I think there is some confusion with our - well, not confusion, but concern within our channel community that the self-service means that I don't add value. So we spent some time talking about that, but it doesn't have to be that way. In fact, it isn't that way because the value add that customers want is beyond just procurement. I think what's changing, what I heard each of you say was the customer is driving in a lot of the behavior here. and what you’re saying here is that it's the customer who is making a solution determination Marketplaces that are static product catalogs just files up there, that's not good enough anymore to deal with the complexity and the number of vendors that are coming to market that the channel partners can consider it adding to their tech stack.
That changes that dynamic in terms of what you need. And we believe that the only way to reduce that complexity is having a data driven marketplace that's customer centric. So you can’t just hope to wander through a catalog and find what you’re looking for you really do need to apply data driven insights to help you find where the opportunities are in your patch. Because we find that each of our partners, you know, have their special sauce and they want to be able to curate those solutions to match what their customers want.
You’ve got to use data driven insights to do that. You're right, historically cloud marketplaces have been very, sort of, product, ISV, SKU focused. But in order to drive that sort of integrated solution business outcome, we're going to have to evolve and enable all our business types and business models to participate in marketplace value delivery and creation. And I think, you know, you know, the concept of like a number of different partners to provide business outcome is not new, but I think marketplace does present a unique opportunity to bring all the different partners together because historically, if you think of these partner silos, whether they be partner programs or incentives or solutions and so forth, I think marketplace has the opportunity to unify these partners together online in a single platform, bring together, you know, a very rich and diverse catalog of products, SKUs and services, and being able to shift the discussion and outcomes from product SKUs to your solution and business outcomes.
And I think marketplace has to step up and enable that. So you'll start to see things like, you know, multi-vendor product SKUs, or the ability to bundle in a private offer different technology stacks as well as data, as well as the AI and ML models as well as professional services. So I think this will be the evolution you see in marketplaces, as we support this model. Marketplaces, are they our friend, or are they foe? I'll start with you. Friend, 100%.
As I said before, we see more and more customer demand for marketplaces you've got to embrace them today and don't wait. I would say maybe this question might have been relevant a few years ago where it was, you know, a potential direct route to market. But seeing now as customers scale, their usage of marketplace, they're getting a broader set of a portfolio of solutions so they need their trusted partners to manage, simplify, secure a very broad portfolio <font color=#000000FF>and that's going to continue to grow.</font> And, of course, they're going to lean on the services and expertise that the channel provides.
Get a marketplace, don't compete with one, and use it to amplify your differentiation and really focus on the customer experience.
