In case you haven’t heard, VMware has overhauled its certification program this week, to encourage even more advanced virtualization solutions. That in itself is significant in the short. But I think this change also signals the first in a series of training and skills development initiatives that are intended to support the latest holy grail of the high-tech industry: the converged data center.

First, this week’s news. VMware has created a new designation called VMware Certified Advanced Professional, a level that recognizes how virtualization can be used to underpin infrastructure that will be critical for the development of IT-as-a-service platforms and for cloud computing models in general. In fact, Cisco has said that its Data Center Networking Infrastructure (DCNI) badge has been the fastest growing certification in the company’s history.

This level isn’t the most advanced level in the program: That would be the VMware Certified Design Expert (VCDX), of which there are only 50 professionals worldwide. Rather, the new Certified Advanced Professional (VCAP) certification is meant to be a stepping stone up to the VCDX elite. Here’s the requisite quote from Enis Konuk, who is the vice president of worldwide technical services for VMware:

“We expect the addition of VCAP certification will increase the skills of thousands of IT professionals, providing advanced knowledge to strategically implement and manage virtualization soluions to derive maximum value for their company or customers. The addition of VCAP to our program comes at a critical time as many companies need advanced skills to consider how to evolve their data centers to be more cost- and energy-efficient–all the while maximizing productivity.”

Just in case you needed even more explicit direction about what VMware is hoping to achieve, there are two specialties to choose from within the VCAP program: one for those with a role in data center administration and one for those focused on designing in a “multi-site, large enterprise environment.”

This seems to me to be one of the first steps toward skills development and certifications focused on covering the needs of a converged data center. Right now, even though the technologies that inform the data center are (in theory) coming together — servers, storage and network — these functions and roles are all handled very much separately. The skills for one aren’t necessarily transferrable to another.

I think it is very significant that if you want to become a VAR or data center integrator for the Virtual Computing Environment (VCE) Coalition, you need to go out and invest in separate certifications for all three of the participating technology vendors: Cisco, EMC and VMware. This despite the fact that the infrastructure being created by the coalition is supposed to be integrated more seamlessly than it otherwise would be if you cobbled together the separate pieces on your own. Hewlett-Packard has its own data center designation, of course, which dovetails with skills in its adaptive computing technologies.

What does all this mean? In my opinion, there will be a whole lot of turmoil in the world of certifications, as technicians who have been trained to be product experts need to start thinking in a bigger context. Think of all that training content that needs to be migrated and mapped and phased in and phased out.

My guess is that you’ll see more certifications along the line of management, design and architecture and that the product specialists will increasingly find themselves in team roles, as part of initiatives managed by others. How that will fly with engineers used to doing their own thing is anyone’s guess.

Want to read more channel news, as it happens? Follow my Twitter feed by visiting this link.

This year, I reported my predictions for IT services trends, rather than take a stab in the dark. Actually, I usually DO report most of my blogs. In any case, I contributed a story to Tech Target early this month, outlining 10 trends for 2010. This will also be the basis of a presentation that I’m giving early next month in Tampa for the service group within CompTIA.

Anyway, here are the things that I believe will be top of mind, based on my reporting in late November and December 2009:

1. Businesses will finally be ready to spend on client technology because they can’t delay some of their upgrades any longer. This will be great for desktop virtualization and thin clients, which inspire debates about the value of desktops and notebooks.
2. Disaster recovery will actually start to building a following among smaller businesses, because server virtualization sets the stage for solutions that aren’t tied to any particular hardware.
3. Windows 7 will get solution providers in the door.
4. Businesses will continue to invest in videoconferencing.
5. Security and compliance concerns will motivate document management technology sales.
6. Cloud computing won’t drive a lot of sales, but it will drive a lot of sales dialogues.
7. Identity management will finally get some legitimate attention (because cloud computing makes it much more palatable and logical).
8. WiMax and other broadband wireless options for connectivity will become viable, if expensive, options.
9. The green IT mantra will be revived, not reviled.
10. Server virtualization will get even more mainstream.

What’s your biggest prediction for 2010? Talk to me — but only if you’re prepared to have me write about what you say. Kidding… Seriously, let’s talk. Ping me at heather@heatherclancy. And be sure to add me to your Twitter feed. I’m @HeathClancy.

