Getting Annuity fit – What a Gym Can Teach The IT Industry

As the IT industry moves further towards an annuity, subscription based model, it is worth having a look at other industries where this business model is more mature as an insight to a possible future landscape for MSPs. One such industry is surprisingly the gym and fitness industry. There are many similarities between the two … Continued

How To Grow Your Business Using Vendor MDF

Author: Grant Cleary MDF – it’s that 3 letter acronym many of us love to hear! Market development funds or MDF are used by vendors in the channel to enable service providers, resellers and distributors to market their products and solutions, and build brand awareness. MDF may be allocated to partners as a percentage of … Continued

The Value Of A Three Tier Pricing Strategy

We are currently working with a mid-market VAR/MSP on their business transformation process. In addition to looking at their sales team structure and size, we are also examining their overall profitability. Our first question was to determine how they set the price for their client offerings. Like many companies, they look at the cost of … Continued

The Journey of Partner Business Transformation

We recently did some work with the senior management team of a mid-market VAR/Service Provider on how they adapt their business model with the continuing growth of Cloud & XaaS. Our analysis identified several external forces acting upon their business, as well as internal pressures, and helped them create a set of priorities of what … Continued

Do You Honestly Believe You Are A Disruptor?

If “Cloud” was the most overused word for 2015, then “Digital Disruption” would have to be my #1 pick for 2016. I’m struggling to think of a vendor event that I attended last year that didn’t reference at least Uber, AirBnB or Netflix in the opening slides; the message of course being … Disrupt (like … Continued

Lessons For MSPs From a “Free” Phone App

I’m fascinated by some of the games available on phones nowadays (which is kind of interesting given that I don’t play them). But what I find interesting is not the game itself, but rather the business model behind how it makes money for its developers. One of my favourites is Candy Crush – a “free” … Continued

Why Your Services Business Might Shrink

It’s interesting that a marketing concept introduced 30 years ago can have implications for an IT industry transitioning to an “as a Service” model today, but that is exactly what is happening. In 1986, Regis McKenna presented the concept of the Whole Product in his book “The Regis Touch”, which was later popularised by Geoffrey … Continued

Moving to the Cloud? … Change your Comp Plan

Over the years, I’ve had several sales managers tell me their sales people are “coin-operated”. In other words, they are motivated purely by their pay packet. So all you need to do is give reps a sales target, give them a commission plan, and set them loose (and the good ones will deliver the results). … Continued

Selling To The Right Person In A Cloud Driven World

As you may be aware, Channel Dynamics has been assisting the US based Industry Trade Association organisation CompTIA to establish a local ANZ channel community. While CompTIA is best known for its training and education, it also conducts primary research. Today we drill down into the findings from a recent CompTIA survey to understand more … Continued

Rethinking The Value Of Customers In A Cloudy World

Recently we have been working with a number of service providers building out their channel and XaaS offerings. The first part of the process is helping them to clearly define their target customer, and as a result what will be the best type of partner to acquire and service this customer. The second thing we … Continued