Strategic Alliance Magazine Q4 2017 - 35

BIG CHANNEL BETS

As trusted advisors,
channel partners
will need to address
multi-vendor
technical solutions
that solve business
problems. Customers,
after all, don't buy a
bag of parts.
There is a strong and growing need for partner-to-partner collaboration for both capability and capacity. Some
vendors are providing more services and support for
partners to find each other across the ecosystem and
to enable them to partner, collaborate, and go to market together as a coordinated unit. IBM pioneered this
concept a dozen years ago with its ValueNet program,
which enabled solution providers to find SaaS partners
through a partner-matching algorithm. The stakes are
even higher today as IoT implementations may entail
five or more partners to deliver.
The partnering model also needs to adapt. Process-heavy
collaborations cannot work fast enough in this new age
of digital transformation. A more agile model is needed
and is, indeed, evolving. Partners need to find each other quickly, build trust-based relationships quickly, and
create customer value at the same pace. Mike Plottier,
head of global strategic alliances at Puppet, likens this to
a fail-fast model: "In a dynamic environment like ours,
speed dictates our approach. It's in everyone's interest to
launch go-to-market activities quickly and understand
the joint opportunity. If the partner has to adhere to
months of business planning before we can start selling,
I will have to move on."

Distributors are validating the trend. Arrow Workmarket is a SaaS platform that enables channel
partners to connect with each other and other business partners to round out their service capabilities
and market expertise. Partners can register their areas of expertise, such as analytics, cloud, mobility,
security, e-commerce, etc. Then they can find or be
found based on the expertise needed.

Feels like a tipping point
Distributors have reported that cloud
sales comprise between 10 and 15 percent
of sales, but it's clearly the fastest growing
part of their businesses. Some are reporting 200 percent
growth year-over-year for the past five years. They also
are reporting that the adoption rate is growing. Most of
their channel partners have transacted at least one cloud
solution. This indicates the pump is primed and ready
for the tipping point.
Tremendous opportunity also exists in digital transformation and IoT enabled by the cloud and a host
of converging technologies in social, mobile, analytics, and artificial intelligence. McKinsey has projected
the IoT economic impact to be as large as $11 trillion
by 2025. While there are many lighthouse examples,
many businesses are still struggling to understand how
they might be affected. Many are fearful they will be
"Ubered," outmaneuvered by an upstart with a compelling digital business model. Will they be disruptors
or disrupted?
These opportunities are also heading toward a tipping
point. The largest component of these new opportunities will be in value-added services reflecting both
operational business practices and understanding the
application of technology to achieve business benefit.
Channel partners and vendors who are prepared when
the tipping point triggers will be positioned best to take
advantage of the growth. n
Norma Watenpaugh, CSAP, is the founding principal and
CEO of Phoenix Consulting Group (www.phoenixcg.com),
which provides partnering and collaboration consulting
services with expertise in partnering strategy, multi-channel
and alliance management, and ecosystem development.
She is also a board member of ASAP and led the United
States delegation to the ISO Standards Committee for
collaborative business relationship management.

35
Q4 * 2017 | STRATEGIC ALLIANCE MAGAZINE

http://www.phoenixcg.com

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