We need to talk about the channel

The channel model is changing, and vendors need to re-evaluate their channel programmes to see if they are offering any value at all to their resellers

A community, a strategic alliance, an ecosystem: call it what you will, but partnership between resellers has become the latest way to ensure that deals are done and that size, of a reseller or an end-user, becomes irrelevant.

For the SME reseller, having partnerships with VARs in other regions, or those that specialise in a particular vertical, not only gives them a more rounded portfolio, but can mean the difference between winning and losing a sale.

But sales, revenue targets and bottom lines aside, getting together with reseller peers is also a good way to benchmark your own company and share information about successes and difficulties in the market.

CRN's regular Advisory Council meetings are designed to do just that. At our latest meeting, SME VARs discussed, among other things, the pros and cons of having giant players in the market reaching down and snacking on their small business customers, the threat posed by online sellers and the importance of vendor branding.

One thing was clear: the channel model is changing. With many SME customers now going online to purchase products, and vendors such as Hewlett-Packard and its online HP Store pushing customers towards the web, is the reseller becoming an agent and a services and consultancy operation?

Will mail order, Dell and online retailers become the fulfilment houses, running uber-efficient logistics and shipping products day and night, while VARs implement, install and integrate? At this stage, no one knows, but SME resellers are already looking to vendors to begin altering their channel.

Vendors need to begin re-evaluating their channel programmes, to see if they are offering any value at all to their resellers. If resellers are already calling for some kind of reference or agent fee for a recommendation, then the smart vendor to be first to steer this bandwagon will undoubtedly be the name on resellers' lips when the customers come calling.