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HPE V4 Server and MS ROK Bundles PLUS$200 Visa Gift Card
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CHANNEL | BUSINESS | TECHNOLOGY | COMMUNITY
OCTOBER 2016 | Vol. 21 No. 9OCTOBER 2016 | V lV 21 N 9OCTOBER 2016 | Vol.VV 21 No.NN 9
CONTRIBUTORS
BEAU ALDERSON
JACK ALSOP
JOHN ATHERTON
JOHN STUDLEY
JOHN WHYTE
MOE ALI
PIETER DEGUNST
ROB HARTNETT
SAM VOUKENAS
INTERVIEWS
AARON BAILEY
ALLAN KING
BEN LUCK
BILL FERGUSON
BOB DUTKOWSKY
DARREN ASHLEY
ELLEN DERRICK
LAURENCE BAYNHAM
MICHAEL JANOS
NATHAN LOWE
NICK MORAN
PAUL MEYER
RICHARD MARRISON
SACHIN VERMA
SREELESH PILLAI
KPMG – Sizing up the sectors
Vertical Visionaries
KPMG – Si
THE MISSING LINKSAYING NO IN FINANCE
DELOITTEPROBING THE PUBLIC SECTOR
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arnnet.com.au | OCTOBER 2016 |
CONTENTS 1
OctoberREGULARS
4 Editorial56 Secret Reseller60 Channel Coaching62 Community
COLUMNS
14 Gut or gigabytes? Analysing the impact of analytics As analytics continues to invade the enterprise,
PwC explains why Australia still remains in the
early stages of adoption.
38 Understanding the impact of the sharing economy Customers are rapidly turning into competitors.
Gartner asks - “Is your business prepared?”
54 Partner round-up – Coastal NSW LEON SPENCER explains why resellers are closer
to the customer in coastal New South Wales.
58 The Hot List HAFIZAH OSMAN looks at partners on the upward
move – these are the companies to watch.
ANALYSIS
12 Accentuate the vertical As IT buying moves up the chain to line of
business decisions, partners are in a position to
capitalise – LEON SPENCER reports.
40 Building a business continuity channel plan Back-up and business continuity are fundamental
in any business strategy – HAFIZAH OSMAN
examines how this translates in the channel.
44 Partner Perspective
ASI Solutions managing director, Nathan
Lowe, provides a partner perspective on how
the channel can maximise the need for greater
business continuity.
INTERVIEWS
10 ARN Hall of Fame – Laurence Baynham Fresh from being inducted into the ARN Hall of Fame, Data#3 CEO, Laurence Baynham, outlines
his route to the top with JAMES HENDERSON.
18 An enterprise approach to education Increased student demand is creating a
customer-orientated higher education
marketplace – KPMG Technology Advisory lead,
Richard Marrison assesses the impact with
HOLLY MORGAN.
22 Probing the Public Sector Technology deployments in government differ
from traditional private sector practices –
Deloitte Australia national consulting public
sector lead, Ellen Derrick, outlines the
differences to CHRIS PLAYER.
26 Why saying No builds trust in finance Saying ‘no’ to some of Australia’s largest
banks can be a good thing for technology
implementation partners – The Missing Link
security manager and director, Aaron Bailey,
explains why to LEON SPENCER.
30 A clean bill of channel health Today, healthcare represents a core part of the
channel arsenal for resellers – BEarena managing
director, Darren Ashley, documents its potential
to HAFIZAH OSMAN.
34 Tech Data in town... After years of speculation, Tech Data finally
signalled its intention to touch down on Australia
shores – Tech Data CEO, Bob Dutkowsky,
outlines to JAMES HENDERSON what makes the
distribution giant tick.
FEATURES
6 ARN ICT Industry Awards 2016 - Meet the winners… ARN honoured the industry’s finest on a landmark
evening for the Australian channel, as the tenth ARN ICT Industry Awards went off in style in Sydney.
46 How can partners maximise mobility? ARN recently assessed the channel’s most
lucrative mobility-orientated opportunities,
uncovering the art of creating viable mobile
strategies – HAFIZAH OSMAN reports.
2218
6
46
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| OCTOBER 2016 | arnnet.com.au
4 EDITORIAL
Is the channel vertically challenged?
T raditionally, horizontal
sales ruled the channel
roost, with resellers selling
across markets to accountants,
dentists, retailers or even
governments.
In fact, the buyer didn’t matter
because irrespective of whether it
was manufacturing, education or
insurance industries, everyone was
a customer.
It’s a model that has served
the channel well for many years –
contributing to the rise of some of
the country’s leading resellers – but
today, the tide is turning.
The latest line of vendor
rhetoric advocates specialisation,
championing a channel that
focuses on a core market segment,
delivering tailored services on a
recurring basis.
The notion of “being everything
to everybody” is diminishing fast
in Australia, with those continuing
down the path of commoditisation
feeling the full brunt of industry
change.
But in stepping back from
the chaos, those that dig deeper,
naturally find the gold.
While it was easier to shift
products across a range of
industries, the services sell
requires a much deeper touch –
requiring partners to assemble
solutions unique to specific
market needs.
Tech DataMoving away from specialisation
and following years of speculation
and channel conjecture, the
inevitable finally happened – Tech
Data arrived in Australia.
Fresh from entering into
an agreement to acquire the
Technology Solutions business
from Avnet – in a transaction
valued at approximately $US2.6
billion – the deal represents the
tech giant’s first move into the
local market.
We caught up with Tech Data
CEO, Bob Dutkowsky, to provide an
early insight into what makes the
distribution giant tick, and whether
its arrival on Australian shores will
generate channel ripples across
the industry.
Celebrating historyFinally, this issue also
acknowledges history, following
the 10th running of the ARN ICT Industry Awards.
Nearly 700 of the industry’s
finest came together to celebrate
another year of achievements,
recognising the individuals
and the leading performers
across partner, distributor and
vendor categories.
Congratulations to all the
winners, highly commended
and finalists on the night, and
a special mention to ARN Hall of Fame inductees Laurence
Baynham, Angela Fox and
Dominic Whitehand.
James Henderson,Editor, ARN
Whether it through actually
speaking the language of that
industry, providing a complete suite
of applications and services or
developing consulting capabilities,
value is to be had from a vertical-
focused approach.
Outlined by a collection of four
in-depth interviews this month,
this issue shines a spotlight on the
vertical visionaries lighting up the
local channel.
Spanning KPMG, The Missing
Link, Deloitte and BEarena –
coupled with analyst reports and
insight – this issue zones in on the
key challenges and opportunities
within the core verticals of
education, government, health
and finance.
Our cover story this month
features KPMG Technology
Advisory lead, Richard Marrison,
who explains the advantage of
partners adopting an enterprise
approach to education, with tertiary
establishments now asking – “how
can we keep a customer for life?”
The nuances of government are
also highlighted through Deloitte
Australia national consulting public
sector lead, Ellen Derrick, who
outlines the challenges of public
scrutiny, multiple stakeholders and
vision alignment when deploying
technology projects.
In finance, The Missing Link
security manager and director,
Aaron Bailey, documents why
saying no to banks helps build
greater levels of trust, and BEarena
managing director, Darren Ashley,
analyses the core demands of
customers in healthcare.
“Those that dig deeper, naturally find the gold”
The one device that’s every device
1
hp.com/go/elitex3
HP Elite x3
Built for business
3
Total securityTravels light, docks large
2
| OCTOBER 2016 | arnnet.com.au
6
ARN honoured the industry’s finest on a landmark evening for the Australian channel, as the tenth ARN ICT Industry Awards went off in style in Sydney. Photos by Maria Stefina and Yulia Photography.
ARN ICT Industry Awards 2016 ARN AWARDS – WINNERS LIST
Vendor Awards
HARDWARE VENDOR OF THE YEARWINNER: LENOVOHIGHLY COMMENDED: HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES / NIMBLE STORAGE
SOFTWARE VENDOR OF THE YEARWINNER: VMWAREHIGHLY COMMENDED: CITRIX
SPECIALIST VENDOR OF THE YEARWINNER: VEEAM SOFTWAREHIGHLY COMMENDED: F5
SECURITY VENDOR OF THE YEARWINNER: FIREEYEHIGHLY COMMENDED: TREND MICRO
NETWORKING VENDOR OF THE YEARWINNER: CISCOHIGHLY COMMENDED: HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES
Distributor Awards
HARDWARE DISTRIBUTOR OF THE YEARWINNER: DICKER DATAHIGHLY COMMENDED: DISTRIBUTION CENTRAL
SOFTWARE DISTRIBUTOR OF THE YEARWINNER: RHIPEHIGHLY COMMENDED: DICKER DATA
SPECIALIST DISTRIBUTOR OF THE YEARWINNER: NEXTGENHIGHLY COMMENDED: EXCLUSIVE NETWORKS
BEST DISTRIBUTOR INITIATIVE OF THE YEARWINNER: AVNETHIGHLY COMMENDED: DISTRIBUTION CENTRAL
Meet the winners...
