Category Archives for "Managed Services News"

If your company hasn’t yet implemented or enacted a DEI initiative, there are three straightforward reasons why now is the time. First, being diverse, equitable and including people from various backgrounds is the right thing to do. Second, it might be a legal requirement depending on your situation. Finally, it’s good for business. According to research from the Boston Consulting Group, companies with management with above-average diversity report revenue from innovation that was 19% higher than those with below-average leadership diversity. With so much upside to DEI, what’s stopping you from moving forward?

A DEI primer

Before we go further, we must have a baseline understanding of what each of these terms means. According to dei.extension.org, here’s a quick overview:

Diversity is the presence of differences that may include race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity, nationality, socioeconomic status, language, (dis)ability, age, religious commitment or political perspective. Unfortunately, these populations have been and remain underrepresented among practitioners in the field and marginalized in the broader society.

Equity promotes justice, impartiality and fairness within institutions or systems’ procedures, processes and distribution of resources. Tackling equity issues requires understanding the root causes of outcome disparities within our society.

Inclusion is an outcome to ensure those who are diverse feel and/or are welcomed. Inclusion outcomes are met when you, your institution and your program are truly inviting to all. To the degree to which diverse individuals can participate fully in decision-making and development opportunities within an organization or group.

We recently spoke with Susan O’Sullivan, VP of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion for Ingram Micro, to learn how to practically apply the above concepts to your business.

DEI in action

One might assume you can’t kick off a DEI initiative without first having a DEI specialist on staff, but that’s not true. “I didn’t have an HR background or any special training when asked to take on this role,” reveals O’Sullivan. “I leveraged my decades of experience and tapped into the numerous online DEI resources available.”

Coming from a sales leadership background, O’Sullivan had a few things going for her. First, she had experience managing people. Second, she could already see the benefits of a diverse team. “I seek out people that look and think differently than me,” she says. “If you know your team’s strengths and weaknesses, why not find diverse people to fill the gaps and push you and others out of your comfort zones of traditional thinking?”

She goes on to say that DEI is about making sure everyone – from upper management to entry level – gets a seat at the table to bring their unique perspectives and ideas. “Business is getting harder,” she adds. “You need everyone working together to challenge the status quo and lead your company to new levels of success.”

O’Sullivan says that it’s also vital that your website speaks to your DEI initiatives. Additionally, she says, when diverse candidates are interviewed, they should be meeting with existing diverse employees. “Does your company look like a place someone with a diverse background wants to work?” she asks. “Sixty-seven percent of workers are looking for companies that highlight diversity, equity and inclusion. DEI has to be baked into your company culture to be effective.”

O’Sullivan’s last bit of advice is to act now. “It would be great if you could allocate someone full-time to DEI, but it isn’t necessary,” she says. “Anything you can do to advance diversity, equity and inclusion within your organization is a positive step forward.”

This guest blog is part of a Channel Futures sponsorship.

If your company hasn’t yet implemented or enacted a DEI initiative, there are three straightforward reasons why now is the time. First, being diverse, equitable and including people from various backgrounds is the right thing to do. Second, it might be a legal requirement depending on your situation. Finally, it’s good for business. According to research from the Boston Consulting Group, companies with management with above-average diversity report revenue from innovation that was 19% higher than those with below-average leadership diversity. With so much upside to DEI, what’s stopping you from moving forward?

A DEI primer

Before we go further, we must have a baseline understanding of what each of these terms means. According to dei.extension.org, here’s a quick overview:

Diversity is the presence of differences that may include race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity, nationality, socioeconomic status, language, (dis)ability, age, religious commitment or political perspective. Unfortunately, these populations have been and remain underrepresented among practitioners in the field and marginalized in the broader society.

Equity promotes justice, impartiality and fairness within institutions or systems’ procedures, processes and distribution of resources. Tackling equity issues requires understanding the root causes of outcome disparities within our society.

Inclusion is an outcome to ensure those who are diverse feel and/or are welcomed. Inclusion outcomes are met when you, your institution and your program are truly inviting to all. To the degree to which diverse individuals can participate fully in decision-making and development opportunities within an organization or group.

