As time goes by

As you advance in years, you realise that the sayings of older folk have some truth.
Time really does go by faster as we get older.

I cannot quite believe another year has passed. And what a year it has been for CRN. Our company was acquired by Incisive Media in February and we have been through a redesign process this summer, which gave the magazine a complete facelift.

Then to top it off we had a change of editorship and a switch around in the editorial team, which meant the majority of us were in new roles, facing new challenges.
Challenge is a key word of 2007. A lot of channel firms have faced challenges in some form or other - from the credit crunch to general trading wobbles.

Some have come through unscathed, but wiser, and others have bowed to market pressure and given up the ghost.

This year has seen the demise of a number of well-established names such as Watford Electronics, Evesham, Maverick, Sentryst, Elcom and Iqon as well as smaller players such as IT247, HKW Solutions and Productivity Computer Solutions.

Consolidation was also rife, with players such as Fresh Egg and VCW, Peapod and GSS coming together through acquisition, as well as numerous vendors including Websense/SurfControl and Acer buying Gateway. Other vendors in on the acquisition act were IBM, Microsoft, Oracle and HP.

However, the channel never stands still and is always looking ahead.

Certainly at CRN, 2008 is shaping up to be a lively year with even more events to look forward to and a number of changes still to come.

I would like to thank everyone for their support in 2007 and wish you all a happy Christmas and prosperous New Year.