Computer Reseller News May 09

May 2009

Inside No choice but compliance P10>> P10>  New programme from VMware P11>>  A case for SaaS p19>> 

Catering for a R24bn market Three years down the line, Channel Capital gives an update p26>>

EDITOR’S: NOTE

PC sales fall but... S

o the prediction was right and as research firm IDC said, PC shipments for the first quarter of this year had as much shine as the global economy or the Mexican health department. Unit shipments experienced a major decline around the world and the Europe Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region followed suit. IDC had forecast that the PC market in EMEA would continue annual negative growth in sales numbers from 2008 to date of about –10 per cent, according to a recently released report by its EMEA office. This outlook looks nothing less than bleak but even on a very basic level one can say that with small format netbook sales continuing to gain momentum, this downward trend could level off and start moving upward very soon. With green computing, cloud computing and virtualisation also gaining global acceptance, technology refreshes are inevitable and this could help increase unit movement. As a matter of fact, it has been a while since major corporates and even the public sector did major technology refreshes, so I think it’s about time they stopped sweating blood out of their IT assets and pulled out their chequebooks. In addition, the telecommunications space has become very vibrant and many companies will need to refresh a lot of equipment to meet the needs of new technologies. I am sure distributors and resellers alike can take advantage of this in the interim. Not a day goes by without me seeing a ‘Neotel at work’ sign so for sure this is a clear sign that there will be a lot of kit bought by the telecommunications operator as well as its partners and end-user customers. Local companies can also take advantage of the technology needs that are coming with the construction and upgrading of stadia and other infrastructure that is connected with this year’s FIFA Confederations Cup as well as next year’s FIFA World Cup. Granted, the organisers might have some preferred hardware and software providers shortlisted, like Sony, but at least they will have to procure the kit locally and do the same for other software and hardware needs. In the end, I guess all companies can do is hope that the turnaround comes sooner rather than later and notebooks start moving as fast as netbooks.

Kaunda Chama – editor

Contents News & Analysis 4 – What’s News 5 – Distributor moves 6 – Demand Generator Talk at how Renault upgrades comms infrastructure with KSS. By CRN Staff Reporter

06

8 – Hi Five CRN Contacts:

13 – PC Market freezes. By CRN Staff Reporter

Editor: Kaunda Chama

14 – Best sellers. By Andrew R Hickey

[email protected]

26 – Cover story: Channel Capital three years later. Managing editor:

By Kaunda Chama and Stanley Chishala

Michelle Sturman [email protected]

10

Features 16 – Printers: Over the years, the art of selling printers has

Journalist:

moved from one of simply selling the end-user a printer or as

Dominic Khuzwayo

many as they need to selling them a solution. At the moment,

[email protected]

the buzz phrase seems to be ‘document management solution’. By George Maseko

Brand executive: Hellen Murahwa [email protected]

19 – Software as a Service: The concept of Software as a Service (SaaS) has been around for a number of years and

18

with the recent economic downturn, this alternative to buying Sub-editor: Jenny Bastomsky [email protected]

software has become a welcome option for many local and global businessses. By George Maseko 22 – Handheld and portable devices: As technology continues shrinking the world and advancing by

Designer:

the second, new devices or gadgets are being rolled out daily.

Spencer van Graan

What’s interesting is that it is not only the world that’s taken on

[email protected]

a new shape but how these new devices are making life more

Database & subscriptions: Bernice Tlouoe [email protected]

copyright notice CRN Southern Africa is published monthly by Systems Publishers (Pty) Ltd. The copyright of all material in this publication is reserved by the proprietors, except where expressly stated. The publisher, however, will consider reasonable requests for the use of material by others on condition that the source and author of the report are clearly attributed. Due to the nature of the newspaper print process, Systems Publishers cannot be held responsible for colour variations in printed advertising. Printed by Ultra Litho. CRN Southern Africa is a licensee of CMP Media LLC.

simple and fun. by Dominic Khuzwayo

Product and Technology 30 – LG E Series notebook 30 – Iomega Prestige portable hard drive

Parting shots 32 – Snapshot: Jan Vorster. Drive Control Corporation

Private Bag X12, Rivonia, 2128 Tel: (011) 234 7008 Fax: (011) 234 7025 Registered with the Audit Bureau of Circulation

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26

32 – Dilbert

CRN SOUTHERN AFRICA • MAY 2009

30

WHAT’S

NEWS

PC market freezes

as iData Distribution and a separate company was formed in April 2009. The formation of iData Distribution is in line with the group’s strategy to separate its direct and indirect business, the first phase of which was the formation of two divisions in March 2008 – ProScan Enterprise Mobility and ProScan Distribution. In addition, ProScan Enterprise Mobility will continue to deliver total mobile computing, barcoding and RFID solutions to end-user customers across southern Africa, sourcing its hardware products from iData Distribution.

IDC has reported that Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) PC shipments have shown negative trends in the first quarter of 2009, as anticipated. In line with forecasts, the PC market in (EMEA) displayed its first yearly decline since the 2001 recession. The CEE region remained the most affected bringing down overall EMEA results with a decline in PC shipments of -41 per cent, while MEA slowed to -6.1 per cent growth. “The business market is directly impacted by lower investment levels and consumer spending has also slowed since January. The traction for Mini Notebooks helped to sustain consumer demand in Western Europe and contain overall market contraction, and will continue to do so over the coming quarters as vendors, retailers and telco players maintain a major push,” says Karine Paoli, associate VP, IDC EMEA Systems Infrastructure Solutions.

Iomega StorCenter Pro ix4-200r Iomega has announced the latest addition to its growing network solutions portfolio with the worldwide launch of the Iomega StorCenter Pro ix4-200r NAS rack mount server. Powered by the robust EMC LifeLine operating system, the StorCenter Pro ix4-200r delivers economical file sharing, fast data throughput, cross-platform support and world-class enterprise-level features for today’s small-to medium-sized businesses and remote work groups. The new StorCenter Pro ix4-200r provides up to 4TB of networked storage to business users searching for the easiest and most technologically advanced way to share, secure and protect their most important data, including productivity application data, media files, backup data and other digital files.

Ingram Micro SA boosts smaller resellers Ingram Micro SA recently extended its support to smaller resellers to keep them strong in the channel. Hansie Fourie, CEO of Ingram Micro SA, says many smaller resellers are forced to trade with distributors under extremely onerous conditions that place them at a huge disadvantage against much larger competitors. This is because large resellers are able to offer distributors important benefits such as volume deals and insured credit terms. “We believe there is huge value to be derived from doing business with smaller resellers, and we are prepared to go the extra mile to earn their support and loyalty. We obviously want to build long-term relationships with all resellers throughout the channel, but we have a particular affinity for the smaller guys,” says Fourie.

Epson printer promo Epson has initiated a new promotion for its 24” Stylus Pro 7900 and 44” Stylus Pro 9900. These large format printers are now available with the option of Epson’s SpectroProofer tool free of charge from April until the end of June 2009. According to Epson, this will give customers an attractive professional imaging package that provides end-users with exceptional print quality and accuracy. The promotion will lower the overall investment, showing Epson’s continued support for its customer base. The Epson SpectroProofer tool offers a reliable, consistent and repeatable proof verification and printer calibration solution that makes precise remote proofing a reality.

ProScan launches iData distribution ProScan Group has announced the formation of iData Distribution to focus exclusively on servicing the reseller channel throughout southern Africa. ProScan Distribution, a division of the group, has been rebranded

COMINGS

&

New account manager at KSS

DCC appoints new Canon product specialist

KSS Technologies has announced a new account manager for the private sector, Mthobisi Mahlangu. With almost seven years of experience, Mahlangu will focus on the middle segment of this market. Stuart Cohen, sales manager at KSS Technologies, says his strong experience in the private sector and more particularly the mid-market makes him the ideal candidate for the position. “KSS focuses heavily on the South African mid-market as well as upper mid-market which offer great opportunities,’’ says Cohen. “KSS Technologies features strong converged networking skills and expertise which I believe will be invaluable to my career growth. I look forward to working with the private sector’s mid-market which definitely provides numerous growth opportunities for KSS’ business,” says Mahlangu.

Jan Vorster has joined DCC as the product specialist for Canon’s consumer imaging range. Following a successful career in the ICT industry in the UK, Vorster returned to SA a few months ago, bringing valuable expertise and insight to the distributor’s consumer imaging business. “It is a great privilege and challenge to be working on a brand like Canon. The company features one of the world’s foremost consumer imaging brands with sub-brands such as the Pixma printer range and EOS cameras already household names,” comments Vorster.

Intel brings new face Thabani Khupe has been appointed corporate affairs group manager of sub-Saharan Africa at Intel. Khupe will be responsible for ensuring Intel’s continued focus on corporate social responsibility and to lead its efforts in driving policy, education and community agendas. Khupe has extensive knowledge in the areas of community ICT programs, ICT policy in education and broadband network deployments. He holds a postgraduate Management Development Diploma from the University of South Africa’s School of Business Leadership.

4 •

GOINGS

CRN SOUTHERN AFRICA • MAY 2009

Manivassen Naicker joins DCC DCC has appointed Manivassen Naicker as product specialist for Western Digital. Naicker will be responsible for driving Western Digital’s complete product range, which includes external and internal drives, to the South African channel. Additionally, Naicker and the Western Digital team at DCC will support their resellers and retailers with important incentive campaigns such as Western Digital’s ‘Green Drive’ that promotes greener computing in a practical and proactive manner. Naicker says he believes that in a market which is under severe pressure due to the economic downturn, Western Digital’s commitment to affordable, innovative products is a key differentiator.

DISTRIBUTION SOLUTION

MOVES:

PROVIDERS

Oracle takes Sun

Printacom gets rights from TallyGenicom

Oracle Corporation has bought Sun Microsystems in a transaction valued at approximately US $7.4 billion or $5.6 billion net. This comes after IBM’s talks to acquire Sun Microsystems fell to pieces. “We expect this acquisition to be accretive to Oracle’s earnings by at least 15 cents on a non-GAAP basis in the first full year after closing,” says Oracle president Safra Catz. “We estimate that the acquired business will contribute over $1.5 billion to Oracle’s non-GAAP operating profit in the first year, increasing to over $2 billion in the second year, adds Catz. According to Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, the acquisition of Sun transforms the IT industry, combining best-in-class enterprise software and mission-critical computing systems.

