Networking and connectivity giant Cisco has announced the appointment of Oliver Tuszik as its new executive vice president of global sales.

Tuszik will join Cisco’s executive leadership team from April 27, formally replacing Gary Steele, whose departure was first announced by the firm back in February.

A long-time company veteran, Tuszik has spent more than a decade at Cisco and is currently president of its Europe. Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) business. He first joined as general manager of Germany before later spending five years leading global partner sales and route to market sales.

Prior to joining Cisco, he served as CEO of Computacenter, Germany - one of Cisco’s largest partners.

In a blog post, Cisco chairman and CEO Chuck Robbins said Tuszik brings a “global perspective and a proven track record of operational excellence” to his new role.

“Above all, his passion for our customers and partners and their success shines through in all that he does,” he added.

“He will work in partnership with Cisco’s Marketing, Product, and CX organizations to ensure we are building the most innovative products our customers need and help them unlock the power of Cisco’s technology and solutions to achieve their own outcomes.”

Tuszik replaces Gary Steele, who became president of go-to-market following Cisco’s acquisition of his company, Splunk. Prior to the takeover, he served as Splunk’s president and CEO.

Cisco first revealed news of Steele’s departure back in February, stating the seasoned tech executive would vacate the role on April 25 with a view to joining another company as CEO. Steele will now work with Tuszik to ensure a smooth transition, Cisco said.

“I’d like to once again thank Gary for his commitment and engagement during this time of transition,” Robbins added.

“He and Oliver will work closely together over the next few weeks to ensure continuity for our customers.

“I am confident Oliver will continue to drive success for our customers and partners, our people, and for Cisco, and I look forward to seeing all that he and the team will accomplish.

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The IT and technology industry continues to grow – Canalys estimates that IT sales in 2024 will have reached $4.94 trillion worldwide by the end of the year and that 73% of that total will have been delivered by partners. This signals a substantial market opportunity.

Cybersecurity continues to grow faster than the rest of the market, driven by compliance regulations and increased threats. At the same time, companies are increasingly looking at their cloud bills and IT costs, then looking at where they can cut vendors, consolidate projects, or otherwise reduce their spending. For channel partners looking at how they can support their own growth, this is a challenging market to sell in.

Looking back at the history of sales, selling has normally focused on products. The traditional model is to have a product to sell, identify potential customers, prepare your approach, and then contact them about the features and benefits.

This model was in place for the majority of the 20th Century. Selling based on features and benefits alone has been replaced with solution-led selling, however, Michael Bosworth’s book Solution Selling goes into the challenges that exist where sales cycles are very long and products are expensive, which is common in the technology industry. Since that book launched in 1995, the majority of IT sales activity has been solutions-led.

This approach is having less and less success over time, however. Buyers have embarked on an increasing amount of the research into their problems that might need solving – according to research by 6sense, 78% of prospects have already done the research and determined their solution requirements before they ever contact a sales person.

They are unlikely to change their decision process or reference framework, even if there might be other approaches that are more suitable. The opportunity to be a trusted advisor and provide guidance into what the best solution might be is gone when customers have already looked at the whole market and have their perceived ideal goals in mind. The company that prospects contact first wins the deal 84% of the time, too.

In this environment, old school selling, based on product benefits, is definitely out. But solution selling is also problematic, as you have no chance to reframe products or services to meet the prospect’s goals. Prospects have already done that work, and you are unlikely to change their mind if they are too far along in their selection process.

They may also discount your recommendations as they don’t feel your methodology fits with their thinking. Worse, you may just be making up the numbers in providing quotes for a project without much hope of clinching the deal in a profitable way.

So, what can channel companies do to avoid this doom and gloom scenario?

Adapting solution selling for 2025

The challenge here is not that solution selling is wrong – it still has the right ideas in place around focusing on customer pain points. Instead, we have to go even further in focusing on customer needs. Rather than looking at solutions to general problems, we have to understand the details of the prospect and their existing IT environment and what they are looking to achieve as their future state.

This involves looking at specific outcomes that are delivered to the prospect, rather than what a solution promises. Those outcomes might need to be delivered over a longer period of time which means your proposal could include multiple stages of a solution for example delivered over a 6 – 12 month period. This is often referred to as a ‘crawl, walk & run approach’ - in an outcomes-based model, this has to match exactly what the customer has in place.

Outcome-based selling takes the approach around ‘solution selling’ even further, so as to focus on the customer in more detail. Rather than looking at a business problem or pain point, the sales motion should focus on the customer’s specific IT environment and then build recommendations based on their situation right now.

Rather than looking at solutions that would fit general problems, outcome-based selling aims to fit those products, services and consultancy recommendations into that customer’s environment and demonstrate in advance how those recommendations achieve the right results.

Outcome-focused selling is the future

The challenge here is that it means sellers have to be even more focused on the value that they help customers to achieve. The benefit for the channel is that many companies are already doing this to some extent in working with their customers, particularly where they provide managed services. That market was worth $475 billion according to Canalys and grew 13% year on year.

To be successful in selling to prospects, channel companies need to move beyond solutions and look at outcomes for the customer. This approach looks directly at the changes and improvements that technology products and services can deliver, and shows those improvements to customers as part of the buying process in their environment.

Rather than dangling a solution in front of the customer without any guarantee that it will work, outcome-based selling takes all those potential challenges into account from the start. It aims to overcome objections and put the partner right at the front of the queue when a prospect is ready to buy.

By being the first company that a prospect turns to, this approach should ensure that selling is more successful and, over time, more profitable too.

Cloud storage provider Wasabi Technologies has announced the appointment of Jon Howes as its new senior vice president of global sales.

Howes steps into the role having served as the company’s vice president and general manager for the EMEA region since January 2023 and brings more than two decades’ leadership experience to the role.

As EMEA chief, Howes’ leadership is credited as being a key contributing factor to Wasabi achieving year over year annual recurring revenue growth of approximately 77% in the region.

His tenure also saw the firm establish key partnerships with prominent businesses such as Retelit, Bechtle, Exclusive Networks, and TD Synnex.

Prior to joining Wasabi, the seasoned veteran held senior sales and channel positions in EMEA for Juniper Networks, Infovista, and Oracle.

“Jon has built a very successful organization in EMEA, and we see the value in his exceptional leadership skills and his understanding of Wasabi's business as instrumental for our global sales initiatives,” said Marty Falaro, EVP and COO of Wasabi, in an announcement.

With Howes’ appointment, Wasabi said it is looking to build on global growth that has seen the company expand to serve more than 90,000 customers and 15,000 partners, with operations across more than 100 countries.

The firm has also established 14 storage regions, with further additions in the pipeline.

“I’m confident Jon will continue to elevate our global presence and look forward to seeing Wasabi grow under his leadership to solidify our position as the leader in cloud storage,” Falaro added.

In his new role, Howes will lead Wasabi’s global sales operations and direct a high-performance team to build on these recent successes. In EMEA, Kevin Dunn steps into Howes’ former role, having served as Wasabi’s country manager for the UK, Ireland, Nordics, and South Africa since 2022.

“I am eager to continue building upon Wasabi’s momentum on a global scale,” Howes said.

“The remarkable progress Wasabi has made since I joined is a testament to how much customers and partners value Wasabi’s offerings. I look forward to collaborating with the sales organization worldwide to drive further growth and identify new opportunities.”

The public sector continues to be a massive market for technology resellers in the UK, as national and local government organizations remain big consumers of office tech and related products. 

With a total shift to digitization looming – set against a backdrop of ever-tightening budgets – technology resellers play a vital role in ensuring public sector bodies get the right technology, for the right price. 

The UK public sector technology market continues to grow, spending £20.1 billion in the 2021-2022 financial year.  

So, why is the public sector spending so much on technology? There are several contributory factors in this current push. 

Rapid digital evolution

Technology spending is influenced by various factors, including government policies, strategic objectives, and budgetary considerations. 

While specific priorities may vary depending on the government's current focus and available resources, there are a few key areas that often receive priority spending on technology. 

Similarly, enhancing digital public services is a common priority for technology spending in the UK government. This includes improving user experiences, accessibility, and efficiency of online services provided to citizens, such as digital tax filing, online benefits applications, and government portals. 

Investments in digital platforms, service design, and user research are often prioritized to deliver better experiences. 

Cyber security and data protection

With the increasing importance of safeguarding sensitive data and protecting against growing cyber threats, investments in cyber security and data protection receive significant attention and funding. 

This includes, but is not limited to, strengthening the government's cyber security infrastructure, improving incident response capabilities, and promoting best practices in data protection across government departments. 

ICT Infrastructure improvements

The UK government places emphasis on maintaining and upgrading its information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure. 

This includes investments in network infrastructure, data centers, cloud computing, and connectivity to support efficient and secure digital operations across a range of government departments and divisions. 

Digital skills capabilities

Recognizing the importance of a skilled workforce to drive digital modernization, the UK government often prioritizes investments in developing digital skills and capabilities within the civil service. 

Digital skills training programs vary in terms of both size and area of focus. 

However, they typically involve programs aimed at the recruitment of digital specialists, as well as initiatives to upskill existing members of the workforce to accommodate for future requirements. 

Emerging technologies investment

The UK government has shown an interest in exploring and harnessing the potential of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, and the Internet of Things (IoT). 

Investments in research and development, pilots, and proofs of concept related to these technologies may receive priority spending to drive innovation and improve public services. 

We’re in the midst of a digital industrial revolution – and it has reached the public sector. Consequently, technology providers will be crucial in that process, but the government cannot rely on vendors alone. 

Not all vendors are equipped to meet the government’s demand directly, and so experienced technology resellers will play a vital role if we are to supply our public sector effectively with the best solutions at the right price.

In other words, the government doesn’t just need tech. It also needs guidance.

With AI, automation, cloud computing, networks, and everything else that can save the public millions (if not billions) by improving efficiency and effectiveness, tech providers need to recognize the opportunities and responsibilities of guiding the public sector through this evolution. 

In turn, we must recognize the value of tech resellers to our government. 

As a result of the abovementioned change, the public sector will likely become increasingly consolidated and integrated, focusing on doing more with less. And tech represents the most significant potential in that regard by far. 

Consequently, solution network providers and technology reseller partnerships will be key in ensuring the government receives the best rapid time-to-benefit solutions that can help them drive toward outcomes that will positively impact entire communities. 

Generative AI is the buzzword of the moment. From when it was launched in late 2022, ChatGPT reached 100 million monthly active users in just two months, making it the fastest-growing consumer internet app in history. 

Since then, technology giants - from Google to Adobe and Alibaba - have tapped into the market and rolled out their own chatbots, sparking much attention and debate across the globe. 

Advancements in AI and intelligent chatbots are not just impacting consumers, however. While it’s by no means a new phenomenon, AI is changing various areas of business across all industries.

A key area to look at is how it’s transforming the contact center: conversational AI is only continuing to get smarter and better at handling human interactions, helping to augment the role of those working in customer facing positions. 

By 2031, for example, Gartner predicts that AI chatbots and virtual assistants will handle 30% of interactions that would have otherwise been dealt with by a human agent. 

But where does the channel fit into this picture? There are lots of opportunities for smart channel organizations to benefit from AI and its impact on the contact center - and taking a forward-thinking approach is key. 

Training and managing AI

The generative AI market is expected to grow rapidly over the next five years, from $11.3 billion in 2023 to $51.8 billion by 2028. Vendors are introducing new AI capabilities into their contact center solutions at a rapid pace, helping end-user organizations to improve customer and employee experiences across the board. 

However, chatbots are only as good as the data behind them, and this data needs to come from somewhere. Therein lies the opportunity for the channel. As more organizations seek out intelligent, AI-powered solutions, we must ensure the training and development work that lies behind the scenes is prioritized. 

Training and managing AI technology is becoming paramount, and channel organizations have both the tools and skill sets to use this to their advantage . 

That’s why smart channel partners are asking the question of who is responsible for feeding and training the chatbots. Is that an existing role with their own organization that needs to be upskilled, for example? Or are we actually looking at the creation of new roles and positions? 

There is also the question of analytics. 

Who is going to check that chatbots and AI are working as well as human interactions? Channel partners can take this in their stride and look to offer advanced training and management capabilities that will augment the role of customer service employees.

Moving towards managed services

A number of components are needed to ensure AI chatbots are able to deliver an excellent customer experience. To ensure success, there is not only a need to understand AI from a technical standpoint, but also what constitutes an optimal customer journey. 

As a result, a range of different capabilities are required in the development of AI, skills that can tap into both the technical and human interaction perspectives. 

Amongst channel partners, there is a wide ecosystem of capabilities to help improve the potential of intelligent AI for customer service within end-user organizations.  

Moving towards an ecosystem model takes the pressure off an organization when it comes to resourcing.

If done correctly, this could be an additional revenue source, providing the channel with the ability to wrap their capabilities into a full managed service contract focused on helping organizations set up, manage and analyze the success of their chatbot functionality.  

Ensuring that cyber security is a key focus when working with managed services providers will ensure compliance. 

The channel has seen growing investment in cyber security - a recent Canalys report highlights that just under 91% of sales in the third quarter for the worldwide cyber security market came from the channel, with channel sales growing at a faster rate than direct sales. 

Even with the most robust technology, an organization is only as secure as the people operating the technology.  In many cases the problem is still at the human layer: a lot of people don’t know how to protect themselves. 

Making security easier to understand, especially as the threat landscape constantly evolves, should be a top priority for all vendors and  channel partners.  

The (ISC)2 2022 Cyber security workforce study claims there is a gap of 3.4 million people in the cyber security workforce. 

In addition to upskilling employees, managed security services providers (MSSPs) and global system integrators (SIs) can serve a critical role in providing the technologies and skills within the channel, therefore, addressing the ongoing global cyber security skills shortage.

Looking to the future 

There is an opportunity within the channel to provide a fully managed service contract, centered around setting up, managing, providing skills and support to ensure the success of the chatbot functionality in the era of AI.

Is this channel operations as some people might know it? Perhaps not, but the best channel operators have always been forward-thinking. 

As AI advances rapidly, it’s important that the channel evolves too, not doing what was successful five years ago and praying that it still works. 

In contrast to the difficulties seen in some areas of the technology industry, the cybersecurity sector continues to grow. 

Research from Canalys earlier this year predicted that global cyber security spending is expected to increase by 13% in 2023, with total spending reaching over $223 billion.  

As such, it will remain “a key growth sector for channel partners” – an important point, given that “more than 90% of total cyber security product and services spending will go through channel partners in 2023.”

The driving factors behind these trends are well understood. The growing volume, sophistication, and success of cyber attacks are continuing to heap pressure on organizations that are largely or wholly dependent on their technology infrastructure to operate.

Add to that the complexity of modern tech strategies, and threat actors are seeing opportunities everywhere – and acting on them. The risks have become so acute that organizations have been forced to respond.

So, while the cyber security industry as a whole can retain a positive outlook, economic pressures are having an impact on corporate decision-making and investment priorities. The situation puts many organizations in a difficult position, according to Canalys. 

“Organizations are already struggling to deal with current threat levels and cannot afford to cut back on spending as it will leave them even more vulnerable. Instead, they will need to work more closely with channel partners to make smarter investments.”

With all of this in mind, where are we heading, and what other issues are likely to influence the industry agenda going forward during the remainder of 2023?

Narrowing margins

Organizations across the channel ecosystem are currently seeing product-related profit margins squeezed as customers revise their spending plans or drive a harder bargain. This trend is likely to continue as procurement teams keep a close eye on macroeconomic performance, the prospect of interest rate cuts, and a return to more healthy growth.

At the same time, many customers are increasing their dependency on SaaS applications and the adoption of cloud-based infrastructure and services. This trend presents a challenge for providers of complex enterprise solutions such as SIEM, where channel partners play a major role in the sales process despite low margins being driven by customers and alternative routes to market like Cloud Marketplaces. 

In these circumstances, it is incumbent on vendors to ensure their partners can maximize revenue and value as part of a mutually beneficial relationship.

