'We're 65 per cent channel and it's not enough': BlackBerry channel VP

BlackBerry partner boss Richard McLeod talks CRN through the vendor's channel overhaul

"If you turn back the clock five years, most of what BlackBerry did was through carriers because they are the guys who sold the handset. Our software went through the handset, so almost everything was direct through them. Now it's almost a complete flip."

These are the words of BlackBerry channel boss Richard McLeod who, speaking to CRN, summed up an entire overhaul of a multibillion-dollar company in under 50 words.

BlackBerry embarked on a turnaround project five years ago, after the once-dominant smartphone player lost ground to Apple and Google.

A revival over recent years has seen BlackBerry abandon its hardware roots and focus solely on its software, continuing in the communications space but also putting more emphasis on a broader security offering.

This shift triggered an equally extensive shift in BlackBerry's channel operations.

Five years ago BlackBerry didn't have much of a channel in the traditional sense, working predominantly through the network carriers which sold its mobile phones.

Channel vice president McLeod (pictured) said this has now changed, with just 25 per cent of BlackBerry's channel business going through carriers and 75 per cent going through value-added partners.

Overall, 65 per cent of its volume now travels through the channel - an amount which "is not big enough," he added.But the shift in BlackBerry's own focus has led to a shift in what it requires from partners.

"We had to reinvent the channel, and bring new partners into the fold," McLeod said.

"Partners were saying 'let's manage devices for you'. Where we want to be, and where we're making progress towards, is business transformation consulting, and then integrating and supporting those solutions.

"Instead of resellers we're developing solution providers. Yes, we have some people that just sell products, but our game is to move them up to solutions providers."

Key to BlackBerry's new-found focus is the decoupling of its software from its hardware. Previously, McLeod explained, the view of BlackBerry was that "the magic" was all in the hardware and therefore partners were required to shift the handsets.

Now that the software stands alone, BlackBerry has become a much more complex and solution-led sale, with customers needing the expertise of partners to implement and manage its range of products.

"Everyone thought all the magic was in that BlackBerry phone," he said. "There was some magic there but it was mostly the software embedded in that phone, and then it was the secure communication back to the BlackBerry cloud."

Where BlackBerry's software was previously available only on BlackBerry's devices, now it can be installed across all devices and operating systems, opening up a far greater range of target customers.

To help address these opportunities, BlackBerry launched its first channel programme last year and currently has around 1,700 partners worldwide.

Two hundred of these partners are in the UK, including two top-tier Platinum partners and four second-tier Gold partners.

While the Platinum partners are carriers - O2 and Vodafone - traditional channel players have become more important to the vendor.

Global players such as CDW, Insight and Dimension Data are among the key partners, but McLeod said that smaller regional players are coming more into the fold as the focus shifts away from volume-centred hardware sales to value-focused software.

"There are a number of partners that are playing in our space in the second and third tier and what's interesting is when we move into this application space it's less about size and more about the value they're delivering, which is a key component of our partner programme structure," he said.

"Nothing is volume based, everything is value based and that's a key foundation of the programme we built. We're seeing both large and small partners, as well as global systems integrators - like the Accentures - that are keenly interested in our solution.

"We've virtually doubled the size of channel team globally and added technical support dedicated to the channel."

Despite the new-found love of the channel, BlackBerry will retain an element of direct sales in highly regulated sectors such as government and finance, but McLeod said that even some of these sectors are more channel focused than one might think - claiming that 90 per cent of BlackBerry's deals with the US government goes through partners.

BlackBerry has also launched a dedicated managed hosting specialisation in its partner programme, meaning managed hosting providers and cloud service providers can now host BlackBerry in their own datacentres, helping meet any data residency requirements that customers may have.

The changes have created a sense of anticipation among BlackBerry's partner community, according to the director of £3m BlackBerry partner Appurity Steve Whiter.

"Our heritage is BlackBerry and the mobile space," he said. "We've stuck with it when other people disregarded it and there is certainly a buzz around now. There are lots of new partners and the old ones that stayed, but people are wanting to start reselling BlackBerry again."

Whiter said that the rapid expansion of BlackBerry's product portfolio over the last few years has given it an edge over vendors that offer only one or two products.

He added that a key opportunity for partners over the next few months will be a burgeoning partnership with Microsoft and its cloud.

"Over the last two or three years they've added to the portfolio, enhanced what they already had and it's above everything in the market in the moment," he said. "Other vendors have one or two products; these guys have the full security suite.

"It's a partnership that we're very much going to be involved in because everyone will be [moving to the] cloud."