Get To Know The Women Driving Channel Success

Hello, and welcome back to CRN's newsletter on the latest news and insights impacting the channel and technology industry over the past week.

In this edition, we take a look at CRN's 2023 Women of the Channel Awards, Dell Technologies' new employee return-to-office mandate, Amazon Web Services' new generative AI offerings and more.

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The 2023 Women Of The Channel Awards

This year, CRN is honoring over 1,500 women whose channel expertise and vision are deserving of recognition.

As part of the annual Women of the Channel Awards, CRN recognizes two select groups of standout leaders: The vendor and distributor Power 100 and The solution provider Power 80.

Vendors and distributors are arguably relying on the channel now more than ever. The incomparable women of the 2023 Power 100 have been working tirelessly to collaborate with customers and partners, all while working hard alongside their teams to beat out the competition.

The 2023 Power 80 Solution Providers include top leaders of women-owned businesses and in sales, marketing and strategy. These women exemplify what it takes to deliver innovative technology solutions based on the unique needs of their customers. They also know how to tap into the most crucial part of any solution provider organization: the customer relationship.

Congrats to all of the 2023 CRN Women of the Channel Awards honorees!

Dell Technologies Mandates Workers Return To Office

Eight months after CEO Michael Dell chided his fellow tech CEOs for relying on mandated in-office hours to foster collaboration, Dell Technologies is now ordering some workers back to the office at least three days per week, according to an internal memo CRN obtained.

"If you are counting on forced hours spent in a traditional office to create collaboration and provide a feeling of belonging within your organization, you're doing it wrong," Dell wrote in a LinkedIn post last September.

In the internal memo, Jeff Clarke, the company's vice chairman and co-chief operating officer, made clear that 100 percent remote work while living near a Dell Technologies office would no longer be permitted but also emphasized the company's desire to be a flexible employer.

"As soon as possible, we'd like more people to work in a hybrid model," Clarke said.

Read the full memo, and why one Dell partner is praising Dell's new hybrid back-to-work policy.

Related: 25 Tech Companies On Their Return-To-Office Plans (Read)

AWS' 6 Huge Generative AI Products, Partner Plans: Ruba Borno

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has huge plans in store to drive newly released artificial intelligence solutions via partners as AWS begins "democratizing access" to generative AI for customers across the globe, said AWS' worldwide channel chief, Ruba Borno.

"We're really excited about how AWS is now democratizing access to foundational models and generative AI for customers," Borno said in an interview with CRN. "The key outcomes we're helping customers with is giving them the flexibility to choose the way they want to build with generative AI."

Borno added, "Even though we're still in the early days of generative AI, partners should not delay in building the foundation of their generative AI offerings on AWS."

She explains AWS' most important generative AI offerings and channel initiatives that partners should be leveraging in the market today.

Related: AWS Marketplace Hits 330,000 Active Customers: Here's Why (Read)

More From CRN

Check out some of CRN's other best-read stories and CRNtv videos on channel-related news and trends over the past week:

• Google's Top 5 Execs Compensated $350 Million In 2022: Here's Who They Are (Read)
• AWS, Microsoft, Google’s Cloud Market Share Q1 2023 (Read)
• CRN In Depth: Hot Topics In Cybersecurity: Highlights From RSAC 2023 (Watch on CRNtv)

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