Peer Power Blog

I was blessed to spend a couple days this week with the HTG team and advisory council in a strategic planning session in Phoenix. Our mission was to step back and take another look at our course and make sure we were on track. It was a great exercise as we turned over every aspect of the HTG program and took a look at where we were, and more importantly, where we were going to be in 3 years. After all, we continually press our members to do strategic planning. That has to drive every part of our businesses. It comes down to answering the "why" question. Why do we do what we do? What is the driving force - the end game - the desired outcome? Far too many businesses and organizations go throug... Continue reading

I wrote a blog post about a year ago when partners were going crazy around a mistake SonicWALL made (http://www.htgpeergroups.com/blog/item/81-when-things-dont-go-as-planned.html) that caused some pain for folks when their units were not updating and working properly. Over the past 12 months there have been posts around issues at Ingram and ConnectWise. Things happen that cause pain for partners and it seems more and more that the response is to react and start blasting out emails and complaints rather than trying to understand what is happening. The most recent of these involves another great partner of the channel – the folks at HP.HP has made a corporate decision to take compliance very s... Continue reading

Today we held our 5th annual HTS planning meeting. We huddled in the KC Microsoft office with our field reps from Microsoft, SonicWALL, Ingram Micro, HP and Altigen. The goal was to review our performance from 2009, evaluate what we could have done better, and then create a joint plan across all our vendor partners for 2010. When we started doing this 5 years ago, there was a lot of question and concern. "You really expect us to sit in a room with competitive vendors and share our thinking and plans for next year?". I have always had a simple answer. "It is up to you. You only have to participate if you want to do business with us next year." This is not an optional activity. It is ... Continue reading

The Frontline Program from HP and Microsoft is back! This is one of the best marketing programs that have ever existed, and while it is not as flush as it once was, it is still good. You can apply for up to $2000 to run a campaign. Market Development Funds (MDF) are available again effective November 1, 2009. You should consider running a marketing campaign focused on HP and Microsoft® solutions that will produce revenue for HP, Microsoft and your company. A 20:1 ROI is required to get paid. To submit an application for FLP market development funds, complete the application/proposal form. They are especially interested in supporting your proposal for marketing activities focused on Mic... Continue reading

We are just about 6 weeks from the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference, and I thought it would be a good time to remind you why events like this are so important to us as partners. There are only a few events on my “cannot miss” list any more:1. Quarterly HTG meetings2. ConnectWise Partner Summit3. VentureTech Network Invitational4. Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference5. HP Americas Partner Conference (when held)6. SonicWall Peak Performance (when held)Certainly there are a number of other quality events that occur in the channel each year, but to be honest, if I don’t pick and choose I will be attending an event or two every week. And as our organ... Continue reading