The gamification of sales accreditations usually returns a higher degree of interest
Jack Watson
Role: Managing Director, Bytes Software Services
Which vendor are you focusing your technical and sales staff accreditation efforts on in 2022, and why?
We aren't focussing on any one vendor for technical and sales staff accreditation efforts this year. We are looking at developing the breadth of experience we offer so we can better help our customers navigate the complexity of modern workplace, hybrid infrastructure and security. We've found that taking a more rounded view of customer challenges and industry opportunity this way is paying dividends. In terms of deep technical resource, we are continuing to invest in network security and hybrid cloud infrastructure. In those areas the likes of Check Point and Microsoft provide us with plenty of opportunity from a vendor perspective.
What are your ambitions for the partnerships?
We want to continue to improve our capability around SASE and lead conversations around zero trust architecture. We want to keep accelerating our cyber security capability to meet customer demand and double our security MSSP business. Our cloud business is already growing at the same rate and what we fundamentally want is more customers calling Bytes as their first instinct for assistance on Azure technical support as they have historically for licensing advice.
Read a summary of the CRN Vendor Report findings here
Are there any new/emerging vendors where you are ramping up accreditation efforts?
We've seen positive growth with some already strong partnerships with Rubrik, Varonis and Palo Alto, which I think is an extension to the increasing sophistication of cyber attack and data resilience.
What's your biggest bugbear when it comes to vendor accreditation and training?
I think we continue to see product features and functionality outweigh customer challenges and impact at different inflection points. It is also rare for sales staff accreditation training to talk in terms of how vendors work with and complement other solutions. We are seeing a great deal more collaboration in the security space due to the necessity of multi-layered solutions and I'd like to see more of that approach.
If you could give your vendors one piece of advice on how to improve their accreditation/training process, what would it be?
The gamification of sales accreditations usually returns a higher degree of interest. We've seen our Microsoft skills challenges equip a large volume of people in a short space of time. There is a strong sense of self-improvement and intrinsic motivation to be more productive and autonomous at Bytes so where vendors couch their training as something that can in some way improve the individual's personal opportunity and impact there is opportunity for better engagement.