arnnet.com.au | OCTOBER 2016 |
7
Partner Awards
ENTERPRISE PARTNER OF THE YEARWINNER: DATA#3HIGHLY COMMENDED: THOMAS DURYEA CONSULTING
MID-MARKET PARTNER OF THE YEARWINNER: BRENNAN ITHIGHLY COMMENDED: ASI SOLUTIONS
SMB PARTNER OF THE YEARWINNER: ENERDSHIGHLY COMMENDED: XCENTRAL
BEST PARTNER PERFORMANCE INITIATIVE OF THE YEARWINNER: STAPLES TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS
Personal Innovation
CHANNEL EXCELLENCE OF THE YEARWINNER: GEOFF WRIGHT (DELL EMC)HIGHLY COMMENDED: STEPHANIE MCFADDEN (WESTCON-COMSTOR)
SALES EXCELLENCE OF THE YEARWINNER: MARISA NEWHAM (DATACOM)HIGHLY COMMENDED: GRANT SAMUELS (MEXIA)
TECHNICAL EXCELLENCE OF THE YEARWINNER: STEVE HICKEY (WESTCON-COMSTOR)HIGHLY COMMENDED: IAN WELCH (DICKER DATA)
MANAGEMENT EXCELLENCE OF THE YEARWINNER: DAVID NICOL (CITRIX)HIGHLY COMMENDED: ANGELA CORONICA (CISCO)
Community Awards
SUSTAINABILITYWINNER: APC BY SCHNEIDER ELECTRICHIGHLY COMMENDED: HP
CORPORATE CITIZENSHIPWINNER: MICROSOFTHIGHLY COMMENDED: IBM
CHANNEL CHAMPIONWINNER: NICK VERYKIOS (DISTRIBUTION CENTRAL)HIGHLY COMMENDED: BELINDA JURISIC (CITRIX)
| OCTOBER 2016 | arnnet.com.au
8
Telecommunications Awards
VENDOR OF THE YEARWINNER: SHORETELHIGHLY COMMENDED: CISCO / MITEL
DISTRIBUTOR OF THE YEARWINNER: DISTRIBUTION CENTRAL
PARTNER OF THE YEARWINNER: OPTUS BUSINESSHIGHLY COMMENDED: BIGAIR GROUP
BEST TELECOMMUNICATIONS INITIATIVE OF THE YEARWINNER: NEXTDCHIGHLY COMMENDED: NEXON
Homegrown Innovators
SERVICE PROVIDER OF THE YEARWINNER: CLOUD PLUSHIGHLY COMMENDED: NEXTDC
ISV OF THE YEARWINNER: ARTIS GROUPHIGHLY COMMENDED: HUBONE
START UP OF THE YEARWINNER: SIXPIVOTHIGHLY COMMENDED: ADACTIN GROUP / INFOTRUST
Cloud Computing Awards
VENDOR OF THE YEARWINNER: AMAZON WEB SERVICESHIGHLY COMMENDED: MICROSOFT
PARTNER OF THE YEARWINNER: KLOUD SOLUTIONSHIGHLY COMMENDED: BRENNAN IT
BEST CLOUD INITIATIVE OF THE YEARWINNER: MICROSOFTHIGHLY COMMENDED: AMAZON WEB SERVICES
Channel Choice Awards
HARDWARE VENDOR: HEWLETT PACKARD ENTERPRISESOFTWARE VENDOR: BARRACUDA NETWORKSDISTRIBUTOR: INGRAM MICROPARTNER: DATA#3
Hall Of Fame Inductees
ANGELA FOXLAURENCE BAYNHAMDOMINIC WHITEHAND
A thin and sleek
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| OCTOBER 2016 | arnnet.com.au
10
Fresh from being inducted into the ARN Hall of Fame, Data#3 CEO, Laurence Baynham, outlines his route to the top with James Henderson.
Leading from within…
| OCTOBER 2016 | arnnet.com.au
Laurence Baynham
10 HALL OF FAME/LAURENCE BAYNHAM
Photos by Maria Stefina
arnnet.com.au | OCTOBER 2016 |
In the heart of central London, Marylebone to be precise, a young Laurence Baynham earned
his stripes.Scuttling between Harley Street
and Wimpole Street, Baynham worked his two-street patch as a budding young salesman, servicing the thriving healthcare industry in his first professional sales role, for office equipment multinational Pitney Bowes.
“I made 40 face-to-face calls a day and achieved my target in my first year,” recalled Baynham, looking back on the early days of his working life.
In providing the foundation for a career in sales, Baynham entered the technology scene in 1985, selling accounting software to small businesses across London.
“I remember the main attraction of ICT was the higher level of professionalism and higher earnings,” he said.
“But I saw my career in sales rather than technology. I have never seen myself as a technologist but I can help organisations apply technology to gain a business outcome.
“ICT is such a fast paced industry and every year is different.”
Canadian-born, a young Baynham
relocated to New York before his first birthday, growing up in the Big Apple before moving to the UK aged ten.
But in joining the ICT industry in the year that the first British mobile phone calls were made, and Apple’s original MacIntosh took the world by storm, in 1985, Baynham took the first steps of a career that would span over 30 years and more than 16,000km.
Arriving on Australian shores in 1991, the Data#3 CEO became a citizen “very soon after”, raising his young family in the sunshine state of Queensland.
“My wife Katharine and I had a young family with two girls under two and we believed that Australia was a better place to raise a family,” he said.
“This has proved to be the case and we added another three sons whilst living in Brisbane. We would never have considered five children living in London.”
In joining the system integrator three years later, the Data#3 of 1994 differed greatly to that of 2016, with less than 100 employees and approximately $20 million revenue.
“The growth that we have experienced has been phenomenal,” he recalled. “There has never been a dull moment.
“Looking ahead, my immediate ambitions are to continue to grow and transition Data#3 into an increasingly services centric business.
“But on a personal note, I have
an interest in corporate governance and over the long-term will seek to help other organisations as a non-executive director.”
In parallel with the success of one of Australia’s leading technology providers, the industry veteran has risen through the ranks to shine equally alongside, forging out a reputation as a well-respected figure within the channel.
Fresh from taking the top role in 2014, Baynham has nudged the business towards a billion dollars in revenue, overseeing a workforce of 1100 staff, across eight offices nationwide.
While Baynham won’t sing it from the rooftops - such is his preference to honour his army of workers - the
affable leader has played a pivotal role in expanding a one-time Queensland orientated reseller into a high-performing ASX-listed ICT provider, steering his company through a period of great industry change.
Bringing Data#3 to the top table ranks highly among Baynham’s growing list of achievements, but it’s a different type of success that provides equal reward for the much-travelled leader.
After being named Australia’s Best Company in the 2016 Employer of Choice Awards for the Human Resources Director (HRD) magazine, Baynham’s leadership was once again recognised by the wider industry, reflective of the core cultures that stand up Data#3 today.
During his tenure, and in keeping with tradition, Baynham has fostered a culture built on five core values, spanning honesty, excellence, agility, respect and teamwork (HEART).
Renowned for his business acumen and generous spirit, industry colleagues insist that Baynham represents the true meaning of his company’s motto - displaying strength, stability and innovation in equal measure.
“Leaders don’t need to be the CEO or senior managers,” he said. “At Data#3 we have many excellent leaders who are not necessarily managers.
“Some qualities of leaders that I admire are vision, humility, honesty, integrity, respect and the ability to listen. Great leaders demonstrate these traits every day.”
It’s such traits that has made Baynham - in his own unique way – a leading figure within the Australian channel.
“I have never seen myself as a technologist but I can help organisations apply technology to gain a
business outcome”
LAURENCE BAYNHAM /HALL OF FAME 11
| OCTOBER 2016 | arnnet.com.au
12 ANALYSIS/VERTICALS
G iven today’s fast-evolving
technology market, the assertion
that digital disruption is leading
to potent increases in IT spend across
the board is a bit like telling a fish that
water is wet; it’s not news to anybody even
marginally involved in the local enterprise
technology landscape.
Dive a little deeper into the pond
however, and trends in how technology
investment is increasing – where the
greatest amount of new spend is going,
how it is being allocated, and where it is
growing most rapidly – reveals a great deal
about just how industry is evolving thanks
to technological change.
IT investment continues to grow. At
the same time, the organisational level at
which technology buy-in is decided has
been ascending, with business executives
increasingly displacing IT executives as
primary technology buyers. These factors
present a new and changing landscape to
partners, filled with emerging opportunities.
According to Gartner, enterprise IT
investment across all industry segments in
Australia is predicted to grow by almost two
per cent during the course of 2015-2016,
to $US80.3 billion for the year.
Globally, the figure for this year alone
stands at about $US2.4 trillion, according
to fellow research group, IDC.
IDC research suggests that, by 2020,
worldwide revenue from IT products and
services is set to hit $US2.7 trillion or more,
representing a compound annual growth
rate (CAGR) of 3.3 per cent over 2015-2020.
Big industry areas such as financial
services and manufacturing are slated
to see positive momentum in IT spend,
according to IDC forecasts, especially
where companies are spending more on
so-called 3rd Platform technology, such as
cloud, mobility, and big data.
Meanwhile, banking, discrete
manufacturing, process manufacturing, and
telecommunications comprise the industries
with the largest IT spend. Combined, they are
also expected to generate close to a third
of worldwide revenues over the period of
IDC’s forecast to 2020.
Healthcare is set to retain its crown
as the fastest-growing industry sector,
with five-year CAGR of 5.7 per cent over
ACCENTUATE THE VERTICAL
As IT buying moves up the chain to line of business decisions within enterprise and
government entities, partners are in a position to increasingly capitalise on industry vertical
specialisation and sector-based competitive differentiation – Leon Spencer reports.
arnnet.com.au | OCTOBER 2016 |
VERTICALS/ANALYSIS 13
and department users alongside the chief
information officer’s (CIO’s) office.
“Our research shows more than half
of employees in current line of business
are involved in IT procurement process,
which implies that sellers now need to craft
messaging that resonates with these new
influencers and buyers,” Gartner reported.
Far from creating havoc for partners
in the channel, this trend may, in fact,
be a force for good, with resellers in a
position to make the most of the new,
evolving dynamic.
According to Gartner, having a
“verticalised” market strategy is strongly
correlated to gaining greater access
to business buying centres in targeted
vertical markets.
“Successful vertical differentiation is a
business and operating model choice, not a
marketing choice,” Gartner reported. “Not
all technology providers will benefit from
greater verticalisation, but the approach
adopted needs to be a considered decision.”
Never one to miss an opportunity,
Gartner has, of course, formulated a
framework that technology providers can
use to help tackle industry verticals.
According to its ‘Vertical Strategy
Framework’, Gartner recommends five
clear postures that partners can choose
between to help gain traction in a chosen
industry sector: industry aware; industry
entrant; industry associate; industry peer;
and industry influencer.
Within this framework, Gartner suggests
five parameters that help to determine the
business and operating model decisions
that comprise a vertical strategy.
These include organisation,
segmentation, targeting and positioning,
product development, sales and
distribution and service and delivery.
While Gartner’s recommendations may,
at first glance, appear somewhat convoluted,
the long and short of it for partners is this:
providers should understand the business
decisions that drive technology investment
in the enterprise, position themselves to
exploit that knowledge, and implement a
strategy to tap into today’s business needs.
