September 2008

www.crn.co.za

ProCurve
gaining
ground
HP’s best kept secret
emerges from
behind the curtains
p.16>>

Inside
AMD takes a solutions
focus p16>>

HP local head bids fair-

well to the vendor
p33>>

Intel launches new

partner programme
p36>>
 PUBLISHER’S: NOTE

The year ahead

I
t’s been a roller coaster 2008 for businesses and consumers alike. The year has seen the financial
meltdown in the US, high crude oil prices and a looming economic recession in the US. Generally, there is
a lot of uncertainty in the global markets something that should be of concern to those in the local IT
channel. The globe markets’ uncertainty coupled with the consumer credit crunch, a financial meltdown in
the US which has sent the world stock markets to tumble has forced many consumers and businesses to
scale down or put on hold any IT spending or upgrade.
As 2008 draws to a close, it is time for solution providers to reflect on and assess the year that was.
For others it is the time when they make resolutions for the year ahead and outline priorities for the new year.
So as solution providers look to 2009, it is vital that they focus on enhancing products and solutions that
have helped their businesses to grow this year and also discover the new technology offerings they believe
will be hot next year.
Although assessing business performance and identifying new technologies that show potential is not
easy, savvy resellers who get it right will see their businesses grow to new profitability levels. Those who err
in this regard will see their businesses falter come 2009.
Few things come to mind that I believe resellers should be looking at come 2009.
The momentum around Software as a Service (SaaS), Web 2.0 tools, VoIP, unified messaging, instant
messaging, desktop and server virtualisation and Telepresence is something that those reseller companies
that have capital should consider looking at. There is also hype around WiMax, WiFi, WLANs, 3G and
other offerings in the wireless and mobile space. As pointed out, there has been a lot of talk around SaaS with some industry pundits even advocating
that distributors should also get involved. In addition, selling IT services has been key to the survival of most resellers as margins on product sales
continue to be squeezed
However, this does not mean that resellers should abandon selling products but rather use the initial sale of software and hardware products as a
spring board for providing full-fledged services that will bring in the much-needed annuity revenue to complement declining product margins.
Therefore, it goes without saying that resellers in the local channel ought to balance their product and services mix and make sure that they have
within their mix products that will win them long-term service contracts. For it is the right mix of products and services that will differentiate them from
the competition and, in turn, influence them to invest in specific vendor sales, technical training and certification programmes they believe will aid
them in achieving their goals of growing their businesses to profitability.
Identifying new technology trends, skilling up and enhancing their current product and services offering should be a priority for resellers in 2009.
Resellers that do the best job of helping their customers understand and adopt new technologies – while still maintaining their integrity – will more
than likely have the competitive edge over their competition and grow their businesses to even greater profitability.
Let me know about your plans for 2008 and the areas where you will be focusing your business as a channel player operating in an ever-
changing, cutthroat IT industry. I can be reached at mandab@systems.co.za
Enjoy the read

Manda Banda – publisher

 Contents
News & Analysis
4 – What’s News

6 – Comings & Goings

8 – Dmoves

10 – High Five: Infor

12 – Demand Generator: KSS 13

13 – Siemens regroups globally. By Dominic Khuzwayo
CRN Contacts:
Publisher: 14 – Microsoft unveils next generation business applications.
Manda Banda
By Dudu Shaba
mandab@systems.co.za
20 – HP ProCurve acquires Colubris. By Dominic Khuzwayo
Online editor:
22 – AMD at home, work, play. By Kaunda Chama
Kaunda Chama
kaundac@systems.co.za 25 – Microsoft Partner Summit 2008.
15
By Kaunda Chama
Journalists:
Portia Shaba 35 – Cover story: HP ProCurve gaining more ground.
portias@systems.co.za
It might once have been HP’s best-kept secret as the mar-

Dominic Khuzwayo kets concentrated more on the vendor’s other technology

dominick@systems.co.za
disciplines such as notebooks, servers and printers, but

Brand executive: ProCurve has now come to be a networking brand to be

Hellen Murahwa
reckoned with. By Kaunda Chama 22
hellenm@systems.co.za

39 – HP bid farewell to its CEO. By Dudu Shaba

Sub-editor:
Jenny Bastomsky Features
jennybee@telkomsa.net.co.za
40 – Steady uptake of BI evident in business. By
Designer: Dudu Shaba
Spencer van Graan
spencerg@systems.co.za 44 – Bright future for UPS market. By Dudu Shaba

48 – Gaming solutions. By Kaunda Chama 33

Database and subscriptions:
Daisy Mulenga 51 – Winning with ISVs. By Kaunda Chama
daisym@systems.co.za
Products and Technology
copyright notice
CRN Southern Africa is published monthly by 54 – Oki C8800: Sheer printing pleasure
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 55 – Nokia E71: It keeps getting better
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 56 – Dilbert 45
in printed advertising. Printed by Ultra Litho.
CRN Southern Africa is a licensee of CMP Media LLC.

Private Bag X12, Rivonia, 2128

56 – Snapshot: Giuseppe
Tel: (011) 234 7008 Scans in this publication have been reproduced
Fax: (011) 234 7025
on the EPSON PERFECTiON 2450 photo
Registered with the Audit
Bureau of Circulation
Colonnello, Vox AmVia

2 • CRN SOUTHERN AFRICA • SEPTEMBER 2008

WHAT’S NEWS

COMINGS
Nyathi scoops top
Microsoft spot
Mteto Nyati is to succeed Pfungwa Serima as
& GOINGS
the new Microsoft SA boss. Nyati, who
assumed his new position on 1 September,
comes to Microsoft from a 12-year career
at IBM, where he was the director of IBM
Global Technology Services for South and
Mteto Nyati
Central Africa since June 2005. Nyati, who led
three large business units – telecommunications, Small and
Medium Business and IBM Global Services in his time at IBM,
says he aims to continue building on the success of Microsoft SA,
and to help its customers, partners and the community to better
harness technology.
Clarkson leads Industry sector
Stuart Clarkson has been appointed to head-up
the Industry Sector by Siemens. Clarkson spent
more than a decade at various Siemens operations
in Europe, North and South America, 2007 saw
Stuart Clarkson
him return to South Africa as the new Divisional
Director for Siemens Industrial Solutions and Services (I&S). After
graduating from Witwatersrand Technikon, Clarkson joined Siemens
in 1981 as a trainee commissioning engineer, and spent the next
12 years in the commissioning department of I&S installing and
commissioning standby power systems, UPS and diesel generators.
This was followed by a move into the process automation, specialis-
ing in plants in the pulp and paper and chemical industries, and
later into the mining sector as well.

VMware launches new Integr8 targets VoIP space

partner program Integr8 Telecoms, a company within the Integr8 Group, announced its
VMware has unveiled the VMware intention to establish a competitive presence within the local telecommu-
System Builder Programme, a new nications services market. The company, in association with several joint
initiative within its VIP Partner venture partners, will offer what it believes is cost-effective, reliable
Programme. The programme is service to clients. Walter Bredell, CEO, Integr8 Fax/ Telecoms, points to
designed for system builders that sell the strength of Integr8 Telecoms’ expertise, its extensive sales force and
VMware virtualisation solutions. The market experience in infrastructure management as key strengths in the
VMware System Builder Programme campaign. According to Bredell, with inter-connects and access to
provides benefits for system builders, clients through its infrastructure it is now possible to change the normal
including pre-sales technical support, TDM Telkom client platform to a VoIP service.
targeted training programmes and new
as well as improved marketing tools.
Steve Dallman, vice president, Intel Steve Dallman Faritec aims to drive virtualisation
Corporation says: “We are excited Faritec has announced its commitment to becoming the clear leader
about VMware’s new System Builder Programme, which provides the in virtualisation over the next two years. The company regards this
necessary certified education and technical enablement resources for innovative area of the ICT industry as strategic to its business. Gordon
Intel channel partners to customise their server hardware solutions rapidly Love, regional executive, Faritec, says virtualisation is gaining momentum
for a time-to-market advantage.” and becoming a key driver behind many of Faritec’s customer solutions.
“With our superior skills base and reliable track record of delivery in this
area, we are able to offer companies tangible, measurable value. We
Lenovo unleashes ThinkPad W700 are confident that our focus on virtualisation will be a strong differentiator
Lenovo has introduced its ThinkPad W700, a 17-inch widescreen mobile and that we will reap the rewards of this decision in the years to come,”
workstation. The ThinkPad W700 is engineered to meet the demands of he says.
the most data and graphics-intensive jobs. According to Peter
Hortensius, senior vice president, notebook business unit Lenovo, the
company brings the industry’s first built-in digitiser and colour calibrator PC chips to carry Intel Core name
to a mobile workstation. The ThinkPad W700 comes with NVDIA Intel Corporation has announced that desktop processors based on the
Quadro FX mobile graphics and supports Intel’s mobile quad-core company’s upcoming new microarchitecture, codenamed Nehalem, will
processor. Other features include an optional dual hard drive with RAID be formally branded Intel Core processors. Sean Maloney, Intel
configurations and up to 80GB of high-speed DDR3 memory. Corporation executive vice president and general manager, sales and

4 • CRN SOUTHERN AFRICA • SEPTEMBER 2008

WHAT’S NEWS
marketing group says that the first products in this new family of proces-
sors, including an Extreme Edition version, will carry an “i7” identifier
and will be formally branded as an Intel Core i7 processor. He adds that
this is the first of several new identifiers to come as different products
launch over the next year.
New ThinkPad range from
Lenovo
Lenovo has unveiled new SL series ThinkPad
notebooks targeted at local SME users. Rashid
Wally, country manager, Lenovo SA says the
three notebooks, SL300, SL 400 and SL500,
feature cutting-edge technologies, such as
LED backlit displays, an optional Blu-Ray DVD
player as well as a black glossy cover. Wally
says Lenovo combined software that helps with
Rashid Wally
everything from data recovery to simplifying
Internet connection with a new service package featuring online data
backup and an on-site repair warranty. “The launch of the ThinkPad SL
notebook range places us in a great position to pursue the local SME
market and to offer a platform designed specifically with these users in
mind,” Wally says.
McAfee secures HP PCs
McAfee, one of the leading security technology companies, has
announced that its products will provide security on HP commercial PCs.
Targeted at small business customers McAfee will provide, worldwide, a
60-day trial of pre-installed McAfee Total Protection software on selected
HP commercial desktop computers and notebooks. “The need to protect
computers from complex Internet threats is becoming a top concern for
smaller business customers,” says Todd Gebhart, senior vice president
and general manager, McAfee consumer, mobile and small business.
“Total Protection Service from McAfee leverages the software as a service
(Saas) technology McAfee has used to protect small business customers
for more than nine years,” he says.
SecureData offers resellers
discounts
SecureData Security, the local distributor of
Trend Micro’s information security products, is
offering a 40 per cent conversion discount to
resellers. The discount is only offered to
resellers who upgrade customers running
Symantec products to the Trend Micro
product range. The conversion programme is
especially aimed at resellers who fear that they
will lose income following the introduction of
new channel policies by the COO of
Dean Healy
Symantec in the information security market,
the company claims. Dean Healy, Trend Micro product manager,
SecureData Security says: “Together with SecureData, Trend Micro aims
to keep its channel partners fully engaged with their customers. Partners
are never forcibly excluded from additional revenue streams generated
by renewals and upgrades.”
6 • CRN SOUTHERN AFRICA • SEPTEMBER 2008
New Infor PLM Optiva
Infor has announced the latest release of Infor
PLM Optiva. The Infor PLM Optiva is a product
lifecycle management (PLM) solution for process
manufacturers and retailers with private label
products. The new release is set to improve for-
mula development, including editing, strengthen
performance modelling and production simula-
tion, providing greater flexibility and data analy-
sis capabilities. Jane Thomson, MD, Softworx, Jane Thomson
an EOH company and distributor of Infor in sub-Saharan Africa says, “A
new Advanced Formula Editor, a key enhancement to Infor PLM Optiva,
enables manufacturers to visually model multiple formulas and versions,
rapidly assess ideal iterations and identify associated risks.”
ProScan launches multipurpose scanner
ProScan Distribution, a member of the ProScan
Group, has introduced the new QuickScan
Mobile cordless linear imaging bar-code reader.
The scanner is suitable for a broad range of retail
and commercial applications. According to
Andrew Fosbrook, ProScan’s group MD, the new
product provides an outstanding return on invest-
ment for users seeking a cordless handheld
device for general purpose retail activities, includ-
Andrew Fosbrook
ing point of sale, inventory, price-checking and
shelf replenishment as well as commercial data collection applications.
He says that the QuickScan Mobile reader features Datalogic’s cord-
less STAR-System, one of the market’s most secure and reliable systems
for 433/910 MHz narrow-band communications.
Esquire unveils BenQ series notebooks
Esquire Technologies, leading distributors of IT and digital lifestyle prod-
ucts, has unveiled the latest BenQ series of Joybook laptops. The
A53,S32, and Q41 models combine advanced technology and contem-
porary design. Manish Bakshi, GM BenQ Middle East and Africa says
the company has designed the A53, S32 and Q41 as a perfect blend of
contemporary design and leading-edge technology with distinguishing
features that will appeal to stylish consumers.
Mustek sets the record straight
Following comments by Pierre Spies, MD of
Tarsus Technologies in an article that appeared
on ITWeb (21 August 2008) titled “Local PC
brand sales slump”. David Kan, CEO at local
OEM assembler Mustek, says while it is true
that international brands such as Acer, HP and
Lenovo are selling at prices similar to locally
Pierre Spies
branded desktop PCs, the multinational brands
are offering very outdated CPU configurations. Kan says the CPU config-
urations are at least six months old in comparison with product offerings
from Mecer, Mustek’s flagship PC brand. “Mecer has always been at the
forefront of PC technology, and in the rapidly developing PC industry,
anything older than six months can be considered obsolete,” he says.
ANALYSIS: DISTRIBUTION MOVES
SOLUTION PROVIDERS
3Com, appoints Lefatshe
Global networking solutions vendor 3Com appointed Lefatshe
Technologies as its exclusive H3C Advanced Solutions Partner in South
Africa. The partnership was announced at the GovTech 2008 conference
in Durban. Chris Huggett, regional sales director, 3com in EMEA says,
“3Com, through H3C, has a world-leading offering in the arena of IP
networking infrastructure with IP security, IP communication and IP stor-
age.” Noedine Isaacs-Mpulo, Lefasthe Technologies CEO says: “Our
partnership with 3Com to deliver H3C’s quality IP networking infrastruc-
ture to South Africa’s public and corporate sectors will challenge the sta-
tus quo, offering the market an alternative networking solution at an
extremely competitive price point.
Lexmark partners with Itec
Lexmark has appointed Itec Distribution as a value print partner opening
up a new road to market for both companies. The move has promoted
Itec to the position of a Value Print Partner. The Value Print Programme
enables Itec to offer customers pay-per-page service contracts that are
affordable and tailored to their needs. The programme is integrated
directly into Itec’s service offering. “We chose to partner with Itec as this
gives Lexmark a valuable partner in the office automation space,” says
Lawrence van Namen, sales director for channel partners and SMEs at
Lexmark.
Galdon Data Microsoft voice partner
Microsoft has appointed Galdon Data to be part of as its local unified com-
munications Voice Partner Program. This distinction solidifies Galdon Data’s
expertise in Microsoft’s unified communications solutions, including
Exchange Server 2007 and Office Communicator 2007. Erich Gebhardt,
director unified communications and EMEA time zone lead for Microsoft’s
voice business says: “We are looking forward to a fruitful joint business
which will deliver great value to Galdon Data’s customers.” Galdon Data
CEO Garry Ackerman says: “The acceptance into this elite unified commu-
nications programme demonstrates our commitment to the overall Microsoft
solution as well as our ability to embrace, become certified on and deploy
leading-edge voice, messaging and collaboration technologies.”
Siemens, Enterasys in JV
The Gores Group has signed a definitive agreement to form a joint ven-
ture with Siemens AG. The agreement will combine Siemens Enterprise
Communications, Enterasys and SER Solutions. According to Mike
Fabiaschi president and CEO Enterasys Secure Networks, combining the
8 • CRN SOUTHERN AFRICA • SEPTEMBER 2008
three companies will leverage Siemens’ distribution capabilities, global
reach and customer base. The joint venture will be 51 per cent owned by
the Gores Group and will be entitled to continue using the Siemens
brand. On an operational level, the business will be driven by Gores who
will work with the current Enterasys, SER and Siemens Enterprise
Communications management teams and employees to fulfil customer
needs and expand the business.
HP acquires Colubris
HP has acquired Colubris Networks, a global provider of intelligent wire-
less networks for enterprises and service providers. HP plans to integrate
Colubris’ extensive product line into its ProCurve Networking product
portfolio. This is set to expand HP ProCurve’s reach into vertical markets
such as hospitality, transportation, health care, manufacturing, service
provision and education. Marius Haas, senior vice president and general
manager, HP ProCurve says: “The acquisition of Colubris Networks will
strengthen ProCurve’s hardware, management platform and services sig-
nificantly improving the overall performance capabilities of both wired
and wireless networks as well as deliver more best-in-class choices for
our customers worldwide.”
Riverbed partners with Microsoft
Riverbed Technology, players in wide-area data services, has announced
its partnership with software giant Microsoft. This comes after the compa-
ny entered the Microsoft Protocol Optimisation Licensing Program. This
will see Riverbed having access to Microsoft’s intellectual property and
technology. It will also help Riverbed to build on its expertise and success
by accelerating and optimising Microsoft Windows-based applications
over the WAN. Christo Briedenhann, country manager, Riverbed SA says:
“By working closely with Microsoft we are obtaining access to application
protocols to further enhance our customers’ experience and IT efficiencies
over the WAN.”
Phoenix distributes S.A.D. GmbH
Phoenix Software has won a contract to partner with S.A.D GmbH to
distribute its software ??throughout its South African channel. S.A.D.
Software is one of the leading publishers of application and entertain-
ment software in German-speaking countries. Phoenix Software has
offices in the UK, Germany, Zambia and SA as well as affiliate partner-
ships in the Middle East, South East Asia and the US. The company says
its strength lies in its ability to offer good margins and value-added ser-
vices to its channel partners, while offering its vendors a total solution for
‘in-country’ representation via physical and ESD distribution.
HIGH FIVE: INFOR
SOLUTION PROVIDERS
Infor launches partner campaign
BY DOMINIC KHUZWAYO
Infor, one of the world’s largest software companies,
has launched a channel partner recruitment
campaign across Europe, Middle East and Africa.
The campaign aims to increase the number of Infor
partners across Europe, Middle East and Africa
significantly. According to the company, the
campaign will comprise a series of road shows.
To find-out more about Infor’s partner campaign,
we chatted to John O’Donnell channel manager,
Infor, Africa.
CRN: Why are you implementing this
campaign?
JO: Infor is the 10th largest software company in the world and has
grown by acquisition and organic growth. In Europe, Middle East and
Asia Africa?(EMEA), 18 per cent of our licence revenues come from
the channel and we wish to grow this. We already have a very
successful channel business in sub-Saharan Africa and want to
grow this even further.
CRN: What is the campaign all about?
JO: The recruitment campaign is taking place across EMEA and we
are looking for quality, customer-orientated business partners to con-
tinue growing our channel business. The campaign has been
launched across Europe, with a series of road shows planned for the
remainder of 2008. Our focus will turn to SA in the early part of
2009 where we will work closely with one of our master distributors
and our existing partners.
CRN: What are you plaanning to achieve?
JO: We are targeting established businesses that have a proven track
record of delivering successful solutions within their specific domains.
We are looking for around 40 partners across EMEA. In sub-
Saharan Africa, we are focused on getting two or three
partners who can support us in financial management
solutions, human capital management (HCM) and
expense management (EM). In addition to this, we are
also working with existing partners who have clearly
demonstrated their willingness and enthusiasm for further
investment in complementary solutions. In recent months
our South African partners have clearly demonstrated
the benefit of collaboration with the creation of virtual
networks of cross-selling opportunities.
CRN: How will your customer benefit
from this campaign?
JO: Infor has 70 000 customers globally and we have one of the
highest customer satisfaction rates in the industry: 93 percent of
our customers renewed their maintenance contracts last year.
Existing customers are very happy with their products, ongoing
research and development, and the support they get from Infor.
Last year we grew organically with 2 200 new customers globally. This
recruitment drive is designed to help us continue that organic growth
and to enable existing customers to achieve additional benefits from
other solutions.
CRN: What impact will the campaign have in Africa?
JO: Infor has a collaborative network of partners who distribute and
support an extensive range of solutions in manufacturing, enterprise
resource planning, supply chain management, warehouse manage-
ment, enterprise asset management, performance management and
financial management. But with a wider portfolio of solutions we are
looking for additional partners to embrace, for example, HCM and
EM. As a result of this our partner network will continue to grow, new
customers will be attracted to our solutions and our existing customers
will invest in complementary solutions.
DEMAND GENERATOR: KSS
SOLUTION
KSS boosts Micros
Enhancing contact centre’s infrastructure.
BY DOMINIC KHUZWAYO
K SS Technologies recently proved why it is one
of the leaders in designing, implementing
and supporting converged networking solu-
tions by enhancing Micros SA Johannesburg-
based contact centre.
Micros, a provider of point of sale and
hospitality solutions, is seeing significant
improvements in its operations, including the
intelligent management of calls and result-
enhanced services since partnering with KSS
Technologies.
The company, which essentially features
four contact centres in one servicing its
Micros (point of sale solution); Opera (prop-
erty management solution focused on the
hospitality industry), Fidelio (older version of
“Micros SA now has full control of the contact centre
with clear track records of all calls and visibility.”
– Chris Kok, KSS
Chris Kok, KSS
12 • CRN SOUTHERN AFRICA • SEPTEMBER 2008
PROVIDERS
Opera) and CLS (another property manage-
ment solution) products had been struggling
with call visibility.
Looking at some of the challenges
Micros was facing, Hylton Proctor-Parker,
support operations manager, Micros SA
says, “We had no visibility of our calls and
could not determine how many were coming
in, how many callers were waiting in the
queue, the duration of each call and which
were abandoned.”
As a result of these challenges, Micros
Fidelio decided to upgrade its contact centre
infrastructure and partnered with KSS who
recommended, supplied and implemented
Cisco’s latest Unified Communications
Manager CallManager 6.1 (an upgrade
from CallManager 4.2), IP Contact
Center Express (IPCC) 5 (an upgrade from
IPCC 4) and the Datavoice Libra Voice
Recording solution.
Chris Kok, project manager, KSS says,
“We had no problems installing the
solutions and we now service Micros SA’s
60 contact centre agents as well as 200
users countrywide.”
“Micros SA now has full control of the
contact centre with clear track record of all
calls and visibility.”
CallManager 6.1, a software-based
call-processing system, tracks all active VoIP net-
work components; these include phones, gate-
ways and conference bridges. The IPCC Express
5 solution offers automatic call distribution,
interactive voice response and computer tele-
SA
phony integration on a single platform.
Additionally, the Libra Voice Recording
solution provides fail-safe recording of all
voice transactions for legal purposes which
minimises risk, and enhances quality assur-
ance and training as well as productivity
measurement in contact centres.
Lyn Andrews sales executive, KSS says,
“The new system provides Micros SA and,
more importantly, the contact centre with the
visibility they need. With the integration of a
dashboard, for example, it can now deter-
mine how many agents are logged on; how
many calls have been dropped and how the
calls were handled – in a simple and easy to
interpret viewing format.”
“Moreover, due to the system’s intelligent
design, calls can be moved over - after a cer-
tain period - to Micros agents if the Opera
contact centre is busy. This regulates the
workload ensuring calls are not abandoned
and are readily attended to,” adds Andrews.
“We can now intelligently determine how
many calls were dropped, investigate why
this occurred and rectify it accordingly. This
improves the efficiency of our contact centre
and overall service delivery,” explains
Proctor-Parker.
Due to the system’s dynamic and auto-
mated nature, a voice recording will now tell
customers what number they are in the
queue and how long they will need to hold
on before being attended to.
According to Kok, “This can also be
changed according to the needs of the con-
tact centres, shortening the time before calls
are moved over to the next team - dynami-
cally adapting the infrastructure according to
the volume of calls and so forth.”
In addition Proctor-Parker says, “The
solution has allowed us to create a contact
centre infrastructure that supports our clients
in an intelligent, efficient manner.”
Do you have demand generator stories to
share with us, please e-mail Dominic
Khuzwayo at dominick@systems.co.za

