The Changing Partner Landscape: How the Pandemic Fueled Demand for an as-a-Service Model

Mike Fouts

The COVID-19 pandemic is having a significant effect on the entire partner ecosystem – vendors, partners, and customers alike. Some impacts were sudden, and others continue to develop over time, changing the course and reshaping the future for organizations of all sizes across a variety of industries. As employees embrace remote work, and organizations adapt to allow continued remote and hybrid models, I don’t think we’ll ever go back to the “normal” of two years ago. The proverbial genie is out of the bottle and most companies have figured out how they can enable productive remote work while reducing costly overhead. The key, they’re finding, is flexibility.

What has all of this meant for partners? While this might sound counterintuitive, the pandemic has actually increased business for the partner ecosystem, not decreased. The bulk of our partners have experienced significant business growth year over year. I believe this stems from the fact that everyone had to quickly change the way they do business and move to a model that was more remote, almost overnight. This has been a seamless transition for partners as they are, and always have been, well prepared to step in quickly and help customers adapt given their expertise and skill set.

“When discussing cloud, we hear customers talk a lot about wanting the ability to flex up and down as we continue navigating through COVID times,” said Mike Quirin, partner, Alchemy Technology Group. “There are a lot of companies that have experienced workforce contraction, yet they are stuck owning a whole bunch of licenses, because they had just signed long-term license contracts pre- or right at the start of the pandemic. This need for flexibility extends beyond improved IT efficiency and reduced IT costs. When COVID-19 forced workforces out of the office and into their homes around the world, the need for high-quality and secure remote workspaces became critical overnight.”

As we enter this new phase, organizations are demanding flexibility – in the way work gets done, where and when it gets done, and even in the technology used to empower this new way of working. As a result, we’re seeing the emergence of an as-a-service business model.

Demand for Flexibility, as-a-Service Consumption

In my conversations with the partner community, I consistently hear that the biggest shift they’re seeing is the increase in the number of customers asking for operational and technological flexibility. They want to purchase things as a service, more like a utility model.

To address this demand, I predict we’re going to see a big shift toward an as-a-service model. Whether it’s Microsoft, Google or Amazon driving that with their marketplaces, this is the direction customers are moving and that’s how customers want to buy and consume technology and services. Among the partner community, I think we will see a big, rapid evolution in the next 12 months to move their business toward as-a-service. While partners have traditionally resold products, the next year will be a big transition year into hosting a service for a customer and hosting an offering as opposed to selling a product or solution.

Key Drivers for as-a-Service

What’s behind this drive among partners to hosting services and offerings? I think it boils down to a few things. First, it’s clear that uncertainty has been a key factor. In addition, I think that technology has now caught up to the as-a-service model that we’ve become used to in so many other facets of life. For example, we’re accustomed to paying for what we use when it comes to …