Resellers generally have extremely strong technical skill sets in both the solutions area and the technical environments of your existing and future clients. This is a unique skill set and most often a core differentiator of the bulk of your businesses. For the most part, this means that the majority of resellers and partner businesses will not require radical changes or additions to either their technical skill sets or their technical personnel in the transition to cloud.
What will happen is the move to a cloud or SaaS focus will drive a purposing of a sub set of your technical people. Cloud installations will require them to move away from unique big ticket “one off” assignments in order to focus on the repeatable, tightly defined narrow scope assignments driven around your core cloud/SaaS solutions and customers. In some technical organizations, the changes that have been required to meet new technical capabilities have been as dramatic as the changes that have been required in marketing and sales capabilities. The key technical question facing your organization revolves around how much investment in re-skilling will be required to allow you to execute the strategy you wish to execute.
Contemplation points
What would Channelcorp like you to be thinking about as a result of reading about your businesses infrastructure and capability requirements? First, thoughtful business planning will be the key to your success. Leadership, from the top of your organization, will be required to build a plan that will result in the required infrastructure and capabilities being put in place to support your transition to a cloud or SaaS focused business.
Your corporate heritage drives, to a large extent, the current infrastructure and capabilities that you are currently blessed (or cursed) with. You and your team, as part of the business planning process, need to develop an accurate picture of your current infrastructure and capabilities, some idea of what you need to look like in 24-36 months and a destination plan to help you get where you need to go. Enhancement of marketing and sales capabilities and infrastructure will be “must dos” for up to 70 per cent of partners and resellers. Investment in these two areas will consume much of their transition investment budgets. Changes in technical capabilities may need to be relatively dramatic as you move from a specialist model to a generalist technical model.
Channelcorp wants you to engage in some careful business planning. We want you to be thinking about what you are truly good at, and where you need to fortify your infrastructure and capability before you talk to the various vendors and distributors active in the market. If you have identified where you need transition assistance your eventual partners will be able to match your needs with the various components of your partner’s channel programs.
LivePlan-30 DAY RISK FREE PILOT
Channelcorp, CDN and LivePlan have teamed up to offer CDN readers a 30 DAY RISK FREE PILOT of the unique cloud based business planning solution LivePLan. LivePlan is the best cloud based business planning solution that Channelcorp has found publically available on the market. You can use LivePLan to model your recurring revenue business (cloud/SaaS/MPS). You can then use LivePlan to merge financial models of your traditional business with the recurring revenue models of your cloud, SaaS or MPS business to get the whole business-planning picture. For $139.95 per year (thirty eight cents per day) you can have access to LivePlan. Get started, by trying a 30-day free trial.
About Channelcorp
Margaret and Bruce Stuart founded Channelcorp in 1989. The firm is a global leader in the assistance of reseller, distributor and vendor clients. Channelcorp specializes in the business model transformation that is required in the face of the structural changes to recurring revenue driven business models in the worldwide IT business (www.channelcorp.com/services.php). Channelcorp publishes and sells four industry- leading books and 12 white papers (www.channelcorp.com/publications.php). This independent firm has delivered consulting and executive education to vendor, reseller and distribution clients in more then 40 emerging, developing and mature markets around the world. (www.channelcorp.com/workshops.php). More than 25,000 channel professionals from around the world subscribe to the newsletter Channelcorp intelligence (www.channelcorp.com/newsletter.php).