Apparently, non-profits don’t necessarily have to be charity cases. CDW has started a practice focus on handling the IT needs and management for charity organizations and other not-for-profit associations. In your “spare time,” this is worth investing.

Here’s my post about the launch from my TechTarget blog.

I was grateful for the opportunity earlier this month to catch up with Mike Gerentine, vice president of global channel and solutions marketing at IBM. I hadn’t heard much about IBM’s channel program focus in the past six to nine months, and was looking for a few highlights, which he was gracious enough to share. Here are a few things that caught my ear:

• Plan globally, execute regionally. IBM’s worldwide program framework is squarely focused on several core technology solution areas, including virtualization, green IT and data center consolidation; the vendor’s channel teams will be empowered much more at the regional level to make these initiatives theatre-specific. This isn’t really new, but it’s significant given the state of various world economies. If you’re a multinational VAR reading this blog, you’re likely to have more luck with winning market development funds in growth markets than you will in North America. For the vendor channel managers reading this, it’s another reminder that what plays well in the United States won’t necessarily apply in Brazil or Russia or India. So, let leaders in those regions set the channel agenda—just make sure it plays to your high-level program messaging.

• Reward cross-portfolio solutions liberally. Watch developments around IBM’s New Enterprise Data Center initiative. The IBM channels team developed the program WITH some key IBM Business Partners over the summer and “officially” launched it in October. It emphasizes and rewards attach-rate behavior that pulls cross-branded IBM solutions into the data center domain and plays to the huge data center transformation that is happening across enterprise and midmarket accounts. So, VARs that represent the whole shebang: IBM hardware, software and services will find themselves in the catbird seat. In fact, some IBM Business Partners may even be able to snag up to $100,000 in business develpment funds to support this IBM priority. Here are more details on the whole initiative.

• Seek loyalty. IBM’s new data center program points back to the one BIG thing that vendors REALLY need from their channel partners in a whack-o economic climate like this: LOYALTY. I’ve heard some VARs describe the current environment as a “take share” market, meaning they aren’t going to see incremental revenue so much as share shifts from accounts that MUST upgrade their infrastructure. It will be bloody. So, it’s in every vendor’s interest to make sure it is as strategic (read profitable) in the minds of their existing partners as possible. For IBM (and Hewlett-Packard for that matter), that translates into rewarding the VARs and resellers that invest in pushing as much of their entire portfolio into an account as possible. It also means keeping the process around deal registration, competitive bid resolutions, special support requests and business development as simple as possible.

What’s on your mind for 2009? To chat about your company’s channel program strategy (warning, you might show up on this blog!), contact Heather Clancy at hclancy@swotmg.com.

After months of writing about practical applications for Web 2.0 technologies and services, I have to admit, I really hate the term because it’s one thing that’s really keeping IT solution providers from exploiting its benefits.

Why not, instead, talk about the essential business processes that things like social networks and blogs really enable? That, to me, is the best way to help VARs and resellers recognize and consider the potential business benefits that these concepts can provide.

Given that smaller VARs are notoriously slow to adopt the very same technology they represent, how do I know your own channel will respond to this mindset? Well, it certainly resonated with the VARs and resellers that attended the two panels about Web 2.0 that I was hired to handle during the Ingram Micro VentureTech Invitational earlier this month. I was asked to handle two workshop sessions there: A presentation that discussed potential practical sales and marketing applications for social networks and blogs, and a panel that explored how some VentureTech members are actually using Web sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn at their companies.

While it’s hard to take notes while you’re presenting, here are a few things that stuck with me. Broadly speaking, they all have something to do with the following concepts: Collaboration, Community and Conversation. You’ll get what I mean in a moment.

1) Social networks will reshape tech recruiting. All of the VARs on my Invitational panel (Heartland Technology Solutions, i-Tech Support and The Lloyd Group) are using social networks to find and vett job candidates. They trust the referrals that they’re getting out of these communities. What’s more, they can do a little discreet research to assess whether or not a potential hire will fit in with their company culture.

