started out as data centre builders before moving into networking, so they have a lot of those customers already.
But I do see the premier and other Cisco partners getting involved by either partnering with these gold partners or mining their own local community for these opportunities.
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(3 votes, average: 7 out of 10) Loading ...Nick Tidd is no longer 3Com Canada’s last man standing
If you had occasion to deal with 3Com in Canada during this decade then you probably knew Nick Tidd, the former country manager who in recent years has traveled the globe preaching the networking gospel of a dying company.
Earlier this month, Nick Tidd the long time face of the company who had been a one-man show for 3Com in Canada was finally relieved of his job.
3Com has been spinning its wheels for a long time. Since the high-tech crash of 2000, 3Com has been a rapidly declining and ultimately insignificant industry player. It wasn’t the case when Tidd joined the company from U.S. Robotics back in the 1990s. It’s hard to believe that at one time 3Com and Cisco Systems were equals in terms of revenue and market share.
With Tidd now gone at 3Com one wonders why a Canadian channel partner would continue reselling its products. Read the rest of this entry »
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