July 22, 2008, 10:05 AM — Dell's great idea, which I wrote about yesterday, is to provide a Web 2.0 social networking site to its partner channel. Delivering social networking to the business world is a phenomenon whose time has come, and it seems to be on a roll. No sooner than I thought, "there should be a vendor-neutral site for all channel partners," I discovered one, called Partnerpedia.
The partner-to-partner portal, reviewed in more detail here, is meant to allow resellers of all stripes to collaborate on projects, share information, and hook up with vendors and OEMs to make new partnerships.
At first it may seem a little counter-intuitive that VARs and resellers, a fiercely competitive lot, would want to collaborate on projects, but the benefits become obvious when you consider the fact that not every VAR has the same level of expertise--and temporary partnerships forged to meet very specific client requirements could benefit everyone.
