Planning for Growth – What’s Next for the Trillion-Dollar High-Tech Industry?

At the International CES event last month in Las Vegas, CEA announced that worldwide sales of high-tech & consumer electronics products were projected to be within shouting distance of $1 trillion in 2011. Technology companies are thinking hard about how to manage this growth efficiently and invest in appropriate operational excellence initiatives. Based on a survey of COOs, an Accenture report on the Future of High-Tech and Electronics indicates three strategic imperatives to help achieve effective operations in this upcoming growth phase:
• Charting new growth trajectories
• Organizing for worldwide innovation
• Leveraging the broader ecosystem
While innovation and growth have always been at the top for CXOs, it is interesting to see that the importance of alliances, channel partners and suppliers is seen as an area of investment. For example, best-in-class technology companies leverage their channel partner networks to differentiate themselves, improve speed-to-market, identify new opportunities that they may not have uncovered on their own, and improve visibility to end customers. It’s no surprise that at a recent quarterly business review, a Zyme customer remarked how a granular view of channel activity worldwide has given them an important market advantage.

Planning for Growth – What’s Next for the Trillion-Dollar High-Tech Industry?

At the International CES event last month in Las Vegas, CEA announced that worldwide sales of high-tech & consumer electronics products were projected to be within shouting distance of $1 trillion in 2011. Technology companies are thinking hard about how to manage this growth efficiently and invest in appropriate operational excellence initiatives. Based on a survey of COOs, an Accenture report on the Future of High-Tech and Electronics indicates three strategic imperatives to help achieve effective operations in this upcoming growth phase:
• Charting new growth trajectories
• Organizing for worldwide innovation
• Leveraging the broader ecosystem
While innovation and growth have always been at the top for CXOs, it is interesting to see that the importance of alliances, channel partners and suppliers is seen as an area of investment. For example, best-in-class technology companies leverage their channel partner networks to differentiate themselves, improve speed-to-market, identify new opportunities that they may not have uncovered on their own, and improve visibility to end customers. It’s no surprise that at a recent quarterly business review, a Zyme customer remarked how a granular view of channel activity worldwide has given them an important market advantage.

High-tech Industry Talks Up Channel Operations at Dreamforce 2010

Dreamforce 2010 lived up to its billing as the cloud computing event of the year! Many of Zyme’s customers, including Avaya, Dell, and Symantec were featured speakers at sessions ranging from Driving Sales Through Partner Networks, to PRM, Pipeline Analytics, and Integrating Selling & Quoting with Salesforce CRM. It was great to hear Zoe Petersen from Avaya talk about Zyme’s role in powering their channel operations with high-quality channel data.
We were proud to be a sponsor of Dreamforce, and showcase ChannelView’s ability to bring management visibility into the channel sales process. We’re also thrilled to have ChannelView featured in Salesforce.com’s “30 Apps in 30 Days” roundup!
Here’s an interesting quote from NETGEAR on why they chose ChannelView: “ChannelView will help our sales and marketing teams make better business decisions with readily available channel data, while maximizing our IT investments. Zyme was able to set up, test, and deploy ChannelView in a matter of weeks, with minimal requirements from our IT resources.” — Vice-President IT at NETGEAR Inc. Read more about ChannelView here.

High-tech Industry Talks Up Channel Operations at Dreamforce 2010

Dreamforce 2010 lived up to its billing as the cloud computing event of the year! Many of Zyme’s customers, including Avaya, Dell, and Symantec were featured speakers at sessions ranging from Driving Sales Through Partner Networks, to PRM, Pipeline Analytics, and Integrating Selling & Quoting with Salesforce CRM. It was great to hear Zoe Petersen from Avaya talk about Zyme’s role in powering their channel operations with high-quality channel data.
We were proud to be a sponsor of Dreamforce, and showcase ChannelView’s ability to bring management visibility into the channel sales process. We’re also thrilled to have ChannelView featured in Salesforce.com’s “30 Apps in 30 Days” roundup!
Here’s an interesting quote from NETGEAR on why they chose ChannelView: “ChannelView will help our sales and marketing teams make better business decisions with readily available channel data, while maximizing our IT investments. Zyme was able to set up, test, and deploy ChannelView in a matter of weeks, with minimal requirements from our IT resources.” — Vice-President IT at NETGEAR Inc. Read more about ChannelView here.