Security technology integration is becoming key

There’s no doubt that the cyber security landscape is becoming more complex and challenging all the time. In practical terms, many organizations find it increasingly difficult to understand and act on the sheer volume of alerts their systems create. 

Without better clarity, however, fast and accurate decision-making becomes a real challenge, especially when a security incident is developing. 

Part of the problem here is that the typical SOC operates a range of disparate monitoring tools, many with very specific roles and operating without effective integration with other systems. As a result, open vendor technologies are growing in popularity as organizations seek to deliver the interoperability that can close security blind spots and help drive effective decision-making.

Dealing with the data deluge

Given the reach and capabilities of modern technologies, security teams everywhere are faced with a data deluge as their systems gather and retain information in ever-increasing volumes. Addressing the opportunities and risks this situation presents isn’t just a matter of adding more human resources to the mix – for many organizations, the situation has already progressed beyond that possibility.

In fact, the only practical way to analyze and act on all the cyber security data being collected in the typical enterprise is to apply AI and machine learning systems at cloud scale. 

At the same time, this can go some way towards addressing the widespread cyber security skills gap that is preventing teams from finding the talent they need.

The rise of XaaS

Collectively, these trends are driving growth for channel organizations that can deliver on the anything as a service or XaaS model. In this context, outcomes take precedence over technology, with Managed Detect and Respond (MDR) services offering significant revenue opportunities to partners or suppliers that can successfully align technology with human expertise to deliver a defined outcome. 

Measured against targeted KPIs, such as Mean Time to Respond or incident detection rates, this approach gives organizations the ability to focus on improving cyber security performance without getting bogged down in tech procurement.

This emerging channel model will also encourage established MSPs to broaden their service-led capabilities and look for ways to deliver solutions that meet the needs of today’s technology and cyber security leaders. 

And herein lies an important final point: despite current economic difficulties, there are significant opportunities for software vendors and their partners to create compelling and effective solutions to meet the varied risks customers face on a daily basis.

In recent years there have been several significant developments in the IT sales channel, driven by technological advancements and changing customer expectations. 

Digital transformation, cyber security, and hybrid cloud adoption have given organizations a number of complex challenges to contend with, providing market opportunities for channel partners to deliver solutions to support these trends and help customers navigate the complexities of adopting new technologies.   

The channel must now consider how resellers can grow their business on the back of technologies that solve industry challenges and provide clients with the keys to success. 

Market trends and opportunities 

Digital transformation is driving significant change in the IT landscape, with organizations looking for partners who can help them navigate the adoption of new technology. In addition, it is fundamentally changing the way businesses operate, and channel partners need to embrace this change in order to remain competitive.  

This can include adopting new business models, investing in digital marketing and sales and leveraging cloud-based technologies. 

A major trend and opportunity for the channel is the growing importance of the cloud. Cloud computing is responsible for substantial transformation in the B2B sales space, with many vendors and resellers focusing on delivering cloud-based solutions to end-users. 

This includes a shift towards subscription-based pricing models and a greater emphasis on software-as-a-service (SaaS) offerings. As more organizations adopt hybrid cloud environments, they are grappling with data protection issues and the need to manage data across multiple environments. 

Similarly, with a marked rise in cyber threats, organizations are increasingly investing in solutions to protect their systems and data. This represents a significant market opportunity for channel sales partners who can provide cyber security solutions and services. 

Where the channel is headed

With the rise of digital transformation, many IT sales channels are focusing on digital channels to engage with customers. This includes online marketplaces, social media, and other digital platforms. 

By focusing on customer needs, channel partners can build long-term relationships and establish themselves as trusted advisors. Overall, the channel sales landscape is headed towards a more customer-centric and digitally-enabled future, with a greater emphasis on collaboration and building long-term partnerships between vendors, resellers, and end-users. 

Collaboration will be key to success. By fostering strong relationships with vendors and other partners, channel partners can access new technologies, enter new markets, and drive growth for their business.  

With vendors and resellers recognizing the importance of placing the customer at the center of the sales process, this fosters a more consultative approach to selling, with a focus on providing value-added services and solutions that meet the specific needs of the client. 

This delivers a more personalized customer experience, including offering self-service options, personalized recommendations, and easy-to-use interfaces. 

In turn, customers are also looking for more personalized and convenient experiences, which is driving IT sales channels to adopt new technologies and approaches.  

Competitive pressure is intensifying in the IT industry, and sales channels need to differentiate themselves by offering innovative solutions and exceptional customer experiences. As mentioned previously, vendors and resellers are moving towards more collaborative and mutually beneficial partnerships, rather than transactional relationships. 

This involves building deeper, long-term relationships with clients based on trust, transparency, and shared goals. 

In an increasingly competitive marketplace, IT sales channels need to find ways to operate more efficiently and effectively, which is driving the adoption of automation and analytics tools. Data analytics is becoming increasingly important in the channel sales space, with vendors and resellers leveraging data to better understand customer behavior and optimize their sales processes. 

By utilizing data analytics, IT sales channels can track customer behavior, identify trends, and make informed decisions. 

Another notable development is the adoption of artificial intelligence(AI)  and automation. Many IT sales channels are utilizing AI and automation to enhance the sales process. This includes the use of chatbots, predictive analytics, and other automated tools to help sales teams identify potential customers and close deals more efficiently. 

The keys to success

 As the technology industry is constantly evolving, it is important for channel partners to stay up-to-date with the latest trends and developments. This can include attending industry events, subscribing to industry publications, and participating in online forums and communities. 

To provide effective solutions to customers, channel partners need to build expertise in key technologies such as cyber security, hybrid cloud, and digital transformation.  

To differentiate themselves from competitors, channel partners can offer value-added services such as consulting, training, and support. These services can help customers to maximize the value of their technology investments and provide an additional revenue stream for channel partners. 

In today's digital age, it is important for channel partners to have a strong online presence. In doing this, channel partners can increase their visibility and attract new customers. Resellers can also build a strong offline presence, such as meeting their clients, and inviting them to events and dinners. 

Vendor support is, naturally, a vital factor for channel success. By building strong partnerships with technology vendors, channel partners can benefit from marketing support, channel management tools, incentives and rewards, joint business planning, and the provision of other resources to help the channel build and demonstrate expertise to customers and grow their business. 

Training and development is also critical for success in the channel. This can include providing sales and technical training to employees, offering certification programmes, and partnering with vendors to access training resources. By investing in the development of their employees, channel partners can build a skilled workforce that is better equipped to meet the needs of their customers.  

Ultimately, channel success comes down to delivering value. By focusing on solving their problems and meeting their needs, channel partners can build long-lasting relationships with their customers and drive growth for their business.

Building and maintaining successful channel relationships is a crucial facet of this industry. This relies heavily on listening to the needs and business priorities of the partners and their customers, to ensure vendors are offering the right solutions. 

Vendors have quickly embraced changing technology to accommodate consumer demands and showcase their value-add beyond providing a product or solution. 

Now, vendors' tactics are being further shaped by external factors like the cost-of-living crisis, Brexit, market headwinds, and the evolving future of work.

Channel partners are depended on now more than ever, as vendors look to balance new demands and the wider landscape whilst ensuring their model remains profitable.

To stay competitive, vendors must look at evolving areas where they can add greater value to their partners and set them apart from other competitors in the industry. 

Driving sustainability strategies forward

As customers become more aware of the importance of sustainability from a corporate perspective, they will increasingly evaluate what internal and external factors contribute to building a sustainable practice, and at what cost. 

Indeed, businesses are increasingly being scored on their integration of corporate social responsibility.

As a result, many customers are re-evaluating their expenditures and investing in SaaS technology to reduce or eliminate on-premises hardware and thereby lower their environmental impact.

Channel partners who can help their customers on this sustainability journey will be most successful. Customers will look for partners who can provide expertise and solutions that align with their sustainability goals. 

By providing support and guidance on reducing environmental impact and embracing sustainable practices, channel partners can not only build long-lasting relationships, but support driving their sustainability strategy forward.

 Building strong relationships 

Relationships have always been the backbone of the channel ecosystem, as ultimately, people buy from people. The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on how channel partners maintained existing relationships and built new ones in a virtual-first world. 

Here digital communication technologies were utilized to facilitate this, and many have continued to rely on only these solutions to maintain relationships.

However, while remote work has supported business continuity, face-to-face interaction remains critical, particularly as customers drive the need for increased physical interaction. 

For channel partners, successfully balancing building relationships in both the physical and virtual worlds will be critical to success.

Understanding the customer journey

Every sales cycle is different and we see very different engagement requirements depending on segment size. Smaller deals will generally require just one touchpoint or point of contact, while larger deals involve multiple stakeholders. 

With new job titles emerging, such as digital transformation officers, customers are increasingly interacting with multiple layers of the business to get the right products for their needs.

Channel partners need to deepen their understanding of the customer, particularly for larger deals, to ensure they provide tailored solutions to meet the needs of each stakeholder. 

By mapping out the customer journey and identifying who is involved in each touchpoint, channel partners can tailor their messaging and ensure that all stakeholders receive consistent information. This will help channel partners build stronger relationships with customers and create durable channel partnerships.

Channel partners should look to prioritize building strong relationships with a mix of virtual and in-person communication, supporting customers' growing emphasis on sustainability, and deepening their understanding of the customers to position themselves for success. 

As both vendors and channel partners pivoted to overcome the strain on relationships that the pandemic caused, it is integral for the future of the channel that businesses maintain a clear path of communication to overcome current macroeconomic circumstances that affect businesses today.

With a slew of tech giants announcing layoffs, the mood of the IT services market is cautious. Big investments and expansion plans are likely to be on hold, at least in the short term. 

But while it’s easy to see all of the negative headlines and fear the worst, it’s also important to think long term. There are positive predictions for the year. Gartner has predicted that the IT security market will grow over 11% in 2023, and it’s perhaps a mixed blessing that cyber criminals are keeping the security market buoyant. 

Rather than panic, the channel should prepare, and focus on communicating the value of security to grow this part of their business.

Cultivating a resilient ecosystem

Key to creating a compelling security offering is building an ecosystem - working with the right vendors with solutions that work together and can create sales opportunities. For example, email security and endpoint security are essentials that every customer needs, but these can be complemented with security training for users. 

Email protection and user awareness together can protect a business far better than just email protection, but businesses will often only demand the first. It’s natural for them to assume that a technical solution will fix what they see as a technical problem. It may take time to educate users, but having the right solution will make this much easier.

Similarly, protection is vital, but there needs to be a backup plan - literally. Data loss prevention is a critical addition to this suite of solutions that can be added later if the customer is not immediately convinced of its necessity.

The key is to create a jigsaw that can be slotted together all at once or completed over time, rather than a cacophony of overlapping products. Providers should be looking to create an integrated suite of vendors and solutions that will segue into complementary sales.

Channel partners should also embrace more of the solutions within existing vendor portfolios. Vendors have done a lot of the hard work in creating solutions where a need exists, and this should be taken advantage of. Just because a vendor is known for its network firewalls, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t offer worthwhile security solutions outside of this niche.

Build a foundation and find areas for growth

It can be tempting to focus on the here and now, but building resilience means creating a foundation for future growth. It’s natural to say that you should repair the roof while the sun is shining, but that doesn’t mean the roof shouldn’t be repaired during inclement weather.

Even in straitened times it’s necessary to invest in the right training. This is true for sales people, it’s vital that they know exactly what they are selling, but also engineers. 

Time needs to be allocated for learning and development, whether that’s gaining certification or learning through communities. 

Staying resilient means customers have faith in the partner they work with. Firms will also be using this time to consider how they are spending their money and thinking about value.

But need will be a consideration, and so partners should be proactive in undertaking account reviews to accommodate businesses' evolving needs.

Annual refresh cycles are a thing of the past with as-a-service products, and there’s no need to wait a year to approach a customer and suggest a review if things have changed. By working with vendors that provide strong analytics and dashboard features, insights can not only preempt issues, but be used to upsell.

Partnerships and customer success 

Not everything offered by a partner has to be delivered directly. By working with businesses offering complementary solutions then it’s possible to offer a more comprehensive service. This can be a stopgap until a service is brought in-house. 

Either way, the point is to let the customer know we are a one-stop shop and can cover all their needs. 

That’s important, as one of the key parts of resilience is understanding how important current customers are. We all know the old adage that winning a new customer costs ten times as much as retaining an existing one. Resilience means a sales team has to treat every customer as a potential lifetime partner and show that they are not forgotten once sold to. 

Ultimately, resilience means looking at where your business is healthiest and making sure that everything possible is done to make sure this aspect is supported, through sales, customer service, employee education and the right product suite.  

It may also be the right time to think about who your customers are - are you a generalist, or are you serving a niche market? 

Targeting an audience, rather than limiting options for future sales, can increase resilience - there are benefits of more targeted sales material, a consolidated product suite, even better word of mouth as businesses talk to similar businesses.

Resilience is not a case of battening down the hatches and waiting the bad times out, it means being proactive. It means keeping up with changes that will keep a business going through the worst of times, and being prepared to take advantage of better times. 

Most of all, it means looking to the long term as well as making short-term decisions - ”duck and cover” will only work for so long.

Multi-cloud data management specialist Veritas has revamped its Veritas Partner Force program to include improved incentives and rewards for cloud-based deals.

Launched to channel partners last month for the fiscal year 2024 (FY24), the refresh also features a simplified transaction process, as well as brand-new training and accreditation programs.

The company said the changes have been designed to help accelerate partners’ transition to the cloud and drive growth with secure cloud data management solutions. 

According to Veritas’ own research, 43% of UK businesses currently do not have complete visibility into data stored in cloud environments. 

“As more businesses in the UK embrace the cloud, we recognize the need to support our partners in delivering a seamless transition for our customers,” said Oliver Norman, VP of channels and alliances at Veritas.

“To this end, we are simplifying our channel platform processes, enabling our partners to focus on their core strengths of providing exceptional customer service. That’s why the FY24 program will be a game-changer for us.”

Veritas said this latest iteration of its program will support the company in achieving its key primary channel goals - including delivering growth on its secure cloud data management platform Veritas Alta. 

The firm will assist and incentivize partners to take advantage of the growing cloud market, providing new training, accreditation, and rewards. 

Partners will also now have a single comprehensive target to achieve across new business and renewals, as well as software, services, and appliances, to help meet tiering requirements.

Veritas will work with partners on demand generation activities to attract net new customers, with improved rewards for bringing new customers on board, as well as reward those that help existing customers apply the platform to new use cases.

It said there are also plans to launch new initiatives across FY24 as it looks to further improve the resources available to two-tier channel and managed service providers.

Bob Olwig, executive vice president of global partner alliances at World Wide Technology, praised Veritas’ innovation and reliability in driving the pair’s strategic relationship. 

“This year’s Veritas Partner Force program makes it easier for us to learn about the exciting new products that Veritas is delivering, easier for us to sell them, and easier for us to earn rewards along the way,” he said.

“Our customers are facing new and more complicated cloud data management challenges, and Veritas gives us the solutions we need to answer those challenges with a channel wrapper that provides everything we need to be successful.”

Unified secure access edge (SASE) and SD-WAN solutions provider Aryaka has cut the ribbon on IGNYTE, a new reseller initiative that sits within its Accelerate Global Partner Program. 

The program has been designed to facilitate between 25-35% margins on each partner deal, as well as provide discounts and sales and marketing support that focuses on pipeline creation.

In an announcement, Aryaka said it’s aiming to “reignite” its partnerships with value-added resellers (VARs) and systems integrators around the world.

This focus will be especially strong across EMEA, where the firm has key relationships with businesses such as Deutsche Telekom and CDW.

“IGNYTE enables resellers to offer market-leading unified SASE solutions quickly through our ‘as a service’ model,” said Craig Patterson, senior vice president of global channels. 

“We offer competitive margins and low risk with no upfront investment or revenue commitments. Plus, we offer white-label and co-management options.”

