Hanging Together

The IT market consists of a plethora of point products that must be integrated to create useful solutions. But the process associated with this creation is fairly inefficient, which creates the opportunity for companies such as Dell to sell directly to customers who are frustrated by the process of acquiring products through resellers and integrators.

If the channel process becomes more efficient, the opportunity for vendors to go direct should be reduced. In an ideal world, solution providers should be able to provide more custom offerings that are more economical and tailored specifically for the job at hand. One big problem, however, is that just finding the solution provider with the right expertise is not a straightforward process.

But there is hope in the form of two different ASPs. The first is Channel Intelligence, which points buyers to resellers that have in stock the particular item they are seeking. Among the vendors using Channel Intelligence are ViewSonic, Hewlett-Packard, Lexmark, Maxtor, NetGear, Watchguard, Tripp Lite, D-Link, Raxco and Extreme Networks.

As the service begins to gain critical mass, an interesting possibility starts to manifest itself. Customers will be able to use the service to configure and purchase from a single reseller a solution spanning multiple vendors. In effect, a solution combining the best products from multiple vendors will soon be as easy to configure as, say, a single-vendor offering from Dell.

The second service, called Group Intelligence, shares best practices associated with configuring, installing and integrating software solutions. For people in the channel, Group Intelligence, which has relationships with IBM, Sun and AT&T, serves as a resource that can significantly lower the costs associated with delivering a solution in a given vertical market.

What both services have in common is that they leverage business intelligence tools to make the channel more efficient. And therein lies the lesson: Business intelligence tools allow the channel to hang together, without which solution providers will surely hang separately.

Are you listening? Do you agree? I can be reached at (516) 562-7477 or via e-mail at [email protected].