I have a friend who enjoyed a lot of success integrating systems for law offices.  He has great relationships with his customers, but was resistant to proposing Managed Services to them.  He was afraid that his customers would be insulted by the proposal and terminate the business relationship.  It could be that he was fearful of venturing into the unknown; this is common with entrepreneurs who have known success and are faced with a change in circumstance.  A change like the one facing the Channel now – the one dictated by the inevitable evolution of technology.  As devices become smaller and embedded, the business opportunity for the Channel logically shifts to providing services for its customer base.  There are fewer desktops to build, and service is the essence of the Channel’s value proposition; it seems natural to transition to a service-based business model.  Despite the press evangelizing this opportunity, Managed Services has very little traction in the Channel. Read the rest of this entry »

Who is the Channel?  Technically speaking, any pathway, conduit, or canal that moves products downstream to the end user can be considered a channel.  For practical purposes, however, this description does not provide enough detail.  Dell, HP, and other multinational companies move products downstream to the end user, but they’re certainly not considered channel companies.  There are e-tailers like Tiger Direct, New Egg, or CDW, who move tons of equipment to the end user, but very few people refer to them as the Channel.  In reality, the Channel is “small business”; all the little guys that reach out to SMB or serve specific vertical markets.  I like to refer to the Channel as “a thousand snapshots of the American dream”.  They build companies, hire employees, feed families, and stimulate their local economies.  They are wonderful examples of the free enterprise system. Read the rest of this entry »