Part 3 of 3: Parting Advice for Partners who want to serve the Enterprse Data Center Cloud Opportunities

In part 1, we explored the specific challenges facing the data center leaders and the incredible need for trusted advisors. In part 2, we discussed the specific asks Data Center leaders must have of their trusted advisors. Now let’s talk about clear recommendations for partners serving the Data Center Cloud Opportunities.

  1. Embrace change and support both cloud and traditional models. Offer clients choices, pros and cons, and options in each category.
  2. Partner with vendors and other relevant players to complete solution and leverage those vendors brand equity; and their resources. Help bridge the product vendors and combine those to offer complete solutions to the Data Center Leader.
  3. Change the dialogue with customers/prospects; assist the Data Center leader to communicate with the many stakeholders he / she serves. Help them talk about business requirements, understand security concerns, address board level and CEO issues, and help them with likely talent and hiring challenges.
  4. Fill in the middle glue and together deliver the needed IT and cloud strategies for the customer. Offer them a suite of services that really bridge the product to the customer. Where possible have the pre sales consulting all the way through to customer service and contract management.
  5. Create new offers to extend/augment/enhance existing products and services. Innovation is essential. This landscape is changing so quickly that companies must have a partner innovating and offering them new services.
  6. Understand the vertical market the customers operate in and the regulatory requirements, the financial requirements and the implications of that vertical on the client’s needs.
  7. Start embedding vendor solutions into your own product offerings – i.e. augment existing partner offerings by adding vendor offerings to partners existing services. Meet with your vendor partners regularly, continue to quantify the solution, and create joint value propositions(more powerful than vendor or partner individually) that solve enterprise customer problems
  8. Continue offering joint selling and marketing with the vendor. Evolve the conversations and include different stakeholders in the customer like their product teams to ensure relevance and value.
  9. Focus on how you can further integrate solutions and embed technology into the Data Center, and / or the Customer’s business. Helping your customers’ meet their objectives is the ultimate trusted advisor.

We are confident that with these practices, you will not only maintain trusted advisor status with the Data Center Leaders and Influencers, but also enable them to influence customer buying decisions, realize new revenue opportunities, have happy customers, and accelerate their own business growth.