ESG Blogs

"The channel" remains a crucial connection between the vendor and user communities, but like everything else in IT, it has evolved. In this discussion, part of ESG's 360 Video Series, Kevin Rhone considers some of the key changes for channel partners in recent years. These organizations have a tremendous influence over much of what is sold to, and used by, IT organizations. With a direct, vendor-owned sales force being such an expensive option, it is typically reserved for only the largest customers and/or the big-ticket items. Everything else normally flows through the channel ecosystem, which has gradually shifted from being essentially a product fulfillment operation to provide far more of an advisory status. Kevin delves into why this change is underway, and addresses whom it is good for.     

Always fun, we’ve had the chance over the past year to meet with the top IT channel leaders as they use the tools at their disposal (technology and product sets, program elements and options, resources, and teams) to gain attention from and drive business through IT partners of all types.

Lots of forward-looking going on at this year’s Dell Technologies World (DTW - the former Dell EMC World) with main stage focus on the promise of Digital Transformation and IT Transformation on the world of IT.

Of course, no IT event in 2018 would be complete without a discussion of the 4th Industrial Revolution, the merging of the cyber and the physical, and the impact of AI and machine learning on everything related to IT infrastructure, IoT, and beyond!

The ESG Channel Awards give us an opportunity to highlight partner-led companies that have invested in their partners; taking steps to help them do more deals, drive their top and bottom lines, and continue to solve customer problems quickly and efficiently.

Next up in our 2018 Award Winners is Trend Micro. Trend really went for it this year, focusing on creating new go-to-market programs with key alliance partners. This effort provides options for customers to consume Trend technology, and gives great flexibility to Trend Micro partners that shortens sales cycles and makes it easy to deliver a range of solutions that end-users want to buy.  

Next in our 2018 Award Winners is Dell Technologies. After bringing Dell and EMC together officially in late 2016, making sure that two different programs and partner bases merged and stayed relevant was key. Maintaining mindshare from the top IT partners in 2017 was a complex task, one that they pulled off with flair!

We’re back with the second in our 2018 Award Winners, companies that are climbing up the "line cards" and earning mindshare from the top IT partners serving growth markets. Hard work seems to pay off!

These awards allow us to share our thoughts on channel-focused companies that stood out over the past several months – and the steps that they took to help partners do more deals, drive their top and bottom lines, and continue to solve customer problems quickly and efficiently.

We’re baaaack! Once again, we’ve had the chance over the past year to meet with many IT channel leaders as they use the tools at their disposal—technology and product sets, program elements and options, resources and teams—in order to gain attention from and drive business through IT partners of all types. One thing that hasn’t changed is that companies are trying to make sure that they climb up the "line cards" and earn mindshare from the top IT partners serving growth markets. It’s a tough job, for sure.

It's surprising how many channel people we talk to that do not have a clear understanding of how their partners make money selling their products. If they do, they quite often don’t incorporate all the factors affecting partner profitability into their programs.

When we talk with our clients about the importance of a strong economic value proposition to support their recruiting and re-recruiting efforts, they report many of the same challenges:

• Why aren’t they more engaged?
• Why aren’t they pushing my new product line?
• Why does it seem we are doing all their work?
• Are we recruiting for the right profile with our partners?

OK - This title doesn’t refer to all the great, productive, and innovative products that the IT industry churns out with amazing regularity, and it doesn’t mean that the cloud will make technology products obsolete. It’s just that we have found that customers are a lot less concerned today with ‘what’ it runs on than ‘if and how’ it runs... and by ‘it’ I mean the complex infrastructure and solutions that deliver the business outcomes critical to their companies.

While Dell EMC was busy in Vegas last week talking about Digital Transformation (of organizations) and the IT Transformation (of, duh, IT) that underpins it, many of us were equally interested to see what had, and is, transformed within Dell EMC itself…..the portfolio, the approach, and people’s attitudes (both employees and customers).

I’ll keep this brief because the video we made at the event is a full 7 minutes – but, knowing that in advance, hopefully you’ll find it a valuable 7 minutes as you’ll get succinct insights from not just me but also four of my colleagues - Jason Buffington (on DP), Scott Sinclair (on storage platforms), Terri McClure (on converged platforms), and Kevin Rhone (for the channel perspective).