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these transformations is that in some
instances up to 80 percent of the costs
of those traditional business models
can be removed.”
So for channel partners, the as-a-
service sector will continue to offer ripe
opportunity thanks to the broadband
foundation. This includes disaster re-
covery (DR)-as-a-service – which can act
as a starting point for longer-term man-
aged service engagements; SD-WAN;
and virtual desktops/desktop as-a-
service, which offers sales partners an
opportunity to add on offerings such as
enterprise-class security.
This latter opportunity recently prompt-
ed security vendor BeyondTrust to join
Westcon-Comstor’s Accelerate program to
expand its distribution footprint globally;
it plans to develop a global channel pro-
gram capable of recruiting and enabling
new solution provider partners around
the world. The move underscores growing
demand for security solutions that guard
against insider threats and data breaches
for businesses of all sizes.
Unified communications-as-a-service
(UCaaS) will continue to grow as an op-
tion for globally distributed enterprises
as well – mirroring the consumerization
of IT that we’re seeing in many sectors.
“The business environment of the
future is going to quickly move to a true
unified communications platform – more
along the lines of Slack, HipChat,
WhatsApp,” said Greg Praske, CEO of
master agency ARG. “Those consumer-
oriented apps are quickly leaking into
the business environment because it’s
how people want to interact. The good
news is that business-appropriate op-
tions like Cisco’s Spark are here now
with the appropriate controls, persistence
and security. The channel partners who
have experience in integrating voice,
collaboration, email, chat, etc. are in the
position to assist companies in their
evaluation of what’s right for a particular
company and then assist with the imple-
mentation and support.”
Another new opportunity worth men-
tioning involves voice service. With the
improved coverage and penetration of
LTE, as well as the massive adoption
of smartphones, VoLTE has become a
priority throughout the world for those
that wish to bring HD voice service to
their LTE customers. Nevertheless, while
VoLTE services certainly offer opportu-
nities, over-the-top (OTT) mobile VoIP
services will attract the largest revenue
market shares, at least in the short and
medium term, Budde-Comm noted. Both
arenas are ripe for channel partners
looking to optimize spending plans for
their international clients.
Some operators are facilitating this
strategy: Zen Mobile in India recently
added a new device to its budget 4G
smartphones portfolio with the launch of
its new Cinemax Click. The 4G VoLTE-en-
abled dual-SIM phone is bundled with an
offer that gives users free calling, data,
SMS and roaming.
Education Required
The opportunities are there, but an
understanding of the technology shifts
at play is a necessary ingredient for part-
ners looking to capitalize on all of this.
“Many channel sales professionals
know that they increasingly have to
leave valuable potential business on
the table because they simply don’t
have the specialist sales expertise or
confidence needed to bid for some of
today’s more complex cloud opportuni-
ties,” said Stephen Hackett, Intelisys
Global’s lead in the UK, speaking to
an EMEA outlet. “We’re looking to fix
that by providing our growing UK sales
partner community with access to the
skills, technologies and expertise they
need to capitalize on new cloud rev-
enue streams.”
It’s important to get ahead of this
now. The move to managed services
and the cloud is relentless and is going
to force other sectors to transform as
well. Developments linked to data cen-
ters, data analytics (big data), machine-
to-machine (M2M), the IoT and the
emerging Blockchain may all play a part
in transforming our current world.
“Looking at the big picture indicates
there are many more innovations to
emerge in the years ahead,” Budde-Comm
said. “However, the bottom line is convert-
ing these technological developments
into revenue-generating services and ap-
plications. The operators [and channel
partners] need paying subscribers and
consumers who will adopt the services
and applications on offer.”
o
International Agents
Global Mobile Data Traffic, 2015-2020,
2015 2016 2017 2018
2019 2020 CAGR
By Geography (PB per Month)
Asia Pacific
1,579 2,677 4,423 6,725
9,772 13,713 54%
Central and Eastern Europe 546
946 1,511 2,243
3,249 4,442 52%
Middle East and Africa
294
570 1,039 1,723
2,778 4,314 71%
North America
557
831 1,199 1,700
2,328 3,208 42%
Western Europe
432
708 1,045 1,477
2,061 2,795 45%
Latin America
276
448 715 1,066
1,521 2,092 50%
Total (PB Per Month)
Mobile data
3,685 6,180 9,931 14,934
21,708 30,564 53%
Source: Cisco
Channel
Vision
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