ChannelVision Magazine

EMERGENT Pricefx Announces Partner Pricing Program Pricefx, a provider of cloud pricing soft - ware, has launched its Advantage Pricefx, an open, collaborative ecosystem for pric - ing. Bringing together pricing strategists, experts, integrators and independent soft - ware vendors (ISVs), the program provides a set of sales and delivery resources, training and tools through a community portal that enable partners to develop ex - pertise around specific pricing business functions and industries. Partners also gain access to additional benefits through - out the three-tiered partner structure, including formalized joint go-to-market plans, a market development fund and a continuously evolving ISV program. “Pricing is one of the fastest ways to improve both top and bottom line revenue growth, and the payoff on pricing software is one of the best across industries,” said Joe Golemba, vice president of ecosystems and partners for Pricefx. “We are accelerating the path to pricing superiority by delivering access to pricing knowledge and best prac - tices from industry experts.” According to Pricefx, the recent IDC Mar - ketScape on B2B-focused price optimization applications found that “most customers had a payback of less than 12 months, with some having paybacks of less than three months due to the product uncovering large opportunities from underpricing.” 29% Percent of midmarket firms that are either currently using AI or are conducting pilots, according to a new survey by Techaisle. IoT, VR Emerge Among Channel IT Firms When it comes to experience with individual emerging techs, the internet of things (IoT) remains at the top of the list among IT channel firms, with roughly half of respondents to a recent CompTIA survey saying they are currently working or experimenting with either IoT hardware, software or both. “The category has also been on the market longer than most of the other emerging techs, so it is no surprise that this is the arena the channel has the most experience in,” said CompTIA researchers. Virtual reality, meanwhile, is a category that took a significant jump up among respondents, with 45 percent reporting experimenta - tion or active selling, compared with 37 percent just last year. “VR may seem like an offbeat choice for channel firms when the technology most commonly brings to mind young consum - ers with headsets playing video games,” said CompTIA. But practical business use cases are cropping up, continued the chan - nel association, including VR as a way to improve communications between remote workers and main offices, as a replacement for video con - ferencing and even as a safer way to train workers on equipment in a manu- facturing setting. The adoption of 5G in some form also experienced a big jump year over year, despite the fact that 5G is not widely available across the U.S., with rollouts mainly in parts of some major cities. The CompTIA findings suggest savvy channel partners are at least preparing for 5G availability and what that could mean in terms of upgrades to customer networks, devices and appli - cations. “The faster bandwidth will also help fuel the market for VR headsets, IoT and other sensors, and updated smartphones,” said CompTIA. Two categories where channel firms pumped the brakes slightly from last year to this year include artificial intelligence and blockchain. According to CompTIA, this suggest the classic situation where companies move too quickly into a new technology or busi - ness model only to have a reality check in year two or three. “AI and blockchain hold lots of revenue opportunity but also steep learning curves and a need for different skills than most channel organizations have in-house today. Hence, the slight pulling back in both categories in 2019,” said CompTIA. All told, two-thirds of channel firms in the medium- to large-size range are actively selling emerging tech solu - tions today, compared to about half of small IT channel firms. * Figures (n) refer to 2018, 2023 device share Source: Cisco IT Channel Firms Experimenting or Currently Offering Emerging Tech Source: CompTIA Incidence of partnering with new players Source: CompTIA 2018 20 15 10 5 0 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 TVs (13%,11%) Non-Smartphones (13%,5%) Smartphones (27%,23%) M2M (33%, 50%) IoT software IoT hardware Virtual reality Al 5G 3D printing Blockchain AR Robotics Drone hardware Drone software Biometrics 2019 2018 51% 50% 45% 40% 37% 32% 28% 27% 27% 26% 25% 23% 48% 43% 37% 42% 20% 23% 34% 27% 20% 25% 23% 24% Yes, frequently Yes, occasionally No, but we re planning to soo No, and no immediate plans to do so 30% 20% 45% 42% 17% 22% 7% 16% 2019 2018 10 CHANNEL VISION | March - April, 2020