Intelligent Tech Channels Issue 42 | Page 24

PARTNERS ’ PERSPECTIVE

Part of the Lynchpin Media team , Manda Banda has more than 20 years of experience working for channel publications . He shares the knowledge he has learnt during that time in this monthly column for Intelligent Tech Channels .

Becoming a Digital Transformation channel leader

Manda Banda , Deputy Managing Editor , Lynchpin Media
Manda Banda is Lynchpin Media ’ s Deputy Managing Editor and Editor of Intelligent CIO Middle East and Intelligent CIO Africa .
Enterprises are undertaking Digital Transformation to better engage and serve their workforce and customers and thus improve their ability to compete . How can channel partners become Digital Transformation leaders and help their customers to succeed with Digital Transformation and help the to drive their digital strategies ?

As the rush to speed up Digital Transformation initiatives continues unabated in many large companies , smaller and medium companies across the Middle East market , many in the channel are probably thinking what the fuss is all about . Clearly , this shouldn ’ t be confused or mistaken to be an unwillingness to adapt to the realities of doing business in the digital age . It ’ s just that Digital Transformation – or at least an early , organic stage of it – has been underway in many small and medium businesses ( SMBs ) for the better part of a decade , even if the people running these firms ( who also happen to make up a huge chunk of the channel market ) haven ’ t always called it that .

There is a significant channelpartner opportunity in helping SMBs along in their ongoing Digital Transformations , beginning and achieving new initiatives .
So , what is Digital Transformation and why should channel partners take interest in it ? Digital Transformation is the incorporation of computer-based technologies into an organisation ’ s products , processes and strategies . Enterprises of all sizes undertake Digital Transformation to better engage and serve their workforce and customers and thus improve their ability to compete in a highly competitive business environment . Digital Transformation has picked up particular steam in the past couple of years , made hyper-popular in the business world by its widespread use in the channel , media , in the analyst community and by IT vendors and distributors especially now during the COVID-19 pandemic .
The roots of what we commonly call Digital Transformation today in the channel began for many SMBs at least 10 years ago , fuelled especially by exploding adoption of cloud and managed services .
This ushered in a truly transformative phase for SMBs operating with limited budgets and limited human capital . What the change has meant is that launching a new digital product or service no longer required building out an expensive data centre as was the case 10 to 15 years ago . A small sales team could use a robust CRM application without a multi-month , multi-million dollar enterprise software project and teams distributed around the world could increasingly work together as if they were all huddled together in the same conference room or office space . SMBs back then were better positioned than ever to complete on a large , global scale , pursuing new revenue streams and operational efficiencies that once might have been unthinkable .
Why the brief history lesson ? The answer lies in the fact that there is a significant channel-partner opportunity in helping SMBs along in their ongoing Digital Transformations , beginning and achieving new initiatives , and
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