“The money is in understanding the domain the end-user is living in,” said Mike deVente, vice president, North America channels, Motorola Enterprise Mobility Solutions. “What are they trying to accomplish? Bring the solution to the problem and the technology will support it.”
deVente’s remarks came during the Channel Chiefs Power Panel on Wednesday morning. Other panelists included David Kenyon, vice president, worldwide channel marketing, AMD; Gregg Prendergast, vice president, commercial sales and marketing, Acer America; and Frank Vitagliano, senior vice president, Americas partners-sales, Juniper Networks. Joe Panettieri, executive vice president and co-founder, Nine Lives Media Inc., moderated the session.
Panelists and their audience touched on several topics during the hour-long session, including mobility, security, cloud computing and the current state of partner programs.
In a world where customers want anytime, anywhere access to all applications, there are still issues of technology that must be addressed: more power and active battery life for devices; more network bandwidth; and more robust security included.
“But this really isn't about the technology, because the technology will be there,” Juniper’s Vitagliano said. “It's how will you transform what you are doing to take advantage of what's out there in the market.”
What’s out there, according to Vitagliano, is “a huge opportunity in the marketplace, a services opportunity that's unprecedented” for solution providers.
“We're entering into an environment that's extraordinarily more complex than the one we've come from, and that complexity creates huge opportunities,” he said.
“It’s not just a proliferation of devices, but of applications, users and the need to support apps on multiple operating systems,” deVente added.
Among the panel’s recommendations for solution providers:
- Select markets and technology solutions where you have levels of expertise and comfort.
- Understand what business problems your customers are trying to solve, or opportunities they’re trying to leverage, and figure out what technology solutions can help them do so.
- Look to your vendors for training, certification and knowledge transfer.
