-B Swaminathan
I was a media delegate for the recently-concluded tech summit organized by the Infotech software dealers association (ISODA) at Langkawi. The annual flagship event had participation around 100 members from the industry.
The entire discussions around the event were about cloud. The same association members, three years before, were discussing on the probability of cloud had come to an understanding that cloud is going to be their bread and butter. A senior executive from a leading channel partner firm shared with me the biggest challenge today with the cloud model is the vendors are slowly bypass the traditional resellers and approach companies directly. I compare the situation with the traditional hardware partners versus e-retail. Initially, the traditional sellers who were lying themselves e-sale will not sustain had later realized its importance and had adopted the model and changed their business.
Today cloud vendors have adopted a consumerized sales approach, emphasizing simplicity in the purchasing process and selling directly to customers. Also, without the need for hardware set-up and other ancillary services, local resellers are less important. According to experts, selling cloud software is not enough. Margins are too small to sustain IT resellers. Instead the cloud must be part of a consulting pitch, which is why industry expertise is critical.
Professional services include change management, training and implementation in-house. But the most valuable advice will be giving specific instructions on using the software to improve business processes. Software resellers need to transform themselves into industry experts rather than just sellers.
Another trending discussion among the participants was on the lines between a customer and OEMs are getting blurred with the cloud solutions. I agree to the point. After interacting with some of the CIO forums I can understand that many OEMs are more thrilled interacting with CIOs to the channel forums. Also, sponsorships for CIO events happen faster than the channel associations. Also, I am yet to see a CIO event where a vendor makes their channel interact with potential companies.
However, the opportunities are still vast. The most vendor participants of the event were from the network security which tells that the segment has high potential. Also, there were many Indian companies were part of the sponsoring team. Two sponsors told me they are planning to start channel story newly and will be having new channel focus.
The change has to come on both the ends of the channel spectrum- Channels should understand the reality and start adapting to the current trends and the vendors should ensure that they do not forget to show loyalty to the channel industry which had shed its blood and sweat for launching their products in India.