4 Strategic Elements every VAR should consider when evaluating their Cloud Migration Selection & Direction

As 2019 comes to a close in just over 30-days, business plans for those on a calendar year are coming to a close, budgets are being defined, projects road-mapped and decisions about the future of the company decided for the next twelve (12) months.

The pace of technology is accelerating rapidly, augmented by factors that IT pros need to study and keep pace with; if not forecast the future of their own company and customer, while ensuring that their role stays relevant and current; is this humanly possible?

It is, especially if you have the vision and focus to focus on the elements that are relevant. It’s almost too easy to get into the ‘Analysis Paralysis’ syndrome, where the tidal wave grows before you can build your Arch to save as many people in the enterprise as you have today.

“It’s been 50-years since the first message was sent across what become the internet. In 50 years, we’ve seen technology transform our enterprises, our relationships, and society itself”, said Val Sribar, senior research vice president at Gartner. Gartner has identified 10 strategic technology trends for 2020 that organizations to take a look at, if not include in their technology road map.

A Value-Added Reseller, VAR, is a company that adds features or services to an existing product, then resells it (usually to end-users) as an integrated product or complete ‘turn-key’ solution. This practice happens in many business eco-system, but specifically in the IT industry, a VAR might bundle a software application with supplied hardware. How does cloud migration impact the business model of a VAR?

Product Selection

When you look at the competing cloud solutions and technologies, any IT pro can quickly become overwhelmed. At the pace of growth, to the needs of the business, it is critical that the end-user review product & services that will ultimately provide them better efficiencies, data, economics or a competitive edge. If the enterprise is leaning on their VAR for this consultative approach, the VAR needs to be comprehensive in their offering – or trust and respect the value that another provider can bring to their end-user on their behalf. Ensure that your Supplier selection compliments your culture, customer need and company strategy towards your cloud migration. 

Supplier Selection

Better understanding the VAR’s end-user customer base will assist in a VARs selection of which Supplier’s to partner with, but not complete the list of Supplier’s they should engage with. Why? As each supplier articulates their value proposition, the VAR must be able to understand ‘that’ value and position them for the right customers, with the appropriate decision maker within. Suggesting too many, or the incorrect Supplier to their customer could end up back firing on the VAR, or at minimum reducing the trust the customer has with the VAR (that took years to build). Interview your Supplier Candidates to better understand how they are going to compliment your value proposition as a VAR to your end-user, to ensure you both have alignment and a documented road map for success.

Associate Direction

In today’s IT VAR eco-system, VAR’s are augmenting their decade plus long value proposition with cloud solutions from providers they know little about. With this short adoption will come risks with Associates within the VAR that will hesitate to make the introduction to ‘their’ clients to the Supplier, even though they absolutely believe the Supplier will be able to assist. Why? Human Nature. The VAR associate, whether they be a sales person, engineer, customer retention, or leadership has a natural instinct to ‘protect’. What happens when two dogs meet each other for the first time? They might smell each other, do the dance and walk around each other, start playing right away, or sometimes growl and get defensive. The same smelling, dancing, playing or growling is what VAR, Suppliers and Customers are doing. Ensure that there is trust among your VAR Associates and the Supplier Associates you are partnering with. Not having enough time to gain a level of trust and respect can push emotions in the wrong direction without a warranted reason.

Communicate Company Direction

Just because the pace of technology is moving at light speed, doesn’t mean your company has to move just as fast. Whatever the speed you decide to embrace a cloud migration strategy, communicate to the troops. Proactively talk about the direction of the organization and why. Associates will listen, follow and take ownership of the direction once they understand and feel they will be a part of the change. Richard Branson has said, “Take care of your employees, they will take care of your customers”. Taking care of employees can be as easy as including them in conversations, create steering committees, pilot programs or many other hierarchy ways of including a bulk of employees, especially if you have a disperse workforce. At a minimum, finds ways to communicate to all associates.

Technology will continue to advance exponentially faster than in the past. What took fifty (50) years on the internet since 1969 will take less than five (5) years or 2024 to advance in today’s world. Embrace change, focus with the right Selection & Direction and you’ll succeed with whichever direction you choose!