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<\/p>\nWith the channel now considering collaboration as a means of survival, ARN asks Insentra managing director, Ronnie Altit, why teaming up still requires trust.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cHistorically, the channel has screwed over so many people that by default, the industry is gun shy.\u201d<\/p>\n
While not the expected words of a master partner collaborator in Altit, but in drawing on over 20 years of industry experience, the channel veteran accepts that such reservations remain commonplace within Australia.<\/p>\n
If the ecosystem indulged in assessing the most important expression in the public sphere during the past twelve months, no doubt collaboration would be crowned Word of the Year, such is the market\u2019s insistence on shedding its separatist nature.<\/p>\n
Despite countless marketing campaigns and sponsored vendor research however, certain resellers remain grounded by a deep distrust of coopetition, yet another newfangled term which has infiltrated the channel lexicon.<\/p>\n
\u201cResellers have been burned in the past and it takes a long time to recover,\u201d acknowledged Altit, who founded Insentra in March 2010, as a collaborative IT services partner transacting exclusively through the channel.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a big challenge and comes back to that fundamental question of trust.\u201d<\/p>\n
In glancing through the Harvard Business Review seeking business inspiration, leaders of organisations are acknowledging that even the best individual efforts can\u2019t stack up against today\u2019s complex and interconnected problems.<\/p>\n
For \u2018Collaboration Is the New Competition\u2019 and in 2016, building allies, not adversaries, is the modus operandi.<\/p>\n
But such glorious business insight turns into worthless drivel upon the realisation that harsh realities remain in the local channel \u2013 this isn\u2019t the U.S. of A., this is real-world Australia.<\/p>\n
\u201cResellers are against partner to partner because there is an inherent threat that they will lose business,\u201d Altit admitted.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re a networking house and you bring in a partner to help implement a Microsoft project, and the customer says to that partner; \u2018great job do you also provide networking as well?\u2019 That\u2019s when you\u2019re in for a huge trust discussion.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alluding to the belief that past experiences can dictate future behaviour, Altit \u2013 who spent nearly five years building out Dimension Data\u2019s datacentre practice \u2013 recognises that trust stands tall as the key marker for partners open to combining forces where appropriate.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut will the partner you\u2019ve brought in say \u2018yes we do networking let\u2019s talk\u2019 or will they say \u2018yes we do but we\u2019re working on behalf of another partner and we therefore decline\u2019,\u201d Altit questioned.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome sales people will snap up that type of opportunity and it still happens today because not everyone operates off the same moral compass in the channel.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even for businesses operating in partner to partner type scenarios, Altit accepts the salient fact that traditionally, this isn\u2019t the core business of resellers, who are trained to head into the market and sell directly.<\/p>\n
\u201cPartner to partner isn\u2019t natural and while most players in the channel are trustworthy, some unfortunately aren\u2019t which is why reluctancy remains,\u201d he observed.<\/p>\n
As one of the world\u2019s most foremost industrialists, Henry Ford once preached that \u201cif everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself.\u201d<\/p>\n
But while the pursuit of partner profitability remains unrelenting, it\u2019s a natural tendency for people to seek control during a collaborative engagement, given the alternative of being controlled.<\/p>\n
\u201cWho owns the account, the transaction and the sales cycle? These are key questions to answer when working together,\u201d Altit advised. \u201cIn our business the answer is never us because we have a fundamental dependency on the partner to deliver what they say they can do.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur model allows resellers to manage customer relationships, transactions and pricing. We work in collaboration with them but it\u2019s their client so they call the shots.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut even control comes back to trust. If a reseller doesn\u2019t trust us, they won\u2019t provide customer details. We\u2019ve worked with partners who didn\u2019t want to share customer information, they hold this information tightly to their chests.\u201d<\/p>\n
As digital technology advancements trigger changing business demands and buying patterns, new expectations must now be met, creating a new benchmark for customer experiences.<\/p>\n
Whether it be Cloud, big data, analytics or cognitive, the capabilities of the channel are being pushed to breaking point, heightening the need to compete and revisit previous processes around collaboration.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes it\u2019s changing,\u201d nodded Altit, before pausing. \u201cBut it\u2019s not changing at the core of what people believe, it\u2019s changing because people realise they can\u2019t be successful otherwise.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe market has moved away from the old lucrative models and it\u2019s now on a drip which provides less funds to invest in capabilities. Not all resellers have the cash flow so they are forced to either walk away from an opportunity or to partner, and we provide that non-competitive model.\u201d<\/p>\n
Built out of ongoing frustrations when resourcing the delivering of deals already won, Insentra\u2019s exclusive partner model of engagement focuses around providing professional and managed services, including project planning and management in partnership with the channel.<\/p>\n
Through experiencing strong growth during his role as General Manager of Datacentre Solutions at Dimension Data, Altit ran into two problems on a frequent basis, sparking a desire to address an ongoing industry issue.<\/p>\n
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\u201cFirstly, we struggled to find sufficient pre-sales resources as and when the customer wanted to talk about a solution,\u201d recalled Altit, who oversees more than 160 partners on Insentra\u2019s books.<\/p>\n
