Intel® Software Network Blogs » Intel SW Partner Program

Please help us better understand your needs and receive a $75 gift card.

Ajay Mungara (Intel) — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 19:35:26 +0000

About two years ago, ISN (Intel Software Network) made a strategic shift to become more transparent and shift control to you (user). At that time it was a BIG change for Intel (& I argue that it still is).

Imagine Intel engineers having their own blogs!!
Imagine letting you have direct conversations on our community!!
Imagine letting you have your own blog!!
Imagine publishing articles written by you!!
Oh well .. Imagine actually listening to you!!

In the past, nothing was said on the external website without going through multiple reviews including a legal review, let alone publishing something written by a external user without much scrutiny.We have changed that and we continue to break other barriers.

We really like to increase your participation on the community and make you feel that you own this community as much as we do. To build communities, we put "web 2.0" capabilities such as blogs/ videos / RSS / exciting contests, etc. on ISN. We also continue to push for transparency, giving up control, and getting you to participate on the community.

Are we successful at it? Our metrics says that we are consistently growing , and you continue to participate through your comments and discussions. But, honestly we really don't know if we are successful. And, we know for sure that we have a lot of work to do.

To help us better understand your needs, we’ve engaged OnSurvey, Inc., a third-party, independent market research firm. Our intention is to be completely transparent with this process so that you will be able to express your thoughts/opinions freely. We will also be reporting back to you on our findings later this summer.

OnSurvey will be conducting 2 online virtual focus groups in a few weeks. They will be tentatively held on Wednesday, July 30 (7 to 8 p.m. EST) and Wednesday, August 6 (7 to 8 p.m.).

As a token of our appreciation, each participant will receive a $75 gift certificate from Amazon.com. We will be selecting the focused participants based on the comments on this blog post answering ANY ONE of the following questions:

Why do you visit ISN? What ISN features you like/dislike?
Do you feel your voice is being heard by Intel? Yes/No & How/Why?
What other online communities you are actively participating in and why?

OnSurvey will be contacting individuals later in July with details. Space is limited so I encourage you to volunteer by leaving a comment on this post as soon as possible. Thank you and appreciate your continued participation on ISN.

Share Your Success - Your Software Product and the Intel® Software Partner Program

Jeffrey Kataoka (Intel) — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 20:42:36 +0000

As a way to promote the Intel Software Partner Program and our program members, we like to write success stories about how our program members used the benefits and resources of the program to successfully development innovative software for their regional market segment. When I hear of an interesting member success story, I usually hire a writer and we interview the program member and write about their software application and how the resources of the Intel Software Partner Program helped them to successfully bring their software to market. I really enjoy hearing the members talk about their software and the different program resources they used. Each software company has an interesting story to tell, but writing and publishing a success story can take several weeks as we do interviews, reviews and edits. So, that means we can only tell a few new success stories each quarter. I thought I'd create a little opportunity for more program members to tell their success stories to all the people around the world that view these blogs. So, from June 24 through July 11, 2008, I invite members of the Intel Software Partner Program to share their success stories on this blog. Tell us in 100 words or less about your recently developed software application, which Intel technology your software utilizes and which resource or benefit of the Intel Software Partner Program helped you successfully develop and take your software to market. Here's your opportunity to promote your software and tell us your success story. So, don't be shy. Tell us your story!

What do you need to make decisions about business solutions you buy?

James White (Intel) — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 03:33:24 +0000

In the few weeks since we launched Intel Business Exchange, we’ve received some good press and some accolades from the first set of vendors who have participated. I’m curious about what you think. For example, if you were looking for a security solution for your business, does the information here help you?

How about managing your business?

