Monday Morning Impact – August 3

By Ken Presti, Senior Consultant, Channel Impact

Unisys Names New Leadership for Public Sector

Unisys Corporation has announced to key appointments for its government sector organization; a portion of the business that represented nearly 45% of the company’s Q1 revenue.

Jennifer L. Napper has joined Unisys as group vice president of the Department of Defense and Intelligence Group within Unisys Federal. Napper retired from the U.S. Army with the rank of Major General after 30 years of service. During her career, she successfully led large, diverse organizations with responsibility for planning, engineering, operating, maintaining and securing regional and global IT and communications networks. She completed her military tenure as director of Policy, Plans and Partnerships for the U.S. DoD Cyber Command after serving as commander of the Army’s Network Enterprise Technology Command. Prior to joining Unisys, Napper was vice president and deputy general manager, Defense Solutions, at L-3 Communications.

“Defense and intelligence agencies need new, more cost-effective approaches to delivering IT solutions and defending against increasingly sophisticated cyber threats,” Napper said. “I look forward to working with the Unisys team to meet the challenge and grow our business in the DoD and intelligence community.”

Napper reports to Venkatapathi Puvvada, president, Unisys Federal.

Mark A. Forman is joining the company as global head of Unisys Public Sector. Serving most recently as vice president, IT Services and Cloud Solutions at Engility, Forman has also held senior national and global leadership positions at KPMG and IBM. He also co-founded and led his own cloud computing and IT consulting companies. He previously served as administrator of the Office of E-Government and IT in the George W. Bush administration.

He will report to Ron Frankenfield, president, Unisys Enterprise Solutions.

Channel Impact
The moves reinforce the company’s emphasis on public sector, but also strengthens the Unisys position in IT security.

SUSE Launches Partner Program

SUSE announced partner program expansion to include support for 64-bit ARM server processors. This expansion makes available to partners a version of SUSE Linux Enterprise 12 that allows them to develop, test and deliver products to the market using 64-bit ARM chips from vendors including AMD, AppliedMicro and Cavium along with server manufacturers Dell, E4 Computer Engineering, HP and SoftIron to provide customers with more choice, flexibility and opportunities to save on their technology infrastructure.

Specializing in open source software, SUSE provides interoperable Linux, cloud infrastructure and storage solutions designed to give enterprises greater control and flexibility.

“SUSE’s ARM partner program will provide ARM ecosystem partners access to AArch64-supported SUSE Linux Enterprise 12 software and expertise, establishing relationships that will result in supported enterprise solutions on different hardware platforms to meet a variety of customer needs,” said Ralf Flaxa, SUSE vice president of engineering.

Channel Impact
Expect ARM servers to gain more momentum in the industry dialogue, especially as the Internet of Things continues to move towards reality. SUSE Linux Enterprise for AArch64 will help support partners in the deployment of ARM servers.

Nintex Announces Enhancements to its Global Partner Program

Nintex, which specializes in workflow automation, has announced an updated global partner program that is intended to promote partner profitability and ease of doing business.

Highlights include a redesign of partner types and tiers, promoting channel partners and technology partners whose solutions integrate with Nintex. The program acknowledges three tiers of partners; Premier, Certified, and Registered. Partner level differentiation is based on sales volumes, certifications and product integration validations.

The program also includes an upgraded partner portal that now features CRM integration, including forecasting and pipeline information, customer renewal data/alerting, deal registration and a number of functional enhancements. Nintex is also providing 24/7 self-service training modules to help partners get up-to-speed on Nintex tools as well as core and specialized certifications. A marketing center, with a variety of campaigns and tools, has also been added to the mix.

The company claims more than 1,100 partners and more than 5,000 customers worldwide.

Channel Impact
A strong, value-based channel program is always critical to companies whose products are fundamentally based on successful integration.