Vendors must change if MSPs are to deliver
Support from vendors on managed services is stuck in the past, according to speakers at Channel Conference
Vendors, please work better together and while you're at it you could modernise your service delivery – if that's not too much to ask.
That could be the message from providers still struggling with the challenges of a transition to managed services, if comments at today's CRN Managed Services Channel Conference are any guide.
Christa Norton, marketing director at Calyx, told delegates during a channel panel discussion that certain problems concerning managed services could be much more easily solved if vendors were to team up in some areas.
"Vendors need to move away from the idea of being completely exclusive, to start working with each other," she said.
While the distribution channel and resellers have had to constantly evolve to keep pace with the move to services, many vendors have retained their traditional approach and methodology when it comes to dealing with the channel.
When channel partners are trying to deliver what the customer increasingly wants – a service with components from several vendors yet with one "throat to choke" – this can make life difficult for the reseller as well as disappoint customers.
"This is so you don't have those issues of whenever there is a problem, having to work out is it this problem, or this problem, or that problem," Norton said.
"And when something goes wrong, you cannot get an answer from the vendor. We've been having to call Sweden, the US and God knows where at times just to get an answer on a basic technical issue."
Omar Mir, director of service provider business and alliances at Avnet, said vendors need to reinvent themselves.
"To have what customers require, and to be easier to provide a solution, where the customer is given the choice," Mir said. "It's all to do with customers' choices."
Norton added: "I would concur with Omar.
"That's the sort of thing we could sell to customers and they would love the fact that there's just one point of contact."
Jon Hunt, business development director at Point to Point, agreed and emphasised that the difficulties extend right to delivering on the SLAs to the customer.
"One challenge we have is to actually work with vendors' SLAs. Because we're now a service provider we actually have very significant SLAs – but I think some of the vendors still have more traditional support models and we're struggling to get similar support terms back."
The VAR or services provider has promised a level of support to the customer – for which the customer has paid – but the vendor cannot always fulfil it, whether that be in terms of response times or other performance parameters. The channel partner then becomes the meat in a rather uncomfortable sandwich.
The ability to deliver a product or service or even exceed the customer's expectations is a key part of building trust in managed services, Norton also noted.