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"The whole world is moving to influence, while reselling still happens," said Watson in her first channel interview in months.
Watson leads one of the largest, if not the largest, ecosystem of solution providers, ISVs and software developers in the entire channel. She's been absent from the public stage for months, but actively working on propelling the Microsoft channel to its next era, and has earned the support of Kevin Turner, Microsoft chief operating officer. One of the more perplexing problems she's found is this entire issue of what the next generation will look like and how to build channel programs that they'll embrace.
All this year, the VARBusiness Channel 2.0 project has been exploring the evolution of the channel over the next five years. The way Watson sees it, two channels will operate in parallel: the traditional reseller/solution provider channel and the new breed that acts more as influencers and evangelists of technology and services.
"Traditional VARs may be relegated to the back room because [companies] need to cut costs and they don't add value," she said. "We have an entire generation of young, smart people who have skipped this entire generation of infrastructure."
Think about it: The evolution of services isn't just about remote management of infrastructure; it's also the delivery of applications. Reflecting on Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's remarks that Vista would be the last major software launch, Watson explained that software vendors have to become more agile, providing upgrades and feature sets as they become available. The advent of software-as-a-service makes those updates more transparent to the end user.
Following last year's unveiling of Microsoft Live services at the Microsoft Partner Conference in Boston, many asked what role solution providers would play in delivering services. Even though Microsoft showed three paths to market -- reselling, referring and direct -- traditional solution providers didn't see the immediate connection to their existing businesses. Following Watson's thinking, it's probably because there is not a connection yet.
Just as Saleforce.com is demonstrating that software-as-a-service still requires the support and collaboration of the ISV community, Watson sees a new class of solution provider that will enable and support software services through purchase influencing, configuration management and add-on support.
One of Watson's prime missions is finding ways to build the programs within the Microsoft channel to support these new upstarts. But what about the existing channel base? "The good ones will be as busy as they've ever been," Watson said, mostly since the need for product sales and support isn't going away. A key difference between the VAR of today and the solution provider of tomorrow is the approach to the customer. Since the advent of the channel, solution providers have evolved from simple resellers, to the developer of systems, to the deliverer of services, and now to managed services.
The constant of the channel is responding to customer problems and pain points, or a reactionary model. The future channel, Watson agreed, means helping customers better understand their businesses and enabling them to grow. As entrepreneur advocate Karl Schramm of the Kaufman Foundation said, "When everyone has access to the same technology, the technology has no value."
The challenge for the channel as it transits this evolutionary period is making technology a competitive advantage for their customers.
"We need to leave customers' pain points and focus on customers' gain points," Watson said.
Are you a part of the channel's next generation? Are you evolving your reseller business for a future of influence and service support? I want to hear your stories; send me your thoughts and experiences at lwalsh@cmp.com.
Channel 2.0: The Second Life Experience
Don't forget to join me for my first virtual channel town hall in Second Life, May 15, at noon ET. Hosted by Cisco Systems, the discussion in this 3D world will focus on how the channel is evolving, what the new paths to market are for solution providers and alternative mediums for finding and interacting with customers.
For those already registered on Second Life, just click here to be teleported to the event. For those new to Second Life, go to www.secondlife.com to register and download the client software.
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