Where and What is Channel X
As voice and data have not only converged but moved beyond that basic convergence to provide valuable tools, via unified communications, for addressing the needs of today’s changing business environment, the reseller channel has remained a significant obstacle to the growth of the “converged” industry. It has become painfully clear to most manufacturers that their traditional data or voice partners are ill-equipped to position and sell the converged solutions that address the business needs of their customers, especially as more solutions are software- or even cloud-based. In short, the traditional reseller has been left behind on both sides - by rapidly advancing converged technology and by customers’ changed buying criteria.
As one vendor put it, “We’re looking for Channel X”. But what does “Channel X” look like? What changes will the typical data VAR or telecom dealer have to make to their traditional model in order to be part of “Channel X”? Channel X is being driven by two significant factors – the shift from hardware-based products to software applications, virtualization, and “the cloud”; and the demands of customers for solutions to their business issues. Remember when companies upgraded their PCs every 6 months - from the 286 to the 386 to the 486 to the whatever just because they were told they needed the latest and greatest? Long gone! Remember when customers were locked into a proprietary phone system that only grew so much before it had to be traded in on a whole new system? Mostly gone! Yes, the technology has changed dramatically from those days (which aren’t really that long ago), but what about the VAR and telecom dealer who sold the hardware and the proprietary phone system? Have they changed as well?
So back to Channel X…. There is a group of “resellers” right now who basically have the characteristics that we want to see in Channel X. That group is the large software applications integrators providing solutions from Oracle, SAP, etc. The characteristics that make them the model for Channel X include:
• Typically large organizations who have positioned themselves as “consultants” or “business experts” – considered problem solvers
• Come into a customer at the highest levels (CXO) - talk business issues, strategies, etc.
• Work their way down to line of business managers - talk about specific issues, problems, challenges
• Often work in “teams” of sales people – giving illusion of depth and breadth of expertise
• Generally work in complex sales environments with long lead times to close
• Sales people generally more knowledgeable about business and business issues than about the technical aspects of the software that they represent
• Often have different sales/technical teams to focus on specific verticals
• Provide a high level of expertise via project managers, technical team, customer response team, etc.
• Will easily pull in resources from outside the organization when necessary
Admittedly, most of these integrators are large businesses with considerable resources at hand. Yet their model can be “down-sized” to fit even the smallest VAR or telecom dealer to make them a convergence or UC “Solutions Integrator”. But here’s the rub… vendors are looking for a channel that at this point is incredibly small. There are too few converged “Solutions Integrators” and too many vendors needing their skills to sell the vendors’ products. Vendors are now faced with a dilemma that they haven’t addressed before now – do they wait (and hope) for more traditional resellers to evolve into “Solutions Integrators” or do they take some initiative in actually assisting their existing partners in the evolution? Hmmmm…. wait and hope, or be proactive? Find the needle in the haystack or leverage what you already have?
Some vendors have already started being more proactive in building their own Channel X. They’re assessing the business structure and vision, sales and marketing skills, technical skills, and market opportunities of their current partners to determine the following:
• Where do their partners stand today on a “convergence/UC readiness” scale?
• Which partners are most likely to be willing and able to evolve closer to Channel X?
• What can the vendor provide to facilitate the evolution of these likely partners?
In addition, some vendors are thinking outside of the traditional box to determine how best to attract some of the resellers who already fit in the Channel X category.
This is a significant time for vendors – a decision time. If the channel overall is not changing fast enough to keep up with the advances in technology, how will the products coming out of the changing technology be sold to generate revenue for vendors? Wait and hope….. be proactive….. think outside the box?