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The Asia-Pacific region remains one of the most dynamic in the world. For all the disruption that COVID-19 caused, World Bank data shows that Asia-Pacific economies have grown at a rate that has outpaced the rest of the world.
This growth has had an impact on IT spending too, with IDC data showing that APAC spending will grow by over 3.8 per cent in 2022, and will reach $1.4 trillion by 2026. These gains are largely being driven by Enterprise spending as organisations continue the transformation strategies that were commenced through the pandemic.
There remain challenges across the region. China is the largest trading partner for most APAC nations, and the impact of its lockdowns across the supply chain were significant. Nevertheless, according to Juniper's Vice President of Customer Service, APAC, Greg Yoder, in an exclusive interview with Foundry, supply chains are starting to stabilize, and this presents an opportunity for forward-thinking organisations to take the lead.
“The supply chain issues are starting to resolve themselves. And so now the question is, what's the new normal going to be?” he said.
“There is now an absolute requirement for increased flexibility and agility in purchasing, and one thing that we’re seeing that’s consistent across the region is an increased reliance on automation.”
Services mean differentiation for the channel
As supply chain issues begin to resolve themselves and markets continue to correct, customers across APAC see digital transformation and the move to the cloud as critical to their ability to adapt to the “new normal”. Studies show that companies across the APAC region are “racing” ahead of Europe and the US in their efforts to embrace the transformation.
However, skill shortages continue to plague APAC companies. Three in four face an IT skills gap, meaning that they’re looking to the channel to assist them.
Services present channel partners with a strong opportunity to attract customers and help them keep pace with digital transformation. Channel partners who excel at delivering services will be well positioned to capture the increased revenue potential from such opportunities.
According to Juniper, channel partners, in collaboration with a channel-orientated vendor, should focus their energies in these services areas:
- Removing complexity and minimize business disruption during transition from legacy to the Cloud era.
- Accelerating the time to value with proven solutions and world class customer focus teams.
- Providing a consistent and seamless customer experience with services delivered across lifecycle of the customer.
- Becoming the trusted advisor through the entire lifecycle of the partnership during infrastructure transformation.
A good example of effectively delivering services to an organisation can be seen with XL Axiata, one of Juniper’s customers in Indonesia. With Indonesia experiencing a boom in digital business done through high-speed Internet, XL Axiata needed to upgrade its nationwide network to accommodate. It adopted the Juniper 400G solution to power both its 5G and fibre services.
As the first customer to deploy Juniper’s SRv6 solution, XL Axiata worked closely with Juniper Professional Services and partner on every stage of the project, from the design and implementation to post-deployment support to ensure a smooth and successful migration. Through the effective implementation of Juniper’s technology, Beny Dwi Setyawan, head of transport at XL Axiata, said “we gain greater capacity and automation capabilities while preserving our operational knowledge.” (Read more about this deployment here)
The value of close collaboration and vendor support to the channel
Juniper drives around 90 per cent of its business through the channel across APAC. To support that business, it is investing in the Juniper Partner Advantage program, to make partnering with Juniper easier, more efficient and profitable for the channel. Part of the investment into our relationships with channel partners includes delivering the tools that allow partners to become more service oriented with their customers.
Earlier this year Juniper announced new Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) enhancements to its AIOps platform, which help the channel deploy and manage wired, wireless, and secure SD-WAN network services.
This is just one example of how Juniper is aiming to make it easier for partners to deliver managed services that enable operational simplicity and a smooth transition to cloud services for their customers.
As Greg highlighted, Juniper has almost doubled the number of partner-facing services it offers and increased the number of partner managers available to support the channel.
“Structurally, we have more capability and capacity than ever,” he said. “We don’t expect our partners to develop the skills they need for this new approach to customers. We’re putting in a lot of time, effort and investment into improving and enabling our channel and becoming easier to do business with.”
From the implementation of new technology to the ongoing support of a network, Juniper works hand in hand with partners to deliver world class service experiences to customers.
Find out more about Juniper’s Global Services Portfolio here.