Headquartered in San Mateo, California, Aryaka specializes in fully managed SD-WAN and unified SASE solutions, claiming to offer flexible architecture and all-in-one services to help companies of any size modernize their business.

The firm has been making moves to strengthen its channel activity over the last 18 months.

Back in January 2022, it launched the Aryaka Accelerate Global Partner Program, which unified its partner-led go-to-market strategy under a single framework.

At the time, the company said its new streamlined initiative would help partners find expanded revenue opportunities through its all-in-one SD-WAN and SASE solutions.

In January 2023, Aryaka announced the appointment of Jon Selway as its new vice president of channel sales for EMEA. The seasoned channel pro now leads the new reseller initiative across the region as part of the wider Accelerate program.

“We’re excited to introduce IGNYTE to our partner community,” Selway said. “Our new SD-WAN and SASE offerings tailored to small and midmarket enterprises are aligned with our partners’ go-to-market models. And our free services promotion will help IGNYTE partners capture market share.”

Last month, Aryaka unveiled a revamped enterprise managed service experience for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), promising to deliver high-performing and easy-to-use solutions starting at less than $150 per site.

Cloud marketplace provider Pax8 has announced the appointment of software as a service (SaaS) expert David Powell as its new vice president of sales strategy. 

Reporting to Jared Pangretic, the firm’s SVP of sales for the Americas, Powell will lead sales strategy efforts to help drive growth and revenue, with a key focus on helping MSPs to strengthen their cyber security offerings. 

In an announcement, Pax8 said the hire is part of its commitment to helping MSPs expand their cyber security strategies in a rapidly growing security environment. 

“We are thrilled to have someone of David's caliber join Pax8 during this significant period of our company's growth,” Pangretic said. 

“David's passion for the channel community is evident in his efforts to empower MSPs and help them succeed in a constantly evolving market. 

“His extensive network and deep understanding of the MSP landscape have earned him a reputation as a trusted advisor and thought leader in the industry.”

Powell has spent more than 26 years in the industry, accumulating deep experience in SaaS, as well as across account management, security, sales and marketing, channel strategy, and business acquisitions and development.

He joins Pax8 from Evo Security, where he was chief revenue officer for the identity and access management (IAM) platform provider. 

Prior to that, he was president of employee productivity software specialist Prodoscore, and has also served as SVP of growth at ConnectWise.

Powell has also had a notable impact at various SaaS businesses, including Logic Monitor, which went on to be acquired by Vista Equity Partners, and Perch Cybersecurity, which was snapped up by ConnectWise. 

In total, he has been a part of three successful exits and seven acquisitions during his career to date.

Pax8 chief commerce officer Nick Heddy said this track record will “undoubtedly prove invaluable” to the company as it looks to drive further growth. 

“We are particularly excited about his amazing work and contributions in the MSP realm, and we look forward to seeing his contributions drive our partners’ continued success," he said.

Commenting on his new role, Powell said his aim is to help MSPs of all scales “navigate the complex landscape of cyber security threats”.

“As the prevalence of these threats is not diminishing, but instead anticipated to continue expanding and intensifying over time, my aim, in tandem with Pax8's mission of fostering MSP achievement, is to help MSPs implement strong and all-encompassing cyber security solutions that ensure the protection of both their organization and their clients," he said.

Digital automation and energy management specialist Schneider Electric has launched its first Ecommerce Partner Program to support overall growth and collaboration for partners.

The new initiative provides access to an e-commerce transformation and activation manager, a dedicated Schneider Electric specialist to help with strategy development, alongside access to the latest industry updates, news, and events. 

There’s also a range of comprehensive training courses on offer, covering topics such as company, product, e-commerce, and sustainability, which Schneider said will help partners keep ahead of the competition. 

Additionally, the program features a range of compensation options. These include marketing funds, rebates, and sell-out initiatives to help partners make the most of their e-commerce investments. 

“The mission of our partner program has become clearer,” said David Terry, vice president of IT channels, Europe at Schneider Electric. 

“For the first time, we are offering our e-commerce partners a program which is unique and innovative that sets it apart from its competitors.”

He highlighted the initiative’s comprehensive suite of tools and resources aimed at helping partners “succeed in the e-commerce space”.

“From marketing support to technical assistance, the program offers a wide range of services to ensure partners have the best experience possible,” he added. 

“The program also offers exclusive discounts and promotions to help partners maximize their profits. 

“With its comprehensive features and the ability to customize the program to fit the needs of each partner, the Ecommerce Partner Program is truly ahead of its competitors.”

The move follows Schneider’s 2022 revamp of the mySchneider IT Partner Program, which saw the company overhaul its structure in response to feedback from its partner community. 

The refreshed initiative introduced a simplified and more streamlined framework that features specializations for key sectors – including data centers, software, and services – with the aim of catering to more specializations over time.

Back then, Rob McKernan, SVP of Schneider Electric Europe’s Secure Power division, highlighted the importance of strengthening relationships as one of the most effective ways to drive growth.

“By listening to our partners and designing the program to accommodate both new market trends and changing business models, we can help them to fast-track new sales opportunities and build the partnerships of the future,” he said.  

Dell has announced the appointment of Steve Young as its new senior vice president and general manager of its UK business. 

A long-time figure at the company, Young has spent more than 20 years at Dell, starting as a senior sales executive at EMC in 2001. 

In his capacity as company director, he is responsible for Dell’s UK business, client satisfaction, and employee engagement.

In an announcement, the tech giant said Young will continue working to position the company as “the partner of choice” for partners looking to transform their business.

“It is an exciting time as organizations accelerate their digital transformation plans and build their digital futures,” Young said. 

“Having worked at Dell for over 20 years helping customers transform their businesses, I am thrilled to lead the UK through its next phase of innovation.” 

Young’s career to date includes managing the EMEA Dell Technologies business, driving the firm’s full portfolio of solutions with the largest customer accounts throughout the region. 

Most recently, the Dell veteran lead its global cloud partnerships with hyperscalers, working to solidify the company’s position in the multicloud market.

In his new role as SVP and general manager for the UK, Young will focus on building relationships, solutions, and go-to-market strategy with public cloud providers, data center providers, customers, and partners. 

Dell says the aim is to drive its storage and data protection software and services presence in the public cloud marketplace.

The appointment follows the release of Dell’s APEX Data Services in the UK back in January - a move designed to help UK channel partners expand their operations into new geographies, as well as gain better control over storage costs.

“Our deep partner and ecosystem connections, combined with our talented team and proven innovation, mean that customers trust us to help them achieve their goals, solve problems and seize opportunities,” Young added. 

“I’m looking forward to working with our team to deepen our connections with customers, partners, and our communities to deliver breakthrough projects and transformations.”  

Cyber security firm Sophos has announced the appointment of Gerard Allison as its new senior vice president of sales for the EMEA region.

The seasoned channel executive joins the business from Exclusive Networks and boasts more than 30 years of industry experience in helping businesses increase revenue, develop sales programmes, training and enablement, as well as building customer and partner engagement.

Prior to his spell at Exclusive Networks, he also worked at Gigamom and Juniper Networks.

Announcing the appointment, Sophos chief revenue officer Michael Valentine said Allison will work to accelerate its growth efforts across the region.

“Gerard has a deep understanding of the distribution and reseller channel, as well as extensive knowledge of successfully establishing new routes to market,” he said.

“With this impressive track record, Gerard will be a valuable and important Sophos sales leader overseeing EMEA, particularly as we head into 2023 with our new Sophos Managed Detection and Response service.”

Headquartered in Oxford, Sophos specialises in providing advanced cyber security solutions, including managed detection and response (MDR), and incident response services, as well as a range of endpoint, network, email, and cloud security offerings.

The company has grown to become one of the largest pure-play cyber security providers, protecting more than 500,000 organisations and over 100 million users around the world via its network of resellers and MSPs.

Earlier this month, Sophos unveiled its new MDR offering, serving up new threat detection and response capabilities, as well as integration with telemetry from third-party vendors such as Microsoft, CrowdStrike, SentinelOne, and more.

The firm said its refreshed portfolio, combined with its new EMEA sales chief’s cybersecurity and technology expertise, will help EMEA partners provide customers with “the most advanced security solutions available”.

“Sophos is an industry leader, pioneering the way with a new type of MDR service that every organisation can benefit from, so I am thrilled to be joining Sophos at this time and leading the company’s impressive sales team in EMEA,” said Allison of his appointment.

“I am also looking forward to working closely with our extensive partner network in the region to develop new revenue streams and ensure customers have the proper security needed to defend against today’s persistent attackers.”

Extended detection and response (XDR) platform provider Cynet has announced its new Global Partner Program, designed to help channel firms increase profitability of their Cynet business.

The initiative has been revamped to include new pricing, discounts, and resources aimed at streamlining the partner journey to reduce operational and buying costs.

In an announcement, Cynet said the launch is intended to strengthen its channel-first business model and prioritise partner and customer relationships.

“Our Global Partner Program offers an exceptional opportunity for our partner community to increase their profit margins,” explained Bruno Darmon, president of Cynet. “We make cyber security sales easy and at a much lower cost because we offer an automated, ‘all-in-one’ platform that doesn’t require a stack of several security vendors.

“As a channel-only organisation, our priority is ensuring our partners are rewarded during each step of the sales cycle.”

Cynet provides an end-to-end, natively automated XDR platform - Cynet 360 AutoXDR - which is backed by a 24/7 managed detection and response (MDR) service. The offering is designed to enable lean IT teams to implement effective cyber security protection, regardless of their resources and skills, providing organisations with monitoring, investigation, on-demand analysis, incident response, and threat hunting.

Over the past year, the provider and its platform has gone from strength to strength, achieving a 200% expansion in its active partner base and receiving a number of vendor accolades in the process.

In response to partner feedback, Cynet has now revamped its Global Partner Program to help boost their sales and profitability. The initiative will serve partners in North America, Latin America, Europe, and the Middle East.

“I’m very pleased to launch this new partner program to our highly valued channel community,” said Amy Nairne-Clark, EMEA Channel Director, Cynet. “The changes we made are based on feedback from our partners, and are specifically designed to empower them with everything they need to increase sales and profitability.

“I know that partners have choices when it comes to vendor selection, and choosing Cynet means they can grow their own business while addressing the cybersecurity needs of their customers.”

Customer relationships are at the heart of business, and there are several customer relationship management (CRM) platforms that can help you build and make the most of them, regardless of which sector you’re in.

If CRM only helped your organisation and track customer data, or just saved time, or only made it easier to build relationships, it would be a valuable system. That CRM combines all these benefits means it serves an even more important purpose.

Ultimately, CRM helps you develop a better understanding of your audience and your own operations. When a business understands itself at least as well as it understands its customers, it’s more likely to spot inefficiencies and opportunities to be exploited.

If you’re not already using a CRM system then here’s why you should be – and if you are already using one, we’ll look at some applications and benefits that you might not yet have taken advantage of.

Embracing CRM for efficiency and greater outcomes

The first major benefit of CRM is that it frees staff from administrative tasks, so they can focus on more productive things. Teams won’t have to spend as much time logging emails, calls, meetings and interactions – all of this information will be collected and aggregated within the system. This leads to productivity gains that could realistically cover the costs of a CRM subscription.

It’s not just about efficiency, though. A CRM system helps you serve customers better. In very small businesses, customers might communicate with a single person, who can gain an understanding of their needs and plans – but as the company grows, that relationship is often lost. Customers end up talking to representatives who don’t know the ins and outs of their businesses, and who aren’t clued in on what interactions they’ve had before. It’s hardly an encouragement for them to do business with you.

A CRM platform lets you keep track of all the conversations, spreadsheets and pieces of communication with customers, while letting your organisation speak with a single voice and provide a consistent service, whether working with new leads and existing customers. As well as providing a better experience for customers, it opens the door to cross-selling and upselling opportunities. Businesses can, for example, look at what customers have previously purchased, which can inform the goods and services that can be offered subsequently. Many are likely to interpret this as good customer care, rather than intrusive.

Improving relations with individual customers is a good thing – and collecting information about your whole clientele allows you to discover trends and better understand your market. As the Harvard Business Review notes, you can “identify the most valuable customers over time, and increase customer loyalty by providing customised products and services”.

CRM builds relationships through relevance

When we say CRM can help you understand your market, that doesn’t just mean defining a homogenous set of customers. Differentiating between customer types allows you to devise tailored strategies for increasing sales in each segment.

Marketing campaigns, for example, can target potential customers with only relevant information, which can be based on previous search or purchase histories, alongside demographic information. Tailored strategies, too, mean you don’t waste money and effort promoting irrelevant products or services either to customers who won’t purchase them, or through channels their leads won’t encounter. More importantly, they ensure your offerings are relevant, which is crucial to retention.

Loyalty, as we knew it, is certainly waning, and customers may be looking out for more incentives, such as rewards, rebates and discounts. However, according to recent consumer research from Kantar Retail, 71% of consumers now claim that loyalty incentive programmes don’t make them loyal at all. With competition as fierce as it’s ever been, people buy because a brand’s relevance meets their needs at that moment. That doesn’t mean that loyalty is a lost cause, though, only that you need to make meaningful connections.

Many see this as an opportunity, with brands able to establish new and more solidified relationships with customers, based on emotional resonance. Attachment, of this kind, leads to brand advocacy, and stems from positive experiences as well as an exchange of values. Businesses need to find these elements and nurture these relationships.

All of this is much easier when you’re using CRM. This is because it allows you to centralise customer intelligence, regardless of the point of collection. Every team member has an overview of a customer’s likes and desires, the imperatives that drive the customer’s business, their past purchases, and more. Diverse parts of the organisation can build upon the advances made and information acquired by any other. All this can be leveraged to keep your brand relevant to your customers, and ensure they’re not motivated to look elsewhere for a business that can satisfy their needs.

CRM makes your data work for you

As well as segmenting customers by their various needs, a central CRM system lets you track the different states of all your ongoing relationships. CRM, effectively, allows you to see where in the journey your customer is, and separate them based on your interactions.

Having brought together all this data, CRM can also present it in an accessible manner – a capability whose value shouldn’t be underestimated. Spreadsheets and disconnected systems might be daunting, and require a lot of manual work, such as data entry. Deriving insights will be especially tough given the lack of historical context or the full picture of a customer relationship to derive proper insights. That’s before generating graphical ways to present this data. CRM, on the other hand, performs most of these tasks as a given, with customised dashboards helping to translate the data.

CRM data, thus, helps businesses to strategise next steps for different customer groups, and to deduce which are likely to exhibit similar purchasing patterns. This in turn helps generate better data on which to project sales and income.

This last point is key. Such insights, as Lee Davis and Cassie Bottorff write at Forbes can “help businesses more accurately forecast, and take the guesswork out of planning for the future”. They add: “You can leverage insights about your customers, pipeline, sales performance and forecasts from data analytics tools to decide what product to make next, or how to improve customer service.”

Microsoft has announced it has embedded its Microsoft Teams chat feature into Dynamics 365 to help boost business collaboration.

Dynamics 365 is the company’s line of enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM) business applications, designed to help organisations run their businesses efficiently.

The software helps salespeople build strong relationships with customers, make use of AI-driven insights, and close deals in a timely manner.

Users will also be able to use all of the usual Microsoft Teams features in the chat functionality for no extra cost, as a result of the latest announcement.

IT admins can configure the ability for users to initiate or join chats at a record-type level, enabling an experience tailored to specific businesses processes, Microsoft said in a blog post.

This includes easily locating account information, connecting to the team member within their Dynamics 365 collaboration window, transfer a lead, or providing full account context to a new user.

“By embedding Microsoft Teams chat into Dynamics 365, we are bringing seamless collaboration and accelerating productivity across all scenarios,” said Arvind Dutta, product manager at Microsoft Teams.

In an example scenario where a salesperson needs to discuss an account matter with a technical expert, Teams chat in Dynamics 365 can transfer the context of the specific account record into the new chat with the expert.

