In the movie “Field of Dreams,” Kevin Costner’s character gave into the voice that kept telling him to “build it and they will come.” As a result, as anyone who has seen this classic film knows, he designs and painstakingly creates a professional-grade baseball diamond in the middle of his Iowa cornfield, leading to a host of baseball legends emerging from the stalks in the outfield. Ray Kinsella (Costner’s character in the movie) was encouraged to build something great and, despite the critics who disparaged his efforts, he succeeded.
While I’m pretty sure most solution providers don’t hear James Earl Jones’ voice prodding them to build cloud practices, many are simply responding to their clients' requests, and continue to shift their business model to meet those current (and future) needs. Today’s VARs and MSPs have to be increasingly intuitive to survive in a highly competitive business environment where customers have so many choices and so many continually shifting priorities. That’s why cloud practices have to be incessantly evaluated, designed and adapted.
That is, if they want to avoid entering the dreaded 'virtual death spiral.'
In an era where the cost of entry into the cloud services market continues to drop, its commoditization is happening much faster. Solution providers have to consistently up their game with the mix of value-add that best supports their target audience. In other words, a cloud practice must be dynamic to succeed over the long run. It’s about providing a superior end user experience and becoming a more proactive participant in a client’s business, giving them better tools, support and the information required to take their organization to the next level. If you don’t keep pace, your company is apt to stumble, if not take the same death spiral thousands of small businesses fall into every year.
Develop a Continual Improvement Plan
I had the opportunity over the past weekend to help facilitate the CompTIA Executive Certificate in Cloud (Intermediate) courses, which include a number of best practices to help providers build more formidable offerings. More than 40 solution providers attended the first day's sessions during the Continuum Navigate conference and, thanks to the interactive format, the conversations were as insightful as the content.
A number of attendees shared their own personal experiences with building and fine-tuning their operations. The collaborative break-out sessions for creating a sales playbook were especially insightful, with some successful cloud professionals offering up great advice to their peers, including:
- Hire those who already know how to sell to specific verticals. While you can teach the tech, it’s much harder to build trust and relationships, and to learn the language and commonly-accepted practices. For example, look for successful pharmaceutical or medical equipment professionals when you build a healthcare IT practice. They know who makes the purchasing decisions (or influences them) and understand the workflows and what value propositions have the most merit.
- Document, document, document. Just having a process isn’t enough, every procedure should be carefully detailed so others can replicate it if, and when, needed. Input each document into the company PSA and training files to ensure they are readily accessible. From selecting new cloud vendors to phone procedures for the help desk, make sure someone has the information required to complete the task handy if you aren’t around.
- The biggest objection has moved from security to data ownership. While somewhat related, businesses want to know where there data is kept today and how they can get it back when their vendor/solution provider relationships end. Security is still big, but information control is more critical for many organizations.
Those are just a very small sampling of the advice shared by participants of the training class. Our discussions and material covered everything from selecting the right cloud model for your particular customers to building a business transformation strategy to capitalize on all the new opportunities.
And to think, the Executive Certificate in Cloud (Intermediate) course curriculum is just one of the many educational resources CompTIA offers to help solution providers build, fortify or transform their organizational practices. From channel-oriented research and whitepapers to instructional guides and business tools, members have access to a literal treasure trove of material to increase their cloud IQ and expertise.
Just like your managed services program, implementing a cloud services practice will require continual attention to ensure it will meet the current and future needs of both your existing and prospective clients. The best way to get a leg up on the competition is to do your homework and build a true value-added complement of services, including consulting, design, implementation, end user training and, of course, support.
Why go it alone? Use the best practices of your peers and your trusted industry association. Check out all the cloud-specific business resources CompTIA and its members have developed and assembled—just for you. Learn more about the dynamic improvements you can and should be making to your cloud business to avoid the inevitable death spiral!
Brian Sherman is chief content officer at GetChanneled, a channel business development and marketing firm. He served previously as chief editor at Business Solutions magazine and senior director of industry alliances with Autotask. Contact Brian at Bsherman@getchanneled.com
