Monday Morning Impact – October 9

Report: Proper Training and Hiring are Keys to Channel Success in SaaS

A wealth of new business opportunities in the fast-growing software-as-a-service (SaaS) market are available to channel companies willing to adjust their business operations, according to a new report from CompTIA, a suburban Chicago-based technology association. But before any of these outcomes become a reality, channel partners need to effectively adjust their business models.

The report, entitled, “Why Software as a Service? Benefits & Advantages of SaaS,” is based on a survey of 300 U.S. IT businesses.

The survey reveals that staff training is the primary step to preparing their businesses for the SaaS market. More than half of the respondents have retrained existing technical staff, while nearly half have retrained existing sales staff.

“From a technical training perspective, we’re talking about building cloud-based skills, such as the ability to integrate SaaS applications located in different public clouds or to on-premises software,” said Carolyn April, senior director, industry analysis, CompTIA. “Security skills pertaining to cloud-based tools are another area that warrants retraining.”

The report also says that sales team retraining is necessary because selling SaaS requires different conversations and relationships with customers than are employed when selling hardware components.

In addition to retraining existing staff, 36 percent of channel partners have hired new staff with SaaS sales experience; 34 percent have created new positions to work with SaaS distributors and exchanges, and 31 percent have reoriented their marketing strategies to appeal to potential SaaS customers.

Altering business practices aren’t limited to channel partners. Independent software vendors looking to grow their business via a partner model must also make adjustments.

“Many vendors in the SaaS space are unfamiliar with the traditional channel sales model and may lack formal partner programs and indirect sales strategies,” April said. “One challenge is designing the right compensation models to account for sales brought in by partners.”

Approximately two-thirds of channel partners expect to see increases in the revenue they earn from SaaS-related customization and integration services in the next year. A slightly smaller percentage is counting on revenue boosts from managing SaaS-based solutions for customers.

Channel Impact^®
Given that SaaS is likely to remain a dominant cloud model moving forward, the opportunity for channel partners who can successfully navigate the changes can be quite strong, assuming the organization can adjust its selling style and resolve critical details, such as compensation models.

Cyxtera Launches Global Channel Partner Program

Cyxtera Technologies, a Miami-based security vendor, has launched its global channel partner program.

The three-tier program gives partners scalable access to various levels of benefit and support. Elements include a worldwide data center footprint to support the sale of secure infrastructure solutions, as well as co-marketing opportunities and sales enablement programs.

“Our portfolio was built for today’s enterprise IT and built for the channel, and the launch of our partner program is a significant milestone in our go-to-market strategy,” said Barry Field, chief revenue officer for Cyxtera, “We’re building a best-in-class program and partner community to better serve our customers and reach new markets.”

Inaugural partners include Avant, SageNet, and Westven.

Cyxtera specializes in authentication, access control and analytics capabilities, providing enterprises, service providers and public-sector organizations with a secure infrastructure platform.

Channel Impact^®
As the security sector continues to gain relevance in modern computing, innovative approaches to data protection will constantly emerge. As these technologies gain market momentum, vendors will increasingly turn to the channel as go-to-market partners.

FogHorn Unveils Industrial IoT Partner Ecosystem

FogHorn Systems, a Mountain View, California-based developer of “edge intelligence” software for the Industrial Internet of Things, has launched its partner ecosystem targeting solution providers, SIs, consultants, gateway suppliers, semiconductor developers, and cloud Infrastructure and AI/ML companies.

“The expansion of our partner ecosystem comes at a major inflection point in the adoption of edge intelligence technology for [industrial IOT],” said FogHorn CEO David C. King. “We are seeing strong demand in every major industrial sector including manufacturing, oil & gas, power & water, mining, transportation, smart buildings and smart cities.

“This partner ecosystem is already delivering high value customer-validated IIoT product and services that tap into the tribal knowledge of industrial operators while bringing the power of big data analytics and machine learning technology to address the core operational and digital transformation challenges that all industrial organizations are facing today,” King added.

FogHorn’s software platform provides analytics and machine learning to the on-premises edge environment enabling advanced monitoring and diagnostics, machine performance optimization, proactive maintenance, and operational intelligence use cases.

Channel Impact^®
The move underscores the significant market growth potential for edge analytics and machine learning technology in the IoT industry. The overall value proposition is based upon operational efficiency and business value creation benefits provided by IoT technology.