Comprehensive Solutions for channel visibility

Zyme offers a comprehensive range f solutions for greater visibility into channel

sales activity, helping businesses like yours drive operational excellence in their

channel operations. Developed through our work with leading companies across

various sub-sectors of the high-tech industry, our offerings incorporate best practices

in channel data. Explore the breadth and depth of our solutions in the following areas.

Data Acquistion: With Zyme’s TrueData, get reliable, high-quality channel data from

Hundreds of Tier-1 and Tier-2 partners worldwide—data that’s validated and enriched

by our platform. ZymeTone, our global gateway application and data specification,

enables touchless channel data capture that scales to your entire partner base.

Partner Identification:

Use Zyme’s TrueID to identify your company’s global Tier-2 partners or end customers and match them to point-of-sale (POS) transactions—leveraging our Global Channel Directory.

Payment Integrity:

Improve channel partner satisfaction and manage progam complexity by automating the validation of your global channel incentive programs—with Zyme’s TruePay.

Sales Enablement:

With ChannelView, bring channel visibility to your field sales and marketing—in your CRM system.

Business Intelligence:

Make better business decisions with instant, easy access to your global channel data through the Zyme Dashboards. Leverage the included Tech Channel Index (TCI) data to benchmark your company’s performance against industry averages.

Data Steward Services:

Get business process support from knowledgeable experts for your channel data operations.

Comprehensive Solutions for channel visibility

Zyme offers a comprehensive range f solutions for greater visibility into channel

sales activity, helping businesses like yours drive operational excellence in their

channel operations. Developed through our work with leading companies across

various sub-sectors of the high-tech industry, our offerings incorporate best practices

in channel data. Explore the breadth and depth of our solutions in the following areas.

Data Acquistion: With Zyme’s TrueData, get reliable, high-quality channel data from

Hundreds of Tier-1 and Tier-2 partners worldwide—data that’s validated and enriched

by our platform. ZymeTone, our global gateway application and data specification,

enables touchless channel data capture that scales to your entire partner base.

Partner Identification:

Use Zyme’s TrueID to identify your company’s global Tier-2 partners or end customers and match them to point-of-sale (POS) transactions—leveraging our Global Channel Directory.

Payment Integrity:

Improve channel partner satisfaction and manage progam complexity by automating the validation of your global channel incentive programs—with Zyme’s TruePay.

Sales Enablement:

With ChannelView, bring channel visibility to your field sales and marketing—in your CRM system.

Business Intelligence:

Make better business decisions with instant, easy access to your global channel data through the Zyme Dashboards. Leverage the included Tech Channel Index (TCI) data to benchmark your company’s performance against industry averages.

Data Steward Services:

Get business process support from knowledgeable experts for your channel data operations.

TCI Insights: Economic Impact from Japan’s Recent Natural Disasters

In the wake of this month’s tragic events in Japan, many are speculating on the earthquake’s impact on commercial activity in Japan. According to recent data from Tech Channel Index, channel sales in Japan for technology products from US manufacturers fell by an estimated 35% in the 9 days following the March 11th catastrophe, after adjusting for normal seasonal variations. See the chart below.

Other notable findings from Japan TCI data:

• On average, Japan is responsible for approximately 3 to 4% of international channel sales for the major US-based technology manufacturers tracked within TCI.
• Channel inventories for finished goods, not components, remain slightly low, but well within Japan’s normal range.
• April and May are traditionally important months for the Japanese technology channel, only slightly behind the year-end as the peak selling period.

Click here to read the complete press release. Visit the TCI Momentum Index for an up-to-date weekly history of channel sales volume globally or regionally. Additionally, get ongoing channel updates by following TCI on Twitter at #ZymeTCI.

TCI Insights: Economic Impact from Japan’s Recent Natural Disasters

In the wake of this month’s tragic events in Japan, many are speculating on the earthquake’s impact on commercial activity in Japan. According to recent data from Tech Channel Index, channel sales in Japan for technology products from US manufacturers fell by an estimated 35% in the 9 days following the March 11th catastrophe, after adjusting for normal seasonal variations. See the chart below.

Other notable findings from Japan TCI data:

• On average, Japan is responsible for approximately 3 to 4% of international channel sales for the major US-based technology manufacturers tracked within TCI.
• Channel inventories for finished goods, not components, remain slightly low, but well within Japan’s normal range.
• April and May are traditionally important months for the Japanese technology channel, only slightly behind the year-end as the peak selling period.

