As 20013 gets under way, and a lot of outside market conditions are influencing our Partners and thereby our indirect sales. Therefore it is time to ponder the key IT trends and IT industry developments likely to impact our Partner Management. Vendors and channel partners alike will find these observations valuable as they update their respective strategies. Highlights of these analysis are as follows:
1. Risking collision with smaller partners, suppliers will continue to increase their focus on SMBs and to encourage their enterprise partners to target the midmarket.
2. Partner networks will continue to flourish with or without the inclusion of suppliers and distributors.
3. IT vendors and their partners will integrate social networks in their partner relationship management (PRM) and customer relationship management (CRM) portals to gain competitive edge.
4. Suppliers and distributors will continue to drive more leasing and financing targeted toward reseller partners as a natural evolution to managed services.
5. Infrastructure suppliers will continue to bet on two very different horses ISVs and reselling partners to drive revenue growth.
6. Telecom service providers will continue to challenge their IT counterparts for higher-margin solutions and services business in all customer segments.
7. At least one supplier will emerge as a competitor to distributors and the direct response channel (DRC) in the United States —Is Dell in the channel as a competitor or just another sourcing option?
8. Certain channel partner types will have to evolve their business models much faster than others as the market shifts away from their traditional product and service offerings.
9. Managed services will become a key activity for channel partners seeking to deepen their relationship with customers.
10. As leading hardware vendors look increasingly to software for growth, their partners will invest more in software and get closer to applications in the dominant environments (networking).
As mentioned are these some observations that might be valuable for one or the other, in order to update or adjust your respective strategies.
If anybody is interested in more details or information about the above findings, please feel free to contact me under mvr@rosenteam.com.
Regards
Mark von Rosing
