Blog

Channel partners act as trusted advisors for their customers.

Gone are the days of partners purchasing products from vendors or distributors, warehousing those products, configuring the solution and installing it on the customer’s site. Yes, some products are still delivered in this manner and some solution providers are still making a very good living as resellers. However, as we look to where the industry and channel ecosystem are going – this model doesn’t have long before it is obsolete. Partners are becoming trusted advisors and also taking on more cloud roles.

By Diane Krakora, CEO

Channels design, market, sell and service a full solution for customers.

The partners you engage and enable for cloud might not be the same partners in your current program. As IT consumption moves to on-demand and subscription models, the types of partners addressing customers’ needs will shift, as will the services these solution providers offer. Channel partners of the future will manage the entire customer lifecycle – from evaluation, through purchase, adoption and usage. The channel partner who recommends a combination of policies, products and support to address a customer’s needs will truly be their trusted advisor. Not only are they the face of the solution for the customer, since they marketed and sold it, but they are also the brains. The solution provider knows how all the products and pieces work together and specifically, how they work for a particular customer. They own that customer relationship. The power is shifting to partners.