Click here to read the complete press release. Visit the TCI Momentum Index for an up-to-date weekly history of channel sales volume globally or regionally. Additionally, get ongoing channel updates by following TCI on Twitter at #ZymeTCI.

TCI Insights: Unrest in Middle East Affects Technology Sales

Recent social and political events across the Middle East have dominated international news coverage. However, the impacts of unrest on commerce in the region – let alone their effects on technology sales – haven’t been as widely covered. To shed some light on the impact of unrest on the Middle East’s technology channel, we’ve tapped into the Tech Channel Index database, Zyme’s resource for spotting aggregated trends in all corners of the worldwide channel for technology sales.

As the chart below clearly shows, channel sell-through in the Middle East region * has experienced a marked slowdown in January – a trend first appearing in the week of January 15th. After adjusting for normal seasonality trends, Middle East sell-through fell by over 30% from Jan 8th to Feb 5th.

For most global technology companies, the Middle East is still a relatively small end market. While it differs significantly by company, our aggregated data shows the Middle East region as about 3% of global channel sales and 10% of EMEA sales so the impact of this drop is limited on a global scale.

Click here to read the complete press release. Visit the TCI Momentum Index for an up-to-date weekly history of channel sales volume globally or regionally. Additionally, get ongoing channel updates by following TCI on Twitter at #ZymeTCI

TCI Insights: Unrest in Middle East Affects Technology Sales

Recent social and political events across the Middle East have dominated international news coverage. However, the impacts of unrest on commerce in the region – let alone their effects on technology sales – haven’t been as widely covered. To shed some light on the impact of unrest on the Middle East’s technology channel, we’ve tapped into the Tech Channel Index database, Zyme’s resource for spotting aggregated trends in all corners of the worldwide channel for technology sales.

As the chart below clearly shows, channel sell-through in the Middle East region * has experienced a marked slowdown in January – a trend first appearing in the week of January 15th. After adjusting for normal seasonality trends, Middle East sell-through fell by over 30% from Jan 8th to Feb 5th.

For most global technology companies, the Middle East is still a relatively small end market. While it differs significantly by company, our aggregated data shows the Middle East region as about 3% of global channel sales and 10% of EMEA sales so the impact of this drop is limited on a global scale.

Click here to read the complete press release. Visit the TCI Momentum Index for an up-to-date weekly history of channel sales volume globally or regionally. Additionally, get ongoing channel updates by following TCI on Twitter at #ZymeTCI

TCI Insights: Technology Sales in EMEA Retail Up 2% for Holiday 2010 Season

Tech Channel Index (TCI) reported that EMEA retail sales of technology products were up slightly more than 2% for the November/December holiday period. Interestingly, the US Black Friday shopping trend seems to be spreading to Europe as many retailers introduced the concept of Black Friday by offering products on discount during the festive season.

In the chart below, TCI data shows that European retail sales grew in the black Friday week (11/27) by 12 % on YOY basis. Inventory levels were significantly lower than historical averages for the holiday period, possibly indicating reluctance to risk overstocking goods.

Visit the TCI Momentum Index for an up-to-date weekly history of channel sales volume globally or regionally. Additionally, get ongoing channel updates by following TCI on Twitter at #ZymeTCI

TCI Insights: Technology Sales in EMEA Retail Up 2% for Holiday 2010 Season

Tech Channel Index (TCI) reported that EMEA retail sales of technology products were up slightly more than 2% for the November/December holiday period. Interestingly, the US Black Friday shopping trend seems to be spreading to Europe as many retailers introduced the concept of Black Friday by offering products on discount during the festive season.

In the chart below, TCI data shows that European retail sales grew in the black Friday week (11/27) by 12 % on YOY basis. Inventory levels were significantly lower than historical averages for the holiday period, possibly indicating reluctance to risk overstocking goods.

Visit the TCI Momentum Index for an up-to-date weekly history of channel sales volume globally or regionally. Additionally, get ongoing channel updates by following TCI on Twitter at #ZymeTCI

High-tech Industry Talks Up Channel Operations at Dreamforce 2010

Dreamforce 2010 lived up to its billing as the cloud computing event of the year! Many of Zyme’s customers, including Avaya, Dell, and Symantec were featured speakers at sessions ranging from Driving Sales Through Partner Networks, to PRM, Pipeline Analytics, and Integrating Selling & Quoting with Salesforce CRM. It was great to hear Zoe Petersen from Avaya talk about Zyme’s role in powering their channel operations with high-quality channel data.

