VARs must hold more hands
Analyst claims channel needs to help customers understand IT benefits
The channel needs to step up efforts to help customers understand the business benefits of IT, according to IDC.
Speaking at the analyst's security conference in London last week, Thomas Raschke, programme manager for IDC's security products and strategies in Europe, advised companies: "You should expect help from the vendor and channel community to give you the arguments you need when you go up to the board and ask for funding.
"Be careful of rosy return on investment studies; there's a lot of stuff crammed into them to bring impressively high figures. You need to identify real cost savings with each new security purchase, and the channel should help you do that."
He also said companies should work on maximising the payback they could get from their security infrastructure before adding any new elements.
Graham Fox, managing director of security distributor Fresh Egg, said: "We look to understand reseller partners' business, holding their hands to build solutions that fit requirements.
"Ultimately customers want something that works. The more difficult something is to manage, the bigger the effect on return on investment, and that can lead to false positives."