Which Side Are You On?

By Shawn Schmidt, President, Digital Planet

I was fortunate enough to be involved in the Agent-Partnering Workshop at the Channel Partners Conference & Expo. There was a healthy mix of VARs and agents – all with unique business models and sales strategies. However there was one common theme: Each side feels the other is intruding into their space more often.

There seems to be some distrust building and a general fear of losing their place at the table. The equipment folks feel the carriers are becoming competitors, not only with their premises-based offerings (XO selling Avaya and PAETEC selling Allworx were mentioned most), but in their cloud offerings as well. Ironically the agents also feel the VAR is getting into their space by offering IP PBX solutions with SIP, and hosting infrastructure externally, which negates bandwidth requirements.

The big question I see is this: Are both sides intentionally competing with each other, or is technology evolving and naturally pushing them into the same space?

Historically, telecommunications technology was low on the OSI model, which gave way to specialization. You had the voice equipment vendor, the data equipment vendor, the fax/copier vendor, the software vendor and the telecom connectivity vendor. As telecom technology rockets up the OSI model, now the specialization is removed, and the lines get blurred. Modern telecom equipment now requires firewall configurations, handsets connect to switches and routers rather than a punch-down block, and modern voice mail systems send emails with .wav files. Data companies offer IP phone gear integrated into switches, routers and servers. Even the copier can print, fax, email, scan and post to a smartboard for collaboration – all over the LAN/WAN network.

It really makes you wonder if there still is a side?

Ironically it is not competition that’s pushing everyone into the same space, it is telecom technology, which has simplified to packets traveling over ubiquitous infrastructure. The companies that embrace this fact and stop worrying about sides, will definitely be ahead of the pack.