We were proud to be a sponsor of Dreamforce, and showcase ChannelView’s ability to bring management visibility into the channel sales process. We’re also thrilled to have ChannelView featured in Salesforce.com’s “30 Apps in 30 Days” roundup!

Here’s an interesting quote from NETGEAR on why they chose ChannelView: “ChannelView will help our sales and marketing teams make better business decisions with readily available channel data, while maximizing our IT investments. Zyme was able to set up, test, and deploy ChannelView in a matter of weeks, with minimal requirements from our IT resources.” — Vice-President IT at NETGEAR Inc. Read more about ChannelView here.

High-tech Industry Talks Up Channel Operations at Dreamforce 2010

Dreamforce 2010 lived up to its billing as the cloud computing event of the year! Many of Zyme’s customers, including Avaya, Dell, and Symantec were featured speakers at sessions ranging from Driving Sales Through Partner Networks, to PRM, Pipeline Analytics, and Integrating Selling & Quoting with Salesforce CRM. It was great to hear Zoe Petersen from Avaya talk about Zyme’s role in powering their channel operations with high-quality channel data.

We were proud to be a sponsor of Dreamforce, and showcase ChannelView’s ability to bring management visibility into the channel sales process. We’re also thrilled to have ChannelView featured in Salesforce.com’s “30 Apps in 30 Days” roundup!

Here’s an interesting quote from NETGEAR on why they chose ChannelView: “ChannelView will help our sales and marketing teams make better business decisions with readily available channel data, while maximizing our IT investments. Zyme was able to set up, test, and deploy ChannelView in a matter of weeks, with minimal requirements from our IT resources.” — Vice-President IT at NETGEAR Inc. Read more about ChannelView here.

Is Your Channel Incentive Management Stuck in the Stone Age?

Speaker: Chandran Sankaran, Founder and CEO, Zyme

Event Details: Tuesday, August 20^th, 9:00 a.m. PDT/4:00 p.m GMT/6:00 p.m CEST

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Event Description

Can you easily launch channel incentive programs, for different program types, across different regions?

Are you leaking margin through your contra program?

Can you analyze program ROI and “course-correct” mid-quarter?

Rebates, contra-revenue programs, MDF, price-protection and other incentive instruments were developed during the “stone age” days of the industry, when technology infrastructure was in its infancy – as were the cumbersome processes and tools for creating programs and managing partners..

Today’s channel, however, demands a greater level of flexibility and scalability than ever before, due to significant increases in channel complexity, scale and geographic reach. Unfortunately, the processes, systems and tools for incentivizing the channel remain “status quo”..

Why does your incentives management process need a serious upgrade? Three macro trends alter how you should think about managing your channel in the modern era:

1.	The pervasiveness of high-performance, cloud-based CRM systems and partner portal technologies
2.	The power of new visibility and high-quality data flows from the channel edge back to manufacturers
3.	The rise of "micro-targeting", and a need to speedily deploy a large number of narrowly-targeted “smarter” incentive programs

Zyme is at the center of these three trends. Join Chandran Sankaran, Zyme’s CEO, for a fresh look at best practices in aligning and incentivizing your indirect channel in the modern era.

Speaker Bio

Chandran Sankaran, Founder and CEO, Zyme Solutions, Inc.
Chandran focuses on ensuring the sustained delivery of client value, business growth and profitability and growth of company core skills and capabilities.

Prior to Zyme, he was Chairman and CEO of Closedloop Solutions, an enterprise software company that he founded in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1999. Closedloop was acquired by Lawson Software (NASDAQ: LWSN) in October 2003.

Prior to Closedloop, Chandran was the Vice President and head of the high-tech markets business unit of i2, the market leader in supply chain management software, where he was responsible for successfully driving global revenues in excess of $100 million. He was previously with McKinsey and Company as a senior consultant serving the executive teams of major high-tech corporations. He has also held engineering and management positions with Hewlett-Packard Company.

Chandran has an MS in Computer Science from Yale University, and a B.Tech. in Electrical Engineering from IIT, Madras. At IIT he was the recipient of the Governor's Medal, awarded for all-round achievement to one graduating student each year.