Live From Intelisys Channel Connect: Time to Evolve Again
Day 1 of Channel Connect, Intelisys’ signature event that caps a summer of regional shows in cities across the country, was packed with information for attendees. But before digging into the meat of the presentations, it’s worth taking a second to discuss the location. The Meritage resort sits in the heart of the Napa Valley; with cloudless California skies, dry air and ideal temperatures, it’s a special kind of torture to take 1,000 people-oriented people and put them in keynote and meeting rooms for two days. The facility is spectacular, but letting yourself think too much about the weather — and proximity of California’s wine country — would be a mistake. Intelisys has done a fine job of providing thought-provoking content that’s at once serious but doesn’t take itself too seriously. And luckily, the third day of the event is about anything and everything to do in wine country other than sitting in meeting rooms.
Coming from enterprise IT as I have, it’s interesting to note that Pryfogle’s definition does not allow for an on-premises, staff-run cloud architecture as would be described by OpenStack or its competitors. This somewhat self-serving notion held by the channel in general, and the telecom channel in particular, doesn’t allow for the idea that an IT organization might decide on its own internal private cloud specifications, and that those specs — for example, choosing OpenStack — would lead to other requirements.
That’s not to say that the presenters of the day, including Pryfogle, discounted the need to consider on-premises services and how a hybrid model would affect the complexity of integrating cloud services into those already run by IT. In fact, it’s just that network complexity that many presenters held up as one of the particularly bright points for the audience to address with their customers. But there was very little talk of helping customers build their own cloud-like infrastructures.
A recurring theme of the presentations was the need to drive simplicity and let it lead to increased functionality. Cloud-based examples like Uber, and simplicity icons like Apple, illustrate the goal: a high level of functionality without a steep learning curve. Pryfogle insists the lesson applies as much to the internal IT resources of end-user organizations as to consumers. Each company has its own complexity to deal with in terms of understanding how to use technology as a competitive advantage. Taking the complexity out of the process of using technologies is how partners can establish a strategic bond with their customers.
But many of the day’s speakers take that concept even farther. It’s not enough to simply enable the comparatively simple use of complex technology; there’s a business advisory function that should also become part of the relationship.
The notion of partners moving from trusted technology adviser to trusted business adviser isn’t a new one, but it does come into focus in driving what Pryfogle calls the “the technology-enabled customer experience.” This is where the likes of Apple and Uber are shining examples. Steve Jobs famously said that it isn’t the customer’s job to know what they want next. And in fact, experience shows that end users often have a hard time understanding what’s possible. This applies to sales partners and their customers, too. It’s a natural thing to imagine automating, and therefore simplifying, a given process. It often takes an outside eye to see that the process itself needs rethinking before automation should even be considered.
This is certainly the case with software-defined networking and network function virtualization. While the underpinnings of these technologies have been around a while, we’re just beginning to see and understand that rethinking network operations can improve security, availability and performance.
Thinking Different
While much of the advice and thought leadership from Day 1 panels took similar themes — things like simplify, automate and integrate — there were some notable standout comments. Microsoft’s SMB product West Coast general manager, for instance, remarked that “we don’t have enough partners.” Given that Redmond’s cloud-based office offering’s sitting at only 15 percent market penetration, even though Microsoft’s SMB sales have been 100 percent supported by the indirect channel for decades, that’s a clear opportunity.
Cisco mentioned that it’s seeing bimodal IT — the well-worn and oft-renamed concept of IT being split into two parts, with one risk-averse and highly procedural and the other part agile and following a fail fast/succeed fast method.
BroadSoft remarked on the winding down of the PSTN, while a panel of CLECs later in the day offered hard data on how the PSTN was alive, well and had a bright decade-long future in front of itself. I’ll let you sort that one out.
One recurring theme through the day’s discussion was around the changing need for support. While in the past, agents might have thought the job was done when the sale was booked, the cloud will not be that way. Successful agents will see their customers through the entire life cycle of integration, which amounts to a new revenue stream. Pryfogle says that support is a critical emerging differentiator for partners.
Not all the deep philosophy of the day was directed at technology. One presenter used the common adage about there being many ways to skin a cat. This led to a few minutes of fun while audience and emcee debated just how many ways there are. Perhaps in tomorrow’s sessions we’ll find out.