Microsoft said this can facilitate quicker understanding for the expert and greater overall collaboration without the salesperson having to excessively explain the situation, or fetch any information from the account.

Teams for Dynamics 365 also allows users to retrieve individual chats, group chats, meeting chats, or channel conversations relevant to the current conversation topic.

Additionally, the feature allows users to retrieve full chat history related to specific accounts through Dynamics 365 in order to seamlessly continue a conversation.

“With Teams chat embedded into Dynamics 365, we’re eager to see how our customers and partners unlock new capabilities for their organisations - winning more customers and closing more deals faster,” Dutta said.

Almost two thirds of tech professionals say that their companies should stop doing business in Russia.

Private technology industry social network Blind conducted the poll in conjunction with IEEE. The responses, which came from 8,787 tech professionals across its member base, showed that 64% of respondents across the US and Europe supported a ban on Russian sales following its attack on Ukraine. Support for a Russia boycott was similar in the US and Europe, with the latter showing 63% support.

Support for a ban on Russian sales was stronger in some companies than others. ServiceNow topped the list, with 93% of employees supporting a halt in Russian business. Canadian e-commerce platform Shopify came in second at 89%, then came experience management company Qualtrics at 81%.

Some workforces were less supportive. Just 39% of Spotify employees (restricted to its European operations) supported stopping business in Russia, even though the company closed its Russian office at the beginning of March in response to the Ukraine attack. At 43%, workers at TikTok operator ByteDance were among the least supportive of a Russian ban. ByteDance owner Douyin shut down 3,500 accounts in China at the end of February to quash provocative posts.

At Meta, which Russia has banned and labeled an extremist operation, a relatively low 47% of employees support pulling out of Russia.

Tech professionals are also taking personal action to support Ukraine. This ranged from donating by booking Ukrainian Airbnbs, cooking for refugees, or simply flying the Ukrainian flag. Three of the respondents said that they had been involved in cyber operations or hacking in support of Ukraine.

In Europe, 56% of tech workers were taking personal action compared to 36% in the US. Workers at Unity Technologies (76%), Shopify (67%) and Databricks (64%) were the most willing to get personally involved.

Several tech companies have already stopped sales in Russia, including Microsoft, Apple, Cisco, SAP, AMD, Intel, and TSMC. Big tech companies have also been helping to counter Russian cyber attacks against Ukraine.

If you want to win in the channel, B2B e-commerce is a tool you can't afford to ignore, and, according to McKinsey, it's now the leading edge of successful B2B sales.

Indeed, larger channel players like Westcoast, Tech Data and SCC have been working on their e-commerce propositions for years, anticipating further potential as data and analytics are further integrated into the technology landscape. That's despite persistent myths surrounding B2B e-commerce – including notions that customers aren't ready; that it's only for simple repeat business; and that customers always prefer face-to-face interactions.

Ian Briffett, director of sales process optimisation at Tech Data, confirms the distie continues to invest in digital platforms as part of its own digital transformation strategy, spurred on by the last two years of disruption. “If nothing else, that made people sit up and look for where we need to make a difference,” he tells IT Pro.

Briffett, however, “broadly agrees” with McKinsey that B2B e-commerce strategies can suffer from misperceptions, relying on outdated notions of online as being all about an advertising shopfront.

“If you go back about two years, many people did look at B2B e-commerce as being either marketing or purely transactional; it was a very different era,” he explains. “What's changed is it's more about how we enable a broad channel and provide additional capabilities and value to help customers grow their businesses.”

Fully integrated platforms will drive success

From working out how to increase software licensing and recurring revenues to providing the right levels of customer service, platforms that can drive processes will enable success.

Most B2B companies (65%) now offer e-commerce, according to McKinsey, meaning they can fully transact sales online – up from 53% in early 2021. Would the channel not be further ahead than non-tech sectors? Tech Data reportedly earned 50% of its revenues via e-commerce five years ago; back in 2017.

Canalys chief analyst Alastair Edwards says their research suggests 40% offer “some form of e-commerce online”, with another 20% planning online sales channels.

“It’s complex. What is a channel digital marketplace, as opposed to an e-commerce site?” asks Edwards. “We see large distributors and bigger partners, however, building digital marketplaces as a necessity as more software as a service (SaaS), cyber security and cloud-based services are transacted digitally.”

Data, and its growing role in digital transformation, poses questions to businesses that can be answered with e-commerce solutions, creating data that drives further insights, prompting further questions, and so on. From addressing immediate problems and pain points, e-commerce moves into driving new business incrementally.

“Software vendors, too, are pivoting away from selling traditional perpetual licences now to a subscription model,” Briffett adds. “Once you've sold something to a customer, you have to retain them, get them to renew.”

By helping vendors or distributors put the right information in front of the right people – at the right time – they should be better positioned to go and drive the “right cadence” of activities, he says.

“The other piece is to migrate these customers now to this subscription licence,” he continues. “We, therefore, need to be offering alternate quotes and help customers make informed decisions in an appropriate amount of time. That’s good for us, good for customers and good for vendors.”

For maximum benefit, information can be provided in a number of ways, including through portals, social media and other channels. If a channel partner needs a quotation to go from A to B, Tech Data publishes it automatically, for instance. Information can also be targeted to specific customers.

“We know that customers that got red boxes can move to blue boxes – or if they got one product from a vendor that they can move to another product in that portfolio,” Briffett says.

Will Omnichannel become omnipresent?

For each stage of the sales process B2B customers now employ a roughly even mix of traditional, remote, and self-service sales using e-commerce and digital portals, McKinsey suggests. Now, 94% of decision-makers say omnichannel sales are “as effective or better” than pre-pandemic models.

Many partner e-commerce forays are mostly for marketing, addressing different points in the customer journey. SCC, for instance, just partnered with IBM on a series of “virtual engagement” centres.

Tech Data, meanwhile, offers specific platforms and services for different tasks – such as for cloud services set-up with “appropriate” automated billing. Traditional account management, however, will remain important, not only for in-person calls or meetings but support and guidance. E-commerce platforms should facilitate, rather than take away, the entire burden.

“Partners, however, aren't there because we're beating them with a stick,” says Briffett. Canalys' Edwards warns, too, that face-to-face interactions can be preferred for complex projects or systems. Sophisticated e-commerce engines, meanwhile, perhaps embedded with AI analytics, mainly suits the scale of the Bechtles, Dustins, Ateas or Insights of the world. Without sufficient digital presence, however, partners can miss customer opportunities.

“Closed intranet-type procurement models are one potential differentiator, where pricing and discounts are pre-agreed,” Edwards says. “Capturing customer usage data from digital platforms can drive targeting that supports customer lifecycle strategies.”

Cloud security provider Netskope has bolstered its worldwide partner programme with a host of new benefits, incentives, and opportunities.

As an increasing number of businesses embrace Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) and Secure Service Edge (SSE) architecture, the revamped Evolve Partner Program will provide partners with more opportunities to profit and grow alongside Netskope, the firm said.

“Security has become more dynamic than ever, stretching to accommodate cloud-based traffic and thousands of applications across a distributed workforce, and creating increased demand for solution providers that can strategically advise on the right steps toward SASE,” explained Dave Rogers, Netskope’s vice president of global alliances, channel sales.

“The evolution of our channel programme underscores our commitment to meeting this need, empowering our partners to achieve accelerated growth with us behind the massive SSE and SASE opportunity. We’re providing our partners with all of the resources, incentives and discounts they need for high-growth, long-term success.”

The new programme comprises three tiers in a bid to further support the partner ecosystem. A new ‘Authorized’ level offers an entry point, while the ‘Gold’ and ‘Platinum’ levels deliver bigger discount advantages for top partners.

Partners can also now benefit from a new global discounting structure by programme level and opportunity type, the firm said. This comes alongside incentives for those that bring opportunities to Netskope through its Deal Registration scheme.

The programme has also its expanded technical certifications, with the addition of two new pathways for partners to become Certified Cloud Security Administrators or Certified Cloud Security Integrators. Additionally, Netskope has introduced a new Service Delivery Specialisation, designed to aid partners building out implementation and activation offerings.

“The enhancements to our Evolve Partner Program further builds on our partner-centric go-to-market strategy,” said Michael Herman, Netskope’s vice president, channel sales, EMEA/LATAM.

“Partnering with Netskope means our channel can be confident of a strong and predictable ROI, essential for investment in the brand and the technology.

“Together with our committed and enabled partners, we will bring more value to our customers and change the way enterprise security has always been done.”

Digital transformation and automation specialist Schneider Electric has announced the appointment of Karlton Gray as its new IT channel director for the UK and Ireland.

As a seven-year veteran of Schneider Electric’s Secure Power Division, Gray has already held numerous roles within the business, managing large-scale enterprise, corporate and e-commerce channel partners – including CDW, Softcat, Comms Express, Ebuyer, CCS Media, Misco, Amazon, and Bechtle.

He now steps up to lead IT channel sales across the region, with a focus on driving the continued success of the Secure Power Division, the company said.

“As we return to a more digital, electric world, it’s clear that partner relationships have never been more important,” Gray commented. “Throughout the pandemic, the IT, data centre and communications industries have been pivotal in helping businesses adapt to remote working, and I believe many organisations will look to retain some level of hybrid operations going forward.

“What’s crucial now is that we help our partners meet growing end-user demands, safely return to personal engagements and plan for the future.”

Gray first joined Schneider Electric as channel account manager back in 2015, before being promoted to senior channel account manager two years later. Named APC UK Channel Account Manager of the year in 2019, he then stepped up to the role of Senior Enterprise Account Manager in early 2020.

Gray’s appointment as channel director comes just six months after Schneider Electric launched its Edge Software & Digital Services Programme, designed to provide the tools and certifications to help solution providers create a dedicated Managed Power Services practice.

The firm says the initiative enables partners to establish recurring revenue streams by offering remote monitoring and management of the physical infrastructure across their customers’ networks, utilising Schneider Electric’s EcoStruxure IT Software & Digital Services.

“Whether through IT modernisation programmes, the deployment of edge computing solutions or creating new digital service propositions that address end-user skills shortages, technology has provided us with a vehicle to address key business challenges in a sustainable, energy-efficient and environmentally beneficial way,” Gray continued.

“As the world’s most sustainable organisation, I’m excited to be part of a company that’s driving transformative change through our partners.”

Data platform provider Splunk has announced the launch of its new Splunk Partnerverse programme, a new initiative that it says will empower partners to expand technical expertise, differentiate offerings, and amplify customer success.

The programme has been designed to enable businesses to demonstrate their core competencies with a brand-new badge system. Splunk’s active partners – which include BlueVoyant, deepwatch, Orange Cyberdefense, and Tekstream – can now access three initial badges that highlight expertise in Cloud Migration, Zero Trust Services, and Authorized Learning excellence.

The full programme will then be broadly available in February 2022 and will support thousands of distributors, global system integrators, service providers, original equipment manufacturers, technology alliance partners, and VARs, Splunk said.

“The most successful companies have a strong data foundation to deliver secure and resilient systems, and are committed to unlocking innovation and driving growth by rapidly accelerating their cloud adoption,” explained Teresa Carlson, president and chief growth officer at Splunk.

“The Splunk Partnerverse Program helps customers identify and collaborate with the right partners faster and leverage proven solutions to reach their critical missions and outcomes in the cloud and underscores our continued commitment to our partner network.”

As part of the Partnerverse badging system, business earn different badges to help customers identify which partners have the suitable expertise for their needs. These badges will include Cloud Migration Services, Zero Trust Services, Observability, Security, Managed Service, System Integration, and Authorized Learning.

Additionally, the badging system offers a Cloud Migration Services Competency, featuring a Professional Services kit and the ability to configure customer deployments for Spunk Cloud.

Alongside that, Splunk also revealed that the new programme will offer a Partner Solutions Catalog to highlight partner capabilities and innovations globally. The firm says the feature will allow partners to reach the “widest audience possible” and highlight their portfolio of offerings.

John Maynard, CEO of cyber security services firm Adarma, said the program will tighten its long-standing partnership with Splunk even further.

“The new Partner Solutions Catalog is a game changer and will allow us to highlight all of our joint solutions – particularly our market-leading managed detection and response platform – to successfully engage with new and existing customers to proactively manage and prevent cyber threats,” he said.

Over the last ten years or so, an IT distributor’s value has mainly been tied with its ability to provide the right product or service at the lowest price – but this has changed significantly in recent years. Indeed, we’ve seen things revert back to the way relationships were configured in the 90s. The reason behind this shift is the huge growth and development in data analytics. In today’s age, more and more resellers are looking to their partners, both vendors and distributors, to provide them with the “market intelligence” to identify revenue opportunities in the end-user marketplace.

The question is, how does a reseller know which distribution partner to pick? What are the intangibles that separate one from another? Finding one that’s directly aligned with your business objectives can be the key to transforming your company’s go-to-market strategy and, ultimately, your bottom line. Whether you’re looking for bespoke marketing, extensive expertise or faster market penetration, there are several factors to consider. We’ve drawn on experience to outline five areas that resellers must consider when seeking out a potential IT distribution partner.

Brand awareness

A successful IT distributor will have invested the time in establishing its brand and creating awareness through sales and marketing. Its reputation will be built on outstanding service delivery as well as targeting the right audience for the reseller, making this partner stand out in a crowded marketplace. In other words, an effective IT distribution partner should be known among your customers and be able to generate leads, achieved through creative campaigns and large-scale events. A really great IT distribution partner will help you, as the reseller, engage with your desired customer base and promote your brand too.

A variety of services and support

As a reseller, finding a distributor that has your best interests at heart is key. They need to understand your business objectives and support you in reaching them. The backing of a reliable IT distributor will help to overcome any challenges and provide immediate support which will give you peace of mind and benefit your company’s reputation. A leading distributor will have long-lasting, personal relationships with the vendors they engage with – ensuring that services can be rolled out effectively and any problems quickly rectified for the end-user.

Track Record

One of the most important things to do when assessing potential partners is to look at what they’ve achieved. Ask around and find out what people are saying about a given distributor - this will tell you a lot about its services and ability to deliver results. A stellar reputation and client satisfaction are decisive indicators that a company is good to work with and will be of value to your business. In conjunction with steady growth, and a history of retained vendors, these are reassuring signs that you should be present in a potential IT distribution partner.

Look for a niche

Outlining goals for your progress as a reseller is important to make sure that your business is sustainable and successful in the long run. It is crucial for any company to have a clear go-to-market strategy that can be executed properly – problems can arise when this process becomes overly complicated. Engaging with an IT distribution partner with in-depth knowledge of niche areas can help to establish you as an expert and increase your market share. Distributors with extensive experience in a given industry or location can help you penetrate the market faster and reach far more customers.

Enjoy Good Chemistry

Success is reliant on the right relationships. The IT market is fast-paced and ever-changing so, as a reseller, being able to call on trusted partners and being familiar with the latest trends or systems is important. What’s the best way to do this? Find an IT distribution partner that knows the newest and most innovative solutions for your customers’ problems. They can keep you up to date with the latest cyber-security trends, cloud services and workplace mobility. In turn, you can educate and provide your customer with what works best for their needs.

Choosing the right IT distribution partner can help you benefit from lots of business solutions, but there’s much more to it than just finding a recognisable name. Think of it as a dating game, in which both parties evaluate each other to establish whether the other makes a good fit. Once you find someone who wants to work with you as much as you want to work with them, then you know you’ve found “the one”.

Michael O’Hara is Group MD at DataSolutions

The new Currys ‘superbrand’ has announced its arrival with the launch of its first ad campaign, which sees the tech retailer placing a firm focus on the importance of its staff expertise.

As part of the company’s rebrand, Currys PC World, Carphone Warehouse, Team Knowhow, and Dixons Carphone now all fall under the same unified Currys moniker.

Created by Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO, the new TV spot positions Currys as a one-stop hub for tech expertise, highlighting its in-store experts, as well as its 24-7 ShopLive video chat feature.

