Happy 2005! As we enter this New Year the Core team is invigorated by the numerous opportunities that stand before us. IDC predicts a year of IT growth. Vertical specialization and SMB will be the focus of a large portion of the business. The channel will play an increasingly important role as the delivery of solutions and business value become key buying criteria.

Over the years, the Core team's mantra of "Move the Meter" came to mean "going beyond normal expectations" and creating incremental profitable revenue that satisfied even the most frugal CFO. Metrics for measuring critical success factors have been a key to our success. This year, as everyone's marketing and development budgets continue to be closely scrutinized; predicting and measuring the ROI of your activities is crucial. More than ever, this is where the Core Team can help you and your teams.

The partnerships we created last year, the team we built and the processes we have in place all drive the Core value of helping you create a more powerful and profitable channel business. We look forward to serving you in this new exciting year.

From the entire Core family we wish you a happy, healthy and prosperous 2005!

The Core Team

Since I've been around for a few years, I'm often asked to make predictions about the IT market at the beginning of every New Year. I've been through more IT cycles than I care to remember and the only thing I will predict here is that companies require IT to succeed — and the pace never seems to slow.

As you'll read in the story below, IDC predicts a very modest 6 percent growth in 2005, a slight improvement over the growth rate that was expected for 2004. This means the IT market will exceed $1 trillion in overall spending, delivering about $60 billion worth of net spending growth, according to IDC executives. The company expects, however, that growth in IT spending will continue to be "moderate" through 2008.

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IDC Forecasts Modest in 2005 as Business Moves Toward Dynamic IT

In making its annual predictions for the upcoming year, IDC said it expects worldwide IT spending to grow 6.1 percent for 2005, a year which will be marked by "enormous turbulence" and significant consolidation and realignment in several key sectors.

The 6.1 percent growth, a slight improvement over the 5 percent growth rate expected for 2004, means the IT market will exceed $1 trillion in overall spending, delivering about $60 billion worth of net spending growth, according to IDC executives. The company expects, however, that growth in IT spending will continue to be moderate through 2008.

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Because selling only products has become less profitable and, therefore, less appealing to resellers, the shift to a more service oriented and solutions oriented revenue model will continue to be the focus of SMB resellers in 2005. Resellers whose model was traditionally were product sales-based might now offer systems integration, solution bundling and application development services. The traditional model is now becoming a set of service, solution and/or vertical offerings as the model of choice in 2005.

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The powerful duo behind OgilvyOne Worldwide Routes to Market (RTM) – Channel Advantage workshops realize that Core Strategies' channel experience and considerable business acumen are an ideal fit for expanding OgilvyOne's successful program.

And with more than 400 workshops completed, OgilvyOne Worldwide Senior Partners Dhun Zwirble and John Skinner wouldn't hand the proverbial channel-ready solution torch to just anyone.

"Core Strategies channel experience is second to none," Skinner said. "We anticipate that their customers will leave these workshops with an actionable plan that tells them how they can measure success."

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With an eye toward focusing on its North American Enterprise Channel, Bell Micro turned to Core Strategies for assistance developing a strategy that will drive Enterprise business at the mega-distributor.

"We wanted to expand our presence in the North American Enterprise Channel and develop a richer value proposition for VARs and Solution Providers within this marketplace," said Phil Roussey, senior vp of marketing of the Enterprise Group. "We called on Core Strategies because of its long-standing experience in this marketplace."

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