The art and the arena

Some Partner Connect attendees and exhibitors this year were more creative in their approach than others. Fleur Doidge reviews the show

The doors to Coventry's Ricoh Arena swung open at CRN Partner Connect with a diverse collection of exhibitors the first to hustle a range of boxes, packages and strange stand accoutrements along the red carpet on the day.

From 10am when the exhibition opened, attendees began to browse the stands, getting their eye in before the welcoming address from Knight Corporate Finance's director, Adam Zoldan, just before 11am.

Sara Yirrell, editor of CRN, said she was pleased with the turnout on the day. "As is usual with events, we garner a mix of feedback but most of what I have received has been positive," Yirrell added.

"This event was definitely a step in the right direction for Partner Connect, building on what we achieved in its inaugural year."

Some 500 visitors on the day helped to create a bustling atmosphere, particularly in the early afternoon. The seminar programme was well attended, like last year, although people were more free to move among the stands and back again to listen to a speaker if they so desired.

"Rarely have I been so busy," added Yirrell. "Throughout the day I spoke to an unbelievable number of channel players. It was so good to cement new contacts as well as renew old ones and to touch base with such a large number of our readers."

Events such as Partner Connect provide an invaluable opportunity for channel players - especially as there are now so few of them.

Zoldan's welcome was followed by Context co-founder Jeremy Davies, who gave a presentation delving deep into the latest distribution, vendor and reseller data available from the market research firm's six panels.

See Sara Yirrell's analysis on Channelweb and in CRN for a full report.

On the stands, Steve Jansky, chief executive of Nottingham-based Hello Telecom, said he was happy with the show. Footfall was possibly a bit average, but he had "seen worse" at other shows during these tough times, he added.

"We would like to get lots and lots of IT solution providers interested in selling voice. All sorts and sizes of solution providers," Jansky said in the morning. "Particularly the more cloud-based offerings. We have got three or four good leads [already by 12]."

Another vendor, telecoms specialist NEC, used a pyramid of instant noodles to lure people to its stand. The firm was launching its call management application MyCalls Manager, which it claims can be set up and installed in under four minutes, less time than instant noodles take to prepare.

Jim Eagers, marketing manager at NEC, said they had spoken to some interesting people on the day.

"We were aiming to convince IT resellers that selling into their own existing database with voice products is not as difficult as they think," he explained. "Our noodles were certainly an ice-breaker with visitors, although some did not realise they were for display purposes! Plus we were competing with an ice cream machine and a candy floss machine elsewhere.

"It was our first Partner Connect event, and we certainly met some interesting people. The layout of the exhibition and the venue itself were excellent. It was a good atmosphere, and while we could always do with meeting more people, it is too early to comment on the quality of the leads at the moment. All you need is one or two decent leads to turn into something great so we are very hopeful."

Matt Kell and Jon Palmer, account executives at Siemens Financial Services, also said they were getting value from the show, where they were working to promote Siemens' offering for financing software, maintenance or support, and services. As Siemens Financial Services was no longer connected to a company selling kit, there are no issues with conflicts of interest when it came to financing channel partners, they said.

"More are focusing on software and services, so you need a relevant solution," said Palmer. "Today we have spoken to a number of resellers, and had exactly that conversation."

Attending Partner Connect had also been valuable in terms of networking and sourcing feedback from the industry, Kell and Palmer agreed.

Innovative ideas

For coverage of the talks given by Janet Gibbons, Microsoft's director of partner strategy and programmes, and IBM's vice president for Business Partners and the mid-market, Richard Potts, see Sam Trendall's analyses for Channelweb and CRN.

Back on the trade show floor, Channelweb sought out licence reuse specialist Discount-licensing.com. Discount-licensing.com's managing director Noel Unwin and operations director Phil Hibbitt were manning the stand for the Staffordshire company, which has been enjoying considerable success with its innovative asset management offering.

"Although we have been around for six or seven years, people in the industry still say, ‘wow, I didn't know you could do that'," Unwin said.

Discount-licensing.com recycles disused licences for Microsoft, SAP and other vendors' volume-licensed software in the public sector as well as in private businesses.

According to the company, millions of pounds can be saved by legally repurposing pre-used applications -- for example, from downsized, acquired or distressed companies.

"There is a lot of fear, uncertainty and doubt out there about software licensing," Unwin added. "So it is the right time for us to do this. Our business is growing every year."

