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today’s workplace needs and channel
ecosystem, and a need to gain speed in
decision-making is necessary in order
to stay competitive. So, new sources of
information than what’s been used in
the past to drive channel strategy are
critical to those efforts.
Data-Based Approaches
In the past, organizations man-
aging a channel strategy relied
completely on purchase order and
point-of-sale statements from partners
and distributors for channel insights.
In today’s environment, this data is
largely insufficient for providing the in-
telligence companies require to make
critical business decisions.
Many companies with channel
programs also continue to rely solely
on the older arena of partner relation-
ship management (PRM). But PRM
is essentially a partner portal used by
vendors to communicate to partners,
provide content and training resources
and engage with them on channel pro-
grams. It provides very little in the way
of actionable data flowing back up to
the provider, vendor or master agent.
“As markets get more competitive,
the main challenges in coordinating
relationships in the enterprise sales
channel revolve around a) the speed
and ease with which companies and
partners capitalize/collaborate on
market opportunities, b) a complete
understanding of the end-customer,
and c) making data-driven decisions
across the channel organization,”
explained Mukund Ramaratnam, vice
president of strategic sales at Zyme
Solutions. “A critical missing capabil-
ity in addressing these challenges is
the lack of visibility and data-sharing
between producers, such as device
manufacturers, and the distributors
and resellers that move their products
through the channel to customers.”
He added, “Channel sales, incen-
tive payments, supply chain planning
and revenue accounting segments of
a business all suffer without a founda-
tion of decision-grade channel data.
Now more than ever, it is critical for
organizations to ensure channel vis-
ibility in order to gain insight into every
part of their business to ultimately im-
prove their bottom line.”
Data-based approaches become
even more important given the rise of
Internet of Things (IoT) and connected
devices, which create intricate, com-
plex supply chains, and the need for
an omni-channel strategy, including
e-commerce channels.
“Consider that companies are plac-
ing more than a trillion dollars’ worth
of goods and services into providers,
resellers and master agents, and de-
pend on a successful channel strategy
to drive sales,” said Ramaratnam.
“Without way to gather key insights
from channel data, organizations will
continue to fly blindly through the
channel and will lose out on vital infor-
mation that could drive revenue.”
For example, if a distributor or re-
tailer wants to place an expedited order
for additional units (usually at the air-
freight expense of the manufacturer),
would the decision to replenish the dis-
tributor’s or retailer’s stock be different
if there was reliable data suggesting
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Channel
Vision
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September - October, 2016