• The Four Hundred
  • Subscribe
  • Media Kit
  • Contributors
  • About Us
  • Contact
Menu
  • The Four Hundred
  • Subscribe
  • Media Kit
  • Contributors
  • About Us
  • Contact
  • The Pressure Is On Server Resellers, Big Time

    November 24, 2008 Timothy Prickett Morgan

    While dominant IT suppliers IBM and Hewlett-Packard are still managing to hold their financials together despite the tense economic situation, they are doing this by and large because they have a vast channel of distributors and resellers into which they can pump their hardware and software.

    Server resellers have a lot of pressure on them to absorb gear, but vendors often help with financing to these resellers on the front end of a deal to get the equipment out of their factories and then help again on the other side of the reseller to finance equipment at the end user site. (Of course, they make money on both ends of the deal, too, so don’t feel bad.) And the master resellers–Avnet and Arrow Electronics have a lot more control over what is going on in the channel than do the downstream partners. Still, if the downstream partners are not doing well, then the upstream distributors and IT vendors are only a quarter or two away from disaster.

    Perhaps this is why the Enterprise Computing Solutions unit of Arrow, which peddles servers, storage, and related services, is trying to pump up its downstream resellers with a little free advice in these trying times. Here’s the advice, which will affect how partners will try to interface with end user customers and, presumably, how they bring sales and profits to their own organizations. These things are easy to say, but hard to do:

    • Do not depend on product reselling as your only source of profit.
    • Know your customer’s total information technology spend and be aware of how the solution fits into the end user’s environment with a view to fully “clothing” the sale.
    • Focus on solving business problems for your customer–not just selling them product.
    • Leverage the resources of your value-added distributor.
    • Focus on solutions that have a short-term return on investment.
    • Add as much service as possible; partner for skills if necessary.
    • Identify new customers and engage in marketing activities.
    • Leverage supplier programs that protect margins.
    • FOCUS! You can’t be all things to all people.
    • Know thy pipeline; know if projects are really going to be funded.

    People being people, they tend to do the things they can do, and do relatively easily, and perhaps not the harder things that they might not be able to tackle effectively but which, if completed, could lead to greater success. I know that has been the case in the several publishing businesses that I have run. You do what you can, and wish you had the resources to do the things that you know you need to do, but you can’t. Welcome to Earth, a place that companies like Google don’t have to play in right now, but they will get their turn. Fear not. Just like IBM in the 1990s and Microsoft in the 2010s.

    A company called Blueroads, which sells application software to help IT vendors better manage their channel partners, did a survey of channel partners in the fall, and found the obvious. Of those more than 1,000 vendor channel managers who focused on lead management and deal registration with their reseller partners, 62 percent of those polled said they had a revenue increase in 2008. But, this being Earth, about 80 percent of the channel investments by IT vendors dealt with tactical projects, such as partner training, partner portals, and collaboration tools–the kinds of things that better automate existing relationships between vendors and partners. But only 40 percent of the IT vendors surveyed who focused on these tactical issues said they have seen a sales bump so far this year. So the spending is in the wrong place, and it doesn’t generate money.

    Some days, an agrarian culture with localized democracy, modern medicine, and the Internet sounds like a pretty good idea to me. . . .

    Anyway, I would guess that server makers have been stuffing the channel like crazy in the third and fourth quarters, and we are going to see the distributors and downstream resellers start choking soon, giving the server makers heartburn in the first and second quarter of 2009. And by then, the bonuses will have been paid all around, and IT vendor top brass will be able to blame it all on the sluggish economy. The only problem is that resellers, most of whom are small businesses with slim margins, are going to take a lot of hits. Like losing money, losing deals, and firing employees. And that is a stupid way to run an economy–but capitalism is the best system we have, no matter how much it sucks at times like these.

    RELATED STORIES

    Imtech Buys Reseller Real Solutions for U.K. Expansion

    Reseller Mainline to Acquire Competitor Cornerstone

    Reseller Channel Sales Growth Slows in Q2, Says IDC Survey

    Sirius Expands Northeast Presence with SCS Buy

    Sirius Computer Builds Out Biz With DyComp Acquisition

    Sirius Gets Equity Investment from Thoma Cressey

    BI on Linux Gets the Attention of IBM eServer Resellers

    Partnerships! Partnerships! Partnerships!