Siemens regroups globally
Telecoms giant implements new strategies.
BY DOMINIC KHUZWAYO
W
ith just 14 months with the new CEO in
position, Siemens announced that it was
going back to the drawing board, and
came up with a ‘new look’ by reshaping the
company globally.
As part of the ‘new look’ Siemens
Southern Africa has reorganised the opera-
tions of its 11 business units into three sec-
tors; Industry, Energy and Healthcare.
With some companies when they say ‘we
changing our company’ they mean retrench-
ment as well but when we asked Siemens it
said it is not at liberty to make any state-
ments in this regard since the consequences
for the individual Siemens locations and
countries are part of internal consultations
on a global basis.
Coming back to the three sectors, the
Industry sector will be headed by Stuart
Clarkson and consists of six divisions:
Industry Automation, Drive Technologies,
Building Technologies, Industry Solutions,
Mobility and Osram.
Dion Govender will head the Energy sec-
tor, which also have six divisions, including
Fossil Power Generation, Renewable Energy,
Oil and Gas, Energy Service, Power
Transmission as well as Power Distribution.
Graham Maritz will take-up Healthcare,
which has been divided into three divisions,
Imaging and IT, Workflow and Solutions,
and Diagnostics.
Everyone wants to know why Siemens is
restructuring the company and how cus-
tomers will benefit from the new structure.
Sigi Proebstl, CEO, Siemens Southern
Africa says, “Siemens has realigned its
organisation to further increase its profitabili-
ty and transparency. Clear sector responsibil-
ities will ensure closer positioning and
improved focus on customer needs.
“It was important to realign the organisa-
tion to become more efficient, profitable,
competitive and, above all, responsive - not
only to the needs of our customers but also
to the demands of society now and into the
ANALYSIS: SIEMENS
SOLUTION PROVIDERS
future. It is important for the organisation to
examine its portfolio every few years to
ensure it is in line with customer require-
ments and the growth markets of the future.
This is what Siemens has done,” he says.
According to Proebstl, by focusing on the
Industry, Energy and Healthcare sectors, the
new Siemens structure will place the organi-
sation in a better position to capitalise on its
ability to deliver products, solutions and ser-
vices in a manner that meets the demands of
these dynamic environments.
The new structure will improve customer
needs due to the following:
The company will be able to respond to
customer needs faster
Innovations will provide the best techno-
logical answers to the challenges societies
face today
The company will create value add for our
investors, for example, by growing profitably
in the marketplace and by keeping costs
competitive with lean internal structures. Sigi Proebstl, Siemens
When it comes to how Siemens will
engage partners, Proebstl says: “Generally tion, financial services and the manufactur-
speaking, we adopt a direct approach to ing industry. The systems and solutions
market, but in certain of our areas, especial- offered within these vertical sectors are con-
ly product business, we use the services of tinuously evolving and focus on the integra-
external partners, for example, agents and tion of shop floor operational systems with
distributors. In some of the southern and east management information systems.
African countries (outside of South Africa), In addition, Siemens IT Solutions and
we also use agents and distributors. Siemens Services supports the Siemens Industry,
Southern Africa is responsible for the entire Energy and Healthcare sectors that possess
southern and east African region.” IT and software competence and thus
This new structure has created a lot of increase the total offering Siemens presents
questions about whether the company’s to its customers. Special focus is placed on
IT solutions and services will be hindered fully integrated, industry-specific IT solutions
by the changes. But the company says developed together with the Siemens sectors.
Siemens IT Solutions and Services will Proebtsl believes the new structure will be
continue operating as a cross-sector partner simpler, more transparent and focused and
in addition to driving its own business across as a result closer to all stakeholders.
the IT value chain. “We believe our customers will see the
Proebstl adds, the vertical sectors in which benefits of a new streamlined organisation
Siemens IT Solutions and Services operates that has the ability to answer tough
include the public sector, healthcare, energy, questions in the growth markets of the
media and telecommunications, transporta- future,” he concludes.
CRN SOUTHERN AFRICA • SEPTEMBER 2008 • 13
ANALYSIS: MICROSOFT
SOLUTION PROVIDERS
Microsoft Dynamics AX
2009 enables businesses to thrive
Manages costs and increase employee productivity.
BY DUDU SHABA
M icrosoft has launched the newest generation
of its business software, Microsoft Dynamics
AX 2009, in SA.
Jumana Helal, head, Dynamics Business,
Microsoft SA, says the new software is set to
signal a new chapter in enterprise resource
planning (ERP) user productivity by providing
an easy-to-use interface and information tai-
lored to specific roles within a company.
“Organisations are looking for a state-of-the-art ERP
solution to bring together their disparate business
processes and increase the productivity of their
employees.” – Jumana Helal, Dynamics
business, Microsoft.
“AX 2009 aims to help businesses thrive in
a competitive global marketplace by control-
ling costs, managing risk and increasing
employee productivity. Microsoft’s vision of
ERP is that it will start to prompt its users to
take certain actions instead of merely being
a reactive tool that people use to pull weekly
reports from,” she says.
Helal says that Microsoft Dynamics AX
includes applications for financial manage-
ment, customer relationship management, sup-
ply chain management, human resource man-
agement, project management and analytics.
“Because it integrates with well-known
Microsoft products, such as Microsoft SQL
Server, BizTalk Server, Exchange, Office and
Windows, employees can work with familiar
tools and thus keep training costs down,”
she says.
According to Helal, the perception of ERP
has changed fundamentally over the past
five years. She believes that organisations
are looking for a state-of-the-art ERP solu-
14 • CRN SOUTHERN AFRICA • SEPTEMBER 2008
tion to bring together their disparate business
processes and increase the productivity of
their employees.
“In short, ERP now lies at the heart of
every forward-thinking enterprise,” she says.
In addition to that, Helal says that end-
users have also become a far more impor-
tant consideration for organisations when
evaluating their ERP strategies.
“In the past, the optimisation of business
processes was the chief priority and the end-
user experience was a secondary concern.
Employees had to wade through inefficient,
time-intensive steps, as they entered transac-
tional data and ran reports, before they
could get on with their day-to-day jobs.
Today, this approach is unacceptable. A
new generation of employees brought up on
computer games and intuitive software tools
has entered the workforce with clear expec-
tations about the quality of the user experi-
ence,” she says.
She goes on to say that new ways of
accessing applications through mobile devices
and Internet browsers are also emerging,
making ERP available to a far greater propor-
tion of an organisation’s workforce.
“The business case for ERP is now heavily
reliant on the acceptance of these new solu-
tions by end-users.
At Microsoft, our focus has been on
boosting productivity and ROI by placing the
individual user at the centre of our develop-
ment efforts. Our range of Dynamics ERP
products has been developed in the knowl-
edge that if users don’t accept a solution
imposed by the company, the implementa-
tion simply won’t succeed. We believe that
this is the key trend shaping our ERP applica-
tions today and tomorrow,” Helal comments.
Looking at what partners can look forward
to gaining from Microsoft Dynamics AX
 ANALYSIS: MICROSOFT
SOLUTION PROVIDERS

2009, Helal says that the solution is supplied

exclusively through a network of channel
partners, providing specialised services and
local support.
“We have approximately 150 partners in
more than 30 countries using Microsoft
Dynamics CRM and ERP software in a hosted
and subscription-based pricing model. Our
ERP partners are seeing success by differenti-
ating their services by offering business
process outsourcing services using Microsoft
Dynamics AX.
With future releases of ERP solutions we
will introduce additional functionality to help
reduce our partners’ cost of hosting and
improve scalability and system administra-
tion. At this time, we believe our partners
are meeting the market demand for hosted
and subscription-based ERP, and we have no
plans to offer a hosted solution direct from
Microsoft,” she remarks.
Is the local market ready for Microsoft AX
2009? In her response, Helal says that AX
Jumana Helal, Microsoft
2009 is well-positioned to help local busi- more than 3 000 concurrent users.
nesses thrive in a competitive global market- Helal says the strategy for Microsoft
place by controlling costs, managing risk and Dynamics AX in the enterprise is about sur-
increasing employee productivity. rounding customers’ current legacy systems
“For example, Adcorp CIO Kobus Pienaar and providing a solution to fulfil the require-
says the group has a clear roadmap for ments of a subset of large enterprises such as
rolling out AX technology to all 15 of its sub- plants, departments, brands and subsidiaries.
sidiaries. Adcorp has 1 700 full-time “Microsoft Dynamics AX is a good fit for
employees, and administers 70 000 full- implementations where the enterprise’s head-
and part-time staff for its clients at any given quarters may be using a business manage-
time, pays R2.2 billion a year in salaries, and ment solution from a different vendor for its
processes 70 000 timesheets and 60 000 core finance needs, and where subsidiary
payslips a week,” she says. offices that need more flexibility and support
“The complexities of managing accurate for specific business processes use Microsoft
business insights and standardising opera- Dynamics AX. This way Microsoft Dynamics
tions across multiple locations are immense. AX can be a key element of the IT gover-
Microsoft Dynamics AX helps us to manage nance strategy of large enterprises.
complex financial and supply chain processes Microsoft Dynamics AX 4.0 also demon-
more easily. For example, the new software strates high scalability, says Helal.
can run multiple legal entities on a central Discussing Microsoft’s ERP strategy for the
installation and provide a single, integrated future, Helal says this year represents a major
view of financial and supply chain informa- milestone for Microsoft’s ERP products. In
tion from facilities around the country, help- addition to the launch of Dynamics AX 2009,
ing us to simplify our planning. Advanced she says that this year will also mark the
planning and reporting scenarios, such as arrival of Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009.
consolidation or budgeting, are offered “Looking ahead, we will continue to invest
through integration with Microsoft Office in developing solutions for our customers
Performance Point Server,” says Pienaar. and partners that improve the user experi-
According to Microsoft, the targeted mar- ence and productivity as well as reduce oper-
ket for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 is mid- ational costs and drive informed decision-
size companies and enterprises with 50 to making,” she concludes.

