01732 759725 VOX POP 32 ...continued of Concepts, taking into account previous case studies, and for partners that are working on future-proofing their business with next-generation technologies. “Providers should showcase new technologies to their clients and be clear on future roadmaps that can help clients move forwards, e.g. do they want to look at AI, will it help, what about video, how will allowing mobile working impact the business and how will you deliver applications to team members working from home? “BYOD and security policies are all services that need to be thought about before the move is signed off at board level – simple elements that are sometimes overlooked.” Richard Blundell, IT Services Divisional Director, Commercial Group . “Oh yes, so much more. They need to get over their giant monolith image and find more effective ways to engage with core VARs. We still struggle to get their attention despite being a rapidly expanding Managed Services player. The Cloud is a scary and daunting environment for some businesses to engage with, and they need to offer comfort. “There’s probably also still some concern from businesses about how secure their data is in the public Cloud – that needs looking at too.” Dean McGlone, Director, Advanced . “Support on the business side of things is important. Large software developers have highly experienced CFOs and teams of finance analysts to help them plan and navigate the transition to cloud. In comparison, smaller resellers may not have this level of resource, so providing Salespeople will always sell the product most likely to earn them more commission Having developed a successful IT outsourcing formula, MH-IT is looking for ICT partners to market its services and provide local account management in the UK. MH-IT was founded by Dutch entrepreneur Michel Heinst, who for the last four years has been based in Bulgaria. He started out selling computer hardware and software and has now expanded into services, including remote management of workplaces, onsite installations, migration processes, application management and software development. Heinst argues that outsourcing such services to Bulgarian specialists makes perfect sense for UK SMEs and government organisations that are finding it hard to recruit affordable and knowledgeable staff locally. He said: “Not only are personnel costs lower, but Bulgaria also has a high level of IT training, especially in the capital Sofia, partly because more female students follow ICT programs than in Western Europe and the USA. Global players such as HPE, VMware, SAP and Ingram Micro have benefited for years from the wide availability of highly trained Bulgarian IT staff.” Heinst adds that for its target market of SMEs and small government organisations, MH-IT provides more flexibility and a better price-quality ratio than large, established cloud companies that tend to focus on larger customers. “Large cloud companies only rent out a piece of hardware; support must be purchased additionally, at very high rates. Moreover, customers’ own applications are not supported by these cloud companies at all, and that requires another partner,” he said. “Incidentally, for our Bulgarian solution, it doesn’t matter whether the hardware is on the customer’s side, in a cloud like Azure, AWS or Google, or in our own hosting center with the latest server products from HPE, Dell, Lenovo and Cisco.” www.mh-it.eu •
[email protected] IT services provider based in Bulgaria seeks UK partners to resell its services and provide local onsite management support on business planning to identify the upside is critical. “Resellers generate revenue from delivering services around the implementation of solutions. For this reason, vendors must ensure they have strong training and onboarding support for their partners, with the focus on aiding the reseller to become self-sufficient as quickly as they can, while delivering quality services that reflect well on the vendor solution and reseller services.” Gareth Meyer, Director, Ultima . “Training and Enablement is required across the channel. While some resellers are taking advantage of the sales and technical collateral available, these offerings are not widely known about and more could be done by both Vendors and Distribution to promote them. Account mapping sessions are extremely beneficial; vendors could do more of these focusing on building relationships with reseller sales teams to better identify the opportunities in existing accounts to deliver cloud services specific to industry demands.” Mark Bamford, General Manager, Hollis Technology . “It is important that manufacturers and distributors are set up to deliver fast and responsive technical support to resellers and their end-user customers that rely on cloud services to operate key business processes.“ Tim Mercer, CEO , Vapour Cloud . “Of course they could. In the world of data and hardware sales, there should be a more proactive solution with network providers, which is why we are working hard with Dell/EMC on a solution for our partners that includes the hardware, software and network sale, all managed in a way outlined in my answer to the first question. “There are also considerations to make surrounding how we pay salespeople selling the service. Unless salespeople are commissioned differently, they will always sell the product most likely to earn them more commission. Bold, but true. “This goes back to the education piece I mentioned earlier, and the need to focus on what’s best for the client. In essence, we should be working harder with both vendors and distributors to deliver the right solution, with a focus on outcomes. To truly deliver that right solution, you must first understand what a business wants and when and why they need to change. We have a role to advise on whether the change is right for the business and which piece of the jigsaw to complete first.“ Could vendors and distributors do more to help resellers sell Cloud services and, if so, what? Mark Bamford Bulgaria calling