August 2006

INsights is sent to you by Key Information Systems as a free news service providing information useful to members of the IT industry.

Editor: Dennis Fletcher

Don't forget to forward this newsletter to your colleagues.

In this issue...

From Pete's Desk Study on IT Needs and Concerns by Key with IBM and MC Press
July WebinarStop Server Proliferation with VMware
June WebinarEliminate Reporting Backlog with Q4bis
September 21 Webinar - Easily Tune & Optimize Your iSeries: Preparing For High Availability
Storage Tee-OffKey Customer Golf Event
Partner Interview Louis-Philippe Lalonde of Q4bis
Interview with Pete Elliot - CRN Magazine Looks at Key's Webinar Success
Key Offer - Free Customer Requirements Review for a VMware Solution


Notice:.

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August 30 Webinar
11am – 12 noon, PT

Get Continuous Availability with VMware for Windows Servers

Learn How You Can:
Dynamically move workloads across distributed physical servers without service interruption
Maintain baseline level of availability with reduced degree of hardware redundancy
Streamline server provisioning and management
Monitor system availability and performance
 
Speaker:
Neil Tantingco, VMware
 
Who Should Review this Webinar?
CIOs, IT Directors and Managers
Operations Managers
Managers of Wintel, xSeries and Blade environments

To register for the Webinar, go here.

 

From Pete's Desk:.

Survey on IT Needs and Concerns
 

New Study by Key in Conjunction with IBM and MC Press

To our clients and friends,

During August and September, a professional survey company will be conducting a study of the IT concerns of organizations. The survey was developed by professionals at Key and reviewed by Tom Stockwell, Industry Analyst and Editor-in-Chief of MC Press.  It also has the approval and support of IBM. 
 
The purpose of this survey is to obtain an in-depth understanding of IT challenges, opportunities and priorities of IT organizations within Southern and Northern California. 
 
Once the data has been collected and analyzed, we will report our finding to you on the pages of this newsletter.  The data will also be used by IBM and by the editors and analysts at the MC Press organization to better understand current IT issues and needs. The confidentially of responses provided by individual respondents will be rigorously protected.
 
 
Success to all,

Pete Elliot
Director of Marketing
pelliot@keyinfo.com
818.737.2804
Bio


July Webinar – Stop Server Proliferation and Cut Costs with VMware:.

July 20 Webinar Now Available in Key’s Webinar Archive

IT organizations are facing server proliferation at an alarming rate.  Learn how using VMware for server consolidation slows this growth with customers reporting a 30 to 70 percent cost savings.  This Webinar sponsored by Key and VMware shows how this cutting-edge technology eliminates dedicated physical severs for each operating / configuration / application environment.  The Webinar also shows how you can package multiple and varied virtual environments onto the same physical server, and covers both the major architecture components of VMware and its inherent benefits. Results for VMware customers include dramatic cost and space savings, increased reliability and simplified systems management. 

During the Webinar, Key's Director of Marketing Pete Elliot describes an offer from Key for a free Customer Requirements Review along with a cost justification proposal for a VMware solution and a Statement of Work for a VMware installation. See Key Offer below.

To access the archived Webinar, click here.


June Webinar – Eliminate Your IT Reporting Backlog:.

Data Mining with Q4bis Business Intelligence Suite

Key and its technology partner Q4bis hosted a Webinar, Eliminate Your IT Reporting Backlog in Only 2 Weeks, on June 22. Dan Hicks, Vice President of Sales for Q4bis, presented this one-hour Web-based seminar and fielded questions. Q4bis Business Intelligence (BI) Suite is an affordable BI solution that can be quickly deployed and is intuitive enough to be used by end-user management and analysts.  Companies use Q4bis to uncover hidden profits in sales and financial areas using the Q4bis easy-to-use analytics tool to mine for profitable customers, products and improved business focus. Q4bis handles data from any platform and operating system. 
 
Archived Webinar is not available. For an online demo, go here.


September 21 Webinar:.

Easily Tune & Optimize Your iSeries: Preparing For High Availability

Key's Webinar in September will focus on system tuning your iSeries. Learn about Director from Vision Solutions, a highly integrated set of tools that proactively monitors, manages and optimizes your IBM iSeries servers, databases and application environments. Find out how to increase iSeries performance, reduce disk I/O hits, and enhance utilization of your DASD and servers to better prepare for high availability.

This webinar will focus on the needs of SMB users who desire to achieve turn-key operations, simple administration and high-reliability with limited IT resources. Watch for more information about this Key Webinar in the September issue of INsights.

For more information about Key's September Webinar, go here.


Storage Tee-Off:.

Network-Storage Leaders in Customer Golf Event with Key, IBM and Brocade

On July 5, an event sponsored by IBM, Key and Brocade drew leaders in network storage to the Oak Creek Golf Course in Irvine, CA. The morning customer golf outing offered an opportunity for the sponsors to learn more about network storage challenges today from those in the middle of the fray.  Visit Key’s Special Events Gallery for photos of the Oak Creek Golf Course event by clicking here.
 
Oak Creek is a Tom Fazio-designed course, named after the beautiful creek that runs through it. Featuring tapered fairways, picturesque greens, beautiful lakes and bull-nose carved bunkers, it welcomes golfers of all skill levels.