Printacom Technologies has been awarded the rights to distribute TallyGenicom products in SA. Neil Rom, Printacom MD says: “We have come full circle with the TallyGenicom brand, having represented it previously, and we are especially pleased to be able to offer the channel continuity of their products, service and support.” Rom explains that bringing the brand into the Printacom fold will add greater stability, increased responsiveness to the market and reassurance for TallyGenicom customers. “We are perfectly positioned to not only continue where TallyGenicom left off, but to strengthen that position,” he says.

Nology selects Ingram Micro

WD buys SiliconSystems

Nology has appointed Ingram Micro as an official distributor of its AirLive and Billion product ranges. “We’ve been looking for a distributor to drive our networking products into the local market,” says Riaan Leuschner, MD at Nology. “Ingram Micro features a strong logistical infrastructure with a national footprint which will allow us to reach resellers in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban,” adds Leuschner. Hilton Haefele, product manager at Ingram Micro says: “Our partnership with Nology and access to the AirLive and Billion brands will add to our networking exposure and provide our resellers with a greater choice of products, particularly in the SME and SoHo market.”

Western Digital has announced the completion of a US $65 million cash acquisition of SiliconSystems, a supplier of solid-state drives for the embedded systems market. Since its inception in 2002, SiliconSystems has sold millions of SiliconDrive products to meet the high-performance, high-reliability and multi-year product lifecycle demands of the networkcommunications, industrial, embedded-computing, medical, military and aerospace markets. Vassen Naicker, WD product specialist at distributor DCC says: “The addition of solid state drives augments WD’s already extensive range of internal and external hard drives, further addressing the needs of consumers and businesses.”

HBB appoints Concilium

Intel, iBurst sign WiMAX deal

HBB, a UK-based pro audio technology manufacturer, has appointed Concilium Technologies as its exclusive distributor for SA and sub-Saharan Africa. “Concilium has an excellent broadcast and professional audio customer base in SA and its neighbouring countries, and has a proven track record in the market,” says Matthew Fletcher, international sales manager for HHB. “With an offering that has now grown to include the UDP-89 Professional Universal DVD/CD Player, the CDR-882 DualBurn CD Recorder and HHB Professional Recording Media, it’s important that HHB works with local partners who can deliver a high level of service to broadcasters and other audio professionals in their region,” adds Fletcher.

Intel and Wireless Business Solutions (WBS) signed a commercial agreement to jointly roll-out WiMAX products. The aim of this agreement is to establish a strategic and exclusive partnership between WBS and Intel to deploy leading-edge wireless broadband access for customers. In terms of the agreement, Intel will provide embedded WiMAX devices that will act as a virtual service provider for WBS solutions and services provided through iBurst. WBS is the holder of a Commercial WiMAX Spectrum Licence and last year formed a strategic partnership with Intel. “Research has shown that broadband access has a direct impact on economic growth,” says Lil Mohan, MD of Intel’s WiMAX programme for EMEA, META and sub-Saharan Africa.

DEMAND

GENERATOR:

RENAULT SOLUTION

PROVIDERS

Renault upgrades comms infrastructure with KSS R BY CRN STAFF WRITER

enault South Africa recently partnered with KSS for the upgrade of the group’s legacy PABX-based infrastructure to Cisco’s IP Communications platform call centre solution to improve efficiency and service delivery to the South African market. Implemented at the Renault head office in Bruma, Johannesburg, which has 110 users, the system had to adhere to the requirements set by Renault globally, which has a worldwide partnership with Cisco and partners in its respective countries of presence. In SA, KSS was chosen as the preferred partner for the Renault South Africa implementation. Renault’s previous legacy system was almost six years old and not digitised which meant users could not, for example, login remotely and benefit from the advantages that come from working in a mobile environment. Additionally, the company wanted to drive down the cost of international calls by using an IP-based platform and therefore the cost benefits of VoIP (voice over IP).

approach the project with the level of professionalism expected from Cisco’s partners,” says Corne Sassenberg, senior account manager at KSS. In addition to implementing the Cisco IP Communications platform, Unified Communications Manager, KSS also rolled out Cisco’s call centre solution, IP Contact Center Express, which offers automatic call distribution (ACD), interactive voice response (IVR) and computer telephony integration (CTI) on a single platform.

The solution

The benefits

“Our previous system was outdated and we felt it had started to impact our efficiency. As a result, we took the decision to upgrade our system to Cisco’s IP Communications platform that would firstly align us with our global peers and, secondly, enable us to improve our operations and service delivery,” comments Billy van Zyl, GM: Information Systems/Information Technology at Renault South Africa. “Due to Renault’s global partnership with Cisco, the process of choosing the right solution was straightforward. However, we did require a Cisco partner that could provide us with the products as well as the expertise and value add to ensure the project’s success. We decided on KSS as we felt it meets these requirements.” “Renault has an entrenched partnership with Cisco which is why it was important that we meet the stringent standards set by the organisation worldwide. We endeavoured to

Renault now benefits from a communications platform that allows the local organisation to make VoIP calls to its head office in France or other offices around the world. This not only drives down international call costs but also ensures that the South African team can communicate with its overseas peers on demand. Additionally, Renault employees can login to the infrastructure remotely when visiting dealerships allowing easy access to important information which accelerates decision-making and turnaround time. The new infrastructure also complements Renault’s manufacturing efforts which saw the locally built Renault Sandero being launched in March 2009. “With the infrastructure upgrade we are driving our commitment to the South African market which sees us investing heavily in the production of locally manufactured vehicles,” concludes Van Zyl.

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CRN SOUTHERN AFRICA • MAY 2009

“Renault has an entrenched partnership with Cisco which is why it was important that we meet the stringent standards set by the organisation worldwide. We endeavoured to approach the project with the level of professionalism expected from Cisco’s partners.” – Corne Sassenberg, senior account manager at KSS

Corne Sassenberg, KSS

HIGH FIVE: MICROSTRATEGY 9 SOLUTION

PROVIDERS

MicroStrategy 9 hits local market Extending the performance of enterprise BI. BY DOMINIC KHUZWAYO

M

icroStrategy, one of the leading providers of business intelligence software, recently released the new MicroStrategy 9 to the local market. Coming with significant enhancements, MicroStrategy 9 is designed to extend enterprise BI with enhancements for greater scalability, performance and efficiency. It is set to enable rapid development and deployment of departmental BI applications. In this month’s High Five CRN chats to Karen Bertolino channel manager at MicroStrategy.

“MicroStrategy 9 saw over 8 000 enhancements of which there are three main ones, namely the in-memory Rolap, multi-source Rolap and distribution services. It is also an easy upgrade and no migration is required.” – Karen Bertolino, channel manager, Microstrategy

CRN: How are you going to sell MicroStrategy 9? KB: MicroStrategy’s go-to-market model is both direct and indirect. Direct sales are handled through an internal sales force and indirect sales are through channel partners.

CRN: What sort of MicroStrategy 9 training programme do you have for your partners? KB: Technical skills shortages are always an issue and with an increase in BI demand, there is an increase in the need for skilled resources. We are able to overcome this with our in-house training department. IT spend (like everything else) is being looked at very carefully so quick wins, successful proof of concepts and fast implementation must underpin an even faster return on investment for the customer. Training is very important to MicroStrategy, particularly in a situation where skills are increasingly in short supply. All partner sales and technical resources are required to be certified as part of the Partner Programme. We have an easy migration path for our partners via our in-house training department. All partners are required to use this training facility to skill their resources.

CRN: What benefits is MicroStrategy 9 offering? KB: MicroStrategy 9 saw over 8 000 enhancements of which there are three main ones, namely the in-memory Rolap, multi-source Rolap and distribution services. It is also an easy upgrade and no migration is required.

CRN: Which market are you targeting with MicroStrategy 9? KB: Although we target all markets with a need for BI; with MicroStrategy 9, we are also attractive to SMEs and departmental BI implementations.

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CRN SOUTHERN AFRICA • MAY 2009

CRN: With the economic recession, what can you promise your partners? KB: Because companies need to reduce costs during an economic downturn, BI investment goes through a growth phase and this, of course, works to grow our partners’ businesses too. MicroStrategy has strengths in all vertical sectors but it is our intention to focus the South African office on mining, financial services, telcos and the healthcare industry. We are committed to independent and open systems allowing customers freedom of choice. In addition, we are committed to meeting tough challenges within BI with customers and partnerships.

ANALYSIS: HP PROCURVE SOLUTION

PROVIDERS

HP ProCurve boosts SA’s to voting system BY CRN

H

STAFF REPORTER

P ProCurve provided the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) with the networking backbone for the national and nine provincial result centres in the 2009 elections. HP ProCurve has been working closely with IEC since SA attained democracy in 1994, to assist it to deliver consistently on its mission to ensure free and fair elections in the country. “For 15 years HP ProCurve has been the network of choice for the IEC. It is an honour to partner with an organisation like the IEC which provides eligible South Africans the opportunity to participate in their country’s future,” says Thierry Dumont, HP ProCurve MEMA regional manager. In addition, for the 2009 elections, HP ProCurve equipped the National Result Centre in Pretoria with 5400zl switches in the core with 3500yl switches on the edge. The core and edge were connected via gigabit fibre uplinks.

“A portfolio of green technology services as well as energy-efficient products and solutions, HP is well positioned to serve its customers, vendors and alliance partners to enable green IT.” – Thierry Dumont, HP ProCurve MEMA The provincial result centres ran on HP ProCurve 3500yl switches. Both HP ProCurve 5400 and 3500 switches are designed to reduce power usage and offer up to 45 per cent and 23 per cent energy cost savings when compared to the industry average respectively, based on typical usage cost. These switches are aligned with HP ProCurve’s Adaptive Networks vision, enabling customers to rapidly adapt to changing needs of applications, users and the organisation. They are standards-based and offer interoperability in multi-vendor network environments. “Environmental sustainability is an essential element of global citizenship at HP and is vital to our long-term business success. With a portfolio of green technology services as well as energy-efficient products and solutions, HP is well positioned to serve its customers, vendors and alliance partners to enable green IT,” concludes Dumont.