“Adopting a vertical-market approach
forces providers to consider their offerings
in a business context, and provides an
opportunity to help their clients drive
competitive differentiation and achieve
industry-specific business goals,” the
Gartner report said.
No doubt, most
partners already
have some form
of vertical strategy
built into how they
do business.
The trick,
according to
Gartner, is in
how partners go about identifying the
opportunities and formulating a plan to
take advantage of them.
In this issue, ARN takes a closer look
at four technology partners operating
in Australia that are making a point of
focusing on particular industry verticals – a
strategy that has resulted in dividends.
For Deloitte, the public sector plays a big
part in the work it does within Australia, while
the education sector is a regular customer
for KPMG, with the company making a point
of ramping up its focus on the vertical.
At the same time, the financial services
sector is an important revenue driver for
The Missing Link. Likewise, BEarena has
seen lucrative opportunities abound from
the healthcare sector.
It’s not so much that these companies
have chosen just one vertical on which to
focus. They haven’t. Rather, they have taken
the time and effort to get to know certain
verticals well, building on the strengths
needed to become leading players within
particular industry sectors.
As IT investment decisions continue
to migrate from the IT office to other
departments within the enterprise, vertical
specialisation helps partners to develop
a new lexicon, a greater understanding of
business needs, and a more refined view of
how to develop solutions to meet them.
2015-2020, while banking, media, and
professional services are expected to, as
a group, experience a CAGR of around
4.9 per cent for the period, to more than
$US475 billion in 2020.
“While the consumer and public sectors
have dragged on overall IT spending so
far in 2016, we see stronger momentum
in other key industries including financial
services and manufacturing,” IDC
customer insights and analysis vice
president, Stephen Minton, said.
“Enterprise investment in new project-
based initiatives,
including data
analytics and
collaborative
applications,
remains strong,
and mid-sized
companies have
been especially
nimble when it comes to rapidly
adopting third platform technologies
and solutions.”
Closer to home, Gartner has identified
the combined communications, media, and
services sector as the highest-spending
market vertical in Australia – this is
followed closely by manufacturing and
natural resources, and the banking and
securities sectors.
However, the fastest-growing segment
for technology spending in Australia
this year is set to be the utilities sector,
according to the industry research company.
These figures are not surprising. Every
industry sector, according to Gartner, has
embarked on digital technology adoption as a
response to internal pressures to transform.
This is in addition to changing demands
and expectations among end customers. It
should be noted, however, that the pace of
change among differing industry verticals
varies dramatically.
“The pervasiveness of technology in all
industries, some more than others, has
made it crucial to focus on IT spending
across verticals,” stated Gartner in its
Forecast Overview: Enterprise IT Spending
Across Vertical Industries report.
Most importantly, Gartner believes
that IT buying is moving well beyond the
back-end, and now involves the business
“Successful vertical differentiation is a business and operating model choice,
not a marketing choice”
2016 |
VERTICALS/ANALYSIS 13
the long and short of it for partners is this:
providers should understand the business
decisions that drive technology investment
in the enterprise, position themselves to
exploit that knowledge, and implement a
strategy to tap into today’s business needs.
“Adopting a vertical-market approach
rces providers to consider their offerings
a business context, and provides an
portunity to help their clients drive
petitive differentiation and achieve
stry-specific business goals,” the
er report said.
No doubt, most
partners already
have some form
of vertical strategy
built into how they
do business.
The trick,
according to
Gartner, is in
s go about identifying the
and formulating a plan to
e of them.
e, ARN takes a closer look Nogy partners operating
are making a point of
cular industry verticals – a
resulted in dividends.
e public sector plays a big
oes within Australia, while
r is a regular customer
ompany making a point
us on the vertical.
the financial services
revenue driver for
wise, BEarena has
ities abound from
hese companies
cal on which to
r, they have taken
know certain
e strengths
ayers within
continue
other
ise, vertical
develop
nding of
ed view of
hem.
ce,
| OCTOBER 2016 | arnnet.com.au
14 ANALYSIS/PWC
As analytics continues to invade the enterprise, Australian still remains in the early stages of adoption - James Henderson reports.
A ustralian organisations
are using data analytics
retrospectively to see what
has gone wrong and why, but gut
instinct still trumps gigabytes when
it comes to determining what actions
should be taken in future.
Findings from PwC’s Global Data and Analytics survey 2016 shows that
Australian organisations across
all industries trail behind global
peers in using predictive analytics to
understand what will or could happen
and prescriptive analytics to determine
what should happen and how.
Only 25 per cent of businesses
locally use analytics to predict and
prescribe what actions to take in
future compared to 42 per cent on
average globally.
Instead, 73 per cent of Australian
organisations still primarily use
analytics to ‘look back’ and understand
what has happened and why,
compared to 55 per cent globally.
Chinese organisations –
increasingly seen as role models
of digital innovation – are twice as
likely as Australian organisations
to use data analytics in planning for
the future, with 50 per cent of Chinese
organisations using predictive and
prescriptive analytics to determine
what actions should be taken in future.
“Many Australian organisations
have strong pockets of analytics
ability and use this to diagnose
a problem after an event has
happened,” PwC lead partner data
and analytics, John Studley, said.
“But their slow embrace of
predictive analytics means they are
failing to use this ability to steer
“There is more we can know, and fewer assumptions we have to make”
Executives still relying on gut, not gigabytes when future planning
their course and innovate.
“This is because too many
Australian organisations are chained
to static, backward looking reports.
An easy win is smarter visualisation.
“The greatest value of a picture is
when it forces us to notice something
that we never expected to see.”
Mind versus machineWhen it comes to the type of analysis
that will inform their next big decision,
most Australian organisations rely
primarily on human judgment rather
than machine algorithms (62 per
cent vs 59 per cent globally).
As explained by Studley, this is most
pronounced in Japan where 69 per
cent rely on human judgement, but
the opposite is true for China, with 56
per cent of businesses believing that
analysis will rely more on machines.
Delving deeper, two-thirds (61 per
cent) of organisations acknowledge
the benefits of relying on data
analysis more and intuition less.
“Most Australian companies are
still on the cusp of change – aware
of the machine power at hand, yet
clinging to a status quo that relies on
decision cultures based on intuition
and past experiences,” Studley added.
Yet for Studley, the case for
change is simple.
“The brightest or most
experienced person can only grapple
with three or four influencing
factors, whereas a machine can
calculate a probability distribution
and make the optimal decision
mathematically,” he explained.
Studley said the right mix of
mind and machine can help reduce
the impact of human bias and yield
more accurate answers, even for
complex problems.
“There is more we can know,
and fewer assumptions we have to
make,” he added.
“That doesn’t eliminate the critical
need for human judgement, but it does
require leaders to disrupt their cultures
so that their organisations can better
collaborate with and benefit from the
opportunities machines offer.”
Yet across the country, Studley
said budget constraints (36 per cent)
and leadership courage (26 per cent)
are limiting the use and application of
analytics by Australian organisations.
“Australian organisations aren’t
walking the talk on analytic data
innovation because they lack the
structures and mind-sets to bring
these to life,” he added.
“To foster a culture of analytics
capability and innovation,
business leaders should grow
data capability, cultivate an open,
transparent and test-and-learn
culture and leverage pockets of
analytics across the business.”
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© 2
016
Ver
itas
Tech
nolo
gies
LLC
. All
right
s re
serv
ed.
18 EDUCATION/KPMG
Richard Marrison – KPMG
| OCTOBER 2016 | arnnet.com.au
Photos by Maria Stefina
arnnet.com.au | OCTOBER 2016 |
KPMG/EDUCATION 19
Traditionally, the lifespan of a student was three to four years, with the path to university
graduation both short and simple.But with over 1.4 million domestic
and international students now enrolled in higher education across Australia, tertiary institutions are fighting to keep such prized assets.
“Education establishments are now asking – how can we keep a customer for life?” KPMG head of technology advisory, Richard Marrison, observed.
“They want to know how they can formulate a service that is personalised and tailored to that customer, which allows them to consume it through multiple channels.
“The education sector is commercialising and this is very much a corporate mentality.”
Such a corporate approach to education is now commonplace across the Australian sector, with technological tidal waves creating a commercial mindset at a national level.
While the art of turning a one-time buyer into a customer for life isn’t new, in education, momentum is building.
In predicting a “snowball effect” within the next three to five years, Marrison believes new digital delivery models will enable Australia’s largest tertiary institutions to capitalise on new business opportunities across the vertical.
“This concept of ‘service’ is government talk but it’s how the
industry is talking within education now also,” Marrison added. “It’s not about a citizen. It’s not about a student. It’s about a customer.
“We are seeing some of the large Australian universities spend hundreds of millions of dollars on technology change.
“But if you sit outside the sector, you would never think a
university would spend a hundred million dollars on a technology change program.”
In the business world, customer service is a prized commodity, one that directly impacts the bottom line.
The same can now be seen in education, as universities realise that if students stay with an institution longer, such loyalty builds a barrier to competition, meaning greater consumption and increased sales.
“Universities want a commercial relationship with an individual all the way through their working life and beyond because they are going to be in a constant state of retraining,” Marrison explained.
As digital transformation dictates Australian business priorities, Marrison believes that the requirements of the modern day workforce is changing alongside, creating a need for new skills and competencies.
Increased student demand is creating a customer-orientated higher education marketplace – KPMG Technology Advisory lead, Richard Marrison, assesses the impact with Holly Morgan.
“An individual may have completed a maths undergraduate degree, but then they may move into technology and then they may move into marketing,” he explained.
“Who knows where people will move in the future – it all depends on what the workforce demands.
“The concept of education, particularly higher education, of being
a place where you have to attract the best and brightest at the age of 18, keep them for three or four
years and then part company with them is changing dramatically.”
Customer expansionIn light of dramatic market change, KPMG has also altered its approach in accordance with industry shifts, deepening its education play during the past few years.
Historically, the consulting giant hasn’t been “active” within the education vertical, yet as new technologies infiltrate the workforce, Marrison acknowledged that the sector as a whole has “woken up” to the opportunity in keeping a “customer for life”.
