Channel Thought Leaders to Debate Convergence, Disruption and More
… upheaval by developing unique capabilities and know-how that will appeal to a specific customer set not matter what disruptions occur.
“Technology is changing rapidly and often. Customer buying habits and evaluation methods are changing. And customer problems are not just solved by a point solution, but require a wider set of offerings, instead. For a partner to keep up with all this and grow rapidly at the same time is difficult. To scale and drive exponential growth might require that partners pick specializations and go deep so they can be experts in their respective area and create brands that can drive the growth,” says Rajiah.
What kind of specializations? Think hosted voice, video and SD-WAN, among others, he says.
“These are critical business functions that are still predominantly hosted on-premises or in colocations owned by the users,” he says.
A related disruption is in the delivery and support model itself. Customers, Rajiah notes, are wanting a managed service more and more.
“This model is customary for certain types of partners like MSPs who deliver this way already. But, for a traditional system integrator or VAR, this is a new way to transact and deliver,” he says. “Changing business models [are] disruptive, but necessary. Suppliers that can accommodate this model today are forcing legacy suppliers to change their delivery and solutions to match.”
Customer Experiences
In addition to convergence and disruption, changing customer expectations is also turning into a big trend, Think Tank members agree. Nowhere is this more true than when it comes to creating customer experiences, both the ones that customers get from partners and the ones partners help customers create for their own customers.
The experiences consumers and business people alike enjoy with Uber, GrubHub and beyond are transforming expectations, Think Tank leaders say.
“[They’re] changing the rules of the game for the channel,” says Walsh. “Historically, a good product or service delivered at a competitive price defined who won in the marketplace. This is not the case anymore. A company’s ability to deliver an amazing customer experience will be the ticket to retain[ing] customers as well as prospecting for new ones, especially when those customers share their experiences online, which is happening every day on social media.”
Rourke concurs. The power of social media, she insists, cannot be underestimated. And partners who ignore its influence do so at their own risk.
“Social media shines a spotlight on the customer experience [around the clock]. Whether you get it right or get it wrong, the customer experience is now socially shared,” says Rourke. Think Tank member Jennifer Anaya, vice president of marketing with Ingram Micro, agrees.
“Technology companies need to consider how their channel plays a critical role in delivering a better experience to their end customers. We also need to be honest about the barriers we’re putting in place that create poor experiences for our channel partners, and may impede the experience we collectively deliver to the end businesses we’re serving,” Anaya says.
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