'We will be engaging with partners differently' - Arrow's UK boss on the changing distribution dynamic

Partners may have to rethink own business strategies to win more data business, Mark McHale said at distributor's Vision event

The continuous drive for data analysis is causing customers to "throw down the gauntlet" to the channel, stated Arrow UK and Ireland VP Mark McHale.

Speaking to the assembled crowd at the distributor's annual Vision event in London, McHale (pictured) said that clients' need to understand and interpret data creates new opportunities.

"Data is something we used to store and now it is a valuable asset to a company and that is changing the opportunity size [for the channel]," he said in the keynote presentation.

"Customers want to grow profits faster and more efficiently than their competitors and that is the gauntlet they are laying down to this community.

"They are looking for solutions that can create business outcomes and not just technology in isolation. They want technology to change their business models and gain a competitive edge because of it.

"What does this mean for this community? Probably that we need to look wider into the customer than we've ever done before - understand their business models and look outside the traditional datacentre-controlled environment."

Though McHale believes data-driven businesses to be the way of the future, he added that in order to fulfil this destiny, customers need the know-how from partners - and this may result in partners rethinking their own business models.

"If customers want more, is the channel ready to give more? Are we ready to go to customers and have conversations outside the traditional datacentre environment about business model transformation? How is your company going to have these conversations?" he asked the audience.

"Consider if the opportunity is much wider, which brings complexity to the whole solution. It's highly likely that one company won't be able to deliver everything needed to achieve the solution for that customer, so you need to go and look for partnerships, collaborate with others, or possibly even partner with someone you compete with today."

McHale said that the distribution model is in a state of flux, claiming that disties will soon be considered aggregators of services and tools to aid the channel.

"This is something we've been doing at Arrow for the last few years anyway, but we want to do more," he stated.

"We want to engage with the channel slightly differently and to become that partner that aggregates and supports you as a channel, but we want to do it in a structured way."

He outlined five pillars of conversation that he believes will help the distributor achieve this, as well as widen the conversation and business opportunities for partners.

Modernising the datacentre, integrating the public cloud, evolving the digital workplace, embedding security and data at the edge are the five talking points that cover the internal aspects of the datacentre, as well as elements "outside, around and beyond" it.

"We have those areas of specialisation around artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, the cloud, among others," he explained.

"When we bring in these conversation drivers it means we can join these areas of specialisation together for a wider solution to the customer.

"If you as a channel partner are having conversations with one or two of these drivers, you're more than likely working on a project in a wider strategy of the company that you are trying to serve.

"If you are having conversations with all five then you are well on your way to having business model transformation conversations [with customers]."