In regional Australia, away from the hustle and bustle of city life, enrolment levels are decreasing slightly, down 1.6 per cent compared to a national rise of 2.7 per cent.
But as Marrison explained, the need to widen the customer base extends past Australian shores, and into the lucrative Asia Pacific region.
A N ENTERPRISEA P P R O A C H T O E D U C A T I O N
“The education sector is commercialising and this is very much a corporate mentality”
| OCTOBER 2016 | arnnet.com.au
20 EDUCATION/KPMG
“They need to use the data available to them to constantly maintain a relationship.
“During the old era, students never actually updated their details and universities never reached out to force this, but this is changing.
“Now universities want to form a relationship with LinkedIn for example, and are asking providers if they can use the functionality of a CRM application that scrapes LinkedIn to constantly refresh contact details within the alumni.”
AdvisoryAlongside the technological demands placed on partners, Marrison said KPMG is now providing a broad array of services within the education space, focused on strategic planning and governance arrangements.
But to effectively sell to the sector, Marrison advised partners to draw on experience from advising across other verticals, emphasising the importance of delivering pragmatic industry know-how to end-users in education.
“You need to actually have the war stories and the scars to bring that to life,” he said.
“You also require an understanding of the broader environment because education is no different to banking or to consumer goods in that you need to understand the political landscape, the regulatory landscape and the global landscape.”
In Australia, and specific to the channel, Marrison said that in 2016, it’s “highly unrealistic” for partners to be operating across multiple verticals.
Rather, a technology advisor must be specialised to provide valuable advice in specific sectors.
“Educators want to talk to other educators and bankers want to talk to other bankers,” he said.
“This is because they see themselves first and foremost as an industry specialist. You are dealing with a very particular climate with the education sector.
“First and foremost you’ve got very distinct stakeholder groups and you’ve got the executive leadership who are a pretty commercial group of individuals.
“They are paid well, they have extensive experience and they are normally running another big business somewhere else – they are CEO material.”
In light of such CEO material running the education sector today, a new approach is now required, specifically from the partners selling into it.
“Australian universities see a lot of their future customers as being based across the region,” he observed. “Strategies and financial success is now premised upon universities attracting a share of the Asian market.
“Why does someone living in Jakarta need to relocate to Australia for four years to complete their degree? It’s very expensive and cuts out a lot of customers because they can’t service that customer base economically and at a price point that works for the student.
“This is now the language of education and it’s exactly the same as the world of corporates.
“How can you provide the service of education at a price point that works for a customer base that you currently can’t reach?”
TechnologiesIn keeping with a business-focused approach – and the need to attract a wider pool of customers – Marrison said institutions are deepening engagement with the channel, driven by the need to deploy enterprise-grade technologies.
Consequently, Australian universities are calling on KPMG to implement customer relationship management (CRM) tools that are fit for business, supported by strong digital marketing strategies.
“Universities now want leading edge student management systems to engage appropriately with their customers,” Marrison added.
“Universities want a commercial relationship with an individual all the way through their
working life and beyond because they are going to be in a constant state of retraining”
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| OCTOBER 2016 | arnnet.com.au
Technology deployments in government differ from traditional private sector practices - Deloitte Australia national consulting public sector lead, Ellen Derrick, explains the differences to Chris Player.
Probing the Public Sector
Ellen Derrick - Deloitte
The entire government contract portfolio - spanning maintenance,
implementation, consulting, advisory and managed services – represents the holy grail for the Australian channel.
Yet interacting with the public sector is a complex and bureaucratic beast, with providers facing an uphill battle – coupled with a steep learning curve – when responding to tenders.
In drawing on over 20 years of public sector experience, Deloitte Australia national consulting public sector lead, Ellen Derrick, believes new digitally driven agendas in government presents ongoing opportunities for the channel around advisory, integration and managed services.
“But partners must be mindful when securing lucrative government contracts of the differences between dealing with the public sector as opposed to private enterprise,” Derrick said.
Despite cut-throat competition dominating both sectors, Derrick advised that key distinctions should be made when distinguishing public business from private.
22 GOVERNMENT/DELOITTE
Photos by Maria Stefina
arnnet.com.au | OCTOBER 2016 |
DELOITTE/GOVERNMENT 23
Traditionally, the majority of government IT systems were siloed, yet through the adoption of cloud-first strategies among many internal departments – in parallel with increased digital transformation initiatives – such disparate environments are beginning to find a point of parity.
In aiding the delivery of strategic policy outcomes, Derrick observed that today, government departments across the country have a new appetite for emerging technologies, in particular cloud.
Previously, government would design and build infrastructure that was fit for purpose, with such strategy now reserved for security forces and divisions holding sensitive
data, such as the Department of Finance.
Cloud-first policiesUpon the release of a Cloud Computing Policy in October 2014, data showed only modest use of cloud services by government agencies at the time.
Two years later and cloud first policies have become the new norm across many areas of the Australian public sector, and while the majority of infrastructure remains on premise, Derrick said new deployments are now directed skyward.
“There’s a real appetite for cloud,” Derrick observed. “The advancements in the technology have made it an attractive proposition for the public sector.”
Such appetite is playing out across government with departments traditionally bound by the build camp now edging towards a cloud first strategy, illustrated by the Australian Tax Office (ATO) moving to Amazon Web Services (AWS).
Originally planned as a reinvention of the agency’s digital technology program through to 2020, the department has now moved mission critical applications to the public cloud with the help of Accenture and IBM.
Due to the scale at which government operates at however,
Derrick insisted that the threshold for failure is low, with numerous stakeholders ensuring a rollout takes typically longer than in enterprise, which operates based on a more autocratic model.
When advising the public sector, Derrick said partners encounter the policies of line agencies – those which deal with the primary function of the department – alongside ministerial priorities, which often fail to add up.
“Large ICT enabled transformations normally involve multiple stakeholders, including multiple agencies, ministers, jurisdictions, end
users and their representative groups and many operational staff,” Derrick said.
“It depends on the scale of the transformation but often the biggest challenge in achieving outcomes is keeping stakeholders aligned to the vision.
“Unlike the private sector, because there are many stakeholders there is rarely a single decision maker – and it is important to keep alignment across stakeholders – so you see a more consensual style to delivery and decision making than you would see in the private sector.”
Once decisions are reached however, particularly in cloud, Derrick insisted that government preference is based around replying as soon as possible, while taking into account any setbacks or failures.
“There is a policy of fail fast,” Derrick added.
Public scrutinyOnce the slogan of the budding entrepreneur, and now adopted by the enterprise, the failing fast mantra of many represents a double edged sword for public sector departments.
Given the visibility of the deals to the public, and the subsequent impact on citizenry, Derrick cautioned that such an approach to business can create greater scrutiny than private sector deployments.
A quick glance at the technology and mainstream media last month provides the most recent example of a government ICT policy falling under intense public criticism, following the IBM census debacle in August.
“Often the biggest challenge in achieving outcomes is keeping stakeholders aligned to the vision”
| OCTOBER 2016 | arnnet.com.au
24 GOVERNMENT/DELOITTE
After winning the $9.6 million contract from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) in 2014 – to design, develop and implement the online census – Big Blue has been directly blamed by government for its role in allowing four distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks to take down the country’s online census service.
As the only non-government entity involved, the tech giant was taken to task by Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, who fiercely insisted “heads would roll” following the technology collapse.
A matter of weeks later, two senior IBM staff in Australia “resigned with immediate effect”, emphasising the technological tight rope that connects success with failure in government.
PartnershipsAcross Australia, the public sector relies heavily on cooperation with business for delivering IT projects, but also leans on partners to deliver the essential skills lacking in-house.
While a lack of deep expertise and resources isn’t unique to government, public sector organisations by definition typically possess greater capacity to employ specialist skills compared to enterprise.
But no single entity can possess all the skills required for ongoing digital transformation, leaving partnership as a crucial component in the delivery of public sector technology projects.
As Prime Minister, Turnbull recently called for a rethink in the way services are deployed, insisting he remained “very sceptical” about government outsourcing IT services to large system integrators that deliver less than first promised.
“That's why, as Prime Minister, I set up the Digital Transformation Office within government,” outlined Turnbull, during an appearance on ABC Q&A in June.
“That is to be an agency to operate like a start-up with the innovative edge of a start-up but to revive and renew government online services
from within government, rather than just signing big contracts with big systems – you know, private companies, big system integrators.
“What we have to do is ensure that you bring government into the 21st century, government services into the 21st century and you don't do that solely by pushing them all out the door so that there is nothing left inside government.
“There is a lot of innovation that can be done in government if you provide the right leadership and the right culture.”
But as Derrick qualified, while the issue of developing IT skills within government remains high on the agenda, it’s not black and white.
“It’s not a matter of simply having deployments done by the public sector or by government,” Derrick explained.
“There would always be collaboration at some level no matter how advanced government departments become at digital transformation.”
For Derrick, the consumer experience of citizens, through mobile banking and eCommerce applications, has driven many to expect similar levels of interaction within government agencies.
“You hear this directly from Malcolm Turnbull or any agency,” Derrick added. “Consumers expect the same experience when they transact with government as they get when they use their banking app or order an Uber – it should be that simple and easy.”
“There’s a real appetite for cloud”
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| OCTOBER 2016 | arnnet.com.au
26 FINANCE/THE MISSING LINK
Sometimes it’s okay to just say ‘no’.
Just ask The Missing Link security manager and director, Aaron Bailey, who often finds himself in the unenviable position of telling some of Australia’s largest financial institutions that, actually, no, they can’t have exactly what they want.
But for Bailey, it’s all part of building a deeper level of trust between provider and end-user.
Whether it be one of the country’s Big Four banks - The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), Westpac, National Australia Bank (NAB) or ANZ – there’s value in the channel standing firm when advising on technology infrastructure deals.
“If we want their trust, we can’t just be yes men agreeing with them all the time,” Bailey said.
“Has there ever been conflict? Yes but you’ve got to say, ‘I don’t believe in that direction you’re going in, I think your money’s better spent over here’, or, ‘I don’t believe in that technology choice, and here are the reasons why’.”
Bailey said such conversations arise from “time to time” in the boardrooms of mega banking institutions, due to the large internal technology teams and internally-driven projects impacting discussions.
