Fade to Black:
Dark Forces Are Penetrating the Gray Market and Hoping to Suck You In

By TC Doyle
Director of Intelligence

Considering the strangers who offer me help daily via email, it’s a wonder I don’t sit all day long counting my overseas lottery winnings before helping relatives of slain despots transfer funds to my bank account while waiting in wild anticipation for my illegally obtained Cialis to kick in so I can really have some fun.

Truth is email is about as close to bogus as I get. Or at least I hope so. These days I wonder. Air Force Two, the plane that ferries the vice president around? An audit turned up counterfeit parts on that old jalopy. Really.

One IT company I know got a nasty phone call from a financial institution not too long ago. Seems the company’s IT systems weren’t operating properly and no one could fix the problem. After some investigating, it turns out the culprit was a bogus piece of hardware bought from a suspect source. The only legitimate part of the gear was the company’s logo on the bezel. The rest? Bogus.

As manufacturing, design and distribution have moved from mature trading zones with safeguards to protect intellectual property to immature zones lacking certain controls, counterfeiting has exploded in size and scope. According to the Alliance for Gray Market and Counterfeit Abatement, roughly one out of every 10 IT products sold in the U.S. is a fake. That adds up to as much as $100 million in lost revenue, the group says.

Click here to read entire article.

CHANNELS IN THE BROADEST SENSE

This Fall, members of the National Community Pharmacists Association will gather in Las Vegas for their annual meeting where they will discuss topics such as new federal regulations, ways to improve profitability and the latest in new drug therapy. On the closing night of the jam-packed, five-day event, there’s even a special encore presentation of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera for attendees at the Venetian Resort & Casio.

Okay, I can probably guess what you’re thinking: Phantom? "These guys are definitely not VARs!"

Well, not in the classic style no, but they are points of influence worth considering for a moment, nonetheless. As with accountants, web designers and other professionals whose work involves technology but whose careers are outside the classic IT industry, the members of NCPA are actually points of influence that you should consider, whether your products are used in that industry or not. For example, on the opening day of the group’s annual event, there is a day-long technology seminar for attendees. Sponsors? Well the list includes plenty of technology companies, include CarePoint Inc. (patient management systems), Health Business Systems (retail pharmacy management systems) and Omnisys (automated Medicare heath claims solutions). Most of these companies are trying to directly influence business owners at the event, much the way technology companies do at events for other professionals such as dentists, lawyers, etc. But a growing number are coming to grips with the fact that key professionals within various markets are not only decision makers, but decision influencers, too. And they not only influence customers, but peers, as well. It’s no wonder thus, that more vendors, be they ISVs, service providers, hardware makers, etc., realize that they must get closer to individual influencers within key industries.

Click here to read entire article.