We recently spoke with Susan O’Sullivan, VP of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion for Ingram Micro, to learn how to practically apply the above concepts to your business.

DEI in action

One might assume you can’t kick off a DEI initiative without first having a DEI specialist on staff, but that’s not true. “I didn’t have an HR background or any special training when asked to take on this role,” reveals O’Sullivan. “I leveraged my decades of experience and tapped into the numerous online DEI resources available.”

Coming from a sales leadership background, O’Sullivan had a few things going for her. First, she had experience managing people. Second, she could already see the benefits of a diverse team. “I seek out people that look and think differently than me,” she says. “If you know your team’s strengths and weaknesses, why not find diverse people to fill the gaps and push you and others out of your comfort zones of traditional thinking?”

She goes on to say that DEI is about making sure everyone – from upper management to entry level – gets a seat at the table to bring their unique perspectives and ideas. “Business is getting harder,” she adds. “You need everyone working together to challenge the status quo and lead your company to new levels of success.”

O’Sullivan says that it’s also vital that your website speaks to your DEI initiatives. Additionally, she says, when diverse candidates are interviewed, they should be meeting with existing diverse employees. “Does your company look like a place someone with a diverse background wants to work?” she asks. “Sixty-seven percent of workers are looking for companies that highlight diversity, equity and inclusion. DEI has to be baked into your company culture to be effective.”

O’Sullivan’s last bit of advice is to act now. “It would be great if you could allocate someone full-time to DEI, but it isn’t necessary,” she says. “Anything you can do to advance diversity, equity and inclusion within your organization is a positive step forward.”

This guest blog is part of a Channel Futures sponsorship.

If your company hasn’t yet implemented or enacted a DEI initiative, there are three straightforward reasons why now is the time. First, being diverse, equitable and including people from various backgrounds is the right thing to do. Second, it might be a legal requirement depending on your situation. Finally, it’s good for business. According to research from the Boston Consulting Group, companies with management with above-average diversity report revenue from innovation that was 19% higher than those with below-average leadership diversity. With so much upside to DEI, what’s stopping you from moving forward?

A DEI primer

Before we go further, we must have a baseline understanding of what each of these terms means. According to dei.extension.org, here’s a quick overview:

Diversity is the presence of differences that may include race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity, nationality, socioeconomic status, language, (dis)ability, age, religious commitment or political perspective. Unfortunately, these populations have been and remain underrepresented among practitioners in the field and marginalized in the broader society.

Equity promotes justice, impartiality and fairness within institutions or systems’ procedures, processes and distribution of resources. Tackling equity issues requires understanding the root causes of outcome disparities within our society.

Inclusion is an outcome to ensure those who are diverse feel and/or are welcomed. Inclusion outcomes are met when you, your institution and your program are truly inviting to all. To the degree to which diverse individuals can participate fully in decision-making and development opportunities within an organization or group.

We recently spoke with Susan O’Sullivan, VP of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion for Ingram Micro, to learn how to practically apply the above concepts to your business.

DEI in action

One might assume you can’t kick off a DEI initiative without first having a DEI specialist on staff, but that’s not true. “I didn’t have an HR background or any special training when asked to take on this role,” reveals O’Sullivan. “I leveraged my decades of experience and tapped into the numerous online DEI resources available.”

Coming from a sales leadership background, O’Sullivan had a few things going for her. First, she had experience managing people. Second, she could already see the benefits of a diverse team. “I seek out people that look and think differently than me,” she says. “If you know your team’s strengths and weaknesses, why not find diverse people to fill the gaps and push you and others out of your comfort zones of traditional thinking?”

She goes on to say that DEI is about making sure everyone – from upper management to entry level – gets a seat at the table to bring their unique perspectives and ideas. “Business is getting harder,” she adds. “You need everyone working together to challenge the status quo and lead your company to new levels of success.”

O’Sullivan says that it’s also vital that your website speaks to your DEI initiatives. Additionally, she says, when diverse candidates are interviewed, they should be meeting with existing diverse employees. “Does your company look like a place someone with a diverse background wants to work?” she asks. “Sixty-seven percent of workers are looking for companies that highlight diversity, equity and inclusion. DEI has to be baked into your company culture to be effective.”