“You’ve got to have integrity in what you do, and you’ve got to believe in what you do. Otherwise, why are you doing it?.”
For the Big Four banks propping up Australia’s financial market, enterprise technology represents a major investment, with security infrastructure viewed as a serious business.
CBA alone spent just under $1.5 billion in information and technology services for the year ending June 2016, with application maintenance and development gobbling up $511 million of that, and data processing taking $197 million for the year.
While CBA doesn’t habitually break down its technology
investment into application type in its public financial documents, a large proportion of its tech investment for 2016 would have been pumped into security, according to Bailey.
Combined, the country’s Big Four invest over $3.5 billion on technology infrastructure and services annually, with CBA spending the most out of the gang.
“Banks are fairly paranoid about security,” Bailey observed. “They will spend a lot of time, money, and people making sure that something is secure.”
This is where The Missing Link enter the discussion, with
Technology investmentsSpecifically, banks such as CBA employ top field experts to work with internal staff to drive technology decision making from the inside.
But on the outside, so does The Missing Link, with this clash of experts causing the potential to give rise to dissenting voices between partner and customer.
“It’s just an opinion at the end of the day,” he said. “We’ve gained our opinion having people who have worked in security for their whole lives, in a number of different places for different clients as technology has evolved over
15 years in the space – we have a professional opinion, as do others.”
On occasions, Bailey said such internally-driven visions have prompted some end-users to walk away from deals, and instead seek other implementation partners that are open to aligning with internal strategies.
But more often than not, they return equipped with the knowledge that Bailey and his team act on what is best for the company and its stakeholders.
“Yes, we may lose a project, but not a client,” Bailey said. “I don’t think we’ve ever lost a client doing that.
Pushing back on some of Australia’s largest banks can be a good thing for technology implementation partners - The Missing Link security manager and director, Aaron Bailey, explains why to Leon Spencer.
WHY SAYING NO BUILDS TRUST IN FINANCE
“If we want their trust, we can’t just be yes men agreeing with them all the time”
arnnet.com.au | OCTOBER 2016 |
THE MISSING LINK/FINANCE 27
Photos by Maria Stefina
Aaron Bailey – The Missing Link
| OCTOBER 2016 | arnnet.com.au
28 FINANCE/THE MISSING LINK
In searching for the cutting edge security technologies of the future, The Missing Link continually invests in new and emerging solutions such as cloud access security broker (CASB) and security incident event management (SIEM), alongside keeping pace with best industry practices.
“Otherwise we have no strategic value to our existing vendors,” he said. “And, remember, the vendors aren’t sitting still either.”
Bailey said The Missing Link recently completed its Council for Registered Ethical Security Testers (CREST) certification, with the federal government-mandated certification essentially freeing up the company to hack their clients – ethically.
Unsurprisingly, at least one of the Big Four banks requires partners to have this certification in order to conduct ethical attacks, highlighting how partners must always aim to stay on the front foot in the rapidly evolving world of finance.
Given the sector’s reputation for exceptionally swift evolution cycles, it’s a trait that is no longer desirable for partners, rather necessary in 2016 and beyond.
Bailey consulting for, and selling products and services to, some of Australia’s largest financial services institutions, including the Reserve bank of Australia, Westpac, Allianz and CBA.
Next big thingSpecific to security infrastructure, the financial services sector has one of the highest rates of investment than any other sector, with banks generally sitting at the top of the sector in terms of security investment as a percentage of total IT spend.
The stakes are high, and the sector’s investment in security technology reflects that.
For Bailey, this means that banks usually have extensive and sophisticated internal security teams that are always on the lookout for the next big thing in security, and they generally err on the side of early adoption. But this can sometimes lead to tricky conversations.
Bailey had recently been in a meeting with a bank, when he was asked whether The Missing Link could provide it with any “quantum cryptography architects”.
“I read New Scientist, and I thought that was still in the laboratory,” Bailey recalled. “But it turns out that there’s a vendor that does point-to-point quantum-encrypted laser-based communications.”
Bailey believes this highlights yet another quirk of selling technology into the financial services sector: not only is it okay to say ‘no’ to the big banks, it’s also entirely acceptable to profess ignorance.
“I don’t feel ashamed at all to tell them, ‘no, we don’t have any quantum cryptography architects’,” he added.
Instead, Bailey makes a case for the talents and abilities of his
team, offering up smart people who are good architects, good at cryptography, and who are also keen to learn.
With this in mind, a bank might pay The Missing Link staff members to learn with them about how to develop and use emerging security technology.
But once again, this approach all comes down one overriding quality.
“You’ve got to be honest,” he added. “Banks are built on trust and selling security is about trust.”
Always on the front footOnce trust is built however, then the real work begins.
“Banks are quite often early adopters of things,” Bailey added. “CBA is known as being the first bank [in Australia] to put some of its service in Amazon – in public cloud.
“Somebody’s got to do it. And banks – along with federal government – have got the biggest budgets to do it for security, so why shouldn’t they?”
Consequently, working in security technology requires a blend of constant research and getting the most out of the technology available today.
“Banks are built on trust and selling security is about trust”
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| OCTOBER 2016 | arnnet.com.au
Driven by increased cloud adoption and tailored technological
solutions, healthcare is becoming one of the fastest growing verticals in Australia.
Reflective of global trends, healthcare IT spending in Australia continues to increase, triggered by a growing and ageing population, advances in medical technology and treatments, and an increasing awareness of health-related issues.
For BEarena managing director, Darren Ashley, partnership with hyper-converged vendor Nutanix has allowed the Sydney-based reseller to expand into the lucrative healthcare market in Australia.
“We brought Nutanix to Australia in 2012 and realised that it’s suitable for all verticals,” he said. “Nutanix has architecture that allows businesses to scale infinitely but also tolerate loss of instances, or single nodes.”
As leaders in next-generation virtualisation, BEarena provides a range of managed services across on premise and cloud, striking partnerships with key vendors such as Nutanix, Microsoft, VMware, Veeam, Dell, Cisco and Pure Storage.
Today, healthcare represents a core part of the channel arsenal for resellers – BEarena managing director, Darren Ashley, explains its potential to Hafizah Osman.
30 HEALTH/BEARENA
Photos by Maria Stefina
arnnet.com.au | OCTOBER 2016 |
BEARENA/HEALTH 31
“Analytics continues to be one of the fastest-growing segments of the provider IT budget in 2016 as it has been for several years,” Hanover added.
“Ongoing investment in ACO, clinical, and quality will continue in 2016, but hot areas of new analytics investment reported also include provider and care team performance analytics, as well as analytics that examine referral patterns and other financial analytics areas.”
As digital disruption impacts all verticals, healthcare
included, Ashley said the transforming technology landscape is triggering changing conversations with end-users.
In Australia, providers are taking advantage of more cloud implementations and leveraging mobile and analytics capabilities in the cloud.
Specific to health, comfort levels with cloud are growing, with hospitals and healthcare organisations increasingly seeing the viability of moving workloads to the skies.
“Our conversations of four years focused around what a
With core competencies in retail, government, automation and higher education, the company advanced its efforts within healthcare through strong end-user relationships, with one customer purchasing ten rounds of infrastructure.
“When you are getting repeat business over a three-year relationship, there’s got to be something in that,” Ashley said. “Nutanix in particular is attractive to healthcare providers because they don’t have to buy those huge monolithic storage
devices, which comes with a pay-as-you-grow model.
“We’re now targeting other healthcare customers, leveraging the success we’ve had with our first healthcare win.”
Consequently, Ashley said 30 per cent of the company’s business now comes from health, with the company owning an exclusive Nutanix relationship with one of Australia’s largest healthcare providers.
“We’re focused on a particular kind of technology,” Ashley said. “We don’t have a huge vendor portfolio and in terms of the
A clean bill of channel health
platform, 99 times out of 100, it will be a Nutanix platform but they’ve got OEM relationships with both Dell and Lenovo, so it could be any flavour.”
TechnologiesAccording to IDC findings, top drivers for technology budget growth in healthcare include analytics, patient engagement, customer relationship management and security.
“Security strategies are maturing,” IDC research director, Judy Hanover, said.
“Cybersecurity is one of the new growth areas in the provider IT budget, and this growth is expected to continue in 2016.
“Threats are top of mind, but the increased availability of resources for IT security is allowing providers to begin to implement strategies to secure data and networks. Top priorities include focusing on security in the cloud, monitoring the environment, and controlling shadow IT.”
Meanwhile, analytics spending continues to grow, and big data is also here to stay in healthcare.
“Everything’s going digital and that leads to increased storage requirement, and availability of that data”
Darren Ashley – BEarena
| OCTOBER 2016 | arnnet.com.au
32 HEALTH/BEARENA
the Nutanix infrastructure,” he said.
“VDI has made it easy to get information to doctors. In some of the hospitals, we’re no longer looking at clipboards at the bottom of patients’ beds. We’re now using an iPad and PCs. VDI has enabled better patient care.”
Delving deeper, Ashley said healthcare end-users also seek greater levels of availability from technology deployments.
“Our conversations are all around availability,” he said.
“Businesses with traditional architectures very rarely revisit the architecture and apply software upgrade to a storage device, unless it’s addressing a particular bug or delivering a superior functionality.
“From a business outcomes point of view, they want availability 24/7 and don’t want to spend a fortune managing it. They want to take cost out of the IT infrastructure alongside a greater speed to market.”
Looking ahead, Ashley said BEarena has a goal to deploy this technology across every healthcare provider in Australia.
“Everything’s going digital and that leads to increased storage requirement, and availability of that data,” he said.
“That’s the perfect storm for this type of architecture. A lot of the healthcare customers we have don’t have large IT teams and with everyone trying to do more with less, that simplification and infrastructure resonates well.”
As the perfect storm descends over the market in Australia, for BEarena, success in the sector continues to offer a healthy return on investment.
vendor system looks like and the components within it,” Ashley recalled. “But today we talk about business outcomes and not hardware with our customers.
“Hardware is just a commodity, what we’re talking about is the simplicity.”
Ashley said trends such as cloud, mobility, storage and virtualisation have contributed to altering the “type and quality” of conversations with end-users across healthcare, as customer demands continue to change.
