Finally being freed from telephony providers who really don't even compete for your business but only keep an eye on each other to make sure they're charging a penny a minute less than their nearest competitor, VoIP has been sought since we all hooked up those terrible Internet telephones to our 28.8 dial-up lines.

David Strom of VARBusiness Magazine.

Opportunities here are driven by these factors:

Voice over IP will finally hit; DIY phone networks will become more prevalent; No progress on disaster; recovery planning with VoIP; MS Office 03 is driving collaboration tools.

Strom is impressed with the VoIP technology Vonage provides. That type of technology - and the opportunities for VARs to support such services - is definitely forthcoming (see:Vonage DigitalVoice: Internet Telephony Cleans Up Its Act ).

Real Time Apps And Analysis

The timeliness of data is an important factor in serving the needs of VAR customers and David gives some food for thought in figuring out how to provide such products and services:

Figure out what your customers doing are NOW; Just-in-time manufacturing requires real-time data; Real-time apps needs makes mass customization profitable; Intrusion prevention is a key issue.

Printing

Aside from selling network printers, more memory and the servers that spit the pages from one place to the next, Strom thinks that printing is an important thing to address with customers due to the following factors:

The fast first-page out is now a real metric; Color is a commodity these days; Ethernet attachments are now installed in many homes; Wireless printing is almost here; Digital cameras in the office are driving new sales and innovation.

In other words, the ubiquitous network laser printer and consumables are not the only factors in serving users with specialized printing needs.

Web Services

Finally, Strom looks at something that makes many shudder after the dot.com fallout. Web services are a viable source of revenue, it's just that those companies selling eggs online were barking up the wrong tree. To help the business market make better use of the web, things to keep in mind are that:

MS Office 03 now has adopted the XML religion; Open source is now embraced by Novell; Middleware and apps servers are still where the FUD and the profits lie; Business process integration is becoming more of a reality.

Performing business tasks over the web and setting up machines and databases to accomplish them is more the key here than an Internet sales model. Helping the individual customer get work done and increase productivity by customizing their business processes to take advantage of new and increased connectivity is where it's at.