When you look at how things are shaping up in enterprise IT, the No. 1 priority is to improve business processes
followed closely by reducing the cost of the IT budget.
The issue that most IT organizations have, however, is that they are overly
wedded to antiquated technologies and not close enough to the business to effect
meaningful change.
Solution providers, on the other hand, tend to have a much better handle on how
technology can not only be used to affect business processes of their
customers, but also to know what new
technologies can be brought to bear to lower the total cost of computing.
At least, that’s how it is supposed to go. The only way solution providers
can maintain that fundamental difference between them and an internal IT
department is to stay current on the latest trends and technologies. That means
make more, not less, investments in training.
Of course, training is expensive. That’s why partnering with vendors that
make it easy for solution providers to get training for free or at a nominal
cost is critical. IBM and Cisco Systems are
two good examples of vendors that go out of their way to make sure their
channel partners are as current as possible on new technologies and business
trends.
That also means that vendors that try to milk their certification programs
for cash need to be treated with a great amount of suspicion. It’s pretty clear
from their actions that they are more interested in either making money off
their channel partners or trying to restrict the amount of capital that
solution providers have on hand to invest in their own business.
Outmoded ideas about what makes for a good channel program need to be
eliminated with extreme prejudice during these incredibly difficult times. That
means that any vendor that puts up roadblocks and hurdles between the solution
provider and closing the deal needs to be replaced. This is no time for
sentiment or patience. Customers are under extreme amounts of duress, and it’s
about time channel programs started reflecting a new reality that is likely to
be with us through much of 2010.
If a solution provider wants to survive this downturn, then it needs to have
the smartest people possible on staff. Vendors that help make that happen are
invaluable. Vendors that are not invested in helping their channel partners be
as smart as possible are going to wind up on the trash heap of history once
they are acquired anyway.
In the final analysis, training is everything. Business flows from the
intellectual capital of the solution provider. Vendors not interested in making
those investments are not really a friend to the channel.
Mike Vizard is senior vice president of
market strategies and content services at Ziff Davis Enterprise
and a regular contributor to Channel Insider.
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