“Technology is such an intrinsic part of our lives now that how you buy it matters more than ever before,” commented Dan Rubel, brand and marketing director at Currys.

The new marketing campaign was built upon research carried out by Currys that revealed shoppers are generally put off by unassisted selling due to a concoction of fake reviews, depth of choice, as well as how much time it all takes.

According to the firm’s research, 58% of people shopping for expensive tech goods would prefer to speak to an expert before they make their purchase.

“Our research shows that prior to handing over their hard-earned cash, people want advice about the tech they buy from a real-life, human expert, particularly when it comes to those expensive and more complex pieces of kit,” Rubel continued.

With its strong focus on tech expertise, the new TV spot and wider ad campaign suggests that the new-look business can eliminate those hurdles and offer customers the advice they need.

Alongside the TV campaign, Currys is also launching its first loyalty initiative, which includes member discounts, monthly prize giveaways, as well as partner benefits such as a three-month Apple TV trial.

“This new campaign announces the launch of our new brand, Currys, and at the same time, reminds customers one of the most important reasons we are special – our expert colleagues,” Rubel said.

“Our real-life human experts are able to help tech buyers work out the right tech for them, whether that’s instore or online via our pioneering 24/7 ShopLive video shopping platform.

“This is unique to Currys and our omnichannel model, and something that the algorithms used by faceless robot retailers simply can’t replicate, because life really is better when you listen to experts.”

Schneider Electric has forged partnerships with Also, Ingram Micro and Tech Data to deliver its Managed Power as a Service (MPaaS) programme across the UK, the Netherlands, Germany and Austria.

MPaaS is an edge computing programme that combines the firm’s APC Smart-UPS uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) service with its monitoring and dispatch capabilities to help partners create their own as a service offer. This is offered alongside access to the EcoStruxure IT software and flexible finance options from the participating distributors.

Describing this launch as the first of its kind in the IT sector, the company claims MPaaS opens up more revenue streams for its partners, allowing them to reduce operational costs while adding more value to the services customers receive. This platform also increases recurring revenue streams through real-time remote monitoring and management services.

Schneider Electric previously launched the programme element of its landmark Managed Power Service (MPS) scheme in April 2021, which offered partners the tools to build their own MPS practices. Since then, approximately 140 partners have joined the scheme, vice president for IT channels in Europe, David Terry, told Channel Pro with these partners primed to take advantage of the distribution element the firm’s just announced.

“Managed power is probably a new term, and the ‘as a service’ tag is fairly new,” he said. “The market is huge, and growing, and depending in which geography you’re sitting you could be at a different maturity level,” Terry said.

“The global market is around about $160 billion for as a service, and when we look at managed power we have around about 27% of people offering managed power, so there’s a huge opportunity. What we’re looking to do, particularly in Europe, is get more people on board and more people offering this service as a whole.”

The three partner firms – Also, Ingram Micro and Tech Data – are among the company’s three largest IT distribution partners, and will grant Schneider Electric inroads into the four territories in which it’s launching MPaaS. The firm, however, is actively exploring partnering with further distributors to eventually launch the programme across the whole of Europe.

Launched in April, an MPS is a managed service that’s based on various aspects of managing IT infrastructure for edge computing, such as UPS. Dubbed the ‘Edge Software & Digital Services Programme’, its launch allowed IT companies to establish recurring revenues by offering remote monitoring and management of physical infrastructure across customer networks.

The programme comprises four elements including lifecycle rebates to offset initial setup costs, a step-by-step operational guide, certification paths, and access to Schneider Electric’s EcoStruxure scheme. This includes 24/7 remote monitoring and on-site support.

This type of service is already available in the US, Terry said, with European entities yet to explore MPaaS in a meaningful way. COVID-19, he added, has accelerated digital investment, meaning he feels it’s the right time to launch such an offering across Europe.

Last October, the firm announced a raft of improvements to its EcoStruxure IT Expert platform to improve the remote management and monitoring of data centres and edge deployments. This included adding AI-supported UPS battery health assessment.

AppDynamics, the application performance management business owned by Cisco, has announced it will be shifting to a 100% channel model, alongside major updates and improvements to its global partner programme.

The firm said the changes will help partners “fully exploit the potential of stack observability with business context”.

The refresh sees AppDynamics transitioning away from a “direct and indirect” sales model to a 100% channel-centric route to market.

“This will provide closer alignment to Cisco’s sales motion and give partners the confidence and opportunity to build out full-stack observability practices with AppDynamics and Cisco,” Mark Maslach, AppDynamics’ vice president of Worldwide Channels and Strategic Alliances, said in a release.

To facilitate this change, the company has added a new ‘Elite’ level to its Global Partner Program, creating a three-tier structure alongside the existing ‘Alliance’ and ‘Titan’ levels.

“The Elite level is designed for our largest Global Partners and creates the optimal conditions to fully exploit the full-stack observability market opportunity across AppDynamics and the wider Cisco portfolio,” Maslach explained.

AppDynamics says these changes will benefit partners at all levels, providing more tailored support and improved opportunities for growth. The support model around all three of the programme’s tiers has been adapted to ensure the right sales engineering, channel engineering, marketing support, and channel account manager support is in place.

Partners can also leverage a slew of additional updates across the initiative. These include new stackable margins, designed to enable more active partners to be increasingly profitable, and an expanded rebates programme for Elite and Titan partners to earn per-deal rebates.

There’s also a redesigned FastPath programme for better co-investment, improved access to marketing development funds, as well as expanded training and support.

“This range of new incentives is designed to reward partners for the additional effort and activity they put into opportunities and closing deals,” Maslach continued. “The closer they align with AppDynamics and our processes, the more profitable their deals become.

“This new approach is a bold and exciting way forward. This is the right time to unleash the potential of our partners and maximise the opportunity for full-stack observability.”

This year saw the 22nd System Administrator Appreciation Day (SAAD) take place on 30 July. It’s the one day of the year celebrating everything a system administrator, or sysadmin, does for an organisation, from running IT services and keeping things secure to answering help requests. Following the pandemic, this year’s SAAD was also the ideal moment to say thank you.

For channel companies, sysadmins will probably represent one of the biggest groups of potential customers. Sysadmins have many things to deal with at any one time, and limited time and budget to spend across these areas. With little time to spare and so much to get done, getting a sysadmin’s attention in the first place can be difficult. To succeed in this market, you have to be clear on the value that any service you offer can provide.

Our research from earlier this year showed 61% of sysadmins thought they were paying for far more tooling around security and remote access than they needed. At the same time, 66% felt overwhelmed by supporting remote work. If your customer thinks they’re spending more on tooling than they need, then it should be a no-brainer opportunity. Helping customers consolidate, save money and make things easier for themselves should be an open door to a sale. However, while some sysadmins will want to take every opportunity to stretch their budgets, others will resist.

Getting into the mind of the IT sysadmin

For companies approaching sysadmins as customers, the key is to understand how these individuals value their time, and how they think about the tools they use. This will help you understand how sysadmins want to commit their time and when they might want somebody else to take over. This differs for each sysadmin. For example, areas like security will be personally interesting for some and they’ll want to put time there. For others, this will be something that they want to outsource to a service provider as much as possible. Finding out what areas individuals value, where they want to spend their time, and equally where they think they can do a better job with a partner is, therefore, essential.

To succeed, you have to focus on both the practical benefits and the emotional angle. For many IT professionals, the ability to cut costs or remove the need to use multiple tools should be an easy decision. However, if you’ve been using tools for a long time, then you’ll have some faith in them and – by extension – they will reflect on your professional ability. Removing these out will therefore incur more resistance. By understanding this – and by taking this concern seriously - you can be more successful in how you approach that prospect, and then build any migration or consolidation plans.

This is especially important if you provide managed services. For many sysadmins, how they work has evolved over time, and they might be using tools that they’ve always considered reliable. To replace those tools, you’ll have to not only talk a good game about cost savings or consolidating tools, but you’ll have to find people in the community ready to talk about their experiences. For service providers, in particular, getting customers to share some of those real-world details can reassure others that your approach can work for them too.

Preventing burnout

Given the hard work and many hours spent supporting remote workers, sysadmins may have also learned they can enjoy the difference they make in their jobs. This feeling of being valued is important; if your work makes a difference then it’s more likely you’ll put in more effort. Selling services that remove that effort is a tricky situation, therefore. If you offer to remove too much, then are you denigrating the work this person puts in? It’s better to think of such systems as a means by which you can help them keep up with the demands of their job and prevent them from burning out.

Understanding that mindset, and what you can provide to support this approach, is essential. If you only try to negate the effort they put in, you may encounter barriers around the personal investment people put into their jobs. While they may be under pressure, they might still feel as if they’re making a difference to their organisation, and that they’re valued.

You can take one of two alternative approaches. The first is to show somebody how much more they can achieve by using a new service, for example, by automating many standard processes. It’s possible to help sysadmins improve the service they provide to the business by removing manual tasks from their workload, which would, in turn, afford them more time to spend elsewhere.

The second approach is to make the results something the sysadmin drives for themselves. Rather than being the solution to a problem, you can help the sysadmin build their own solution; essentially, you can provide the blueprint and the tools that inform their own approach to improve things within their organisation.

Sysadmins are at the forefront of how organisations run and organise IT. Helping them be more efficient with their time provides a greater opportunity to market services, but it’s not as simple as trying to replace the tools they use and trust. Dealing with pain points like identity management, remote work and cloud is key to understanding how sysadmins like to work and how they like to plan ahead.

Tom Bridge is principal product manager for Apple at JumpCloud

Software solutions provider K3 has announced the sale of its non-core Sage Business to Pinnacle Computing for £1.68 million.

The deal is expected to be completed in early October 2021, following a TUPE consultation process for the transfer of employees to Belfast-based Pinnacle. The disposal consideration is also subject to a downward adjustment of £200,000 in respect of any restructuring costs that Pinnacle may undertake immediately following completion of the transaction.

Announcing the move, K3 said the sale falls in line with its Board’s strategy of focusing resources on key higher-margin products and markets, with the proceeds set to further strengthen K3’s balance sheet.

"The sale of our Sage Business is another step forward as we continue to sharpen K3's focus and simplify its operations around its higher margin core products and strategic markets,” commented Tom Crawford, chairman of the K3 Business Technology Group.

“Following this transaction and other disposals over the last two years, the Group is more streamlined, market-focused and strategically better positioned."

In the previous financial year ending in November 2020, Sage Business generated revenue of £5.2 million, registering a pre-tax loss of £1 million. The division’s current recurring revenues stand at around £3.1 million with a gross profit of £1.5 million. Net liabilities totalled £1 million as of 30th May 2021.

Its sale is predicted to generate a profit pre-tax of around £1.6 million, which K3 says will be accounted for as an exceptional contribution to trading results for its financial year ending in November.

James Spencer, managing director of Pinnacle, said Sage Business and its new parent company will fit together well.

"The Sage Business will transition very smoothly into our operations, benefiting from our scale and depth of focus,” he said. “We are excited for both the team and customers to join Pinnacle to bolster our operations and delivery within the Sage markets"

We all outsource what we need - not just in business, but in our daily lives too. We must also decide on the number of projects we outsource, making increasingly subtle choices about how much responsibility we give to others.

Let’s take dinner. We all have a choice at the end of a busy day to cook something from fresh ingredients, chuck a ready-made meal in the microwave, or order something in. New businesses have sprung up in recent years, finding a middle ground with preselected recipes and exact ingredients delivered to your door; you can enjoy a home-cooked meal, but finding the recipe and shopping are outsourced.

These services aren’t cheap, so why let someone else do what you could do yourself? We’re often time-poor, and not everyone has the expertise or talent to be a good (or even mediocre) chef, so why not let an expert take over? Managed services providers (MSPs) operate similarly, acting as outsourced IT departments. As experts, MSPs should be posing these questions to their customers, even those who seem to be doing fine with their own internal IT departments.

What’s next after surviving 2020?

For most MSPs, 2020 was a mixed bag. With remote working practically mandated, there was a sudden and immediate need for businesses to embrace technologies they once resisted. Even those that were flexible were caught unawares, and many needed upgrades to existing infrastructure to meet the demands of remote workers quickly. The need for many to work remotely led to a need for people to enable it. Businesses needed to know their employees were able to work efficiently and securely from home, and that any issues they experienced were resolved quickly.

Smart MSPs worked with their customers to provide the best possible service and picked up new business from those faced with sudden changes. Even businesses with internal IT teams struggled and turned to outside help. Canny MSPs now have new contracts in place for this new reality.

Other routes to increasing sales have been closed off. There are no longer in-person events to meet people in your target vertical or location, nor are there any on-site visits, meaning fewer opportunities to discuss where customers may need additional help. Referrals are also likely much quieter than in the past. Many businesses, too, are tightening their belts if they haven’t already gone under.

After the initial rush to move online, MSPs may find growth difficult. New leads may be scarce, simply because those who needed IT support to work remotely will now have it. Businesses that want, but lack, that level of base support may be few and far between. So where do MSPs look for growth? It might be wise for them to look at their current customer base.

Forging a new path to growth

If MSPs can no longer sell the same services to new customers, new approaches are needed. Customers with internal IT departments may have had specific needs for enhanced support at a difficult time, but there’s no reason this can’t be expanded once your value’s been proven. As an augmented services provider to these teams, you now have keen insight into new areas, so you can support and help manage their environment and users more efficiently.

Internal IT departments only have to deal with problems a few times. Setting up new laptops for use, responding to alerts and backing up might be performed manually because the IT team had the luxury of time. Having no pressing need for automation may no longer be the case. MSPs can help here by deploying their systems, and by automating manual tasks, the internal IT department can be freed up for more demanding tasks and high-value project work.

Teams also need to be of appropriate size before they can start offering 24/7 support. Even offering minimal support outside business hours isn’t straightforward. Businesses may be global in scope but not in scale. Establishing a few satellite offices could be all that’s needed to make increased support hours an absolute must. If IT can’t provide this, MSPs can step in either to take over completely or to supplement support where needed. If MSPs cannot yet offer this level of support, they should be looking to create international partnerships that will make it possible.

Scaling the IT department is also an area in which MSPs can offer their services. Businesses enjoying growth at the moment are rare, and they’re likely to be nervous that it’ll be short-lived. They might also be wary of investing in the permanent infrastructure to support growth, leaving the internal IT department struggling to cope with a recent expansion in operations. IT teams will need support to augment critical services, and MSPs can help to fill this gap until businesses feel secure enough to invest in the necessary infrastructure. They may even decide a temporary MSP contract should become permanent.

What has home-cooking got to do with MSPs?

Even businesses currently thriving are understandably nervous. Even if everything is fine right now, the road out of the pandemic is uncertain, and economies are contractive. The UK, for example, recorded its biggest fall in GDP in three centuries in 2020. They’re reluctant to spend, although it doesn’t mean MSPs can’t grow. Instead, they need to look for smart ways to support their customers.

Like the new home cooking providers, this might mean looking for new ways of working that meet the internal IT departments halfway. Working with them in new ways can help to drive efficiency and make savings down the line.

David Weeks is senior director for partner enablement with N-able

Synnex and Tech Data have announced the completion of their merger, with the new combined business to operate as TD Synnex.

Announced in March, the deal was valued at approximately $7.2 billion (£5.2 billion) in estimated pro forma annual revenues.

The global distributor and IT solutions aggregator will serve more than 100 countries across the Americas, Europe, and Asia-Pacific with its portfolio of IT products and service offerings.

TD Synnex will be led by Rich Hume as CEO, who had led Tech Data since 2018, while former Synnex CEO Dennis Polk takes the position of Executive Chair of the firm’s Board of Directors.

“TD Synnex is uniquely positioned in today’s relentlessly transforming technology ecosystem,” Hume commented. “As a versatile distributor and solutions aggregator for the IT ecosystem, we’re strengthening our entire portfolio of solutions and raising the bar on the value we deliver to customers and vendors with exceptional reach, efficiency and expertise.”

