FUTURE TECHNOLOGY
of a subscription model . Recurrent revenue style and cloud subscription versus product selling , even for hardware centric businesses , has accelerated even more due to the COVID-19 pandemic . Partner programmes are also going through a major change , as brands or their representatives need to engage with different types of partner .
According to Jay McBain , Principal Analyst Channels , Partnerships and Ecosystems , Forrester , traditional partner relationships are being disrupted almost overnight . The recurring business model may align well with MSPs and telco agents , but the majority of the VAR channel will experience material disruption . “ In previous years , I have emphasised the importance of a ‘ trifurcated ’ channel model — moving programme investments before the transaction ( influence ) and after the transaction ( retention ) to support adoption , integrations , stickiness and upsell / cross-sell . Vendors are busy building ecosystems of transacting and non-transacting partners as well as traditional and non-traditional . They are not increasing channel investments
REACH allows vendors and distributors alike to deliver dynamic channel engagement and management in the easiest , most efficient and scalable way .
( gross to nets ) to do this but rather are moving the money around to where they can earn more customers with higher lifetime value ,” McBain noted .
To sum up , ChannelPro ’ s aim , through REACH , is to help brands in MEA and their distributors be ahead of the game in terms of automating . This includes :
• Partners sales enablement , social selling and their community so it can be scalable and measurable
• To manage the design , allocation , tracking and distribution of financial incentives to the partner ecosystem , including market development funds ( MDFs ), sales performance incentive funds ( SPIFs ), co-ops , bonuses , rebates , and loyalty programmes . This includes non-monetary and motivational incentives
• To collect sales and sell-out data , lead generation and numerous other aspects of sales and management data which will be analysed and transformed into more actionable data
What channel programmes , products , solutions and initiatives is ChannelPro planning for channel partners in MEA in the year ahead ?
We are a young , agile company looking to increase our resources . Channel management has developed as a market over hundreds of years , with 80 % of companies in the world relying heavily on it . Whilst the channel is and will continue to change , the fundamentals of a multi-level partnership is needed to transact , service , influence or to form other partnerships . As a result , the capacity and demands of each role will continue to evolve with time . It is clear there is a growing gap in the market and opportunity for us to replicate this change across the MEA region .
Our vision is to capture all of these changes and focus on improving our existing capabilities to better serve the distributors and vendors in order to meet the markets changing expectations .
REACH allows vendors and distributors alike to deliver dynamic channel engagement and management in the easiest , most efficient and scalable way . We have the ability to adapt , being a huge advantage in comparison to legacy systems or in-house tools as we are able to internalise this process so that companies can focus more on their core business activities and adapt and grow with channel digitalisation needs . •
INTELLIGENT TECH CHANNELS Issue 46 37