Channel awards
Two leading players come under the spotlight as Simon Meredith continues his rundown of companies in with a chance of winning a 2003 channel award.
Pursuing the Ideal plan
Ideal always tries hard to win the Distributor of the Year award, and this year the firm believes it has the best chance it has had for some time to reclaim the title.
Alex Tatham, the company's vice-president of global software distribution, said: "We have put some real effort behind some key projects to support resellers in Ideal's critical area of expertise."
In particular, he points to the success of the company's Licence Desk on the Internet (LDi) online tool.
"How software is paid for is top of the agenda in data centres and boardrooms. It's not simply the price of software, it's the aggravation and spiralling cost of managing its deployment. LDi offers a chance for resellers to add some real value for their customers," he said.
Ideal is also helping Microsoft to get its Transaction Service Programme under way and has started a scheme to ship industrial disk drives to customers outside the PC/server industry. It has organised a series of events called Think SME and produced a white paper entitled How to Target SMEs.
Ideal has also been building up its security business. "This was previously dominated by a few big players, but Ideal has brought it to everyone," said Tatham.
In addition, the company has been focusing on ways it can help resellers to reduce their costs. "There has never been a more important time for Ideal to deliver operational efficiency to every reseller in the UK," claimed Tatham.
He believes Ideal deserves to win "because we try so hard and our people deserve the recognition".
"The awards give us the opportunity to focus on our business strengths and to enjoy what we are good at," he added.
CRN analysis
Ideal has done well in a tough year for distributors. It has continued to lead the way in the storage market and has shown innovation in areas such as licensing. It is likely to attract plenty of votes and is a leading contender for the main Distributor of the Year award.
Big Blue supports small firms
IBM has been revamping its channel strategy this year, a move that has had a positive impact for SME resellers in particular, the company claims.
The IT giant has launched the Know Your IBM channel training and sales incentive plan, and has admitted PC partners into the PartnerWorld support programme for the first time. It has also extended its TopSeller scheme, which focuses on refining the specification and price on key products from each line.
These schemes aim to break through the barriers that many SMEs put up when it comes to buying IT. "We are showing our full commitment to reaching this market through our business partners," said Karen Williams, marketing manager for the IBM PC division's northern region.
It is the standard of the firm's products that makes the difference, Williams claimed. "We believe the quality of our products remains the best in the market," she said.
"This year, our new ThinkVantage technologies enable end-users to dramatically reduce the total cost of owning their PCs."
IBM thinks it has a chance of winning the SME Vendor Partner of the Year award for 2003. "SMEs are important to us. We see our relationship with business partners as key to providing local support for regional businesses," she said.
The company is keen to be recognised at this year's ceremony. Williams said: The Channel Awards are highly prestigious in the industry. Winning one would further endorse our commitment to the channel."
CRN analysis
IBM is still turning out some attractive systems and the vendor has improved its channel support this year. It has a good chance of being nominated in the SME category, and could even be a contender for Vendor Partner of the Year.
To find out more about the voting process visit www.crn.vnunet.com and click on the Awards button.