At A Higher Level

That pretty much sums up what takes place in the channel each and every day. The vendors want data to identify their most effective routes to market. Solution providers mistrust the motives of the vendors, and they have no real incentive to cooperate because they worry that vendors simply want the information to take their customers direct.

The end result is that vendors come up with sales strategies that are heavily influenced by a mere subset of their overall transactions. And, not too surprisingly, large swaths of the channel wind up feeling even more alienated.

A lot of vendors are trying to improve their overall market intelligence by deploying more sophisticated systems for tracking sales. Hewlett-Packard, for example, is working with InfoNow to track sales data. Nortel has deployed a partner relationship management (PRM) application from Blue Roads. Meanwhile, Research In Motion has a PRM application in place from ChannelWave.

While all these efforts are well-meaning, the deployment of any single application by any one vendor is not likely to allay the fears of solution providers. In fact, it may very well exacerbate them. Worse yet, most vendors are doing next to nothing in terms of building sophisticated intelligence systems.

That's why there is a need for distributors to step up and fill the intelligence void.

As third parties with a vested interest in vendors and solution providers, distributors should be the ones that manage PRM systems on behalf of the high-tech channel as a whole. It's a unique opportunity for distributors to add value on both sides of the transaction equation. And, more importantly, the activity would be managed by entities that solution providers could trust with efforts such as deal registration.

The question here is whether distributors, working with their key vendor partners, have the courage and the funds to finally take the channel into the information age.

Do you have market intelligence to share? I can be reached at (516) 562-7477 or via e-mail at [email protected].