MSP SUMMIT/CHANNEL PARTNERS LEADERSHIP SUMMIT — Chief information officers can tell which channel partners offer true business value, and which ones don’t.

Day three of The MSP Summit and Channel Partners Leadership Summit featured a panel of chief information officers (CIOs) and chief information security officers (CISOs). These four technology leaders have all engaged with channel partners from the other side of the table. On Thursday, they shared valuable secrets about the pain points they face in their daily business. Bobby DeMarzo, Channel Futures’ vice president of content, moderated the lively discussion.

The panelists kept returning to the same topic: that they can quickly sniff out a partner or vendor sales rep who views them in an impersonal, transactional way. Moreover, they are not fans of such an approach. For example, they all agreed that they rarely read sales-pitch emails from partners they haven’t met.

Channel Futures covered the panel and asked partners what they thought about it.

See the slideshow above to read about the state of IT budgets and what customers are looking for in partners.