| Ingram Micro's VentureTech Network began
as the dream of a few VARs who wanted to team up, share best practices,
and hopefully help build each other's businesses. Now celebrating its
tenth anniversary, it's a full-blown community, bringing rich opportunities
and resources to hundreds of solution providers who serve the SMB marketplace.
But VTN isn't just a two-way partnership between Ingram Micro and its
customers. Since the beginning, the community's manufacturer partners
have played a vital role too, providing market insight, training, exclusive
promotions and an array of other benefits for members. In return, they've
received an advantage that can't be had anyplace else: direct, face-to-face
access to the people who sell their products every day. Here's what leaders
from some of the channel's top manufacturers had to say about the relationship
between their companies and VTN.
| HARRIS WARSAW,
Vice President, General Business, Americas,
IBM |
 How
has your company benefited from partnering with VTN?
IBM recognizes the significance of the VTN community as a strategic
collaborative partner to expand our presence in the midmarket customer
space. IBM is focused heavily on midmarket and we want the VTN members
to benefit from this drive. We appreciate (members') support in
recommending and selling IBM solutions to customers and prospects
for mutual growth.
What are some of the major opportunities
you see in the SMB market for 2009?
The majority of SMB clients are concerned about energy efficiency
and green technologies. IBM's strength and presence in the blades
market affords us the opportunity to address these client concerns.
Energy and utilities, life sciences, manufacturing and retail are
among some of the top industries with these concerns and would be
well-positioned to take advantage of the savings our blades solutions
afford.
Additionally, we continue to see our SMB clients facing the challenges
of information explosion, across all segments of the market. Midsize
businesses are looking to simplify information management, while
at the same time increasing security. IBM's Information Infrastructure
Solutions is the strongest storage portfolio to address these needs,
whether it be in healthcare, banking, insurance or other informationintensive
segments of the market. These needs and concerns provide us the
opportunity to work (more closely) with our partners.
How do you plan on deepening your relationship
with VTN in the future?
I plan to continue to be an IBM executive sponsor of VTN and join
Invitational events. It is always a pleasure to present at events,
learn about new offerings and have the opportunity to interact with
(members) on an individual level. IBM and the members of VTN will
continue to team and mutually continue to grow our share of the
midmarket business.
|
| WENDY BAHR, Vice
President, U.S./Canada Theater Channels, Cisco |
 How
has your company benefited from partnering with VTN?
Essential to our business is the relationship we've built with the
VTN champions that partner with us. These champions have proven
to be a valuable asset in the development of SMB tools and programs
and act as a liaison to the VTN community. Cisco has been a longstanding
community partner for over 10 years and has recognized the value
they bring.
What are some of the major opportunities
you see in the SMB market for 2009?
There are opportunities to build each VTN member's Cisco practice
via web conferencing, mobility and unified communications. Cisco
is committed to assisting the members with securing their certifications
in each of these product families.
How do you plan on deepening your relationship
with VTN in the future?
Cisco plans to increase our investment in the VTN community and
leverage their expertise and reach into the SMB market. We also
plan to invest in their success with our new Partner Practice Builder
tool, which will enable members to efficiently build a services
and advanced-technology business practice.
|
| ROBERT DESHAIES,
Vice President, U.S. Partner Business Development
and Sales, Microsoft |
 How
has your company benefited from partnering with VTN?
Microsoft gets great benefit in its partnership with VentureTech
Network, as it not only is an ideal forum to drive awareness and
execution of key initiatives and programs, but also gives us a great
sounding board for the channel. We enjoy the intimacy of our partnership
with VTN.
What are some of the major opportunities
you see in the SMB market for 2009?
There are major opportunities in partnering with Microsoft in the
SMB market, especially around the upcoming EBS/SBS launch, BPOS,
and software plus services. Leveraging Microsoft's virtualization
play, SharePoint services, security and management, mobility and
MDOP are also key strategies for the SMB market, where VAR alignment
will create significant opportunity.
How do you plan on deepening your relationship
with VTN in the future?
Helping VTN members continue to evolve their Microsoft practices
by incorporating solutions such as Dynamics CRM, Unified Communications,
and SharePoint into their solutions portfolio. It is also very important
for us to better maximize multivendor solution opportunities with
Ingram Micro.
|
| RAMONA THIBEAULT,
Vice President, SMB Sales, Solution Partners
Organization, Americas |
 How
has your company benefited from partnering with VTN?
VTN has allowed HP to reach the SMB market by building a world-class
network of HP channel partners that develop and sell solutions into
the SMB market. It is critical to HP that we leverage our VTN channel
partners to cover the SMB market. SMB represents a huge priority
for HP and more opportunity for partners to grow with HP.
What are some of the major opportunities
you see in the SMB market for 2009?
SMB is the fastest-growing market segment, estimated to grow by
5 percent to 7 percent. Part of that growth will be focused on some
of the emerging technologies such as virtualization, blades and
mobility. For HP channel partners, taking advantage of HP solutions
designed specifically with these emerging technologies will (provide)
a significant growth advantage. HP will continue to refine and create
new programs for channel partners willing to invest in this space.
How do you plan on deepening your relationship
with VTN in the future?
HP will continue to be a strong supporter of the VTN partner community.
We will work together with the team at Ingram Micro and the VTN
council to develop programs that leverage the strength of our partners,
provide the best opportunities possible, to continue to grow beyond
expectations in 2009 and into the future.
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