Techaisle Blog

Techaisle's recently completed channel surveys show that Cloud, Mobility, and Managed Services Solutions together are beginning to change the SMB channel landscape as these solutions are revolutionizing IT utilization by SMBs. However, only 14% of channels are currently offering all three services to SMBs. The new paradigm would be the “3-in-1” Channels offering Mobility, Cloud, and Managed Services as a single offering.

Our research shows that SMBs want mostly integrated solutions to limit complexity and therefore seek partners that are capable of such deliverables. However, very few partners currently do so as they are all camped in either one or two solution corners and few seem to embrace a holistic solution view – and this is making SMBs unsure of overall benefits and desire to spend.

We feel that it is important for broad product/solution vendors to rapidly evaluate all their partners, seek and cluster partners based on where they are with regards to capabilities of delivering complete solutions and introduce programs to support development.

Resellers should look at their core skills, financial support and asses if they are capable of developing a market accepted value proposition encompassing all three key areas or seek collaborative relationships with other partners in areas they are weak. Here, vendors can also help in partnerships.

So far, Managed Services has been the most important offering and implementing Mobility Solutions is a new line of business for SMB Channel Partners.

Survey data shows that VARs are quite proactive in initiating discussions with their SMB customers for Cloud Solutions. Nevertheless, 31% of the VARs mention that vendors are pushing them to offer more Cloud Computing Solutions.

Channel partners that are able to deliver a suite of services that cut across Mobility, Cloud and Managed services will find SMBs that are willing to listen to them. The march towards Mobility and Cloud cannot be stopped. The only course for channel partners and vendors is to find the optimal intersection of the three. These “3-in-1” partners will define the next channel landscape.

In-depth analysis is covered in Techaisle’s report titled “Channel View- Trends & Challenges in offering SMB Mobility, Cloud, & Managed Services Solutions.”

Tavishi Agrawal
Techaisle

On 2^nd of March, Cisco made three new product and service announcements for the small and mid-market business segments. With these announcements, Cisco is continuing to show its commitment and focus for empowering the SMB segment and enabling its partner community to efficiently and effectively serve such market.

These three new announcements are a new platform for SMB collaboration (UC300 & BE 3000); a program to empower partners with the resale of WebEX solutions; and improved sales support to the SMB partner community with the Partner Advisor. These offerings are immediately available in the US and UK, and will gradually roll out in other European countries as Cisco completes the localization activities.

SMB-tailored products

The Cisco UC300 series is a very important step towards empowering small businesses to have a voice of their own, literally. Priced at US$165 per user, UC300 series can support up to 24 users and provides one single platform for voicemail, wireless, auto attendant, remote access, and mobile links. We feel this is an important and affordable platform for many of the small businesses who are still sitting on the fence as far as having a well connected communication and collaboration system among its employees. It is also extremely suitable for those small businesses which have grown organically and have multiple communication devices and have either fully or partially deployed VoIP systems.

For higher end small business users and the lower end of the mid-market businesses, Cisco announced its Business Edition 3000 which can support up to 300 users and is priced at US$100 per user. The platform not only provides capabilities for a single number, soft phones, auto attendant, click to call, mobility link, but also is able to connect up to 10 different sites.

Technologies such as collaboration and web conferencing are increasingly becoming important to SMBs to satisfy their priority to make employees more productive. As SMBs tighten budgets for items such as travel, such collaboration and conferencing solutions take center stage. While some solutions have been around for a long time, we believe that broad adoption among SMBs is upon us as evidenced by the priority assigned to such technologies vs. the current level of penetration. And with the announcements of UC300 and BE 3000, Cisco is playing right within the sweet spot of empowering the SMBs.

Similarly, mobile devices and enabling technologies are perhaps the most exciting space today remaining somewhat resilient even in a severe downturn. SMBs have always had a strong desire for mobile products and things became more interesting since Apple released its iPhone. As smart phones expand their empowering abilities, SMBs have strongly taken to accessing email, conferencing, collaborating and using social networking when mobile. A unified, affordable and simple to deploy platform suddenly helps the small businesses.

Small businesses have actively begun to use social media to create awareness about their business. According to Techaisle’s most recent survey, 70% plan to use social media in the next 12 months which is a positive sign, however 45% are not sure how it could help their business. Nevertheless, it is comforting to know that platforms from Cisco can provide that consolidated enablement across all different devices and solutions that are being used by SMBs. Another recent survey on Cloud Computing shows that besides industry specific applications, communications/collaboration and general business productivity applications including CRM are fastest growing. The inflection point for cloud based services is evident when business hit 20 or more employees. This again points to the fact that Cisco seems to have done its homework and instead of following a technology paradigm, has introduced a real business solution paradigm.

More focus on supporting Partners with dedicated personnel

Cisco announced also the introduction of Partner Advisor. With this enabling element of its partner programs, Cisco is catching up with the more traditional instrument of back-office support that is customary for the small/mid-sized reseller. Cisco Partner Advisor, which is to be deployed globally during this year, includes a one stop source for sales support and information such as product selection, promotion, pricing, financing and ordering.

The Cisco Partner Advisor is to be delivered both through the use of a dedicated myCisco online portal and, more importantly, with dedicated live agents’ organization – recognizing that distribution is a people business and resellers requires personal touch. The physical locations of the agents’ organization and their ability to solve issues for resellers will be the test ground for success of this investment Cisco is making. Dedicated to support the smaller resellers, not all Cisco’s partners will be allowed access to the Partner Advisor services.

