Monday Morning Impact – May 30
New Study Says Tech Evaluation and Purchasing Processes are Shifting
Executives from finance, marketing, sales, logistics, and other departments and business lines play an increasingly central role in the evaluation, purchase and use of technology solutions, according to a new report released by CompTIA, a suburban Chicago-based technology association.
“CIOs and information technology (IT) teams remain involved in the process, as their expertise and experience are valued,” said Carolyn April, senior director, industry analysis, CompTIA. “But business lines are clearly flexing their muscles. It’s another strong signal that technology has shifted from a supporting function for business to a strategic asset.”
Among the 675 U.S. businesses surveyed for the report entitled, “Considering the New IT Buyer”, 45 percent said that ideas about technology come from different areas of the organization; and 36 percent said more executives are involved in the decision process. In addition, more than half of respondents used business unit budgets to pay for technology purchases in the last year.
Lines of business are also staffing their departments with technology-oriented job roles, from data scientists and business analysts to software developers and social media managers.
This shift is impacting the entire IT channel – vendors, distributors and solution providers, according to April.
“The amount of green-field, untapped space for business is huge,” April continued. “But lines of business have little knowledge or interaction with the channel. It’s incumbent on the channel to get their faces in front of line of business leaders.”
In addition, cloud-based solutions can often be self-provisioned by the end customers, thereby forcing channel partners to demonstrate value, and also to reach and effectively communicate with specifically targeted roles within those organizations.
Channel Impact®
The study supports what many solution providers are consistently learning: that technology sales are becoming increasingly reliant on the decisions of actual users, and less dependent on choices made by separate IT departments.
Tech Data Offers End-to-End Services for Microsoft Surface Hub
Tech Data Corporation announced that it now offers end-to-end support for the Microsoft Surface Hub collaboration tool, including site assessment, physical installation, integrations, configurations and training services.
Tech Data partners can also leverage in-depth expertise in complementary market segments, including cognitive computing, the data center, data analytics, the Internet of Things (IoT), mobility, security and enterprise networking, and training and education.
“Our partners can now digitally transform their customers’ collaboration environments with confidence using the powerful Microsoft Surface Hub,” said Linda Rendleman, vice president of Product Marketing at Tech Data. “Studies prove that collaboration drives business now more than ever before. Our Surface Hub expertise gives our resellers the ability to quickly deploy and implement a state-of-the-art collaboration platform that will deliver greater ROI to their clients.”
White labeling opportunities are also available.
Channel Impact®
This move should help Tech Data-aligned solution providers to seamlessly quote and order Surface Hub hardware and service for domestic deployments thereby enhancing their solution stack and coverage areas.
Veeam Seeks to Expand Cloud Revenue Opportunities for Partners
Veeam Software has rolled out several initiatives to help partners drive revenue growth and leverage business opportunities as customers move to the cloud. These include enhanced migration management and security for public cloud workloads, physical servers and endpoints through the use of the company’s Availability Console and related agents. Other aspects include enhanced DRaaS capabilities, Tape as a Service to support archiving and data retention, improved automation capability for Office 365, and a new service provider program.
“Veeam is dedicated to enabling its ecosystem of ProPartners and Veeam Cloud and Service Provider partners (VCSPs) to help customers move and manage data in a Multi-Cloud environment,” said Peter McKay, co-CEO and President of Veeam. “With these new solutions, Veeam is strengthening its leadership position in the Backup as a Service (BaaS) and DRaaS market and extends its 100 percent channel strategy from resellers to service providers.”
The new Veeam Accredited Service Partner (VASP) program includes access to pre-sales advisors and best-practice documentation, NFR licenses, marketing support,
Channel Impact®
The updates are specifically designed to enable partners to better assist customers with their move to a multi-cloud or hybrid cloud environment, leveraging the new service provider program as well as the company’s Backup as a Service (BaaS) and Disaster recovery as a Service (DRaaS) offerings.
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