Creating and driving a Cloud and IoT digital business entails building a solid subscription-based monthly recurring revenue friendly business model, while running and growing your legacy business. It’s not an either or situation, you must do both… This requires pig-headed determination and commitment. Every time the word commitment is mentioned within ear shot, I always think of one of my favorite fables. The Tale The business parable of “The Chicken and the Pig” is all abo

Too many IT Channel Partners find themselves on the tracks! The biggest reason is that getting on the train requires a serious commitment of time, energy and resources to begin the journey to the subscription-based economy. Oh yeah, this is the first time we’ve required a major business model change in this industry in my lifetime and I’ve been around this business for over three (3) decades. In short change is hard, and nobody ever wants to change without a serious catalyst

I’ve been doing a great deal of work lately guiding Solution Providers and VAR’ into to the cloud and as you can imagine it’s a difficult and tedious process that can be gut wrenching for many organizations. In addition, my eyes were just opened a little wider when I attended Channel Partners (@Chanel_Online) recent Channel Partners Expo (@CloudPartners) in Boston. I’ve been in the channel for over twenty-five (25) years and had never attended an event that was primarily fo

While performing automated Cloud Readiness Assessments for value added resellers (VAR’) and Solution Providers utilizing an innovative Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) decision support platform we’ve uncovered some solid trends that I believe every business leader should know prior to creating a strategic cloud services business within their existing business. It is important to understand the intent of our activities are to clearly know the actual readiness and ability of the VA

KloudReadiness' businesstrakker SaaS platform is designed to help Vendors and Distributors determine their Partners current cloud posture and business readiness to ensure you know which Partners can successfully drive cloud services sales and produce results today. We capture all the major elements and decision points that need to be weighed and vetted prior to a decision to invest are known so that your sales, marketing and engineering enablement activities create the desire

It’s true - we are all being disrupted, and we think it’s the Cloud or the Internet of Things (IoT), but in reality it’s our customers and prospects who are disrupting our businesses. The cold hard truth is that they prefer to consume IT Services these days by the glass - our culture is just plain getting used to paying for things monthly and it’s affecting all of us. I know that most of us are not seeing a cataclysmic shift just yet, however, be assured the shift is happeni

The next wave of technology is upon us – the Internet of Things (IoT) is coming fast and furious and all of the talk is turning to action. Wow, you’ve just barely started to figure out what you’re going to do in the Cloud and now this! What’s a technology service provider to do? Well, first and foremost it’s to ensure you’re going to be a player in the Cloud Service arena. Without a play in Cloud you’ll be hard pressed to take advantage of the IoT explosion based on the sp

It’s not quite as dramatic or as clearly evident as the Great Land Rush of 1893, however the Great Cloud Land Grab is well underway. What you ask is The Great Cloud Land Grab – I define it as the great rush that’s underway to capture the hearts and minds of VAR’ and IT Solution Providers (ITSP) by the legacy vendors and distributors who rely heavily on their channel partners to produce an inordinate amount of their sales. The funny thing is that not many of the participants

It’s true – you’ll need to alter your sales model to make a dent in the recurring revenue and cloud services space to exploit the enormous opportunity unfolding in front of us. Unfortunately, many organizations have experienced many fits and starts as they wade towards the right model. In the words of the late great Yogi Berra, it’s déjà vu all over again! Think of how many times we try and then re-try the same old approach, from the same old playbook. Tell me this does no

In a recurring revenue world… There are two (2) reasons I feel comfortable making that statement. Reason #1 – you’ve most likely taken your tried and true transactional based sales plan, dusted it off and perhaps altered it slightly - that’s a Bozo No-No (look up the video, hilarious)… Reason #2 is the plan no matter how good the mechanics and intentions are, it will not incent your sales professionals to alter their modus operandi. Think about it - would you give up the

Now let me start by saying that revenue, profit and cash flow are the ultimate measurements that validate how you are truly doing as a business – the ultimate scorecard, if you will. In this brief I want to highlight and explore some supporting metrics that tend to get either overlooked or are not part of an organizations day-to-day dialog. Business Valuation and Worth Now if you’re not considering building out your monthly recurring revenue (MRR) capabilities to enhance you

The right sales plan plays a vital role in achieving sustainable and growing revenue for any business. As an organization transitions to a recurring revenue approach, the right sales compensation program becomes even more crucial. The information and views outlined here are the result of two years of analyzing hundreds of sales plans, identifying the underlying issues that, if avoided, can lead to a functional recurring services sales plan that works. Implementing a recurring

It is traumatic to lose what once was… Whether that be a loved one, a cherished pet or that great pair of blue jeans – it’s an undesired change and in some cases truly life changing. Many VAR’, IT Solution Providers (ITSP’) and Managed Service Providers (MSP’) are grappling with how to deal with the grief associated with having to cope with a dying business model. It seemed like the endless streams of capital expenditures (CAPEX) would never end. It’s hard to believe that

It’s a Twelve (12) Month Journey to become a solid Cloud Service Provider… With Pubic Cloud spend accelerating to $216B by 2020 and the urgency level rising for value added resellers (VAR’), IT Solution Providers (ITSP’) and managed service providers (MSP’) to truly add sustainable monthly recurring revenue (MRR) to their overall business mix. It’s critical to make the move to address the market shift that’s well underway and heading up and to the right. But in order to expl

A Prescription for a Good Night’s Sleep Whether you are a Channel Sales Leader or on the Leadership Team of a VAR, ITSP or MSP-like business the prescriptive approach briefly outlined below is both relevant and practical. Many of the remedies will go over like a fart in church because change does not taste good, however, I bet Digital Equipment, Blockbuster Video and Kodak would have taken large gulps of the transformation “castor oil” had they realized that their world was

Finding the perfect Channel Cloud Partner Oh they do exist, but they are hard to find and even when you do find them you’re immediately struck by the fact that there are not enough of them to make an impact and deliver your, now all too real, monthly recurring and cloud numbers,,, Channel Sales Leader Night Sweats Your mind wanders as you drive to your next appointment or perhaps its late night and you’re in the midst of a dream - either way you’ve seen the vision – the perfe

Seldom is a Business worth what we think It’s the hard truth that most leaders of value added resellers (VAR’s), IT Solution Providers (ITSP’s) and Managed Service Providers (MSP’) fail to acknowledge and then ultimately underestimate the disruption being caused by customers increasing preference to consume all things IT on a monthly basis, whether that be traditional managed services, digital transformational services (IoT) and the cloud. For the remainder of this piece I’l

The obstacles value-added resellers, IT solution providers and managed service providers face is margin compression and a shift to subscription-based cloud computing models. Many of the old profit pools are shrinking and you are under immense pressure to sustain your blended gross margin objectives if you’re leading a channel company. Over the years, you’ve become very adept at holding your operating expenses (OPEX) in check and you’ve probably squeezed the buffalo to the po

for VAR’, IT Solution Providers and Managed Service Providers On a frigid and foggy Christmas Eve, a shrewd, hardworking, good-spirited businessperson named Vincent Andrew Reseller, his friends used to call him VAR, works meticulously in his counting-house. Outside the office creaks a little sign reading "Legacy ITSP & MSP" - Jacob Marley, Reseller's business partner, has died seven years previous. Inside the office, Reseller watches over his CFO, a poor diminutive man named

You’ve made it through another tough year – the subscription-based economy only put a small dent in your core business. You feel the pressure mounting and just like the farmers of the agricultural era – you need more children to plant, nourish and harvest the new crops necessary for survival. Baby New Year 2018 is that new subscription-based baby that you need to add to the family. The birth of a new business within the business will ensure you’ll be able to thrive and pros