O’Sullivan’s last bit of advice is to act now. “It would be great if you could allocate someone full-time to DEI, but it isn’t necessary,” she says. “Anything you can do to advance diversity, equity and inclusion within your organization is a positive step forward.”

This guest blog is part of a Channel Futures sponsorship.

If your company hasn’t yet implemented or enacted a DEI initiative, there are three straightforward reasons why now is the time. First, being diverse, equitable and including people from various backgrounds is the right thing to do. Second, it might be a legal requirement depending on your situation. Finally, it’s good for business. According to research from the Boston Consulting Group, companies with management with above-average diversity report revenue from innovation that was 19% higher than those with below-average leadership diversity. With so much upside to DEI, what’s stopping you from moving forward?

A DEI primer

Before we go further, we must have a baseline understanding of what each of these terms means. According to dei.extension.org, here’s a quick overview:

Diversity is the presence of differences that may include race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity, nationality, socioeconomic status, language, (dis)ability, age, religious commitment or political perspective. Unfortunately, these populations have been and remain underrepresented among practitioners in the field and marginalized in the broader society.

Equity promotes justice, impartiality and fairness within institutions or systems’ procedures, processes and distribution of resources. Tackling equity issues requires understanding the root causes of outcome disparities within our society.

Inclusion is an outcome to ensure those who are diverse feel and/or are welcomed. Inclusion outcomes are met when you, your institution and your program are truly inviting to all. To the degree to which diverse individuals can participate fully in decision-making and development opportunities within an organization or group.

We recently spoke with Susan O’Sullivan, VP of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion for Ingram Micro, to learn how to practically apply the above concepts to your business.

DEI in action

One might assume you can’t kick off a DEI initiative without first having a DEI specialist on staff, but that’s not true. “I didn’t have an HR background or any special training when asked to take on this role,” reveals O’Sullivan. “I leveraged my decades of experience and tapped into the numerous online DEI resources available.”

Coming from a sales leadership background, O’Sullivan had a few things going for her. First, she had experience managing people. Second, she could already see the benefits of a diverse team. “I seek out people that look and think differently than me,” she says. “If you know your team’s strengths and weaknesses, why not find diverse people to fill the gaps and push you and others out of your comfort zones of traditional thinking?”

She goes on to say that DEI is about making sure everyone – from upper management to entry level – gets a seat at the table to bring their unique perspectives and ideas. “Business is getting harder,” she adds. “You need everyone working together to challenge the status quo and lead your company to new levels of success.”

O’Sullivan says that it’s also vital that your website speaks to your DEI initiatives. Additionally, she says, when diverse candidates are interviewed, they should be meeting with existing diverse employees. “Does your company look like a place someone with a diverse background wants to work?” she asks. “Sixty-seven percent of workers are looking for companies that highlight diversity, equity and inclusion. DEI has to be baked into your company culture to be effective.”

O’Sullivan’s last bit of advice is to act now. “It would be great if you could allocate someone full-time to DEI, but it isn’t necessary,” she says. “Anything you can do to advance diversity, equity and inclusion within your organization is a positive step forward.”

This guest blog is part of a Channel Futures sponsorship.

If your company hasn’t yet implemented or enacted a DEI initiative, there are three straightforward reasons why now is the time. First, being diverse, equitable and including people from various backgrounds is the right thing to do. Second, it might be a legal requirement depending on your situation. Finally, it’s good for business. According to research from the Boston Consulting Group, companies with management with above-average diversity report revenue from innovation that was 19% higher than those with below-average leadership diversity. With so much upside to DEI, what’s stopping you from moving forward?

A DEI primer

Before we go further, we must have a baseline understanding of what each of these terms means. According to dei.extension.org, here’s a quick overview:

Diversity is the presence of differences that may include race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity, nationality, socioeconomic status, language, (dis)ability, age, religious commitment or political perspective. Unfortunately, these populations have been and remain underrepresented among practitioners in the field and marginalized in the broader society.