Intel BX Hits the Road

Susan Bravo (Intel) — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 23:59:42 +0000

Intel Business Exchange recently participated in the Tech Showcase at the Intel Premier IT Professional (IPIP) event in Columbus, OH. This event is one in a series of seminars focused on client and data center virtualization and security. We were there to continue to spread the word about our program and to have the chance to talk with IT folks about their curent business priorities. From my perspective the event was definitely worth the trip (for me and the IT attendees). First, there were about 200 attendees, small enough so everyone could get their questions answered, but large enough so that everyone had a chance to network with other IT professionals from their local area. Second, I had the opportunity to talk with a variety of people -- IT consultants, network administrators, tech specialists, etc. -- and the people I spoke to have some really positive feedback in terms of the possibilities for Intel BX, the usability of the website and Intel's venture into this space. Third, I thought the presentations were engaging, but also contained enough relevant details. For my personal learning from the seminar, I was particularly struck by not just the attendees' interest in virtualization, but by how many of them are already using virtualization in some form (I'd say more than 50% of the audience). Most of the day's talks were focused on virtualization, with the primary focus being on the advantages of client-side implementation. I'm curious as more companies begin to implement client-side virtualization what results are they seeing? Is the amount of IT support required dwindling (along with costs)? And for non-IT users of these newly virtualized environments what changes are you seeing to your end-user experience? There are two more events scheduled for later this month in Austin and Denver. We hope you'll be able to join us and if you do be sure to stop by and say hi to the Intel BX team.

Are we in your junk mail list?

Kerstin Monzel (Intel) — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 11:10:39 +0000

If you’re like me, you automatically delete newsletter mails or anything that looks like advertising. Are we in your junk mail list yet? So that of course has me in a conflicting situation – we have some great things to communicate to you – for example, did you know that we offer between 30 – 50% rebates on development systems? Or that we provide remote access to Intel systems, where you can test your application free of charge? If the answer is no, then you have not read our email communications that go out on a regular basis or we landed in your junk mail folder. Now, with the large number of mails we all receive, I also want to limit communication to the essential – what is it that our ISVs want to hear about – and what don’t you want to hear about? How frequently should we send you information? But most importantly, how do you want to be communicated with??

Opportunity to showcase your manageability applications

Ajay Mungara (Intel) — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 00:10:45 +0000

Josh Hilliker, Community Manager for Intel vPro Expert Center, is giving all the Manageability Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) a unique opportunity to showcase your applications to your prospective customers. Intel vPro Expert Center is a community where IT end user community hang out. I really hope that all of you take advantage of this opportunity to showcase all the innovative capabilities you have built in your applications using Intel Active Management Technology. You can start by expressing your interest to showcase your application by leaving a comment here or on Josh's blog post Remote Repair for vPro - Have a solution?

Looking forward to hearing from you. Let us show the IT end user community the innovations they can take advantage of.

Helping enable the SMB market

Susan Bravo (Intel) — Wed, 21 May 2008 17:22:50 +0000

As James White talks about in his recent post Intel is daring to try and dazzle the much sought after SMB market with the launch of Intel Business Exchange. I think this is exciting new territory for us as a company and for me personally. I am interested to watch this develop and be part of this effort for two reasons:

I think Intel actually can help provide business owners with information to find real solutions to help their business grow
This will afford all of us the chance to explore not just the technology available, but the real business challenges facing this market

So, let’s talk about business problems and new technology -- what new technology is going to prove most helpful to SMBs? Could it be ultra-portable devices like UMPCs and MIDs we are hearing more about lately? UMPCs are targeted at business or home users, while MIDs are traditionally targeted at consumers. With time-savings being a key to profitability, perhaps the value would lie in their ability to help SMBs achieve the “always-connected” dream. This is not a new dream, but one which could be made more feasible for companies that do not have dedicated IT departments.

Deciding to add one of these products to your technology arsenal or to make the switch to one will no doubt depend on the software applications available for these devices. The advantage of UMPCs and MIDs over something like a smartphone is that they don’t actually need custom applications. SMBs benefit from not having to train users on different apps or wait for new versions of their business software to be released for their mobile device. They can run the same program on their PC, UMPC or MID.

In an ideal world ISVs will still optimize and evolve their software to take full advantage of these new hardware platforms and provide their customers with the full benefits of mobility. This will require them to rethink mobility apps, i.e. not just MP3s and browsers, and to stretch the possibilities of their current business apps. Perhaps this is where Intel Business Exchange can help, bridging the gap between these two communities and providing a marketplace for SMBs to ask for and purchase these emerging technology solutions.

