To be successful in a Cloud focused channel, partners must “get out in front” of end users, providing valuable education as organisations move to the skies.
That’s the view of Paul Bay, President of North America, Ingram Micro, who believes success stems from education in the cloud, an opinion he reiterated at the Ingram Micro Partner Summit in Arizona, US, this week.
“Around 70 per cent of end users believe they already have the solution at hand,” claimed Bay, alluding to the distributor’s global network of partners, including those operating out of New Zealand.
“You’ve got to get in front of end users before they come to you.”
For Bay, speaking as the company further ramps up its cloud offerings with a host of new announcements, it’s not just a technology conversation that partners should be having.
“It’s about looking at what problem you can solve from a business perspective,” he advised. “And it’s a positive conversation if you can get out in front of it.”
As reported by Reseller News, Ingram Micro has made several strategic announcements at its annual Cloud Summit this week, hammering home its commitment to cloud and channel partner enablement across the world.
With the distributor’s US and Canada markets set to benefit from an expanded Cloud Marketplace Portfolio, an Ingram Micro Service Desk and new Microsoft Office 365 offerings, and other markets widely expected to follow, Bay believes now is the time for partners to be proactive when it comes to cloud.
“Partners are still spending a certain amount of their time having on the education part,” he said. “The good news is as more solution providers solve for [customers’ pain points], once they’ve landed it they can make the process repeatable.
“But it’s about just getting that first one or couple of them together. Cloud is an enablement tool to have the conversation.”
Echoing comments made by Renee Bergeron, vice-president of Cloud Computing at Ingram Micro, Bay believes the reality of the “simplicity of the Cloud is realised at the end-customer level, the complexity is with the channel.”
Consequently, his message to the channel market, in the US, Canada, New Zealand and the rest of the world, is simple; “The bottom line is, you’ve got to get in. If you’re not someone else is.”