CRN SOUTHERN AFRICA • SEPTEMBER 2008 • 15

ANALYSIS: IBM
SOLUTION PROVIDERS
IBM Upgrades Cognos BI,
Expands Mobile capabilities
Manages costs and increase employee productivity.
BY RICK WHITING, CHANNELWEB
I BM Cognos debuted a major upgrade of its
core business intelligence platform recently,
along with a new financial analysis applica-
tion and enhancements to the Cognos Go!
Search and Go! Mobile software. IBM says
the additions would expand its Information
on Demand strategy.
The most significant enhancements are to the IBM
Cognos 8 Go! tools that extend the core BI platform.
The new Go!
IBM says the new release, IBM Cognos 8
v4, offers a new self-serve, flash-based dash-
board and new mobile and search capabili-
ties that bring business intelligence capabili-
ties to a wider audience of users. While ana-
lysts are traditionally the most frequent users
of BI tools, IBM Cognos 8 v4 will particularly
appeal to business users, business managers
and executives who make up 80 percent of
workers in the average company.
The new software will be available by the
end of the year. IBM acquired Cognos in
February for $4.9billion.
The most significant enhancements are
to the IBM Cognos 8 Go! tools that extend
the core BI platform. The new Go!
Dashboard provides Flash-based graphics
for personalized dashboards used to deliver
reports and information from the IBM
Cognos 8 BI system, as well as other sources
such as RSS feeds.
Go! Mobile now uses GPS information
from a user’s BlackBerry, Symbian or
Windows Mobile device to provide
reports and other content that is “location
18 • CRN SOUTHERN AFRICA • SEPTEMBER 2008
aware” and automatically adjusts to a
user’s location. And Go! Search offers
new search-assisted authoring and explo-
ration capabilities.
“I think this is a big advancement from a
usability perspective,” says Jeetu Lakhotia,
CEO of Locus Solutions, a solution
provider, speaking about the enhanced Go!
Mobile application. Locus, which resells
Cognos’ BI software, has already deployed
the new Go! Mobile application for several
customers and Lakhotia thinks its new
capabilities make it attractive to a wider
audience of operational managers.
The new IBM Cognos 8 Business
Viewpoint is a collaborative business
modeling tool that helps users create,
manage and share views of information for
performance management applications, all
without the help of IT managers or without
disrupting the underlying data.
And the new IBM Cognos 8 Financial
Performance Analytics software for J.D.
Edwards and Oracle E-Business Suite
applications extracts financial data from
those ERP systems for analysis. The product,
for example, can be used by line-of-business
managers for analysing the financial perfor-
mance of their operations and identifying
performance discrepancies.
The new adaptive application framework
technology in the core platform “really lowers
the cost of deploying and maintaining an
application,” says Myron Weber, CTO at
Parsons Consulting, a financial consulting
firm that resells and implements Cognos
financial analysis software. Weber said many
of his customers require some customisation
of the applications and the new release
makes that easier to do. “Customers don’t
want to buy tools,” he says, “they want to
buy content.”

VARs struggle to keep
up with Wall street’s wild ride
Manages costs and increase employee productivity.
BY SCOTT CAMPBELL, CHANNELWEB
I
t’s a straightforward question, but the answer,
according to John McNeely, is anything but
simple: How has the wild ride of Wall Street
this week impacted your business?
The CEO and president of Sword & Shield
Enterprise Security, a solution provider says
it’s a hard question to answer because his
business is being hit on a number of fronts
these days.
The good news is that US stocks rebounded
Tuesday, a day after the Dow Jones fell
777 points when Congress couldn’t agree
on a financial markets bailout. The Dow
rose 485 points or 4.7 percent Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the tech-heavy Nasdaq
Composite Index was up 99 points or
5 percent.
But McNeely points out that the wild eco-
nomic swings of recent weeks can fester in
many different ways. For one, there’s the fuel
crisis snaking its way through several North
American southern cities, most recently and
perhaps most notably Atlanta. Knoxville,
about three hours north of Atlanta,
recently had some of the highest prices in the
country, based solely on rumors of an
impending shortage.
Then there’s the financial markets
situation. Sword & Shield deals mainly with
regional banks that haven’t been impacted
by the struggles of the big financial
institutions, but McNeely is smart enough to
know his company’s financial security can
change tomorrow.
“We have a lot of things in place already
that aren’t impacted by current crisis, but
where we have concerns and where we’re
keeping an eye on is we have five lines of
credit with five different distributors for prod-
uct reselling. It remains to be seen how that is
impacted,” he says.
Then there’s the housing market. McNeely
ANALYSIS: FINANCE
SOLUTION PROVIDERS
typically recruits nationally and pays for
people to relocate to Knoxville because the
local talent pool can’t meet his IT require-
ments. He can still find people he wants to
hire, but now nobody can afford to sell their
house to move to Tennessee, even at a
cheaper cost of living, he says. “If they can’t
get out [of their current situation], they’re not
willing to move.”
Like McNeely, Mark Wyllie, COO of
Compuquip Technologies, a solution
provider also chuckles at the question
of what the market’s ups and downs will hold
for his company.
Compuquip closes its fiscal year today and
Wyllie noted that among the top 20 accounts
“We’re in trouble whenever
he had on this date last year, sales with 17 we see banks of significant
accounts are down a collective 26 percent.
“And 10 of those customers are financial size being bought or taken
institutions,” he says.
over, that’s a sign we’re in
His top 20 accounts today, mostly different
names from a year ago, are up 32 percent something serious” – John
through the first 11 months of Compuquip’s
fiscal year, Wyllie says. “We’ve also had a
McNeely
bunch of other companies approaching us
about acquiring them or doing some partner-
ships because business is not that good for
them,” Wyllie says.
All the solution providers can do is try to
plan appropriately and hope the roller
coaster ride is over.
“We’re in trouble whenever we see banks
of significant size being bought or taken over,
that’s a sign we’re in something serious,”
McNeely says. “People are comparing
this to the Depression, but there’s a big
difference between now and then. There’s still
a lot of cash that companies have. Some of
this depends on where government goes with
a bailout. If that happens, we will rebound.
But I’m not sure anybody really knows what
will happen.”
CRN SOUTHERN AFRICA • SEPTEMBER 2008 • 19
ANALYSIS: HP PROCURVE
SOLUTION PROVIDERS
HP Procurve buys Colubris
Move to expand the use of WLANs.
BY DOMINIC KHUZWAYO
H P recently announced it is buying Colubris
Networks, a company that specialises in
intelligent wireless networks for enterprises
and service providers.
Founded in 2000, Colubris Networks
Intelligent Mobility Solutions deliver wireless
integrated access, management and security
products as well as 802.11n capability – all
of which helps enterprises and service
providers to broaden the reach and impact
of voice, data and multimedia applications.
And with HP also a supplier of WLANs
through HP ProCurve, this move is seen as
making HP ProCurve even stronger in the
WLAN area. HP plans to integrate Colubris’
extensive product line into its ProCurve net-
working products portfolio.
This will allow HP ProCurve to expand its
reach in areas such as hospitality, manufac-
turing, transportaion, health care and educa-
tion as Colubris Networks plays a major role
in these markets.
“The acquisition of Colubris Networks will
strengthen ProCurve’s hardware, manage-
ment platform and services, significantly
improving the overall performance capabili-
ties of both wired and wireless networks, and
will deliver even more best-in-class choices
for our customers worldwide,” says Marius
Haas, senior vice president and general
manager, HP ProCurve.
“With our vision and continued support
from HP leadership, I am convinced that
ProCurve’s impressive growth and market
leadership is unlimited,” he adds.
The move is also set to give HP ProCurve
and its partners a huge boost with access to
802.11n capability, which HP ProCurve did-
n’t have in its product line.
On CRN.com Haas commented on hav-
ing access to the 802.11n saying: “It’s a
technology space we felt we needed to own.
It’s a good augmentation to what we have.”
Meanwhile locally, Lorna Hardie business
unit manager, HP ProCurve SA says,
“ProCurve will continue to offer its existing
20 • CRN SOUTHERN AFRICA • SEPTEMBER 2008
APs and WESMs as part of its extensive
WLAN product line.”
“In addition ,Colubris’ overlay architecture
complements and strengthens existing
ProCurve wireless solutions by giving
customers additional choices for unifying
their wired and wireless communications,”
she says.
According to Hardie, the introduction of
Colubris products and technologies into the
ProCurve portfolio will give channel partners
even stronger wireless solutions to offer their
customers. “Furthermore, HP ProCurve is
impressed with Colubris’ next-generation
technology and its alignment with ProCurve’s
value proposition to deliver networks that are
secure, easy to deploy and manage, reliable,
flexible and affordable, enabling our cus-
tomers to select standards-based solutions,
she says.
Lorna Hardie, HP ProCurve SA
“The introduction of Colubris products and technologies
into the ProCurve portfolio will give our channel partners
an even stronger wireless solutions offering for their
customers.” – Lorna Hardie, HP ProCurve SA.
“HP is committed to developing the
ProCurve business, emphasising its commit-
ment to working with trusted industry partners
to provide customers with best-in-class solu-
tions, products and services.”
When asked if industries like transporta-
tion, health care and hospitality are ready for
WLAN technology, Hardie says: “Absolutely,
in fact we believe that over the next 20 years,
information will drive overall business success
across all industries.”
According to Hardie, this means real-time Vincent Williams, Faritec
access to critical business intelligence needs

SOLUTION
to be seamless no matter when, where or
how users connect, this directly impacts the
need to support WLAN. Hence it is said
that Wireless LAN (WLAN) technology will
continue to grow as an essential enterprise
resource. In fact, end-user spending in the
WLAN enterprise-class market is expected to
“With our vision and continued support from HP
leadership, I am convinced that ProCurve’s impressive
growth and market leadership is unlimited.”
– Marius Haas, HP ProCurve.
increase at a compound annual growth rate
of 12 per cent from 2004 through 2009 to
$1.6 billion, with wireless switches and con-
trollers accounting for 31 per cent of that
amount (Forecast: Wireless LAN Equipment,
Worldwide, 2002-2009.” Gartner. January
26, 2005. Article).
ANALYSIS: HP PROCURVE
PROVIDERS
She explains that if one had to look at
specifics in terms of industry this is no differ-
ent and, in fact, has become more of a
necessity rather than a “nice to have”, as an
example in terms of the transportation,
health care and hospitality industries their
networking requirements are very similar
that is the need for an advanced, secure,
reliable and easy-to-manage wired and wire-
less LAN infrastructure combined with the
benefits of real-time access.
“In addition, visitors to your organisation
no longer expect to be greeted just with a
cup of coffee and a handshake. They also
expect you to give them access to your wire-
less network so they can be as productive as
possible,” she says.
It seems the WLAN is becoming the ‘in
thing’ in many industries and with HP now
having Colubris Networks in the ‘bag’, HP
ProCurve will try to capitalise on the market.
On the other hand, the competition is on
for WLAN vendors to claim the number one
spot, HP ProCurve, 3 Com, Nortel…. on
your marks, get set, ready, GO!
ANALYSIS: AMD
SOLUTION PROVIDERS

AMD at home, work, play

Focusing on platforms.

BY KAUNDA CHAMA

E
arly this year chipmaker Advanced Micro
Devices (AMD) announced that it would
move away from a model of selling
components to selling platforms and
has enjoyed a reasonable response from
the market.
This model saw the vendor selling
platforms that were tailor-made for users that
were using their computers for gaming, word
processing, multimedia rendering and other
specialised fields.
However, even with this amount of suc-
cess, the company feels it should step up its
go-to-market strategy a notch and advance it
from selling platforms to selling solutions.
With the desktop platform space well pen-
etrated AMD feels it is ready to move in the
solutions direction and has already identified
home, work and play as the three target
areas it intends going for.
All of the systems that will be shipped with
AMD chips sets will be labelled accordingly
and will come with stickers stating that they
are AMD Live (for home and multimedia
use), AMD Game (designed specifically for
the gaming fraternity) and AMD Business
Class for enterprise users.
“All of these solutions are tailor-made for
specific segments and, as a company, AMD
is confident that it will stay ahead of its com-
petition. Users will have an even easier job
choosing systems that are suited to them “Our mission is not to undersell our solutions against
because the stickers will indicate what a spe-
cific PC is designed for,” explains Giuseppe
what our competitors have on the market, but to show
Amato, AMD’s EMEA sales and marketing customers that with our solutions they can truly get more
technical director.
He adds that all the new solutions AMD bang for their buck.” – Giuseppe Amato, AMD
will bring to market will increase productivity
in their specific management segments.
One thing AMD has done well and is con- they have been looking for with its advanced afford to have a lot of employees out of the
fident will go a long way in improving the graphics capability. office at any given time,” explains Amato.
end-user experience is the capabilities that its “Both corporate and home users are now He adds that many companies are pro-
discrete graphics give to its systems. getting used to high-definition video confer- ducing their own corporate videos and the
“Everywhere from home to play to busi- encing and corporates are also adopting amount of video rendering required calls for
ness; people are demanding better graphics high definition on their training videos or both improved microprocessor and graphics
performance and AMD has just the solutions Web-based training because they cannot card performance.

22 • CRN SOUTHERN AFRICA • SEPTEMBER 2008


“The discrete graphics card on the Puma
platform-based notebooks gives users the
same processing, graphics power and per-
formance as desktop PCs. AMD’s main goal
is to simplify the computer and give end-
users the best and simplest experience possi-
ble,” notes Amato.
Although the vendor appreciates the dif-
ference between ordinary and power users, it
wants to be part of the solution to make
using PCs as comparatively simple as using
cellular handsets.
Meanwhile, the company claims that its
Business Class solution was designed with
business in mind to deliver the best value on
the market, enabling industry-leading plat-
form stability and longevity, essential security
and manageability, and exceptional perfor-
mance and energy efficiency.
Stability and longevity
Thanks to AMD’s reliability, stable image
support and consistent 64-bit architecture
across servers and clients, businesses can
build a computing infrastructure that does
more for longer.
The solution boasts image stability of up
to 24 months across AMD Athlon processors,
AMD Phenom processors and AMD 780
chipsets backed by the vendor’s reliability.
The company’s AMD64 technology provides
improved system consistency and compatibility
across servers and clients.
Performance and energy
efficiency
AMD Business Class technology delivers all
the application and graphics performance
employees need to be productive with energy-
efficient features designed to keep costs low.
It comes standard with support for native,
true multi-core performance with AMD
Athlon X2 processors, AMD Phenom X3 and
AMD Phenom X4 processors helping systems
to meet and exceed real-world application
performance needs.
AMD’s professional-grade efficiency
enhancements like Cool‘n’Quiet 2.0 tech-
nology and ATI PowerPlay, platforms based
on its Business Class technology can help to
enable low power consumption and smaller
form factors. ATI Radeon integrated graphics
support dual-monitor capability to help max-
imise productivity.
SOLUTION
Essential security and
manageability
Meanwhile, the vendor’s open standards-
based approach enables future-ready
solutions with features and interoperability
for businesses without getting locked into a
single, proprietary technology.
In addition, the solution has chip-level
security, including support for the Trusted
Platform Module (TPM) specification and
integrated virtualisation for enhanced security
from the moment systems start booting up.
AMD promises a commitment to security
and management standards (TCG and
DMTF) that keep businesses from getting
locked into proprietary technology as well as
support for choice through proactive
With the introduction of its external graphics card, which
can be connected to systems via a USB port, AMD is
confident that it will not compromise on graphics performance
on the mobile side adding that it is bringing the same
power experience from the desktop to the notebook.
development of the emerging DASH
standard for out-of-band management.
It also boasts a commitment to open
platforms based on industry standards,
enabling integrated management solutions
while preserving choice in the industry.
Standards-based components can also
integrate easily into existing IT infrastructures
and work seamlessly and predictably with
systems from multiple vendors.
AMD’s compliance with standards
helps to ensure compatibility with popular
management tools, making it easier to
manage client devices because the
non-proprietary functionality helps provide a
consistent management experience across
the infrastructure.
It also shares a consistent foundation
with the SMASH server management
standard for greater consistency and
reliability between data centre and
client management.
To ensure that its distributors and value-
added resellers (VARs) earn the best possible
revenues from its solutions and become
CRN SOUTHERN AFRICA • SEPTEMBER 2008 •
ANALYSIS: AMD
PROVIDERS
solution partners to their customers, AMD is
providing its channel partners will all the
necessary aids, such as technology videos, to
ensure that they easily understand its mis-
sion, vision and technology and, at the same
time, transfer the intuitiveness of its solutions
to their customers.
“Our mission is not to undersell our solu-
tions against what our competitors have on
the market, but to show customers that with
our solutions they can truly get more bang
for their buck,” says Amato.
“With AMD Live resellers are able to bun-
dle PCs with products such as high-definition
video cameras because they complement
each other. At the same time, with the pro-
cessing and graphics power we are putting
into notebooks we are ensuring that mobility
gets better without compromising on
graphics quality thereby giving users the best
performance per rand per watt.”
With this said, it will be interesting to
watch the battle between the Intel/NVidia
collaboration with the AMD/ATI solution
because AMD claims that with its Puma
platform, it is able to give its customers
better productivity with even higher video
graphics quality.
In addition, with the improved power man-
agement system built into AMD systems, the
company says it will give its competition a good
run when it comes to battery performance.
With the introduction of its external graphics
card, which can be connected to systems via a
USB port, AMD is confident that it will not com-
promise on graphics performance on the mobile
side adding that it is bringing the same power
experience from the desktop to the notebook.
“This is a great opportunity for improved
margins for VARs because we deliver on the
price and performance
Vincent side,” he notes.
Williams, Faritec
On the small form factor side.
23
Microsoft Partner Summit –
a windfall for Durban Microsoft would like
to thank the Partner
Microsoft SA’s decision to hold its flagship Partner Summit and Tech-Ed annual events in Durban this year was worth Summit sponsors:
millions of rands to the local economy, as more than 3 000 delegates from across the country descended on the city in
Platinum sponsor
the first week of August.
The events, which ran back to back from 3-8 August at the Inkosi Albert Luthuli Convention Centre (ICC), are the
highlights of the software maker’s annual calendar. Microsoft uses these events to lay out its technology and business
Gold sponsors
roadmap for the coming year to its partners, IT professionals and developers and to highlight areas of innovation that
will benefit end users.
The Partner Summit and Tech-Ed events drew more than 3 000 delegates, and accommodating them resulted in a
minor boom for the local hospitality industry and businesses in early August, said eThekwini mayor Obed Mlaba.
“Durban is no stranger to hosting major business events, and Microsoft’s decision to host these events in our city
meant that our enthusiasm for growth, change and development has not gone unnoticed,” said Clr Mlaba.
Partner Summit culminated in a glittering Partner Awards function on 7 August, at which Microsoft’s top-performing
partners were recognised for the impact they have on customers and their ongoing contribution within South Africa.
Both Partner Summit and Tech-Ed have been held at Sun City for the past few years, and Microsoft SA’s Head of the
Server and Tools business, Manoj Bhoola said the change of venue was part of a decision to give these events a fresh,
new face.
“The Microsoft partner eco-system is growing rapidly, and we felt that Durban would be able to provide a vibrant and Silver sponsors
compelling backdrop to these premier events while offering the facilities required to host these expanding events and a
greater number of session rooms to cater for the diverse range of topics,” said Bhoola. “We’re looking to expand our
presence strongly in other regions of South Africa, and we feel this will be a strong platform for us going forward.”
A study in 2007 by IT industry researcher IDC found that the Microsoft ecosystem – defined as people working at IT
companies and IT professionals who create, sell, or distribute products that run on Microsoft platforms – plays a key
role in driving the IT industry’s overall contribution to job growth and economic development. Microsoft-related IT
activities in South Africa were the source of more than 153 000 jobs in 2007, constituting 43% of the entire South
African IT workforce. Service sponsors
The study also found that the revenues earned by partners working with Microsoft in South Africa far exceed the
revenues earned by Microsoft itself. For every R1 that Microsoft currently earns, partners working with Microsoft earn an
estimated R9.69. Of this, R1.50 is generated in the software arena, R1.92 in services and R6.27 in hardware (that is,
hardware sold with Microsoft software already loaded.) The Microsoft Partner Summit builds on the strong relationship
between Microsoft and its partners and creates a solid platform for growing the Microsoft ecosystem.

