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F
rontline technology sales personnel may
sometimes feel as if they are playing the
role of relationship counselor as much as
they are technology consultant. Blame on
the democratization of IT.
In the recent past, call it the PC/Internet era, IT
teams controlled the vast majority of technology
knowledge and budgets. But as we move forward into
what CompTIA researchers describe as “the third
wave of enterprise technology,” or the “cloud/mobile
era,” business users not only have more knowledge
of IT solutions and more ability to procure them, they
also have official, approved budgets. As was widely
surmised at the first sign of “shadow” or “rogue IT,”
whereby business users obtain their own technology
outside of the control of IT, this would seem to lead to
contention between IT and business executives.
New surveys by CompTIA suggest such animosity
may not be as prevalent as initially thought, or has at
least stabilized. Even so, sales executives would be wise
Partners must adapt to technology’s
changing purchasing process
By
Martin
Vilaboy
20
THE CHANNEL MANAGER’S
PLAYBOOK