The overall number of channel partners (VARs, SIs, ISVs, etc) offering cloud services to U.S. small and medium businesses (SMBs) has grown enormously since 2008, fueled in part by the prevailing economic conditions and new cloud solutions and technologies. With strong adoption by these SMBs, Remote Managed IT Services (RMITS) are growing rapidly and becoming more structured in the U.S. There are more solutions available for U.S. SMBs and more methods for delivering these solutions in an efficient manner for channel partners, new research from AMI-Partners has found.
Overall current conditions are very promising for partners to embrace the cloud. However, the channel partners are hampered in their transition to cloud-based services by their small scale and accompanying legacy cost structures and business models.
Channel partner challenges can be broadly classified into the following three key areas:
-- Standardizing Remote Managed Offerings: Some partners don't currently have a standardized set of RMITS offerings. Instead, they improvise on an as-needed basis, so customers are not familiar with available options.
-- Standardizing SLAs: Some partners do not have Service Level Agreements (SLAs) although 55% feel that it is important to offer them. Those that do don't always provide clear terms about the types and responsiveness of services provided. Often partners themselves find it difficult to track their own employee time spent on tickets/customer problems. But some have started using PSA (Professional Services Automation) software to deal with this.
-- Standardizing Pricing: Just like their service offerings, many local partners lack standardized and transparent pricing required for a broader acceptance of RMITS by SMB customers. This makes it difficult for the customers to understand how RMITS can help them control and manage IT costs.
As a result, over the last couple of years, many pure-play Managed Service Providers (MSPs) have entered the market to provide remote management and other cloud services to U.S. SMBs. Unencumbered by legacy issues, they have developed efficient delivery and pricing mechanisms that provide strong value to these SMBs. The current environment also provides a strong opportunity for large vendors to bridge the gaps in channel partner services by standardizing the offerings, SLAs & pricing, and thereby enabling broader adoption of cloud-based services by US SMBs.
About the study: AMI's 2010 US SMB Channel Partner Report.
Contact: http://www.ami-partners.com
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