2) If you want to really engage with anyone under the age of 30, you need to get savvy about social networks. There have been a few research reports out in the past month that point to the obvious. Forrester Research just released a report that reveals only 10 percent of adults from the age of 18 to 24 DO NOT participate in social networks or blogs. If you want to market to the next generation, you need to consider how to use social networks. Well, this applies in business, too. Want feedback on a new strategy or product? Don’t expect a meeting to uncover everything. Start a wiki or use a more formal collaboration tool like SharePoint to facilitate an online dialogue. Heartland encourages this, primarily among its technical types.

3) Let your employees help create your culture on social networks. Set guidelines, but don’t dictate. In a move that you could definitely call experimental, The Lloyd Group has created several subgroups for its company within Facebook, including one for former employees. Adam Eiseman, the CEO, says this helps his staff feel more connected at a personal level, building more empathy for each person’s individual role and contributions to the company.

4) Blogs could be a great way for VARs to establish their identity. i-Tech Support is one of several VARs that I know who have set up blogs to represent its point of view on topics of the day. i-Tech’s Richard Vaughn, who has championed this effort, says the hardest thing has been to keep up with the updates (you need to update it now, Richard!). But the blog has had the effect of bringing new prospects to his company via search engines. This other link shows you what one VAR peer group is doing with blogging.

What can vendors and distributors do to support these sorts of activities?

Some, such as Ingram, have set up gated communities such as The Zone, which is essentially an online extension of the Invitational events, meant to perpetuate face-to-face conversations that start at its events. Others are facilitating collaboration activities. An example is Partner Exchange, launched in April by Cisco and intended to help solution providers looking for potential business partners from among their peers.

One area where I think immediate adjustments should be made relates to the sorts of marketing activities your company might consider funding.

If you haven’t begun supporting proposals that include non-traditional components related to Web 2.0, maybe it’s time to start doing so. From your standpoint, you may be able to measure the return on your investment. Better yet, why not proactively encourage your partners to get on board, especially as it relates to two areas: supporting better internal collaboration through various Web 2.0 applications and facilitating more effective marketing dialogues and demand generation activities through both blogs and social networks. I’m still thinking this on through, myself.

Got any thoughts to share? Comment on this blog and get the conversation started. You can also visit me on FaceBook or LinkedIn, or email me directly at hclancy@swotmg.com.

My colleagues at SWOT Management Group will attest to the fact that I have plenty of opinions about what’s going on in the world of so-called green technology.

I write about green IT daily on my GreenTech Pastures blog for ZDNet, and I’ve been asked to speak about the “Green Desktop” at the upcoming Breakaway conference being held next month in Orlando, Fla., by the Computing Technology Industry Association.

One thing that has both perplexed and troubled me over the 11 months I’ve been writing about this topic regularly is the relative disconnect between the professed green strategies of some of the high-tech industry’s biggest players and their business partner and reseller channels. There’s been plenty of corporate-level noise but very little in the way of bonafide messaging or tools that the companies’ channels could apply to their own green message.

Sun Microsystems stands out as a vendor that moved early and publicly to include its VARs in it green messaging. Here’s some more information about that in my GreenTech Pastures blog as well as in this backgrounded about the Sun Eco Advantage program.

Slowly but surely, I believe the disconnect will disappear, although the innovation won’t necessarily come from the biggest companies out there. One example is AFCO Systems, which last week launched a channel program specifically aimed at VARs with green data center practices. AFCO figures it can get a leg up on the competition by filling a gap here and providing products and services that make upgrades easier to pull off.

APC, the leading UPS vendor in the channel, also has developed some resources that its resellers can use in green technology discussions. Called the APC TradeOff Tools, the company now enables either VARs or data center managers to run different planning scenarios that are broken down into small processes. Included are a Carbon Calculator for looking at how loads, locations and design efficiency will impact a company’s carbon footprint; an Energy Efficiency Calculator for profiling electrical costs; a Capital Cost Calculator for studying how load, cooling and power infrastructure will affect outlays; a Virtualization Energy Cost Calculator that studies the impact of server virtualization; a Power Sizing Calculator that looks at utility power needed for a particular data center design; an InRow Containment Selector for creating rack and row prototype configurations; and an AC vs. DC Power Calculator.

The channel needs more programs and tools like these. Why should the vendors be the only ones to profit from green tech talk?

