Tech Innovators: the Wow Factor
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06_xcti_day2_p1 10/24/06 2:31 AM Page 1 THE XCHANGE SHOW DAILY IS A PUBLICATION OF THE CMP CHANNEL GROUP, PRODUCED BY THE EDITORS OF CRN AND VARBUSINESS. DAY TWO Tuesday, October 24, 2006 Hyatt Regency Hotel NEWS AND EVENTS FROM XCHANGE: TECH INNOVATORS Huntington Beach, Calif. >> Today’s Events General/Demo Sessions 8:30 a.m. - 9:30 a.m. Tech Innovators: The Wow Factor Grand Ballroom D VARBusiness shines the spotlight on those who’ve pushed the boundaries of technology General Session - VARBusiness By Cristina McEachern/VARBusiness tivity applications. taking a win in the Printing and Imag- 1:45 p.m. - 2:30 p.m. Grand Ballroom D VARBusiness honored the latest and IBM was once again a big winner at ing category for its Lexmark X644e greatest in channel products and com- this year’s awards, taking top honors in product. ViewSonic’s NMP-500 Net- XChange XCellence Awards panies at the fourth annual three categories. First work Media Player and ND4200-LS 2:30 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. Technology Innovator and foremost, IBM Net IP Integrated Display walked Lighthouse Courtyard Awards dinner and presenta- went home with the away with the Display category. For coveted Innovative White-Box Components, Raritan Company of the Year Computer’s KIRA 100 product got award for pushing the top billing. boundaries of technolo- A relative newcomer to the Tech gy and delivering inno- Innovator Awards, 01Communique’s vation to the channel. I’m In Touch Corporate Server was The company demonstrated superior awarded top honors in the Business innovation this year with its deeper Software SMB category. On the Secu- push into managed and professional rity Hardware and Software front, services, as well as its expanding secu- 3Com’s TippingPoint X505 product rity and storage product portfolio. received top honors while Altiris’ Soft- IBM also picked up a win for its ware Virtualization Solution won the Express Managed Services Portfolio in Application Infrastructure category. EDELE F the Services category as well as a win in ENE : G the Storage Hardware and Software cat- HOTOS P egory for its Continuous Data Protec- Speech, Speech: VARBusiness’ Jeannie Cappo (top) kicks things off; Editor Larry tion for Files product. Walsh presents the award to Joe Rueda, accepting Innovative Company of the Year Hewlett-Packard wasn’t far behind, honors for IBM; Novell’s Nat Friedman is named Technologist of the Year. taking home wins in two categories. HP’s ProLiant DL580 G4 Server won tion last night. From business software in the Server Hardware category, and to storage and security, this year’s winners the HP Compaq NC 2400 took the are shining examples of innovation in Client Devices category win. action and stellar providers of the best The Business Software Enterprise technology to suit customer needs. category saw a tie between Business Taking Home Gold: Editors recognize One of the evening’s highlights Objects’ XI Release 2 product and 01Communique’s achievements. was the Technologist of the Year Sage Software’s Sage CRM SalesLogix award, presented to an engineer, prod- product. For Data/Voice Network- The 2006 VARBusiness Tech Inno- uct manager, researcher or inventor ing, D-Link Systems won for its Wi- vator awards were judged by a panel of who has actively advanced the state of Fi Phone (DPH-540 and DPH 541) solution provider executives and VAR- technology. The award was presented product lines. Iomega’s StorCenter Business editors. The judges scored to Nat Friedman of Novell for his Wireless Network Storage 1 TB earned each product based on its usefulness, tireless work overseeing the develop- top honors in the Wireless Network- how new and/or improved it is, where Winning Ways: VARBusiness’ Cristina ment of Suse Linux Enterprise Desk- ing category. it sits on price/performance, revenue McEachern rewards Business Objects. top and its associated office-produc- Lexmark broke onto the scene, potential and the “coolness” factor. 06_xcti_day2_p3, 13, 14 10/23/06 10:58 PM Page 3 Tuesday, October 24, 2006 2006 TECH INNOVATORS Applause For Innovation Lexmark Gives VARs A Leg Up Lawrence M. Walsh New Fleet Manager offering helps partners expand into managed services Editor, VARBusiness and GovernmentVAR By Shelley Solheim/VARBusiness ach year, VARBusiness recognizes the best in ven- Printing vendor Lexmark Interna- dor innovation with the Technology Innovator Awards. tional on Monday rolled out a new E These prestigious honors single out the best of the partner offering designed to help best in product, feature and profitability potential among the VARs expand deeper into managed vendors that solution providers are and should be selling. services—a growing trend among Behind every great innovation is a person leading the resellers looking to offset razor-thin charge—an engineer, programmer, product manager or inven- hardware margins. tor