Panel: Hurdles In Path To New IT Provide Channel Opportunities

The road from legacy solutions to new IT is not without challenges, but those challenges may provide real business opportunities for solution providers, according to IT executives.

During a panel at the Women of the Channel Summit in New York, Dimension Data Senior Vice President Chris Wolff detailed the issues around the transition to cloud and software-based solutions.

’[Customers] wanted subscription services, they wanted our back offices to support their subscriptions as well as their inventory of assets that they owned, and we really struggled with that, quite honestly,’ Wolff said.

’It’s causing us quite a bit of heartburn, and we’re one of the better companies doing this,’ she added.

Carbonite Vice President Jessica Couto said her company faces challenges in the way different generations approach technology.

’I think it’s been a learning curve for everybody, both the new generation coming in learning how the older generation thinks, and vice versa,’ she said.

Oracle Vice President Valerie Singer said that the challenges among both legacy companies and born-in-the-cloud companies present ’a tremendous opportunity for the partner community to help fill in the gaps.’