{"id":2135,"date":"2020-04-07T13:26:31","date_gmt":"2020-04-07T09:26:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/techxmedia.com\/?p=2135"},"modified":"2025-04-16T16:18:34","modified_gmt":"2025-04-16T12:18:34","slug":"new-face-it-channel-changing-business-models","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/techxmedia.com\/en\/new-face-it-channel-changing-business-models\/","title":{"rendered":"The New Face of IT Channel \u2013 Changing Business Models"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Author: Sherifa Hady, Channel Sales\nDirector, EMEA, Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a world of consumer changes and connectivity everywhere, channel partners are primed to sell new services and products and play a key role in the development of the next wave of technology trends. The channel is now being driven by three key trends: partner digital transformation; new business models<\/a> with a focus on services; and customer trends driving new types of demand. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s not just about what\u2019s in the box anymore,\nwe\u2019re seeing networks open up a new world of services and solutions for the\nchannel to offer, and customers who are eager to tap into these to deliver a cutting-edge\ncustomer experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TREND ONE: Channel business models \u2013 it\u2019s not just\nabout the box, it\u2019s about what the box gives you<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Across the entire channel, from alliance partners to distributors and systems integrators, we\u2019re seeing partners start to ready themselves, and their business models<\/a>, for a new technological landscape and how to keep their offerings relevant within it. Partners are looking five years ahead to anticipate what they will be selling, and where their revenue will be coming from. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Distributors who once would have been a logistics partner or driving channel enablement are now rethinking their role for example. The cloud is a prime example of this \u2013 it\u2019s changed the business model<\/a> of partners significantly. Hardware is no longer the key revenue driver, and whereas before you might have expected hardware sales to account for most of your business, it\u2019s now completely swapped to be a software-first market instead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The role of the vendor to help support and\nenable partners through this transition is vital. It\u2019s about ensuring the\nincentives and support you give your partners is correctly aligned to the\nmarket they are trying to sell to. It\u2019s also about how you advise on the\nadvantages and disadvantages of CAPEX and OPEX installations, and ensuring\nyou\u2019re embedded within the channel to give your partners the use cases, case\nstudies, and best practice to sell in this new type of market. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some partners are already there and know where\nthey want to go next. Others are still figuring out what their path ahead looks\nlike.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TREND TWO: Channel partners race to bring new service\nofferings to the market  <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The channel knows that services are an essential\npart of their business model. The future lies in consumption. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are three ways that partners are pursuing\nthis now. They might be reselling the services offered through vendors, managing\nassets and services for customers, or developing their own services and\nintellectual property offerings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here again, we can clearly see the role that\nthe cloud has played in influencing the market. It was a wake-up call for\npartners \u2013 if everyone goes straight to the cloud provider to buy their\nservices then how do you sell around this? The cloud has hugely disrupted how\npeople consider buying IT. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For partners who embrace services however the\nrewards can be significant. From a profitability perspective, if everyone is\njust selling the same AP then the opportunity for margins is limited \u2013 but if\nyou can sell maintenance and services on top of this then there\u2019s a huge\nbusiness opportunity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also means you can get much closer to your\ncustomers. Longer term service agreements mean you learn to understand their\nchallenges and how you can solve them together. The benefits for customer\nretention are huge. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, partners with the technology and\ntechnical skills to develop their own IP offerings will be able to really stand\nout and differentiate themselves in the market. It drives their capabilities\nbeyond just vendor specific offerings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the end of 2020, this is one of the most\nsignificant developments we expect to see in the channel market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TREND THREE: Partners who focus on selling\nbased on business outcomes can win big <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Customer needs will always be a driving force\nin the market. For many companies, IT is no longer just a cost centre in their\nbusiness, used for data analysis and report creation. Instead it\u2019s often a\nprofit centre, driving revenue, new business models, and enabling the creation\nof billion-dollar companies along the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For partners, reacting to these changes is central\nto setting themselves up for success in the year and decade ahead. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fundamentally the usage of IT has become very\ndifferent. The customer may want a new system for their hotel in order to allow\ntheir guests to check in via their phone and get straight onto the Wi-Fi, but\nthey\u2019re unlikely to be interested in the detail of the systems they are buying.\nThey just want to be able to deploy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a huge opportunity for partners to talk\nto their customers about business outcomes and take a more significant role\nwithin solution development. However, as customers move away from hardware to\nservices partners won\u2019t be able to rely on them ringing up to order new parts \u2013\nthis sell requires a much more proactive approach. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rise of the Edge is one of the final parts\nof this puzzle. Over the course of this year we will continue to see the\nexponential growth of connected devices, and within that a need for data and\nnetwork power to sit at different points of the network. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Across the entire channel, from alliance partners to distributors and systems integrators, we\u2019re seeing partners start to ready themselves, and their business models, for a new technological landscape and how to keep their offerings relevant within it. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":8966,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[64,9618,9716,65,9619,957],"tags":[807,1052,948,576,551],"contributor":[],"class_list":["post-2135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-distributors","category-editors-pick","category-global-brands","category-system-integrators","category-top-stories","category-women-in-tech","tag-business_models","tag-channel_partners","tag-customer_service","tag-digital_transformation","tag-information_technology"],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/techxmedia.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/IT-Channel-techxmedia.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"Rabab","author_link":"https:\/\/techxmedia.com\/en\/author\/rabab\/"},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t