By Jeremy Kerth

Cloud broker, cloud integrator, cloud builder, cloud reseller, oh man, seriously, if you have this figured out, you’re ahead of the curve.

As an agency in Texas, we are starting to see MSPs, integrators and others positioning cloud-based services to our current clients, and the customers are buying. Our MSP peers were already in our accounts providing other services for years now, but now the landscape has changed and its a race to see who has the value and relationship to pick up the cloud-services piece of the business.

Agents are going to have to figure out where they fit into the above, based on their skill sets, and they need to do it soon. Our channel peers in the MSP, VAR and integrator spaces are all now swimming in the same product pool. They are talking cloud and wireless. Next they will be talking carrier services. We obviously have some inherent differences, as they arent as familiar with the recurring revenue sale as we are, but they have a lot of skills and abilities from a technical perspective that a lot of agents dont have on staff either. I would estimate they are going to figure this out pretty quick too, as it doesnt take a rocket scientist to figure out that recurring revenue is a beautiful thing. Once they figure it out, the carriers will be knocking at their door next too because they could be better positioned in the years to come.

Whether you partner, build, resell or broker, the writing is on the wall, slowly but surely, change and increased competition are on the way. We dont have a crystal ball, but if we dont start picking up these cloud-based services, someone else will and every vendor on the IT side in our accounts could be your potential competitor for IT anything in the years to come. 

Jeremy Kerth is managing partner for Wired Networks, a telecom agency he founded in 2008. Wired Networks offers multicarrier telecom services, network optimization, project and inventory management, cabling and installation. Before striking out on his own, Kerth worked with agencies Liquid Networx and RealCom Solutions. Prior to entering the channel, he spent five years in sales with Qwest. He started his telecom career in 1999 with Nettel. He also is a member of the 2011-12 Channel Partners Advisory Board.