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Newsletter Home > May, 2007
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On The Other Hand: SMBs Emerge from the Shadow of Enterprise
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By: Ken Presti
Not terribly long ago, SMB-level networking products were really nothing more than enterprise products with lower port densities and perhaps a partial lobotomy. After all, if it’s good for Citibank or General Motors, it’s got to be good for you, right? Not really. But it sounds good, if that’s what you’re selling.
These days you can’t swing your arm without hitting somebody’s SMB strategy. The products are now more customized than they once were, and the manufacturers are getting much more focused on the integrators and value-added resellers who serve this portion of the market. Much of the emphasis is on motivating them to be more solutions focused and to spend more time analyzing the business needs of the customers.
Didn’t the channel have to do that before? Well, yes, you’ve always have had to look to the needs of their customers. But as different technologies become more tightly integrated and applications become more vertically-focused, the process of identifying the right (pardon the buzz word) solution for the end customer becomes increasingly complex.
The bottom line is that SMB-focused partners now have a better chance to build relationships with key vendors and influence channel programs than ever before. Beyond the usual venues such as direct discussions with vendor channel managers, there may be an opportunity to participate in a vendor advisory panel or some similar means of providing feedback to your vendor partners. Don’t automatically dismiss these panels as just another social forum unworthy of your time. While SMB is becoming much bigger business than it once was, there are still tons of channel partners pursuing this market. That means anything that gives you increased visibility with your key vendors is likely a shrewd political move.
Expect many of the vendors to get a lot more proactive with advice – especially around business processes and consultative selling. The good news is that I’m not aware of any vendors that are trying to mandate their advice as much as put it out there for partners who may be technology wizards but not MBAs. You’ll likely be seeing a much stronger emphasis on tips and best practices than had previously been fashionable.
Services and support is another major theme. With technologies more tightly integrated, these are important elements to the overall value proposition. Some of the vendors also have large services teams of their own. Those are invariably more focused at the enterprise, but closer inspection sometimes reveals value to the SMB partner as well. So keep an eye out.
While it’s true that the vendors’ primary motivation is to leverage the channel towards deeper SMB penetration, their focus on this part of the market will provide strong opportunities for channel partners known for approaching the market methodically, successfully, and often with no small amount of creativity.
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Alcatel-Lucent Unveils Office Communications 2007
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By: Ken Presti
Alcatel-Lucent has small-to-medium customers squarely in its sights with the release of its Office Communications 2007 solution. The offering is actually a three-pronged approach that includes a product portfolio geared specifically for the SMB space, a new business partner program, and an “on-demand” offer that provides a pay-as-you-go model similar to a software subscription.
“We’re moving from being a telephony vendor to something more solutions oriented,” said Jeanne Bayrel, Alcatel-Lucent’s director of marketing and business development for North American SMBs. “Our focus is on providing the types of solutions needed by SMB customers – collaboration, IP telephony, secured LAN, unified messaging, and WiFi – using hardware optimized for the SMB market.”
Product elements include the “OmniPCX Office” providing telephony and mobility; the Extended Communications Server (formerly the Eyebox server) for collaboration, email, VPN.; and also a portion of the OmniData portfolio that includes OmniAccess wireless, and the OmniStack 6200 line of PoE switches.
Certification
Like most networking vendors, Alcatel-Lucent is completely indirect at the SMB level. Therefore the Paris-based vendor has specifically designed the Office Communication Solutions suite for distribution by its global channel partner network. A new two-level certification program has been rolled out in conjunction with the new offer. Benefits for each certification level, including discount multiples, vary by country.
At the Certified Advanced level, (formerly the standard certification) requirements include a 10 day training course for post-sales technicians to learn how to install, configure, and manage the complete voice, application, and data portfolio. The curriculum also includes a number of optional modules, such as contact center services, unified communications services, advanced security, and network management, that are intended to help channel partners drive additional revenue. Special access to demo equipment and resources, including additional marketing and pre-sales support program, are also available at this level.
The Certified Standard level provides a lower entry ticket. Instead of the 10-day training requirement for Advanced, the Standard level requires a 2-day class focused on the more basic installation functions. This would be especially useful in a managed service environment where a network operations center would do advanced configuration application set-up on a remote basis. Alcatel-Lucent views this strategy as a model especially attractive to its master distributors seeking to recruit smaller VARs to work with Alcatel-Lucent solutions.
Each certified partner at either level is required to have two individuals (one technical and one sales) trained across the voice/data portfolio. The badge must be renewed every two years.
Absent any current relationships with major North American stocking distributors such as Ingram Micro and Tech Data, Alcatel-Lucent seeks to grow a worldwide base of master distributors who will perform many of the same functions. Similar to Certified Advanced, master distributors must endure ten days of training, and can also take optional modules described above. However there’s also an eleventh day for a special “train the trainer” course, reflecting the vendor’s desire to see master distributors assume the primary training role and determine the related fees. Customer support is expected to use the same model, escalating from the second tier channel partner to the master distributor before being passed to Alcatel-Lucent. The vendor also has a professional services team tasked with assisting channel partners in their initial engagements.
OnDemand Communications
As an alternative to the traditional sales model and to support channel partners in creating flexible managed services offers for their end customers, Alcatel-Lucent is also launching a go-to-market strategy that partly resembles an IP Centrex model. “OnDemand Communications” offers Office Communications 2007 on a price per user basis.
