Everything Channel Unveils First-of-a-Kind Research on Driving Channel Growth in the Global Market

Results: Solution Providers Worldwide Are Poised for Growth

PRNewswire-FirstCall
MANHASSET, N.Y.
Apr 14, 2008

Everything Channel (formerly CMP Channel), the global leader in technology sales, today announced that its Institute for Partner Education & Development (IPED) released results of first-of-a-kind research comparing global Channel market data from the Americas, Asia, Europe and Africa. Based on 7400 responses, the report indicates that Solution Providers across the globe are poised for growth.

  Highlights of the research include:

   -- Hyper growth partners are strongest in the Asia-Pacific region,
      moderate growth partners are strongest in Latin America, and lifestyle
      partners are strongest in Europe/Middle East.  Moderate growth
      partners are also leading the growth spurt in Asia Pacific, Europe,
      Middle East, Africa, North America and Latin America.
   -- The global landscape in 2008 for the Channel is very encouraging with
      end user IT budgets increasing 50 percent in 2008.
   -- More end users are relying on the Channel globally to meet their
      business and technology needs.
   -- The Channel is evolving to focus more on customization.
   -- Based on the maturation of the various markets, end customers require
      different types of expertise from their Solution Provider partners.
      For example, traditional resellers dominate less mature geographical
      markets while total Solution Providers have more influence in North
      America and Western Europe.
   -- The leading strategy for Solution Providers growth across the globe is
      consistent -- target new markets, specifically hitting C-level and
      line-of-business executives with their marketing message.
   -- There are three distinctly different growth philosophies for Solution
      Providers -- lifestyle business, moderate growth and hyper growth --
      and technology vendors need to understand the dynamics of each
      mindset.
   -- Solution Providers have to enhance their value to the end user with a
      greater investment in marketing and expanding their ability to deliver
      emerging technology offerings and solutions to retain their partner
      relationships.
   -- Vendors need to optimize their relationships with channel partners and
      increase customer satisfaction levels by providing customizable
      products, better communication and easy-to-manage programs, etc.


Robert Faletra, Chief Executive Officer, Everything Channel presented these research results last week in Rome at the IT Channel Vision Europe where Europe's premier IT channel executives who represent enterprise and mid-size markets came together.

"This first-of-a-kind research provides us with a view of global Channel trends as well as the dynamics of each market," said Toni Clayton Hine, VP, Managing Director, IPED. "It will help us identify what investments IT vendors need to make and where they should be allocating their resources to secure the highest return on investment. We look forward to conducting additional research to help grow Solution Providers' businesses."

About Institute for Partner Education & Development (www.IPED.com)

The Institute for Partner Education & Development (IPED) empowers technology companies with channel education, intelligence and analysis to develop, deploy and execute channel strategies and programs that drive revenue. IPED content is based on two decades of channel experience and more than 50,000 annual surveys of business partners and end-customers. IPED is a business unit of Everything Channel, publishers of CRN and VARBusiness; host of ChannelWeb, largest channel portal for solution providers; and organizers of the XChange conferences. With 25 years of experience and institutional knowledge about the channels of distribution for IT products, Everything Channel is recognized as the premier source of information for the channel.

Everything Channel (www.everythingchannel.com, www.channelweb.com)

Everything Channel is the global leader in technology sales and serves as the one stop shop for the sales channel that drives 75 percent of technology sales throughout the world. IT suppliers and Solution Providers turn to Everything Channel to manage and accelerate their business. Everything Channel provides the answer to strategy and branding, online marketing, research/market intelligence, lead generation, branded and custom events, education and workflow tools targeted to those who buy and sell through the Channel. Everything Channel is a subsidiary of United Business Media (http://www.unitedbusinessmedia.com/), a global provider of news distribution and specialist information services with a market capitalization of more than $2.5 billion.

   Contact
   Kate Spellman
   Everything Channel
   (516) 562-7383
   kspellman@everythingchannel.com

First Call Analyst:
FCMN Contact: franzman@beyondwords.com
http://www.unitedbusinessmedia.com
http://www.IPED.com

SOURCE: Everything Channel

CONTACT: Kate Spellman of Everything Channel, +1-516-562-7383,
kspellman@everythingchannel.com

Web site: http://www.everythingchannel.com/
http://www.channelweb.com/
http://www.cmp.com/

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