It’s Getting Crowded in the Cloud

by Diane Krakora, CEO

Every day we see more and more players enter the ‘cloud’ market. Be that vendors offering an on-demand/subscription based model, partners positioning data center virtualization solutions as ‘private cloud, or service providers announcing new public cloud offerings.  As the cloud lexicon becomes more confusing, we’re seeing more chaos in the market – which of course brings opportunity.  But, is anyone buying?  Gartner states that from their recent research of CIOs, one-third of respondents expect to be using cloud in the next 18 months.  What kind of cloud isn’t defined. Continue reading →

Creating Cultures of Complexity Awareness

Beth Vanni – Vice President

This week we resurfaced the age-old channel issue of Ease of Doing Business in our most recent Webinar: How Easy Are You? Driving Simplicity in your Partnering Model. This discussion featured panelists Heidi Dethloff, VP, BP & Midmarket Marketing for IBM and Michael Sotnick, VP, Global Channels for Quest Software.

Cost of doing business and complexity factors into the overall value equation from a vendor to a solution provider. It plays into partner loyalty and becomes a part of the solution providers’ decision to invest in new product lines. Solution providers have complained for years about having to invest in staffing to “de-code” channel programs. Continue reading →

The Emergence of Partner-Led

by Diane Krakora, CEO

Now maybe I’m wrong (it happens sometimes), but I’ve been working in the channel for over 20 years, and I’ve always thought the primary role of solution providers (previously called resellers) was to drive sales.  I cut my teeth in this industry at Merisel (anyone remember them?) and although my memory fades from time-to-time, I seem to recall that selling was a key expected competency from people that bought from distribution. Ya, ya, they had to know how to install the router/switch/hub or implement the software, but the “reseller” couldn’t even get there without – yep, you guessed it – selling! Continue reading →

Cisco Gets It!

Mia Blank – Client Services Director

Year after year, Cisco has taken feedback from their partners and put it into action.  This year is no exception. With a host of new programs and offerings announced including the HCS (Hosted Collaboration Services), focus on new trends such as BYOD (Bring Your Own Device), Unified Workspace and Jabber, the partner community is all abuzz about how they can become even stronger partners with Cisco.

As a new voice on the PartnerPath team, it’s refreshing to go into this event from analyst/consulting angle versus from a Channel Sales Management angle. While other large technology companies request feedback and input from their partners, Cisco continues to set itself apart from the rest by not only requesting the feedback, but actually taking the feedback and putting it into action.

Another key differentiator is the level of access partners and analysts are offered while at the event to key Cisco executives such as John Chambers, Rob Lloyd and Gary Moore  —   CEO, EVP WW Operations and COO, respectively -  in 1:1’s and round table sessions with “lightening” rounds.  It’s unprecedented.  And, it makes Cisco partners know their importance to Cisco’s success.

Being one of – if not THE – most partner-focused company on the planet, Cisco gets the power of the channel!

To Jabber, Chatter or Lync? – That is the Question

Cisco Offers Free Jabber License in its Quest to Own Desktop Collaboration

Cisco Offers Free Jabber License in its Quest to Own Desktop Collaboration

Beth Vanni – Vice President

I don’t think I’m alone in my difficulty in keeping up with the leading IT vendors’ mad onrush to own the dominant market position in the secure, virtualized and highly collaborative desktop environment.  All the major network, software and device manufacturers have thrown their hat in the ring, coming at the computing problem from different angles.   Cisco has been in this space with multiple technologies, but this week made a major move with a free license to its collaboration software, Jabber, to advance its position.

Salesforce.com launched Chatter over two years ago, to move its SFA and Service Cloud users to its vision of social media for the enterprise.  And, to get broad adoption (I think they have over 3 million users at last note) they gave away the application to existing Salesforce SFA users for the first year.  Microsoft is also pushing Lync really hard both through its roll-out of Office 365 and as a stand-alone collaboration application with a defacto position that this will be “Skype for the Enterprise”.  It offers instant messaging, click to call and all the traditional application based collaboration functions.  And, of course, there’s a myriad of other independent collaboration software players, including IBM Lotus Notes, Oracle Beehive, VMware’s Zimbra and many others.  And, that’s not even mentioning today’s marketshare leaders in VDI, namely Citrix and VMware. Continue reading →

It’s All About You

Cisco Redefines How to Create Real Partner Value with “Return on Cisco” Model

Beth Vanni – Vice President

It’s always unique and endearing when an IT executive can forgo discussion of their technology and market trends and really speak to their partners’ interests, from the heart.  Edison Perez, Cisco SVP of Partners & Alliances, never fails to deliver in that area.