To find out more about Microsoft Partner Summit visit: www.partnersummit.co.za

CRN SOUTHERN AFRICA • SEPTEMBER 2008 • 25

 iSolve stars at Microsoft Partner Awards
iSolve Business Solutions, Dimension Data and Leaf were the big winners at Microsoft’s Annual Partner
Programme Awards in Durban, with iSolve walking away with four Solutions Competency Awards, Dimension
Data winning three awards and Leaf taking home the coveted Managing Director’s Award for
its remarkable growth in the mobile space in the past year.
iSolve won awards for competency in Custom Development Solutions, Data Management Solutions,
Information Worker and Learning Solutions, while The IT Department beat off some strong competition to win
the Small Business Specialist Award for the second year running.
Other companies to do well were AccTech Systems, IS Partners and Integr8IT, which each pocketed two
awards at a glittering ceremony at Durban’s ICC.
Microsoft’s head of the Platform and Developer Evangelism Group David Ives was effusive in his praise for
the Microsoft Partner Programme Award winners, saying they were delivering “unmatched innovation and
value” to customers as part of Microsoft’s diverse and talented partner ecosystem.
He singled Leaf out for special praise, saying the company has demonstrated “commitment and
vision” in its approach to the strategically important area of telecommunications, placing itself at the forefront
of the South African mobility market while tapping into the lucrative consumer space. The company has grabbed 90% of
the local Windows Mobile market while growing its Microsoft revenue 53% year-on-year.
A delighted Himal Ramjee, director of iSolve, said Microsoft’s commitment to the partner model had played a key role in the company’s ability to
deliver focused solutions across a range of disciplines.
“The Microsoft Partner Summit remains a key event in the iSolve management calendar, as it clearly outlines Microsoft’s strategy and the ways
that we as partners can align ourselves to it,” said Ramjee. “Our ongoing interaction with Microsoft has played a key role in our ability to provide
world-class solutions to our clients, using shared skill sets and Microsoft technologies.”
The IT Department’s Mornay Durant said the award underlined the way his company had been able to articulate Microsoft’s small business focus
through embracing shared marketing opportunities as well as new licensing models.
“Small Businesses have very clear needs from their IT infrastructure, and we feel we’re at a point where we can enable them to see their IT
infrastructure as reliably supportive of their business operations on a day-to-day basis,” said Durant. The glittering Microsoft Partner Programme
Awards 2008 Gala Dinner took place on 7th August 2008, hosted by Fernando de Sousa, former interim Country Manager for Microsoft South
Africa and Cheick Diarra, Microsoft Africa Chairman. Awards were presented by the Microsoft award owners; business group leads and business
managers responsible for each of the award categories.

Microsoft Partner Programme Awards 2008 Winners

Advanced Infrastructure Solutions Competency Award –
Dimension Data
Dimension Data has shown real commitment to the Microsoft stack by driving
infrastructure solutions to large Enterprise customers. The company has focused on
providing management solutions – winning a number of Enterprise System Centre
deals. Its understanding of Directory Services as a key component in winning the
entire stack, as well as its commitment to the Infrastructure Optimisation strategy has
gained it many tenders against competing technologies and its expertise in selling
and deploying solutions has translated into a number of case studies.

26 • CRN SOUTHERN AFRICA • SEPTEMBER 2008

Custom Development Solutions Competency Award
– iSolve
iSolve consistently builds robust infrastructure solutions and adding
custom development solutions for clients has been this partner’s
forte for many years. A competitive partner in the Custom
Development space, iSolve has been actively developing many
niche solutions for Microsoft’s key clients including Business
Intelligence, IW solutions and continuing specific custom
development for their clients – this has gained them many
awards and recognition from Microsoft and customers alike. The
company continues to develop custom-built applications that drive
adoption of the Microsoft platform in key development areas of
Microsoft .Net.
Business Process and Integration
Solutions Competency Award – Business
Connexion
Business Connexion is a leader in the Enterprise
integration space with a proven track record of high
customer satisfaction scores. The company has
contributed significantly to the Microsoft server
business generally, and has innovated with BizTalk
server to win several competitive deals. Business
Connexion’s focus on solutions and interoperability is
the key to their success and the commitment to
employing the highest skilled integration specialists
places them at the top partner in this space.
Data Management Solutions Competency
Award – iSolve
iSolve has again this year demonstrated its continued support
for Microsoft’s Business Intelligence and Data Management
solutions. The company’s passion for Microsoft and its
products truly sets it apart. This was very evident during the
2008 Wave Launch campaign where iSolve showed
tremendous commitment by being the first implementer of SQL
Server 2008 in a 64-bit environment at a customer. iSolve also
achieved considerable year-on-year growth in the area of Data
Management and grew Business Intelligence and SQL
Server-influenced revenue in both the EPG and SMS&P spaces.
Information Worker Solutions Competency Award
– Intervate
Besides selling, implementing and influencing the entire stack of Information
Worker products across EPG, SMS&P and Public Sector, Intervate has
invested in training, skills development and new technologies to address key
customer challenges. The company was instrumental in driving OpenXML
adoption and messaging in South Africa and has delivered the highest
number of Enterprise search engagements for the local Microsoft subsidiary.
CRN SOUTHERN AFRICA • SEPTEMBER 2008 • 27

ISV/Software Solutions Competency Award
– AccTech
AccTech Systems has deployed more than 35 ISV
Solutions in the past 12 months. It follows a strict project
methodology and implementation process based on the
Microsoft Solution Framework which enables it to deliver
quicker wins. AccTech also uses the ISV Royalty Licensing
programme to sell SQL, Office 2007 and SharePoint
packaged along with its own products. AccTech ‘s passion
for cutting edge Microsoft technology, including its
embracing of Silverlight and PhotoSynth, coupled with its
investments in R&D, enables innovation in designs and
state of the art products.
Licensing Solutions Competency Award
– First Technology
First Technology has managed to grow their licensing
business despite a tough competitive landscape. Its
customer centric business model has facilitated their winning
a number of new accounts, while maintaining 100% of
their large existing customer base. The company’s strong
focus on the Software Assurance Benefits programme,
and its innovation in this area, provides its customers
with a clear understanding of how to best leverage the
programme. Its mentorship programme is also empowering
a number of new entrants to the skills market.
28 • CRN SOUTHERN AFRICA • SEPTEMBER 2008
Information Worker Solutions Competency Award – iSolve
iSolve has delivered yet another great performance in FY08. Its enthusiasm
and energy is notable, in particular the way the company enables people
through technology. Its alignment with Microsoft’s framework has made it
easy to engage and work with iSolve while its support in the government
sector and growth in the SMS&P space makes it a deserving winner.
Learning Solutions Competency Award – iSolve Business
Solutions
iSolve’s business model consisting of consulting and training, and its alignment
to the Infrastructure Optimisation models, gives the company a true competitive
edge with its training offerings. iSolve has not only shown a significant
growth in its training business in FY08, but a commitment and dedication to
training, certification and skills development that that is key for Microsoft. The
numerous projects iSolve is involved in at a development level is testament to
its dedication to driving a stronger, more successful industry.
Microsoft Business Solutions Competency Award – IS Partners
IS Partners has shown full commitment to not only Microsoft Dynamics, but
more importantly so to its customers. Consistently delivering exceptional
customer service through its deep understanding of customer’ business needs,
IS Partners leverages their own best practices along with industry experts to
bring best of breed business models to their business pursuits. Its dedication to
constantly exceed customer’s expectations, has allowed them to have achieved
the highest growth rate year on year of any other Microsoft Dynamics managed
partner in South Africa in FY08. IS Partners was awarded into the President’s
Club for Dynamics, forming part of the top 500 Dynamics partners worldwide
– a huge achievement.

Networking Infrastructure Solutions
Competency Award – Integr8IT
Integr8IT is a high performing organisation that
has won numerous industry awards during the
past year. The business has seen good growth
through its winning of new customers from
competing technologies while maintaining its
existing customer base. It has produced a
number of great case studies, including some
focused on Software plus Services solutions.
The company is committed to driving the full
Microsoft stack and has displayed alignment to
the Microsoft vision.
Mobility Solutions Competency
Award – Digital Matter
As a strong mobile development house, Digital
Matter excels at creating flexible, innovative
solutions to customers challenges, and their
ability to accommodate customer requests has
driven lucrative engagements with large cus-
tomers. Its solutions are contributing to the
growth of the mobility business which is a key
strategic area for Microsoft in South Africa. Its
commitment to skills and building expertise
makes the company a deserved winner.
Security Solutions Competency Award – BUI
Microsoft’s entrance into the security space has created new opportunities for partners
to deliver a total end-to-end Security Solution. BUI has adopted a Forefront practice
that has driven a number of wins against competitors in this highly specialised area, has
taken part in the Technology Adoption Programme and is a trusted security advisor to
many large and SME customers. BUI has been committed to driving the Microsoft
security stack which adds to its value proposition to its customers.
Citizenship Award – Netsurit
Netsurit has clear Citizenship programmes incorporated into its Internship Programme
including ‘Feed the Kids Day’ and a comprehensive Community Training programme.
These are great examples of giving back to the community, driving skills development and
improving the lives of others. They are key components in helping to address some of the
challenges we face in South Africa by helping to develop the economy.
Winning Customers Initiative Award – Information Systems Partners
IS Partners has displayed a dynamic and innovative approach to solving real world issues
around BI and CRM. The company provides complete coverage to our customers in three
of Microsoft’s main focus areas: BPIO, APIO and Business Solutions. It has demonstrated
an absolute winning performance by investing in new solutions from Microsoft, selling and
deploying these solutions to customers, driving incremental revenue, competing aggressively
and winning against other vendors in a very crowded area.
CRN SOUTHERN AFRICA • SEPTEMBER 2008 • 29

Special Initiative Award: Unified Communications –
Dimension Data
In the exciting area of Unified Communications Dimension Data has
shown great support and investment in the enterprise space. Even though
the company is a supplier for a number of voice solutions it has embraced
the Microsoft UC vision and worked at integrating the technology into
existing products to deliver great value to its customers. Based on its UC
strategy Dimension Data has managed to up sell a number of customers
to Enterprise CAL suits as well as deliver several proof of concepts.
Customer Experience Initiative Award – Integr8 IT
With a primary focus in the small and medium business market,
Integr8 has demonstrated its commitment and dedication to Customer
Experience achieving a 98% customer care rating and generating
multiple case studies and testimonials. The company has solid
processes in place to deal with complaints and it continually displays
that customers are at the heart of its values – a key component in
driving a great customer experience.
Special Focus Award: Office Deployment – AccTech
AccTech has helped Microsoft drive customer satisfaction by utilising
Desktop Deployment Planning Services benefits offered to Volume
Licensing customers to increase return on their software investment.
They have shown a strong commitment to DDPS and demonstrated
excellence by adopting a strict project methodology and implementa-
tion process based on the Microsoft Solution Framework. This has
resulted in increased customer satisfaction and deployment of the
latest technologies.
30 • CRN SOUTHERN AFRICA • SEPTEMBER 2008
XBOX Retailer of the Year Award – Look & Listen
Look and Listen has been part of the XBOX family since its
launch. The company has embraced the XBOX brand and has
taken retail execution to a new level. Its in-store execution of
all XBOX products is of a world-class standard and it has
invested heavily in a key programme - the Retail Sales Staff
Training. The company has exceeded targets set by Microsoft
and the range and depth of software titles it carries is
unmatched in the market.
Royalty OEM Partner of the Year Award – Mustek
Mustek, with its Mecer brand, has continuously embraced the
Microsoft vision and participated in joint marketing cam-
paigns to help drive the local PC ecosystem. Mustek has a
direct OEM agreement across all Microsoft Business Groups
to ensure that its customers get the best value from pre-
installed Microsoft software on their PCs. All its PCs are
assembled on a Mercer ISO-certified assembly line and carry
the “Designed for Windows” logo accreditation to ensure a
rich end-user experience.
SDA Retailer of the Year Award – Incredible
Connection
Incredible Connection has grown its market share to over
70% of the total Microsoft Entertainment and Devices SDA
business. The company has dedicated substantial in-store
retail space to highlight the Microsoft product range, while
investing in merchandising and advertising these. The
company is passionate about the Microsoft SDA product
offering and has worked tirelessly with our distributor and the
Microsoft product team to develop a range in their stores
that showcases the retail Microsoft brand.

Distributor of the Year Award – Workgroup
Workgroup has had a great year, exceeding expectations in FY08 by
growing their business 25% year-on-year in both Volume Licensing and
Commercial Full Packaged Product. Workgroup’s success in FY08, and
previous years, is attributed to its highly skilled staff compliment and
continuous analysis of its customers which has allowed the company to
understand the broader channel, identify channel readiness requirements
and uncover and nurture opportunities.
Managing Director’s Award – Leaf
This year’s Managing Director’s Award goes to a partner that that has epit-
omized the Microsoft value of passion for technology. In a short space of
time Leaf has grown into a market leader which is set to take the industry
into the next wave of innovation. The company has demonstrated commit-
ment and vision in its approach to the strategically important area of
telecommunications and has embraced Microsoft’s strategy of
Software+Services. Through its leveraging of mobile hardware and the
development of software applications this partner has placed itself at the
forefront of the South African mobility market while tapping into the lucrative
consumer space. The company has attained 90% of the local Windows
Mobile market while growing its Microsoft revenue 53% year-on-year, and
its investment into recruiting and growing skills demonstrates its commitment
to taking the market forward. For its alignment to Microsoft’s vision and its
investment into reaching strategic segments of the market, we are proud to
present this year’s Managing Director’s Award to Leaf.
Small Business Specialist Award – The IT
Department
The IT Department truly encapsulates what it means to
be a Small Business specialist. In its use of the right
technology for the right solution, it focuses on the
customer’s needs and sees the value in partnering with
other partners. It has shown dedication to growing this
market segment by forming a Small Business Server user
group and encouraging other partners to explore the
opportunities the product offers. It has also grown its
licensing business and offers software asset management
as a value-add to customers.
Large Account Reseller of the Year Award
– Dimension Data
Dimension Data stands out not only for its business
growth but for transitioning to deliver strategic services
over and above pure licence fulfilment. The company
has consistently driven initiatives like Infrastructure
Optimization to enable the customer environment and
secure deployment resulting in increased customer
satisfaction. Dimension Data enables its people to tackle
the most complex customer scenarios and has introduced
best practice service level agreement management;
ensuring that customers extract maximum value from
their purchases while always striving to be the trusted
advisor for both customer and Microsoft.
CRN SOUTHERN AFRICA • SEPTEMBER 2008 • 31
 Benefits Overview
The Microsoft Partner Programme recognises your
expertise, rewards you for the total impact you have
in the technology marketplace and delivers tools
and resources to help your business succeed,
regardless of its size or focus.
Expand Skills. Through the Partner Learning
Centre, you can grow your expertise to help you
capitalise on new market opportunities. Choose from
hundreds of marketing, sales and technical training
offerings – available at no charge.
Partner Skills Plus is the gateway to exclusive
certification offers. Save on practice tests and exams
to help grow your expertise and fulfil certification
requirements.
Increase Opportunities. Growing your business is
about acquiring new customers, discovering new
opportunities, forging new relationships and nurturing
existing ones. Find programme tools that can help you
connect to customers and to other partners, thereby
building new, profitable partnerships.
Using the Partner Marketing Centre, you can
generate leads and help increase your sales. Take
advantage of the market momentum created by
targeted Microsoft campaigns by using customisable
marketing materials – including email messages and
collateral – to help you attract new customers, and
to offer services and up-sell solutions to existing
customers to drive incremental revenue.
Close More Sales. With an array of no-cost
sales-assessment tools and customisable, scenario-based demonstrations, you can evaluate customer needs and show how your solutions can
help conquer real-world business challenges. In the Demo Showcase for the People-Ready Business, you’ll find predefined customer scenarios,
along with a customisable virtual machine environment.
With Technical Sales Assistance, you can take advantage of direct, unlimited access to Microsoft presales professionals, who can help you
with technical and competitive-sales questions – at no additional cost (available to Microsoft Certified and Gold Certified Partners).
Support Customers. Using Technical Support Services, you can take advantage of a rich portfolio of services that can help you successfully
sell, design, troubleshoot and deploy customer solutions. We help you build customer loyalty by helping to expediently resolve customer issues.
Reach out to technical support specialists online or by phone, or chat with other partners and Microsoft professionals in newsgroups.
We also offer a Customer Satisfaction Index, which allows our partners to receive direct, measurable feedback from their customers – and use it
to help improve service levels and retention (available to Microsoft Certified and Gold Certified Partners).

