Computer news and media

So you are half way through the newly redesigned Computer Dealer News or CDN. What do you think so far? Please let me know at pdelnibletto@itbusiness.ca. I would welcome your comments good or bad. After all it is all about you--our readers.

You may be asking yourself why would we change the No. 1 IT channel publication in Canada. Why fix what isn't broken?

I can assure you nothing is broken with CDN and nothing had to be fixed. We just enhanced it for you.

As the editor of this publication, I want you, CDN readers, to know that I believe in the channel. Which means I believe in you!

Let's face it: the channel has been kicked around the last few years. The IT industry has collectively tainted the channel as not adding any value and just a bunch of money-grabbing box pushers. Or by chief rival Dell as a "middleman that needed to be cut out."

So with this redesign we at CDN wanted to give the publication a bold new look. Something that could express to the channel and the IT industry that we as a community are strong and we do add value.

The look and feel may be new but the content is as strong as ever.

We have added and changed some sections in the publication to reflect what you, the reader, have been asking for.

For example, the Profile section has been expanded and will feature some of Canada's top decision-makers in the distribution, vendor and reseller communities.

The VAR Case Study is a new section that looks at the solutions VARs create for their customers. The editorial will follow a VAR from the planning stages right up to implementation and deployment.

CloseUp is a question and answer session with some of the most influential men and women in the global IT industry.

CDN will continue to provide our industry with the Resellers' Choice Awards, the Channel Roundtable and the Top 25 Newsmakers for the year.

Also new to CDN is the Channel Elite Awards or CEA. Channel professionals from around the country are spotlighted for their achievement in sales, technical support, project management and customer service. This year's CEA awards was a tremendous success and we will continue this event next year.

We also plan on developing the Top 100 VARs report and show for October of this year. CDN, along with a market research partner, will compile the list based on revenue from hardware, software and service sales.

The top 100 VAR list is an effective way to measure channel trends. In years past consolidation and the ASP model became significant trends coming out of the list.

Some of the design changes will help you navigate to what you are looking for. CDN understands that your time is valuable and we want and strive to give you the best coverage of this industry.

On the front page you will see a table of contents, which informs you right away of what's inside the publication. Readers will no longer have to flip through pages to find an index. It is right there.

Also the new products section is streamlined to give the reader more product information. These are just a few of the many design features in the new CDN.

The redesign of CDN was made possible by the tremendous work of a lot of people. We first contacted several resellers and asked them to join a focus group on the redesign. There are too many to mention here but I would like to say a special thanks to Mark Steinman, Patrick Power, Erick Marroquin and Gary Sohal.

Finally, I would also like to thank Janet Popadiuk, whose vision, dedication and hard work is what made the redesign of this publication a reality.

I truly hope you enjoy CDN today and into the future.