Posts tagged ‘channel’
Getting Carried Away in the Channel
Kevin Rhone – Director, Client Services
I’ve been both engrossed and aghast over the past weeks by the posturing and just plain politicking going on in Washington over the financial future of our country. In a recent article by Maureen Dowd in the NY Times, she argued that we can never go back to the past, and cited as proof a study from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in which their research showed that since “a single photon or unit of light cannot exceed the speed of light”… so Einstein was right – the concept of time travel “back to a more civilized era” is just that, a whimsical concept best reserved for science fiction or the movies.
So if our politicians need to accept that we live in a new world and make plans for the future, it got me to thinking about how that applies to the ecosystem in the Channel, and specifically about the role of Service Providers/Carriers in the era of the Cloud. (more…)
When Building Partner Skills Sets, Don’t Short-change Marketing
by Beth Vanni, Vice President
The last two years of economic downturn has seen vendors hard-pressed to allocate their increasingly limited resources across diverse types of partner support. Some activities, such as marketing tools and support have taken a back seat to more skills-related investments including online training and technical certifications which, vendors assumed, would ensure a greater return on investment for both them and their partners.
While partner training is mission-critical to building a long-term foundation for success, it is equally important to ensure that partners are actively marketing their hard-won skills and clearly differentiating themselves in the market. (more…)
OPN Specialized: The First Step to a Value-Based Channel Program?
Beth Vanni – Director, Market Intelligence
Oracle has a lot to talk about these days – six new acquisitions completed or pending since the beginning of 2010, details about the Sun integration rolling-out, and their FY10 financial results which include a 20% increase in partner transactions year-over-year. The Redwood Shores giant is, no doubt, a global industry leader with a massive portfolio and influence to match.
But the news yesterday on the kick-off of their new OPN Specialized program was a tad less groundbreaking. Of course, Judson Althoff’s Worldwide Partner organization produced a very thorough, professional web event, with endorsements about the value of the channel to Oracle’s success and how critical partners’ investment in certifications is. Everyone chimed in — all four major executives, training people, product people, and partners themselves. The main message was that because of the breadth of the Oracle portfolio (10,000 products), it’s more critical than ever for partners to become specialized in their product or services expertise. Charles Phillip’s quote was “we don’t need a bunch of generalists.” (it’s on eChannelLine today) (more…)
Getting Back to Basics
By Sandra Glaser Cheek – Director, Client Services
Often when we work with clients on their channel communications strategies, our social media recommendations bring on a mountain of questions and concerns. There is a lot of apprehension around developing a social media strategy. Questions like getting executive buy-in, integration of internal teams that will engage partners in social technologies, which tools and platforms to use, etc., often come up. Not that these aren’t good questions – they are. But they really miss the point. I’d recommend borrowing a basic journalism approach and starting with the “Five W’s” (and one “H”) questions instead:
WHO are you trying to reach?
WHAT are your objectives, and what are you trying to accomplish?
WHEN and HOW is the best time and way to reach them?
WHERE do these people spend time online?
WHY do they care about what you have to say? What is the value that you bring to the table/conversation?
When formulating your channel social media strategy, what are some of the questions you think are important to start with?
