ENTERPRISE TECHNOLOGY
To address this, Infinigate has incorporated an Auvik-powered Network Assessment Service into its PartnerWorks offering. The service provides automated discovery, live topology mapping, continuous monitoring, traffic insights and configuration visibility, giving partners practical intelligence they can use to identify performance issues, improve resilience and create new customer conversations.
According to Tedford, the assessment also helps partners generate additional margin while strengthening both pre-sales and postsales engagement.
From support to long-term partnerships Customer expectations around support are also changing.
Rather than viewing maintenance as a post-deployment activity, organisations increasingly expect partners to provide ongoing optimisation, monitoring and security throughout the technology lifecycle.
Tedford believes this represents one of the biggest commercial opportunities currently available to the channel.
“ Customers are increasingly expecting support to continue throughout the technology lifecycle, rather than ending once a product has been deployed,” he said.
They want assistance not only with maintenance but also with monitoring, optimisation and adapting technology as their business evolves, he added.
“ For partners, this creates an opportunity to build deeper, longer-term customer relationships and more predictable revenue streams.”
Flexible delivery models are becoming equally important.
“ We’ re also seeing more demand for flexible models that allow partners to remain the customer’ s main point of contact while bringing in specialist expertise and support when needed,” said Tedford.
That approach enables partners to retain ownership of customer relationships while drawing on additional technical capabilities when projects require specialist expertise.
The changing role of distribution As partner businesses evolve, so too does the role of the value-added distributor.
Tedford believes distribution is moving far beyond logistics and procurement.
“ The role of the value-added distributor is becoming much broader,” he said.
While technology access remains important, partners increasingly need assistance with solution design, technical enablement, service delivery and go-tomarket strategy.
“ This means distributors are becoming an extension of the partner’ s own team, helping them add capabilities, enter new markets and scale more quickly.”
For Tedford, the greatest value comes from combining technical expertise with commercial understanding, enabling partners not only to deploy technology successfully but also to build sustainable businesses around it.
Building recurring revenue Looking ahead, Tedford believes the strongest opportunities will come from helping customers navigate increasing IT complexity.
“ The biggest opportunities will come from helping customers manage growing complexity,” he said.
The role of the value-added distributor is becoming much broader.
Network visibility is crucial. Organisations can’ t manage, optimise or secure what they can’ t see.
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