In his keynote speech here at the 16^th annual Cisco Partner Summit, Perez continued this partnering thought leadership by redefining how the network giant will attempt to address what’s important to a solution provider’s growth and success.  Dubbed their  “Return on Cisco” measurement model, Perez described a combining of his company’s own value proposition to partners with what traditional financial investors look for when infusing capital.  He described Cisco’s appreciation for creating a sustained and robust value proposition to their channel partners but also helping them address the growth and funding challenges they experience in their local capital markets. Continue reading →

Managed and Cloud Services : Toe-in-The Water or Taking the Plunge?

by Diane Krakora, CEO

In our last webinar, we invited Mont Phelps, CEO of NWN Corporation and Simon Palmer, CEO of STA to share their perspective on our 6^th Annual State of Partnering Study findings. Teaming up with MarketStar and PureChannels, this study queried 98 vendors and 250 solution providers on their investments, priorities and challenges for 2012.

Both NWN Corporation and STA are focused on selling services — both managed services and professional services in 2012. In terms of the cloud, our State of Partnering Study showed that vendors are moving from expecting partners to only act as sales agents to performing multiple selling and service roles around their cloud services. STA claims it is a neophyte in this area. Continue reading →

2012: The Channel’s Year of the Dragon

Beth Vanni – Vice President, PartnerPath

This month, we released the results from our 6^th Annual State of Partnering Study, titled, “2012 Channel Year of the Dragon.” As with the Chinese Zodiac, where the Year of the Dragon is considered a year of bold action, 2012 is expected to be a year of renewed growth for both IT vendors and solution providers. With the help of MarketStar and PureChannel, we gathered insights from 98 global vendors and 250 North American solution providers to identify their key priorities, challenges and spending plans for 2012.

In some ways, the challenges and investments required to make IT partnering really impactful have not changed at all.  We’ve seen the same challenges around getting partners the right skills, helping them evolve their business model and spending dollars in the right way to help them go to market most profitably.  On the other hand, a lot has changed in the last five years. Vendors now recognize partner value on multiple levels, and the concept of a “value added reseller” has become more that of a “value added relationship.”  With IT delivery models more transparent and flexible than ever, the average channel partner has had to redefine how they add value, and where they invest.  Intellectual property now takes the form of depth of customer insights, understanding of key business processes and services delivery expertise.  That evolution changes the way that vendors and partners rely on each other, and how they go to market together. Continue reading →

Ease of Doing Business Takes Top Priority for 2012

by Diane Krakora, CEO

In our last webinar, we invited Mont Phelps, CEO of NWN Corporation and Simon Palmer, CEO of STA to share their perspective on our 6^th Annual State of Partnering Study findings. Teaming up with MarketStar and PureChannels, this study queried 98 vendors and 250 solution providers on their investments, priorities and challenges for 2012.

Ease of Doing Business has been listed over the past four years as an important priority for vendors. This year, it actually was the top priority. We think this is due to the need to help partners leverage skills investments to accelerate top-line sales growth such as technology capabilities and certifications. How big of a problem is channel program complexity still? Are you seeing vendors becoming easier to do business with? Continue reading →

IBM wants to get radical

by Diane Krakora, CEO

At this year’s PartnerWorld Leadership Conference, IBM touted their commitment to radically simplifying the way they do business with partners. They are right in line with the rest of the vendor community.  The 100 vendors represented in our 2012 State of Partnering study ranked “ease of doing business” as their top priority for 2012.

The North America partner team in IBM has 5 initiatives they are implementing to make doing business with IBM easy and straight-forward. Continue reading →