Getting Your Channel Partners Up in the Cloud

What changes must high-tech vendors make to accelerate cloud service adoption and growth in the channel?

We conducted research earlier this year to answer that very question—and the results were intriguing, if not 100% encouraging.

As IT vendors migrate their offerings to the cloud, enabling their channel partners to capitalize on the demand for cloud services may prove to be their biggest challenge. Overcoming this hurdle may very well mean the difference between success and failure in the cloud for many high-tech vendors.

Our recent research brought to light major gaps between channel partner needs and the support vendors are providing via their channel sales teams and partner programs:

Some of the key findings:

• Vendors believe partners desperately need help building sophisticated finance and sales capabilities—yet few vendors are focusing resources in that area.

• Channel sales teams lack critical skills they need to help partners build scalable cloud service businesses.

• Channel sales teams are struggling to identify high potential partners that are likely to succeed with cloud services.

• Compensation plans that are not aligned with partner incentives are motivating channel sales teams to focus on selling traditional on premise solutions vs. growing annuity revenue streams from cloud services.

You can see a summary of the research and the insights we drew from it in the recorded webinar, Channel Sales Forecast—Only Partly Cloudy. The webinar also highlights five critical considerations for vendors as they plan for 2014.

Sponsored by ZS Associates