ANALYSIS: NOVELL SOLUTION

PROVIDERS

There is no choice but to comply BY CRN STAFF

A

WRITER

s the recession continues to bite, organisations may not want to spend on compliance. But with more turning to cloud and virtual technologies in a bid to manage costs, increased risks mean many don’t have a choice.

“Many companies are actively looking for advice and support on solutions that will help them to meet their specific requirements. For example, a number of companies have moved into new territory by embracing open source for the first time in a bid to lower costs, and are particularly receptive to hearing how they can best protect their mixed IT environment,” – Markus Krauss, VP identity and security EMEA at Novell

Markus Krauss, Novell

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CRN SOUTHERN AFRICA • MAY 2009

Markus Krauss, VP identity and security EMEA at Novell, believes that resellers can benefit from navigating customers through the minefield of compliance that is emerging from the cloud. Research house IDC recently estimated business spend on cloud computing will triple over the next three years. According to Krauss, the advantages that come with storing data in the cloud are significant. Paying for computing power on tap is economically sound and accessing data from wherever you are offers a clear productivity advantage. But while the industry clambers over each other for a seat on the cloud bandwagon, many have overlooked all the opportunities cloud offers resellers. “As we fundamentally change the way we manage, access and store information it makes it more difficult to comply with even

the simplest regulations. Coupled with this shift in information management, waves of staff cuts across almost every sector add another layer of complexity to regulatory pressures. Not to mention the risk posed by departing employees who maliciously or innocently take confidential information with them when they leave,” he explains. Krauss further says that resellers that offer consulting services to organisations bewildered by the increasingly complex regulatory environment and security challenges that a new approach to IT infrastructure brings are sure to profit. “Many companies are actively looking for advice and support on solutions that will help them to meet their specific requirements. For example, a number of companies have moved into new territory by embracing open source for the first time in a bid to lower costs, and are particularly receptive to hearing how they can best protect their mixed IT environment,” he says. Krauss opines that partners will also find opportunities in helping companies to conduct risk audits and offering solutions that fit specific cultures and workflows. In addition to this, resellers can look to adding value by offering security solutions to help enterprises to adhere to new regulations and compliance standards. Automated identity management, for example, can help enterprises to control who has access to what with role-based provisioning and reporting technologies. “Resellers that can advise on the issues presented by the cloud and offer solutions that strike a balance between security, cost and compliance will be well placed to boost profits even in these tough times,” he concludes.

ANALYSIS: VMWARE SOLUTION

PROVIDERS

New programme from VMware Sharpening partners’ minds. BY DOMINIC KHUZWAYO

I

t’s about that time again when vendors draw a new a plan, come up with fresh ideas and set the record straight with their channel partners. Recently, VMware, one of the leaders in virtualisation solutions from the desktop to the datacentre, launched a new partner network programme. According to the company, the new programme will provide solutions-based competencies and an enhanced information portal to help partners build successful VMware virtualisation practices. VMware says the new partner network is a comprehensive programme that provides common infrastructure, extensive sales and services tools, margin opportunities and industry-recognised training for VMware’s entire partner ecosystem, from sales partners and solution providers to technology partners and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). “Our partners are key to providing customers with the significant business benefits of VMware virtualisation, and we are proud that our robust partner community has invested so much in our trusted, industry-leading solutions,” says Carl Eschenbach, executive VP of worldwide field operations, VMware. “We are now matching their trust with an investment of our own. The VMware Partner Network is designed to deliver competencybased training and tools to help our partners grow their virtualisation practices and continue to be trusted advisers to customers of all sizes,” adds Eschenbach. In addition, the VMware programme builds on its existing award-winning partner programme to provide support for all types of partners, including solution providers, corporate resellers, system builders, service providers, systems integrators and outsourcers, training centres, technology partners and OEMs.

“What we do at VMware we listen to our partners and we take want they wish. We always want to reward our partners for their commitment,” says Mark Groetelaars, VMware EMEA spokesperson. Groetelaars adds that all training is free through the VMware Partner University, “We offer true training to all and we want to allow our partners to clearly demonstrate their solution expertise to customers.” “VMware is aware that some partners may not meet the requirements, but we will make it clear to our customers which partners are up to speed and which are not.” The programme features benefits like competencies, new and improved information portal and the VMware Partner University will be available to all partners. In addition, the VMware Partner Network will continue to provide partners with other benefits of VMware’s partner programme. VMware has revamped its partner portal, Partner Central, which will enable partners to more easily access marketing and sales tools, leads modules, market development funds, service IP and other tools needed to grow their VMware virtualisation business. Groetelaars says the advantage plus opportunity registration programme delivers best-in-class margin enhancements to VMware partners. The advantage plus opportunity is designed to help reward partners’ investments when proactively selling VMware products and solutions with an upfront discount to distribution and back-end rebate programme paid to partners. The VMware Network Partner Programme is expected to be available to partners later in the second quarter of 2009, so the wait is almost over for partners. When asked about the local partners, Groetelaars says the company is extremely happy with its

Mark Groetelaars, VMware EMEA

partners in SA. “They are among the best in understanding the programme we have introduced and we see huge opportunities there,” he adds. However, sometimes it seems partners are not on the same page as vendors. One of the common problems that vendors are facing is partners who are not fully committed and some don’t even bother to attend training programmes. But that’s an issue for another day; let’s hope the new VMware partner programme will sharpen partners’ minds.

CRN SOUTHERN AFRICA • MAY 2009 •

11

ANALYSIS: HP SOLUTION

PROVIDERS

HP keeps its word BY DOMINIC KHUZWAYO

L

ast year HP announced its plans to continue providing support and increasing opportunities for its partners in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). This was followed by the economic crisis that weakened partners, so plans were made for partners to stay strong going into 2009. This promise didn’t disappear into thin air and HP put its money where its mouth is. The IT giant introduced a new Territory Sales Organisation dedicated to identifying new business opportunities for partners and expanded its programme for driving online purchasers to partners via the Web. CRN chatted to one of the HP execs based in Dubai who recently visited SA to train local staff. Sascha Haacke, HP territory sales manager MEMA, says: “HP’s new territory sales organisation will be responsible for driving revenue growth for HP’s enterprise server and storage business in the SMB space.” Haacke says the organisation announced last year it is no longer crawling but is up and running. “We want to attract and penetrate customers which we don’t have and get in

Sascha Haacke, HP EMEA

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CRN SOUTHERN AFRICA • MAY 2009

touch to see how we can support them.” Hosted by HP’s solution partner organisation, the team located throughout EMEA will focus on proactive customer lead generation and opportunity development among SMBs, municipalities, small service providers and outsourcers. Haacke adds that HP will continue to provide ongoing support to its partners throughout the entire sales cycle and partners will be responsible for follow-up,

changes are set to enable HP to offer its channel partners reduced costs and greater efficiencies to maximise competitiveness. Additionally, partners will benefit from an improved cash-to-cash cycle and more predictable compensation to reduce the uncertainty presented by the current economic environment. As part of the changes, HP will enhance its product portfolio strategy to increase sales opportunities for partners. Integrating

“We want to attract and penetrate customers which we don’t have and get in touch to see how we can support them.” – Sascha Haacke, HP territory sales manager, HP EMEA

customer proposals and closing deals. According to HP, efficient funnel and pipeline management as well as a dedicated sales and pricing process are key elements in ensuring smooth lead transfer and opportunity management. “HP’s investment in new channel sales resources is a direct response to partner requests for greater support in identifying new business opportunities and generating leads,” says Antoine Barre, VP, Solution Partners Organisation, HP EMEA. “HP wants to work with partners and is giving them the tools they need to drive business growth, which is particularly important in today’s uncertain economic climate,” adds Barre. In addition, HP recently refined its PartnerOne channel programme. The company is continuing to strengthen partner bonds by providing partners with a streamlined product offerings and easier business processes, as well as more competitive pricing and compensation. The

imaging and printing group (IPG) hardware and supplies partners under a single accreditation and partner programme will provide IPG-focused resellers greater flexibility to choose their own market offerings, opening up new sales opportunities. The Personal Systems Group (PSG) will introduce a new product portofolio for the small-business, small-office (SBSO) segment, combining the best of its current commercial and consumer product families. This portofolio will benefit from aggressive upfront pricing and will be available for bulk orders, helping to reduce administrative and supply chain costs for HP and is partners. This is good news for the channel, we want more vendors to go back to the drawing board, create opportunities and simplify business for partners. Fresh plans and ideas are needed, especially during tough economic times. Let’s hear what other vendors are doing for their partners. We can’t afford to see ‘solo playing’ in the channel.

ANALYSIS: IDC SOLUTION

PROVIDERS

PC market freezes BY CRN STAFF

A

REPORTER

recent IDC report has revealed that, as anticipated, Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) PC shipments fell into negative territory in the first quarter of 2009. In line with forecasts, the PC market in EMEA displayed its first yearly decline since the 2001 recession, with sales recording –10 per cent year-on-year growth in Q109, according to preliminary data released by IDC EMEA. The Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) region remained the most affected bringing down overall EMEA results with a decline in PC shipments of -41 per cent, while MEA slowed down as well to -6.1 per cent growth. Western Europe held up well with shipments decreasing by only -0.5 per cent, supported by sustained consumer demand and continued traction for mini notebooks. “This quarter delivered an expected deceleration of the EMEA PC market as the financial crisis unfolded across the region, but while emerging markets are hit the hardest, mature economies held well considering the global environment,” says Karine Paoli, associate VP, IDC EMEA systems infrastructure solutions. “The business market is directly impacted by lower investment levels and consumer spending has also slowed since January. The traction in mini notebooks helped to sustain consumer demand in Western Europe and contain overall market contraction, and will continue to do so over the coming quarters as vendors, retailers and telco players maintain a major push,” explains Paoli. Russia and Ukraine remained severely constrained and several other markets declined as well. Growth in the Middle East also decelerated, but to a much lesser extent thanks to sustained demand for portable PCs. “IDC expects the CEE region to remain strongly negative in the coming quarters, affected by the global economic downturn, which is impacting both commercial and

consumer markets,” says Stefania Lorenz, research director, Systems, IDC CEMA. PC sales in Western Europe also slowed, declining by a moderate -0.5 per cent year on year, and slightly ahead of forecasts. Commercial sales were directly impacted by the economic downturn and declined by – 14.8 per cent, affecting both desktop and portable shipments. In Western Europe, dynamics in the portable PC market continued to be driven by consumer demand, with mini notebooks contributing to impressive growth of 28 per cent despite the overall economic slowdown. The market clearly benefited from continued price declines overall. Retailers deployed aggressive deals and promotions, as cash-trapped customers were increasingly looking for a bargain and opted for low-priced entry-level systems.

