Cloud has been a very significant element in the channel business for several years. Cloud is transforming several dimensions in organizations and has always been a great news for partners who are positioned to get their clients to this platform.
The rapid adoption of cloud brings multi-fold capabilities to be ushered in businesses of any scale. As cloud platforms and services mature, the market for them will be growing and rapidly evolving.
According to IDC, 70 percent of CIOs adopted a cloud first strategy last year. A more recent study by Weston-Comstor survey, states that among the 95 percent of channel partners surveyed, at least some said that their customers want to explore cloud. [Read the full report here]
The survey highlights that cloud-focused resellers have significantly greater revenue increases than those not selling cloud solutions. It said that end customers seek cloud solutions, not just point products. Also, distributors can help resellers address technical and business challenges on the digital transformation journey.
The study includes opinions of 522 respondents, including MSPs, solution providers, system integrators, telecom agents and other channel partners. Among them, only 9 percent said that they do not help in selling cloud and that they are cloud ready. The rest, which is the majority believes that they need help to thrive in the competition and that there are gaps in their skillsets.
The survey highlights four steps through which distributors can help businesses leverage cloud better:
– The IT officer of an enterprise can use the distributor’s resources in technology and vertical to understand the client better and can offer better solutions to them.
– Knowing one’s strengths and weaknesses is a significant component to success. It pays to identify gaps and work towards them while build long-term road map for the businesses. Distributors can help build up a better business considering the short comings and help strengthen capabilities.
– Businesses should look for cloud programs and tools offered by distributors like bundled solutions or enablement programs. It is important to examine how rapidly they can scale cloud capabilities? To what extent they can offer analytics and insight? How automated and integrated are their processes with other parts of the business? All these capabilities of the distributor and the business’ requirement should go hand in hand.
With all these knowledge, proper execution is important. With the help of the distributor businesses can gain experience to grow and succeed.