Lief Maron, President of Key, observed, “Golf offers a relaxed and enjoyable way for us to learn with our partners, IBM and Brocade, what others are doing in the dynamic world of network storage.”
Ken Marhoefer, Storage Business Unit Executive, Western Area, IBM, added, “IBM was very pleased to see such a terrific turnout for this customer event.  The customers at the event clearly recognized the combined value of IBM's industry-leading storage products and Brocade's SAN technology combined with Key Information Systems’ integration and solution skills.  We look forward to participating in future customer events with our partners Brocade and Key Info Systems.”

Winners of the individual contests were: 
Rich Linn, American Honda Motor Co., for the Longest Drive Award
Bud Biggs, Sketchers, for the Closest to the Pin Award
 
Team winners were:

Winning Team with 10 under:
Jon Wehrli Brocade
Harris Hoang Direct TV
George Parrot Beckman Coulter

Tied for Second Place with 5 Under:
Bart Fernandes Key Information Systems
Christian Kim Brocade
Pete Elliot Key Information Systems
Rich Linn American Honda Motor Co.

Also Tied for Second Place with 5 Under:
Jim Johnson Young's Market
Dan Scruggs Young's Market
Rob Snyder Key Information Systems
JR McCarter Key Information Systems

Christian Kim, Brocade’s Regional Sales Manager, West, concluded, “Key Information Systems and IBM are two of Brocade’s foremost business partners.  Our customer appreciation event was an excellent way to thank many of our customers for their business in the past and an opportunity to forge new relationships for the future.  It was obvious our customers enjoyed themselves and derive true business value by leveraging technology solutions and expertise from industry leaders Brocade, IBM and Key Information Systems.


Interview with Louis-Philippe Lalonde of Q4bis:.

INsights talks with the Vice President of Marketing and Business Development at Key's New Advanced Alliance Partner

INsights: What does Q4bis provide?
Lalonde: The Q4bis BI Suite offers business managers and analysts, the primary users, a "single version of the truth" data repository, rapid implementation, and visibility into their data via the intuitive user interface and single-click report generation. 

INsights: What do you think of your new relationship with Key?
Lalonde: Key Information Systems represents a sophisticated systems integration strategic partner that understands the issues surrounding data management and with whom we can develop high-value solutions aimed at specific market segments with their data analysis needs.

INsights: What do you do for other ISVs?
Lalonde: Because we are an end-to-end BI solution, we’re a good solution for BI vendors. We provide other cube-building (back-end solutions) or cube-reading (front-end solutions) tools with the "missing link" for a complete BI offering for the mid-market.  Our solution is based on open standards which facilitates an environment for ISV cooperation.

INsights: What can you offer JD Edwards users?
Lalonde: We woke up one morning realizing we had installed Q4bis at over 100 JDE installations and asked ourselves if we had learned enough to make the process run quicker. The result was templates for a variety of JDE application areas, including Finance and Sales, which include 80 percent of the business logic embedded in the framework. The JDE Templates have reduced our install time for certain JDE apps from two weeks to a few days.

INsights: Anything brand new at Q4bis?
Lalonde: We just launched our new Mobile Dashboard product to push to our customers' mobile device of choice their favorite reports while they are on the road. No need to be in the office to do business intelligence any longer.

More on Q4bis at the Q4bis Website.


CRN Magazine Interviews Key Exec:.

Computer Reseller News Interviews Pete Elliot on Key's Webinar Success

On July 11, CRN magazine, which targets IT resellers among its readership, hosted a meeting at the publication's Irvine, CA, offices with Pete Elliot, Key's Director of Marketing, and Terry Boulais, Key's Director of Business Development. Senior Editor Joe Kovar interviewed Elliot and Boulais on Key’s very successful Webinar program. The monthly Webinar series under the Key University banner has covered a wide range of important IT topics. The Webinars are presented by experts in a very user-friendly, online, live audio and video format followed by live Q&A from the attendees. The interview gave CRN and Key the opportunity to share this communications approach with others in the channel.
 
Read the full article here.


Key Offer:.

Free Customer Requirements Review for a VMware Solution

  • Review your requirements with the technical and sales team
  • Receive a cost justification proposal for a VMware solution
  • Obtain an SOW for a VMware installation

For more information, contact Pete Elliot, Director of Marketing for Key, at 818.737.2804 or
pelliot@keyinfo.com.


Reader Feedback:.

We value your ideas and comments. Please send your thoughts to Pete Elliot at pelliot@keyinfo.com or call him at 1.818.737.2804.


Publisher:.

Key Information Systems is an IT systems integrator and solutions provider with specialization in corporate infrastructure, business continuity and storage.  An IBM Premier Business Partner and Microsoft Certified Partner, the company also represents IT vendors such as Brocade, Novell and VMware.  Key’s high availability and fault tolerant solutions are backed by a complete range of professional services including education, critical assessment, installation, maintenance and financing.  The company has been listed as one of Inc. magazine’s Fastest Growing Privately Held Companies in Los Angeles and has received Leadership, Beacon and Fast Track Awards for excellence from IBM.  Corporate headquarters are in Woodland Hills, CA, with additional offices in San Francisco and Newport Beach, CA, and Phoenix, AZ.  A Business Continuity Innovation Center is maintained at the Woodland Hills location.  For more information, contact Key Information Systems, 21700 Oxnard St., Suite 250, Woodland Hills, CA 91367, 877-442-3249, info@keyinfo.com.