Shweta Thakare, Senior Assistant Vice President, MicroWorld Software Services shares the company’s channel strategies for 2020
What have been the key highlights of 2019 and how do you see 2020 to be shaping up as important year for the IT channel industry?
The key highlight for MicroWorld in the year that passed by was definitely taking the next step in the domain of cybersecurity. We went on to become one of the few cybersecurity providers who can furnish businesses with a solution that can help business continuity and compliance at the same time and we achieved that with our newest solution Nemasis, which is a vulnerability management solution. In the last year, we also managed to take Nemasis internationally and now are armed to cater to businesses across the globe and help them form a stringent security policy that they would like to employ in the fight against cyber-attacks.
This year is going to be a vital one when it comes to the advancements that we see in the field of technology. This year might as well define the decade that follows since, at its conclusion we might see some major breakthroughs happening in the IT sector which can change the way we use and perceive technology. Consequently, it is going to be an important year for the channel industry as well since they have to adjust to the changing tide of the IT industry and make sure they earn repeated profits by understanding the technology well and servicing the customer in a better way.
Can you point out top three technology trends which the channel community should be betting on and why?
With the kind of advancements taking place in the technology sector a lot of new and improved technologies come to the mind. However, the two foremost technologies that stand out would be Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT).
Artificial intelligence has succeeded in a big way and given this success we can soon find the technology making its way into various business processes. Manufacturing of goods, scheduling of services or distribution of products can all be done with the help of AI. IoT is another technology that has seen a steep rise in recent time and is slated to make the end customer’s life a lot easier. Due to this manual checkouts could soon be a thing of the past and we could see more sensor and vision-based technologies making their way into our environment. Finally, we feel that proactive security is also another trend that can rise at the rate of knots. As humans we are on the brink of a world that is driven by various technologies, it is only a matter of time that threat actors would look to exploit these technologies. To counter this we could see several technology vendors and manufacturers indulging in proactive security to fortify their physical products that may find their way into our houses and offices. Data of any sort is going to be of the highest value and proactive cybersecurity would be the way to secure it.
All of these technologies would need to reach the end customer and the channel would be the most appropriate medium which could spread the message on such technologies being in the market could be spread as well as servicing the end customer in person would become even more important.
Please list out the top channel directions which your company has set for its partners and where should partners invest to be aligned to these directions?
We have always taken pride in the strength of our channel and we consider them as an extended family without whom our success would always be incomplete. We take special efforts in understanding the pain points of our partners while devising the annual channel strategy. We ensure top partner support to meet their queries and brief them on new and updated versions of our solutions.
We also have a referral and loyalty program in place through which our partners can receive incentives and rewards. We also plan to use the channel as a medium through which we can create awareness for the masses on the need for cybersecurity. To be aligned to all of these, the channel partners need to get in touch with us and enrol themselves as a listed member of our channel team. Our internal teams would then educate them and enlighten them on the perils that exist in the digital ecosystem and how they can be avoided or mitigated through our futuristic solutions. We can further address their pain points and aide them with knowledge and strategy to tackle their issues and emerge with profits above their expectations.
