SPONSORED: Adding value to our future resellers

Telstra's EMEA channel head assesses how partners need to adapt for the digital age

In the day-to-day grind of the reseller world, sometimes it's hard to take a step back and think about what's next. But I believe taking that time is absolutely essential. Not only does it empower us with an idea of what's happening in the coming weeks, months and years, it enables us to set up our businesses for future success.

In the past few weeks I've been thinking more and more over these issues - and I want to share the results with you. So, what will resellers look like in 2025?

Speaking to a range of reseller partners and friends over the past year made it clear to me that a fundamental change is happening before our eyes.

As people and businesses around the world gorge on data and services, resellers are innovating to meet their needs. This evolution is affecting every aspect of their business.

That's because digital is disrupting everything.

Every day I hear about a new idea that uses connectivity to make my business and personal life better. Although, despite that, I will never understand why my fridge needs to connect to the internet.

When I think about the reseller market, that disruption is happening over a longer timeframe. Still, I believe the impact will be just as enormous.

For me, the key will be how well we maximise the value in our future reseller relationships:

• Key partnerships will increase the value a reseller can provide without imposing on the customer relationship. I call this customer experience innovation
• New solutions create value by offering flexible, automated services. I call this product innovation
• Resellers will increase their own value by moving from capex-driven costs to a recurring, demand-driven model. I call this business model innovation

I think this is important, because the industry is reaching a tipping point.

This year is the first time ever that European network managers say their top priority is the adoption of software-defined architecture. I believe there's no going back.

To succeed in this new world, resellers require a new approach to networks.

In the same way that Amazon Web Services energised the cloud with flexible pay-as-you-go pricing, new dynamic network services are changing the infrastructure landscape.

For example, the Telstra Programmable Network offers simple, cloud-ready networks that scale up and down in almost real time, and empower you to automate delivery.

Through my discussions with partners, customers, and customers' customers, I believe adoption of these types of technologies will enable the resellers of 2025 to be agile, dynamic businesses offering suites of customer-driven services.

That will empower them to be entirely customer-driven, offering flexible, opex-focused solutions that differentiate through consulting, project management, service management and new pricing models.

The result is a win-win for everyone.