For Tangoe, Partners, Technology Expense Management Takes New Shape

Leaders at Tangoe, the technology expense and asset management software provider, say demand for IT expense management (ITEM) services from channel partners and their customers exists like never before .

Tangoe on Thursday named Avant its partner of the year. That announcement came about a year-and-a-half after Tangoe entered the tech services distributor (TSD) channel in earnest. Tangoe at the time signed Avant and Intelisys as its first TSD partners. At the same time, trends like increased adoption of cloud services and now a macroeconomic downturn have made cost optimization more prevalent than ever.

“The headwinds right now do have companies shifting their strategies,” Tangoe chief revenue officer Mark Denney said. “They’re putting protective parameters in place. They’re scrutinizing their existing cloud environments with concerted effort. They want to make sure that they’re accelerating and return on investment,” he said.

Tangoe’s Mark Denney

Getting Into the Channel

Tangoe has grown its presence in the channel in recent years. Denney said the vendor cut its teeth serving “pure enterprise” clients. And in many cases, partners might have competed with Tangoe in the days prior to the TSD partnerships.

“A lot of times we ended up at odds in accounts in some ways,” said Kyle Hall, president of IT strategy and technology advisory firm Resourcive. “We would go into accounts, and they would say, ‘Oh, we’ve got Tangoe; we don’t need you to come in and run an audit.'”

Less than a year ago, Tangoe launched an offering for the mid-enterprise. Mid-enterprise faced the same challenges as larger counterparts to simplify, manage and optimize their IT expenses, Denney said. That solution, Denney said, averages fewer than 40 days for deployment. And he said the offering from Tangoe is resonating with partners.

Resourcive’s Kyle Hall

“This kind of partnership [with TSDs] wouldn’t have happened three to five years ago, because it just wasn’t as relevant as it is now,” Denney told Channel Futures. But now IT expense management (ITEM) is seeing its heyday. For example, Denney said Avant has named cost optimization as a top three growth area in 2023.

Avant Communications’ Drew Lydecker

“As the macroeconomic environment shifts, businesses of all sizes are turning to their trusted advisors seeking ways to streamline operations and budgets,” Avant president Drew Lydecker said. “Tangoe’s ITEM software and services are uniquely positioned to deliver a positive return on investment for our clients, supporting the full life cycle of their cloud, mobile, and telecom needs.”

Partnering for ITEM

Some partners are working to build up their own visibility tools for expense management. For example, Hall said Resourcive can offer an inventory audit. But that audit only examines a single point in time.

“We can come in and run an audit for a point in time, but that’s not the same as seeing it month over month with ongoing visibility,” he said.

And for a business like Resourcive that specializes in working with a multiple suppliers to provide technology, partnering with a technology platform for ITEM made more sense than building one’s own platform.

“It’s much easier for me, and I think a better outcome for the clients, to partner with people who are specialists in that area,” he said.

Changing Demand

The opportunity for ITEM has grown due to a couple of reasons. On one hand, Denney pointed to the evolution of providers like Tangoe from telephony expense management to other technologies. They’ve moved from just wireline to also offering visibility for mobility and cloud.

And of course, it’s no surprise to anyone reading this that cloud spending skyrocketed in the last three years, owing to the pandemic and the rise of hybrid work.

“I think cloud is getting the most traction and press, and probably rightfully so, because from a spend bucket perspective, it’s the largest,” Hall told Channel Futures.

Following massive investments in cloud services, many enterprises are weighing the ROI they’re getting from those technologies. For example, infrastructure as a service (IaaS)/public cloud has garnered great attention with certain companies announcing that they’re reigning back their spending. In addition, more customers appear poised to consolidate their unified communications as a service (UCaaS) platforms.

On the other hand, a macroeconomic downturn is helping to raise the profile of ITEM. Denney said he sees IT budgets staying flat or tightening across almost all industries.

And many partners have adjusted their value propositions in the last half-year. The agent channel traditionally framed its value around finding the most affordable quotes for their customers, but many of those partners evolved in recent years to focus more on digital transformation and customer experience projects. But now, many partners have fine-tuned their marketing messages since the economy worsened to frame themselves as …