Why Channel is resisting Cloud How To Better Engage With Them Ian Moyse www.ianmoyse.co.uk
26 yrs+ in IT, 9yrs in IT Security, 7yrs in Cloud Ian Moyse : Validity To Speak Sales Director, Workbooks.com, Cloud CRM Vendor Sit on Board of Eurocloud UK Sit on Governance Board of Cloud Industry Forum (CIF) Advisory Board Member SaaSMAX Advisor to Board for Evoco Journey2Cloud Named by TalkinCloud one of the global top 200 cloud channel experts in 2011 Listed on the MSPMentor global top 250 list for 2011 Named Channelnomics 2011 Influencer of the year for Europe Won European Channel Personality of the year 2011 Awarded global AllBusiness Sales AllStar Award for 2010 Thought Leader to Compare The Cloud Comptia Cloud Essentials Exam Certified 2012 Worldwide SMB Nation 150 Channel Influencers List 2012 Approved Speaker Schoolspeakers.co.uk
A Lot Of Channel Is Ignoring Cloud
The World Is Changing : Movies
The World Is Changing : Music
The World Is Changing : Books
The World Is Changing : Photography
The World Is Changing : Postal
The World Is Changing : IT
Recessive market, customers burning solutions for longer Reselling Challenges Highly competitive market Decrease in margins available from third party commodity items Demand from vendors and customers for certified channel partners Increased cost of employing and finding quality skilled labour Reduction in the dependency of many vendors in channel and/or partner sales An increase in vendor direct sales via either telephone or the Internet Demystifying and deskilling of some common IT services putting pressure on services revenues Consolidation of large computing vendors New types of competitor Reduction in "value add" of vendors and distributors Increased competition from vendors competing directly against smaller ISV's
Market Recession Customers paying slower Distributors tightening credit Hardware margins down Vendors pressured Consolidations Reseller : Channel Re-Shaping Cloud layers on top of all this
Different Perceptions
Channel s Opportunity
What Brings Value To A Resale Business? Source : Channelweb.co.uk - March 2011
What Is The Channel Doing? More than half of resellers are not currently selling any cloud
Conflict Will Be Rife! CTTA (2012) disclosed the following about solution providers: 28.2 percent have lost cloud sales to direct service provider companies 62.5 percent believe they ve lost a sale because they could not meet customer demands 39.9 percent say they are developing cloud with only a mere 5.4 percent boasting a mature cloud model is available Outside half of that $34 billion channel partners may never see, many SMB companies are reporting that investing in the cloud is easier with a company SMBs may already have a relationship with. (AMI-Partners)
Benefits of Reselling Cloud
Transitioning It s not a Cloud OR its an AND Make sure your sales team is goaled correctly to remove conflict Address commission plans early Educate staff on cloud form factor Cloud Vendor / Technology Selection Align with cloud strategy Survey your customers & make them aware Validate the investment, effort & model and COMMIT Persevere Short term pain, long term gain!
What Can resellers Bring To Cloud Vendors? Bandwidth hours and days in week cannot be changed Cover more ground Feet on The Street More prospecting & customer touch Marketing Reach Branding to customers Independent Influence / endorsement Customer Relationships Accreditations / Certifications Solution Bids Geographic Coverage Lower cost of sale for Vendor Incremental Sales / Run Rate Scale-able model as the customer base grows Less Credit Risk at the lower end Fewer customers to deal with from credit/account perspective
What Resellers Want From Cloud Vendors! Customers want Switch it on quick, no setup cost, no extra consultancy or support costs, monthly billing?, Utility billing? ( Panacea ) Consultancy options around the cloud solution? Eg Workbooks.com (CRM back end consultancy) Resellers want to bill their client, not have the vendor do it! Resellers ideally want up front payments Financial rules of engagement > Consistency Renewals Good margins on the licensing (not sub 10%) Xsp new channels typically want periodic billing
Good Reference Points http://www.cloudindustryforum.org/ http://www.eurocloud.org http://www.cloudcredential.org/index.php Cloud Resellers Network Group (Linked In)
Reselling Cloud Whitepaper Series http://webroot.co.uk/en_gb/land-reselling-the-cloud-2011.html Paper 1 - Cloud Gathers Over The Channel Why the cloud is important to you as a reseller The evolution of cloud computing How cloud solutions will change the channel landscape Paper 2 - Cloudy Channel Considerations Which Areas of the Cloud You Should Consider What Should You Look for in Cloud Vendor Partnerships Paper 3 - Show Me The Money How cloud solutions are changing the licensing and billing models How this may affect the way you need to compensate your sales people, What effect they will have on your services and support delivery models How does cloud affect your business metrics Paper 4 - Cloud With A Silver Lining How you can successfully transition your business to selling cloud How you retain your trusted advisor status to your customer What is your value to your customer in selling a cloud solution instead of a product based proposition
Why Chanel is resisting Cloud How To Better Engage With Them Ian Moyse www.ianmoyse.co.uk