                         Post this story to del.icio.us
                   Post this story to Digg
        Post this story to Slashdot

    Share this:

    • Reddit
    • Facebook
    • LinkedIn
    • Twitter
    • Email

    Tags: Tags: mtfh_rc, Volume 17, Number 45 -- November 24, 2008

    Sponsored by
    Krengeltech

    When it comes to consuming web APIs on your IBM i, your options often boil down to one of two things:

    First, you end up having to rely on a variety of open source and non-RPG solutions. This adds developer complexity, taking away time that could have been better spent invested in other projects. Of course, open source software is free, but generally comes at the cost of no professional support, which adds an element of risk in your production environment. RXS is completely professionally supported, and is complemented by a staff of trained IBM i developers who can address your nuanced development challenges, head on.

    Second, if you choose not to pursue an open-source solution, you’re often left having to shake up your current program architecture with proprietary software, external dependencies, and partial RPG implementations – many of which are sub-par compared to RPG-XML Suite’s wide range of features. RXS aims to simplify the efforts of developers with tools like code generators, useful commands, and subprocedures written in 100% RPG – no Java. Because they are entirely RPG, the RXS subprocedures are easy to add to new or existing ILE programs and architecture, helping to cut your development time. RPG-XML Suite offers powerful capabilities in an accessible, easy-to-implement format.

    With RPG-XML Suite, you can accomplish a variety of complex tasks, such as:

    • Calling REST and SOAP web services from your IBM i
    • Offering APIs from your IBM i
    • Creating JSON & XML
    • Parsing JSON & XML
    • Text manipulation, Base64 encoding/decoding, CCSID handling, hashing and encryption functions, and more.

    To try RXS for yourself, we recommend a free proof of concept, which not only gives you access to all of RPG-XML Suite’s subprocedures and utilities but also includes a tailor-made software demonstration that can be used as a starting point for your future API implementations.

    For a free proof of concept, contact us at sales@krengeltech.com, or visit our website for more information.

    Share this:

    • Reddit
    • Facebook
    • LinkedIn
    • Twitter
    • Email

    Admin Alert: When Batch Meets Interactive How Big Blue Sees Small You

    Leave a Reply Cancel reply

TFH Volume: 17 Issue: 45

This Issue Sponsored By

    Table of Contents

    • IBM’s Transitive Buy Presents Interesting Server Options
    • Midrange Shops Not As Protected from Disaster As They Think, Vision Finds
    • Public Safety Works on Information Sharing, May Go for SaaS
    • As I See It: Final Options
    • As Rumored, IBM Tweaks i Development Tool Bundle
    • ChangeWave Plots a ‘Historic Collapse’ in IT Spending
    • IBM Kills Off Power5+ System i Boxes
    • The Pressure Is On Server Resellers, Big Time
    • Maintenance Expert ServIT Partners with Data Center Provider
    • WebSphere Marketeer Writes the Book on Marketing 2.0

    Content archive

    • The Four Hundred
    • Four Hundred Stuff
    • Four Hundred Guru

    Recent Posts

    • IBM i 7.3 TR12: The Non-TR Tech Refresh
    • IBM i Integration Elevates Operational Query and Analytics
    • Simplified IBM i Stack Bundling Ahead Of Subscription Pricing
    • More Price Hikes From IBM, Now For High End Storage
    • Big Blue Readies Power10 And IBM i 7.5 Training for Partners
    • IBM Delivers More Out-of-the-Box Security with IBM i 7.5
    • Groundhog Day For Malware
    • IBM i Community Reacts to IBM i 7.5
    • Four Hundred Monitor, May 11
    • IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 24, Number 19

    Subscribe

    To get news from IT Jungle sent to your inbox every week, subscribe to our newsletter.

    Pages

    • About Us
    • Contact
    • Contributors
    • Four Hundred Monitor
    • IBM i PTF Guide
    • Media Kit
    • Subscribe

    Search

    Copyright © 2022 IT Jungle

    loading Cancel
    Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
    Email check failed, please try again
    Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.