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I originally had the honor of meeting William when he was working at CompTIA. The bulk of our conversations focused on the technical strengths of VARs and their need for business, marketing and sales training. Frequently our conversations focused on the need for providing IT channel members with a business education and certification program that would be well publicized into the end-user SMB marketplace. While our views were completely in sync, it was not until William took on the role of Vice President - IT Partner Enablement for NIIT Cognitive Arts that we were able to join forces on this task. William now co-chairs the ChannelLine Advisory Council as well as the Channel Education and Certification Task Force. Robert: What are the key strengths and weaknesses of VARs? William: Most VARs are great at technology. They know how to get the various types of technology working together and then they make sure that it continues to work. However, on the business side, some are doing great, but most VARs could use some help. Robert: What are they doing to fix this? William: Many are trying to change their business model, but don't fully understand what needs to be changed. Most know that they need business education. Vendors need to come to the table and help provide both formal and informal education methods. Robert: Why should Vendors do this? William: It is in their best interest. Every year we lose VARs who fail because they do not understand how to run a business. With continuously shrinking margins, the ability to run a VAR business without strong business skills is becoming increasingly more difficult. When a VAR goes out of business, lots of end-users end up in trouble. Typically, these end users expect the Vendors to assist them and this ends up costing the Vendors a lot of time, money and human resources. Top notch VARs technologically do not necessarily translate into being able to sell, service, finance, market, project manage, etc., capabilities ... the outcome is that they simply are not effective. Robert: Are VARs capable of learning how to run a business? William: Absolutely! They are very capable entrepreneurs and business people. Now they need to know how to run their business better ... more as a business. They truly provide an important part of the backbone of our society. Robert: How do we get them more information? William: Some of the resources are available. Internet helps. Some of the information (education) needs to be tailored to the VAR's world. The problem is that VARs are so busy putting out fires for their customers that it becomes very difficult for them to find the necessary time for non-emergency necessities. We have to give them the information in bite size pieces and make the rewards for taking the effort very compelling. Robert: Like free sales tools, lead generation programs, etc.? William: Exactly. Hopefully the ChannelLine Advisory Council will be able to play a major role in this education. The objective here is to do for VAR business education what Vendors and associations have been doing for tech education. Short. Streamlined. Augmented with materials before and after the training. Support. Mentoring. Coaching. Robert: Will the VARs get involved? William: An organization's culture begins at the top. The willingness of employees to receive resources such as training often depends on how their superiors receive that training. If the superiors do not make time for it or do not take the training seriously, employees often echo that same attitude. The same may be true with the extended enterprise. If vendor employees believe they are too busy for a particular class, why should the partners react any differently? Robert: Why are Vendors doing so little in this area? William: The industry has a serious problem where about 10% of the VARs sell 90% of the products that go through the channel. Vendors focus on tech training and are paranoid that if they enable VARs to be more business savvy it may translate into them being better able to sell for competitors. The fear is that giving them business knowledge will make them stronger and thus more sought after. vs. not training them on business skills and have them stay selling their products... but ineffectively. Truth is, business knowledgeable VARs tend to be more loyal. They respect and appreciate the assistance provided by their Vendor partners. Robert: Will the Vendors get involved? William: They have to. If they are really interested in building a strategic partner enablement strategy, business education development and delivery is a must. A fair amount of time, energy and investment is made by vendors to enable channel partners. Not all of those investments produce the desired returns. Yet, before the partners or the investment is knocked, it may be appropriate to ask what was done to properly prepare the vendor to enable partners. For instance, if channel partners are being trained, should vendor staff first receive the training or at least some variation of it to ensure it is shared/discussed appropriately? Robert: Where does NIIT fit into this equation? William: NIIT is a very unique, global organization. Founded in the early 1980s in India, they are very prominent in developing countries. They are a global authority on IT education. Every business day about ½ million people are being trained by NIIT. They have been in the North American market for about 15-years working with the top IT organizations to develop and deliver both business and technology education. Their relationships, skill sets and experience in delivering business and technology education make them a great partner to assist ChannelLine Advisory Council in the development of a business certification program for VARs and then in developing the curriculum and delivering the training. Robert: Why are you interested in ChannelLine Advisory Council? William: It is a very reputable organization devoted to making the channel better. Many of the best channel people are members and the Council is doing more than just talking ... we are taking action that will make a difference and have made business education for VARs a major initiative. The Council gets it. The Council's members get it. They are passionate about channels. I am proud to be a part of it. William Vanderbilt can be reached at William.Vanderbilt@niit.com, (630) 343-6261. For more information about NIIT logon to www.niit.com/enterprises.
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