Media alert: Connected insights to revolutionize channel business models

Channel partners are actively moving to new business models in response to significant changes in the way customers buy, deploy and use technology. ‘The value that resellers represent to their customers is changing,’ said Alastair Edwards, Principal Analyst at Canalys. ‘They have evolved from being pure suppliers of products and support to become trusted business partners. This means helping customers to generate business advantage from their investments in technology, particularly as they pursue digital transformation, or taking over responsibility for more technology functions through managed services.’

‘The unprecedented convergence of digitally enabled people, businesses and things is disrupting old business models and creating new ones – for our customers and our partners,’ said Fred Kohout, Vice President, Global Partner Marketing at EMC. ‘This transformation means we need to sell differently. Selling business outcomes is vital to our success. By providing a “build for one” enablement strategy, the assets, methodologies and IP resources that our direct field organizations use are now available to our partners via our Partner Academy. EMC and its partners are transforming together.’

‘As the technology industry changes, the stability of Dell and the increasing investments in Dell’s channel program make it a winning combination for our partners,’ said Cheryl Cook, Vice President Global Channels and Alliances, Dell. ‘Dell understands the solutions expertise and value channel partners and VARs bring to customers. We listen to their needs and give them the choice to purchase products directly through us or our distributors. We provide our valued partners with incentives and the technology, tools and strength of the Dell brand to grow their businesses faster than the market and win new customers with Dell. As a private company we’re agile and adaptive to support evolving business models and help our partners win in the future.’

‘Organizations’ need for IT and OT groups to work together like never before is pushing the industry to focus on the value side of the IoT. The IoT, mobile/social and big data are highly disruptive forces that are driving a future of “connected equipment, connected infrastructure”. This will further drive the IT room and data center transformation for a more robust business continuity plan: a plan to keep all the connected equipment running 24x7x365. The solutions we jointly create with our partners are going to solve these problems. They’re going to be integrated, so no longer will a partner be going to disparate companies to get different solutions. We’ll be doing that integration work for them, so it’ll be seamless for the customer,’ said Noriaki Takamura, IT Business Vice President Channel & Alliance - Asia Pacific & Japan APC-Schneider Electric.

The larger channel-addressable opportunity will require more mature strategic planning, practical vendor evaluation, targeted skills enhancement and outcome-based service delivery. Channel partners attending this year’s Canalys Channels Forum events will benefit from discussions that can drive improvements across these business management topics as well as technology-based portfolio considerations.

About Canalys

Canalys is an independent analyst company that strives to guide clients on the future of the technology industry and to think beyond the business models of the past. We deliver smart market insights to IT, channel and service provider professionals around the world. Our customer-driven analysis and consulting services empower businesses to make informed decisions and generate sales. We stake our reputation on the quality of our data, our innovative use of technology and our high level of customer service.

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About Canalys Channels Forums

The Canalys Channels Forums take place from October to November 2015. The EMEA event runs from 6 to 8 October in Barcelona. The APAC event runs from 3 to 5 November in Bali. And finally, the LATAM event runs from 17 to 19 November in Cartagena. The forums, in their eighth year in EMEA, fourth year in APAC and second year in LATAM, are the only independent events that unite senior managers from leading technology vendors, distributors and channel partners to discuss industry trends, forge new business relationships and create sales opportunities. In addition to vendor keynotes and theater presentations, the events feature more than 3,000 senior one-to-one meetings and prestigious gala dinners, among other networking activities. The events are open to senior business managers, both from IT vendors and channel partners. More information about the events can be found at www.canalyschannelsforum.com.

About Candefero

Candefero is the exclusive global channel partner community run by Canalys. It provides the channel with an online forum to discuss the burning issues affecting their businesses and to get their opinions across to senior executives within vendor organizations. They also gain access to high-quality, independent market intelligence, trends analysis and advice from Canalys. Membership is free to qualifying employees of authorized channel partners only.

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