I started my career in the late ’90s with a small tech firm partnering with OEMs like HP, Microsoft, Adobe, etc. It was a fascinating view into how these large companies had developed an extended sales and service team through a network of partners.
While the world is changing from on-premises technologies to SaaS-based solutions, the role of partners also has changed accordingly. From being a fulfillment of products and services in some cases, the partner ecosystem has matured into an extended consulting and tech services arm for most of the OEMs.
With a whole new generation of companies – AWS, Snowflakes, Automation Anywhere, Workday, Service Now, Salesforce, to Uber, Spotify, Swiggy, Zomato, Flipkart, and Byju’s of the world, the way we consume has changed, be it technology, food, music, education or any other commodity. One common thing among all these businesses is the partner ecosystem.
With technology evolving at a rapid pace, here are some of the changes that have elevated the importance of partners in driving business and contributing to the overall success of businesses worldwide.
Some of the key trends that will drive further change are as follows
- Digital transformation will largely be driven by a strong partner ecosystem
- Consulting and services will become the primary approach to business than just fulfillment
- OEMs will outsource a significant portion of service/deployment capability to partners
- SME and Mid-Market will primarily be addressed by partners as more and more OEMs try to capture a larger market share
- Go – To – Market strategies will have partners as one of the key pillars for success
- Small to mid-size businesses will leverage the partner ecosystem to expand business
- With Cloud becoming the backbone of the infrastructure, focusing on establishing the value proposition of any solution will have partners play an important role
- Partners will own the customer experience and their success
- Partners will be able to create a sustainable business over a period of time
I can only imagine the opportunities that lie in front of us. Each time I put a plan in place at work, the first thing that comes to my mind is partners.
- How do I create a scalable model to achieve growth?
- How do I become customer-centric?
- What are some of the best practices to drive customer satisfaction?
- What does transformation really look like for an individual/customer?
The answer lies in the ecosystem that we will be able to create, and partners will be at the center of it.
More Power to Partners!
