As we move deeper into the new year there’s so much for us to think about as an industry and, more specifically, as members of the IT channel. Who better to speak to the channel’s health and future than senior vendor executives who work closely with solution providers, MSPs, integrators and similar experts each and every day? The CompTIA team caught up with several of them recently and captured a little of their insight and predictions:
CompTIA: Consider the future of the channel for a moment. Is the glass half full or half empty?
• Ted Schuman, CEO, PlanetOne Communications:
Half full. The IT channel will continue to see telecom partners move aggressively into the IT sales space and the average order will increase two to three times what it is today. Connectivity partners will add storage, compute and security to their offerings.
Additionally, people on the telecom side have bright and prosperous futures. We’re not seeing a lot of price erosion anymore, and margins are pretty stable. Higher end voice and data agents are thriving, but we are seeing some fallout at the lower end with cable sales and co-ax.
CompTIA: What is the biggest challenge that vendors face trying to recruit partners today?
• Brian Babineau, General Manager, Intronis MSP Solutions by Barracuda:
In 2017, we think MSPs will rely on their suppliers for more strategic partnerships, where those vendors can do more than just sell them a product. True MSP suppliers will offer solutions for needs such as product monitoring and event management. With this help, MSPs can offer capabilities such as Advanced Threat Detection (ATD) without having to increase their staffs’ workloads. ATD is going to be necessary for small businesses, which are just as susceptible to sophisticated network cyber-attacks as large enterprises.
Suppliers will also help MSPs use more of their products’ latest technologies. Next-gen firewalls have more than just security, for example. They can optimize traffic to critical applications including those deployed in AWS and Microsoft Azure. With some help from a supplier, MSPs will better understand how to use all of its product capabilities, not just a few features.
Then finally, suppliers can offer more business and technical training. MSPs will be looking to lean on their vendor partners to help them with sales and marketing activities as well as increasing knowledge of technical staff. All of this education has to be delivered in modern formats such as Facebook, easy-to-navigate partner portals, video, and distance learning.
CompTIA: What is the greatest opportunity for the channel in 2017?
• Dan Wensley, President, Passportal:
IT security in the channel. IT service providers over the past decade have made unprecedented levels of investment internally to better run their businesses. The evolution and transition from break/fix to proactive service delivery or managed services has spawned ITSPs’ investment in tools such as PSA, RMM, and a long list of supporting applications. All these purchases and partnerships have been made to increase operational efficiency, lower service delivery costs and deliver more value to clients. Is it now time to invest and benefit from “security” internally? The focus and deliver of security solutions being delivered to clients by the channel continues to expand. Attend any trade event and look at the percentage of “security” vendors who all have outstanding solutions for you to deliver to your customers.
ITSPs are recognizing that security starts at home, and their kids need shoes as well. How an ITSP protects and secures their clients starts with how secure they are internally. Passwords, how they are stored, accessed and managed by IT service providers and their technicians are at the forefront of that security profile.
• Ted Schuman:
Education. Training. Learn across the portfolio. Channel partners have got to become educated on how to sell services and product end to end, including mobility and IoT. They need to teach themselves a new language of selling. Those that don’t will become irrelevant and seek other relationships to satisfy the needs of their business.
Additionally, in the coming year we will see distribution and channel consolidation move from excitement to execution. Questions to be asked -- Is there value add here? Can they execute on the promise?
CompTIA: How is cloud impacting how you interact with, train and compensate partners?
• Ted Schuman:
In the coming year, we will see partners move up market. The cloud adoption opportunity, for example, is tremendous as adoption is still slow. I am estimating a 20 percent increase in sales of cloud computing solutions in 2017. Overall, channel partners need more education, and they must drive more dialogue with their customers around the cloud and other emerging technologies.
CompTIA: If you were going to start a channel firm today, what would it look like?
• Jonathan Hartman, Vice President of Sales, PlanetOne Communications:
I would not deviate from what our most successful partners are doing today – serving as a single source of best-of-breed solutions for meeting their customers’ technology needs, while remaining unbiased and brand-neutral to ensure that the customer is getting the right solution every time. Today’s most successful solution providers are those who have done their homework and come to the table during the discovery phase with more advanced solutions and relevant resources that can help customers solve their most pressing business challenges, more quickly.
• Neal Bradbury, Senior Director of Business Development, Intronis MSP Solutions by Barracuda:
Today, small businesses of all sizes and vertical focuses are relying more heavily on computers in their day-to-day operations. As such, if I were to start a solution provider business today, I would lead with IT security solutions, and then specialize in a vertical market where compliance is required, such as healthcare or financial services.
Carolyn April is the Senior Director of Industry Analysis for CompTIA