Equity promotes justice, impartiality and fairness within institutions or systems’ procedures, processes and distribution of resources. Tackling equity issues requires understanding the root causes of outcome disparities within our society.

Inclusion is an outcome to ensure those who are diverse feel and/or are welcomed. Inclusion outcomes are met when you, your institution and your program are truly inviting to all. To the degree to which diverse individuals can participate fully in decision-making and development opportunities within an organization or group.

We recently spoke with Susan O’Sullivan, VP of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion for Ingram Micro, to learn how to practically apply the above concepts to your business.

DEI in action

One might assume you can’t kick off a DEI initiative without first having a DEI specialist on staff, but that’s not true. “I didn’t have an HR background or any special training when asked to take on this role,” reveals O’Sullivan. “I leveraged my decades of experience and tapped into the numerous online DEI resources available.”

Coming from a sales leadership background, O’Sullivan had a few things going for her. First, she had experience managing people. Second, she could already see the benefits of a diverse team. “I seek out people that look and think differently than me,” she says. “If you know your team’s strengths and weaknesses, why not find diverse people to fill the gaps and push you and others out of your comfort zones of traditional thinking?”

She goes on to say that DEI is about making sure everyone – from upper management to entry level – gets a seat at the table to bring their unique perspectives and ideas. “Business is getting harder,” she adds. “You need everyone working together to challenge the status quo and lead your company to new levels of success.”

O’Sullivan says that it’s also vital that your website speaks to your DEI initiatives. Additionally, she says, when diverse candidates are interviewed, they should be meeting with existing diverse employees. “Does your company look like a place someone with a diverse background wants to work?” she asks. “Sixty-seven percent of workers are looking for companies that highlight diversity, equity and inclusion. DEI has to be baked into your company culture to be effective.”

O’Sullivan’s last bit of advice is to act now. “It would be great if you could allocate someone full-time to DEI, but it isn’t necessary,” she says. “Anything you can do to advance diversity, equity and inclusion within your organization is a positive step forward.”

This guest blog is part of a Channel Futures sponsorship.

Some people in the channel and the broader technology industry will be glad to see 2022 in the rearview mirror. That’s because tech layoffs this fall have started to hit the community hard.

In just the last several weeks, we’ve reported on no fewer than 10 companies dumping employees. What’s rough is that many are still doing pretty well financially; instead, they are tightening their belts and “restructuring” in anticipation of a possible recession.

But it’s certainly not all bad news; in fact, most people you talk to are still bullish on the channel. One reason is the cloud, which is still growing at a fast clip. All eyes were on AWS last week when it hosted its re:Invent event in Las Vegas. You really wanted to read what CEO Adam Selipsky had to say. The same could be said for the Cisco Partner Summit earlier in the month. Many of you looked at our 16 takeaways from CPS 2022.

Those stories made our countdown, as did the debut of three new lists here at Channel Futures. We profiled leaders in networking and connectivity, communications and collaboration, and EMEA.

Furthermore, we once again tackled M&A, including speculation that RingCentral might buy 8×8.

Did you know that you’re driving this ship? Yep. We determine the top stories by looking at which articles you read most and what you click on in our newsletters. So what are you waiting for? Read some more! Oh, and if you haven’t signed up for any Channel Futures newsletters yet, you can do that here.

The slideshow above above features Channel Futures’ top stories from November. Tech layoffs, AWS re:Invent or Broadcom’s ongoing VMware acquisition efforts — which do you think was No. 1?

If you missed last month’s top stories countdown, it’s still there for you to read. Then be sure to watch for our top 20 stories of the year countdown coming later this month.

If your company hasn’t yet implemented or enacted a DEI initiative, there are three straightforward reasons why now is the time. First, being diverse, equitable and including people from various backgrounds is the right thing to do. Second, it might be a legal requirement depending on your situation. Finally, it’s good for business. According to research from the Boston Consulting Group, companies with management with above-average diversity report revenue from innovation that was 19% higher than those with below-average leadership diversity. With so much upside to DEI, what’s stopping you from moving forward?

