Paul Tedford, Head of Service Delivery at Infinigate UK & Ireland

As customers demand greater visibility, proactive support and long-term technology partnerships, channel partners are looking beyond product resale towards recurring services. Paul Tedford, Head of Service Delivery at Infinigate UK & Ireland, explains how accredited support, network visibility and lifecycle services are helping partners strengthen customer relationships while creating new revenue opportunities.

The role of the channel partner is evolving. Customers no longer view support as something that begins when technology fails. Instead, they increasingly expect partners to remain engaged throughout the entire technology lifecycle, helping optimise performance, improve resilience and strengthen security as business requirements change.

That shift is creating significant opportunities for partners prepared to move beyond traditional resale and develop recurring service-based businesses. However, building those capabilities internally can require considerable investment in technical skills, operational processes and service delivery.

Paul Tedford, Head of Service Delivery at Infinigate UK & Ireland, believes distributors have an increasingly important role to play in helping partners make that transition.

“ The biggest challenge is often moving from a product-led model to a repeatable, scalable services business,” he said.

Rather than expecting partners to develop every capability themselves, Tedford believes distributors can provide the technical expertise, enablement and commercial framework needed to accelerate growth.

“ Infinigate helps bridge those gaps through technical expertise, enablement and access to proven services that partners can wrap into their own propositions.”

By doing so, partners can expand their portfolios, develop recurring revenue streams and strengthen customer relationships without building every service from scratch.

Visibility drives value As networks become more distributed through cloud adoption, hybrid working, connected devices and Artificial Intelligence, visibility is becoming increasingly important for both partners and customers.

Tedford believes comprehensive network insight has become fundamental to managing modern IT environments as they continue to grow in scale and complexity.

“ Network visibility is crucial. Organisations can’ t manage, optimise or secure what they can’ t see.”

He explained that customers increasingly need real-time insight into devices, connectivity, network performance and potential vulnerabilities as environments continue to grow in complexity.“ Better visibility helps IT teams identify problems earlier, reduce downtime and make more informed decisions.”

That visibility also enables partners to deliver greater strategic value.

“ It gives partners the insight they need to move beyond reactive support and provide customers with more proactive, strategic guidance.”

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