\u201cSecondly, assuming we had these resources and won the deal, we then didn\u2019t have the right person, with the right skills, at the right time and struggled to resource the delivery of the service we\u2019d just sold.\u201d<\/p>\n
Presented with a challenge regularly played out in the industry, Altit was faced with four options \u2013 contract, vendor, hire or partner.<\/p>\n
\u201cContractors are generally thin on the ground but if you go to the customer and say you can deliver all of this work, and then at the last minute call in the vendor, it\u2019s very difficult to maintain,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith these options unavailable it raised the prospect of hiring new staff to cope with demand.<\/p>\n
\u201cYet you don\u2019t hire unless you have a good book of work and a strong pipeline, and it usually takes as long as 4-6 weeks to onboard a new staff member. So the last option was to partner with another company, hence Insentra.\u201d<\/p>\n
As a 100 percent channel focused organisation, the Sydney-based business only transacts with the end-user via an intermediary, adhering to the reseller\u2019s ideal engagement requirements.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven if we encounter opportunities within a deal, we will bring them back to the partner so they can decide the next steps, we operate with total transparency,\u201d Altit added.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe also made a decision to not sell anything competitive to the channel, so we don\u2019t sell hardware or software. We stay away from anything that the channel can sell themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
But isn\u2019t it unusual for a top award-winning Microsoft, Citrix, Symantec or Veritas partner to sell no licences?<\/p>\n
\u201cSelling hardware and software is what the channel do, it\u2019s their bread and butter and we\u2019re happy for them to have that role because we\u2019re a services focused business,\u201d Altit reaffirmed.<\/p>\n
As another point of difference, Altit said the business provides pre-sales resources to the channel at \u201cno charge\u201d, based on the agreement that if the deal goes ahead, Insentra will be the partner tasked with the delivery.<\/p>\n
But despite creating a unique business model, that continues to gain traction across Australia, Altit accepts that concern remains among certain resellers as to the motives of company built entirely around collaboration.<\/p>\n
\u201cPartners still ask, \u2018when are you going to flick your model?\u2019 because some believe we will eventually switch focus and sell directly,\u201d he acknowledged. \u201cEven with a 100 percent channel-based model, certain partners still remain fearful as to how long that might last.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut over time resellers have started to trust that we\u2019re not going to steal their clients because if we do it once, that\u2019s the end of our business.\u201d<\/p>\n
As the barriers to trust lower, and resellers respond to new ways of doing business, Insentra has expanded its capabilities to tackle other problems surfacing across the industry.<\/p>\n
In attracting the interest of vendors eager to introduce new products and services to the market, Insentra now provides a bridge between old and new, ensuring partners can adopt new technologies in a manner that is financially and strategically viable.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a common theme,\u201d Altit observed. \u201cA vendor introduces a new product but resellers can\u2019t invest in training because they have no pipeline.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo the vendor spends too long convincing the channel to invest, and perhaps they throw in a few attractive deals and slowly the technology is adopted. Whereas now the vendor invests in Insentra training which means we can immediately deliver value to partners.\u201d<\/p>\n
But as Altit explains, that\u2019s as far as the relationship goes.<\/p>\n
\u201cInsentra trained and installed the first 25 net backup appliance deals in the country but now we do little work in this field because the channel is equipped and can do it themselves,\u201d he said. \u201cWe fill a gap and then we move on.\u201d<\/p>\n
Moving on Altit and his team are doing, with Insentra expanding into the UK and USA, replicating the company\u2019s business model to larger markets across the world.<\/p>\n
With five staff already on the ground in the UK, and the USA soon to follow, Altit said appetite for collaboration remains healthy at a global level, validating the belief that the channel is warming to the idea of sharing resources.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we didn\u2019t believe in our model, now would be the perfect time to change it,\u201d Altit admitted. \u201cBut we 100 percent believe in our approach and the model is working outside of Australia, as we leverage our vendor relationships to enter new markets.\u201d<\/p>\n
Amidst global expansion and a growing ecosystem of partners, Insentra is living proof that the channel can change its spots, as Altit continues to educate on the striking difference between collaboration and collusion.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
With the channel now considering collaboration as a means of survival, ARN asks Insentra managing director, Ronnie Altit, why teaming up still requires trust. \u201cHistorically, the channel has screwed over so many people that by default, the industry is gun shy.\u201d While not the expected words of a master partner collaborator in Altit, but in… Continue reading Insentra \u2013 In Collaboration We Trust?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56,"featured_media":362,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insentragroup.com\/gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insentragroup.com\/gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insentragroup.com\/gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insentragroup.com\/gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/56"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insentragroup.com\/gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=361"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.insentragroup.com\/gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18711,"href":"https:\/\/www.insentragroup.com\/gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361\/revisions\/18711"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insentragroup.com\/gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insentragroup.com\/gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insentragroup.com\/gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insentragroup.com\/gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}