A DEI primer

Before we go further, we must have a baseline understanding of what each of these terms means. According to dei.extension.org, here’s a quick overview:

Diversity is the presence of differences that may include race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity, nationality, socioeconomic status, language, (dis)ability, age, religious commitment or political perspective. Unfortunately, these populations have been and remain underrepresented among practitioners in the field and marginalized in the broader society.

Equity promotes justice, impartiality and fairness within institutions or systems’ procedures, processes and distribution of resources. Tackling equity issues requires understanding the root causes of outcome disparities within our society.

Inclusion is an outcome to ensure those who are diverse feel and/or are welcomed. Inclusion outcomes are met when you, your institution and your program are truly inviting to all. To the degree to which diverse individuals can participate fully in decision-making and development opportunities within an organization or group.

We recently spoke with Susan O’Sullivan, VP of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion for Ingram Micro, to learn how to practically apply the above concepts to your business.

DEI in action

One might assume you can’t kick off a DEI initiative without first having a DEI specialist on staff, but that’s not true. “I didn’t have an HR background or any special training when asked to take on this role,” reveals O’Sullivan. “I leveraged my decades of experience and tapped into the numerous online DEI resources available.”

Coming from a sales leadership background, O’Sullivan had a few things going for her. First, she had experience managing people. Second, she could already see the benefits of a diverse team. “I seek out people that look and think differently than me,” she says. “If you know your team’s strengths and weaknesses, why not find diverse people to fill the gaps and push you and others out of your comfort zones of traditional thinking?”

She goes on to say that DEI is about making sure everyone – from upper management to entry level – gets a seat at the table to bring their unique perspectives and ideas. “Business is getting harder,” she adds. “You need everyone working together to challenge the status quo and lead your company to new levels of success.”

O’Sullivan says that it’s also vital that your website speaks to your DEI initiatives. Additionally, she says, when diverse candidates are interviewed, they should be meeting with existing diverse employees. “Does your company look like a place someone with a diverse background wants to work?” she asks. “Sixty-seven percent of workers are looking for companies that highlight diversity, equity and inclusion. DEI has to be baked into your company culture to be effective.”

O’Sullivan’s last bit of advice is to act now. “It would be great if you could allocate someone full-time to DEI, but it isn’t necessary,” she says. “Anything you can do to advance diversity, equity and inclusion within your organization is a positive step forward.”

This guest blog is part of a Channel Futures sponsorship.

The Rackspace outage, which put thousands of email users offline over the weekend due to a cybersecurity event, is a lesson for partners in disaster planning and customer support.

The yet-to-be-disclosed security incident took down Rackspace’s Microsoft Hosted Exchange environments. The cloud services provider early Monday morning announced that it had resorted email services “to thousands” of Microsoft 365 customers, but partners and customers continue to voice their concerns about the vendor’s response to the crisis.

StratusDial’s Bill McClain

“We’re looking at it they’re never going to be able to recover on that platform. We’ve moved on,” said Bill McClain, founder and president of MSP Networking Solutions and voice provider StratusDial.

Rackspace early on Friday announced that it was investigating connectivity and login issues in its Hosted Exchange environments. The company turned off the environment to further analyze the problem.

Rackspace continued to describe the problem as “connectivity issues” in multiple updates throughout the morning. A day later on Saturday, Rackspace concluded that a “security incident” had impacted the environment. It added that the Rackspace email product line and platform had not experienced any problems. Only Hosted Exchange accounts had suffered the incident, according to the company.

Rackspace encouraged customers to open new Microsoft 365 accounts and offered them free Microsoft Exchange Plan 1 licenses. It added on Saturday that it had dispatched 1,000 people to support customers. They made contact either by phone or an alternative email address, although many customers complained on social media about long waits on call support lines.

Rackspace when contacted by Channel Futures pointed to the last update it made on its website.

“We continue to make progress on restoring email service to every affected customer,” the company wrote. “At this time, moving to Microsoft 365 is the best solution for customers who can now also implement temporary forwarding. To assist customers through options, Rackers are contacting every Hosted Exchange customer by phone. Customers will also be contacted via alternate email addresses. This outreach is being performed in addition to chat, phone, and ticketing.”

