GHASSAN ABOU RJEILY , REGIONAL CHANNEL SALES MANAGER EMERGING EMEA , RIVERBED
Q & A
EDITOR ’ S
AS THE ADOPTION OF CLOUD SURGES , CHANNEL PARTNERS HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO PRESENT COMPETENCIES AND BOOST SALES THROUGH CLOUD MARKETPLACES . WHAT ARE THE OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES FOR CHANNEL PARTNERS THROUGH SUCH MOVES ?
With the appetite for cloud adoption having scaled exponentially in recent years , hyperscalers such as Microsoft , AWS and Google have grown rapidly . Today , their marketplaces have become the preferred procurement model for many customers . Channel partners that discount the significance of this trend will find themselves at a disadvantage and lose business to more advanced partners .
Prior to the pandemic , experts had predicted that online marketplaces would replace the traditional B2B transactional model . However , the pandemic has accelerated this shift , leading to an increase in deployment of online marketplaces over the past years . These responses were previously published in the July and August 2023 editions . Executives from Riverbed , Mindware , Texub share their perspectives .
GHASSAN ABOU RJEILY , REGIONAL CHANNEL SALES MANAGER EMERGING EMEA , RIVERBED
While adapting to this model , partners should also aim to take advantage of the ecosystems that vendors have built .
Instead of being intimidated by the shift , partners that are pioneering the very nature and role of the channel are beginning to build their own service offerings on these cloud marketplaces . They are combining cloud solutions from multiple vendors and packaging their value-add services around these to create compelling offerings that can be easily consumed by end customers .
Of course , for those channel players that are yet to embrace this shift – a key consideration pertains to which marketplace to build such a listing on . Here , my advice would be to consider where your customers are . After all , if your biggest customers already have commitment with a particular hyperscaler , it makes it simpler for all parties to transact business on the same platform .
While adapting to this model , partners should also aim to take advantage of the ecosystems that vendors have built . To
deliver on the comprehensive solutions that enterprises now require , vendors have begun to collaborate more closely , developing deep , native integrations between best-of-breed cloud solutions , and creating compelling solution ecosystems .
This presents a significant opportunity for the channel . The shift to cloud solution selling and leveraging ecosystems enable partners to hit the ground running , as they can shift focus from managing the complexities of integration to instead developing value-add services around these solutions and ecosystems .
Moreover , partners who have invested to develop their skill sets around a particular vendor ’ s solutions will be presented with opportunities to up-sell and cross-sell other solutions within the ecosystem which can greatly increase the deal-size , and the value they deliver to customers .
INTELLIGENT TECH CHANNELS 55