Devendra Taneja, Director, PC Solutions believes that in order to remain relevant, partners will have to choose technology niches and build practices along with creating IPs in the specific domains
What’s the direction for PC Solutions as an organization in 2018?
From 2018 onwards, we shall have great thrust to consolidate all our pure play Cloud offering, including IaaS, SaaS, PaaS, and other services and solutions under a new group/division catering to the customers in this domain and all these services will be offered on a subscription/services consumption model.
Additionally, cybersecurity, IoT solutions, and Big Data analytics are going to see aggressive investments for building customer base.
How do you envisage the role of partners evolving with the changing market dynamics?
To remain relevant in the next two to three years, partners will have to choose technology niches and build practices along with creating IPs in the specific domains. Over three years, there should emerge partners with proven industry specific solutions and practices backed by IPs created.
Meanwhile, the space for me-do-all partners will shrink as customers are more and more seeking outcome in their business from solutions/technology offered.
What sort of efforts being put to build capabilities and skill-sets of your internal team?
Reskilling of internal resources and creation of focused groups along the lines of solutions are the primary initiatives that we undertake for the internal team. Simultaneously, we emphasize a lot on quality external hiring so that we are quickly able to bridge gaps in our core focus areas.
How much support do you receive from OEMs / vendors in your bid to be market-ready? Is there any specific channel program being run as part of hand-holding?
Swift changes in technology landscape has left OEMs too with no choice but to change internally as well as the desired partner ecosystem. Transformation from owning the IT to consuming offered solution at customer end is forcing OEMs to change their stand from treat all partners equal to bet bigger on likely winners. Here, partners are likely to survive the onslaught of market changes. OEMs are engaging with potential partners by creating partner specific program too.
Are we going to see any fundamental structural changes in the channel structure?
Yes, in the two to three years’ time horizon, channel is likely to be technology aligned and further down, towards market vertical aligned.
What are your expectations from the vendors / OEMs?
1. Understand and acknowledge that new solutions sales cycles involve longer run of PoCs and Pilots, hence, deeper and longer hand holding of partners is required. If possible, build programs to reward partners for successful POC/Pilot runs.
2. A healthy double-digit percentage margins for partners who are offering solutions and services on consumption model.
3. Strongly discourage partners from selling on price discounting practices.