I figure if someone is kind enough to comment on things I blurt out on this blog, they deserve some consideration as far as topics I’m going to explore. So, I’m picking up on Michael Kupfer’s (Black Diamond) request for more information about what I meant a couple of weeks back when I said: “I firmly believe a lot of a solution provider’’s success with an emerging technology comes down to how they handle the evangelism process.”

OK, yes, that was a rather cryptic statement, wasn’t it? So, yes, I can provide some more perspective about what was bouncing around in my brain.

1. I don’t mean salesperson. In some respects, being a good evangelist means being the best kind of salesperson. The kind who LISTENS to their prospect and then (and only then) figures out where his or her company’s message is applicable/appropriate.In the world of solution providers, some of the best evangelists aren’t salespeople at all. They’re the people on your technical staff who live at your customer site and watch what’s working, and not working. These individuals need to be evangelists times two: They need to advocate on behalf of customers needs AND they need to talk up new concepts within their own organizations.I’d be willing to bet that your technical team told you months if not years ago that smart phones were going to challenge IT security in ways we haven’t dreamed of. Or that someone better come up with an archiving policy about instant messaging before one of their financial services customers got themselves into a pickle.
2. It’s a lonely job, but someone’s gotta do it. I recall vividly a conversation I had more than 10 years ago with someone touting the idea of using what was then called “whiteboarding” to give me a product demo remotely. I got really excited by this, because I am inherently a home body who you have to drag out to meetings. Forward (not so flash) to 2008 and the age of Internet conferencing, which still isn’t all that easy for most of us to get our arms around. We’ve gone from “bleeding edge” to approaching mainstream adoption during that timeframe. But if someone had dabbled with Internet conferencing back in the 1990s only to give it up for lost within a couple of quarters, they would have lost out.Getting a new technology concept to take hold will always take at least twice as long as you expect. Start slow and cautious. But jold fast with both your own investors AND your high-tech suppliers, who will be impatient to see results way sooner than you’ll be able to produce them.
3. You WILL lose money. No getting around it. Not only will you need to invest in demo equipment and training for this new stuff, but you’re going to need to spend YOUR OWN money on some marketing. In order to talk about a new technology these days, you have to translate the technical message into one that speaks to solving a business problem. Spout speeds and feeds, and you might as well pour that investment down the drain. Incidentally, sales cycles will be way longer than for something that’s mainstream, so you need to compensate your team somehow while they’re out there taking all sorts of arrows in the back. If they aren’t incented at some sort of long-term strategic level, then what is the point of them talking up something that takes away from their monthly sale quota?
4. You need buy-in. Actually, to build on the previous point about compensation, you can’t evangelize a new sort of technology solution by making it a closely held secret within your own organization. Sure, you’ll choose to focus a small team on the project, but the ENTIRE team needs to know about it and feel a vested interest. Also, this is something at which you need to throw your best people.
5. Plan to succeed. I know many solution providers are skeptical about business planning, but since you WILL bleed while you’re evangelizing a technology, you need to understand your own personal threshold for pain. You especially need to understand what needs to continue to happen in your core businesses in order to support this emerging technology.

How do you approach the unknown? E-mail SWOT Management Group’s Heather Clancy at hclancy@swotmg.com.

First, a confession. I have always had mixed feelings about home-grown partner relationship management (PRM) tools. In my mind, for any reseller or VAR nurturing more than one relationship with a high-tech vendor (i.e., um, most of you) they represented an incredible investment in administrative resources. Imagine having to keep four or five of these things up-to-date. Especially if they all looked and acted different.

Now that I have grown wiser (and I guess older, too, ugh), I have a different opinion about what used to be called the PRM category, especially for any VAR that has tied themselves closely to just a couple of key high-tech suppliers.

For one thing, the growing acceptance of Software as a Service has made the user interfaces to these applications a whole lot more logical to use and easily accessible for both the partner’s and the vendor’s field sales personnel when they need it in real selling situations. Plus, the smarter high-tech companies have chosen to tie them more closely to the “real” data stored in their sales pipeline management systems. Rather than locking their partners out.

