There has been much gloom in the channel about the cloud. Whether we are talking about IT service providers or value added resellers (VARs), many players in this sector have admitted to feeling under threat as small and medium sized customers begin to adopt cloud services. There is concern that vendors will simply start selling direct to businesses and cut their channel partner out of the loop entirely. Resellers worry about how to keep up to date with all the different cloud offerings and whether it will be possible to make a reasonable margin when billing monthly for a service instead of charging up front?
Yet a great opportunity exists for the channel. Everything hinges on the relationship between a trusted IT provider and its client. Most small businesses will have neither the time nor the resources to deal with more than one IT company, and moving independently to a cloud model can be complex and confusing. Businesses have their own set of questions about making the move. Who will sort out the setup of new users? How do we go about choosing the right set of solutions for our business? What if the business needs more than just Microsoft 365? While the giants of the software world may be targeting their off-the-shelf cloud products at the SME market, they are unable to provide the personal touch that a channel provider can bring.
Small businesses, from accountants and lawyers to recruitment agents or charities, need to focus on the job in hand and want their IT programmes to “just work.” The majority do not even have the luxury of an IT team; if they have an IT manager at all then this person will be spending much of his or her time trying to smooth out the problems of individual staff so that everyone can get on with their jobs with a minimum of fuss. Many find themselves “making-do” with technology that just about works, which is frustrating and can slow down productivity drastically. This is where a good IT services company can step in.
With the right technology, the reseller can offer cloud services to customers smoothly, easily, and with the right margins. New platforms, such as AppLayer’s White Label Box, are forging the final link in the chain that brings cloud services to smaller businesses via the channel. Such platforms allow resellers to bundle together whatever selection of cloud services a customer desires, from hosted desktop and email to specialist accounting software or database applications. In this way it becomes easy for the reseller, or the customer themselves, to simply switch user access on and off as required and to add and remove services on demand.
The benefits to the end user are enormous. Not only can a business dispense with the cost and hassle of maintaining an on-premise service, but it can enjoy far greater control over employee access to both data and applications. When an employee leaves, for example, their ID can be deactivated from a single point, removing the need for lengthy password searches and checking of lists. If the business is using an entirely hosted desktop model, access to data can be removed at the same time.
For the IT partner, the result is an enhanced role as the manager of the system, offering advice on applications and managing or delegating the central dashboard. Rather than being called in only when things go wrong, or as a supplier of new computers, the opportunity now exists for resellers to develop a longer-term relationship in which real value is added for the customer.
Small businesses will inevitably move to cloud solutions. In any company where IT is a tool and not a key part of the business, the more it can be treated as utility like any other, the better. The opportunity for the channel is to offer the services that make this possible, to take the burden from the already over-laden shoulders of small business managers, and to become indispensable.