“Digital disruption has increased our customers’ storage requirements and it has made them serve their customers faster and lets them make things available immediately,” he said.
“It hasn’t dramatically changed conversations but the scale out story works well.”
Yet in the healthcare, Ashley said many providers still remain reluctant to send data to the public cloud, allowing BEarena to leverage its relationship with Nutanix.
“There might be a number of auxiliary services that they want to run in the public cloud,” he explained. “The Nutanix architecture, because it’s software based, allows customers to embrace the public cloud as it works with AWS and Microsoft.
“It’s attractive because the pay-as-you-go type model means that they don’t need to go out and spend millions of dollars on storage, they can start off with a smaller investment and as the number of images grows, they can just add nodes. It’s very simple to do that.”
Within health, Ashley said the long-term goal is to make workloads portable between on-premise private cloud infrastructure and Microsoft’s public cloud infrastructure.
“There’s an interest there but again, there’s not a lot of data that gets up on the public clouds,” he added.
Customer demandsAshley said the deployment of Nutanix architecture within a health environment provides a strong customer advantage in that it blends with Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), allowing providers to centralise desktop services.
“Our largest customers in the healthcare space both run VDI and several other loads on
“Hardware is just a commodity, what we’re talking about is the simplicity”
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Less than 48 hours after entering into an agreement to acquire the
Technology Solutions business from Avnet, Tech Data CEO, Bob Dutkowsky, played his hand.
“Let me paint you a picture,” he explained. “You’re a reseller with a mid-sized customer who wants a complete technology refresh, covering infrastructure, mobile and network upgrades.
“So what do you do? You call your data centre distributor, then you call your networking distributor and then you call your software distributor.
“Then, you call the distributor who specialises in desktop refreshes and the distributor with expertise in securing the entire environment.
“Or, you call Tech Data.”Perhaps it’s the brash
American approach, but nonetheless, in the eyes of Dutkowsky, Tech Data is bound together with much stronger DNA that its fiercest competitors in the channel.
As the world’s second largest distributor – behind only Ingram Micro in size and scale – the US-based organisation is a true titan of industry, generating $US26.4 billion in net sales for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2016, with a no.108 ranking on the Fortune 500.
Selling over 150,000 products to over 105,000 customers spanning over 100 countries, Tech Data processes more than 50,000 daily transactions, through representing market leading vendors such as Apple, Cisco, Microsoft, IBM, HP,
After years of speculation, Tech Data finally signalled its intention to touch down on Australia shores – Tech Data CEO, Bob Dutkowsky, outlines to James Henderson what makes the distribution giant tick.
TECH DATAIN TOWN…
Bob Dutkowsky (Tech Data)
34 INTERVIEW/TECH DATA
| OCTOBER 2016 | arnnet.com.au
arnnet.com.au | OCTOBER 2016 |
TECH DATA /INTERVIEW 35
social business, big data and analytics.
As outlined by IDC, 3rd Platform solutions are expected to be the primary growth driver of the ICT industry over the next decade, responsible for 75 per cent of the growth as worldwide industry spend moves from $US3.2 trillion in 2013 to $US5.3 trillion by 2020.
“Stack us up against any of the other players and you’ll find that we’re the only ones capable of addressing the broader array of issues in the market today,” Dutkowsky claimed.
With cloud at its core, the 3rd Platform represents the next-generation compute platform characterised by a proliferation of always-connected smart mobile devices, coupled with the widespread usage of social networking, and layered over a cloud-based server infrastructure supporting important new workloads such as big data analytics.
Yet for resellers in Australia, such rhetoric remains just that, rhetoric.
For partners are forever fielding pitches that profess true expertise across the entire technology spectrum, the one-stop-shop in distribution and the magic supermarket of choice for the channel.
But is the notion of end-to-end now representative
of more than just an empty phrase?
“Our view is that the IT distributor of the future has to be that end-to-end player and the reason for this is simple,” Dutkowsky explained.
“Computing is growing every day and there is more compute than the day before. Think of the computing capability in your
smartphone compared to what it was before, and then Apple announces a new device with greater power, more speed, more compute and longer battery life.
“But if you’re siloed and only support a place where that computing happens, we think you’re limiting yourself as a distributor.”
Dutkowsky said the distributor operates across the entire spectrum of where computing happens, from the home to the cloud.
“We touch the home, the consumer, the devices, the small and medium-sized businesses, up into enterprise, into small and large data centres and on the onramp to the cloud,” he said. “We do all of that today and that’s what we think separates us from the competition.”
In short, Dutkowsky believes the “narrowly focused” distributor of the past will be left behind, as the data centre expands and the 3rd Platform takes control of the technology market.
Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Dell et al.
Despite streams of investor presentation statistics however, Tech Data aims to become the quintessential modern-day distributor, fusing distributor volume with reseller value as it bids to turn the Australian channel on its head.
“We’ll worry about sourcing the product, the reseller can worry about adding value,” Dutkowsky said. “The role of the reseller is to project manage and implement, that’s the real value, not in the management of the kit.
“That’s our job and we can do that end-to-end which represents a huge advantage for the channel, especially at the smaller end of town. Smaller resellers don’t have the time or resources to manage multiple distributors, sort pricing and manage shipments and logistics.
“They want to solve customer problems because that’s what the customer will pay them for and crucially, that’s where the margin is.”
Spanning the spectrumTerms of the multi-billion dollar acquisition – which is expected to close in early 2017 – sees Tech Data take control of Avnet’s core distribution portfolio, establishing an immediate Asia Pacific presence and increased capabilities around data centre services, software and hardware.
In chasing Avnet for over two years, Dutkowsky said the deal allows Tech Data to take ownership of the 3rd Platform play, spanning cloud, mobility,
“We’ll worry about sourcing the product, the reseller can worry about adding value”
| OCTOBER 2016 | arnnet.com.au
36 INTERVIEW/TECH DATA
“Vendors are not supply chain or sales companies, they live, breathe and die to invent,” he said. “They invent and because of this, they’ve pushed more work towards distribution.
“We work with vendors that have outsourced their entire supply chain and have given us whole customer sets that they don’t even contact anymore, it’s all through distribution.
“We manage products, investor levels, the number of resellers in a market and we do all of that for a fee, which is dramatically different to the distributor of 10 years ago. We used to pick, pack and ship boxes, but things have changed.”
Dutkowsky said Tech Data will soon “jump into a leadership role” across the global market upon completion of the deal, emphasising the distributor’s deepened set of skills and technologies.
“Once we get there we will set the agenda,” he said. “We don’t own any IP but once it’s been invented we will be best placed to show the channel how to utilise new technologies through training, certifications, configuration capabilities up to building out converged infrastructure and hardware, as well as loading software.
“We have much of those capabilities today but we believe that you have to continually improve to be a competitive force within the channel.”
Future of distributionConsequently, in the eyes of Tech Data, the reseller today wants to do less with products and more with solutions and services.
“But there still has to be products there to make that solution become a reality,” Dutkowsky cautioned.
“The value proposition of the distributor has also changed as the reseller channel moves into the services and support markets, but it doesn’t mean the value of the kit is less important. Rather it just means the work has moved to a different place.”
Following channel-related roles at IBM and EMC, Dutkowsky accepts that vendors live to “invent things, not to supply or sell things”, creating a pivotal role for distribution as a result.
“Once we get there we will set the agenda”
WHY AVNET?
“There’s still six to nine months left before this deal closes,
and until then, we’re competitors with Avnet.”
But from a technology perspective, Dutkowsky said Tech
Data “consciously moved into the data centre space” to
reflect the changing trends of the market, and the rise of
3rd Platform technologies.
“Avnet ticked all of our boxes in terms of growing our
Americas business, expanding our data centre focus and
entering Asia Pacific,” he said.
“But it took us over a year to convince Avnet to make the
deal happen, we took an unsolicited bid to them because the
business wasn’t for sale and they weren’t interested in selling.”
In short, Dutkowsky said the board believed Tech Data
needed to become more skilled and carry more depth within its
data centre business.
“We needed to diversify out and put the company in balance
again, through growing the Americas business and keeping our
momentum in Europe,” he said.
Lastly, Dutkowsky said Tech Data believed the time was
right to move in the Asia Pacific market following the rollout
of the company’s internal SAP system, which took ten years
longer than previously planned.
“It took us longer to get ready for Asia,” he explained. “We
were deploying SAP around the globe for 12 years and it was
supposed to be an easy product that would take a couple of
years, but it was massive and took 12 years.
“But now 95 per cent of Tech Data is run through one SAP
template and system which means we operate the same in
Venice as we do in Las Vegas.”
“The IT distributor of the future has to be that end-to-end player”
Tech Data headquarters
| OCTOBER 2016 | arnnet.com.au
38 ANALYSIS/GARTNER
Customers are rapidly turning into competitors. Is your business prepared?
W e’ve seen the rapid
rise of online sharing
platforms in recent years
like Airbnb, which now has more
than two million properties listed
for rent, without owning a single
piece of real estate.
While there’s an assumption that
the sharing economy is only a B2C
phenomenon, it’s having impact on
the B2B segment as well.
Sharing assets and resources
can help organisations access
otherwise prohibitive assets and
services due to lack of resources,
allowing them to react quickly to
market changes in a less expensive
and more efficient manner.
The sharing economy is shaking
up the traditional approach of
end users purchasing equipment
outright from an original equipment
manufacturer (OEM), or via a utility,
consumption model from cloud
providers, managed cloud providers
or channel partners.
An organisation that needs IT
resources to support its significant
expansion, for example, might be
considering whether to purchase
new servers and storage equipment,
or expand its existing data centre.
What if that same company were
to find an existing organisation with
excess technology capacity, which is
willing to “share” its IT infrastructure
with other companies?
The sharing economy is shifting
IT purchasing decisions away from
incumbent IT and extends the meaning
of customers and competitors, where
every company is an IT company.
“While there’s an assumption that the sharing economy is only a B2C phenomenon, it’s
having impact on the B2B segment as well”
Understanding the impact of the sharing economy
IT buyers can end up competing
with their OEMs and service
providers, complicating the work of
strategic planners as they seek new
avenues for growth.