The New Microsoft Partner Portal

We have increased the site content by around 66% and restructured it, using appropriate, intuitive left-hand navigation. The benefits to you
include:
 Faster access to the tools and resources you need, saving you time and effort
 Increased resources, providing a greater choice of business development tools
 Easy, intuitive navigation, which helps you find what you need
 A greater understanding of how you can get more out of the Microsoft Partner Programme
 Offers, information and resources that are targeted at your membership level and your competency achievements
Visit the Partner Portal regularly to get the latest news, plus information on products, events, training, and resources at:
https://partner.microsoft.com/SouthAfrica

For any queries contact us on the Partner Support Line: 0860 MS PART (67 7278).

32 • CRN SOUTHERN AFRICA • SEPTEMBER 2008

HP PROCURVE: COVER STORY
SOLUTION PROVIDERS

HP ProCurve
gaining more ground
HP’s best-kept secret emerges from
behind the curtains.

BY KAUNDA CHAMA

I t might once have been HP’s best-kept secret

as the markets concentrated more on the
vendor’s other technology disciplines such as
notebooks, servers and printers, but
ProCurve has now come to be a network-
ing brand to be reckoned with.
In what seems a deliberate move by
the vendor to keep its networking brand
at the back and not lead with it as one
of its top brands, the ProCurve products
and solutions have proven formidable
competitors to what many know as the
top networking brands on the market
today.
The likes of Cisco, 3Com and
Nortel have enjoyed very good
market share both globally and
locally and it is now evident that
“the new kid on the block” is well
poised to give the so-called “estab-
lished” networking brands some
well-deserved competition.
Boasting case studies like the
Venetian Hotel resorts in Atlantic
City and Las Vegas as well as
global software as a service
company Mimecast, HP’s network-
ing brand has truly managed a
well-orchestrated sneak attack on its
competitors and is showing no signs of
slowing down.
Lorna Hardie, business unit manager
for ProCurve Networking Business South
Africa and English Africa talked to CRN
about HP’s “best-kept secret” which the

34 • CRN SOUTHERN AFRICA • SEPTEMBER 2008


company insists is not a new kid on the block
in the proper meaning of the phrase.
She states that ProCuve as an organisation
continues to grow both locally and as a
global team to such an extent that the organ-
isation has had to split into two central divi-
sions within ProCurve which are the Solutions
Business Group (SBG) and Commercial
Business Group (CBG).
“The reason for this is we realised that we
have a very broad spectrum of offerings in
terms of our product range; we have prod-
ucts that are very enterprise orientated and
solutions orientated, and products that are
SME orientated although in many instances
you can have a mix and match of products
within one customer,” she explains.
She adds that vendor often find that the
smaller branches of a company will use the
SMB-type products whereas the head offices
or bigger branches will opt for the larger
enterprise solutions.
“As an organisation, we realised that what
was needed to develop the commercial sec-
tor was focus and dedication to target the
right products for that sector of the market
and similarly within the solutions group it was
the same concept,” Hardie states.
The company is heavily involved in the
mobility space and has seen a lot of expan-
sion in the security space. So if one looks at
solutions infrastructure, security and mobility,
and the data centre arena – focusing on
solutions per se rather than products - one
can see why the organisation had to split into
two for better focus.
“As such it has been a direct result of expan-
sion in the product set, taking on new areas
and driving and developing both the solutions
as well as the SMB arena,” she notes.
According to her, there has been a mis-
conception for some time that ProCurve was
very much an SMB player, when it has a very
strong foothold in the enterprise space.
“If one looks at the competitive horizon it
changes, if one looks at the different speed
and feeds, and form factors and different
arenas and at the horizon in the unmanaged
space, we will be dealing with the more
SMB-type players. If one looks at the Chasse
arena, one looks a at the more enterprise-
type offerings because they would be used
in a larger office, head office or an
environment with a large number of users,”
COVER STORY: HP PROCURVE
SOLUTION PROVIDERS
she explains. Hardie goes on to say that this
could tie in depending on if they were used
in the distribution or the core within the net-
working environment, so the competitive
horizon changes in this instance as well.
“This also comes into play when one looks
at 10Gig because it is used more in the data
centre or the core or even in bandwidth-
intensive environments which are typically on
the more enterprise side,” she adds.
“HP continues to see networking as a major growth area
and we are growing at a pace that is more aggressive
than that of the market which means that we are per-
forming very well and the networking business is a very
lucrative one.” – Lorna Hardie, HP ProCurve
Hardie also says that the competitive
horizon changes when one looks at the rev-
enue arena respective of the ports arena; so
there are basically three ways to measure a
vendor, by ports, by revenue and the other
way is by looking at independent reports
from the likes of Gartner and Forrester (these
reports look at what a company is delivering
against what the market requires and measures
to see if it makes logical and business sense).
So if one looks at who could be
ProCurve’s competitors, one finds it is a very
broad spectrum player in both the SMB and
the large enterprise space whereas most of its
competitors chose a niche and stuck to it.
“For example, a Netgear or a D-Link are
very SMB focused and even a Linksys, where-
as in the corporate and enterprise space one
starts looking at other players such as Cisco,
which has a broad spectrum like us, and a
Nortel and Juniper that chose to play in cer-
tain areas only,” she says.
Locally, the ProCurve brand was intro-
duced to the market as a subsection under
the HP server business about 10 years ago
and stayed there until it came into its own.
Hardie stresses that the ProCurve brand
has always been its own entity as it has
CRN SOUTHERN AFRICA • SEPTEMBER 2008 • 35
HP PROCURVE: COVER STORY
SOLUTION PROVIDERS
always been a division within HP.
“If one looks at it realistically, HP is one of
the few companies that has made a success
of its networking business even as a turnkey
IT company,” she claims.
Meanwhile, HP has been involved in the
networking business for well over 25 years
and it was involved in 10 base T as a tech-
nology and the ratification of the standard
which was the foundation for Ethernet today.
The reason behind this was that the vendor
was involved with the likes of Xerox and
“Customers are talking about the positive experiences
they have had from investing in ProCurve solutions and I
am getting feedback from the channel and end-users
that HP networking is now placed right up there with the
best of brands.” – Lorna Hardie, HP ProCurve
other vendors to facilitate the common use
of products such as printers.
In essence, HP’s networking division has
over the years levitated between divisions
such as storage and services until the
company realised the quality of its
offering after having released some quality
products into the market that received
astounding responses.
Its 4000 and 8000 range of switches is
still being supported in the South African
market. This is why HP decided to have a
networking sub-brand because it has its own
R&D labs, and sales and marketing teams.
Over the past 48 months, ProCurve has
been quite active on both the unit movement
as well as acquisition side: it recently
acquired Colubris Networks.
HP plans to integrate Colubris’ product
line into its ProCurve networking products
portfolio. This will expand ProCurve’s reach
into vertical markets such as hospitality,
transportation, health care, manufacturing,
service provision and education.
Colubris’ Intelligent Mobility Solution
delivers wireless integrated access, manage-
ment and security products as well as
802.11n capability – all of which help
enterprises and service providers to broaden
the reach and impact of voice, data and
36 • CRN SOUTHERN AFRICA • SEPTEMBER 2008
multimedia applications.
“The acquisition of Colubris Networks will
strengthen ProCurve’s hardware, manage-
ment platform and services, significantly
improving the overall performance capabili-
ties of both wired and wireless networks, and
will deliver even more best-in-class choices
for our customers worldwide,” says Marius
Haas, senior vice president and general
manager, HP ProCurve. “With our vision and
continued support from HP leadership, I am
convinced that ProCurve’s impressive growth
and market leadership is unlimited.”
“HP continues to see networking as a
major growth area and we are growing at a
pace that is more aggressive than that of the
market which means that we are performing
very well and the networking business is a
very lucrative one,” comments Hardie.
A recent international report also
showed that HP’s networking business is
growing at a pace that is three times that of
the total market.
“Our market growth is very healthy for SA
specifically, in Q2 2008 our growth was very
positive in a declining market and it has
been exceptionally healthy in the South
African market even compared to competitor
vendors,” she says.
Hardie claims that the South African
ProCurve business holds about 14.5 per
cent of the port allocation in the Europe
Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region. This
translates into the local business being num-
ber two in both revenue and port allocation
in the EMEA region.
“The significance of our revenue position-
ing was that it was a direct result of our
product expansion within the solutions
space. So from a solutions perspective we
launched a new product set that was target-
ing both a high-end distribution product set
as well as new core product range,” notes
Hardie.
This product set has had strong positioning
in the local market because it has been
comparatively strong in meeting the
requirements of the local customer as well
as reducing OPEX.
The company also invested significantly in
the wireless space and a recent IDC report
cited ProCurve’s wireless offering as having
more than 400 per cent return on investment
over a three-year period.
 COVER STORY: HP PROCURVE
SOLUTION PROVIDERS

Working with partners

HP recently revamped its partner programme
and added a Gold Partner status to its
offering (commences H1 2009). Networking
was one of the top disciplines when the
company announced this.
Even with the company’s recent acquisi-
tions in the networking space, their impact
will not be visible until the end of October
this year.
“HP has the Preferred Partner Programme
and it will be launching the Gold Partner
Programme next year within that there are
15 specialisation tracks and one of those is a
networking one. What is exciting about it is
that its subset is viewed separately from a
networking perspective so we fall under the
umbrella of the Preferred Partner Programme
so it contains all the benefits plus it has very
specific benefits for networking partners who
are part of it.
There is a strong link to certification and
skills because these lead to confidence as
well as sales generation and the ability to
reap greater returns from the likes of service
delivery and solutions. It also gives our
partners more confidence in approaching the
solutions side of things which means that at
the end of the day our partners gain more
ownership within an account because they
are now providing a solution to a case of Lorna Hardie, HP ProCurve
problems that a customer has,” says Hardie. skills and capabilities,” she notes.
HP remains committed to doing all its Hardie is very proud to say that local HP
business through the channel so with the networking channel partners are outdoing
steady growth of the company’s networking their expectations. “We achieved significant

“HP continues to see networking as a major growth area

and we are growing at a pace that is more aggressive
than that of the market which means that we are per-
forming very well and the networking business is a very
lucrative one.” – Lorna Hardie, HP ProCurve

business distributors and resellers can look
forward to potentially improved margins on
not only the traditional HP products but the
networking portfolio as well.
“We are a very channel-oriented company
and are committed to developing channel
growth in SA over the last quarter compared
to the corresponding period last year.”
The growth rates out of the EMEA region
are way over the 25 per cent mark over the
corresponding period last year. Its rating in
the port and revenue segment shows that the

CRN SOUTHERN AFRICA • SEPTEMBER 2008 • 37

HP PROCURVE: COVER STORY
SOLUTION PROVIDERS
company has held a sustainable position as
the second largest vendor for the past 11
consecutive quarters.
Hardie says there is a concerted effort to
gain further awareness of the ProCurve
brand through various initiatives and activi-
ties in the global and local markets, and
there has been a tremendous amount of
success from word-of-mouth sales.
“We will continue investing in the brand and skills
around it and also in creating awareness around it and
both the products and solutions that customers require
and have come to expect of the brand.” – Lorna
Hardie, HP ProCurve
“Customers are talking about the positive
experiences they have had from investing in
ProCurve solutions and I am getting feed-
back from the channel and end-users that
HP networking is now placed right up there
with the best of brands,” she explains.
The company intends sustaining its current
growth rate and anticipates keeping up its
pace. It also states that it will continue invest-
ing in the local team and work with HP’s
Solutions Partner Organisation as well as
end-user account managers.
“The ProCurve team is not just us but
also the extended team. But our team has
grown three fold over the past 12 months,”
notes Hardie.
She points out that with the growth of
the team there will be higher targets to
meet but remains confident that the
solutions offerings coupled with the team
behind them will ensure the ProCurve team
meets its objective.
Its local authourised distributors are
Duxbury, Tarsus and Axiz, and it also
operates in southern and east Africa out of
the South African office.
To boost its channel efforts, HP recently
acquired the skills of Chantel Davy, who
joined the team in the role of HP ProCurve
channel development manager for SA.
Davy is responsible for driving and execut-
ing against the key strategies and objectives
that ProCurve has for the channel business
38 • CRN SOUTHERN AFRICA • SEPTEMBER 2008
within SA, this is based on both local and
EMEA guidelines, while working and aligning
its strategies with the HP solutions partner
organisation (SPO) as a whole.
In addition, she is responsible for identify-
ing, maintaining and developing relation-
ships between channel partners and
ProCurve in order to grow awareness,
market share and sales in the region.
Looking ahead, the ProCurve team plans
to continue its training programmes both on
the technical and sales side. It has also
invested in a trade-in programme for cus-
tomers looking to upgrade their networks to
ProCurve solutions.
This programme is not only limited to HP
products but encompasses competitor
brands as well.
HP recently announced it is offering twice
the normal rebate when customers trade in
their existing network switches – from any
manufacturer – for selected HP ProCurve
Gigabit switches, including the new ProCurve
2510G switch series.
The promotion is part of HP’s strategy to
provide SMBs with an upgrade path to
Gigabit Ethernet, enabling them to use high-
bandwidth applications such as graphical
data, video streams and data storage. In
addition, customers will enjoy ProCurve’s
lifetime warranty.
As part of the vendor’s commitment to
reducing its environmental impact, with this
promotion, customers will get the added
benefit of HP recycling old products free
of charge.
The trade-in process is as follows: After
customers log onto www.hp.com/eur/
procurvetradein to request their double
trade-in rebate, ProCurve will pick up and
recycle old equipment free of charge.
Customers will then receive their
double-rebate payment directly into their
bank account.
The limited offer runs until 31 October
2008 and is targeted at SMBs.
The promotion has been rolled out in all
countries in the EMEA region where the
Trade-In programme exists.
“We will continue investing in the
brand and skills around it and also in
creating awareness around it and both
the products and solutions that customers
require and have come to expect of the
brand,” she concludes.

