“So, coming in at this time, it’s interesting to see the transition,” he said. “I basically characterize that over time we went from a small VAR during our previous decade to a really large one. And along the way, we built a lot of interesting capabilities and built a lot of great pieces.” When Berger accepted his position, Insight already was a $9.4 billion Fortune 500 organization with 29,000 international customers and more than 6,500 partners worldwide. Among the responsibilities he was assigned is to lead the Insight North America business – including partner management – and to drive the company’s evolution into an industry-recognized solutions integrator, helping organizations accelerate their digital transformation journeys. Burger said the transition into becoming a solutions integrator is to find a way to build a more comprehensive set of skills and capabilities to drive a different value level with clients. “The challenge, and the VAR model ultimately, is it’s all you are,” Burger said, adding, “You’re somewhat easily replaced.” With the transition, Burger said the company will be able to offer more in the way of procurement, logistics and configuring all the services an integrator has. “Being a solutions integrator really is to say that across that spectrum we’ve got a wider range than just about anybody else,” Burger said. “And so, we can play in a more and more valuable way to customers that other people wouldn’t be able to or wouldn’t even attempt.” Placing Insight on a continuum, Burger explained that on the left side of the traditional retail spectrum plenty of companies play in the VAR ecosystem. Similarly, good system integrators are positioned on the right side of that same continuum. “We’re just unique that we’re on both the right and left side of the spectrum,” Burger said. A complex IT world Burger said integrations have become vital in today’s complex IT world. “Companies are moving much faster today, and they are expecting much more,” he stated. “Just think about what somebody would need to deal with in order to put in new technology. “They’ve got to figure out what’s going to work together; what’s the best-in-class; who they should choose; what’s going to work together; how to get a deal done; how to bring it all in; how to make all the services and then how to manage it from there,” Burger explained. Solutions integrators, he continued, have the ability to answer questions as they manage services behind the scenes in an effective, efficient manner to bring everything together. “What we’re able to do is bring all the guts of this stuff together really quickly in a way that is fully accountable for the outcome and beats the piece-meal approach by a lot,” Burgers said. Customers first Of course, a shift of this directional magnitude will affect the company’s partners. “The traditional resale relationship is by its nature a very subordinate relationship,” Burger said. “Basically, resellers are an outsourced sales force for partners.” Because of that, Insight first will focus on the customer by orienting the business about the service and then by doing a better job of concentrating on the core things the service entails, which can include everything from invoicing to simple fundamentals, he said. “Where we’re going is a different place to create more leverage where we’re much more directly involved in the client’s journey,” Burger explained. “So, we’re moving from ‘Hey, Mr. Partner, what is it that you have to sell?’ We’ll go put it in front of people and see if they bite. It will become ‘Hey, Mr. Client, what is it you’re trying to solve?’” Once the answer is received, then Insight’s team will configure “the right set of partners and services” to create the proper solution. All this aligns with one of Insight’s focus for the year: “Customer First.” “It’s that same idea,” Burger said, “Let’s start at the customer. Let’s start with what they need. Let’s orient the entire business to doing that, and it really goes back to the business model for us.” Burger added that because Insight already has a large hold on the market, its gains in the future will revolve around managing services for its existing customers. “We’ve got to do better for existing customers, bring them more comprehensive solutions and a wider range of things,” he said. “As for our partners, as we start with customers, we will be much more valuable to our partners, because we’re actually bringing leverage into the situations that is very different from a traditional resale model, which is kind of thin and transactional.” The company’s transition, said Burger, also makes sense globally because the intellectual work can be accomplished from multiple countries to other countries. “When you add in the solutions integrator part, it gets harder, and there’s fewer and fewer people that can do it, because ultimately, you’re blending the virtual world and the physical world. “We use distribution partners for part of it,” he continued. “We use our own facilities and capabilities for part of it, but the same trends apply around becoming more and more valuable to the customers that you’re focused on keeping long term and helping them simplify their world as they have to cross such a complex web of technologies and services to get done what they need to get done.” Sounds like a job for a solutions integrator. o CHANNEL MANAGEMENT 76 CHANNELV ISION | MARCH - APRIL 2023
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