Time For IT Solutions at Channel Partners

Time was, telecom services were over here. Time was, IT services were over there.

Time was, agents and partners handled telecom over here. Time was, IT VARs handled IT services over there.

Time was, women couldn’t vote. Time was, IT tools were bulky leather bound ledgers and eyeshades. Time was, telecom services were fixed landline only.

Point is, times have changed.

Today, partners are increasingly expected to meet full business technology needs, meaning telecom and IT services. SMBs and SEs are increasingly less willing to separate the two into discrete buckets, and go here for one and there for another. Two buckets are now one.

This fundamental change in the indirect sales channel is fully reflected in the Channel Partners Conference & Expo, March 26-29, Las Vegas. The education program is replete with education around this landmark change in the industry. Go here for a quick look at the agenda and go here for a more detailed look at the education program, including detailed summaries of each session and speaker information.

A few highlights relevant to the growing importance of the IT function in the channel include:

• A preconference workshop on Accelerating UC Adoption and ROI sponsored by Cisco
• A track on Cloud services
• A track on selling wireless services, including sessions created by the IT industry trade association, CompTIA
• The Cloud & Technology Transformation Alliance sessions (which are sold out and have limited seating)
• The Agent-VAR Workshop (also sold out), which is created by Channel Partners and CompTIA

If you are reading this blog, you are interested, and probably work, in the channel. You know that IT services are increasingly part of the spec. You also know that is why more IT VARs are attending Channel Partners each year. And you know that explains why more of the education at the conference is devoted to IT solutions each year.

Finally, you know this is a one-way ride: The channel is going in this direction inexorably and will never reverse its direction. So the future of the channel, your future, is inextricably entwined with the convergence of telecom and IT solutions because that is what is in the customer’s best interest.

Stay on top of the latest information in your profession. Register for Channel Partners here.

Time was, the world moved slowly. Time was, change was the exception, not the rule. Time was, success meant security.

But those times are gone. Join us in Las Vegas, March 26-29, and embrace the real world of the channel.

Larry Lannon is group publisher of VIRGO ’s Communications Network, which includes Billing & OSS World , Channel Partners  and V2M.