It seems the keynotes for the last several years have been about the Death of the Channel. Today at ChannelCon, it is Jay McBain with that headline. It used to be Tiffani Bova, so maybe Gartner’s only theme is that the channel is dying. If that works and brings in consulting gigs maybe I should start ringing that bell.
I don’t see it though. I see the channel through an 21 year lens. It has always been the Adoption Curve. Some go early; some lag behind. The only difference now is that there aren’t enough new recruits into the channel.
CompTIA has seen the writing on the wall: the channel is fading because new blood is NOT pouring into the industry as fast as old blood is exiting.
The other factor is how many providers now lean on the channel. Thousands. Indirect has caught up to direct sales in several instances, especially UCaaS. There are thousands of UCaaS/VoIP and backup providers who sell mainly through channel. Security is big with new companies popping up. The problem is that there aren’t enough partners to go around. (Some of that is due to the fact that every provider thinks their market is everyone. If they were more targeted, they would find great partners, increase margin and win – instead of the struggle bus most of them ride on, following the same strategy as everyone else.)
If I block your name off a press release or piece of collateral, could anyone identify it as yours?
Most of the techies I know are either programmers or work in corporate IT. Meanwhile, MSP M&A activity is happening at a faster and faster clip.
These are probably the most turbulent or elastic of times in the channel.
Side Note:
On the agent side of the channel, CLECs were the feeder system into the channel. Folks worked for the LEC, then took a couple deals for themselves and became agents. That doesn’t happen as often anymore.
CLECs used to recruit on college campuses. Not anymore. I guess CompTIA noticed and decided to do something about it.