“While Acer and Asus continued to lead the mini notebook market, smaller vendors, like Samsung, are taking advantage of this unique market opportunity to gain a stronger footing in the European PC market and grab market share from traditional PC makers.” – Stefania Lorenz, research director, Systems, IDC CEMA

“The mini notebook momentum continued unabated in the first quarter with shipments reaching over 2.5 million, in line with IDC’s forecast,” says Eszter Morvay, research manager, IDC EMEA Personal Computing. “While Acer and Asus continued to lead the mini notebook market, smaller vendors, like Samsung, are taking advantage of this unique market opportunity to gain a stronger footing in the European PC market and grab market share from traditional PC makers.”

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Best-Sellers Brands that have longevity and an established place outsell their market and the build up brand equity. BY ANDREW R. HICKEY

C

ompeting in the cutthroat retail landscape is not easy. But a few vendors have found their niche, outselling their chief rivals to become the best-sellers in their markets. Whether it’s Linksys by Cisco, dominating home-networking sales through brick-andmortar retailers and online e-tailers with its wireless routers and wired switches, Logitech, wearing the keyboard and Webcam crown, or Sony Electronics, taking the cake for retail sales in large flat-panel TVs and point-andshoot digital cameras, all of the best-sellers shut out the competition to reach the top of the heap. RetailVision teamed up with research firm NPD Group to honor the products that had the highest sales totals in both retail and

e-tail markets across a variety of product categories. The list of best-sellers was culled from NPD’s retail sales tracker for all of 2008.The winning vendors will pick up their awards at RetailVision Spring 2009, a conference owned by CRN parent company Everything Channel, at an awards event Florida USA. So what makes a best-seller? Stephen Baker, NPD Group vice president of industry analysis, says the answer to that question is both simple and complex: Brand equity. “Brands that have longevity and an established place in their categories tend to outsell their market over time,” Baker says.

“They build up brand equity.” Brand equity offers a number of perks that put vendors’ wares in front of more consumers than their competitors, according to Baker. “Brand equity gets you a lot of things,” Baker says. For example, established brands get prime shelf space, competitive pricing, volume, consumer recognition and, ultimately, it garners respect, Baker says. Building brand equity, however, is a challenge. Products must have the right price, eye-popping packaging and have to stand out among a sea of similar products. “Consumers tend to buy something they’re comfortable with, something they’re familiar with, something they’ve seen before,” Baker says.

Why volume matters The best-selling products of 2008 were characterised by a couple of important attributes that remind us that volume really does matter. Volume provides the scale for a brand to branch out into adjacent categories and items, and to raise its visibility among retailers. Volume provides the retailer with the customer base to be successful, and volume provides the consumer with great pricing and selection. Those traits are apparent in some of the best-selling SKUs. The strength of PNY across multiple categories, for example, shows how a brand can leverage volume opportunities from some categories into adjacent ones. PNY had the best-selling RAM SKU and the best-selling video card at retail brickand-mortar stores in 2008. It was also a leading provider of memory cards and USB drives, categories that allowed PNY to leverage brand familiarity. Logitech,

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too, shows strength across multiple product categories, delivering market-leading performance in keyboards, speakers and Web cameras. Leveraging the strength of a product or brand in one channel does not often translate across channels. For example, of the 22 categories NPD and Everything Channel looked at, in only five instances was the best-selling item the top seller in brick-and-mortar and e-tail. Flip Digital and its F260 camera is a great example of a relatively new product, in an emerging category, where the same item was No. 1 in both channel segments. Kodak’s digital frame, the EasyShare P720, captures the bestseller mantle across retail and e-tail.

And price is not the sole driver of consumer purchases: Only nine best-selling products were also the lowestpriced items in the top 10. In two instances, the winner was actually the highest-priced SKU, proving that consumers buy against needs, not Stephen Baker on price alone. Looking, then, from a macro level, we can see that what makes a best-seller is a combination of attributes from brand, channel, feature and price. And delivering on the right combination of those considerations is when volume truly matters. – Stephen Baker is vice president, Industry Analysis at NPD Group

RETAILVISION: NPD SOLUTION

Retail consultant Gary Stern, CEO of PC Universe, the former parent of e-tailer PC Universe, says to become a best-seller, vendors must capitalise on change while also offering something that’s “new, unique and

One company that has mastered that is Linksys by Cisco, the consumer arm of networking giant Cisco Systems Linksys took the top spot in four categories with its home networking gear. Bob Gregerson, Americas

“Brands that have longevity and an established place in their categories tend to outsell their market over time.” – Stephen Baker, NPD

different.” Stern noted that brand recognition also is critical. “Name recognition is very important.You also must have a good price, a quality product and nice packaging,” Stern says. Best-sellers Sony, and Logitech, are good examples. Stern added that other sales tools such as end-cap and shelf display space can make or break a product. “You have to drive the market to you.”

vice president in Cisco’s Consumer Business Group, noted that brand reputation, in addition to strong marketing and healthy partnerships, helped the company become a best-seller. “You can’t underestimate the value of the brand and the confidence that brings,” Gregerson says. Linksys by Cisco also gained an advantage by recognising the needs of its partners and retailers.

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“We’re very focused with our partners in these tough times,” Gregerson says. “Profit is very important to them. We’re thus very connected in terms of execution, what products are on the shelf. How often are we turning it? What are our fill rates? And overall working very close with our partners to ensure that we’re engaged and we’re important to them from a profit standpoint.” To engage consumers to its overall vision of the media-enabled home, Linksys focuses on key market shifts: going green, home entertainment, home audio.The ultimate goal, Gregerson said, is to help consumers navigate the “confusing sea” of home networking gear. “What we’re trying to bring to our partners out there is a true multimedia marketing experience,” Gregerson says. “That’s everything from the packaging to what’s taking place on the shelf or the end-cap that ties to that packaging; how that ties back to both our Web page to get more information, as well as how our Web connects to our partners when that consumer [makes] that decision.” Ω

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PRINTERS

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Beyond the box drop Selling more than just a printer.

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BY GEORGE MASEKO

ver the years, the art of selling printers has moved from one of simply selling the end-user a printer or as many as they need to selling them a solution. At the moment, the buzz phrase seems to be ‘document management solution’. Recent years have also seen the proliferation of smarter printers or multi-functional printers that incorporate printing, scanning, faxing and, more recently, emailing. In addition to the change in how printers or printing solutions are sold, one trend that seems to have gained popularity is renting document solutions for specified periods as opposed to an outright purchase. This has helped many resellers to maintain annuity income from the end-user customer and keep revenues steady.

“Companies want to hold on to their capital, their liquid assets, and include printing as an operational expense, which has many business benefits.” – Deyan Stojcevski, channel manager at Bytes Document Solutions According to Deyan Stojcevski, channel manager at Bytes Document Solutions, multifunctional printers or MFPs continue to do well in the colour graphics market, which has been around for some time, while the photo market for these devices is emerging in SA. He adds that resellers can win document management software and managed print services business if they find the customer’s pain points and provide them with a total solution.

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“The days of trying to sell companies an output device are long gone. Businesses need far more and people expect more than that today. They want to scan, businesses need to manage the documents and they need them to interact with different technologies in different parts of the business so that one person may print an order, scan an invoice, e-mail it to a different division, fax it to a customer and then archive it to a remote hard drive or other media. And they can do it all from one device and in the fewest steps possible since much of the processes can be automated,” explains Stojcevski. He further says that Internet or Web printing is becoming extremely popular because it is such a useful tool for many companies. “There are really two approaches to Internet printing. The first one has a user, for example, in a mobile location who needs to print. They simply look for a nearby printer using their mobile Internet connection, find one, pay for the print over the Internet and enter a code at the nearest suitable printer. The second one, which is gaining a lot of traction with customers, particularly in the hospitality industry, can offer newspapers on demand, for example,” says Stojcevski. He further states that rental and financing is more important and in demand now than ever before considering the harsh economic climate. “Companies want to hold on to their capital, their liquid assets, and include printing as an operational expense, which has many business benefits. The benefit for resellers is that although they may not have the financial muscle to offer that themselves, they can still do so if they have the backing of a reliable vendor with local interests,”

PRINTERS SOLUTION

explains Stojcevski. There is a growing trend towards software solution-based offerings and resellers that only take orders and drop boxes will see diminishing returns. Flexible solutions are particularly important so that the resellers can train salespeople and technical people on providing solutions that meet the needs of many vertical markets with the smallest amount of software customisation. Companies need solutions that cater for the remote distribution of documents from a central device that can be integrated into the processes for accounting, HR, logistics, sales and any other division of a business just as easily in the mining, financial, services, health care and other industries. The flexibility is twofold: the ability to be quickly and easily customised for those different sectors, and the flexibility to work with a variety of existing and new equipment. That’s critical. Esna-May Hattingh, HP manager at distributor Drive Control Corporation, says in a market that offers a myriad of products for various applications, printer resellers undoubtedly face an uphill battle in times of economic uncertainty. Differentiation has become a key business prerequisite and with output devices there are numerous ways to achieve this. “For one, managing printer systems can go a long way in enabling organisations to gain the most from their investment. Using the managing software provided by numerous printer vendors, your client’s total cost of ownership (TCO) will be impacted positively. “For example, enabling your customer to allow only certain individuals to use colour, you can (proactively) assist them to drive down ink expenditure which can save considerable capital outlay in the short and long term,” she explains. Also, management software provides reports and other status features such as low toner levels. Hattingh says: “We always encourage resellers to make their clients aware of the benefits of management software; it’s free and can be really beneficial when you are running on a tight budget. “In weathering the economic storm it is also important to understand the marketplace by identifying what products are more relevant. We, for example, are seeing an increase in demand for A3 scanners, which

FEATURE

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Esna-May Hattingh, HP

“Managing printer systems can go a long way in enabling organisations to gain the most from their investment. Using the managing software provided by numerous printer vendors, your client’s total cost of ownership (TCO) will be impacted positively.” – Esna-May Hattingh, HP

offer duplex scanning in the professional marketplace. This is undoubtedly an interesting trend and if one can stay on top of it, the gains can be noteworthy.” Another market mover is wireless printing. Already, vendors are offering printers, albeit single or multi-functional, in wireless versions. Each new product will therefore have a wired and wireless option which in turn enables users to provide freedom of choice. Wireless printing is not only restricted to large enterprises but also fits well with small office home office (SoHo) environments. “In addition, mobile printers with a small footprint continue to be a safe bet. Our mobile workforce continues to demand printers that are lightweight and allow them to print documents, tags, labels and photos on demand.

