(Pictured above: Andrea Miner, director of global market research for Tech Data, at the company’s Channel Link event in Austin, Texas, June 28.)

TECH DATA CHANNEL LINK — Second-platform technologies remain strong in the SMB market, but partners can play a key role in steering companies toward third-platform technologies that allow businesses to speed their digital transformations.

That’s what Andrea Miner, Tech Data‘s director of global market research, told attendees at the IT distributor’s Channel Link conference this week. The conference is geared toward partner opportunities with SMB end users.

Originally focused on big data and analytics, cloud, mobility and social, the third platform has evolved to include the internet of things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI) and augmented-reality devices, “providing additional opportunity to build solutions” and additional revenue, Miner said.

The second platform is focused on the client/server system, and it remains a high priority for SMBs, she said. Upgrading PCs remains a top priority for this market.

In addition to continuing to support SMBs’ second-platform needs, partners can guide the conversation more toward the benefits of third-platform technologies, Miner said.

The concept of digital transformation ties third-platform technologies to business outcomes, and selling a solution rather than a product, Miner said.

“Third platform requires doing business in a different way,” she said. “We have to change the way we’re doing business and how we capture that spend.”

“No one in IT distribution today has made the investments to enable your transformation to third platform than Tech Data, right here, right now,” said Rob Webster, Tech Data’s director of SMB sales.

“Our Level Up platform is available for your organization 24/7,” he said. “It’s an online training and enablement platform (with) training videos, infographics, sales presentations and more. Level Up also gives access to a community of your peers.”

Tech Data’s Phillip Privett

Phillip Privett, Tech Data’s vice president of technologies and solutions for Cisco Solutions, said there’s still a strong second-platform need in the market with the refresh of technologies that have been out there for awhile.

“When you look at the migration of that third platform, a lot of it starts with … net-new companies as much as it does with large enterprise,” he said. “When you look at the current cost model ($5,000 to start a business), people are starting these new businesses that can evolve very quickly into something major. There are companies that didn’t exist last year that are displacing Fortune 500 companies in turn by leveraging an IoT offering.”

Lots of opportunities exist because of that evolution to the third platform, Privett said.

“Most customers are starting there now,” he said. “If you didn’t have the second-platform infrastructure, why would you not start your business in a cloud? Why would you not start from an online analytics opportunity? Why would you not start an IoT as a component of your business if you didn’t have all the manufacturing hardware that wasn’t IoT-enabled? You would start leveraging …

… those current technologies, and I think that’s part of the drive to get there. And I think that’s why it’s evolving.”

When it comes to the language of a sale, “We’re way past the time when speeds and feeds matter,” Privett said.

“They matter today, but they’re not the outcome,” he said. “I’m trying to get to the best possible outcome for my customer, and because of that, they want to say, ‘What’s the solution that you’re trying to provide? What’s the positive experience you’re trying to present to your customer?’ … And you can get to that solution by leveraging technology and IP that exists between Tech Data and Cisco to get that to the market.”

Wade Smith, president and CEO of I2oT Solutions, an industrial IoT provider, said working with Tech Data made it easy for his company to think big in terms of the end customer and to do “hundreds of thousands of dollars in sell” as a small company.

“The IoT world is very broad and industrial IoT is very specialized; you have to have a breadth and depth of knowledge, which is challenging on its own because there’s always innovation happening and connectivity is really key,” he said. “Looking at these vendors, they have solutions in my area and others do not, and I’m trying to convince them, ‘Hey, you need industrial end devices.’ We need these things so we can actually continue promoting the end devices into the inventory where the worker can utilize the tools that we can provide.”