Mokgosi-Mwantembe
bids farewell to HP channel
Moving forward to meet fresh challenges.
BY DUDU SHABA
A
fter four years as MD at HP, the first black
woman to be appointed a local head of US-
based technology multinational, HP and a
powerful woman in the IT channel, born in
Sophiatown, Thoko Mokgosi-Mwantembe has
bid farewell to HP and partners in the channel.
Mokgosi-Mwantembe says it has been
great working with HP and that her resigna-
tion has been emotional due to the relation-
ships she has built at HP.
Mokgosi-Mwantembe pointed out that her
reason for resigning is to lead an investment
holdings company she will be launching in
the new year. “This is my ultimate, I have
been waiting for this opportunity and it has
presented itself,” she remarks.
She also highlights that she is very proud
of her achievements over the past four years.
“I have been in a very comfortable posi-
tion and was able to achieve a lot with my
team. I am also proud of the fact that the
HP business has experienced growth pre-
dominantly above market share,” she says.
From a transformation point of view, she
says the company has done well and has a
policy of managing diversity and has
improved a lot on it.
“Due to the transformation process in the
country, doors have opened up and there
are great opportunities, especially for
women, out there,” she says.
Mokgosi-Mwantembe has also received
awards while working at the company.
“I won an award for Businesswoman of
the year in 2007, CRN Magazine Best
Women in IT in 2005 and an ICT Achievers
award in 2005. All of this talks to what we
are doing as a collective and also to what I
have contributed as a team leader.”
Mokgosi-Mwantembe has expressed her
satisfaction with her successor, Fortuin should
have person’s full name who has been the
general manager of the Technology
Solutions Group at HP SA since April 2007.
“I am delighted with his appointment, I
ANALYSIS: HP
SOLUTION PROVIDERS
have no doubts about his leadership
because I know his background as a col-
league,” she says.
Mokgosi-Mwantembe also touched base
on the challenges during her time in office.
“When I started working at HP, it was very
difficult for me because everything was new
and I was faced with the challenges of learn-
ing about the culture of the company and
having people understand my leadership
style. My other challenges were around
motivating people and the economic slow-
down because we had to meet certain tar-
gets. My objective has always been to grow
with people, create wealth and expand the
skills of the people I work with,” she says.
“I can never forget to thank all the HP peo-
ple because I could not do without them. HP Thoko Mokgosi-Mwantembe, HP
is indeed a winning company,” she comments.
“I can never forget to thank all the HP people because I
could not do without them. HP is indeed a winning
company.” – Thoko Mokgosi-Mwantembe, HP
Talking to all women who regard her as a
role model, she advises them to consider the
following recipe for success:
 Be prepared to learn continuously
 Integrity is important for success
 Nothing substitutes hard work
 Always maintain a balance between work
and home
 Ignore noise and always choose to listen
to music.
She goes on to acknowledge her hus-
band, who has been with her through thick
and thin. “My husband has always been sup-
portive and has given me space to grow and
be the best person I can be,” she comments.
Mokgosi-Mwantembe concludes she has
done her homework as far as establishing
her own company goes and the only thing
left for her to do is to reap the benefits.
CRN SOUTHERN AFRICA • SEPTEMBER 2008 • 39
BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE FEATURE
SOLUTION PROVIDERS
A steady uptake of
BI evident in business
A necessary tool to be fully immersed into an organisation
BY DUDU SHABA
T
he main goal of BI is to integrate, analyse
and optimise organisational data and to cre-
ate business insight and value. Like any
other business sectors, SMEs are also
demanding that technology solve their busi-
ness problems and y are also looking for-
ward to BI to help them to make good busi-
ness decisions and enhance customer loyalty.
According to Keith Fenner, Strategic Sales
Director, Softline Accpac, BI can be defined
as a measurement and alert process, or a
presentation layer in which multiple data
streams make sense of huge storage vol-
umes using real-time techniques.
Martin Rennhackkamp, COO of PBT says
that BI is moving away from being an exclusive
tool for a few users to a more flexible, afford-
able and accessible tool for a larger market.
“BI tools were previously the sole domain of large
organisations. This was because they were able to
support the upfront investment and deliver the IT skills
needed to use the larger BI product sets.” – Ashley
Ellington, Softline Enterprise.
“This is happening because of the driving
need for an advanced solution which can
offer faster and better insight into the busi-
ness environment.
There is a steady uptake of BI for execu-
tives as a concept in SA and Africa, as
report packs and dashboards for executives
are being implemented in many organisa-
tions. However, the concept of BI for the
masses and advanced BI are two areas
where SA lags behind the US and Europe,”
40 • CRN SOUTHERN AFRICA • SEPTEMBER 2008
he says.
According to Ashley Ellington, MD,
Softline Enterprise, BI tools were previously
the sole domain of large organisations.
In his view, this was because they were
able to support the upfront investment and
deliver the IT skills needed to use the larger
BI product sets. While these products provid-
ed the cross business information view
required they were not user products.
“They needed IT expertise to develop,
maintain and use the complex logic required
to make sense of the underlying data that
users wanted to address. This situation has
now changed. User-led products have been
developed, allowing organisations to pull
information from multiple databases into BI
reports and user portals both cost-effectively
and without incurring IT overheads.
These products enable mid-market organ-
isations to enjoy the same improved visibility
of information as larger companies without
the large upfront investment. Software ven-
dors who deploy BI tools with their ERP
applications have also taken care of the
complex logic in a preconfigured environ-
ment, adding to lower investment yet provid-
ing information relevant to the user’s role in
the business,” he comments.
According to Riaaz Jeena, business man-
ager, Business Intelligence, the major current
trends in BI are performance management,
score-carding and dashboards. He says the
majority of enterprise clients have invested in
enterprise data warehouses and now want to
leverage further.
Drivers
Looking at what could be driving BI adop-
tion; McWilliam says that many companies
collect massive amounts of data and infor-
 BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE FEATURE
SOLUTION PROVIDERS

mation on their customers, but few draw

maximum value and insight from it.
“Customer information such as purchasing
patterns, past interactions and pending sales
is often captured by different systems and
processes and is never fully leveraged. But
many companies are beginning to take steps
to change this.
Today’s empowered consumers are look-
ing for clear and compelling differences
among retailers. This challenges a team to
develop dynamic, customer-centric business
models driven by fast, unfettered access to
customer, product and other information,” he
remarks.
McWilliam believes that BI needs to
be adopted within SA so that businesses
can be provided with the reach, consistency
and freedom to drive powerful, ongoing
programmes that support strategic
differentiation in today’s fiercely competitive
retail environments.
Fenner also believes BI was traditionally
report-driven and that is where many mid-
market businesses still are today.
“BI adoption is very vendor driven as com-
panies bundle BI solutions into their ERP
Ashley Ellington, Softline Enterprise
offerings at no cost. This allows customers
their first taste of BI, which is typically a live isations can consistently and auditably report
Excel interface and management report the required aspects, especially over time as
packs with drill down capabilities. the business, its rules and the underlying sys-
What we are seeing is that after this initial tems change,” Rennhackkamp comments.
adoption, businesses are moving to more com-
prehensive BI which is tied to business process Vertical adopters
from, for example, a CRM solution through to According to Rennhackkamp, the vertical
alerting and messaging from an ERP solution. adopters of BI are based in the financial ser-
The possibilities of BI are only limited by the vices industries; he also states that there are
imagination and budget as the technology is still stumbling blocks in politics, mindsets and
certainly alive and ready for businesses to corporate culture.
adopt and thrive on,” he comments. He goes on to say that the telecommuni-
“BI is well known for providing a solution cations industry, especially the mobile tele-
to information problems experienced by most coms providers, are some of the fastest
organisations and as such, BI is seen as an adopters of BI.
important business strategy tool that should “In SA, adoption is fast, but implementa-
be fully immersed into an organisation and its tion is not always so clean, we still see silos
business processes, certainly driving its adop- and departmental initiatives undermining the
tion. Competition is also a major driving enterprise-wide BI drive. In some of the
force. If your competitors are analysing how developing countries in Africa we see the
to increase their share of the customer’s wal- best, cleanest BI implementations in these
let, you cannot sit on the sidelines and watch industries,” he comments.
them slow pull further and further ahead. “.Also, businesses which have many oper-
In the financial services sector, regulatory ations across the world are looking for a per-
reporting requirements are also driving many region graphical interface which can define
BI implementation initiatives. If done correctly, when a measure is broken and then drill
the BI platform is the only place where organ- down into that data and make decisions.

CRN SOUTHERN AFRICA • SEPTEMBER 2008 • 41

BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE FEATURE
SOLUTION PROVIDERS
This is largely where BI is in Africa for the
mid and low small? enterprise business
today. At the top end, this is being embed-
ded into the decision- making process,
removing human intervention,” says Fenner.
Implementation of BI projects
According to Rennhackkamp, the implemen-
tation of BI into highly complex business
processes requires more than simple thought
and basic activity, and this is where most
organisations seem to go wrong, resulting in
all sorts of myths and hype around the ben-
efits and value of such a solution.
He says that understanding the core
importance and value of implementing BI
and, more importantly, where it needs to be
implemented in the organisation, the value
expected and measurement criteria on
return on investment in the solution should
be the starting point for any organisation
considering BI.
“Today’s empowered consumers are looking for clear
and compelling differences among retailers. This
challenges a team to develop dynamic, customer-centric
business models driven by fast, unfettered access to
customer, product and other information.” – David
McWilliam, Cognos.
“This is not only to ensure that the organi-
sation implements BI where it is required,
but so that it can determine what it need
from the solution and gain the most from its
BI infrastructure, reaping all the rewards it
has to offer,” he explains.
He goes on to say that decision-makers
and CIOs who take the time to determine
and understand BI and what the organisa-
tion can expect can help to eliminate the
possibility of a bad outcome, resulting in a
successful BI infrastructure that offers the
organisation the essential information it
needs to deliver best quality results to its
clients. “Decision-makers and CIOs as well
as the team of business analysts responsible
for determining the objectives of the BI solu-
tion will also learn that a BI project is not an
end in itself, but rather a foundational tool
and an ongoing process that needs to be
managed and monitored to maximise ROI
42 • CRN SOUTHERN AFRICA • SEPTEMBER 2008
and deliver the value promised. From
implementation throughout the entire
lifecycle of a BI solution, decision-makers
and CIOs need to make sure that relevant,
valuable information is derived from their BI
infrastructure, and that it is not only under-
stood but correctly managed,” he says.
According to Paul van Aswegen, GM of
Informatica South Africa, one of the main
challenges facing BI implementation is the
consolidation of data across people,
processes and systems. He believes that the
BI consolidation projects require data to be
migrated from one system to another.
“The main issue when consolidating
systems is not simply deciding which system
stays and which goes but, more importantly,
which aspects of the old system need to
be incorporated into the new system
and what data needs to be migrated
across in order for the business to continue
functioning successfully.
Businesses typically underestimate the
time and resources required for a successful
migration or consolidation. They often
operate under the assumption that migration
or consolidation is as simple as putting a
new system in place and flipping the switch.
Unfortunately, this is not the case, as
when it comes to these projects there is
always the issue of the data. It is not only
the issues around data volumes but more
specifically about understanding what data is
important to the business from both a
commercial and compliance perspective
and thus has to be migrated to the new
system,” he says.
Adrian van der Merwe, MD, 8thMan
comments: ”For VARs to be successful in BI,
they need to have a full understanding of
the product, experience or a track record in
the BI space, knowledge of the business
implementing the application, and client
buy-in. If the client does not take action to
ensure the program is successful, then the
system will not be effective.”
Vendor offerings
According to Corey Springett, strategic busi-
ness manager, Progress Software SA,
BI in SA is divided into two camps, direct
vendors and channel vendors. In his view,
this model is going to change in the next few
years, with traditional channel vendors hav-
ing been acquired by IBM and SAP.

ERP and BI
Analysing how BI and ERP correlate, Van der
Merwe says that the correlation between the
two is that a BI application can only be as
effective as the ERP-developed database from
which it draws its information.
“If the ERP system does not contain the
data required, then the BI application
won’t be implemented effectively. Ultimately,
BI is an extension of ERP, which is needed
to collect data so that BI can implement it.
In the past ERP was seen as a wall-to-wall
solution, but including BI makes it a wall-
to-wall and floor-to-ceiling implementation,”
he comments.
According to Van Aswegen, in the past,
businesses had no simple solution for inte-
grating data held off-premise in a software-
as-a-service (SaaS) application with the data
held in on-premise application software.
He says that recently, solutions have been
created that enable organisations to produc-
tively and securely replicate the corporate
data and data schema to an on-premise
database without installing any in-house data
integration software.
“This streamlines the integration process
and gives customers a new opportunity to
gain business value from their integrated
information assets.
It allows organisations to replicate their
off-premise data rapidly and cost-effectively
to ensure all the transactional and master
data is available on-premise as needed.
Finally, users can more fully use SaaS solu-
tions without compromising data access or
integration,” he comments.
The future of BI
Not only can BI tools transform how employ-
ees interact and serve customers, says
McWilliam, but can also help to develop
more targeted offers, products and services.
He suggests that organisations consider the
following questions when it comes to BI:
-Do your BI capabilities give employees
tools to offer more personalised customer
service, regardless of the channel? Can you
build more successful, targeted promotions
based on customer segmentation and pur-
chasing patterns in specific locations?
According to McWilliam, the future of BI
looks at empowering consumers to develop
dynamic, customer-centric business models
driven by fast, unfettered access to cus-
BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE FEATURE
SOLUTION PROVIDERS
tomers, products and other information.
“BI is going to become part of everyday
life at home and in the workplace. In a busi-
ness context, the decision-making process
will be driven by BI trends not reports and
there will be no need for human intervention
at any stage,” Fenner predicts.
He goes on to say that at home, BI will
also become as humdrum as the PC.
“There is a steady uptake of BI for the executives as a
concept in SA and Africa, as report packs and dash-
boards for executives are being implemented in many
organisations. However, the concept of BI for the masses
and advanced BI are two areas where SA lags behind the
US and Europe.” – Martin Rennhackkamp, PBT
“We will see intelligence in everyday
devices. I predict we will also see RFID tags
that can monitor each parcel in a delivery
process for metric-like temperature or pres-
sure readings, giving live feedback to the BI
layer,” he says.
Rennhackkam’s view is that BI opportuni-
ties in SA are enormous. “All those growing
businesses need information to manage
growth and with explosive growth, it is even
more important to keep a finger on develop-
ments and their impact on business in near
real-time,” he says.
One challenge, however, especially in
Africa, is to get skilled and experienced
resources, and then to ensure appropriate
and successful skills transfer.
“BI is too complex for an organisation to
try and grow internally on its own, it is too
costly to make mistakes and too much
business value gets lost in the time trying to
build things up.
BI is too different from conventional IT
to assume traditional IT resources can
implement it correctly. It requires different
approaches and methods, enormous
business understanding and collaboration
and, in many cases, very specialised skill
sets. But again, when you get the specialists
in, make sure you ensure skills transfer to
upgrade and extend the solution after they
have left,” he concludes.
CRN SOUTHERN AFRICA • SEPTEMBER 2008 • 43
POWER MANAGEMENT FEATURE
SOLUTION PROVIDERS
User education a
bright future for UPS market
It is essential for users to be given right choices.
BY DUDU SHABA
L oad shedding has created an enormous
awareness around the benefits and use of
UPSes. This is according to Christelle
Larkins, area manager, South Africa, MGE
Office Protection Systems. She says that
although the market has slowed, it will con-
tinue to yield gradual growth, and that qual-
ity rather than cost will become a determin-
ing factor when purchasing UPS systems.
“The current challenge that is faced by the market is that
the market is flooded with cheap, inferior UPS brands.
She believes that as the market is largely uneducated
about UPSes, they don’t know what to ask or look for
when buying one” – Christelle Larkins, MGE Office
Protection System..
According to her, quarter one was
extremely lucrative due to the high demand
for UPS devices during load shedding. The
market has, however, slowed down consid-
erably since load shedding was stopped.
John Middlewick, channel manager,
Comztek, agrees that the UPS market
received a shot in the arm as a result of the
power crisis that rocked SA a few months
ago. He says that the crisis led to substantial
growth of the market in a very short space of
time.
“However, the sales spike experienced at
the beginning of 2008 has died down and
the channel has returned to its normal sales
cycle. Consumers, on the other hand, are
finding the current status very confusing.
Many small businesses make capital pur-
Christelle Larkins, MGE chases on a need-to-buy basis, and not
44 • CRN SOUTHERN AFRICA • SEPTEMBER 2008
knowing whether there will be any further
load shedding leaves them in a difficult posi-
tion. The purchasing decision is further com-
plicated by the large number of products
from different vendors that came onto the
market as well as the price wars between
different suppliers,” he says.
Nevertheless, Middlewick says the large
variety of products from different vendors
has given consumers greater choice when
purchasing UPS solutions.
“What we are seeing from all these
changes is the emergence of the wiser, more
cautious customer. Buyers are comparing
products more closely, including features
and benefits, and after-sales services.
Suppliers who better understand customers’
needs and provide superior after-sales ser-
vices will thrive in the current market,” says
Middlewick.
“Business Unity of South Africa recently
stated that the ongoing power cuts had cost
businesses, particularly SMEs, millions of
rands with no end in sight. On the back of
this, Eskom has assured the country that
rolling blackouts will continue until con-
sumers decrease power usage. This scenario
presents both a challenge and an opportuni-
ty,” Larkins comments.
She believes that the challenge comes in
ensuring it’s business as usual when the
lights go out, and the opportunity to max-
imise energy cost savings through the use of
high-efficiency energy devices.
“It remains good practice to evaluate the
power quality status of your business, to
know what is at risk and to take the neces-
sary steps to keep your business going dur-
ing a power cut,” Larkins adds.
Larkins goes on to say that the current
POWER MANAGEMENT FEATURE
SOLUTION PROVIDERS
problem facing the market is that it is flood-
ed with cheap, inferior UPS brands. She
believes that as the market is largely unedu-
cated about UPSes, people don’t know what
to ask or look for when buying one.
“Quality, features and after-sales service
are therefore often overlooked in favour of
the price tag. It is essential that the end-user
asks the right questions, for example, about
features,” she says.
“BEE companies should start looking at ways that will
deal with what is becoming an energy crunch” – Steve
Buck, MD, Edgetec
Latest releases
The actual power derived from UPSes has
improved significantly. This is according to
Middlewick, he says that a power factor of
0.9 is now standard in products from most
leading vendors.
“The uptake of modular or scalable sys-
tems has also been very strong. Along with
the demand for lighter and smaller devices,
especially in SA where fuel and transporta-
tion costs are high, these promise to be the
market drivers in the next three to five
years,” he remarks.
X-head Going green
As companies in SA must demonstrate
their BEE credentials in order to do business,
Steve Buck, MD, Edgetec believes that they
will also have to show their commitment to a
green, sustainable way of doing business.
“Gartner predicts that as part of purchas-
ing criteria, by 2010, 75 per cent of buyers
will look at the lifecycle energy and CO2
footprint when buying new hardware.
Gartner is seeing companies starting to
assess their products and question suppliers
about energy use and carbon output.
Gartner expects companies to start publicis-
ing their products’ lifecycle energy and car-
bon facts starting in 2009.
Three years from now, Gartner sees suppli-
ers to large global companies having to
prove how green they are with regular
audits, not only to show what they are doing
for the earth or the efficiency of their prod-
ucts, but to retain or improve their preferred
supplier status,” he comments.
46 • CRN SOUTHERN AFRICA • SEPTEMBER 2008
On that note, Buck suggests that BEE com-
panies should start looking at ways to deal
with what is becoming an energy crunch. He
suggests they embark on the following:
 Begin investing in virtualisation technology
today. Virtualisation offers many benefits
such as reduced software costs; recentral-
isation for easier management, reduced
total cost of ownership, enhanced return
on investment; and improved security and
integrity.
Virtualisation, combined with new-genera-
tion blade technology, can reduce dozens of
servers to a single logical footprint, with dra-
matic savings in energy consumption, cool-
ing requirements and floor space.
 Only buy servers that use energy-efficient
processors. Advances in chip manufactur-
ing have improved processing power by
up to 300 per cent, while eliminating 75
per cent of costs associated with power
and cooling. This becomes particularly
important when it is considered that for
every kilowatt of energy used by a server,
another is needed to cool it.
 You will experience power outages. Of
that you can be 100 per cent certain.
Plan for when this happens by investing in
energy-efficient, green and quiet inverters
rather than noisy, polluting generators.
 It’s only a matter of time until you are
forced down the green route. Rather
begin today and reap the benefits ahead
of everyone.
It is good practice to evaluate the power
quality status of your business, to know what
is at risk and to take the necessary steps to
keep your business going during a power
cut. While it is advisable to have a detailed
assessment conducted by a trained profes-
sional, Larkins suggests that the following
pertinent questions will give you a good
indication of how risky your business is in
terms of experiencing power quality prob-
lems.
 Do you have electronic equipment that is
especially sensitive to power quality distur-
bances, like computers, laser printers and
fax machines?
 Is your office building more than 10 years
old? Older buildings were not designed
to handle the demands of today’s busi-
ness equipment.
 Do you have equipment that operates 24
hours a day? The Highveld is notorious
 POWER MANAGEMENT FEATURE
SOLUTION PROVIDERS

for its summer lightning storms. Lightning

strikes are responsible for more than 10
per cent of outages and other power qual-
ity disturbances.
 Do you have a modem line or coaxial

cable entering your facility?

