Innovation Is Alive And Well

There are lots of people these days who are bad-mouthing innovation. They've grown weary, they claim, of marketing slogans that relegate innovation to the meaningless and cliche. "We need to move on," they say. I can only shake my head in disgust because there's nothing more important in the IT industry than stressing innovation. Every solution provider and every vendor needs to continue shouting from the mountaintops how innovative they are and how dedicated to innovation--be it in technology or business--they remain.

I certainly hope the likes of Hewlett-Packard and IBM continue to showcase innovation in their ad campaigns, marketing materials and public presentations for years to come. After all, doesn't innovation in IT lead to success, profit and IPOs?

Perhaps I'm a bit sensitive about the subject, since we crafted this issue to focus on innovation from large and small companies alike. Several weeks ago, to prepare for the annual XChange Tech Innovators Awards (run by the CMP Channel Group), we asked vendors to submit nominations for the most innovative products they introduced in the past year. Well, we received a record 746 entries that spanned Business Objects' XI Release 2 to an upgrade of Tripp Lite's IP Remote Access product.

That's roughly twice the number of entries we received last year and four times the number in 2004. So, I don't think anyone views innovation as slowing down.

Take a look at the list; every solution provider should do just that to see which vendor names they recognize and which they don't. You may be completely loyal to your current set of partners, but it never hurts to examine the list for new market opportunities.

Getting onboard with some of these innovative products early could translate into high-margin selling opportunities. I won't go as far as to say we have the next Google on the list, but there are many companies worth considering.

For instance, in the Wireless Networking category, how many of you have heard of Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Meru Networks, which has produced a $995 wireless backbone? Given Meru's top-three placement in the Tech Innovators Awards, the company is definitely worth a look.

Sure, there are plenty of well-known names here, but, at the same time, the list is replete with players just dying for some attention from the solution-provider community. Some are start-ups or venture-capital-backed organizations; others are operating on a shoestring and looking for their first big break.

Why bother looking? Because many VARs tell me it's their responsibility and part of the fabric of the solution-provider community to represent and defend the "little guys" out there--the companies that need some help from their friends to make it big. Just think of some of your key vendors today and where they were just a few years ago.

Yes, I know times have changed, and adding a new vendor's products to your portfolio can be both expensive and risky. I recently moderated a discussion and brought up the topic of partnering with emerging vendors. For certain, I sensed some solution providers are reluctant to engage newcomers for fear the fledglings will be scooped up by a major vendor and have their products made broadly available to, say, Microsoft's partner community. That's a good point, but not good enough to ignore all of the newcomers on the playing field today.

Regardless of the outcome, from the moment you engage an emerging player, you're offering your clients something they couldn't get from anyone else and, we hope, realizing some higher margins for yourself in the process. That said, we all have to resign ourselves to the fact that M&As are a way of life in the industry. But even if that small vendor is acquired, consider the head start you'll have on other solution providers working to get up to speed on the technology.

In any event, the future and well-being of the solution-provider community depend on its ability to bring new technologies to customers. Otherwise, those customers may grow tired of the same old offering time and time again.