The offer includes eight standard core platforms corresponding to the specific customer’s size and technology needs plus user licenses and a full range of desktop and mobile telephones. Following the software industry model, pricing for the end user licenses can be established as a one-time fee per user or at an annual per-user rate of approximately one-third of the one-time fee. In either case, the core platform and telephones are purchased upfront. The correct choice largely depends on the degree to which the customer is either growing or down-sizing. In either arrangement, the offer also provides for software evolution insurance that covers all forthcoming software and related hardware upgrades.
Partners can then bundle this offering with services, additional products or wide area connectivity, if they so choose.
The Alcatel-Lucent’s Office Communication Solutions are now available in over 130 countries for all Alcatel-Lucent’s business partners, although the offer will be launched in North America this summer. Further information can be found at http://www.alcatel-lucent.com/smb
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ProCurve’s New Alliance Program
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By: Ken Presti
ProCurve Networking by HP has rolled out its new alliance program designed to ensure interoperability and strengthen marketing efforts for specific security, mobility and convergence solutions with the Roseville, California-based vendor’s networking technologies.
According to global mobility solutions manager Matt Zanner, ProCurve has done a number of previous technology alliances; albeit without a formal program. “We’d always gone about this in a very ad hoc fashion,” he said, addressing everything from legal, support, R&D manufacturing and everything else. We now want to present a cohesive framework for handling partnerships. We plan to highlight and build awareness around a handful of partners who are very close to our strategic need, and also have other tiers within the program that are not at the same level or rigor.”
To that end, the ProCurve Alliance Program has two tiers at the global level. The first tier, known as a “solutions alliance” is based primarily on validating and certifying interoperability between ProCurve offerings and the products of the partner engaged in the solutions alliance, plus communicating the joint capabilities to both direct and indirect sales partners. “We want to make sure we’re completely interoperable, fully tested, and have a fully enabled channel and direct sales force” explained Zanner. “Testing requirements vary from technology to technology, and in some cases require customized testing and certification plans. For VoIP, it’s pretty straightforward. But then there are other technologies, like security for example. Then we start branching out into unified threat management and such. Our solutions testing organization works to determine exactly what core capabilities are required to be put through the testing gauntlet to declare a configuration certified, and then fully document the certified configuration. The certified configuration guides are made available to our channel partners via access-protected online resources, which in turn ensure that our channel partners and sales force have clearly communicated, workable solutions to sell. The clearly defined and fully certified reference configurations also provide our support organization the information they need to properly address calls.”
The higher tier, known as the “strategic alliance,” extends the interoperability component toward joint go-to-market activities, road shows, global training campaigns, webinars, and a host of similar initiatives conducted over a 12 to 18-month timeframe, sometimes by staff dedicated to furthering the alliance.
Initial participants in the alliance program include Mitel (unified communications), AirWave Wireless (network management), DVTel (video surveillance), Fortinet (security) and ShoreTel (IP telephony) with Mitel and AirWave recognized as top-tier strategic members. ProCurve plans to add further member companies based on customer needs.
While these types of initiatives have gained popularity with a number of technology companies this program will likely be especially important to ProCurve given the vendor’s primary focus on network transport. This initiative can strengthen ProCurve’s value proposition in a technology market that is becoming increasingly focused on solutions spanning multiple product segments.
Scientific Atlanta Expands itaas Relationship
Scientific Atlanta, a subsidiary of Cisco Systems, has announced the OpenCable Application Platform (OCAP) developer program, expanding the company's relationship with iTV services provider itaas. As the industry evolves and OCAP capabilities continue to be adopted and executed, Scientific Atlanta will be leveraging the itaas “istart Developer Program,” enabling application developers to build OCAP applications more easily and efficiently.
Developers enrolled in the istart OCAP developer program will gain access to the Scientific Atlanta OCAP platform, including documentation, developer tools, set-tops, online downloads and the istart conference. The istart support team will also provide technical support and assistance to accelerate OCAP application development. Similar to the istart SARA (Scientific Atlanta Resident Application) and InView developer programs, the istart OCAP developer program is expected to reduce market entry costs, accelerate time-to-market and encourage the development of innovative applications.
Scientific Atlanta's OCAP platform includes hardware and software enabling operators to deploy the next generation of interactive applications on a standard platform across multiple devices. The company's OCAP products include the company's OCAP Digital Network Control System Release 4.0 series, OCAP middleware implementation and OCAP-capable set-tops.
EMC Launches Global Collaborative Research Network
EMC Corporation has announced the formation of the new EMC Innovation Network. The global, collaborative community combines EMC research, advanced development resources, university research partners and key customers that will seek to drive the exploration, discovery and application of new technologies, and examine how information technology is delivered. Key areas of focus will include service-oriented infrastructures, information-centric security, "Web 2.0" storage, and virtualization.
The initiative is expected to attract participation from approximately 5,000 technical R&D employees, align research resources from around the globe, and foster academic collaboration through new and existing university and consortia relationships, including Carnegie Mellon University's Parallel Data Lab; Indiana University's Data and Search Institute and the RFID Consortium for Security and Privacy.
Qwest Announces Vice President of Sales To Lead Newly Created Northeast Region
Qwest Communications International, Inc. has named Bruce W. Smith vice president of its Northeast region retail enterprise sales for the business markets group. Richard McGuire, who previously headed up the East region, will now oversee the Southeast region. Both Smith and McGuire will report to Tom Richards, executive vice president of business markets group for Qwest.
Smith’s 30-year career includes sales-related positions with AT&T, Equant and Infonet. He most recently served as senior vice president of sales for Gateway Inc.'s professional business.
Smith holds both a bachelor's degree from Johns Hopkins University and a master's degree from the University of Virginia. He will be based in Qwest's New York City office.
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