IT channel companies in search of the next big disruptive force need look no further than their mirror, a longtime industry observer opined Wednesday at the 2014 CompTIA Annual Member Meeting. “You are the disruptor,” Chris Gonsalves, vice president, editorial, for The 2112 Group, told an audience of IT channel partners, vendors and distributors.
“If you’re not making someone uncomfortable, you’re just trudging along in the status quo,” he continued. “Challenge things. Bother someone. Your mission is to be the disruption.”
Gonsalves was joined on the power panel by Joe Panettiari, executive VP and editorial director at Nine Lives Media, and Rauline Ochs, senior VP of IPED The Channel Company. The respected IT channel watchers spoke on “Killer Apps, Technologies and Game Changers that will Rock the Channel.”
Ochs said channel businesses continue to transform themselves, and they’re moving beyond managed services and cloud solutions. The latest IPED research shows that 85 percent of channel partners have invested in managed services and consulting services; and 32 percent are reselling cloud-based services.
She advised attendees to make the next step in transformation by become more active in the application space and with software defined computing.
Beyond new technologies, she added, companies must train their sales people to sell in a marketplace where the who and what of technology buying has changed.
“Have you trained your sales people to sell services, and to sell those services as a cap ex versus an op ex?” she asked. “Do they know how to call on a CFO or CMO? Keeping your sales force up and trained is what will allow you to keep your trusted adviser status.”
Panettieri also encouraged channel firm to look at applications as sources of new business. He said they need to be more proactive and less reactive with the services they’re providing customers.
“Get me ahead of the problem, keep my applications alive,” he said.
The cloud model will certainly continue to influence the market, according to Panettieri, but it’s no longer just about cost savings. “The cloud is about speed to market, period.”
Gonsalves cautioned channel executives against trying to look too far ahead for the next big thing.
“We all want to be forward thinkers, but there is a peril to this long view,” he warned.
Too much focus on what’s ahead may cause companies to lose focus on the here and now. With the rapid pace of change, things that appear on the horizon today will very quickly in the rear view mirror.
“Focus on the forces that are closer to us and find the disruption points in the status quo,” Gonsalves said. “The people who can articulate in a business savvy way how to use technology to do business better will be the winners.”
Steven Ostrowski is CompTIA’s director of corporate communications.
