links Q1 2008

I was quoted in CRN 3 different times this week!

In this article about Sony charging customers $50 to remove “Bloatware” from their systems:

Todd Swank, vice president of marketing at Northern Computer Technologies, a Burnsville, Minn.-based custom system builder, said he sees manufacturers who all the time ask his companies to add bloatware. “It must be effective,” he said. “Manufacturers pay to put it in there.”

Some vendors are way out of control with bloatware, Swank said. “They like the revenue opportunities,” he said. “But they don’t care about the user experience. It doesn’t show up on the bottom line.”

But for custom system builders, bloatware is a welcomed “feature” on name brand systems, Swank said. “One thing that differentiates systems builders is that we don’t load it,” he said.

Link To Article

In this article about DELL providing new Vista assessment tools to their customers:

Todd Swank, vice president of marketing at Nor-Tech, Burnsville, Minn., says Dell’s toolset is a reflection of the fact that larger companies are ready to migrate to Vista. “We’ve done internal assessments on migrating, and the fact that Dell is now offering tools and services indicates that larger businesses are taking a serious look at Vista,” he said.

“Microsoft is really getting behind having larger commercial accounts switch to Vista,” Swank said. “The transition in itself can be painful for some organizations, but once they’re up and running with Vista, they’re pretty happy.”

Link To Article

In this article about best selling monitors in the computer reseller channel:

In the cutthroat world of desktop display sales, margins for vendors and resellers are squeezed as vendors battle to provide the best features at the most aggressive price points. Todd Swank, director of marketing at Burnsville, Minn.-based system builder and solution provider Nor-Tech, bets onView- Sonic and NEC Display Solutions.

“They tend to really look at the overall market and help the channel find new opportunities,” Swank said. “That’s important [as] we really have to separate ourselves because the bigger players have the volume to compete in price structure.”

Link To Article