Channel needs yet more change: Insight boss

Businesses still see IT and the channel as a cost centre, warns leading reseller

More channel transformation is needed if IT providers are to keep up with market dynamics and begin delivering real business outcomes.

Those were the words of Insight EMEA president Wolfgang Ebermann speaking to ChannelWeb yesterday about the reseller's new services division.

"I think the whole channel needs to transform itself, to be quite honest. Because the market requires that transformation," he said.

"And the reason I'm making that statement has a lot to do with what IT delivers today to the business markets. The CXOs do not see IT as a strategic asset."

It's a theme that has been much discussed in recent decades, he concedes, but it remains true that few if any channel companies have been successful at realigning themselves directly to business outcomes.

Executives from the marketing and technical departments right up to the C-suite will nod sagely if asked about the need for IT to deliver business outcomes, not just "keep the lights on", yet the average business customer still views IT as a cost.

"If they didn't, they would increase their IT budgets, especially through a downturn, and the opposite happened," Ebermann (pictured) said.

Ebermann agreed that perhaps the channel needs to completely reassess and redesign its marketing and advertising strategies, as well as realigning itself to be primarily services- and consultancy-led, rather than product sales-driven.

Needless to say, Ebermann also hopes Insight and its emerging services division will be in the vanguard that finally gets the recipe right.

"IT [itself] is transforming now to the next level," he said. "It will be hybrid cloud in Europe for a long time, but it will have to reduce the costs for IT and realise the potential for IT to focus on business outcomes."