Respecting the ChannelRespecting the Channel

Vendors need to become better partners to their SIs, which means not competing with them for accounts, and providing them with the tools they need to succeed.

For quite some time, the UCStrategies team has been banging the drum about the importance of the channel in the unified communications and collaboration market. Most vendors don't have the internal resources or inclination to sell directly, and require partners to find the sales opportunities and to service and support the solutions. The channel therefore has the primary role of UC&C representation to the end user organization. For most enterprise customers, this relationship is key to a successful UC&C deployment.

Based on the importance of the channel, you would think that the vendors would have a better handle on the needs of channel partners, and how best to work together. However, based on the UCStrategies' recent Unified Communications Channel Study, there is still a big disconnect between many vendors and their partners.

As my co-author of the study, Orrin Broberg, wrote, "Unified Communications and Collaboration vendors spend a lot of money and resources supporting their channel partners--and expect to get a good return on that investment. To make this investment work, a partnership between both parties is required, taking into account the channel partners' needs, goals, and capabilities."

Deploying any new technology into an enterprise begins with a collaborative discovery process with the customer, which includes the channel partner--aka Solution Integrator (SI)--and, sometimes, the vendor. The importance of this relationship is the underlying reason UCStrategies hosts an annual UC Summit, which is designed to help vendors, SIs, and consultants enhance their relationships.

Based on the online survey results, as well as comments made during the phone interviews, the relationships need fixing. For example, when asked to name the most important areas of improvement needed, several respondents mentioned channel conflict, and we heard many examples of how a vendor's direct sales team members would try to take over an account from a channel partner, or where the vendor would try to get the service contract instead of having it go through the channel partner. Trust in the vendor-SI relationship takes a long time to build, but it can be lost quickly.

I attend many events at which the vendors spend a good deal of time talking about their channel strategy and programs, and how they rely on the channel partners for sales, deployment, customization, multi-vendor integration, business process integration, implementation, and ongoing service and support. Then an hour later, we'll hear a presentation about the vendor's professional services organization, and how they're helping customers by providing these same capabilities. What are they thinking?

This type of conflict is not only unfair to the Solutions Integrator partners, but it puts the enterprise customers in a difficult position of having to decide with whom to work. If given the choice, many large enterprises would want to deal directly with the vendor, but the vendor may not have the internal resources necessary to support these customers, which means delays in getting the proper service and support.

Another main complaint the survey revealed is the lack of lead generation from the vendors. If the vendors are not providing qualified leads, and are taking away potential customers from their "partners," what's in it for the Solutions Integrators?

UC vendors need to put their customers first, and this means helping their channel partners to be successful, and providing them with not only training and certification, but also the knowledge that they are true partners.

Here's the bottom line: Enterprises need to work with the organization that can best understand their needs and find the best solution to meet those needs--and in most cases, that will be a Solutions Integrator. Vendors need to become better partners to their SIs, which means not competing with them for accounts, and providing them with the tools they need to be successful in helping their customers realize the benefits of UC&C.

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