Customer Impact

Nevertheless, the outage drew complaints from customers on Twitter.

Tiffany Dowd, president and founder of the social media consulting company Luxe Social Media, took to Twitter to air her frustration.

“There has been a major outage affecting small businesses worldwide – including mine! No emails and I’m traveling on business for several weeks. Unacceptable,” she wrote.

Attorney Ronald Richards criticized how Rackspace communicated throughout the weekend.

Since Friday morning, millions of people have been denied access to the Exchange accounts. @Rackspace has basically recommended customers open up new accounts with other companies. They have kept people in the dark with very bad update messages. No one really knows. #rackspace🆘

— Ronald Richards (@RonaldRichards) December 4, 2022

Iman Jalali, managing partner at Bear Peak Capital, pointed to layoffs as a reason for the delayed restoration and subpar support.

36 hours ago the email hosting service @Rackspace went down

With it thousands of businesses lost access to their emails and it’s still down

They used to be one of the best hosting providers, but then they laid off a large portion of their staff… not a coincidence.

— Iman Jalali (@Stealx) December 3, 2022

Security Culpability?

Details remain to be seen about the actual security incident and any security posture from Rackspace that may have led to the problem. However, partners have pointed to systemic failings.

Lawrence Technology Systems’ Tom Lawrence

“Just from the standpoint of them not being able to get the systems back up in a reasonable amount of time and running shows there is some type of failure in their disaster recovery process,” said Tom Lawrence, who runs the Michigan-based MSP Lawrence Technology Services.

That said, Lawrence said he isn’t jumping to too many conclusions.

“I do try to avoid victim blaming because the reality of these attacks is that threat actors are doing these things for profit, and until there is a debrief we don’t know if they had an adequate level of protections or not. Was this a new sophisticated attack or were their servers left unpatched? We just don’t know yet,” he told Channel Futures.

Lawrence added that Microsoft’s slowness to respond with a method for patching issue compounded the problem.

Peter Radizeski, founder and president of the advisory firm Rad-Info, emphasized the importance of how a vendor responds to a disruption like this.

Rad-Info’s Peter Radizeski

“Outages happen. Period. How the vendor responds to that outage is the difference,” Radizeski told Channel Futures. “In my 23 years of experience, most outages are treated like a nuisance. They should be treated the way Tylenol reacted to poisoning in the 1980s. It is crisis management. It is reputation management. Being pro-active and forthcoming in communications is the key to maintaining trust. Everyone understands today that outages happen – every provider has had a major one at this point: AT&T, Rogers, Lumen, Verizon, Netflix, AWS, Rackspace. How the company reacts is what partners are looking at – especially for the coveted enterprise accounts. No one will risk moving a large account to a provider who fails during an outage. And the funny thing is, communicating during this time isn’t that difficult,” Radizeski told Channel Futures.

Partner Response

McClain said members of his team were working over the weekend to restore email access to customers. McClain said the first ticket from a customer appeared at 6:30 in the morning on Friday followed by a steady stream of tickets. Because Networking Solutions uses hybrid domains from Rackspace, it needed to migrate all of its Rackspace users to new accounts – even those not using Hosted Exchange.

McClain said his team has moved approximately 150 users and about 600 mailboxes and is nearing completion. They called Rackspace on Friday and didn’t get an answer. They called again on Saturday, also to no avail.

“I pretty much told my team, ‘We have to do whatever we have to and assume we’re not going to have any help whatsoever from Rackspace,’ and that was the case,” McClain told Channel Futures..

Part of the challenge was the uncertainty about..-

The channel margin is the difference between the price channel partners pay vendors for their products and the price the customer pays. And, traditionally, it’s what IT resellers depend on to generate profits.

But the business model for the IT channel has changed in recent years, making it harder to maintain sustainable profits with pricing alone.

With digital transformation, the market is no longer hardware-driven; it’s now software-first. There’s also a greater focus on services. Forward-thinking channel partners are providing managed IT, consulting and solution development. They’re focusing on customer needs and creating services around those needs.

All of this is great for customers — and for IT companies that have been evolving with a changing market. However, there are still plenty of channel partners making the biggest profitability mistake: time inefficiency.

