Member Article

Where Do Resellers Go From Here?

Whilst cloud services are still relatively new and many businesses are unaware of the opportunities available to them the number of organisations adopting web based services is steadily increasing year on year.

Apprehensions around security and privacy are decreasing as organisations come to understand the nature of cloud services and their potential business benefits and there is a renewed focus from CIOs to reshape IT services as a competitive advantage rather than a business cost.

The explosion in smart phones and tablets has further popularised the use of cloud services at every level of business. Mobile devices have placed online services in the hands of every employee and re-shaped their expectations for IT delivery. Users not only have greater visibility of what is possible but they also expect it to be made available as easily and quickly as installing a new App, and if their IT department can’t provide it then they go ahead and do it themselves.

With services like Microsoft’s Office 365, Google Apps and Amazon AWS offering real alternatives to in-house server installations, while availability and security concerns continue to exist , there can be no doubt that the direction has been set and there will be no turning back. IT resellers are going to have to adjust their value proposition to cater for cloud services or they risk positioning themselves as competitors rather than enablers.

As a cloud service provider I certainly don’t have the definitive answer to how resellers should position themselves to remain core to thevalue chain, but I can tell you the main areas that, if covered off by a customer’s IT service provider, will add significant value to all aspects of the adoption.

IT providers need to be educating their customers about the opportunities available in the cloud, knowing what is available and what differentiates the options - including real world run-time costs - will put the reseller front centre in the deal process. At CentraStage we spent 6 months investigating Amazon’s services before knowing for certain that we’d save nearly 40% by migrating our platform to them, had our IT provider been able to tell us that - together with all the alternatives - would have saved us time and money and accelerated our competitiveness.

Few companies have the resources available to project manage design, procure, install, test and commission any new systems required and this implementation is traditionally where their IT provider is expected to add value. With cloud services it is no different, while you may no longer be installing servers the areas of networking, security and policy are bigger than ever. Experience and a proper track record put you two steps ahead and a make you a point of reference.

Helping to minimise or avoid additional costs will keep customers interested and help cloud resellers promote their own services as they distinguish the cloud, in the minds of buyers, from the traditional technology buy and refresh model. Migrating existing services to thecloud, or adopting new ones, has very definite pre-requisites. IT resellers must understand what is in place, what will be required and include not only infrastructure readiness but also user behaviour and expectations to avoid changes or upgrades which will add significantly to the overall project cost.

Combating the traditional view of the technology purchasing refresh model and outlining the very nature and competitiveness of cloudservices is key for resellers. This means continual refactoring and improvements are critically important. At CentraStage we release new features every month and if our customers aren’t implementing them they are no longer getting full value for their money. By being up to speed on what’s new in services deployed within your client base means you ensure that they continue to receive full benefit for theservices they pay for. We like to think that our service is really easy to learn and use but there is no doubt that regular client site visits and training sessions would help keep our users better informed.

Make no mistake, the traditional services provided by resellers will be eroded over the next five years and those resellers that align themselves with the delivery of the cloud are going to the ones that strengthen their position in the market.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Christian Nagele .