Freddie Jones, divisional director of sales and IT at network video distributor Norbain, was at Partner Connect to introduce the company to an IT channel less than familiar with the expanding opportunities in physical security areas such as video analytics, IP CCTV and access control.

Jones said the Wokingham distributor is well known among specialist physical security resellers, which consider it a broadliner, but a niche player from the IT channel's perspective.

"We believe the margin for the channel in this category is competitive. The current challenge for the security industry is around networking - an area where the IT channel can help," Jones suggested. "Norbain has 30 years of expertise in this space. We understand this stuff back to front."

Norbain is looking particularly for networking resellers, although convergence players might find some appeal in the portfolio. Products are available for SOHO firms right up to large, multi-site enterprises, Jones confirmed.

No set time was scheduled for lunch, with the BNP Paribas-sponsored café offering a range of hot meals from curry to bouef bourgignon alongside fresh sandwiches, cakes, wine and beer, coffee, soft drinks and snacks.

Chris Hardwick, general manager of the IT division for technology offerings at BNP Paribas Leasing Solutions, gave the final presentation of the day, focusing on how resellers could finance their future when lending criteria as well as cashflow from the usual channels appear to be getting tougher and tighter.

He talked about ways to integrate a leasing proposition into the sales process. "You need to look at finance to effect a sale," stated Hardwick. "It can not only speed up cash collection and offer upfront revenue, it can also improve sales conversion."

Plenty of tables and chairs were available at the café, but if attendees wanted to turn aside from the madding crowd for a moment, the Ricoh Arena's own café and lounges, including the Jaguar Lounge sponsored by Fujitsu, were just outside the hall.

Michael Keegan, executive director for the technology product group at Fujitsu, gave the penultimate keynote of the day. He spoke at length about the importance of the channel to Fujitsu, as well as the company's genesis and engineering background in both Germany and Japan.

Investing in the channel

He highlighted that the reseller channel - not just around hardware - was getting even more important for many vendors, including Fujitsu, as the years progress, so it was becoming ever more critical to get the recipe right when supporting resellers and distributors.

"Last year, Fujitsu doubled the size of its channel team and it will continue to invest in the channel throughout 2012," Keegan told attendees. "We are offering help to enable your sales team to understand the differences between traditional product or solutions sales and cloud sales."

Hugh Furness (pictured, left), sales and marketing director of Wasp Barcode Technologies, said the vendor has launched a new training programme (as reported on ChannelWeb 18 May) supported by a new headquarters in Kent.

Wasp also unveiled eight new offerings at the show to help partners target specialised scanning and imaging needs in a range of verticals, such as healthcare, retail, and other sectors where identification and labelling is of paramount importance. These would ship very soon, he said.

"We have made about four really good leads today, and we think that probably at least three of them will continue and be resellers for us," Furness said. "Some are involved in big projects [already], and are talking in depth about the solutions."

Steve Ackers, managing director of MendIT, was on a stand with RecycleIT's Robert Doherty. The companies have offerings around used kit, including remarketing. Large players such as IBM have offered such services for years, Ackers agreed, but were unlikely to be truly vendor-agnostic or do it at a more personal level for a more competitive rate.

"The show today has been fantastic," Ackers said. "We launched our product with McAfee about two years ago, but it is nice to get more in front of resellers and talk to them about our offering."

Next door was the stand of end-of-life, refurbished and overstock Dutch distributor Xeptor, which opened its UK office in Milton Keynes earlier this year. Hannah Green and Tamara de Lange (pictured to the right, with Green on left), marketing executives at Xeptor, agreed it had been worth attending Partner Connect.

"We have got some good leads and some new suppliers, although there were not as many potential resellers as we would have liked," de Lange said.

Perhaps the most original stand at Partner Connect this year was telecoms distributor Nimans' "art gallery", in which visitors were given an audio guide to talk them through some half a dozen special versions of famous works of art - including one where boss Julian Nimans replaced Andy Warhol's Marilyn Monroe in a pop art print. Other highlights included modified versions of Salvador Dali's Lobster Telephone and Damien Hirst's pickled shark, with a phone taking the place of the fish in the latter (pictured, left and below)

Kimberley Beck and Tina Collett, marketing executives at Nimans, told Channelweb the intention had been to do something really unusual to grab people's attention and introduce Nimans to more IT resellers by showcasing its creativity -- and perhaps, its sense of humour.

"A lot of people visiting are distributors and resellers who do not know us, and the response has been very positive," said Beck. "People are coming in and being rather inquisitive, partly because we closed the stand off, to encourage people to enter."