Change can be a difficult challenge for even the most flexible individual or organization. Those who can adapt quickly to variations in their environment or other obstacles typically do better than those who don’t. Poor timing and a lack of resources can build stress and prevent the organization from reaching its intended goals.
While change isn’t easy, mit’s often necessary. Witness the continuing shift in the IT industry. A variety of market and technology factors are forcing solution providers to make significant changes to ensure their businesses remain economically viable and relevant to their end customers. And it’s not just cloud, managed services and mobility driving that transformation. The demand for the less traditional services such as social media management, telephone and Internet carrier support and app development is on the rise. Big data is moving downstream and security policy development is a must have for organizations dealing with a multitude of state, federal and industry compliance issues.
While the IT project world isn’t dead, providers looking to retain existing clients — and land profitable new customers — must adapt their portfolios and capabilities accordingly. Those types of transitions may push many solution providers beyond their comfort zones. From introducing unfamiliar technologies to restructuring their financial practices, they may have to rely on experienced peers or specialized consultants to assist with these projects.
Adaptation Required
Solution providers who can’t learn to delegate may fail miserably. Few have the management, technology and financial planning skills to make a major business transformation work on their own. The good news is they don’t have to. A major part of the discussion at this week’s combined CompTIA Advisory Council meeting was on ramping up the programs providers need to successfully cross that chasm. The Partners, Telecom and Vendors groups have been extremely focused on building programs and tools channel companies can utilize to make that necessary leap.
The combined advisory councils met earlier this week for two days of collective and individual workshop sessions, with each group bringing their own industry expertise and viewpoints. Most of the discussions focused on helping CompTIA member organizations master the art of change, and what resources are needed to make that happen. The idea generation activities were plentiful and member engagement was high throughout the meetings, with each individual council developing at least two new initiatives to help meet that goal.
Councils Guide Channel Transformation
“How can you ensure CompTIA members don’t commit these types of ‘unforced errors’ in their own businesses?” That was the question posed to the combined working groups by facilitator and management expert Bruce Stuart of Channelcorp. If CompTIA intends to continue developing channel business enhancement tools and programs, he stressed, the association will also have to shift its own approach. In order to help solution providers implement significant changes, those building the training and education resources have to understand of what members and their customers will need. No business can thrive in the future if it fails along the way.
In order to accomplish its longevity goal, solution providers should start by taking a long, hard look at what their target business clients need today as well as in the next three to five years and beyond. Beyond the technology, what related support needs are going unfulfilled now or will need to be addressed in the future? The people channel businesses sell to and through are also changing, with many purchase decisions moving from a central IT lead to individual departments and work groups.
As more customers take advantage of their providers’ professional and recurring services portfolios, project and break-fix work continues to drop as a percentage of revenue. Channel companies that aren’t expanding beyond the traditional tech options may not have long to make the transition, especially if they aren’t meeting their clients’ current needs.
Get Your Business-Enablement Tools
Those are the issues the Partner, Telecom and Vendor Advisory Councils are working on. While the results of their efforts may not be evident for a few months, thousands of channel professionals have already benefited from their past work, including the acclaimed CompTIA Channel Account Manager program. Their collaborative initiatives have resulted in a plethora of channel business-enablement and IT training resources, from Quick Start Guides, white papers and executive certificates to a variety of market-specific research studies. While the council members spend much of their time working behind the scenes, their activities are truly charting the course for the future transformation of CompTIA and its partners.
Brian Sherman is founder of Tech Success Communications, specializing in editorial content and consulting for the IT channel. His previous roles include chief editor at Business Solutions magazine and senior director of industry alliances with Autotask. Contact Brian at Bsherman@techsuccesscommunications.com.
