Emerging problems
With the number of vendors entering the UK on the up, CRN has launched the Emerging Technology Hub
While the number of vendors entering the UK market boasting bleeding edge technology is increasing all the time, the problems this presents to the channel remain the same.
Filtering the good from the bad is no is no easy challenge - particularly when the vendors have no channel history and are often backed by venture capital firms hungry for a return on investment.
The new CRN Emerging Hub will track these vendors when they land in the UK and dissect their channel strategies and partner programmes.
How to identify vendor opportunities
Carl West, supply chain director at GfK, told CRN that both resellers and end-users need more help in both identifying new technology and establishing how it can be used in the real world.
"There's a lot of risk involved with any new-to-market technology, but the reward is obviously significant," he said. "The challenge is to identify those ones that have opportunity and the ones that die an early death.
"One of the things that quite a lot of brands fall foul of is they talk about the features but they don't talk about the application.
"The brands need to be focusing more on application and making it 'real world'," he said.
Risk for resellers
From a reseller's perspective, they need to carefully assess whether they are willing to make an investment in a vendor without a proven channel track record, according to Freeform Dynamics research director Dale Vile.
Vile explained that a reseller should be looking at whether new technology or a new vendor can be back sold to existing clients.
"Most reseller can't really afford to invest in evangelical sales," he said.
"It might be new and it might be different but can it be back-sold or cross-sold into an existing base? It's much easier to go to an existing customer and say ‘I've got this new technology'.
"If it's something which is a totally different sale that means developing new contacts in your existing accounts, or the cross-sale isn't really there, then it is quite difficult to justify."
Vile said that a reseller should assess the vendor's current client base and expect to see three of four major clients using their products before viewing them as a genuinely viable option.
Are they committed to the channel?
You'll often hear a new vendor proclaim to be 100 per cent channel and criticise legacy players for having a direct revenue stream, but how can a reseller trust a three-year-old start-up with no previous channel ecosystem?
Vile added that it can be difficult for resellers to be fully committed to a vendor that may have an uncertain future ahead - particular if private equity investors are looking to realise their investment sooner rather than later - but that the opportunity can sometimes outweigh the risk.
"If you've got a vendor who is on their third round of VC funding and they're obviously heading for being sold - if that's an unpredictable future then that's obviously going to affect you, especially if they're sold to a big guy," he said. "But sometimes as a reseller you can get stuck in your old ways and your comfort zone.
"Let's say at the moment your current offerings are all on-premise but we know the cloud is making an impact. If someone comes along and allows you to credibly enter a new market and take your business forward - you're probably looking for a vehicle to do that anyway so you might live with the fact that there is some uncertainty on the basis that it gives you something tangible to build that market initiative around."
Role of distribution
Throughout the course of the Emerging Tech Hub CRN will also explore the role distribution has to play in introducing new technology to the channel.
Jason Dance UK managing director at emerging technology distributor BigTec, explained that distributors have to help connect new vendors to the channel by investing in areas like services, proof of concept, lead generation and partner recruitment - but added that the channel needs to be more open to new technology.
"We have to get the channel to be proactive and step outside of their traditional comfort zone to be able to assist the IT department to meet the business' need," he said. "It's a massive opportunity but they have to embrace it.
"One of the functions we perform is we have our own demand creation teams so we will actually go out and drive demand for solutions and bring that back through resellers.
"By mitigating risk for the end-user client and the reseller the idea is we'll accelerate the adoption rate of the solutions and drive revenue back to the vendors."
If you are interested in getting involved with the CRN Emerging Tech Hub, or if you have any feedback, please contact [email protected]