FUTURE TECHNOLOGY
value added distributor, points out, “The
bigger driver is individuals seeking an
introduction to the world of cybersecurity,
as a result of which we see interest in
Foundational Training courses. The
availability of a training budget is a
dominant inhibitor and a sense of urgency
to complete the training is another.”
According to Anuj Jain, Director of
Services, StarLink, a security value added
distributor, “Some of the main inhibitors
are a lack of budget for user training and
a lack of awareness on local knowledge-
based resources provided by vendors.”
64 per cent of
respondents in
a global study,
carried out by
the Technical
University of
Munich and
SAP, felt that
their company’s
personnel did
not possess the
skills necessary
for successful
digital
transformation.
Chris Gale, EMEA Partner Director,
A10 Networks, an enterprise grade
security vendor, explains that training is
an essential part of enabling partners to
position and sell its technology. “Locally,
we are seeing significant growth and need
to ensure end customers receive the best
possible help in solving problems. Products
from A10 Networks integrate with other
28
vendors’ technology and we need to
make sure our partners understand the
combined solution.”
On the flip side, lack of availability
of highly skilled engineers employed by
channel partners is an inhibitor. There
is also a hidden cost of taking out highly
skilled engineers from commercial projects
to attend training sessions.
Jason Roos, Channel and Alliances
Director at Mimecast, a cloud email
security vendor, explains why the vendor
has been investing in the training of its
channel partners. “We believe the best
channel programmes succeed when
partners have space to create value in
the customer life cycle. We believe that
by enabling partners, we help them
better support their customers when
moving to and consuming our services.
As we evolve our products and introduce
updates, enhancements and new products
frequently, it is important that our
partners are equipped to deliver value to
the customer in the pre-sales, sales and
support steps of the journey.”
On the other hand, pulling out time is
always a challenge for a channel partner,
and prioritising time for vendor product
training is sometimes difficult for them.
This is one of the reasons why Mimecast
has also created bite-sized training content,
and short certification examinations.
Challenges
According to Mohammed Sabry, Head
of Services, Gulf and Near East, Ingram
Micro, “The lack of funds and road maps,”
is an inhibitor for training programmes.
“We initiate on a quarterly basis attractive
promotions for our partners, to ease
their financial pressure on the required
investments to achieve the training that is
mandatory to run their business. We also
support our vendors in co-campaigning to
achieve the same.”
Peter Oganesean, Country Sales
Manager, HP Inc, points out that one of the
main drivers for channel partner training
activities is the opportunity for partners
to grow and increase market knowledge
in the region. Channel partners look for
information they need to successfully
represent product offerings to buyers at
all stages in the buying process. Vendors
that host consistent training activities
will ensure their partners have access to
updated collateral and help them increase
mindshare for their products and services
over the competition.
We continuously
work with
partners to skill
them up and
enable them
to progress
to the next
partner status
where they
can leverage
more benefits.
However, their
progress is
dependent on
the investment
from their side.
However, working with channel partners
such as resellers and system integrators
comes with a unique set of challenges;
the most problematic of which is typically
the inherent knowledge gap. “From their
peculiar position, where partners oscillate
between the inside and outside of a given
business, channel partners typically do not
receive the immersive internal training
foisted upon traditional employees, and
they often struggle to perform as a result,”
elaborates Peter Oganesean, Country Sales
Manager, HP Inc.
Issue 09
INTELLIGENT TECH CHANNELS