Ajay Goel, Managing Director, India & SAARC, Symantec writes about how solution providers should go about positioning themselves as trusted advisors to small and medium businesses
Small businesses globally, are today a significant contributor to economic growth. SMBs in India are also capitalizing on opportunities for expansion and diversification across various sectors. According to the SME Chamber of India, there are approximately 30 million MSME Units in India, whose contribution towards GDP in 2011 was 17% which is expected to increase to 22% by 2012. The role of technology in fueling business growth is integral as emerging technologies are continuously vying for the attention of organizations. In this context, a channel partner who is often the first point of contact for guidance on technology adoption, needs to be updated and knowledgeable about the fast evolving world of emerging technologies.
A growing need for information management and higher operational efficiency has fueled the demand for IaaS (Infrastructure-as-a-Service) amongst SMBs. Small and medium businesses in India are gradually becoming more aware of and interested in data storage/backup, servers and virus protection, spam filtering or other security solutions, according to AMI’s study 2011 India SMB State of the Cloud Market Overview. SMB customers who are considering adopting technologies like cloud and virtualization require expert advice on its deployment and will look up to partners for technical advice and support.
SMBs are using the Internet for several business purposes like marketing, customer communication, financial transactions, internal communications, etc. With limited IT infrastructure and unskilled staff, these organizations are vulnerable to attacks from cyber criminals who are constantly finding new ways to seal information. Information as an integral asset contributes to the business continuity of SMBs and no SMB can afford to lose its information. These companies are now equipped with laptops, handheld devices, carrying confidential business data on them at all times. Mobile workforce, increasing usage of social networking for business purposes and employees participating in social networking activities at work, leads to enhanced business risks. Therefore, information protection is a major concern amongst SMBs and for this they require the latest solutions, technologies that can protect their information from cyber criminals.
How do partners ensure, that they are prepared to meet the expectations and requirements from their SMB customers? It is now imperative for channel partners to consider increasing their knowledge and awareness as it is directly related to new business opportunities and better customer satisfaction.
SMBs tend to align themselves with one trusted vendor, than multiple vendor relationships for business challenges. In a competitive and evolving market do partners have the requisite knowledge and expertise to be their customers trusted advisor? How can partners ensure that they meet customer demands appropriately and sustain their customer base in the long-term?
The true value that partners can bring to their customers is providing IT solutions that solve business problems, not just selling them products. Partners must strive to make themselves even more valuable to their SMB customers by deepening their solutions expertise. To achieve this, they must invest in training and accreditation that strengthen their knowledge. This consequently enables partners to deliver more complete solutions to SMB customers and maximizing sales opportunities. SMB specialization in particular, make it easier for partners to increase their revenue by fulfilling the unique needs of SMBs in terms of IT infrastructure and expertise. It provides partners with the skills and experience needed to differentiate themselves from their competition and drive greater revenue by tailoring their services and support to these companies.
A channel partner today is looked upon as a trusted source on what is the latest technology trend driving the industry, the right vendor to partner with and to facilitate the buying decision process. SMB specialization will help them stay relevant to the demands of SMBs. This goes a long way in building customer relationships, as well as increasing business opportunities.
As their SMB customers seek information and clarity on emerging technology trends, the channel partner needs to be equipped, and trained to be an expert. Partners play a very important role throughout the sales cycle of acquisition, installation, setup, maintenance and also customization where necessary. It’s vital that they possess the required the required expertise and accordingly customize their product offerings so that, when their customers approach them with their specific and unique needs, they are in a position to address them adequately. Subsequently, partners will need broader business portfolios and the right mix of technology offerings to generate greater revenues.
Increased awareness helps the partner to have the relevant knowledge and expertise, which in turn can be leveraged to stay ahead of competition. It is therefore important that partners get sincere on training and strive for the appropriate accreditation. Every solution provider should see themselves as a trusted advisor and position themselves that way in the eyes of their customers.
