ChannelVision Magazine May-June 2016

6 / 76

Flipping through the deck of the 2016 edition of Mary Meeker’s recently released
and widely covered annual “Internet Trends” report, it’s hard not to feel a little
overwhelmed. It’s not so much that Meeker brings to light any shifts we all are not
feeling or exposes any trends we have all not seen developing. It’s just that when
all those observations are brought together into 213 information-packed slides,
one wonders how it is possible to keep pace with the seeming rapidity of change
in communications and technology.
According to Meeker, for instance, growth is down, debt is up; Twitter is down,
Snapchat is up; Apple iPhones are down, Amazon Echo devices are up, and video
is the new text. Commerce is becoming conversational, and we are talking to our
computers but typing to our friends. In the near term, your car could be the most
advanced computing device you use, and the U.S. could once again become the hub
of automobile innovation. And if you are a brand marketer, social media marketing
is yesterday’s news. You better also know about Snapchat lenses, geofilters, Houzz,
OfferUp, stories and Periscope, as “each new marketing channel grows faster than
previous ones,” says Meeker.
And then there are the other 200 slides.
There is certainly lots to grasp today, and we are willing to guess that most of your cus-
tomers feel similarly overwhelmed as they survey all the technology options and delivery
mechanisms that will, in many cases, transition their companies to digital organizations.
It’s also quite likely that telecom agents and sub-agents feel equally strained by the
transition to a post-transactional market, “where discrete sales of individual products
or integrated systems are replaced by agreements to provide IT capacity and business
functionality as-a-Service,” as Techaisle researchers put matters, and they transition
from being “trusted advisors” focused on product suggestions and problem solving to-
ward “meaningful customer partners” focused on “delivering customer success.”
This market upheaval, if you will, makes the link that master agencies hold in the
telecom value chain stronger and more important than ever. After all, it has always
been the role of master agents to survey a changing landscape, navigate and vet
new programs and providers, aggregate their disparate offerings, put agent and sub-
agents in position to help their end users realize their goals within those products and
providers, and otherwise grease the sales cycle. For agents and subs transitioning to
a cloud, mobile and IP world, that sounds like a pretty good partner to make.
All the while, leading master agents are investing in the capabilities to lead the
transition, from sales engineers and business-outcome specialist, to automation, part-
ner portals and help desk support, as well as partnering with providers of the most
in-demand cloud and software-based IT and business services.
Sure, we’ve all heard the comments about the telecom channel being stuck in its old
ways and unwilling to change. Our annual Master Agent Directory tells a different story?
New Domains
AlternateViews
Martin Vilaboy
Editor-in-Chief
Tara Seals
Contributing Editor
Percy Zamora
Art Director
Berge Kaprelian
Group Publisher
Rene Galan
Associate Publisher
Miki Takeuchi
Digital Media
mik bekapublishing.com
Jennifer Vilaboy
Production Director
Beka Business Media
Berge Kaprelian
President and CEO
Neil Ende
General Counsel
Jim Bankes
Business Accounting
Corporate Headquarters
745 N. Gilbert Road
Suite 124, PMB 303
Gilbert, AZ 85234
Voice: 480.503.0770
Fax: 480.503.0990
© 2016 Beka Business Media, All rights reserved.
Reproduction in whole or in any form or medium
without express written permission of
Beka Publishing is prohibited. ChannelVision
and the ChannelVision logo are trademarks
of Beka Publishing
6 ChannelVision | May - June 2016