Andrew Sage, Vice-President of Worldwide Small Business Sales, Cisco said at the announcement, “Our partners are the center of our business at Cisco, and we will do whatever we can to help them succeed. Our new Cisco Partner Advisor initiative uses both people and technology to help our small and mid-market business partners to begin or continue working with Cisco to get the immediate sales and programs help they need.”

Partner-Led WebEx: Cisco shows how the channel can drive Cloud Services

Cisco is bullish here, and rightly so. A chance to talk to customers, different ways to sell collaboration features, application sharing and complementing the new product launch, Cisco announced that Partners will be able to bundle or resell in their offerings Cisco WebEx Online Services.

Whilst this will be offered to users at published prices, this enabling & recurring revenue stream has all the writings of a strong lock leverage which competitors will find difficult to neutralize in the quest for new partners. Additionally, this appears to be a great integration example for Cloud based services offered by the reselling channel for others to follow.

Ian Pennell, Senior Vice-President, Small Business Technology Group and Co-Chair, Small Business Council, Cisco also showed his commitment for small businesses and the partner community that serves that segment by saying, “Cisco continues to be 100 percent committed to giving our partners and the customers they serve the easy-to-use technology innovation they need to succeed. Our partners and customers have told us they want simple unified communications solutions to help them stay ahead of their competition. Cisco is ready to meet that need.”

Paolo Puppoli
Tavishi Agrawal
Techaisle

With the ever growing uptake of smart and mobile computing devices, many IT and Telecom vendors have been quick to forecast major channel restructurings to take place. For example, for many vendors, Netbook PCs have opened entirely new avenues to consumers, increased the number of resellers in their rosters and even called for an entire reorganization of their affiliation programs.

Techaisle’s recently published survey of 2900 Small Businesses across four countries [US, UK, Brazil and Germany], however, shows that on average, less than 1 in 5 Small Business buyers are sourcing their telecom and IT equipment from the same supplier. The data has not changed significantly over the last few years, particularly if we consider the advent of IP-PBX switching and integration in data networks.

Price seems the determining factor – whilst about 1/3 of multi-sourcing SBs are not looking to consolidate purchasing practices, the research shows that the bulk majority is regularly looking at ways to unify sourcing.

The market is there but reaching it is proving to be difficult.

The same research shows that channel suppliers’ inability to price competitively individual products from both IT & Telecom worlds is the largest barrier for limiting convergence possibilities – and making SBs source each set of products from their most relevant price specialized channels. If we continue as is, we have a near perfect parallel world.



Business Buy Solutions… But also products! Get it right and a third of the market may be yours. That is the size of the buyers business which is being sought after at multi-degrees and multi-levels between shareholders, vendors and the very channel players supposed to converge.

It is not an issue about wanting to converge but the ever present need to grow that makes vendors seek to drive the IT-Telecom markets convergence and to do that, they must address this particular channel weakness – and this is not an easy task.  Invest, and others will benefit. Do nothing and nothing will happen.

Besides retail, each channel player [in their remit] is arguably looking at efficiencies, focus, expertise, and… price on a daily basis but one reseller focused on IP Telephony [and with many years of expertise in the solution] will undoubtedly struggle to reach sufficiently relevant economies of scale to price compete with a specialist counterpart in the IT world. And any investment to balance this equation will likely increase their cost structure to threaten the overall business. They will not be the first to change.

Retailers, on the other spectrum of the market, have been selling Smartphones, SIM handsets, PCs and Netbooks for many years now, but that is hardly convergence.

So it is up to the vendors to make it happen. I once read that the answer may lie in the development of program alliances - a scenario where vendor A and vendor B  define how their products fit into a solution for SBs and enable selected partners with the right approach, solutions and products [a program] to serve the market niche by niche and in a probable unified manner. Competitive dynamics may make it more like fantasy than a real proposition, but it is a nice vision of the future.

More probable drivers for channel convergence, however, are to be found in new integrated technologies or solutions [like cloud offerings billed to create a new breed of channel players] but for now there is just talk.

Paolo Puppoli
Techaisle

It’s happened! The long coming merger of Europe’s current 3rd and 4th largest distributors was announced. The new entity looks well capable of rivaling in size, if not in market presence, to that of US distributor Ingram Micro’s European interests. And arguably, by simple effect of exchange rate fluctuation [USD /Euro/CHF], the American Company’s ranking position is already in doubt.  This is only data though.

Actebis GmbH, a subsidiary of the Droege International Group AG, and the publicly listed ALSO Holding AG, a subsidiary of Schindler Holding AG, intend to merge their activities. Such a merger would create the third-largest ICT and CE distribution company in Europe, with a sales revenue of around USD $9.6 billion. The merger is subject, inter alia, to the approval of the responsible competition authorities.

Whilst the merger is announced as a 1+1 = 2 (or 133 as they called it), the new to be created organization is very much absent from most of the Mediterranean basin, the British Isles and a number of other EMEA countries which together form up to 40 percent of market – just looking at PCs.  Flanking opportunities may well turn out to be limited.
 
Additionally, there are some overlapping territories where the new enterprise will have to be much focused so as not to lose resellers to its competitors. Most resellers source from a few distributors simply to obtain credit and if these are reduced, then the likely outcome is that others will benefit.

For vendors, this is most likely good news.  Simplicity in market access/coverage will have to be weighed against the increased purchasing power of the new company but we expect few will complain.

The company also indicated as merger benefit the possibility to become number one player.  Whilst this is still somewhat far away, any southern European distributor is probably preparing the books.  

Techaisle channel database shows over 185,000 resellers in Europe. We believe that this is a clear example of broadline distributors rethinking their strategy to take control of this vast customer base and moving from the traditional bulk braking/warehousing to a more sophisticated logistics management offering.

Paolo Puppoli
Techaisle