Posts tagged ‘solution providers’
Cloud Little Brother
by Diane Krakora, CEO
My older brother made me better. He was born two years before me and not only paved the way through our parents’ faulty expectations of curfews and perfect school attendance; he also motivated me to greatness. I was always trying to keep up – playing his sports (football, baseball, kick the can), stealing his books and listening to his music. I learned faster by following him around – and he continued to be pissed he wasn’t farther ahead than his annoying little sister. Maybe we’re unique because we’re both competitive, however there is evidence the second child develops more rapidly when they are close in age to their sibling.
Sitting here at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference, I’m starting to believe a similar phenomenon is happening with solution providers transitioning to the cloud. (more…)
In a cloudy world… does the network matter?
by Diane Krakora, CEO
In this rush to “everything as a service”, has the network – the highway to the cloud – gotten lost? We all KNOW we need routers, switches, hubs and security to access all the goodness the cloud can offer us. Does the quality of the network matter? (more…)
Increasing Ease-of-Doing-Business and Partner-Facing Staffing May Go Hand in Hand
by Beth Vanni, Vice President
Given the complexity of today’s channel programs, especially among larger vendors, partners are looking for resources (people, portals) to help navigate their way. Combine this dynamic with rapidly changing solution provider business models and we see a real need for vendor field reps to have a dedicated and responsive support system within their organizations to offload day-to-day program and transactional complexity in order to focus on critical activities such as business planning, and co-selling.
Despite the recent years of partner-facing staff streamlining and cut-backs, vendors who are invested in building their channel productivity are also willing to make the necessary high-touch investments in the staff necessary to properly profile, plan and provide local support to partners through the addition of inside sales staff and help desk functions. They are realizing that while EODB is a key initiative and partners want to eliminate as much complexity (read “cost”) as possible, in order to garner partner trust, loyalty and investment during major market transitions they have to provide high-touch people based support. Helping partners make a business model transition or invest more deeply in specialization or technical certifications requires trusting, local, hands-on relationships – and always has. The ‘next generation” partner account manager (substitute your title) requires a level of business savvy that can be better addressed by dedicated partner facing staff who are adept at anticipating business model changes, measuring loyalty, and navigating the strategic aspects of the relationship. (more…)
Leveraging Social Networks for P2P Collaboration – Are We There Yet?
by Beth Vanni, Vice President
Virtually all companies are now beginning to engage in some type of social media with their customers and their partners. Facebook and Twitter icons are familiar sights on corporate website homepages, as are links to corporate weblogs. In five short years, social media has become the rule rather than the exception, and conspicuous only by its absence in today’s highly collaborative environment. But for all the customer-facing social media activities, what are vendors doing to foster either Partner-to-Vendor (P2V) or Partner-to-Partner (P2P) collaboration and network building using this powerful medium? (more…)
The Cloud Comes with Many Financial Questions for Transitioning Solution Providers
by Sallie Martin, Consultant
There was a lot of discussion at the Baptie ChannelFocus conference surrounding the Cloud. A topic that recurred multiple times was the financial aspect of how the channel will be affected by this ‘new’ model. Many Solution Providers who haven’t already transitioned into the MSP model have several issues facing them as they look toward the future. The most glaring point is how to move to a recurring revenue model while trying to pay the bills based on traditional upfront payments. (more…)
Brand-Franchise Channel Partnerships: Who Do End-to-End Solutions REALLY Benefit?
by Diane Krakora, CEO
At this year’s HP America’s Partner Conference 2011, new CEO Leo Apotheker introduced a newly crystallized set of messaging focused around the ability of HPs broad portfolio to create a “seamless, secure, content-aware experience for an InstantON, connected world.” While certainly admirable, with the proliferation of exceptional products and suppliers from which customers can choose, it begs the question: Who really benefits from the sale of a single company’s end-to-end solution? (more…)
Vendors Say They Want to Empower Partners to Invest in Services, But What Do They REALLY Want?
With Service Delivery being where the margins and customer loyalty lock-down are, vendors are finding it difficult to promote autonomous services delivery for their solution providers.
by Beth Vanni, Vice President
It’s no surprise that vendors have considered increasing partner sales competency the #1 vendor priority for the last several years. Market penetration is essential for long-term growth, and well-connected self-sufficient channel partners make for strong allies. What is interesting, however, is that while vendors consider autonomy an asset in their channel partners and consistently indicate a goal of applying enablement resources to drive partners’ overall competency, they indicate just the opposite when it comes to services delivery. The results of our 2011 State of Partnering Study reveal that while solution providers are increasingly desirous of services delivery autonomy, vendors are increasingly focused on closer engagement through sharing tools, co-sale mentoring and co-delivery. (more…)
Can’t Live with ‘Em, Can’t Live Without ‘Em:
Vendor/Partner Cloud Engagement Models Emerge
by Beth Vanni, Vice President
With both vendors and channel partners jumping on the bandwagon to evolve their services sales and delivery models to reflect a more holistic support offering to the customer, cloud solutions continue to come into the limelight. And, despite the industry FUD about solution provider disintermediation in the cloud era, current research indicates vendors will continue their dependency on solution providers for customer management around cloud solutions.
The results of our 2011 State of Partnering Study reinforce the importance of close sales and support coordination between vendors and solution providers in promoting both public, private and hybrid cloud solutions in today’s market. With input from 100 unique vendors, this year’s study results indicate maturing cloud delivery models among the IT vendor community, and expectation for partner involvement are coming into focus. (more…)
Plan Your Work and Work your Plan
Does Vendor/Partner Business Planning Really Lead to Results?
by Beth Vanni, Vice President
If IT vendors and solution providers have learned anything from the turmoil of the past few years, it’s the importance of engaging in meaningful business planning – both individually and together. As signs of recovery come into focus, it’s imperative that both vendors and solution providers understand their mutual dependencies and be able to anticipate each other’s plans and resources to set the stage for future growth.
Our 2011 State of Partnering Study identifies business planning as a highly strategic activity vendors plan to continue to engage in this year. 87% of our 100 vendor respondents said they would continue business planning with their more valued partners and another 48% said they would expand business planning to their next tier of developing partners. They plan to accomplish two things: a). better anticipate their partners’ business model evolution and help them navigate and b). assist with partner profitability. (more…)