 Does your business have more than five

users on a computer network system? The

larger a computer network grows, the
more susceptible it becomes to power dis-
turbances.
 Does your business lack adequate protec-

tion against power quality disturbances,

like point-of-use surge suppressers and
uninterruptible power supplies (UPSes) for
critical equipment.
If you answered “yes” to three or more of
these questions your business has a high risk
of experiencing power quality problems, says
Larkin. She says that high availability power
is the key to business continuity. Businesses
must ensure they are protected against any
type of power supply fault and should proac-
tively monitor power to ensure data integrity.
Larkins advises that a good starting point is
to determine which devices would benefit from
continued operation in the event of a power
outage and to then support these with a UPS.
She also advises that users should select a
model with the option to add extra battery
units to increase the runtime of critical devices. John Middlewick, Comztek
“Also, you should protect and manage
structured wiring and networking applications
with a UPS that enables remote management “The UPS market has been shot in the arm as a result of
of automation functions and ensures protec- the power crises that rocked South Africa a few months
tion in the event of a power outage,” she says.
Be aware though, she adds, that no matter ago. He says that the crisis led to the substantial growth
what UPS system you select, there will be some
of the market in a very short space of time” – John
energy lost between the utility and the output.
“However, high-efficiency UPS systems can Middlewick, Comztek.
dramatically limit the energy loss, resulting in
substantial cost savings. Energy efficiency of a
UPS can be expressed as the difference its distribution partners, provides technical
between the amount of energy that goes into it and sales training on UPSes for resellers.
versus the amount of useful energy that comes
out of it to power your loads,” she adds. Partner programmes
Larkins says that MGE has introduced the
Business opportunities Energize programme that will benefit its IT
Larkins says there are many opportunities and ET partners.
that resellers can take advantage of, espe- “When they enrol, partners receive various
cially through add-on sales and the sale of benefits, including access to a dedicated
solutions which protect the equipment they website and updated selling tools, a reseller
are already selling. logo as well as joint visits with professional
Middlewick comments that leading ven- sales staff, to name a few. Partners can join
dors such as MGE OPS, in conjunction with the programme by logging onto

CRN SOUTHERN AFRICA • SEPTEMBER 2008 • 47

GAMING SOLUTIONS FEATURE
SOLUTION PROVIDERS
More power to the gamer
Graphics and CPUs meeting performance needs.
BY KAUNDA CHAMA
T he explosion of gaming solutions has given
rise to stiff competition between chip makers
AMD and Intel as well as other vendors that
supply graphics and gaming software solu-
tions who are also cashing in on the boom.
For system builders and gaming solutions
specialist resellers, bundling gaming solu-
tions with the right LCD monitor size and the
sheer performance of the machines they sell
is a key advantage.
Basically, resellers looking to move gam-
ing units need to bear in mind that they
should be offering competitive solutions in
terms of system performance and power as
well as bundles that appeal to gamers, and
Mahomed Cassim, Esquire Technologies
48 • CRN SOUTHERN AFRICA • SEPTEMBER 2008
how consolidation in the graphics and CPU
market is impacting the gaming market.
Gamers are notoriously performance-con-
scious and are some of the most demanding
PC users. They spend a great deal of money
ensuring that their hardware performance is
nothing short of stellar, so anything that
impedes that has to go.
They are paying more than R1 500 for a
low-end graphics card and R10 000 for dual
cards – that’s just for the graphics cards.
In addition, gamers want software that
protects their machines from malicious code
and hackers while they’re online and as
advanced users they understand the need for
security. They face a collection of threats from
Trojans, worms, spyware as well as other
viruses and hackers. In addition, their profiles
and user accounts are increasingly at risk.
The computer game industry has grown
and will remain one of the “above-average”
growth segments of the global entertainment
industry into 2011. PricewaterhouseCoopers
suggests game sales could exceed music
spend this year.
The channel has seen the opportunity this
represents and players in this space are
making reasonable revenues on hardware
and software sales. These products sell
themselves to savvy gamers and competition
will increase in a market that is fiercely con-
tested. Until then, vendors are ensuring that
they continually improve their products to
stay ahead of the curve.
Microprocessor technology vendor AMD
has taken the graphics side of things very seri-
ously and in addition to the advancements it
continues to make on the processor side, it
continues to lead on the graphics side with its
line of discrete graphics processors (GPUs) for
both desktop and mobile platforms.
The GPUs delivers improved visual experi-
ences through best-in-class immersive high-
definition gaming and high-definition multi-
media playback.
“We set out to revolutionise the graphics

market by introducing leading-edge technol-
ogy at game-changing price points,” says
Gautam Srivastava, vice president, sales and
marketing and managing director, Middle
East, Africa (MEA) and Pakistan, AMD.
“We’ve delivered on this challenge, broaden-
ing the enthusiast gaming market so that
more people than ever before have access to
the phenomenal gaming and multimedia
experiences that the ATI Radeon HD 2000
series introduces.”
Last year, the company brought a family of
ATI Radeon HD 2000 series products to
market that introduced immersive DirectX 10
gaming enabling the next generation of visu-
al effects at every price point.
The line-up boasted many firsts for the
graphics industry, including a powerful sec-
ond-generation Unified Shader Architecture
(USA), a 512-bit memory bus designed for
full performance high dynamic range (HDR)
rendering and new Unified Video Decoder
(UVD) technology for high-fidelity HD multi-
media playback. Having been the first graph-
ics company to introduce a WHQL driver for
Windows Vista, ATI Catalyst drivers continue
to deliver industry-leading game compatibility
and an extremely stable user experience in
Windows Vista.
The ATI Radeon HD 2000 series was
designed to deliver compelling game-play
experiences never seen before in DirectX 10
games. The series brings gamers astounding
frame rates at all resolutions, advanced visu-
al effects and improved realism for what
AMD calls immersive HD gaming.
The new cards were optimised for dynamic
geometry acceleration, complex pixel pro-
cessing and expanded non-graphical com-
pute capabilities for more advanced charac-
ters and animation, more detailed environ-
ments and more realistic real-world physics
simulations.
For gamers wanting even more horsepow-
er, it also features native ATI CrossFire tech-
nology, opening the door for a wide variety
of multi-GPU configurations and eliminating
the need for any master cards.
On the other side, Intel’s Software Partner
Program provides a framework for collabora-
tive solution development around Intel archi-
tecture. From business planning and product
development to marketing and sales, the
program strives to drive increased business
GAMING SOLUTIONS FEATURE
SOLUTION PROVIDERS
success and market opportunities.
Meanwhile, game development compa-
nies like NetDevil are taking advantage of
the Intel Software Partner Program.
Providing product support at all stages,
from strategic design through development
and post-release marketing, the Intel Software
Partner Program dramatically simplifies its
partner companies’ ability to build broad,
robust support for the latest Intel architecture-
based platforms into their games.
The Intel Software Partner Program offers
participants like NetDevil the hardware
expertise to help deliver fantastic results with
Intel Graphics, it is relatively easy for them to
tune their titles for an optimal visual experi-
ence for multiple audiences.
Just as more advanced graphics hardware
“We offer a wide national footprint, a professional atti-
tude toward our vendors and their ranges as well as
many years’ experience in the industry – there was no
doubt we’d fit the profile required by Point of View,” –
Mahomed Cassim, Esquire Technologies
allows higher resolutions, frame rates and
depth of field, more powerful processors can
enable more lifelike effects. It is important to
take full advantage of the available resources
as well as to scale these quantities back when
necessary to safeguard the user experience.
“Intel’s expertise at finding and evaluating
performance results is a massive help in guid-
ing us down the right path in terms of figuring
out what is actually causing a bottleneck,”
says – Scott Brown, president, NetDevil.
“The software partner program gives us
ready access to expertise that we wouldn’t
have otherwise. Taking better advantage of the
hardware gives our products an extra edge.”
Members are able to take full advantage
of the latest processors and make game
development more efficient as new processor
architectures become available; it is an
ongoing challenge for software vendors to
take advantage of feature enhancements.
When a new instruction set like the recently
introduced Streaming SIMD Extensions 4
(SSE4) emerges, developers need help get-
CRN SOUTHERN AFRICA • SEPTEMBER 2008 • 49
GAMING SOLUTIONS FEATURE
SOLUTION
ting up to speed on the potential benefits
and how to take advantage of them.
Members also have ready access to
expertise that helps them to ramp up quickly.
Likewise, refining threading implementations
to take full advantage of the latest multi-core
processors is an area where most develop-
ers can benefit from Intel’s assistance.
To build development efficiency, a key
value offered by the Intel Software Partner
Program is to give software companies the
ability to focus on their core competencies
rather than getting mired in extraneous
details. Brown states that, “in the business of
making games, minimising development
time is everything”.
With the breakthrough energy savings
available from Intel architecture-based
servers, the value of targeting the Intel Xeon
processor as an execution platform is
greater than ever. Optimisation expertise
from Intel is a clear benefit in taking advan-
tage of the energy-efficient performance of
these servers.
As a result, they can support very
“The software partner program gives us ready access to
expertise that we wouldn’t have otherwise. Taking better
advantage of the hardware gives our products an extra
edge.” – Scott Brown, NetDevil
favourable numbers of users per hosting
server, and the operating cost per server is
also kept very low. As another advantage of
the Intel Software Partner Program, this effort
is far simpler than it would be for NetDevil
to undertake on its own.
Lower operating costs increase average
net revenue per user, helping to optimise the
profitability of the entire enterprise.
The Intel Software Partner Program also
brings advantages to member companies in
terms of expertise with other components of
the Intel ecosystem as well as with co-mar-
keting support. For example, NetDevil uses
the Havok physics engine (acquired by Intel
in 2007) for many of its games, a compo-
nent for which Intel can provide unparalleled
development expertise. As another added
value, Intel provides a range of software-
development products ranging from compil-
50 • CRN SOUTHERN AFRICA • SEPTEMBER 2008
PROVIDERS
ers and highly tuned software libraries to
performance analysers and threading-analy-
sis tools. These products enable the industry
to improve performance and development
efficiency.
Ecosystem support also continues beyond
product launch, with co-marketing opportu-
nities that put the trusted Intel name to work
distinguishing software products from the
competition.
“The Intel Software Partner Program gives
us ready access to expertise that we wouldn’t
have otherwise. Taking better advantage of
the hardware gives our products an extra
edge,” comments Brown.
Meanwhile, Annex Distribution, one of the
leading local suppliers of ‘building blocks’
to the ICT industry, last year set up a gaming
solution supply chain initiative aimed at the
micro retailer as a way of reinforcing efforts
by retailers to meet growing demand for
quality, an affordable digital lifestyle and
gaming products.
To make this happen, Annex shipped in
stocks of internationally distributed gaming
technologies and infrastructure, including con-
soles, related components and peripherals.
The product portfolio includes the
Microsoft X-Box, Sony PlayStation 2; Sony
PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable (PSP).
The supply chain solution offers retailers
access to sound cards and speakers manu-
factured by Creative Lab, game pads and
driver simulation pods produced by Logitech
as well as PC games and joysticks.
“We are proud to take this step to
increase our contribution towards the growth
of a strong and competitive segment of the
market. The digital lifestyle space remains a
key target market for Annex and there is sig-
nificant business opportunity, especially for
the independent retailer,” explains Wayne
Britz, director at Annex.
The initiative is expected to continue on a
long-term basis and the product line will be
broadened as growth and innovation take
place in this market, as well as the anticipat-
ed demand from retailers.
“Obviously, the retailer will have to keep
up with change, innovation and level of tech-
nology development in this space to remain
competitive. Our role is to facilitate the effec-
tive supply of required products. Direct access
to stock, and advice and support from Annex
will certainly add value,” says Britz.
Local IT distributor Esquire Technologies
recently signed a distribution agreement with
Point of View, a provider of graphics cards,
gaming solutions, IT products and home
accessories, extending Point of View product
availability in sub-Saharan Africa while
expanding Esquire’s range of gaming prod-
ucts and accessories.
Mahomed Cassim, sales and marketing
director at Esquire Technologies says that
under the agreement Esquire will distribute
the full range of Point of View products
through its branches in Gauteng, Western
Cape, Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and
Mpumalanga, and sub distributors and
resellers in Mozambique, Swaziland,
Namibia, Zimbabwe and Zambia.
“We offer a wide national footprint, a
professional attitude toward our vendors and
their ranges as well as many years’ experi-
ence in the industry – there was no doubt
we’d fit the profile required by Point of
View,” he says. “The company prides itself
on a high level of customer service, as do
we, and its range of offerings fits our prod-
uct profile to a T.”
Point of View focuses on digital lifestyle
devices adding a high level of enjoyment
and quality to the mix. Cassim believes the
range will gain popularity quickly due to the
growing local adoption of lifestyle-oriented
multimedia products.
Over the past few months, Esquire’s
channel and South African consumers have
been introduced to numerous Point of View
products like the GeForce 8400 GS series,
a range of nVidia-based graphics cards and
special bundled products that incorporate
the latest games.
The company has also brought Point of
View GeForce FX, -6, -7 and -8 series
graphics cards, legacy graphics cards,
gaming cases, power supplies, sound
peripherals, mouses and accessories to the
local market.