The blurring between providers and customersThe line between providers and
customers becomes blurred as IT
organisations with excess capacity and
new digital capabilities seek to create
new revenue streams, potentially
altering the vendor landscape with
more competitive offers.
If you think this is farfetched,
you only have to look at the
disruption that’s beginning to
happen in construction, farming
and manufacturing — anywhere
there are big, upfront investments in
expensive equipment assets.
Monetisation of excess IT capacity
via sharing models is not some
distant future phenomenon.
IT providers are already
developing business models around
the sharing economy, leveraging
consumer PCs (idle CPUs, unused
storage), network bandwidth and
excess cloud computing resources.
There’s an irreversible and
growing trend away from outright
IT ownership in favour of “access”
when needed, especially in
infrastructure and software.
This leaves providers scrambling
to ease the blow to their traditional
business as they compete with cloud
business models on one hand, and
seek new customers and market
segments to maintain profitability
and stay relevant on the other.
Maximising assetsExisting go-to-market strategies
will not necessarily work in the
sharing economy model, requiring
service providers to develop new
competitive and partnership models.
It’s fundamentally about maximising
the utilisation of existing assets,
allowing organisations and users to
share capacity.
To do so, a platform that connects
sellers and buyers is required,
similar to what the Airbnb and Uber
applications do for home and vehicle
owners willing to rent their assets
to users.
For IT assets, this can be
accomplished through system
integrators (SIs), cloud service brokers
(CSBs) and other intermediaries
utilising powerful software platforms
that connect assets, services and
market participants.
Service providers need to identify
products, services and software
platforms that can be provided to
the various parts of the ecosystem,
from existing customers to partners,
which allow them to remain a
relevant participant in the sharing
economy value chain.
By Moe Ali — group vice president of Australia and New Zealand, Gartner
Moe Ali - Gartner
| OCTOBER 2016 | arnnet.com.au
Back-up and business continuity are fundamental in any business strategy - Hafizah Osman
examines how this translates in the channel.
BUILDING A BUSINESS CONTINUITY
CHANNEL PLAN
While Australia remains aware of the need to deploy comprehensive
disaster recovery plans – to prevent downtime and facilitate faster recovery time – businesses remain challenged when compiling a strategy of mission-critical importance.
Crucial to operating in 24/7/365 environments, disasters today are no longer simply of the natural variety, as the impact of man-made errors continue to hinder enterprise.
Often human error turns an avoidable problem into a catastrophe, placing the data centre under new pressures and strains.
“Organisations are relying on their data centres more than ever before,” APC by Schneider Electric partner development manager, Beau Alderson, said.
“This places tremendous pressure on IT professionals to keep their data centre and network infrastructure running at all times.”
With zero-disruption as the ultimate goal, Alderson believes Australian management must carefully evaluate and mitigate risks to the physical infrastructure that supports a mission-critical facility.
“Without a proper disaster mitigation plan for a facility’s infrastructure, the overall business continuity plan is built on a risky foundation,” he added.
In short, Alderson said to survive tomorrow’s disaster, planning must be made today.
40 TECH WATCH/BUSINESS CONTINUITY
arnnet.com.au | OCTOBER 2016 |
BUSINESS CONTINUITY/TECH WATCH 41
“The main costs of business continuity lies in having the expert skill sets either internally with the business or with a service provider to ensure the plans produced are closely aligned with business expectations and customer experience.”
As a result, Atherton believes downtime carries an “enormous price tag”, emphasising the critical nature of minimising interruption to business operations.
“The price tag varies not only by industry, but also by the scale of business operations,” he added.
“For a medium-sized business, the hourly cost may be lower, yet the business impact can be proportionally larger.
“Nailing down the cost of each hour of downtime varies and is based on a number of factors, such as the nature of the business, the size of the company and the criticality of its IT systems related to revenue generation.”
“Every second a data centre is offline costs an enterprise revenue, current and potential customers, and lost productivity,” he observed.
“Data centre outages can prevent online transactions, employee collaboration, data access, customer service, data back-up and recovery, and many more essential functions of a modern digital business.”
Digital transformationAs digital transformation takes shape across the country, business leaders are starting to grasp the huge potential of digital business, and demanding a better return on their organisation’s information assets and use of analytics.
Through the rise of data, and the phenomenal rate it is expected to continue increasing, organisations are struggling with traditional back-up methods that can no longer meet operational service-level agreements (SLAs).
“Businesses are now looking at rapid data protection and recovery methods such as snapshots and replication to augment or replace back-up to disk, tape or cloud strategies,” Nimble Storage Asia-Pacific and Japan systems engineering director, John Whyte, added.
“The increased reliance on IT systems has driven an expectation that data or systems are always available. Old methods of sending tapes offsite each day, and recalling them to perform a restore meant that end-users were waiting hours or days for their data.”
For Whyte, such methods no longer represent an acceptable SLA
for many organisations, meaning that keeping a local copy on disk is the new normal to meet operational recovery objectives.
“Customers also have new options for business continuity and can replicate to cloud or hosted service providers rather than building their own secondary site,” he added.
As explained by Whyte, piecing together a modern-day disaster recovery plan requires a two-step process.
The first involves identifying critical applications and data, which includes interviewing different parts of the business and mapping out the dependencies on revenue generation and receivables.
“Systems such as email, that were not deemed critical 10 to 15 years ago, are now often considered mission critical, so a regular review process is also important to make sure you keep up to date,” he explained.
“Next is to map those applications to the underlying IT systems, and ultimately find a balance of recovery time and cost that suits the business.”
Business requirementsYet back-up and business continuity plans must align with business strategy and operations, irrespective of the corporate agenda.
Whether through organisations increasing cloud adoption, honing in on hybrid models or deploying a digitally-focused end-user strategy, parallels must be made with the overall business requirements.
According to Eaton Australia and New Zealand power quality general manager, John Atherton, an effective preventive maintenance strategy can be one of the most cost-effective measures.
“Because regular maintenance practices improve systems reliability and performance, while notably deterring downtime, preventive maintenance is an essential component of an end-to-end solution,” he explained. Pieter DeGunst (Tecala Group)
Sam Voukenas (Oracle)
| OCTOBER 2016 | arnnet.com.au
42 TECH WATCH/BUSINESS CONTINUITY
| OCTOBER 2016 | arnnet.com.au
businesses face, while removing the operational burden for an IT team to facilitate back-up and disaster recovery platforms.
“The as-a-service business model is the perfect solution for back-up and business continuity, being on demand when you need it,” he added.
Rise of the MSPGoing forward, the future of business continuity in Australia depends on the education of the channel, as outlined by StorageCraft Asia-Pacific senior disaster recovery planning architect, Jack Alsop.
Alsop believes that during the next five years, the market will experience a growth in the number of managed service providers operating across Australia, providing education takes an upward curve.
“Business continuity is going to be a huge part of the MSP business in the next five years,” he predicted.
“Any partners that want to exist need to be an MSP of some sort. But we need education now for those partners to be able to gear themselves to think this way.”
Alsop said many organisations now believe that business continuity is no longer a problem, as a result of a lack of education.
“It’s tough to be in this business at the moment,” he admitted. “Two years ago, business continuity was not a difficult conversation to have because the Brisbane floods were still fresh in people’s minds and power outages were more common.
“But people have forgotten those lessons and are looking at reducing costs – it’s a part of the profitability conversation – and businesses are looking to drop business continuity cases because they don’t see value in this.
“Partners can benefit from being agile in terms of pricing, delivery, and implementation and have a range of business continuity options for their customers – it can be from the simple to the very complex.”
Channel playFrom a channel perspective, Oracle A/NZ storage director of business development, Sam Voukenas, said partners can now provide customer consulting practices, through to hosting and services around regular testing.
“If channel partners can look at opportunities to provide consulting around the likes of data classification, the prioritisation or risk profile of each application, and suggest the best method of back-up and business continuity,” he said.
In addition, Voukenas said the channel can help businesses take advantage of the database back-up cloud service space, where customers can utilise the same tools on-premise and back-up databases on to the cloud.
“Cloud-like offerings or hosted offerings through partners are ways to get around the high costs of business continuity,” he said.
“The partner can sell back-up for cloud or look at potentially hosting recovery appliances, for instance, to back-up customers’ environment and protect their recovery time.”
Furthermore, Voukenas outlined new opportunities around focusing on purpose built solutions at the heart of the recovery process.
“Because most businesses have their most critical workloads running on top of a database, instead of trying to back-up that information quickly, the focus should be on recovering as quickly as possible and eliminate any data lost,” he added.
From the partner side of the fence however, Tecala Group managing director, Pieter DeGunst, said the channel first needs to map out the true core systems within any company, outlining core interactions and dependencies.
“From this, the disaster recovery plan exercise can begin – modelling RPO and RTO requirements, selecting tools, vendors and most importantly,
defining or integrating with existing critical incident policies,” he said.
“Selecting a tool and partner to assist can help with the ongoing testing and upkeep requirements. And this is where a partner can come in.”
Looking ahead, DeGunst sees new potential in resellers engaging with customers in a reduction of business risk conversation.
“Business continuity is a major element of reducing risk, with the ultimate goal of protecting their revenues,” he advised.
“This helps to move away from a technical conversation and towards a business outcomes conversation in terms of which services and applications a business needs available to them, and in what timeframe should a disaster occur.”
For DeGunst, there are substantial opportunities for simplified offerings to address the risks that all
Jack Alsop (Storagecraft)
“Any partners that want to exist
need to be an MSP of some sort. But
we need education now for those
partners to be able to gear themselves to think this way”
Wells FargoCommercial Distribution Finance
A channel solution for growth and efficiency
cdf.wf.com/australia* Subject to satisfactory credit and other approvals. Terms and conditions apply.
© 2016 Wells Fargo International Finance, LLC & Wells Fargo International Finance (Australia) Pty Ltd. All rights reserved.
