This month I had the honor of being featured in BSM Info’s June 2015 Tech Trends: Solving The Enterprise Vs. SMB BDR Sales Dilemma by Jay McCall. The article focused on the different IT infrastructure needs that SMBs and Enterprises have and included insights from Carbonite, MAXfocus Backup, Unitrends, and Vembu.
What I find most interesting about this article is the validation it provides that the IT landscape is in fact shifting in favor of giving SMBs what will make them most successful: open availability to enterprise-grade technology and managed services without the enterprise price tag.
Technological advancements are growing exponentially and the ability for all businesses to maintain integrity of their stored data is crucial to their business continuity. It is both unreasonable and irresponsible of the IT community to limit the true potential of emerging businesses by offering non-scalable sub-par solutions at high prices.
This topic becomes really interesting when you focus on integrated BDR solutions. Your average SMB doesn’t have the knowledge or expertise to understand their IT needs. With so much legacy software diluting the BDR space it is up to MSPs and VARs to maintain that integrity and it is up to the vendors to deliver products for the SMB of today.
The article in BSM proves a point; how MSPs define their market and react is what will dictate their bottom line. In tomorrow’s climate of scalable, automated infrastructure and the inevitable decline of the workforce, the only way MSPs will survive is to make themselves an invaluable asset. Read that as “value added resellers.”
What’s my take? How I see the channel
SMBs need the channel, but in today’s climate we want the channel to add more value. The channel has to ask every small business, “what is the value I am bringing onto the table?”
Instead of making profits through reselling margins, offering services or through brokerage, the channel needs to start offering value added services (eg. support, consultation, installation). Being solely dependent on reselling is not a sustainable business model.
What makes Vembu channel friendly?
Vembu creates a channel friendly environment by making our products highly affordable and in some cases free for SMBs. By making our products affordable, resellers have more room for profit margins and more space to grow their own business.
Our partner program, when paired with our pricing model, is one great example of how we give back to the channel. We strongly believe in giving our partners the opportunity to succeed by supporting their business goals through road shows, hands on lab sessions and other co-marketed events.
It is exciting to see how quickly the future of IT is unfolding, and how vendors, SMBs and service providers alike are responding to this type of rapid change. As a company, Vembu is is on the forefront of that change and I am proud to be an advocate.
If you have questions about our partner program, please feel free to mail us.