As a result, customers will now have “unparalleled access” to a global distribution platform with best-in-class solutions that cover some of the largest and most profitable product segments, the firm said.

Hume also underscored TD Synnex’ commitment to be a good corporate citizen and “the employer of choice in the global IT industry”.

“Just as TD Synnex plays a vital role helping transform the technology landscape, we have an equally important responsibility to have a positive impact on the world,” he explained.

“Our focus on corporate social responsibility embodies our commitment to make the world a better place, both today and into the future.”

Headquartered in Clearwater, Florida, and Fremont, California, the freshly merged TD Synnex will serve more than 150,000 in over 100 countries. The company says its 22,000 co-workers are dedicated to uniting compelling IT products, services and solutions from more than 1,500 top tech vendors.

“We are pleased to have completed the merger and are focused on integrating our businesses,” said Dennis Polk, TD Synnex Executive Chair of the Board of Directors.

“We are energised by the enhanced breadth and depth of our offerings and the opportunities ahead of us to deliver superior value to our stakeholders.”

IT managed services provider IDE Group is to undertake a review of its operations after its revenues took a dive during 2020.

The Bournemouth-based MSP has reported a widened pre-tax loss for the year, after its Manage and Connect businesses both saw a considerable decline. Overall revenue totalled £24.1 million, down 15% from the £28.2 million recorded back in 2019.

Revenue for IDE’s Connect division totalled £13.1 million, marking a 10% drop year-on-year from £14.6 million as the company lost more of its cloud customer base.

For its Managed division, revenues ended at £11.5 million, tumbling 22% year-on-year from £14.7 million - largely attributed to some cyclical variability in its supplies to system integrators.

However, IDE says the difficult year was important for the “ongoing rationalisation” of its trading business, with the company well-positioned for “a period of sustained growth” in 2021. Outlook for its Manage business remains positive.

“Trading in the current financial year remains buoyant in our key Manage business with current financial performance significantly ahead of our 2020 results and reflecting the excellent business relationships that we have developed with third-party system integrators,” said Andy Parker, non-executive chairman of IDE Group, in the company’s 2020 results report.

“Overall, despite the operating losses in our overall group in 2020, in the current year we are now seeing the real benefits of focussing our business strategy on profitable partnership channels and consolidating our group offering across the Manage and Connect operations and we can look to the future with confidence and expect to generate positive operating cashflow for the first time in several years.”

However, despite the optimism around its Manage business, IDE did reveal that it is conducting a review of its operations – and that includes considering a potential sale of its Connect business.

“Given that the Group results reflect the very different levels of performance across two distinct business sectors we have commenced a full review of our operations,” IDE explained.

“This review is focussed on growing momentum within our managed services business while we decide how best to return value to our shareholders in the networking and connectivity arena, which may or may not include the divestment of the Connect business.

“This review is ongoing and is a priority for the Board and management team.

Businesses are constantly searching for tools to support growth. Technology has been the basis of these tools for decades but businesses face a constant battle to keep up with trends and customer demands. As hardware transformed its value into the software powering it, the delivery of services has become much easier through increased connectivity, but the disconnect between companies and customers still exists

After services are purchased, businesses are often left in the dark on key insights such as usage and customer satisfaction, as well as which elements of the products are in use. These crucial missing insights can fuel future product development by revealing the most-used aspects of the service.

Software licensing is a means to overcome this barrier. Evaluating and optimising software licensing can allow businesses to create new and innovative revenue streams while increasing operational efficiency and generating insights. Finding the right method isn’t always straightforward, however, and gaining business-wide acceptance of these issues might pose a barrier, not to mention identifying the solutions. Ultimately, devising an effective licensing strategy demands an approach that considers people, processes and technology.

Should you build rather than buy?

A common mistake many businesses make is spending time and resources on developing an in-house licensing system, which seems odd given many businesses don’t build their own custom relationship management or enterprise resource planning platforms. It’s not part of the common core skills that organisations have. Although there are exceptions, businesses that go down the homegrown route often find themselves quickly outgrowing their system, which leaves them with a clunky platform that requires continuous extra investment. Looking for the right third-party licensing management solution makes the most sense.

While the natural next step may be finding the right technological solution, commonly it ignores the commercial drivers, business process and other components necessary for a successful licensing project. To build for success, proper governance is required. Businesses should establish who is responsible for licensing to provide clear direction and accountability. It’s important to choose someone who won’t only lead initial decisions but will also own the licensing post-launch. They must have a solid understanding of customer needs and what’s happening in the field.

Putting together a crack team

Licensing isn’t just a one-person band though. It touches every part of the organisation and each department within the business has a stake in it. Without effective licensing, sales teams can lose deals, operations teams can be weighed down with unnecessary tasks, and product management teams can lose focus on important issues. It’s vital that multiple stakeholders are engaged throughout the process to ensure it’s moving in the right direction.

To keep pace with a dynamic and competitive market, businesses should consider a platform that enables them to adapt to new and evolving business needs, such as new models or the ability to scale. Any platform should support integration with existing back-office applications, allowing for automation of every part of the licensing system. Integrating effectively can eliminate time-consuming manual data entry, reduce human error, and optimise license generation, renewal processes and distribution.

As businesses look to accelerate their product portfolios, they need a licensing platform that enables them to manage product variants easily. This means having a single and unified platform that can incorporate new and existing applications. As well as making life easier for the business, it’s equally as important to do the same for customers. Selecting a robust licensing solution enables customers to get instant access to the most up-to-date version of the software they need, whenever they want it and wherever they’re based by automating the push of updates. Meaning customers benefit from the most up to date functionality, increasing retention and satisfaction and the burden on technical support is minimised. Finally, it’s vital that businesses offer the same consistent experience for customers across their entire product portfolio. This means ensuring that the business has a consistent approach in product delivery/provision and licensing across their product portfolios.

Looking in the rearview mirror

Many companies think that the job is done once they’ve bought the licensing technology, but next comes business integration and ensuring that all employees understand how it works and the benefits it provides. It’s also crucial, however, to continuously review the process of identifying which product is right for the organisation. Markets and business requirements are constantly shifting and so software licensing is no longer an ‘implement and walk away’ decision. The process will need to continually evolve, and this means businesses must undertake constant reviews throughout the solution’s lifecycle.

As customer demands grow, the opportunity for businesses to take advantage of increased access to them is there for all to see – so the role of software licensing will only continue to grow. However, while finding the right solution is vital, it is increasingly becoming only a part of the overall jigsaw. Ensuring that the whole company is set up for both the short and long-term licensing requirements is key to unlocking its true potential, which is why it makes sense to work with a trusted partner with expertise in this area, to help you effectively deliver your solution to market.

Adrian Pearce is EMEA principal business value consultant for licensing solutions at Thales

Intuit QuickBooks has announced the release of a new card reader, which has been designed to help small business owners get paid faster.

Available now, the QuickBooks Card Reader will help speed up in-person sales, the firm says, as well as accept payments on the go and have transactions automatically reconciled in the QuickBooks Payments platform. Customers have the option to pay by insert, tap or digital wallet.

“It’s our mission to improve cash flow health for small businesses,” commented Rania Succar, Senior Vice President of Intuit QuickBooks Money Offerings. “With the addition of QuickBooks Card Reader to our portfolio of money offerings, we continue to make it easier for small businesses to get paid.”

QuickBooks says it used in-depth customer research to identify key features that small businesses desire as they look for a more seamless payment experience.

As a result, the new Card Reader features an LED display and a smart tipping functionality, which allows business owners to customise three tipping options that will appear on the screen – including tipping as a percentage or a flat amount.

There’s also clear connectivity and battery level indicators, as well as compliance with mandates in some areas that require a business to show the customer the total charge amount.

In summer 2021, QuickBooks is also releasing the QuickBooks Power Stand, which will wirelessly charge the Card Reader and turn the pair into a portable countertop payments hub.

The stand will also feature an integrated USB port to charge USB-compatible devices such as phones or tablets, the company revealed.

QuickBooks Payments customers can now purchase the QuickBooks Card Reader for $49 on the company’s website, while the Power Stand will arrive later this summer, priced at $39. Both devices together will be available for $79.

“These industry-leading payment hardware solutions that pair seamlessly with the QuickBooks platform further enhance our robust end-to-end payments offering for small businesses and provide flexibility depending on how they do business and how their customers want to pay,” Succar added.

The past few years have seen some seismic changes in the IT channel landscape. The emergence of new channel players, shifts in purchasing behaviour and changing IT consumption methods are forcing partners to evolve their business models and revenue sources to stay profitable.

One of the biggest of these changes is the move to cloud, subscriptions and everything ‘as a service’. A growing number of vendors are reorganising their operating models and introducing ‘as a service’ sales models for their portfolios in response to customer demand. Against this backdrop, the global health crisis is also forcing many partners to rapidly re-evaluate their business models. As such, there’s a widespread belief that partners will fundamentally change who they are, or what they do in 2021. The traditional categories that once defined a channel partner are disappearing.

The tech buyer journey has also evolved. We have seen the dramatic rise in the use of online B2B marketplaces to purchase technology. After gaining huge traction during the pandemic, it is predicted that upward of 17% of the $3.5 trillion that businesses and governments spend on technology may go through marketplaces this year.

Additionally, buyers used to the convenience of one-click purchases and rapid delivery, provided by the likes of Amazon, now demand the same experience from their B2B tech purchases. Indeed, only a fifth of buyers said they hope to return to in-person sales. This is compounded by a rise in ad-hoc purchasing by different departments, and the influence of tech-savvy Line of Business (LoB) decision-makers. They want subscription-based, pay-as-you-go, easy-to-consume IT, and partners must now deliver that.

The changing partner-vendor relationship

The move to services and subscriptions is causing ripples in the partner-vendor relationship. Vendors are starting to measure partners’ influence on the buyer’s journey - and not just the transaction. For example, partners are increasingly incentivised on the entire buying lifecycle of the deal.

The lines are also blurring when it comes to renewals. The partner has traditionally owned the relationship with the customer, and the vendor hasn’t interacted or transacted with the end-user if the sale is serviced through a partner. But when you look at the future of supply subscription renewals, it’s multi-dimensional – it’s not binary.

Elsewhere, there’s been a massive shift within the vendor-distributor relationship. If you bypass distribution to deal with thousands of end-user customers directly, it is a whole different game. Distribution is in survival mode. Distribution is no longer warehouses with forklifts and trucks, with people picking, packing and shipping. Distribution, like resellers and VARs, has been forced to reinvent itself.

So, we’re seeing them pivot to an aggregation model – distributors have been making huge investments in cloud software platforms, or those online marketplaces we talked about. So, with distribution acting as an aggregator, a VAR can pick and procure from multiple vendors and products in one session. This enables vendors to resell their products, but distribution still takes care of the credit risk or the local currency. But again, it poses the question of what impact this will have on value-added, two-tier distribution.

Intelligent selling and services are the future

It’s important to remember, however, that even in today’s subscription-based economy, IT still needs to be installed and architected, and workloads need to be migrated. But, for partners to stay relevant – and hopefully thrive – there’s a couple of things they absolutely have to do.

Provide services: Today, a lot of what drives partners’ value is competency. It’s having the right competency to provide professional services, whether that’s competency in healthcare, applications, database, architecture, deployment, or all of the above. Services will enable ongoing customer intimacy over time.

Deliver customer success: This is the future. It’s important because when a customer purchases and consumes something today, you want to ensure that, firstly, they’re getting what they paid for, and, secondly, that they are adopting it. Software is complex, and adoption is just as critical as obtaining value from what they purchased. If they get value, when the partner comes back to that customer in a year or two, it’s going to be an easy renewal.

Also, consider how incredible it would be if, as a vendor, we could securely, privately and carefully provide partners that have been certified with us under a partner customer success programme with telemetry from the end-user customer as to how are they consuming the technology that they purchased? How is that experience? Are they adopting all of its features?

This is the future of the channel. Because now, with this new dimension of information, data and telemetry, partners will be able to drive more value in their services. They’ll be able to do some incredible and important things around proactive and reactive selling. It’s about meeting up with data and insight, not just the normal regular health check meeting with coffee and doughnuts. It’s intelligent selling and it’s a very different narrative. That’s the future of the channel - and we must remember that services are key to that future in the subscription-based model that our customers are moving towards.

Christian Alvarez is SVP of worldwide channels with Nutanix

Last year was an extremely challenging time for the channel community. At the beginning of the pandemic, distributors, resellers and MSPs were confronted with how best to deliver products and services to their customers in unusual and demanding circumstances.

Those who responded proactively and swiftly to the challenge were able to ensure continuity of service, all with minimal disruption to the supply chain.

Looking at distributors, for example, the most successful were the ones who maintained a full workforce, supported and empowered their people during the shift to remote working, and embraced the opportunities created by the new virtual environment, such as online events and training programmes.

Although the pandemic has forced a radical shift in the way channel players do business, it’s also pushed the community to review and optimise existing processes. This has led to new standards in terms of the vendor and employee experience. The roles of channel account managers and sales directors, for instance, have adapted to serve the increasingly digital customer journey, introducing higher levels of automation and agility into the buying process.

Adapting customer experience for the ‘new normal’

As we acclimatise to what follows the pandemic, it’s important for us, as distributors, to reflect on a critically important element of our business. We must reinforce our role as a trusted advisor to vendors, help them acquire new business, all while partnering with them to achieve a strong up-take of the technology among their buyer community. Overall, we’ll support them to identify new green-field opportunities, and provide them with the means to increase market share through ambitious displacement programmes.

To be successful, distributors must help their vendors achieve their business outcomes and generate value. Following the disruption of the last 18 months, the priority should be to put processes and tools in place to simplify the relationship and interaction with the supply chain from order processing to tracking, notification, and so on. An effective and efficient supply chain is built on a healthy partner-vendor relationship, with investment in digitally integrated processes a key way to ensure that is maintained, measured and improved.

Portal applications allow partners to place orders and track deliveries on a self-serve basis. Behind the portal is a system of record that ensures end-to-end traceability: in the face of disruption, it provides the means to swiftly make informed decisions, allowing for the identification of the best course of action to resolve the issue. Sales representatives will continue to play an important and decisive role during the buying process, but vendor and partner interaction with the system of record can streamline and simplify some of the steps of the customer journey. The inherent traceability of the system can support and expose monitoring and notification tools allowing partners to confidently and autonomously track and manage their orders. It enables the creation of an ‘early warning system’ capable of flagging impending disruptions.

Building supply chain resiliency

As COVID-19 has shown, resiliency in the supply chain is more important than ever. Distributors have always had to be reliable and dependable partners, but to meet the challenges of today, they need to pivot to a more resilient supply chain by enhancing predictability and agility, while also driving efficiency. Resiliency in the face of disruptions in the distribution channel can benefit from smart warehouse management and planning for potential disruption. In both cases there is a strong need for observability: smart warehouse management relies on accurate representations of inventory stocks, which in turn can support powerful data analytics, both predictive as well as historical; monitoring across the distribution channel is crucial to detect anomalies and issues along the way, pinpoint where in the process the anomaly is detected so that the appropriate responses are triggered and communicated to support the business continuity of the channel. Digital enablement has a large part to play in building resiliency.

For distributors and their partners in the post-pandemic world, transparency in the supply chain must become a priority. It represents much more than simply gaining more visibility into the overall supply chain. Instead, it’s the process by which distributors make use of the insights gained through that greater visibility, allowing them to identify and mitigate risks more effectively by accessing, learning from, and acting on end-to-end supply chain information.

Being future-ready

Distributors can start by identifying, prioritising, and visualising likely supply chain risks; then, they can use information from other sources such as third-party data, real-time monitoring tools and supplier collaboration to bridge any information gaps; finally, they can move on to managing the insights gained from the process and monitoring the supply chain for additional events and impacts. With this type of process in place, distributors will drive operational improvements and minimise the impact of future disruptions right across the IT supply ecosystem.

