We hear the word "partnership" being used a lot to describe the "relationship" between channel companies and vendors/manufacturers. I have to confess it’s a good word, a word with positive connotations, a word designed to convey the impression that the relationship is a strong one, durable and equal.
Think of how we use the word "partner" in our normal everyday lives. Outside of specific instances such as law practices or accountancy firms, we normally use partner to describe the person we live with and share a strong relationship with. It’s a word that people who aren’t married use instead of husband and wife, but people who are married often talk about marriage in terms of a "partnership".
In other words, the words partner and partnership are used to convey the impression of a strong, deep and mutually rewarding relationship, all of which brings us back to the partnership between channel businesses and vendors. Now, I can’t help but feel there’s something slightly wrong with this relationship. Considering how long channel businesses have been reselling products and services from their vendor "partners" (close to 30 years or so by my estimate), it’s surprising just how unstable it can be.
For instance, UK IT trade publication MicroScope recently ran a survey of channel companies asking for their views on cloud computing . On the positive side, it found more than half were selling cloud services even if a significant number were still happy to stick with a break-fix model. However, what grabbed my attention was the finding that 75% of resellers were worried vendors would be tempted to use the cloud to deliver services direct to users and create channel conflict.
Now, I know a lot of people are just going to say "So what? Channel conflict is something resellers have been concerned about for ages." This is precisely my point. In a proper partnership, people or businesses aren’t always concerned that the other partner will skip out and do the dirty on them at any or every opportunity. They’re not always worried or anxious that the other half of the partnership will be tempted to stray.
What does this mean? Really that for all the talk of partnership, the relationship between channel company and vendor/manufacturer is not one of equals. No matter how nicely they dress it up, vendors usually have the ultimate power over whether the partnership with a channel company (reseller or distributor) will last or collapse.
As partnerships go, that’s more like the relationship between U2 and a corner record shop than the one between Bono and The Edge. Given what’s happened to record shops over the last five years or so, it’s no wonder resellers are concerned about their place in the supply chain when cloud computing becomes more pervasive.
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