Solution Providers: MDF, Certifications, And Other Ways Vendors Can Be Better Partners
Executives from M&N Communications, Uprise Partners and more name the additional resources they would love to see from vendor partners.
These are some of the requests solution providers are asking of vendor partners, provider executives told CRN reporters during CRN parent The Channel Company’s XChange March 2024 conference this week.
Vendors building better relationships with services-led partners and providing them with more resources continues to grow in importance as generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) presents new revenue opportunities and more reasons for end customers to seek solution providers.
[RELATED: Research: Most Vendors Want To Sell AI Through The Channel]
MSPs On Vendor Resources
Research from The Channel Company revealed during the week showed that 33 percent of vendors have an AI offering partners can monetize, 17 percent are working with AI technology leaders to create offerings partners can monetize and 28 percent are developing AI products to sell through the channel.
In January, Gartner put IT spending in 2024 at an expected $5 trillion, up 6.8 percent from 2023.
Read on for what other additional resources the solution providers said they would appreciate from vendors.
Shawn Torres
CEO
In-Telecom
Slidell, La.
We are looking for MDF funds, sales positioning and more sales trainings.
We need less product focus and more outcome focus with use cases to support sales cycles.
Melvin Williams
CEO
M&N Communications
Blue Bell, Pa.
Commitment and understanding ROI (return on investment).
It’s about understanding where we are in the process and helping us fully implement their products once we purchase them, not buying something and then not allowing them to work with us.
Chelsea Skinner
President, CEO
Oversee My IT
Lewisville, Texas
Getting information and getting clear answers to our questions.
I don't like when they're running around the answer and sugarcoating it.
Just give me a straight answer — even if it's “no.”
Most of the time what I’m dealing with are billing issues, or when my techs are trying to escalate an issue and they need help.
And I end up stepping in and saying, “Hey, my tech needs this. Can you help with this?”
And even I get a runaround [on the issue]. What I need is just a straight answer. That’s really my biggest need.
Malinda Gagnon
CEO
Uprise Partners
Portland, Maine
What we could really use more from our vendors is more strategic collaboration time on how we build the business together.
It's easy to understand specs, offerings, the ins and outs of a solution.
What makes a vendor really valuable is when we can take that to the next step to say, OK, where are we as an MSSP (managed security services provider) in our stage of growth?
What are the challenges that we have in front of us? And then help us come up with that solution. So in terms of the tech and the service combination, we always try in our own organizations to look at things differently and think about how we can use different tools.
But we're in it up to our eyeballs. To have that outside perspective is incredibly valuable. More work on that strategic piece [with the vendors] -- that's what we're looking for.
Allen Falcon
CEO
Cumulus Global
Westborough, Mass.
We are looking for innovative solutions that integrate well.
Easy to manage, easy to deploy, and simple and effective partner programs that enable us to succeed.
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Adam Rodriguez
Co-Owner
The Network Systems Group
Columbus, Ga.
I would like to see how the vendors can integrate AI safely and have it be a real use and real value to the customers. … (And) some of the MSP platform vendors have gotten so big I think they have lost focus as to what we really need. We are going to piece our own stack together and make it work the best for us.
It is no fault of anybody but everything is getting scarier and scarier and you have got to have more layers. It is going to end up being $300 per seat. Where does it stop?
Dawn Sizer
CEO
3rd Element Consulting
Mechanicsburg, Pa.
Training is always good, whether it's product training – honestly, the business side of it is more than anything else.
It's great that they can get this technical training, but if you want to come in and talk to us about operations or finance or how to do something very specific inside of the business, that is worth so much more than technical training. … Because they've all been through it. They’ve built big businesses. Give some of that back to your partners.
And I think that makes us better partners. But also we can run our businesses more efficiently and buy more products.
Manuel Villa
President, Founder
VIA Technology
San Antonio, Texas
What I’d like to see from vendor partners is some MDF funds that we can get creative with as opposed to following their guidelines. … (For marketing and) definitely training (for example).
Nalit Patel
CEO
All Solutions
Livingston, N.J.
Certifications complexity – the less barriers you can put, the higher adoption rate you will have. … Everywhere you go, every vendor, even if it's a screwdriver, (you have to have a certification).
Michael Goldstein
President, CEO
LAN Infotech
Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
I'll say two things: market development funds and vision into the future.... Market development funds, that's pretty obvious.
In terms of the vision for the future, AI is everything for everyone. I'd like to see what the vendors are seeing. I like to see some research from their partners out there, and have them feed that information back to us so that we can make informed decisions. Vendors are all over the place talking about AI, and you know what? It doesn't make a difference. Every time I see and I learn a little more. And everyone has a different perspective.
Vendors like [Greenwood Village, Colo.-based] Pax8 are doing a great job in preparation for this. You know, we had every step of the way. They go back two years of leading us through NCE (Microsoft New Commerce Experience), and then preparing us for Copilot, preparing us for Azure, and all the education that they're putting out there for us as MSPs. NCE was a tough time for us, and we leaned on all of our vendors to lead us through.
Nick Foss
VP, Business Development
Anteris
Pittsfield, Mass.
For 2024, we need every vendor to have integration with our central platform, our PSA tool, so that it can all come back to where we live day-to-day rather than living out in all those vendors’ sites. Some integrate, but the fewer places I have to go, or my technicians have to go, to gain the data they need, the better. It would be much easier if it was at our fingertips. Now, I'm sure AI can help with that in many ways, but I see that as a need for our day-to-day.
We use [Melbourne, Australia-based] Halo and [Austin, Texas-based] NinjaOne as our two primary tools. And we've layered in other applications and other vendor sets to enhance those two feeding info into them. But sitting here at XChange and listening to a lot of these other opportunities out there, how they all come together is a big piece for us.
We’re probably missing integration on the security side yeah in particular. That's a lot of where the industry is going anyway. Bringing that the data all together for us and being able to manage it good centrally is important for us.