The events of last year have reinforced the need for an agile and robust supply chain that will create value for vendors and partners in an unpredictable future. Enhanced resiliency will enable distributors to be more efficient, stable, and remain ahead of the competition, and allow them to spot potential risks, and areas of improvement. Greater transparency will allow distributors to achieve better visibility across all parts of the supply chain, driving improvements, building trust, and empowering them to react faster and more effectively when problems occur.

Antony Byford is managing director at Westcon UK & Ireland

Nutanix and HPE have announced an expanded partnership, as the pair look to accelerate hybrid cloud and multicloud adoption.

The agreement will see Nutanix Era, a multi-database operations and management solution, bundled with HPE ProLiant servers and delivered as a service through HPE GreenLake.

The fully managed cloud service enables customers to deploy applications and databases in minutes, as well as benefit from the perks of both the cloud and on-premises environments, the pair said.

“Customers want to simplify database operations and management to move away from IT siloes that can often lead to higher maintenance costs, security risks, and lack of flexibility to deploy and run solutions,” explained Keith White, senior vice president and general manager, HPE GreenLake Cloud Services at HPE.

“By building on our successful collaboration with Nutanix, together the HPE GreenLake and the Nutanix Era database operations and management software solution will increase agility, simplify operations and cut costs by delivering a fully managed cloud offering.”

Nutanix says customers using its Era solution reported experiencing a 97% increase in the speed of database provisioning, a reduction in unplanned downtime that helped avoid average losses of $35,000 per hour, a decrease in the storage requirements for copies and backups by 60%, and a reduction in database administrators’ overtime work by 50%.

By combining Nutanix Era on HPE ProLiant servers and delivering the solution as a cloud service via HPE GreenLake, customers can leverage the cloud-ready platform to modernise, consolidate, and automate tasks across their databases.

They can also gain support for multi-database operations management, including Oracle Database, Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL, PostgresSQL and MariaDB.

The collaboration builds on the existing HPE GreenLake with Nutanix partnership, which has generated an approximate 80% year-on-year increase in ACV bookings during Q1, the pair revealed.

“We continue to see tremendous success in our partnership, and HPE GreenLake with Nutanix Era for databases provides one more opportunity to strengthen our joint offerings and further serve customers,” said Tarkan Maner, chief commercial officer at Nutanix.

“As customers are looking for solutions to help them in their journey to hybrid and multicloud, HPE and Nutanix deliver strong, integrated solutions to support them on their journey by providing performance, control, and security available as a full breadth of portfolio whether it’s solely using HPE ProLiant DX series of servers for private clouds or combining with HPE GreenLake cloud services to run this environment as a managed cloud.”

CMS Distribution has announced a new partnership with gaming hardware provider Thrustmaster, in a move the distributor says is a “perfect fit” for its growth plans.

A prominent name in the PC and gaming console gaming hardware category, Thrustmaster boasts 30 years of experience in developing gaming accessories and peripherals.

The firm develops products such as flight and simulation racing peripherals, headsets, and controllers, which have been designed to offer extremely accurate gameplay and give users immersive experiences with optimal realism across numerous platforms.

Thrustmaster is also the exclusive supplier of racing wheels and flight sticks to the CMS gaming team.

“We are delighted to announce this partnership with Thrustmaster, one of the market leaders in racing wheels and flight sticks,” commented Jonpaul Warren, PC Components Product sales manager at CMS Distribution.

“This relationship is a perfect fit for our growth plans for the CMS gaming team and offers us a tremendous opportunity to engage across our entire customer base. We are looking forward to building a fantastic relationship together.”

Founded in 1990, Thrustmaster is a part of the Guillemot Corporation S.A., a designer, and manufacturer of interactive entertainment hardware and accessories. The group has been active in the market since 1984, establishing a presence across 11 countries - including the UK - and now distributes its products in 140 nations around the world.

Guillemot focuses its activities on its two flagship brands: Hercules for the digital hardware and peripherals segment and Thrustmaster for PC and console gaming accessories.

“The enthusiasm and energy that CMS team bring makes it a very exciting time ahead,” commented Steve Bailey, UK channel manager, Guillemot Corporation S.A. “Having built plans together to continue the growth of Racing and Flight hardware in the UK market, I am looking forward to a very successful future with CMS.”

BT has announced its new Partner Plus channel programme for its Wholesale division, which has been designed to help partners boost growth and better serve their customers.

Built using a three-tier system, the initiative aims to make it easier for partners to collaborate and integrate with BT Wholesale’s suite of experts and services, the telecoms firm says.

With a focus on simplicity and flexibility, BT Partner Plus has been constructed to bring a host of benefits for Wholesale partners, including business support, marketing resources, and productivity gains.

“Our Partner Plus programme is an exciting step change in how we do business with our BT Wholesale partner community,” commented Alex Tempest, managing director of BT Wholesale.

“As Europe’s largest Wholesale provider, it’s really important for us to lean into customer feedback on more simple ways of working with our business, and our Partner Plus programme does just that; providing easy access to resources, more personalised support and a brilliant digital customer experience.”

Partner Plus is made up of three tiers – Partner, Premium and Elite – with each offering varying benefits, organised by a simple points-based system.

Each tier now offers a greater range of benefits which will be delivered through BT Wholesale’s new Partner Plus Hub, including commercial support and marketing resources, learning tools built by industry experts, and access to exclusive events.

With the new programme, the firm says it is responding to demand from more than 70% of its partners, who asked for more brand association with BT Wholesale. For the first time, eligible members can now qualify to use the Wholesale brand in their marketing communications to demonstrate their partner status.

Internet telephony service provider and ISP, Spitfire, has become the first organisation to officially join the Partner Plus Elite programme.

“We’re thrilled to be recognised as BT Wholesale’s first Elite partner as part of its Partner Plus programme,” said Harry Bowlby, Managing Director of Spitfire. “As an Elite partner, we’re now able to provide additional reassurance to existing and new customers that they are partnering with an established and trustworthy business.”

The European IT and business services market “remains robust” as cloud-based services chalked up record demand in Q1 and managed services continue to flourish.

That's according to ISG’s latest state-of-the-industry report, which has measured commercial outsourcing contracts with annual contract value (ACV) of $5 million or more, to determine overall market performance in EMEA.

It found that the combined market, which includes both 'as a service' and managed services, hit $6 billion for the second consecutive quarter. That’s up 20% year on year, but five percent short from a record Q4.

“EMEA has produced two consecutive quarters with US $6 billion or more of ACV, adding more than US $1.4 billion from its pandemic low,” commented Steve Hall, president of ISG EMEA.

“Importantly, the region is seeing strength in both the 'as a service' segment, as more and more enterprises adopt a public or hybrid cloud strategy, and on the managed services side, which is experiencing a resurgence.”

Cloud-based as a service ACV reached a quarterly record of $2.5 billion, marking a 16% increase over the previous year. Within this segment, infrastructure as a service (IaaS) climbed 19% to a record $1.8 billion, while software as a service (SaaS) was up 9% to a record $658 million.

Managed services produced its second straight strong quarter, growing 23% year on year to an ACV of $3.5 billion – an increase fueled by growth in both IT outsourcing (ITO) and business process outsourcing (BPO), as well as strong results in the UK, France, and DACH.

ITO grew 17% year on year to $3.0 billion, on strength in both ADM and infrastructure services, while BPO recorded a 66% hike to $521 million, thanks to strong demand for industry-specific, finance and accounting, and engineering and R&D services, ISG said.

The research firm also revealed that three of four global $100m+ “mega deals” in Q1 were awarded in the EMEA region.

“That brings the total to eight mega-deals over the last two quarters; you have to go back to early 2017 to find a two-quarter period in EMEA that had more mega-deals awarded,” Hall added.

In the UK, managed services ACV hit $866 million, up 20% over last year, making it the fourth consecutive quarter above $800 million. That’s a sustained rebound for the market, ISG said, but it remains below the $1 billion quarters that were “typical prior to 2017 and the onset of Brexit uncertainty”.

Elsewhere, DACH generated more than $1 billion managed services ACV in Q1 for the second consecutive quarter, with the region now accounting for almost 30% of EMEA’s managed services ACV. France also had its best ACV quarter since 2014, totalling $595 million.

Looking forward to 2021, ISG forecasts that the global market for cloud-based services (IaaS and SaaS) will grow 18%, down slightly from its 20% prediction at the start of the year. The firm has also raised its growth forecast for managed services to five percent, up from its original three percent estimate at the start of the year.

Gavriella Schuster, Microsoft's corporate vice president of Commercial Partner, has announced she is to leave her current role.

In a LinkedIn post, the Microsoft veteran, who has been at the tech giant for 25 years, said it was time to "pass the torch" following a period of personal reflection.

It was also revealed that Rodney Clark will be the new corporate vice president of Global Channel Sales and channel chief for Microsoft. Having spent 23 years with Microsoft himself, Clark most recently served as vice president of IoT and Mixed Reality Sales.

"Over the coming months I am committed to helping Rodney onboard and helping my teams close the year strong and prepare the business for the future," Schuster said.

Schuster has spent five years as Microsoft's corporate vice president of Commercial Partner and has previously held a number of leadership positions during her 25-year spell. Prior to her most recent role, she also spent more than two years as general manager of the Worldwide Partner Programs and Marketing.

"I have been blessed to work with amazing leaders within my team, the partner ecosystem and the field for the last 7 years," Schuster said. "We have accomplished much together as I led the organisation through the formation of the One Commercial Partner team, the development of our cloud ecosystem, and the maturation of the Cloud Solution Provider program. We have evolved MPN and Partner Center, and helped partners grow their business through the co-sell motion."

In her announcement, she said her decision was the result of a period of reflection on her time in the role, as well as her personal passions.

"The restrictions brought on by COVID have given me time to reflect on and reconnect with my passions and to spark a new passion to drive a movement to shift the status quo and make an impact on inclusion and gender equity in the tech industry," she said.

The channel won’t see a return to pre-coved trading conditions until Q4, according to Exclusive Networks CEO Jesper Trolle.

Trolle, who was appointed CEO last September, said that business for the company in the first half of 2021 would be similar to the last three-quarters of 2020.

“We still expect to be growing nicely, but we don't really expect the world to revert back to normal anytime soon,” he said, speaking at a virtual press conference on Wednesday to announce its latest revenue figures.

“We think there will be a gradual opening in the latter half of the year so beginning late Q3 and then Q4 will probably be where we see a bit more normalized trading environment.”

Exclusive Networks said that its annual revenues for its financial year 2020 were €2.6 billion, with sales and operating income up 8% year-on-year - compared to 17% growth from the previous year.

Trolle said this dip was largely attributed to the strengthening of the Euro against other currencies, which meant that any non-Euro sale translated into “a significant drag on our sales growth”.

“Second, being in now 50 countries, there are always some countries that are a little bit behind the curve and needs a little bit more love and care than others,” he said. “As like any other distributor and partner, we have a few of these markets where we want to and need to do better, for this year and in the following years.”

Andy Travers, EVP Sales and Marketing at Exclusive Networks, said that European markets performed particularly well.

“We were very resilient in mainland Europe. We saw different challenges and pressures elsewhere in the market where the impact of the pandemic was perhaps more severe, and some countries weren’t as well equipped to handle it. I think what we learned from it was the company spirit. Everybody embraced that challenge and got onto business as usual and delivered through the pandemic,” he said.

Travers added that although teams were forced to go remote, they “managed through the pandemic very efficiently”.

“I think flexibility, adaptability, and that must-win attitude really shone through,” he added.

Correction: This article originally incorrectly stated that recovery would not occur until 2024 - this should have been Q4 of 2021, and so the article has been changed to reflect this

Dell Technologies has unveiled its new RISE program for partners in EMEA, which has been designed to maximise profit potential and growth for channel businesses.

Now live, the initiative merges Dell’s existing independent country offerings into a single unified offering for the region.

As part of the Dell Technologies Partner Program, RISE aims to provide an improved and more lucrative engagement path for both new and existing authorised resellers, enabling them to sell more across the Dell client and server portfolios.

The refreshed scheme will reward partners as they progress and work towards metal tier requirements and further financial benefits, Dell said.

“In 2020 we have seen growth in every quarter in the number of resellers selling Dell Technologies products and solutions, but now we want to capture and accelerate this momentum,” explained Ralf Jordan, VP of EMEA distribution at Dell.

RISE offers a range of levels for partners - Ignite, Boost, Advanced and Elite - that aim to help them level up to metal tiers.

With its progressive reward scale, the initiative rewards partners on a US dollars per-box basis, based on revenue made through a Dell Technologies Authorised Distributor.

These can be earned on a range of commercial client products – including Displays, Latitude Notebooks, Optiplex, and Precision Workstations, XPS Desktops, PowerEdge Servers, and more.

Dell said partners will be able to accumulate dollars every quarter, paid out as e-vouchers for Ignite and Boost partners or credit notes for Advanced and Elite members, which can then be used against partners’ next Dell purchase from an Authorised Distributor.

Existing partners will be moved to the RISE program automatically, the vendor added, while new resellers can enrol as Ignite or Boost tier partners via Dell’s Performance Portal.

“With our industry-leading portfolio and launch of RISE, we’re providing a more formal engagement path for these Authorised Partners to become part of the Dell Technologies partner community and grow their Dell Technologies business even further,” Jordan added.

“Through RISE, partners will have increased opportunity and profit potential to support their growth with us and rise through the Dell Technologies Program levels.”

Westbase.io has announced a new distribution agreement with RealWear, a provider of hands-free head-mounted tablets for digital transformation in industry.

The distributor, which specialises in 4G, 5G and the Internet of Things (IoT), said the deal will help meet the growing demand for augmented reality (AR) and wearable solutions for businesses - enabling the firm and its channel partners to expand their connected worker offering across the UK, Benelux, Nordics and wider Europe.

The addition of RealWear to the portfolio builds upon Westbase.io’s commitment to embracing the latest tech for industry, it added.

"We've been looking at AR tech and its applications in business for a while now; the potential it has for enabling first line workers to be more productive, while maintaining safety at all times, is huge,” explained Sacha Kakad, Managing Director for Westbase.io.

"But there’s no doubt that the events of 2020, and their repercussions which will carry through to 2021 and beyond, have considerably accelerated the adoption of this technology across many industries.”

RealWear’s head-mounted tablets are designed to help reduce the number of people in close contact with each other, as well as providing workers with in-situ information and in-the-field training. The tech has found particular cause across the healthcare, oil and gas and manufacturing sectors.

That’s because, with hands-free remote collaboration and communication, first-line and field workers can benefit from senior or specialist support with the need for physical presence – erasing travel complications and aiding social distancing. It can also increase business’ first-time fix rate, Westbase.io says – ultimately helping to boost productivity, improve safety and drive cost savings.

With deployments of the tablets having increased dramatically in recent times, the distributor said it is excited to help expand this presence further.

“It’s a significant opportunity for Westbase.io and our channel partners to deliver remote solutions which address real-world problems and business advancements,” Kakad continued.

“While it allows us to answer direct market demands today, driven by the pandemic, we’re even more excited for the wider possibilities and look forward to working with RealWear and our partners to bring their leading range of solutions to businesses across Europe.”

UK chancellor Michael Gove has announced a £20 million SME Brexit Support Fund to help small and medium-sized businesses when trading with the European Union.

The funding has been made available to help companies tackle new customs, rules of origin, and VAT rules when conducting business with the bloc.

SMBs that trade solely with the EU are being encouraged to apply for grants of up to £2,000 per trader to help pay for support, training, and professional advice to maintain effective trading.

The government said the move follows “extensive engagement” with individual businesses, leading business organisations, and trade associations from across the UK, including the ‘Brexit Business Taskforce’.

Funds will be delivered through the pre-existing Customs Grant Scheme and will be open for applications from SMBs next month.

“This new targeted funding will see small businesses get more of the practical support they need to adjust to the new processes and prepare for further changes as we implement our own import controls in April and July,” commented Michael Gove, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.

