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Data-driven platforms open new channel
management chapter
By
Tara
Seals
A
s workplace trends evolve to ubiquitous mobility
and cloud-based environments, the enterprise
channel sales process has gained complexity
and sophistication. It’s no longer a question of a vendor
pushing a box to an end user via a reseller; nor is it a
straightforward “do more for less” sales process in the
communications realm. Products and services have
converged; delivery and compensation models have
blended; and tailored solution design is paramount.
The modern sales process itself is much more about
understanding individual customers’ strategic business
needs than shaving dollars off of a monthly invoice.
“How effective communications happen between
all of the players in the channel ecosystem has been
a standard issue for a 100 years, and it’s one that will
be there in 100 more, regardless of the evolution of
technology,” explained Kenneth Fox, CEO at Channel
Mechanics. “But the feedback that we hear is a lot of
concern over what the role of distribution will be in three
to five years’ time as things move to the cloud.”
Distributors are evolving with the cloud – they’re now
the ones providing the services because they’ve become
managed service providers, Fox continued. “The smart
partners are the ones delivering those services as op-
posed to the hardware. So the types of channel programs
are changing, discounts are different, and there are new
big players in channel space that weren’t there before.”
As such, data and analytics-based channel enable-
ment and management have become important pieces
of the puzzle for vendors, service providers and master
agents/distributors when it comes to ensuring sales part-
ners’ success. They need to deal with the complexity of
FunnelVision
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Channel
Vision
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September - October, 2016