Wireless Roulette

Many of these companies have invested millions of dollars in creating innovative products with huge potential benefits for businesses. But they lack a compelling, committed and sustainable channel vision aimed at driving their products into businesses. It's amazing how long and hard the investors and executives behind these startups often labor over new product features and functionality,compared with how little time and effort they spend putting together a long-term channel business plan.

New technology product players that lack a multiyear channel road map funded and backed by the very top of the company are doomed to fail. And solution providers anxious to play in this fast-growth market that don't put these wireless hotshots through a rigorous set of channel metrics aimed at weeding out the bad and the ugly from the good are playing wireless roulette.

Among the criteria that solution providers should consider are the size of the channel budget, the presence of a channel chief that reports to the CEO, the company's head count for channel field reps, a pro-channel compensation policy for cases in which the vendor employs a direct-sales force, a partner advisory council with regularly scheduled meetings, partner events and a sustained commitment to inform and influence channel partners.

Thomas Gobeille, president and CEO of Network Computing Architects (NCA), an 11-year-old solution provider in Bellevue, Wash., said he receives about five calls per day from vendors anxious for NCA to take on new products. He makes vendors fill out a rigorous application that includes channel commitment questions and financial measures,including cash in the bank and burn rate.

Gobeille, who recently partnered with Aventail in the fast-growing SSL VPN market, said he needs to be careful. "We have seen a lot of business cycles, and we have seen a lot of people come and go," he said. "We are very protective of our customer relationships. They trust us."

Solution providers that don't follow his example and instead choose to be blinded by technology will get badly burned in the high-stakes wireless world.

How do you evaluate new vendor partners? Let me know at (781) 839-1221 or via e-mail at [email protected].