“Smart Web Printing is also another feature which has enjoyed prominence, allowing users to select the relevant Web pages easily and print them in the right format, without cutting off sides of the pages,” explains Hattingh. According to her, ultimately, it is up to the reseller to assist its clients in finding the best printer to suit their needs while saving costs. Resellers need to ensure that they understand their customer’s business – recommending the wrong printer can negatively impact productivity, usage and cost-effectiveness not to mention ongoing business opportunities. “Also, try to educate your customers. For example, there are inkjet printers that offer lower cost per page than some of their laserjet counterparts. Indeed, ensure that you keep

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your clients abreast of the latest technologies and advancements available to them. “Provide value adds and expert advice that will in turn establish a strong and loyal customer-base which will continue to support you in uncertain times,” she comments. Holger Groenert, manager product marketing at Itec South Africa says that in the midst of an economic slump there is more pressure than ever to increase efficiency and reduce costs. There’s is no doubt that market pressures will continue to drive organisational effectiveness and productivity increases over the next 12 to 18 months. “In the document output environment, one way of doing that is to conduct an organisational audit. The margins on equipment sales and servicing are under great pressure; when there is less money available, everybody wants to cut expenses

as much as possible. The output audit is a simple process in which a software program is installed on a company network to monitor and measure all document traffic by individual and by device, so that it can be determined who is printing, scanning, copying or faxing and where,” he explains. It’s a non-invasive process that requires little more than access to the network for a month or so. The results are then presented to and discussed with the client so that existing equipment can be optimised and the entire document output system can be regulated. Multi-functional devices can include authenticators to authenticate users. The user is identified when they log onto the system, and they have certain rights attached to their profile. These may include or exclude the right to print, fax, copy and

“There is a growing trend towards software solutionbased offerings and resellers that only take orders and drop boxes will see diminishing returns.” – Deyan Stojcevski, Bytes Document Solutions

Deyan Stojcevski, Bytes Document Solutions

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scan. It may also include the right, for example, to print no more than 500 pages per month. An audit trail ensures that records are kept for every transaction performed. Reports can be drawn for each user and billing attached to those. From a document security point of view, software is available to track which documents a user has printed. “This not only cuts out abuse, it also increases manageability, enforces accountability and reduces costs significantly. This practice also has the advantage of creating awareness about the appropriate use of office automation equipment. This in turn helps to avoid unnecessary waste that occurs when people print documents and e-mails that can just as easily be read on screen,” he says. Document management is how information is processed in a company – if someone creates a document which needs to be made accessible, how is that achieved? Most commonly, it is sent as an email which users receive and then save to a directory.

Six months later, when they need it, they have no idea where to find it. This problem can be addressed through electronic archiving, which makes note of every word in a document or e-mail and stores it in a searchable database where it can easily be found. “Document archiving systems are expensive, but over time, the return on investment becomes obvious. With the ever-increasing flood of information that crosses our desks on a daily basis, companies really have little choice but to go this route. “The benefits can be significant: invoices, for example, have to be stored for up to five years, but only for one year on paper; thereafter, they can be electronically archived, making them easy to locate and saving the business storage space. Bear in mind that electronic archiving is a complex process that relies on sophisticated systems to ensure it is 100 per cent secure and foolproof,” explains Groenert. Looking ahead, the market can expect document workflow to become far more efficient. At present, organisations and departments tend to have a few MFPs and printers dotted around their premises, with individuals having their own preferences. Typically, users choose the machine that most closely meets their needs. In the future, this will be addressed by the development of user panels that allow each individual to create their own screen. “Something else to look forward to is ‘follow me printing’, which will enable users to send a print job to the network and release it wherever they are. If you’re based in Johannesburg and are going to a meeting in Cape Town, for example, you can send the document to the network and print it when you arrive at your destination,” he says. Essentially, both document and device management is set to become increasingly Web-based, which will enable users to scan directly to websites. The reason for this is simple: users are becoming more familiar with the Web browser interface. This will see people placing information on their Facebook page, for example, enabling others to pick it up there, or choosing to scan it to a company directory, enabling other users to download it via the Web.

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Why buy software? When you can have it served to you. BY GEORGE MASEKO

T

he concept of Software as a Service (SaaS) has been around for a number of years and with the recent economic downturn, this alternative to buying software has become a welcome option for many local and global businessses. Although not an entirely new concept, the SaaS model is certainly redefining the way software is purchased and deployed in many organisations. Initially starting out as an application service provider (ASP) model, the SaaS model has evolved into a hosted model with more flexibility than the former one-sizefits-all model. And even though there has been some concern around the security risks of this phenomenon in the past, the role of SaaS has certainly progressed and will continue to thrive as it has become key for the way organisations address their software requirements. At the moment, however, many believe that although SaaS is a great innovation for businesses that rely on information technology to keep their operations running smoothly and cost effectively. Yet, while the services on offer are a positive step forward, there are business risks associated with using the SaaS model of service delivery that many companies fail to address. The SaaS model allows companies to lease IT services from a central provider, using applications and storage remotely. The user does not need any servers or applications, saving on hardware, human resources and licensing costs without losing functionality. Moreover, the problem of how to deal with obsolete technology is removed as the service provider deals with those issues. “SaaS is a great option for companies that need IT services, especially in a global recession where capital expenditure is being cut,” says Amir Lubashevsky, executive director of Magix Integration. “Using the SaaS model, companies do not need to make

investments in IT infrastructure or resources, but are still able to use the latest and best applications at all times on a rental or lease basis.” SaaS is cheaper, especially in the short term, but lower cost does not mitigate all the risks. As with traditional outsourcing, SaaS requires companies to hand their confidential data to a third party, which then takes responsibility for the security, accuracy and safekeeping of the information. According to him, this is an enormous risk. Even in traditional outsourcing, the industry has seen companies losing their data when service providers went bankrupt or when the customer wanted to move to a new provider. Similar risks apply to the SaaS model for any company abdicating accountability for its own data. “A business cannot allow its SaaS provider to retain sole responsibility for its information,” states Lubashevsky. “It is the company’s responsibility to protect its data from loss due to a disaster or any other cause, whether using the SaaS model or not.”

Amir Lubashevsky, Magix Integration

“SaaS is a great option for companies that need IT services, especially in a global recession where capital expenditure is being cut.” – Amir Lubashevsky, Magix Integration This may mean a separate backup and business continuity strategy that is maintained over and above the SaaS services. Whatever the particular solution chosen, corporate governance stipulations will hold each business executive responsible for the safekeeping of critical and sensitive data. “SaaS is a great concept if it is done properly and the associated data risks are mitigated,” says Lubashevsky. “The company is able to obtain all the functionality available in the latest versions of the best applications

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without the costs associated with licensing, hardware and technical human resources.” Steven Cohen, Softline Pastel MD opines that SaaS and what people are already using in their businesses (which either came off a disk or a download from the vendor) are not as different as people are being led to believe. They are both just points on the continuum of software delivery and shouldn’t be seen as mutually exclusive.

For young people just starting up their business after their university years of Googling just about everything, SaaS is going to be where they want to start.” – Steven Cohen, MD, Softline Pastel

Steven Cohen, Softline Pastel

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For vendors, the only priority has to be providing the customer with the easiest to use, and most effective and affordable solution – before anyone else gets in ahead of them. And, because each customer defines easy to use, effective and affordable in their own unique way, the only way to give them what they want is to give them choices. “For instance, a small business trying to be competitive in the context of the slow and unreliable South African telecommunications infrastructure probably has more use for an accounting package delivered as SaaS than a large business. That’s because a small business might have only 10 invoices a month whereas a large business has a department full of accounting and bookkeeping clerks and even bigger departments full of sales and service people who are generating orders and invoices minute by minute,” explains Cohen. He adds that the small business won’t collapse if the system is offline for an hour or two, or even very slow – and so it might opt for SaaS more readily than the large business, if only for the savings on software licences and maintenance. The large business cannot afford any uncertainty such as slow connectivity or downtime when it comes to its mission-critical systems like accounting software. There is, however, more flexibility when it comes to non-core systems such as sales force automation.