Remodeled Website Launches for the Intel® Software Partner Program

Jeffrey Kataoka (Intel) — Tue, 20 May 2008 00:49:44 +0000

On May 20, 2008, the Intel® Software Partner Program will launch a remodeled website. Based on member feedback, we decided late last year to make major changes to our program website and to many of the key program processes that our members use to engage in the Software Partner Program to develop or optimize new software for their target market areas and to go to market. Our objective for the website remodel and for the changes to key program processes was to make it:

- Easier to read and understand
- Easier to navigate
- Easier to take advantage of program resources
- Easier to speed your software development
- Easier to take your software to market

While I think our remodel effort to the website and program processes has made great progress toward our objectives, I know there are changes that we still want to make on future releases. Yet, in the final analysis, it is you, our members, who have to feel that we have been successful at improving our (actually your) website and the program processes.

I invite you to take a tour through the remodeled website when it launches. Try it out and let me know what you think. Tell me what you like and dislike. Give me your ideas, suggestions or questions. I want to hear from you and talk to you. Visit the remodeled website

Making the Software Connection. eHarmony?

Jeffrey Rott (Intel) — Tue, 13 May 2008 21:11:52 +0000

One of the things that I constantly ask myself is, "What do ISVs want from Intel?". The next question that follows is, "What is Intel able to provide to ISVs?". Just to clear things up, answers to the first question such as; big bags of money, extravagant vacations, unlimited supply of test systems and $2.00/gallon gas unfortunately get nixed as a result of the second question. Wow – I never actually thought that $2.00/gallon would be a GOOD thing.

Through our software partner program, ISPP, we took our best shot at delivering the "goods" to our software partners. We conducted surveys, held user groups – you get the picture – and wound up with a set of offerings to solve the reasonable wants of ISVs. On ISPP you can now get access to product roadmaps, discounts on development systems, marketing collateral and even the chance to sell your product on IBX. But something that we're hearing more and more of is that it would be of great value if Intel could find a way to help facilitate matchmaking within the ISV community. We dipped our toes in the matchmaking -water at GDC, bringing a few ISVs together, and the feedback was overwhelmingly positive.

So now the question is "What's the best way to facilitate the ISV connection?". Should we arrange ISV get-togethers at trade shows and events? Should we try to formalize a program where ISVs can list themselves as available and prospective mates can view their profile online, hoping for that perfect connection? Should we ignore the situation entirely and let ISVs figure things out for themselves? I'm leaning towards a combination of the first two, hoping that we're wise enough to recognize the power of the Intel-ISV ecosystem and pass on the third option.

Keep It Simple!

David Valdovinos (Intel) — Mon, 12 May 2008 03:53:59 +0000

These were more or less the words of wisdom that a well respected blog-vet offered as I was contemplating my initial post. Who am I? I started with Intel in 1984 as a software engineer and have since held a variety of technical, marketing, and program management roles. In my current role, I get to manage programs within the Intel Software Partner Program (ISPP) that help ISVs enable their SW for the latest Intel technologies such as client management (vpro), virtualization, mobility, and graphics – and also, amplify their sales with unique program marketing & sales benefits.

I cannot envision a more exciting time to be working in the technology industry, and especially, at Intel. Tick-tock, multi-core, low power, atom, larrabee, wimax, mids, 45nm are just a few of the potentially game changing strategies and technologies that Intel is driving today. However, none of these breakthroughs will make a big difference in the marketplace unless ISVs can effectively incorporate them into products that deliver real value and excitement to customers. This is the ‘simple’ premise behind ISPP: Make it easy for ISVs to align their products with the Intel roadmap and enjoy increased business success as a result.

In my past life as an engineer, I got a real kick in the pants from creating new SW and hearing feedback from customers about how cool our app was…or sometimes, wasn't! These days my ‘kick’ comes from driving our talented engineering, ISN developer community, and marketing teams to deliver enabling programs that help you and your company to capitalize on Intel's technology leadership. I’m looking forward to sharing my thoughts and ideas about SW enabling in future posts, but am even more eager to hear your feedback about how we can make ISPP work better. Simple enough?