An Ecosystem - Just What European Resellers Need?

Ghost-written article for Edzard Overbeek, Cisco Systems EMEA.
Published in European Reseller magazine, UK/Europe, September 2003.

As if leveraging, ramping up, and creating ‘synergies’ weren’t enough business jargon to choke any IT expert, we are now creating 'ecosystems' for resellers in the European channel to market. Recent analysis by Martin Canning, VP, European Services Research, IDC EMEA, suggests that the current linear, hierarchical method for manufacturers to work with their channel partners may be retired by, of all people, the end users. Why? Quite simply, end users want to be able to contact just one person if something goes wrong, they need an upgrade or they have any questions. Traditionally, an organisation might deal with many resellers for different things. However, those days are gone.

Our ‘ecosystem’ functions like a human networking cocktail party hosted both in the real world and in cyberspace. The aim is to ensure that the perfect fusion of specialised IT knowledge is applied to each end-user scenario, reducing duplication of activities and therefore cost to the customer. This tackles the main issue for resellers in that it is impossible for them to be all things to everyone. It is also the reason why the majority of IT vendors employ a mixture of channel partners and systems integrators to provide the ultimate in business flexibility. Furthermore, the ecosystem tackles two other key concerns for resellers – overstocking and keeping up with ever-evolving technology. Both are part of the same problem - rapid advances in technology are almost impossible for an individual reseller to match, resulting in a supply chain beset with yesterday’s technology.

We encourage resellers to specialise, firstly to reduce overlap between rivals and secondly because competing on price alone is a recipe for disaster. Preventing such duplication of expertise is vital to ensure a seamless and profitable channel. The combined market opportunity for the extensive range of networking products, from routers and switches to wireless LAN solutions, is worth up to €64 billion for product sales, plus €30 billion for advanced services. No single vendor can possibly claim to do all this single-handedly, which is why an ecosystem of specialised, complimentary organisations is the ideal scenario. Our goal is to help give those organisations a slice of this action.

If that isn’t incentive enough, the focused ecosystem approach acknowledges the strengths of each player – whether software publisher, distributor, ISP, or reseller - working on any end-user requirement without bias. To reassure all concerned we invoke a “traffic light process,” ensuring that once a partner has been engaged on a project, no other player can muscle in.

In February this year we announced an expanded partnership agreement with US operator AT&T, where AT&T agreed to use our indirect sales partners to sell its advanced services. However, the ecosystem doesn’t solely benefit the reseller community. AT&T obtains access to more SMEs than ever before, regarded by many industry analysts as the "sweet spot" of the multi-billion Euro managed services market.

Far from being simply a new approach tagged with new jargon, the ecosystem presents genuine opportunities for all involved. These range from an increased customer base to carrying more up-to-date or varied solutions, or being able to access one specialised section of a massive IT project that had never been deemed possible in the past. It just goes to show – some buzzwords really are a hive of activity.