“There’s also a generational issue. For most of our 180 000 customers, for instance, their in-house system is nicely bedded down – so there’s no motivation to move to SaaS. For young people just starting up their business after their university years of Googling just about everything, SaaS is going to be where they want to start,” he says. Cohen notes that again, the issue is choice – not how clever the software is. It would be foolish to try and force customers one way or the other. This makes it even more foolish to commit yourself as a vendor to one ‘model’ or the other. “What’s really nice about all this is that modern software development platforms allow for portions of overall solutions to be hived off and delivered as SaaS. We did that with our CRM package a long time before SaaS became the latest buzzword. The point being that hybrid systems are not only possible, they’re actually the very best way of giving customers the choices they deserve,” he claims. It’s important, though, for the buying public – whether it’s a one-man business or a large corporate – to know that they really don’t have to choose between SaaS and other forms of software delivery. They can have whatever suits their business best right now. Deon Robertson, CEO, Preserv8 comments that many factors contribute to the ownership cost for enterprise solutions. These include (but are not limited to): physical capacity relative to physical space requirements, performance capacity for data transfer and system reaction time, software maintenance and updates, expandability and flexibility, hardware purchase price, software licensing costs, hardware expansion or upgrade costs, administrator training, power utilisation, day-to-day management costs, and third-party costs for installation, configuration and integration. Three of these factors, namely training, power utilisation and day-to-day management, have a large and increasingly critical impact on TCO. As defined by Gartner, TCO is total IT costs over time. Costs associated with an IT investment include capital investment, licence fees, leasing costs and service fees, as well as direct (budgeted) and indirect (unbudgeted) labour expenses. TCO

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attempts to capture all of the costs of an IT investment throughout the lifetime of the asset. Costs are then annualised to normalise labour and capital costs. Keith Fenner, VP: Strategic Sales, Softline Accpac, says that companies need to adopt a broader, more holistic approach to the evaluation of SaaS. SMEs in particular should focus on their business requirements both in terms of scale and complexity over the long term when considering on-demand software, he says. “Companies are thinking about SaaS because of things like upfront hardware and software costs, ease of implementation and the ability to ‘test drive’ the application. The trick, however, is to figure out whether your business is suitable for a SaaS implementation,” he comments. Fenner says lower cost is perceived to be one of the most obvious advantages of SaaS. However, he notes that it shouldn’t be assumed that on-demand software will always provide a lower TCO than on-premise solutions. Customisation and integration requirements, for example, can have a significant impact on the TCO of certain SaaS solutions. “Integration capabilities should be an integral part of the evaluation when deciding between on-demand and on-premise deployment methods. On-premise has traditionally been viewed as the category winner in this area while on-demand, by contrast, has been more typically seen as a stand-alone solution owing to its relatively limited integration capabilities,” he explains. Fenner comments that companies should evaluate SaaS and on-premise options carefully from a medium-to-long-term perspective and conduct a detailed analysis of all costs associated with both. As with on-premise solutions, feature sets and product capabilities vary significantly between on-demand providers and it is therefore important to make a likefor-like comparison when examining cost. Hubert Wentzel, divisional director, EOH Consulting, believes that the uptake of SaaS among South Africa’s large corporates is slow mainly because it can’t deliver the high degrees of customisation these organisations are looking for. Also, those who handle sensitive data are still uncertain about handing it over to a hosted service provider.

SMEs, on the other hand, are more likely to adopt SaaS for various reasons. Many are attracted to the ‘pay-as-you-go’ aspect of SaaS, seeing it as a way to avoid the large upfront investment required for software licences and hardware. Also, because on-demand deployments are typically pre-configured and pre-installed, they are relatively speedy. The competitive advantage for many small companies is their ability to be agile in responding to opportunities, and a deployment that takes months can hamper this ability. “In addition, unlike traditional software, the hosted nature of SaaS applications ensures that vendors can release features fast and without any expensive investment on the part of the users. There is no need for a long wait to get a new version of the software with new features. The instant feedback nature of this delivery model helps vendors shape and reshape their products and deliver these to users faster,” Wentzel says. He also warns that the on-demand model isn’t necessarily right for every small business. Investing in a SaaS application is no different from buying traditional software and companies need to take the time to ensure it meets their long-term needs. On-premise software also has several benefits, like the fact that it is considered a more cost-effective alternative over three to five-years, and it gives the user more local control, a deeper functionality set, faster speed and better ability to scale.

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Keith Fenner, Softline Accpac

“Companies are thinking about SaaS because of things like upfront hardware and software costs, ease of implementation and the ability to ‘test drive’ the application.” – Keith Fenner, VP: Strategic Sales, Softline Accpac Being unique and having your own business process requirements in not necessarily cost justifiable anymore. Organisations should learn from best practices deployed by the packaged applications. With an expanding range of viable SaaS solutions now available, small businesses need to evaluate the most appropriate service for their environment by considering the cost, complexity, flexibility and integration issues associated with today’s online services and, ultimately, doing what is best for their business.

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The new

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life

Portable gadgets change the game. BY DOMINIC KHUZWAYO

A

s technology continues shrinking the world and advancing by the second, new devices or gadgets are being rolled out daily. What’s interesting is that it is not only the world that’s taken on a new shape but how these new devices are making life more simple and fun.

We’re now living with the reality of true mobility where people move from one place to another easily, especially with the introduction of smartphones, PDAs, ultra-mobile PC etc. These days one device allows people to multitask, access the Internet, gaming, listen to music, take

“Convergence promises to simplify and offers the flexibility of allowing people to be more productive and work wherever they are, including at home.” – Scott Gilbert of Kethea, Jabra’s representative in SA.

Scott Gilbert, Kathea

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pictures etc. This has resulted in both young and old people being glued to these devices and some have even blamed these devices for infecting people with an anti-social disease, but that’s a debatable issue. “Convergence promises to simplify communication and offers the flexibility of allowing people to be more productive and work wherever they are, including at home,” says to Scott Gilbert of Kethea, Jabra’s representative in SA. Convergence occurs when various products are integrated to form one multi-use device that offers the advantages of them all. “Today, businesses rely heavily on both voice and data communications, and use both fixed and mobile network services. If we consider that most corporate employees have desk phones, mobile phones in their pockets and IP phone services like Skype on their laptops – and this is then coupled with e-mail and text and maybe even instant messaging (IM) blog posts and social networking – then we can see the impact of convergence,” says Gilbert.

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Gilbert adds that convergence not only affects the tools themselves, but also the ways in which we use them. As more people give in to the ‘on-the-go’ mobile culture, we become surrounded by an abundance of new communication tools entering the market.

Trends If one looks at cellphones, gone are the days when you needed a phone just to make and receive calls. “Traditionally, a handheld device’s unique selling point was the megapixels of its camera but GPS technology, 3G and touch screen are the most sought after features in these devices today,” says Patrick Reeves, HP category manager, Axiz. “Smartphones continue to dominate the handheld market as cellular service providers bundle them into packages and therefore into the budgets of many cash-strapped consumers,” he says. Reeves adds that smartphones mirror the working world today, fast and mobile – and the benefits are obvious. “I believe consumers can achieve equal mobility and cost benefits with a regular cellphone and notebook. Netbooks are small wonders which are the ideal companion PC for the highly mobile professional. An HP Mini Note, for example, weighs only 1.19kg and is only 27mm thick,” he says. According to Gilbert, another gadget that has taken on the challenge of true convergence head on is the Bluetooth headset. “Bluetooth headsets are indicative of mobile, multifunctional communication, for instance, a multi-use headset, which allows for the multi-pairing of devices through Bluetooth technology ensures that communication is one step away be it over a laptop, PC, desk phone or cellphone.” He adds that convergence through wireless headsets enables and encourages users to do what they want with their lives and to reach their full potential.

Safety However, before one starts jumping into reaching full potential stage, security is one of the things to be taken into consideration with these devices. Is the device set up such that the process of resetting a forgotten

Patrick Reeves, Axiz password deletes all data? Is the device set to lock after a period of inactivity? Amir Lubashevsky, executive director of Magix Integration says, “Uncontrolled mobile device usage is one of the worst risks to the security of business data in the 21st century.

“I believe consumers can achieve equal mobility and cost benefits with a regular cellphone and a netbook.” – Patrick Reeves, HP category manager, Axiz Be it a USB memory stick, a cellphone or even an iPod or MP3 player, these gadgets can hold thousands of telephone books worth of data in a device that is easily hidden to evade detection.” What’s more, all PCs and laptops easily connect to these devices making stealing data or installing malware onto the corporate network child’s play. Mitigating this threat is

CRN SOUTHERN AFRICA • MAY 2009 •

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HANDHELD

AND PORTABLE DEVICES FEATURE

SOLUTION

PROVIDERS

no simple task, he says. Lubashevsky adds that companies should protect themselves from mobile devices by auditing their security for weaknesses. This will help to identify which PCs, laptops, thin clients and servers have an easily accessible USB port, and which employees use these machines and have authority to access sensitive data. Pinpointing where the weaknesses are is the first step to security.

“Uncontrolled mobile device usage is one of the worst risks to the security of business data in the 21st century.” – Amir Lubashevsky, executive director, Magix Integration

The market

Amir Lubashevsky, Magix Integration

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CRN SOUTHERN AFRICA • MAY 2009

According to IDC, the handheld device as currently constituted, will continue to decline as users transition to other devices that meet their needs. Handheld device vendors, hard pressed to remain in this market, will either decrease shipment volumes or withdraw from the market altogether. Despite this dour outlook, there will remain a group of loyal users and vendors that will keep the market alive, but at a steadily decreasing rate. One major consideration for the handheld device market is convergence and how other devices using the architecture of handheld devices, namely portable media devices and mobile Internet devices, have begun to gain salience in the marketplace. IDC says the softening of the cellphone market is a sign of the challenging economic times ahead and may be a bellweather for several mobile submarkets. The worldwide cellphone market felt the full effects of the economic crisis in the fourth quarter of 2008 as shipments fell 11.6 per cent year on year. Johan Botha, a Standard Bank economist, says that data for the first quarter of 2009 will show that the country is now in an official recession. And retail sales are expected to be muted. “We are seeing our sales of new laptops drop dramatically. We are anticipating a

40 per cent drop in sales for this year. This shows how deep the bad economy is cutting into retail sales,“ he says.

Opportunities It is not all doom and gloom, IDC reported that converged mobile devices, or smartphones, will demonstrate solid growth and will help to keep the overall cellphone market out of the doldrums. 3G investments will continue, LTE will finally be introduced to the world, and the promise of WiMAX and unified communications will take one step closer to reality. In addition, WiMAX is expected to dominate in the mobile broadband market, allowing the entry of new challengers into the mobile broadband arena. “With broadband access services, local populations may be empowered with communication capabilities which provide the information to strengthen social, economical, educational and health trends,” says Rick Rogers, director, Alvarion. “In the emerging markets, where little infrastructure is available yet economies are growing, WiMAX-based communication networks can promote equal opportunity communications,” he adds. Rogers comments that in emerging makets, the lack of developed communications infrastructure is dramatically reducing the ability of achieving or strengthening economic development, improving social well being and enhancing personal communications. However, by the looks of things handheld device seems to be tapping quietly into those emerging markets. If a granny in a rural area can own a cellphone; surely, a GPS for my brother using a bicycle is on its way or iPods for boys in the mountains. Nowadays, if you are not listening to music on your phone or MP3 player you’re probably surfing the Internet with your Blackberry Curve or Nokia E71, and if not one of the above, you are probably watching movies with your iPod or travelling with your PSP. This is the new life, where we take pictures with our laptops, call friends and family with Skype or work from home.