who has the vision to advance the Lexmark tapped its experience state of the art. This year, VARBusiness providing managed services to large extended its awards to include the enterprises to develop a tool geared Technologist of the Year award for a per- at making it easier for partners to News That’s Fit To Print: Sharon Brindley and Paul Rooke from son who not only develops new technology capture ongoing revenue streams Lexmark, CompuCom’s Joseph Axmacher and Lexmark’s Marty but enables the channel with new tools. for supplies and services—while Canning opine during Lexmark’s World Premiere. “Superior” can’t begin to describe the simplifying print management and caliber of the dozens of nominees, which cutting costs for end users, said executives dur- Information is collected by the software in five ran the gamut from security and network to voice and busi- ing Lexmark’s World Premiere here at XChange components: Asset Manager gives partners visi- ness applications to processors and peripherals. The semi- Tech Innovators. bility into devices and page counts; Billing finalists included APC’s John Bean, who developed a new, With the new offering, dubbed Fleet Man- Manager helps partners provide cost-per-page or energy-efficient cooling system; Network Appliance’s Sajai ager, resellers install software at an end user’s site recurring monthly charges or a combination of Krishnan; UGS’ Bill McClure, who built a full-functional PLM that collects information about that user’s hard- both payment plans for end users; Consumables package for the midmarket; Lexmark’s Tom Knight, who ware and supplies. Resellers can then access and Manager tracks supply levels and issues alerts to designed the customizable interface and scripting applications assess that information via a Web-based portal partners when levels are low; Availability Man- for the vendor’s multifunction printers; and Raritan’s Swen provided by Lexmark. continued on page 13 Anderson, who crafted the first “system on a chip,” or BIOS- level remote management system. While it was a hard choice, there can be only one winner HP: Maximizing Opportunities and he was Nat Friedman, chief technology and strategy offi- cer for open source at Novell. His principal accomplishment: By Joseph F. Kovar/CRN Services Americas Business Unit. Under the pro- the development and launch of Suse Linux Enterprise Desktop Hewlett-Packard is adding enhancements to its gram, HP promises to protect the solution 10 and a host of associated business productivity applications. partner programs for its industry-standard servers provider that first registers a potential deal, he said. What Friedman delivered is simply a remarkable operating and mobile PCs aimed at helping solution The program was expanded to blade servers system—a true Linux competitor that’s good enough to compete providers take advantage of new a few months ago after origi- against Windows. Its intuitive GUI, 3-D operating environment, opportunities and technologies. nally focusing on enterprise integrated search capabilities and rich graphics make it a killer That’s the message from two storage and server products, app. Complementing the OS is a bundle of excellent open-source HP executives to solution Rovira said. “We’re trying to productivity applications—word processor, spreadsheet, presen- providers attending HP’s World maximize the opportunities for tation application, the Firefox Web browser, an instant messaging Premiere at XChange Tech [solution providers] and drive app that’s compatible with the most popular services, and more. Innovators. more business for us,” he said. Best of all, the entire package only costs $50 a year per seat, a On the server side, HP is Keith LeFebvre, vice presi- fraction of the cost of Windows and the full Office bundle. planning to expand its Value Big dent and general manager of Will Suse Desktop break Windows’ stranglehold on the oper- Deal special pricing to include HP’s Personal Systems Group ating system market? Likely not. But it does give Novell and its its new four-way ProLiant Americas, said his organization partners another weapon in their fight for share in directory, servers starting on Nov. 1. plans to restructure how it deals identity management and server operating systems. The company is also look- Play Nice: HP’s LeFebvre vows with channel issues by increasing Friedman and the other finalists deserve much applause ing to increase the collabora- to ease direct/indirect conflict. the communication between its for their out-of-the-box thinking, ingenuity and execution. tion between HP’s direct and direct and indirect organizations. They define the human aspect of innovation. indirect sales channels for its mobile PCs. The goal is to make it easier for HP and its EDELE HP wants to expand its Value Big Deal pro- solution providers to compete against direct ven- F ENE Contact Larry at [email protected]. gram to areas where it makes sense, said Efrain dors, LeFebvre said.