Making solutions
The importance of the ISV.
BY KAUNDA CHAMA
T
he importance of independent software ven-
dors (ISVs) in the South African market can-
not be understated. Both vendors and distrib-
utors have recognised them as an integral
part of their solution development processes.
In addition, VARs and solution providers
are now increasingly developing solutions
and business applications that are not tied to
a single hardware or software platform; open
source and open standards have become the
way forward.
More proprietary vendors are now backing
open source software, and have seen the
advantages that come with working with ISVs
even Microsoft has for years been public
about the fact that it considers open source a
reasonable alternative.
Partnering with ISVs is an important com-
ponent in any IT vendor’s strategy to expand
market share and provide increased cus-
tomer value through third-party applications.
However, meeting the needs of ISVs through
a structured programme is not an easy
proposition, although many top vendors are
expanding their offerings to support the full
life-cycle activity of these partners.
According to an IDC report, where vendor
offerings for ISVs have historically been in
technical enablement, the focus is moving
equally to sales and marketing. Each of the
components of a programme (rewards and
incentives and infrastructure are others) is dif-
ferent by degrees by vendor.
IDC believes that technical marketing and
sales enablement are the three key pillars dri-
ving successful ISV relationships.
Some key insights include the following:
 Technical resources are the most impor-
tant category of offering provided by ven-
dors to ISVs overall, but marketing and
sales resources are not far behind, where-
as rewards, incentives and infrastructure
are not considered very important.
 IT vendors need to focus their efforts on
improving the value provided to ISVs
across the three most important compo-
nents of a programme: technical, market-
ing and sales resources.
Meeting needs
IT vendors have traditionally focused their
efforts with ISVs around technical resources,
including support and tools for enablement
of porting and interoperability. The handoff
from technically enabling an ISV to helping it
go to market with its application has not
An important factor in a vendor’s planning for ISV
partner offerings is what the ISVs find of highest
importance when partnering with vendors.
been elegant. Vendors are, however, putting
more effort behind enabling an ISV’s sales
cycle through sales and marketing resources
that address ISV-specific requirements.
An important factor in a vendor’s planning
for ISV partner offerings is what the ISVs
find of highest importance when partnering
with vendors.
Meanwhile, IDC says a great vendor part-
ner programme alone cannot drive sustained
sales or market position. Rather, a vendor’s
partner programme exists as one element
within a broader economic system where ven-
dors work with and through partners to drive
business in a particular market. This system
can be described as having four key causal
elements that each need to be monitored and
managed to maximise market impact:
 Market characteristics: This includes
factors such as business/technology
trends, ISV perceptions of vendor, market
perceptions of vendor and overall market
demand for the vendor’s products.
 Market affinity: This refers to the
alignment between the vendor and part-
ner at a technology and account level.
CRN SOUTHERN AFRICA • SEPTEMBER 2008 •
ISV FEATURE
SOLUTION PROVIDERS
independantly
 Vendor relationship: It is often
assumed that partners involved with a
vendor technology ought to naturally join
the programme. However, IDC has found
that partners often don’t see the inherent
value of joining a formal programme or
fail to entice partners to further develop
market activity.
 Partner allegiance: As partners con-
tinue to see value in their relationship
with the vendor, their commitment to the
economic system grows and results in a
certain amount of business loyalty.
However, a consistent failure in one
aspect of the system (for example, poor
market position, low value proposition in a
partner programme) over the long term is
very tough to overcome and will decrease
the ability of the partner’s economy to grow
and function as desired.
Brief programme profiles
Below are some of the top global ISV
partner programmes.
BEA Partner Program: The BEA Partner
Program supports all partner types, including
ISVs, in a global
framework. The goal of the programme
for ISVs is to increase joint solution
creation and customer adoption in targeted
industry segments.
ISVs can access customisable go-to-market
collateral and promotional templates with pre-
defined BEA product content, market-ready
messages and print-ready graphics. These
include joint customer case studies, public
relations templates, alliance overview tem-
51
ISV FEATURE
SOLUTION PROVIDERS
plates, datasheet templates, and promotional
marketing campaign and event templates.
HP Developer and Solution Provider
Program (DSPP): HP has a global partner
programme that involves more than 7 000
ISV, system integrator and IHV member com-
panies. The DSPP is HP’s foundation pro-
gramme supporting all business and techni-
cal requirements for these partners.
Registration for the foundation pro-
gramme is free of charge. DSPP members
may be invited to participate in special inter-
est groups segmented by solution, industry
or geography and aligned with HP’s corpo-
rate initiatives.
Participants in special interest groups have
access to incremental resources based on
the level of commitment by the partner to
develop joint business and the expected
leverage of HP products and services.
Approximately 800 ISVs participate in spe-
cial interest groups.
IBM PartnerWorld: PartnerWorld (PW) is a
global programme that encompasses all busi-
ness partner types, including approximately
10 000 ISVs that have access to a range of
sales, marketing and technical enablement
offerings. ISVs participate at one of three lev-
els: Member, Advanced or Premier.
IBM has 3 000 ISV-enabled solutions on
its middleware and hardware. PW members,
including ISVs, are encouraged to leverage
PW Industry Networks, which offers access to
technical, sales and marketing resources to
enable them on IBM middleware and hard-
ware. PW Industry Networks aligns with
IBM’s knowledge of 15 key industries across
both large and SMB markets and provides a
platform for ISVs to form relationships with
other IBM partners.
Advanced ISVs must be enabled for IBM
middleware and hardware and have cus-
tomer references. They can also choose to
optimise in specific industries by completing
additional requirements. ISVs can specialise
in specific solutions or technology areas.
This gives them greater visibility within that
IBM industry or product group’s field team.
The Industry Networks also offer integra-
tion with key technology initiatives, providing
additional support and benefits for compa-
nies building solutions on Linux or in soft-
ware as a service model. Solution specialisa-
tion was introduced
52 • CRN SOUTHERN AFRICA • SEPTEMBER 2008
in 2006 to provide ISVs with technical
road maps for building applications in these
identified areas. So far, IBM has introduced
the Service-Oriented Architecture speciality
and plans to launch others.
Premier ISVs are classified as either ISV
Advantage or Strategic Alliance, both of
which are by invitation only. ISV Advantage
for SMB partners agrees to lead with the
vendor, drive a majority share of their busi-
ness on IBM hardware or middleware, and
to publicly support open standards in return
for IBM marketing, technical and relation-
ship support beyond what is provided in PW
and PW Industry Networks.
For developers, IBM offers a number of
online communities that include
developerWorks and alphaWorks. The for-
mer is a resource for open standards, open
source and IBM technologies, and the latter
is a resource for emerging technologies.
Intel Software Partner Program: The Intel
Software Partner Program has global scope
and is focused on targeting ISVs developing
commercial applications that run on Intel
technologies. Launched in 2006, the
Software Partner Program evolved out of
Intel’s Early Access Program, a single-tier
programme that focused exclusively on tech-
nical enablement.
The new programme has a four-tiered struc-
ture and provides benefits that address plan-
ning, sales, marketing and technical enable-
ment. Intel maintains its Software Network to
provide online resources for developers.
Benefits in the programme are additive to
what was available through the Early Access
On completion of their product development work,
ISVs can take advantage of support for their sales and
marketing activities.
Program. The three benefit areas include
those under the categories of:
 Plan and strategise, for business strategy
personnel to understand potential growth
market segments of interest and how
their products intersect with Intel’s
Develop and Solve, including offerings of
different software engineering tools and
technologies for development of product
on the Intel platforms.
 Market and sell, primarily for marketing
personnel to use as go-to-market tem-
plates and tools.
The programme also offers the opportuni-
ty for the ISV to align its product develop-
ment work around Intel platform, as well as
participate with Intel in specific growth mar-
kets. From 2006, ISVs have had a choice of
three initiatives, including gaming, collabo-
ration and manageability.
A creative media initiative was launched in
2006. On completion of their product devel-
opment work, ISVs can take advantage of
support for their sales and marketing activi-
ties. Each initiative has its own criteria, and
ISVs are entitled to participate in more than
one. Intel measures success with ISVs by the
number of products ported to its platform.
Microsoft Partner Program: The global
Microsoft Partner Program supports the tech-
nical and business needs of all partner types
and includes approximately 31 000 ISVs, 5
500 of which meet an ISV Competency
requirement, with the other 25 000 having
self declared as ISVs.
These ISVs participate in one of three pro-
gramme tiers: Gold Certified, Certified or
Registered. Half of Microsoft’s registered ISV
base participates in an offer called
Empower, targeting ISVs new to the
Microsoft platform and providing support for
accelerated development.
Novell PartnerNet: Novell’s PartnerNet is
a global programme that encompasses all
business partner types,
including approximately 1 500 ISVs under
its Technology Partner banner, that partici-
pate in the following four tiers: Platinum,
Gold, Silver or Ready.
PartnerNet benefits support the vendor’s
focus on five key markets: the data centre,
security and identity, resource management,
workgroup and the desktop. Novell’s Ready
level is a basic no-fee arrangement that
requires ISVs to have products that work with
Novell technology in exchange for listings in

the Novell Partner Product Guide and some
early access to beta and evaluation software.
Oracle PartnerNetwork: The Oracle
PartnerNetwork (OPN) is a global pro-
gramme that supports all business partner
types, including 8 500 ISVs that have the
option of participating in one or more prod-
uct focus areas, such as Oracle Database
and Oracle Fusion Middleware. OPN has
three tiers: Partner, Certified Partner and
Certified Advantage Partner.
OPN provides offerings to encourage and
assist ISVs to build on, integrate with, or
embed Oracle technology (, Oracle
Database) and applications (Oracle
EBusiness Suite). ISV participants in a product
focus area receive tailored content and are
eligible to participate in specific solution ini-
tiatives, such as the Application Integration
Initiative for ISVs that integrates their applica-
tions to Oracle applications.
Key goals for Oracle with ISVs are to pro-
mote its community and drive opportunity
through its Solutions Catalog and a focus on
business development activities.
Progress Partner Program: The Progress
Partner Program is a global programme that
supports all partner types. It has predomi-
nantly ISV membership but is evolving to
include OEMs and VARs. ISVs on the pro-
gramme design, develop, sell and support
branded commercial business applications
built on Progress infrastructure technologies.
The programme has been refined over the
years to identify ISVs with growth potential
and to support those partners with pro-
grammes, resource, and staff. Progress uses
its Growth Stage Assessment process to eval-
uate the financial positions, business and
technical acumen and overall capabilities of
ISVs. Resources available to ISVs are deter-
mined by their growth stage.
Partners in the Progress Partner Program
include ISVs, alliance, managed service (for
SaaS enablement), technology and distribu-
tor. Approximately 600 of these partners are
ISVs that are individually assessed and partic-
ipate in the programme at one of three lev-
els: Preferred, Premier or Elite.
Progress provides its ISVs with guidance
through the programme level, as well as in
the development of its products and business
strategy. The vendor works with all ISVs in
planning sessions to identify their business,
technical and operational requirements to
provide offerings that fit their needs.
Member ISVs are entry-level partners that
are provided with support in building and
selling their OpenEdge-based applications.
Preferred ISVs generally have a focus on spe-
cific markets or geographies. Premier ISVs
are leaders in markets or geographies.
Elite ISVs have strong expertise in their
often global markets. Elite ISVs have dedicat-
ed technical, marketing and sales focus from
Progress and are focused on SOA-enabling
their applications with Sonic, EasyAsk and
Apama from the Enterprise Infrastructure
product lines.
SAP PartnerEdge and Powered by SAP
NetWeaver: SAP offerings for ISVs are avail-
able under two programmes: SAP
PartnerEdge and the Powered by SAP
NetWeaver programs. The former is targeted
Key goals for Oracle with ISVs are to promote its
community and drive opportunity through its Solutions
Catalog and a focus on business development activities.
at SMB ISVs that develop and sell solutions
based on Business One and All-in-One
under the Channel Partner track, and the lat-
ter to enterprise ISVs that develop packaged
applications or SAP xApps composite appli-
cations on the SAP NetWeaver platform.
The Powered by SAP NetWeaver program
and its ISVs will join SAP’s PartnerEdge
Software Solution Provider track over the next
two years. SAP organises its ISVs internally
into three tiers based on solution maturation,
strategic value, certifications and market
opportunity. These tiers directly correlate with
levels of marketing, sales and technical
resources, and include the Certified Partner
Community, SAP Endorsed Business Solutions
Partners and Global Partners/Titans.
Externally, SAP PartnerEdge recognises ISVs
(and includes resale partners such as VARs) for
resale and development around Business One
and All-in-One solutions within its Software
Solution Provider track and puts them in one
of three tiers: Associate, Silver or Gold.
The Powered by SAP NetWeaver program
CRN SOUTHERN AFRICA • SEPTEMBER 2008 •
ISV FEATURE
SOLUTION PROVIDERS
is focused on the approximately 1 500 ISVs
with solutions running on the SAP NetWeaver
platform. Within its programme structures,
SAP provides various initiatives and commu-
nities for ISVs to participate in, including
Industry Value Networks, SAP Developer
Network (SDN) and Business Process Expert
(BPX) Communities, and the Enterprise
Services Community. SAP maintains its
Software Partner Program, which was
launched in 2002, with ISV members that
have software solutions that are interopera-
ble with and add value to SAP solutions.
Symantec Technology Enabled Program:
Symantec’s Technology Enabled Program
(STEP) is provided for ISVs, IHVs, OSVs and
other partner types that integrate their prod-
ucts with Symantec solutions. The pro-
gramme, which is the result of the integration
of Symantec and Veritas Technology
Programs, has three levels: Base, Compatible
and Certified/Qualified.
Symantec also supports approximately 50
partners in the global strategic partner pro-
gramme; a select subset of STEP partners
closely aligned with Symantec’s market offer-
ings. Symantec has a goal to develop solutions
to capture a broader base of regional and
industry-focused ISVs over the next two years.
What next
Essentially, ISVs will continue to be an impor-
tant factor in vendor technical and go-to-
market strategies. Providing appropriate
offerings across the product and sales life
cycles to these partners will become more
critical to success.
IDC says to be competitive, vendors will
be required to build effective ISV recruitment
and retention strategies, which will include
focused efforts in the areas most important to
ISV success. It is likely that investment in
programmes in support of ISV activity will
continue to increase.
53
 Reviews by: Kaunda Chama
Highly Recommended
OKI C8800, sheer printing pleasure
At first sight, the C8800 looks like any other A3 colour printer that
delivers less than it promises, but brace yourself, this one is a giver.
The first thing you notice about this printer is that it is not bulky or slow.
This LED-powered printer is almost the same size as most A4
printers on the market today and can print in colour at up to 26ppm.
However, straight from the beginning, it is only fair to mention
that it is not cheap to maintain but compares well against other A3
printers on the market.
Although it comes in a number of variations, the basic OKI
C8800 has a built-in 10/100Mbps Ethernet interface and integrat-
ed print server for use on Windows and Apple Mac networks.
It comes standard with a 300-sheet drawer and 100-sheet multi-
purpose feeder, and the same LED-powered print engine is used on
all models in the range.
It has some impressive processing power as it comes with a
500MHz PowerPC processor, which is supported by 256MB of
memory. An extra hard disk comes as an optional extra.
It has a maximum print resolution of 1200 X 600dpi with
support for both PCL5/6 and PostScript emulations.
It would be an overstatement if one said this is a solution for top-
notch graphics professionals, but the printer is perfect for printing
54 • CRN SOUTHERN AFRICA • SEPTEMBER 2008
proofs and business documents.
I put it to the test by printing photographs and I am pleased to say
that it did not disappoint at all,
I did not even have to change
driver settings.
Compared to similar models from competitors in the same price
range it is relatively quiet, but it does take a couple of minutes to
warm up.
However, once operational the first page of any document appears
in under 10 seconds with a top A4 speed of 32ppm in mono (26ppm
colour); A3 documents take twice as long.
One negative note is that it needs a good deal of maintenance
with separate toner refills and image drums required for each of the
four colours.
On the plus side, however, the C8800 compares well on price
with other colour A3 printers on the market.
It comes with both Windows and Mac drivers, including network
management software to supplement the built-in Web-based interface.
Users will also benefit from a template manager utility that aids
the quick creation of all kinds of documents from business cards to
corporate brochures.
 Reviews by: Kaunda Chama
Nokia E71, it gets better
Extremely handy.
At first this seems like just another phone
from Nokia, but the E71 is definitely
something to write home about; as a matter
of fact, it could be one of the best Nokia
phones to date.
On features alone, this handset will be
very hard to beat by competitor mobile
phone manufacturers.
From the design, specs, size and feel
it is clear to see that this is the phone
that Nokia and handset users have been
waiting for.
At a time when everybody seems to be
buzzing about Blackberrys, the E71
provides great competition as a smart-
phone with a full QWERTY keyboard,
and I personally prefer it.
Compared to the E61, one quickly sees
that the two devices are worlds apart. The
first thing users will notice about this device is
its outstanding dimensions. The E71 is very thin, yet extremely
comfortable to hold and use.
One great thing on the design side is the entire phone is chrome
and while it’s definitely a fingerprint magnet it is a stunning looker.
The phone is quick to flash users because the middle select key
also serves as the notification light as well as other functions. When
a user has a missed event, the border around the middle key flashes
white until it is cleared.
The handset comes with a 320?240 screen that looks very bright.
The one disappointing factor is I felt that the graphics could have
Highly Recommended
been sharper, even some older model handsets
have better looking graphics.
However, the screen real estate isn’t a problem
at all as it is a very comfortable size and is well
sized even for Web browsing.
On the connectivity side, this little darling is a
quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE phone with
850MHz/1900MHz UMTS/HSDPA support, Wi-Fi
802.11 a,b,g, Bluetooth 2.0, and GPS. Like most
recent Nokias, the GPS is assisted by the network,
but also has a physical GPS chip.
The E71 comes with a single, but very loud
speaker in the upper-left side, which is perfect for
voice playback, truetones and alert sounds.
True to the E-Series nature this device can
handle email; not just POP3/IMAP supported
protocols, but the phone also comes with Nokia’s
Mail For Exchange which is relatively easy to setup.
It also supports BlackBerry Connect, but has no
support for HTML email.
The keyboard, due to the fact that the keys are a little smaller
than those on the E61, can take a little getting used to, but for those
with smaller hands, they are pretty easy to press
The keys have nice white backlighting which makes them very
easy to read; the keys themselves do not light up, just the letters and
symbols which give the phone a very clean look.
The strange thing, however, is that even with a QWERTY layout
the phone includes predictive text. After using the phone for three
weeks I found that helps more than it gets in the way as it helps
prevent accidental spelling mistakes and reduces the amount
of typing required. This might sound
funny coming from a scribe but it can
also save users a good amount of
typing time.
It comes standard with a microSD
card slot right above the microUSB
port for memory expansion to the
largest microSD card a user can find.
On the call quality side, the E71
doesn’t disappoint, it exceeds voice
quality on all Nokias on the market.
I even found it quite good at holding
onto a signal in low-coverage areas.
The phone has a long battery life
(up to seven days) because it comes
with a 1500mAh battery with average
use of constant email, phone calls,
Web browsing and other functions.
This is a definite “worth a try”
handset even for people that do not
usually use Nokia phones.
CRN SOUTHERN AFRICA • SEPTEMBER 2008 • 55
PARTING: SHOTS

DILBERT www.dilbert.com by Scott Adams

S n a pshot
Company: Vox AmVia
Position: Channel manager
Age: 36
Best personal achivement: Becoming a father
Giuseppe
Management style: Open door with a clear direction. Colonnello
Customer service is the focus
Most admired company: Vox Telecom
Most admired executives: Douglas Reed, CEO of Vox Telecom
Best IT product: Single Click Entry, the most extraordinary product from
Captaris, which can save companies millions in reduced work and enhanced
processes
Most pressing local business issues: Getting the message to the channel
Key to success: Always focus on your core product. Perseverance and bit of luck
Favourite car: Mercedes-Benz
Your car: Hyundai
Favourite authors: Dan Brown
Where do you live: Blairgowrie, Randburg
Birthplace: Johannesburg
Hobbies/sports: Cooking, squash, hockey and golf
Favourite periodicals: Business Times
Pet hates: Disorder

56 • CRN SOUTHERN AFRICA • SEPTEMBER 2008