ANALYSIS: SOLUTION

PROVIDERS

Go green to make the green – Integr8 IT BY CRN

W

STAFF WRITER

hile some people may be surprised to learn that environmental sustainability and financial sustainability are not mutually exclusive, one of the more prominent global trends driving ICT distribution and supply is the conscious development and release of eco-friendly infrastructure. So claims Robert Sussman, joint CEO at Integr8 IT, SA’s largest privately owned national BEE ICT network integration and infrastructure management specialist. According to Sussman while there is an increase in general awareness of environmentally-friendly technology supply and use in the South African market, it has yet to be instilled as a recognised, fully established and policy-driven revenue stream in corporations. This is partly why Integr8 IT has embarked on an aggressive ‘green technology’

campaign to engage with its market about the advantages of environmentally friendly technology solutions, and what it means to invest in energy-efficient computing. As a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner Integr8 IT’s stance on green technology is very much in line with Microsoft’s ongoing initiative to assist the market in dealing with complex business issues such as the economy, the environment and unpredictable energy prices. The objective of the campaign is to assist organisations to reduce the energy consumption of technology by taking advantage of built-in power management features, increasing server use through virtualisation technology and managing IT infrastructure for efficiency. “Two key business silos within the Group, Integr8 IT Professional Services and Integr8 IT

Sales, will together drive solutions and selling opportunities to accommodate and instil the merits of adopting a more ‘green’ or eco-friendly IT environment,” says Sussman. “Every business, irrespective of size, wants to use energy and resources wisely. Integr8IT as a Microsoft Gold Partner can help businesses to implement environmentally sustainable business policies and practices through environmental management.” “The fact is that there are a number of IT solutions available that deliver significant savings through a combination of energy conservation, improved workflow and streamlined deployment. Unprecedented public awareness of environmental issues means there’s a social dividend to be gained by companies that go green, including being able to attract great talent,” he continues.

ANALYSIS: TECHNOLOGY SOLUTION

IP Telephony BY CRN

W

PROVIDERS

vs Presence

STAFF WRITER

hat’s more ‘fundamental’ to deploying unified communications (UC) – Presence or IP telephony (IPT)? The answer is that solutions embracing both technologies are required to truly deliver on the promise of UC, while it is important that the right versions of these underpinning technologies are selected and deployed appropriately. According to Andy Bull, director for Mitel South Africa, the business case for IPT for corporate communications is well established. As a result, IPT has displaced legacy digital technologies as the de facto standard for business communications. While interworking issues remain between certain vendors’ IPT implementations, the standards continue to mature to ensure interoperability with legacy systems and new communications applications. “Presence technology is less mature within the enterprise and originally arose from a simple desire to improve the effectiveness of consumer instant messaging. Presence is gradually infiltrating enterprise messaging

systems, because knowing whether someone is available before you try to reach them dramatically improves communications effectiveness,” he says. He adds that what is not always recognised is that enterprise “presence” functionality has existed for a long time in the form of voice communications. A busy light on a phone indicating that a colleague is engaged is a well-established form of presence information. “Similarly, call waiting tones, redirection to voicemail, call forward, no answer, etc. all represent communications functions influenced by user status. These capabilities are already embedded into enterprise IPT systems. So the real question is not ‘presence or IPT’ but rather how to integrate the two presence environments to ensure the most comprehensive UC performance,” notes Bull. Good teamwork is essential to most organisations. However, in today’s complex business environment, team members are often scattered around the world, working in

different time zones, departments, offices, including home offices and on the road. “With UC and presence tools that allow each individual to indicate whether they are available to communicate at any given time and what device they can communicate with, team members can collaborate with their colleagues without wasting time with messages and telephone tag. The ideal vision for UC provides a converged communications infrastructure that streamlines communications between people and organisations, regardless of the medium, mode, platform, device or location. This leads to improved productivity, enhanced customer service, reduced costs and ultimately improved business process integration,” Bull explains. He concludes that a robust and flexible presence infrastructure, that leverages the strengths of IPT call status information as well as presence information from evolving presence engines, presents dramatic opportunities for more effective enterprise communications.

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COVER

STORY:

CHANNEL CAPITAL

Catering for a R24bn Three years later, we find out where Channel Capital is.

“A lot of SME resellers are governed and held together by a central figure and if that person is temporarily or permanently incapacitated, they take major strain and this product will cover companies in case of such occurrences.” – Ron Keschner, MD, Channel Capital 26 •

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COVER SOLUTION

n market BY KAUNDA CHAMA

T

AND

STANLEY CHISHALA

hree years ago, the MB Technologies group came to market with what to some seemed like a long shot and to others was almost heaven sent, especially in a global market that was moving head-first into a recession. This business was none other than Channel Capital, a financial institution formed by the Tarsus arm of MB Technologies to provide much-needed financial services to the channel sector. CRN spoke to Channel Capital’s MD Ron Keschner to find out just how successful the venture has been and to find out a little more about where the company intends taking the business in the near future. He explains that the main intent of setting up the business was to show the market that Tarsus was committed to becoming a valueadded distributor. At the time, the distribution company had already set up its channel business college, which is focused on training personnel in the channel sector both on the sales and technical side. “After looking at this in addition to our loyalty programme, we as a company decided to take care of what we view as one of the channel’s major pains which is the availability of finance on all levels. “The one thing we initially noticed was that although the channel is a professional space, we do not treat each other professionally like a lot of other disciplines do. For instance, the medical and legal disciplines have their own medical aids and pension funds that look after them. We do not treat ourselves as a family,” he explains. Keschner says the intent of Channel Capital is twofold; first of all it is intended to minimise the risk for the reseller and, second, to make it attractive to work in

the channel. The first issue the company addressed was cash flow, specifically for the resellers that were struggling to get their customers to pay them on time resulting in the reseller being caught in a serious cash flow bind. “The kind of margins we work with in the channel do not provide for us to get late payments, our type of business is very tight,” he notes. Keschner explains that the first product, targeted at this issue that the company launched was EPT or Extended Payment Terms, which it says is performing very well. “Provided the reseller is covered by CGIC and has a good credit rating we have allowed them to extend their terms up to 120 days. In cases where they are dealing with a government customer for example, who pays in about 105 days, they can come to us and negotiate a 60-, 90- or 120-day payment,” he says. The second offering, Rental Asset Finance, is targeted at asset rental financing where

STORY:

CHANNEL CAPITAL

PROVIDERS

books but it has more money to spare and can upgrade its IT assets at almost any time. In August last year, the world experienced the first shock waves of the credit crunch and the biggest dent was felt in the financial services space. Its impact on US and European banks gradually filtered down to the local space, albeit on a small scale. “Of course this has had an impact on us because we use the banks’ money; we just package it differently for them when we offer packages to the channel. Banks greatly reduced the work they do through brokers and we are lucky that we are not viewed as a broker because we are part of a supplier,” he explains. Although the fact that brokers have been sidelined has worked in Channel Capital’s favour, it has also become four to five time more onerous for financial houses to grant loans. Current approval rates compared to the corresponding period in 2008 have dropped by up to 50 per cent depending on the industry that wants to borrow funds.

“Provided the reseller is covered by CGIC and has a good credit rating we have allowed them to extend their terms up to 120 days. In cases where they are dealing with a government customer for example, who pays in about 105 days, they can come to us and negotiate a 60-, 90- or 120-day payment.” – Ron Keschner, MD, Channel Capital resellers advise their end-user clients to rather rent than purchase their IT equipment outright. “I believe that rental finance should be the only way that large corporates buy IT equipment because if you look at products like notebooks, the typical vendor can bring about three upgrades into market a year. The problem with this is that each upgrade brings the value of the previous product down. When it comes to devaluing equipment, there is nothing worse than IT,” he explains. Keschner notes that it has become almost impossible to get a projected return on investment from a piece of IT equipment in today’s environment. By renting, not only is a company keeping a devaluing asset off its

However, the panic seems to be subsiding although banks continue to be extra cautious. A few years ago a company did not need to present annual financial statements to finance a deal worth less than R250 000, but today companies are required to do so regardless of the size of the deal. According to Keschner, it is estimated that almost 30 per cent of all IT deals in SA are asset finance and it is estimated that that the local channel is worth about R24bn, which gives Channel Capital about R8bn in potential business in the channel alone. “Channel Capital is part of the channel so let’s rather keep that money in the channel,” he says. With its first two products offerings receiving a very good response, Channel Capital’s

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STORY:

CHANNEL CAPITAL

road to becoming a fully fledged financial house continues with the next suite of products the company plans to launch. The most recent offering Cash Injector allows Channel Capital, through its financial institution partner, to purchase a reseller’s debtor’s book and pay them 70 per cent of that value within 24 hours; the rest of the money will be collected over the period agreed on by Channel Capital and will be paid to the reseller, less costs, which could be about three

reseller’s equipment gets damaged by weather or by fire. The company has also launched a product called Personal Sure, which is a form of personal insurance for anyone working in the channel space. It works like any other product that protects ones household goods and motor vehicle. Keschner says that despite the way the global economy has taken a turn for the worse, its past three years as a start-up

“The more advanced computers become, the more demand grows. I don’t think there is a business out that can operate without computers so I don’t think this crisis will adversely affect our sector. It will have an overall impact but we will survive.” – Ron Keschner, MD, Channel Capital

per cent, on collection. Resellers can also track this online through the company’s website. At the time of the product’s launch, Keschner says the company had a huge response from resellers wanting to take on the product. “By using Cash Injector, resellers can focus on what they do best and we will concentrate on getting their money into their accounts,” he notes. After carrying out extensive research, Channel Capital discovered that that less than four per cent of resellers have cover on their debtor’s books. “If most of these resellers’ large clients go belly-up, they are in deep trouble, so we came up with a product through another financial services partner called Channel Sure which they can use to cover either certain key accounts or their entire debtor’s book,” says Keschner. The company believes that all these products will make the channel, once again, a very desirable place to work. The next product the company launched was Business Sure, a business insurance product specifically designed for the reseller, a product that will come in very handy because a lot of IT distributors have been the target of hijackings in recent months. In addition, it serves as a form of insurance in cases where a