Cloud companies, managed service providers (MSPs) and value-added resellers (VARs) that aren’t able to save time throughout their customer sales cycle aren’t likely to have the resources left over to better understand customer needs and expand their services.

If your company falls into this group, read on to find out how you can be more effective as a channel partner, which will translate to higher profits and more time to focus on evolving your business.

How Time Is Dampening Profitability for Channel Partners

In 2017, Intermedia commissioned IPED Consulting to determine how much time channel partners spend on various aspects of running their businesses. IPED Consulting surveyed 2018 solution providers and found that most are spending far too much energy on steps that could be streamlined with the right vendor.

According to the survey, here’s how much time solution providers spend each month for each step, on average:

• 8 hours per customer for provisioning
• 5 hours per customer for billing
• 22 hours each month for marketing
• 6 hours per customer for support

When you add up all these hours, it’s clear that processing product sales can take up the bulk of a company’s time and resources. That means there’s less time for innovation and implementing initiatives that will help with business scaling.

But to live up to customer expectations and remain competitive, channel partners need to focus on higher-value activities rather than pouring so much time and energy into sales alone.

What Solution Providers Can Do to Meet Today’s Challenges and Increase Revenue

Fast-forward to 2022, and solution providers are facing pressure from all sides. For those that are ready to evolve, this pressure is helping them evolve their services, business models, and revenue potential.

With the rise of hybrid work models, customers are looking for single platforms that cater to their internal collaboration and external customer communications.

To achieve this, channel partners should shift away from a time-consuming multivendor approach and consider partnering with cloud providers that offer the communications tools businesses need for remote and hybrid work: Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) and Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS).

Doing this leads to higher customer satisfaction because it enables customers to increase their own revenue: Companies that unify employee and customer communication platforms experience a 12.4% year-on-year annual revenue increase.

That’s exactly what business communications providers like White-Harris, an Intermedia Partner serving the Philadelphia area, have done. White-Harris chose to white label Intermedia’s UCaaS and CCaaS solutions, giving its customers the option to purchase one or both products through its brand. As a result, the company was able to enhance its relationships with customers and increase its own revenue.

Channel partners are rarely just IT providers anymore. Instead, they’re offering everything from value add-ons to comprehensive service management.

To remain competitive, resellers need to rethink their service approach. It’s no longer enough to sell wholesale IT products and earn profits on the margin.

To deliver a higher level of service, sales and customer management must look different than they did a few years ago. Solution providers can’t spend hours per customer per month on things like billing and technical support. Instead, they need to work with a vendor that streamlines these steps.

That way, there’s more time to build relationships with your customers, understand their needs, and deliver an IT product and service model that solves all their problems.

Increase Your Margins with a Vendor that Boosts Your Efficiency

Intermedia makes it easy to increase workplace efficiency with our five Pillars of Profitability.

1. Provisioning:Partners don’t have to juggle different portals and vendor tools. Instead, they can provision under a single pane of glass, saving a huge amount of time when it comes to adding, deleting, or altering services.
2. Billing:Likewise, there’s no need to manage multiple bills or check billing details each month for accuracy. Intermedia Partners benefit from a single bill, which includes itemized information per customer, thus increasing billing efficiency.
3. Marketing:Rather than investing in marketing research, content creation, and deploying marketing campaigns, Intermedia partners can draw upon a wealth of marketing resources to drive sales.
4. Support:When working with multiple vendors, your company has multiple numbers and support queues to access to address issues. Coordinating support can be time-consuming, and the level of support might vary. But with Intermedia, you can count on nothing less than J.D. Power-certified support available around the clock and soft transfers to product experts to speed problem resolution.
5. Uptime:Major business systems like Microsoft Teams only offer 99.99% uptime. This can translate to over four minutes of possible service interruption a month, or about 53 minutes a year. With Intermedia, you can count on 999% uptime — that’s about 5.26 minutes of potential downtime a year, maximum. As any amount of downtime can lead to financial losses for the end customer, a higher uptime guarantee can be an important selling point for channel partners.

