GreenPages CEO Dupler: The Channel Wins By Providing Clarity, Helping Clients Chart A Course Forward

Finding success in the IT channel is about change management, says GreenPages CEO Ron Dupler, and solution providers are the ones responsible for facilitating a rapidly-changing world.

That was Dupler's parting message to his fellow IT leaders Tuesday evening, when he made the closing markets at The Channel Company's 2017 Best of Breed conference in Atlanta.

"We win by providing clarity, and we win by helping them chart a course forward -- helping them deal with change management, moving from Point A to Point B," Dupler said. "It's about digital transformation, not technology, helping legacy folks break the bonds of old IT and move into the modern world."

[Related: Three Leadership Lessons From Thundercat CEO Tom Deierlein, A Former U.S. Army Major ]

Speed will also be a key element of the channel's success, Dupler said, noting that the faster solution providers can help their customers transform, the more interesting the dialogue becomes. The world is in the midst of a digital transformation revolution where IT has become "the business," he said -- one that has disrupted established industries that had done business the same way for decades.

"We're living in transformative times in human history. We've lived through an IT revolution that started with computing helping to do jobs in the physical world more effectively," Dupler said.

Deep learning, artificial intelligence, automation and robotics all stand to profoundly reshape society within the next 10 to 20 years, he added.

Despite the confusion and complexity the entire channel is being forced to navigate, Dupler emphasized that the difficulty underscores just how vital IT has become to the success of all businesses.

"Our clients are trying to figure out how to sort through all of this and move quickly themselves," he said. "There's never been a better time to be a strategic service provider in the industry."

Dupler also thanked the speakers who attended Best of Breed this week, which included Dell EMC's Michael Dell, HPE's Meg Whitman, VMware's Pat Gelsinger and Docker's Steve Singh.