The Channel

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Issue: - [1 August 2002]

The August issue of The Channel is filled with vendor and distributor perspectives on what channel partners can do to keep things together over the coming months.

The cover story looks at the downturn in the market and what the vendors and distributors are doing to ensure that their channel partners remain motivated, while t he secondary feature focuses on the SME market, analyses the differences between SMEs and coporates and why this market is still considered a massive untapped resource. As usual, the issue is also filled with the usual product reviews, news and other relevant content.

Features

Cover Story: MDs of local distributors positive about the future

Brett Haggard

The local distribution market has been fraught with problems over the past year and the instability of the Rand has not helped to keep resellers motivated. Credit is also a difficult issue to negotiate at the moment, since the fallout in the distribution market has crippled many resellers' ability to buy enough stock to keep their customers satisfied. More than ever distributors are being called on to keep their resellers motivated and incentivised. How are the distributors keeping the sentiments in the channel positive however?

Secondary Feature: SME market presents huge opportunities - Flexibility the key

Russell Bennett

Small to Medium Enterprises play a substantial role in every industry and almost every marketplace, and IT is no exception. While the SME market can sometimes be overlooked, any active players in the industry would be foolish to make this mistake, since these businesses represent a huge chunk of revenue. One of the reasons why this segment is so easily ignored, is the lack of any kind of clear communications infrastructure between SME customers and the vendors themselves, and it is exactly this shortcoming which effective SME-targeted distribution channels strive to overcome. But what other challenges does a vendor, distributor or reseller face when tackling the SME segment?

News

From The Editor: Linux Rising

Brett Haggard

Software is not getting any cheaper and feedback which I have received from leading channel players over the past month is that the market is less than charmed with Microsoft's new licensing strategy which starts at the beginning of this month. While Linux has been considered an alternative server operating system for a few years now, this month saw some information surface, which leads me to believe that the market will be ready to embrace this technology as more than simply an alternative in the coming year.

Report Back: Greater reliability and performance can cost less

Brett Haggard

While at Oracle's annual OracleWorld conference (held in Copenhagen this year) I managed to take in the keynote address from Larry Ellison, the man at the helm of the database company, who is touted as one of the most entertaining and visionary icons in the IT world. Never known to steer away from controversy, Ellison slated the usual list of competitors and talked extensively about the work Oracle has done in the Linux space to deliver higher performance, higher reliability and reduced cost. Interestingly enough, alliances with other vendors were not mentioned much.

Report Back: Intel addresses criticisms with Itanium II

Russell Bennett and Brett Haggard

64-bit computing, mostly using Risc architecture, has been around for some time already, but it was not until the launch of Intel's Itanium range of 64-bit processors that this technology really came into its own. Yes, Sun Microsystems 64-bit Sparc processors run the majority of massive systems around which the Internet is built, and yet deploying these solutions in any other arena is often shied away from. The major reason for this phenomenon was the highly proprietary nature of these 64-bit platforms. A number of the major vendors offered such solutions to the high-end computing arena, but none offered the open-ended solution which the chip giant's product promised to be.

Product of the Month: GPRS an asset to compact 8310

Brett Haggard

The most exciting thing to happen to the local cellular industry this year is undoubtedly GPRS - the high-speed packet data service that according to the cell phone vendors and service providers will unleash the power of the Internet into the mobile world. A handset that epitomises that sentiment is Nokia's 8310 - a compact feature-rich unit that is aimed at the consumer market, with a stylish new design and a range of exciting cover designs and colours users can choose from.

Regulars

First Sight: Nokia ships first imaging phone

First Sight: Web camera targets notebook users

First Sight: D-Link ports create 800Mbps trunk

First Sight: Biodata updates OrangeBox

First Sight: Performance on demand with AMD tool

First Sight: Six hours of music from Rio 900

Product Review: Quadro 4 graphics card justifies high price

Product Review: Cost may be barrier for MTN GPRS service

Honest Horace: Cricket tickets