Find out more about how your business can be more efficient and increase revenue as an Intermedia Partner.

This guest blog is part of a Channel Futures sponsorship.

Valerie Berezuk

Every market is evolving and changing. The way people work has a new profile, with most companies embracing a hybrid framework. As a result, the modern office isn’t solely in a commercial building — it’s expanded to include working from whenever, wherever. As these shifts ripple through the world, you have a great opportunity to grow your business.

However, there may be things holding you back. To change the trajectory, sometimes all you need to do is simply change two things. It’s a tried-and-true approach that some of the most disruptive companies have used. One of those is Cirque du Soleil.

What Guy Laliberté Changed to Build an Iconic Brand

Guy Laliberté started out as a street performer (stilt walker and fire eater) and was later asked to assist the government of Quebec with a one-year project — a traveling circus meant to commemorate the 450th anniversary of the discovery of Canada.

Instead of showcasing a traditional circus act, Laliberté changed two very specific things and evolved the show into what we now know as Cirque du Soleil.

First, he removed the use of animals in the show. This move was in response to many animal rights groups decrying their use as inhumane. They were also very costly.

Second, he changed its intended audience, targeting adults rather than children. The circuses that had been around for decades had been kid-centric. This new take on the circus, which included acrobatics, dance, unique fetes, physical skill, and more, was a hit in the entertainment world.

Since then, Cirque du Soleil has become a worldwide phenomenon. The company launched its first permanent show in 1993 in Las Vegas with Mystère at Treasure Island, which continues there. Global engagements have reached five continents, and this new take on the circus has earned billions.

So, how did Laliberté see the potential in a declining industry? And what’s the lesson here that could apply to your own business?

Innovating in a Dying Industry

Laliberté faced what many innovators have — evolving an industry that was no longer growing. Getting people to come out to shows was, by the 1980s, harder as there was a rise in entertainment at home. He was also “reading the room” and removing the literal elephant from it by not using animals.

He saw an opportunity where many did not — he just had to adjust those two things. He is a clown who changed the entire industry. It’s the same type of disruption that many other companies have followed, including Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google. They changed how we communicate, consume content, find information, shop, and get where we’re going.

So, what’s going to be your game-changer? How will you define the shifting needs of your customers?

Identify Things to Change to Find Success

The first thing is to identify and eliminate the archaic elements of your business. If it’s costing you money and it’s not producing revenue, it’s obsolete and doesn’t need to be in your organization any longer because it has no value to you or your customers?

As a technology provider, it’s what’s in your portfolio that no longer serves your audience. Much of this is in the category of on-premises hardware and machinery. Today’s office doesn’t need all these things, and they don’t make sense in a hybrid work structure. Evolving your own space and then defining its usefulness to those business owners you’ve supported for years with technology leads you to the second thing to change — moving into an emerging market opportunity.

So, what’s the big opportunity right now? It goes back to the basics of communication and collaboration. It just looks different because people aren’t sitting around a table discussing something or stopping by a cubicle to ask a question.

With people working everywhere and anywhere, communications and collaboration also need to be accessible anywhere, with video calls, instant chat, taking calls from anywhere and sharing documents. All these things are part of a unified communications (UC) platform. The modern workplace is distributed, and people need access no matter where they choose to work, which means that moving your communications to the cloud becomes a necessity, rather than a nice-to-have.

By making this switch, you’ll be able to go back to your base that you’ve been working with for years and offer them something new from your portfolio. You can provide them with a UC solution that’s easy, secure, dependable and cost-effective. This is the market opportunity right now, and it’s helping your customers invest in the type of technology designed to meet their needs and those in the future.

Finding success for your cloud business starts with the right product and partnership. It should allow you to retain customer relationships while your partner delivers the technology.

Valerie Berezuk is head of channel marketing at Intermedia Cloud Communications. A 20-year veteran of the communications industry, she challenges herself to look for ways to simplify complexity and make great impacts with small tweaks. She earned an MBA from Pepperdine University’s Graziadio Business School and holds a bachelor’s degree in theater and television arts from Valparaiso University. You may follow her on LinkedIn or @intermedia_net on Twitter.