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CRN SOUTHERN AFRICA • MAY 2009

financial institution specifically targeted at the channel have been relatively smooth. “The more advanced computers become, the more demand grows. I don’t think there is a business out that can operate without

Ron Keschner, Channel Capital

computers so I don’t think this crisis will adversely affect our sector. It will have an overall impact but we will survive,” he says. He adds that the industry is doing fine and the only back-end problem it might have is that it works with financial institutions. “However, even through the storm, our pipeline has been building all the time so demand has actually been growing faster than our capacity to provide for it,” notes Keschner. In addition, from November last year to February this year, the state of the banking sector resulted in Channel Capital’s clients being paid late, but according to him things have picked up again. Keschner says the Channel Capital business has actually been profitable since its fourth month of business and anticipates increasing its 40 per cent year-on yeargrowth to 80 per cent this year. Interesting enough, there have been about six to seven financial houses that also targeted the channel/IT space but not exclusively that have gone out of business between last year September and April. The list includes the likes of Horizon Asset Finance, NEFCO, Stratfin and Ifin. Channel Capital sees itself as the fourth arm of the channel and does not go directly to the end-user. Keschner says there are a lot more products coming from the company, including an income protector. “A lot of SME resellers are governed and held together by a central figure and if that person is temporarily or permanently incapacitated, they take major strain and this product will cover companies in case of such occurrences,” he says. As a channel financial institution that is owned by a channel player, Keschner says that he wants, in the next three years, to see Channel Capital being only a phone call or click away for any channel financial need. With much-needed finance in very short supply in the channel at the moment, or even anywhere in business to be precise, it will be interesting to see how Channel Capital grows in the next three years, especially once the global economy picks up. We might even see some competitors entering the space.

ANALYSIS: F1 GUEST

COLUMN

The brains behind Brawn GP In 1954 the Mercedes-Benz team made its debut at the French Grand Prix, fielding the W196 model. Drivers Juan Manuel Fangio, a previous world champion, and Karl Kling dominated the race, finishing a convincing first and second. It took 55 years before another new team to Formula One was able to repeat this astonishing feat. Coincidentally, the cars were also Mercedes-Benz powered.

BY GRAHAM DUXBURY

W

hen the Honda Formula One team withdrew from the sport in late 2008, few shed a tear for the underperforming outfit. Even F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone twisted the knife, saying that the Japanese car manufacturer – which posted dismal 2008 results – “wouldn’t be missed because it was a terrible example to other teams in terms of financial investment and results.” He pointed out that Honda “wasted millions” in the 2007 and 2008 seasons with little to show for the team’s efforts All this represented bad news for Ross Brawn. He had joined the team in late 2007 as technical director. His job was to turn the team’s fortunes around. Much was expected of him because he brought with him valuable experience gained in guiding Michael Schumacher to seven world championship victories, initially with Benetton (1994 and 1995) and then with Ferrari from 2000 to 2004. Brawn was seen by many as a vitally important part of these successes – which also included the 1999 constructors’ championship for Ferrari – because of his unique ability to devise race-winning strategies. As Ferrari’s technical director he was credited with helping Ferrari regain its former glory, working side-by-side with South African Rory Byrne and team principal Jean Todt. Brawn left this ‘dream team’ when Schumacher retired at the end of 2006 and took a year’s sabbatical. Was he disappointed that he didn’t get the ‘top job’ at Ferrari – which eventually went to Stefano Domenicali once Todt had moved on? Or was he looking for a new challenge? If it was the latter, he took a huge step into the unknown – and shouldered massive responsibilities – by joining Honda. The team was in disarray and its technical department in turmoil. This stemmed from

the appointment, in 2006, of Shuhei Nakamoto as technical director and the brutal demotion of well-respected Geoff Willis. The atmosphere was less than conducive to great team work. Recognising that technical problems were key to its poor performances, Honda began recruiting staff from across the Formula 1 paddock. Unfortunately, Brawn’s appointment came too late to influence poor decisions already taken and he made little difference to the team’s fortunes in 2008, simply playing the cards he was dealt. Realising that radical changes were needed, Brawn started the design of the 2009 car with a clean sheet of paper. However, with the shock withdrawal of Honda, his efforts appeared to have been wasted. He was effectively out of the sport. Few believed him when he said he had a race-winning car in the wings. But he had faith in his design and on 5 March 2009 Brawn proved it with the announcement of his 100 per cent buy-out of Honda F1 and an entry into the F1 World Championship under the Brawn GP banner. Many aspects of Honda F1 were retained, including the experienced driver line-up of Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button. Brawn GP, however, chose to source its engines from Mercedes-Benz. Without much of the end-of-season testing enjoyed by the other teams and with a new engine to be mated to the rear end of a car designed to accept the Honda power plant, the team was given little chance of success. But on 11 March, just a week after the team was officially formed, Button set the fastest lap time at an F1 test session in Barcelona. The new car – the Brawn BGP001 – had turned a wheel in anger for the first time only two days earlier, yet it

finished over a second ahead of Felipe Massa’s Ferrari and Robert Kubica’s BMW. The question on everyone’s lips was could this performance be repeated? At the follow-up test in Jerez, Barrichello began where Button left off in Barcelona – at the top of the timesheets. Could Ross Brawn’s team make good on its dream start in Formula 1 by running strongly at the opening Grand Prix of the season in Australia in just 10 days’ time? It could – much to the delight of new sponsor Sir Richard Branson who watched the newly ‘Virgin’ decaled cars finish first and second in a race that was led from start to finish by Button. What is Brawn’s secret? Many see his decision not to run the optional kinetic energy recovery system (KERS) as central to his cars’ fast pace. KERS is a heavy system which could upset the delicate ‘balance’ of the car which is needed for optimum handling. But this is just part of what is undoubtedly a complex equation which also includes Brawn’s brilliant interpretation of the regulations concerning the rear ‘diffuser’ or under-body aerodynamic device. This aspect of the car came under scrutiny by the officials who ruled that it was legal last month. Regardless of this, Brawn GP has made a significant addition to the record books – and has brightened the Grand Prix scene. I’m sure we won’t have to wait too long for another dominant performance. Enter the Netgear/ Duxbury Networking GP Prediction Competition. Great prizes on offer to top eight finishers after every Grand Prix. Visit www.duxbury.co.za/formulaone for more details.

CRN SOUTHERN AFRICA • MAY 2009 •

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Highly Recommended

Reviews by: Dominic Khuwayo

Life is good The LG E series. Like most people that I have talked to, I also feel the Easter holidays were too short this year. I wish I could travel without worrying about work and meeting deadlines. But then again, who’s going to pay for the trips if am not here and typing this article. However, I did have some cash and LG made it even better by giving me an E300 notebook to review. The LG E300 notebook with its simple and comfortable look and no flashy or complicated design has been in the shelves for a while now. The notebook is small and sleek, and weighs just 2kg – if you like lifting notebooks as part of your exercise routine then you are out of luck here. But if you like travelling then do yourself a favour, make your journey easier with the LG E300. It comes with a 13.3-inch screen which is good enough for typing documents and even watching movies. Built into the top of the screen is a 1.3-megapixel camera, so I was busy video calling friends and taking pictures during my trip. The E300 features 120GB storage to play with and 1GB of DDR2 RAM for good measure. LG went for an Atheros wireless card with the Intel Core 2 Duo T7250 2GHz CPU (800MHz front-side bus and 2MB L2 cache) and an ATI RS600 chipset. An ATI Radeon Xpress

1250 graphics chip handles the graphics, not too bad for gamers. It also comes with a 5-in-1 media card reader supporting xD, SD, MMC, MS and MS Pro cards and a DVD rewriter drive. Although this year’s Easter holidays were boring thanks to the LG E300 life is good.

Prestige portable hard drive A perfect companion. The Iomega Prestige portable hard drive is the reason I watched the movies I’ve missed over the past few years till my neighbour’s chickens started clucking. Available in 500GB, 320GB and 250GB capacity, and I happen to own both 320GB and 250GB, so you’ll understand why I sleep late. With this amount of space, I took all my DVDs and stored them on the drive.

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CRN SOUTHERN AFRICA • MAY 2009

The pocket-sized Prestige portable hard drive is easy to use and requires no external power supply; just plug it in and you’re good to roll. The weight means you can easily take it anywhere you like and being built on USB connection only, means fewer cables. Unlike some hard drives that make you break out in a sweat when operating on Mac, the Iomega Prestige portable hard drives work very well on both Mac and Windows PCs. With tons of video footage that used to stress me because I didn’t have enough space to store them, the Prestige drive helped me clear space in my room. With the Drop Shock feature, the Prestige portable hard drive is rugged and flexible enough to safely store large amounts of data in tough travel environments. It also includes EMC Retrospect HD software (PC via download) to protect all your files. If you like taking your files, photos and music everywhere you go, the Prestige portable drive is a true travel companion. Word of advice, if you still want your job don’t touch the Iomega Prestige portable hard drive on week nights. But if you are caught sleeping during work hours, you can always blame it on the Iomega.

CRN, in conjunction with the Institute for Partner Education and Development is taking part in a global study on the state of the IT markets in various countries. Don’t miss this chance to contribute your opinion to the research process by taking part in the study. To be a participant in the research process, visit the CRN website and click on the survey link and fill in the questionnaire, making you an official contributor to the research process. All contributors will automatically get a copy of the final results of the study, free of charge. Extracts from the study’s findings will also be published in the July edition of CRN as well as appear on the CRN website.

PARTING: SHOTS

DILBERT

www.dilbert.com

Company: Drive Control Corporation Position: Canon Product Manager Age: 43 Best personal achivement: Walked with lions Management style: Proactive Most admired company: Virgin Enterprises Most admired executives: Richard Branson Best IT product: VoiP telephony Most pressing local business issues: Price control Key to success: Tenacity Favourite car: BMW Your car: BMW Favourite authors: Wilbur Smith Where do you live: Fourways Birthplace: Johannesburg Hobbies/sports: Golf Favourite periodicals: GQ Pet hates: Inconsistency in people

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by Scott Adams