Partner Management In The Cloud Era

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

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

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

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

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

What Customers Expect From Their MSP In 2016

If you are a regular reader of our newsletter, you would have seen that Channel Dynamics has been working with global not-for-profit channel association CompTIA to establish an ANZ IT Channel “Community” to advance the industry through education, research, networking events and professional certifications. Last year, CompTIA worked with research firm After Nines Inc to … Continued

It Is A New Year!…..So Now What?

Welcome to 2016! The beginning of a new year is a great time to look at your business and think about the priorities for the year ahead. The old adage ‘Failing to plan means planning to fail’ really could not be more true. For many, the planning process can be a bit daunting, but in … Continued

Your Partners Are Listening…. Don’t Bore Them

If you’ve read our articles over the years, you will have noticed we try to make them interesting and informative without overtly promoting our own services. So it feels strange for me to write this article because I will be blatantly promoting our services at the end. Don’t worry – this article is still going … Continued

Y2K Ain’t What It Used To Be

When people refer the “halcyon days” of the IT industry, they are usually thinking of three things – the early 80’s when PCs were $6,000 at 30% margin, the early 90’s when MDF meant “Money for Decadent Functions” or the late 90’s when customers spent more money on technology in 6 months than any other … Continued

This Channel Thingy Is Getting Complex

Channel used to be easy. I don’t mean easy for the average man in the street (who thinks it’s a brand of perfume or something you change with a remote). I mean it was easy for those of us actually in the channel. We all understood how it worked. Vendors sold to distributors, who then … Continued