EXPERT SPEAK
Partners and vendors should be working
together in the technology ecosystem.
Partners should be innovating with their
suppliers, not competing with them for
contracts and projects. For vendors, this
competition potentially risks channel
investment and commitment to your
products. Key to this is letting them compete
on value not price. Let’s make life easier for
our partners. This simple approach needs to
filter through to how we educate and train
partners too. Selling technology in a new
world of IoT or Artificial Intelligence isn’t an
easy task. The challenge for vendors is to
help partners cut through this noisy market,
invest strategically in channel marketing,
provide the training partners need and help
them get to market so they can get on with
the job of building better solutions. Part of
this requires the industry to make sure that
technology is more than just a commodity, it
needs to be a living, breathing solution that
differentiates partners from competitors.
Simplify to enable and succeed
A synergy between vendors and the channel is
what makes innovation work. When it comes
to channel programmes, it’s about taking what
works and changing what doesn’t.
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Issue 21
Be your partner’s best friend
INTELLIGENT TECH CHANNELS
a sensible transition time-frame and being
sensitive to the differences between mature
and developing markets, vendors enable
partners to become the most successful
businesses they can be. This is further aided
by specialising in key verticals. Partners
can become industry leaders in niche
markets where they can differentiate with
technological superiority and expertise,
whilst vendors can maximise this advantage
with greater brand awareness and
investment in lead generation.
A simplified partner programme gives
partners of all sizes a much clearer road-map
to success, coupled with a more meaningful
place in the programme and greater access
to better resources. This means partners can
focus more on their own businesses, become
experts in key verticals and innovate with
customers and empower themselves to meet
market challenges and customer needs. The
channel must thrive, not just survive, in a
world with technology at its core.
End customers are demanding that
partners be experts in next generation
technology and they want solutions
now. Next generation technologies like
Smart Cities rely on integrated solutions.
Unfortunately for end customers, the
products are rarely compatible with each
other when bought off the shelf. That’s why
the channel is integral to the success of
projects like Smart City deployments, smart
education or superior hotel Wi-Fi.
In a Smart City deployment, the
channel has the expertise to create solutions
which cover the entire project deployment.
Using multiple vendors for different elements
of the project, the channel can provide the
creativity and knowledge to bridge these
devices and technologies. The channel can
leverage vendor knowledge of verticals
to build and offer cutting edge solutions.
Partners can then become experts in the best
way to apply these technologies to a specific
niche, differentiate themselves and develop
superior solutions with high profitability.
Specialisation allows partners of all sizes
to compete against more general, typically
larger and less dynamic competition. It also
enables them to best understand how to
integrate next generation technologies as
part of complete solutions that meet the
demands of end-customers. The industry
has just experienced one of the biggest
transitions in its history with the move to
cloud but, already, customer demands are
changing again, particularly towards IoT, and
vendors cannot let their partners down. By
recognising vertical expertise, there is an
opportunity for channel programmes to drive
these forward rapidly. A specialised approach
empowers partners to keep pace with,
and meet, customer needs, whether that’s
developing solutions which make businesses
more effective, or pushing the boundaries of
technology with ambitious deployments.
Find your technology bite
The channel must thrive,
not just survive, in a world
with technology at its core.
reward. As vendors, we need to invigorate
partners, not hold them back.
There is no doubt that vendors need to
make the channel simpler, for the benefit
of everyone involved. Fewer classifications
coupled with accessible information and
resources gives partners a more meaningful
place in the programme and a simplified
pathway to success.
Moreover, by providing support,
investing in the channel, allowing partners
T
o tackle the big technological issues
that society is facing, innovation
is key. Vendors can provide the
tools for innovation, but their partners
are the ones who are going to offer the
solutions to revolutionise our world. The
best partnerships are based on the simple
principle of making each other’s businesses
better; sharing the risk but also sharing the
r for
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