Ten Lessons From Trump For Channel Managers

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On the 20th January 2017, Donald J. Trump, an American businessman and television personality with no prior government experience, became the 45th President of the United States, in what many consider to be one of the biggest upsets in American political history. Since then, he has gone on to lead what many consider to be … Continued

Do You Honestly Believe You Are A Disruptor?

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If “Cloud” was the most overused word for 2015, then “Digital Disruption” would have to be my #1 pick for 2016. I’m struggling to think of a vendor event that I attended last year that didn’t reference at least Uber, AirBnB or Netflix in the opening slides; the message of course being … Disrupt (like … Continued

Lessons For MSPs From a “Free” Phone App

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I’m fascinated by some of the games available on phones nowadays (which is kind of interesting given that I don’t play them). But what I find interesting is not the game itself, but rather the business model behind how it makes money for its developers. One of my favourites is Candy Crush – a “free” … Continued

Making Partner Advisory Councils Work

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We are often asked by vendors about if (or when) they should conduct a Partner Advisory Council (PAC). The reason for this question is due to the fact that many have had mixed experiences or success with PAC’s in the past. In this article we look at some ideas around how a PAC can work … Continued

Advancing Women In IT Isn’t Just A Women’s Issue

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Last month I attended CompTIA’s ChannelCon event in Florida. This is an annual event where 1,500 vendors, solution providers/MSPs and distributors come together to network, learn, and discuss issues affecting the industry. It’s also where attendees can sit in on various CompTIA Communities Meetings. One of my favourite sessions over the three days was the … Continued

Partner Management In The Cloud Era

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We are currently working with a range of clients (vendors and distributors) who have business models that are moving to be more Cloud, annuity or XaaS orientated. In working with these clients, our research findings are suggesting that using “traditional” partner engagement used for “perpetual” products will not give partners the skills necessary to successfully … Continued

Why Your Services Business Might Shrink

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It’s interesting that a marketing concept introduced 30 years ago can have implications for an IT industry transitioning to an “as a Service” model today, but that is exactly what is happening. In 1986, Regis McKenna presented the concept of the Whole Product in his book “The Regis Touch”, which was later popularised by Geoffrey … Continued

Productise For Repeatability and Profit

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We work with a number of partners to help them to optimise their overall business and associated vendor engagement. Something that comes up regularly is whether or not a business should invest and create a specialist “practice”. i.e. Security, Cloud, UC, Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity etc. The primary benefit of building a practise comes from the … Continued

Moving to the Cloud? … Change your Comp Plan

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Over the years, I’ve had several sales managers tell me their sales people are “coin-operated”. In other words, they are motivated purely by their pay packet. So all you need to do is give reps a sales target, give them a commission plan, and set them loose (and the good ones will deliver the results). … Continued

The Evolution of the Ransomware Business Model

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Ransomware attacks are one thing that I have started to see and hear more and more of lately. This type of malicious software, designed to block access to a computer system until a sum of money (ransom) is paid, is wreaking havoc for partners and their customers. Recently I was trying to get hold of … Continued