The best tools in the category have really morphed into what you’d call Partner Information Management solutions. These applications offer value to both sides of the high-tech channel, both VARs and vendors. The new Channeltivity 3.0, developed by SWOT Management Group’s partner company Channeltivity and being launched on June 11, demonstrates what I’m talking about. Disclosure: This software is obviously sold by the company that I work for, so I have a vested interest in making sure it’s successful. The feature set was informed and conceived by several executives that have bona fide channel field sales and management experience, including Channeltivity COO Gary Grimes, the former head of channel programs for Sun Microsystems.

What makes Channeltivity different from other software in the Partner Information Management category is its focus on engagement and execution, with features that span a partner’s lifespan with a particular vendor all the way from initial recruitment and onboarding, to business planning and the subsequent management of a sales pipeline.

All of this can be managed from a single place: you don’t have to go to five different places to get a grip on important data points. Channeltivity 3.0 is, in essence, a collaboration tool one that links a vendor channel team with a partner’s sales and marketing team.

A picture is worth a thousand words, so For a demo of how Channeltivity works, check out this link. Or e-mail info@channeltivity.com to talk to someone about specifics. You’ll have to listen to me blab on some more about specific features, but I promise it will get you thinking. More important, Channeltivity 3.0 will help your channel team get a better grip, across individual partners, specific regions or your entire channel. It’s your choice.

I’m sure it won’t shock you to hear that I was on yet another set of planes last week, this time winging my way to Chicago, where I gave a presentation at a dinner seminar hosted by Tech Target’s channel media organization. I was asked to talk about how a solution provider executive can create a more differentiated value proposition, one that will help his or her company stand out from the competition without putting the bottom line in jeopardy.

Here are some of the high-level observations I focused on during that talk. I’m actually going to focus on the business management ideas I shared, rather than the technology trends that I think are worth investigation. I’ll handle that in a separate entry. Happy to engage with anyone out there who’d like to discuss any of these issues in greater depth. Here goes:

1. Talk Business Solutions, Not Products. Some of you have heard me preach about this for some time, and many of you call yourselves solution providers. But when you look deep within, can your sales team REALLY discuss the products you’re selling in a business context? There are several really good reasons to consider this approach: You will develop more strategic relationships with your customers (both inside and outside the IT department) and from a financial standpoint, you could see bigger deals, with higher margins. Oh, and you might EVEN be able to create some budget where none previously existed.
2. Listen to Your Engineers. Obviously, these are the people who are closest to your customers on ongoing basis. Who better to pick up emerging trends or test your ideas? These are the people who provide a sanity check. You could formalize this process by putting in place some kind of system to reward valuable feedback.
3. Select Vendors Selectively. I could write a whole blog about this one issue and I’ll probably do so in the near future but there are three “Cs” you should look at when evaluating a new vendor or focusing a lens on an existing relationship: Communications (what do they say about partners in their high-level branding messages and is the channel really acknowledged?); Compensation (how are you paid AND how is the vendor’s direct sales field organization incented to work with partners?); and Collaboration (how does the supplier engage at the field level on joint sales calls?)
4. Partner Strategically. (Or, Test Before You Invest.) If you’re thinking about adding a new solution line but don’t have the technical skills yourself, consider teaming up with another company that does. This way you can test out whether the line extension you’re thinking about makes sense for your business without spending a lot of money beforehand. Make sure you set specific ground rules, though, especially when it comes to customer interaction and support.
5. Brand Thyself, Not Just Your Product Suppliers. I’m still astonished by how few VARs have invested in marketing their own company, rather than just their vendors’ wares. By sitting back, assessing your solutions sales messages and then focusing on how to talk about them more simply and broadly, you can create buzz for yourself despite whether or not you have a particular vendor involved. THEN you can use those frameworks to help promote a particular product within that context. NOW is the time, also, to educate yourself about blogs and social networks. Both can be valuable tools for extending your message beyond your local business community.
6. Finally, Think Long-Term. When I step back and think about how long it has taken for IP telephony and unified communications to really become a mainstream conversation, I am astonished. Taking on a new practice in an emerging technology requires a multi-year investment, one that will probably run at a loss initially. That’s why it’s important to assess exactly how far your company is willing to go to establish itself in that market and how other practices can be run more efficiently in order to help fund that investment. This will need the support and buy-in of everyone in the company, not just some skunkworks team. Three years seems to be the benchmark that many VARs use in making a transition like this.