The Government said it made the decision to introduce these new import controls in three stages up to 1st July 2021 to give traders and hauliers “time to adjust to the new processes”. That means businesses will not have to complete new import declarations for up to six months - unless they are moving controlled goods.

Members of the Brexit Business Taskforce, which is chaired by Gove and set up to address Brexit-related business challenges, welcomed the additional support, the Government said.

“Small businesses, often with few cash reserves, are for the first time facing complex new customs processes, VAT requirements and rules of origin,” commented Mike Cherry, National Chair at the Federation of Small Businesses. “While many have come to FSB for help, we have been asking for proper financial assistance of this scale, so that a cash-strapped small business can afford to buy-in expertise, training and practical support.

“The new fund will make a significant difference, and we are pleased that Ministers have really engaged with us on this, and come up with an excellent response.”

said Allie Rennison, head of Trade Policy at the Institute of Directors, adding that the move will help smaller firms manage these new processes.

“This support package delivers on the IoD’s longstanding campaign to help SMBs access the professional advice needed in managing a suite of changes arising from Brexit,” she said.

The European IT channel marked the end of 2020 with a record €26.3 billion in distribution sales and year-on-year growth of 10.2% for Q4, the latest data from IT market intelligence firm Context has revealed.

According to the research, full-year sales hit €83.3 billion and growth stood at 7.2%, compared to €77.8 billion and 3.6% growth in 2019.

The totals continued the overall trend for 2020 – a year which saw the channel exceed expectations during every quarter, despite supply chain shortages and widespread office closures due to the pandemic.

"The IT channel in Europe has ended 2020 by once again outperforming expectations — we have not seen double-digit growth in a quarter in recent years,” commented Adam Simon, global managing director at Context.

The push for digital transformation and the increased demand from home workers and students propelled most countries to strong growth, Context said, despite a fall in demand in many IT categories.

The strongest growth was found in Poland (30%), followed by the Czech Republic (15%), Spain (13%) and Italy (11%). Only France (-2%), Austria (-5%) and Slovakia (-7%) saw negative growth.

Mobile PCs were a key driver, with notebook volumes increasing by 37% year-on-year and revenue growing to 31%, the data revealed. There was also strong demand from the education and healthcare sectors for tablets and laptops, while the consumer space saw a boost for both traditional and gaming laptops.

Small and medium resellers (SMRs) continued to dominate the channel in 2020 with a 36% market share.

Corporate resellers lost 2% of their share over the period, accounting for 26.4% of the market in 2020, Context also found, while retail chain players saw their share increase by almost one percentage point to 23.3%.

Etail business outlets continued to hang around the 3% mark - while the etail consumer channel increased its share by 1.6%, growing to 10.7%.

Looking forward to 2021, Context predicts the European IT channel could get close to its first €100 billion revenue year.

"With the current level of demand for digital products, there’s more to come in 2021. We expect growth to restart in the early part of January,” Simon continued.

“Rather than start the year with an empty pipeline after the strong finish to 2020, we’ll see the opposite. There’s still huge demand that can’t be satisfied due in part to supply shortages and this will continue to drive channel sales growth.”

The situation in which we live and work has changed and I, like millions of others, have had to pivot quickly to fulfil my professional responsibilities remotely.

The world continues to turn, however, and digital transformation has accelerated by more than five years in the UK, bringing with it a surging business demand for enterprise tech. As a result, vendors have had to find a way to make operations work, wherever they are, and be there for our customers at this crucial moment.

Through conversations with our partners, which began long before COVID-19, we identified the pain points in their day-to-day work that could be addressed with a new mobile-based engagement platform. Comprising the traditional components of a partner programme, including communication, education, motivation and rewards, the system we call Samsung One became a natural next step for this new era of remote and hybrid working.

Close encounters

We cannot attribute the rise of mobility to the pandemic. We were all increasingly checking emails and taking business calls on our smartphones pre-pandemic, but the requirement of full-time remote working has highlighted the value of a mobile-first approach.

We acknowledged the need to create a central hub through which we could remotely present data, analytics and essential insight in review meetings. Our partners and their salespeople can also access personalised dashboards full of data and analysis for them to track their progress and identify where they can shift performance to the next level.

Above all, they can maintain frequent contact with partners and provide them with the support they need, whenever they need it. Everyone is in this situation together and communication is vital to building ways to optimise collaborative working.

On-the-go learning

The absence of office or off-site training sessions presents a very real risk of stagnating professional development. With more than 12,000 affiliated salespeople in the UK, we hold a responsibility to help improve their understanding of our products and give them the opportunities to learn. Online training modules can become cumbersome, especially for those that already spend most of their days staring at a laptop screen, so we instead offered a series of B2B training modules delivered by mobile.

We believe this format change won’t only suit the current working model, but the hybrid approach that we’ll likely see come into play next year. Salespeople are, naturally, on-the-go professionals and the ability to complete training exercises on their smartphones or tablets in flexible ways that suit their new schedules, will unlock new time for them to dedicate to their own development.

Fighting isolation

With research showing around half of UK business leaders are suffering motivational issues with their staff, we got to work on devising a rewards programme that helped people feel as if their work was being valued. We built-in a comprehensive incentives programme into our mobile platform that rewards exceptional performance and gives credit where it’s due. Be it exceeding sales targets, driving best practice, or reaching training objectives, partners need to know their effort are appreciated. It’s a simple commitment, but one that flies under the radar.

We also plan on selecting a series of exceptional sales agents to form part of our Champions Programme down the line. These experts will form a community to share knowledge, advice and tips from their own experiences and encourage collective progress as a network. These are important considerations when you take into account how isolating remote working can be.

As we emerge from a period of enforced lockdowns, however, we must anticipate the dawn of a more permanent hybrid approach to work. Through this transition, we must all commit to applying communication, education, motivation and incentivisation to guarantee maximum engagement with our partners and their sales agents.

With workforces distributed across offices and homes, we’re confident a mobile-first approach is flexible enough for people to remain engaged wherever they are. We’re all in this together, and this opportunity to take a significant step forward with your channel partners is one that must be welcomed.

Joe Walsh is director of B2B at Samsung UK & Ireland

The dual forces of COVID-19 and the ensuing lockdown has presented challenges to businesses of all shapes and sizes. The UK reseller environment is no different. As the reseller community grapples with the dilemma to either batten down the hatches and try to ride out the storm, or to intensify efforts with domestic operations, what specifically can be done to meet the demands of working under a pandemic?

My gut instinct tells me that here lies the opportunity for resellers to grab all available chances and to adopt a ‘can’t-fail-won’t-fail’ attitude. The upside of greater risk is much greater reward, and I believe those who are willing to make bold choices while sailing the stormy seas of coronavirus will be those who benefit the most. Ultimately this will require much greater ‘thinking outside of the box’ coupled with the very real need to pivot given the traditional business model is currently unsustainable.

Competing in the big leagues

A specific dilemma that has been thrown up under the current operating conditions is the lack of personal interaction with partners. How, exactly, does a small distributor compete and win business against much bigger rivals? To give you an example, a smaller distributor might go into a reseller in the UK with just one or two vendors on the table. Larger distributors may well have up to 20 different vendors that they supply, and they’re likely to have someone who is full time looking after that one reseller.

The pandemic has seen smaller distributors operate at a disadvantage versus larger rivals when trying to win new business. The larger distributors tend to have call centres where potential partners can call up and get a price; the smaller guys don’t have that ability at scale. By not being able to meet existing and potential partners they have to think outside the box to keep themselves relevant. Basically, this means really being on top of your game to win and maintain business, exploring initiatives that drive personal service that you deliver and committing your dedication to your partners' success.

Building a gamification strategy

So what do such initiatives look like in real life? Our own initiative for partners involved expert webinars, hosted by experts and economists, providing insights and advice for partners on how to deal with the pandemic from a business perspective. Our ‘10 at 10’ challenge is a particular highlight, however, which exemplifies the gamification of the channel, and involves running a ten-question quiz for ten consecutive weeks with prizes on offer each week. This included a live leaderboard with over 120 partners taking part.

Without the physical interaction that we’re so used to, we had to get creative - and we’ve done exactly that. The benefits have been far-reaching; raising visibility, building lasting relationships. Our partners have loved taking part, and we have even been able to secure new partners as a result. Win-win all round. We’ve had 108 different partners participate in this campaign to date, which kicked-off back in March. As a business, we pride ourselves on developing one to one personal relationships and the account management and support we provide. We were faced with COVID so we had to think quickly to adapt, and these are the results. We've increased business and maintained the essence of what has made us successful. I firmly believe that we punch above our weight because we are deeply committed to a service-first approach.

For many resellers, the coming months will be the toughest they have ever faced as a business. Some might concentrate on simply keeping their heads above water - instead of looking at new opportunities. However, I choose to invest in an optimistic and bold approach which I am sure will pay off in the long term. We’ve worked extremely hard to transition our approach to the online world, we are maintaining our existing business and winning new partners.

Michael O'Hara is group managing director at DataSolutions

There’s no doubt that we’re all living very different lives than we’re used to, both personally and professionally. Businesses are struggling against an unseen foe and are trying to operate, with almost nil preparation, to survive under current conditions. This dramatic shift and struggle to adapt, however, means we haven’t really had the chance to take stock and think about what the future may look like.

If we consider the UK reseller environment right now, there’s one major dilemma, namely is now the time to batten down the hatches and try to mitigate the damage that may come as a result of the pandemic? Or is raising the mainsail and doubling down on operations the best way to turn the tide?

In my opinion, and based on over 30 years of experience, now is the time for resellers to seize all available opportunities and, more importantly, not to not give up. After all, people working in this challenging environment are willing to make bold choices and, where possible, businesses need to move fast. Now is the time to be brave and just go for it. In the midst of murky waters that lie ahead, taking a calculated risk may see resellers reap the rewards.

All hands-on deck

Unquestionably, we’re far from ‘business as usual’. Although, despite so much uncertainty, we can look to a handful of silver linings. The ways in which our normal ways of working, for example, have changed during COVID-19, in turn, presenting new opportunities. Now is the time for resellers to engage with their new and existing distributors to assess whether there are new value-add technologies that can be provided to end-users. Think strategically about how the pandemic is affecting them, what might be keeping them up at night, and how these challenges can be met. Resellers can then adjust their pitch around addressing these specific concerns.

This is also an ideal time to show current vendors some love. Resellers should be thinking about increasing the amount of product training being offered across their sales teams. Become an expert and have a full understanding of each vendor and their products sets. This is where value can really be added. Vendors want to work with partners who are focused on their technologies and will prioritise their attention and resources to these partners; make sure you’re one of them.

Running a tight ship

During the good times, reseller partners can feel comfortable about how they’re performing and might be reluctant to move their business to a new supplier; the ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ mentality. However, in recessionary times resellers are concerned about how they can remain profitable and somehow sustain or even grow their business. Resellers may have seen their sales pipeline fall in recent times and will be more eager than normal to discover new marketing angles to generate sales. Marketing is often the first budget line to be cut in times of crisis but that’s a short-term strategy. Don’t stop marketing. I can’t stress that enough. Distributors should be able to help here, particularly on the marketing side. Putting a stop on marketing would be one of the worst things you could do right now; just be sure to adapt it. In this way, having good incentive programmes and bespoke deals will help resellers to generate sales during this time.

Making waves

It’s important that you’re selling a set of solutions that have strong growth potential. I like to point out to my sales teams that they’re selling cutting-edge technologies and not trying to sell black and white TVs.

There are indeed strong areas of growth in the market today. For example, with so many of us working from home, the sheer quantity of people using the cloud has forced many companies to upgrade their existing remote working apps, or deploy new services entirely. It’s entirely plausible that all of this will have a long-term impact on how people work on a virtual basis, in every market. It’s important that resellers, therefore, have a comprehensive plan in place and an understanding of the current market conditions.

This journey ahead is by no means an easy one. For many resellers, the coming months will be the toughest they have ever faced as a business and many may prioritise keeping their heads above water, rather than looking at new opportunities. I truly believe, however, that an optimistic and bold approach now could pay off in the longer term. This is about adapting to what we face right now – and seizing the opportunities that will undoubtedly be on offer in the months ahead.

Michael O’Hara is group managing director at DataSolutions

Organisations across all industries are changing working practices in response to COVID-19. The lockdown has forced those who can into widespread remote working, while others have adopted new, innovative services to replace normal activities. We’re witnessing companies being inventive in a variety of ways, but one factor that connects them all is the rapid acceleration of digital transformation.

While many would have had a long-term plan in place for the adoption of technology, the demands of COVID-19 have seen timetables greatly accelerated and altered. Take the NHS, for example. Much has been said about how technology can ease some of its pressures and slowly these technologies have historically been introduced. But fast-forward to 2020 and it has undergone years of transformation in the space of a few months. Out of necessity, some of the ‘red tape’ has been stripped back and new hospitals are being connected rapidly, while GPs are consulting remotely, and patients are speaking to loved ones from ICU beds via connected devices.

For others, technology adoption has been completely forced upon them. Unplanned and rapid, digital transformations have been kickstarted and businesses now find themselves on a journey they gave little thought of being on even weeks before the lockdown started.

Whatever the case, as we move into the ‘new normal’ and lockdown stretches past what most thought would be its original duration, companies will require a helping hand. They will need a partner to help navigate through the current environment and ensure they have access to the most suitable solutions for both current and future needs; the channel has never been more important.

How can the channel adapt?

The channel has consistently evolved to offer new technologies, but it’s now vital that this process happens faster than ever, and in a variety of ways, to support new timelines and digital transformation journeys. The rapid adoption of new technology has required additional sales services; companies need to understand which solutions are right for them and how to extract maximum value from them. The post-COVID world will see increased digital infrastructure spend, and the expectation for more comprehensive services will grow as technology becomes more critical.

Therefore, channel operators will need to manage how they can keep service levels high, while also improving sales and lowering costs. This may involve analysing client lists and ceasing relationships with certain customers so more resources can be focused on others; spreading too thinly will be detrimental to all.

Another decision is whether to rely on a physical office. Not only will likely social distancing regulations greatly decrease capacity, but the situation has proven that productive remote working is possible. That raises questions around whether centralised locations are now necessary and if partners can operate with greater agility and deliver a better service when employees are spread nationwide and beyond.

Enhanced deployment and support agility are also key as they will have more influence in future procurement decisions. Companies have been rapidly adopting technology throughout coronavirus and they will expect future deployments to be handled in the same manner. Channel organisations must also assess if bottlenecks exist when delivering deployments and streamlining.

A new era requires new selling

Channel sellers will need to be upskilled. The channel is known for being a vocal community, both in terms of networking and selling, but there will be a push for more digital and self-serve selling. Operators will also need to find new ways to add value and close deals. Additionally, in some cases, customers’ longer-term digital strategies may have to be prioritised over short-term deals.

Some of the sales status quos will need to change too. Organisations are now hesitant to agree to deals that last years and, in response, the channel must be more accommodating along the entire chain. This could include suppliers offering more short-term deals that have reduced cancellation fees, for instance. For the foreseeable future, businesses will be operating with the utmost fiscal caution and the channel must be adaptable to such pressure.

To support this change of approach, partners should be in open dialogue with customers to understand how requirements are evolving. There has to be a balance between providing tools that address short-term issues and those that facilitate future plans – such as incorporating the Internet of Things (IoT) or harnessing 5G.

Facilitating the digital future

COVID-19 has created a period of transition with plans and timetables hastily rewritten. Digital transformation has been greatly accelerated and companies now either find themselves much further along in their journeys, or on a completely new one. As such, digital spending will increase as companies look to continue the momentum gained in the last few months.

Ensuring the most value is driven from current and future adoption will see many companies turning to the channel for assistance and operators must evolve to meet new demands. Customers need partners to be agile, and this will require new skills, selling processes and an adjustment from the status quo. In order to support the new landscape and cultivate profitable relationships, the channel needs to be a flexible resource.

Gavin Jones is director of channel with BT Wholesale