CompTIA: Channel Advocates to the Core
I have been in the media business for more than 20 years now, the majority in the technology sector. I have spent some time in the dailies as well as some vertical industries including hospitality, financial services, insurance and others. And although there are associations and community organizations in every one of these verticals that promote their respective industries, none can hold a candle to the training, education and advocacy that CompTIA offers to the solution provider channel—hands down.
CompTIA is constantly pushing the envelope to get ahead of emerging trends, as well as offering services to back growing technology advancements. And the organization doesn’t do it in a bubble. IT engages with its members, facilitates avenues for honest discussion, creates programs to educate and engage its base and hires and aligns with proven channel professionals and advocates—all to advance the cause of solution providers, distributors and supporting vendors.
In line with this, CompTIA earlier this week rolled out is new community leaders for 2013, demonstrating once again how the group is leveraging the knowledge of some of the most innovative minds in the industry and supporting those growing technologies that solutions providers need. These 10 community leaders collaborate and consult on best practices, education, research and other initiatives to advance industry growth, according to the organization.
As you can see, many of the communities address fast-growing areas of the technology industry, including cloud computing, IT security, managed services, managed print services, mobility and unified communications. This is critical for solution providers if they are going to move the ball forward in terms of standards, training and education in these areas.
Other communities serve geographic-specific markets, including the UK Channel and the IT services and support markets in Canada and the United States, according to CompTIA.
In addition, CompTIA established the Advancing Women in IT community, showing once again its proactive stance in helping those business leaders achieve success. CompTIA said it created the community to “empower women with the knowledge and skills necessary to help their pursuit of successful IT jobs; and to inspire women to enter the IT industry as a career option.”
CompTIA’s 2013 member community leaders are listed below.
Advancing Women in IT:
Chair: Sandy Ashworth, global director of channel relations and warranty, Unisys
Co-Chair: Jean Mork Bredeson, president, Service 800
Cloud/SaaS:
Chair: John Rice, senior director, partner community, Intermedia
Co-Chair: Ted Roller, vice president, channel development, LogMeIn
IT Security:
Chair: Scott Barlow, vice president, sales and marketing, Reflexion Networks
Co-Chair: Grant Johnson, principal-IT consultant, Array
IT Services and Support (Canada):
Chair: Christopher Adamson, director, IT and professional services, Ricoh Canada Inc.
Co-Chair: Brook Douglas, director of sales, Parts Now Canada
IT Services and Support (U.S.):
Chair: Michael Schuler, vice president, U.S. sales, Zylog Systems Inc.
Co-Chair: Aaron Woods, director, NARS Program, Xerox
Mobility:
Chair: David Sobel, director of partner community, Level Platforms
Co-Chair: Heather Murray, director, mobility, Tech Data
MSP Partners:
Chair: Jay McBain, co-founder, Channeleyes
Co-Chair: John Tippett, chief operating officer, EDTS
Managed Print Services:
Chair: Barney Kister, senior vice president, Supplies Network
Co-Chair: Ian Berger, regional account executive, Parts Now
UK Channel:
Chair: Lee Evans, managing director, Vital Technology Group
Co-Chair: Jim Harrower, UK & Ireland sales manager, GFI Software
Unified Communications:
Chair: Guy Yasika, regional sales manager, Alteva
Co-Chair: David Gilbert, chief executive officer, SimpleSignal
You can see by these community leaders CompTIA is tapping all areas in IT from leading solution providers to distributors to software and hardware vendors to consultancies. Keep up the good work, folks.
Knock ’em alive!