Wells Fargo Commercial Distribution Finance is the trade name for certain inventory (floor planning) services of Wells Fargo & Company and its subsidiaries including Wells Fargo International Finance, LLC and Wells Fargo International Finance (Australia) Pty Ltd (collectively, CDF).Wells Fargo International Finance, LLC and Wells Fargo International Finance (Australia) Pty Ltd are subsidiaries of Wells Fargo & Company, companies that are not authorised by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) as Authorised Deposit-taking Institutions (ADIs) in Australia or licensed or regulated by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) as Australian Financial Services Licence holders.
At Wells Fargo Commercial Distribution Finance we understand that cashflow management can be complex. We’ve developed a channel finance solution to help you remain agile and flexible.* Channel Finance keeps products moving through the supply chain by giving you the flexibility to replace your open account terms with varying repayment term options.* You’ll benefit from more predictable cashflow so you can confidently invest in business growth and efficiency. With Channel Finance, we’ll help you free up time to focus on what really matters — your customers.
Whether you are a manufacturer, distributor, reseller or partner; to learn how Channel Finance can help grow your business, call Damien Macaulay on 0416 477 341.
| OCTOBER 2016 | arnnet.com.au
44 TECH WATCH/BUSINESS CONTINUITY
From the perspective of the partner, the back-up and business continuity
conversation has now changed between organisations and IT vendors in recent years.
Previously, it was the vendor often found trying to persuade decision makers to invest more in expensive back-up solutions, yet today, it’s the business demanding new technologies around Recovery Point Objectives (RPO) and Recovery Time Objectives (RTO).
“An RTO is the amount of time that it should take to bring the IT systems back online following a disaster,” ASI Solutions managing director, Nathan Lowe, explained.
“Decision makers are becoming more aware of the risk to their businesses should an event render their IT systems unavailable, both financially and reputational.”
Lowe said there is a greater awareness within most companies not only of the business risk but also the technologies that are available
to mitigate those risks.“Software vendors of
products that protect against this risk are putting greater efforts into educating business owners and decision makers of what is possible,” he said.
“Back-up and recovery software is trending right now, and for good reason. Everyone is well aware of ransomware and knows at least one person that has been affected by it.
“It is forefront of most people’s minds to ensure that they are not caught in a situation where they are forced to pay a ransom to recover the business’ data from Cryptolocker or similar.”
Consequently, Lowe believes partners can add deeper value through offering “much more than quoting” for a bill of materials to implement a back-up
system and software.“The IT vendor really should
be building out a full managed service for all customer’s back-up and recovery systems, including professional services to build out a DR plan, and testing it on a yearly basis,” he added.
For Lowe, there are two questions to ask when considering a disaster recovery plan.
Firstly, what is the maximum tolerable period in which data might be lost from an IT service due to a major incident (RPO)?
Secondly, what is the duration of time and the service level within which a business process must be restored after a disaster (or disruption) in order to avoid unacceptable consequences associated with a break in business continuity RTO?
“The IT vendor really becomes the trusted advisor in this capacity and has a great opportunity to win the trust and confidence of their customer when they can demonstrate the ability to bring a business back online quickly after a disaster occurs,” he added.
When the answers to those questions have been determined, Lowe said then a disaster recovery plan can be drawn up by an IT services provider.
“It is key to ensure that your IT vendor can demonstrate they have the processes in place
themselves to competently do this for you,” he added.
“Demonstrable evidence that they have done this in the past is always useful. The objectives should be agreed upon and legally agreed to by your IT services provider, along with the costs to perform the tests.
“Finally, you should ensure that the DR process is actually tested, every 12 months is optimal, and that the results of the testing are documented and improvements made where required.”
PARTNER PERSPECTIVE – ASI SOLUTIONS…
Nathan Lowe
(ASI Solutions)
“Everyone is well aware of ransomware and knows at least one person that has been affected by it”
Prevention isn’t a myth. Find out how we’re using artificial intelligence and machine learning to stop threats from ever executing on your endpoints. Learn more at cylance.com.
SILENCECYBERATTACKS
| OCTOBER 2016 | arnnet.com.au
46 ROUNDTABLE/MOBILITY
ARN recently assessed the channel’s most lucrative mobility-orientated opportunities, uncovering the art of creating viable mobile strategies and maximising ongoing enterprise trends – Hafizah Osman reports.
Mobility meets the channel, but how can partners maximise the opportunity?
Mobility continues to gain greater interpretation across enterprise, as data becomes the lifeblood of today’s
business and new devices flood the market.But in this digital age, mobility – and all it
encompasses – continues to be a complex beast, and as it climbs up the enterprise priority ladder, how can the channel compete?
Organisations across Australia are becoming more power driven by data every day to make decisions, increase revenue, mitigate risk and innovate – seeking trusted partners to build tailored mobility strategies for 2016 and beyond.
With further market growth projected – coupled with new productivity tools – businesses now recognise the benefits that can be gleaned through a mobility mind shift.
The consumerisation of IT with mobile devices and their ecosystem of applications (called mass-market mobility) has gone into overdrive. Research by Gartner has shown that businesses need to focus on how these devices drive innovation and create business value, carefully balancing device and data control with employee freedom.
“It’s challenging us as an industry to take a position of leadership to demystify some of the tech speak and more so show people that the
journey, the end that can come through deploying proper mobile strategies,” Staples Technology Solutions general manager, Karl Sice, said.
Sice further elaborated on it, saying when it comes to mobility, vendors need to stop selling products and sell concepts, business improvements, cost savings and process improvements instead.
“That’s the language of the economy we’re now in,” he said. “We’re not in an economy which is looking for the smartest dude who has got the biggest IT degree. People need to have, at every level, business conversations and those conversations need to be value adding at every level.”
Channel Dynamics co-founder, Cam Wayland, said conversations around mobility have evolved from devices to one that is more about workflow and coming to terms with what customers are now facing and want.
“It’s a combination of how people want to work and using our collective intelligence and technologies to create a solution as an integrator or a supplier that works and delivers an outcome for customers,” he said. “That’s the essence of the mobility discussion.”
Airloom chief technology officer, Adrian Jeremy Pollak (Peace of Mind Technology)
Jay Turner (Targus)
arnnet.com.au | OCTOBER 2016 |
MOBILITY/ROUNDTABLE 47
Nick Beaugeard HUBONE
Cam Wayland
CHANNEL DYNAMICS
Basil Reilly
LOGICALIS
Hafizah Osman
ARN
Karl Sice
STAPLES
James Henderson
ARN
James Reilly
SKYWIRE
Peter Stein
DATACOM
Wayne Harper
ZEBRA
Martyn Young
F5
Adrian Noblett
AIRLOOM
Chris Hagios
AIRLOOM
Jay Turner
TARGUS
Noblett, said traditional business owners and technologists forget about the outcome they’re trying to drive – user experience.
“Technology has capabilities to make it really easy for users to consume data and produce data, but IT shops have had blinkers on and configured their environment in such a way that it’s easy for them to run and not easy for users to run.”
Datacom software licensing general manager, Peter Stein, said mobility in the corporate space needs to go beyond the mobile phone.
“You can’t do everything on a mobile phone,” he said. “It doesn’t cut the mustard; it doesn’t solve all problems. As you go into the public sector, mobility is around keeping the security piece going between the environment you’re living in within the office to wherever you’re working from your mobile environment and make sure there’s a secure gateway housing that information on the device.”
In the rugged mobility space, Targus A/NZ general manager, Jay Turner, said there has been a big shift from an operating system perspective, driven by the consumerism, and by Microsoft being one of the biggest players in that industry.
“What we’re seeing now is a shift from traditional key-based devices to consumer devices, but still rugged,” he said. “What that means is a lot of retailers are looking to engage their store associates and their customers.
“It’s also about giving them productivity gains. It’s very fast paced, but there’s a lot of good work going on in that area.”
Building a mobile culture in the workplace Logicalis Australia CEO, Basil O’Reilly, said change begins within a business itself, outlining that a mobile culture should be developed within each and every organisation and management should lead based on trust.
“The expectations of a younger workforce are different to what leaders want,” he said. “Leaders want to see staff physically in the office. That shouldn’t be the case. It should be objective, matrix, and output driven regardless of where they work from.
“It’s one thing with technology; it’s another to have the culture. Businesses should have the processes and performance management in place to allow it to happen.”
Peace of Mind Technology strategy and development director, Jeremy Pollak, agreed with O’Reilly, believing that it’s about culture and mandate and how well that is transferred. Pollak suggested businesses follow through with the learning and development of a mobility strategy.
“Whether it’s the physical space or the technology or not knowing how to use hardware or software platforms, it needs to be transferred,” he
| OCTOBER 2016 | arnnet.com.au
48 ROUNDTABLE/MOBILITY
said. “If not, all the investment is wasted. And that permeates through, especially if you’ve got a bad culture.”
Stein added that the reality is, people within the organisation are the advocates and are the ones that are going to make it work.
“People are creatures of habit,” he added. “From a cultural perspective, if you’re wanting to drive it, you need to make sure that those people either remain in the business, are invested in the business or pass on their learnings.
“We had the greatest successes where we’re actually embedded from a managed services perspective because we can then continue to drive that adoption, make sure we have the training programs in place and partner in some cases with third-party,” he added.
Portability vs mobility But some businesses confuse mobility with portability. Zebra Technologies Asia-Pacific chief technology officer, Wayne Harper, said some of the biggest mobility problems arise
because what CEOs think is a mobility strategy is actually a portability strategy.
Harper went on to explain the difference between a portability strategy, as compared to a mobility strategy.
“Portability is about doing my normal work wherever I am,” he said. “Mobility is about specific information and specific interaction where and when I need it. Portability is walking with my laptop and running my desktop where I am; mobility is about that specific business function.”
Sice elaborated further and said portability is about the physical device and the tools within the environment.
“We’re working with corporates that have decided on these devices and they’re all going to be agile and flexible workplaces,” he
said. “First of all, it’s about what type of device they have. Then we look at all the physical settings in that new flexible environment.”
Security fears It’s no doubt that mobility represents an opportunity for innovation and business process improvement. If managed incorrectly, enterprise use of mobile devices increases data risks and costs.
Research by Gartner has shown that more mobility-based devices and form factors will emerge to complicate things, creating new ways to communicate and collaborate, in addition to new ways to lose data, trade secrets and private information.
Gartner said enthusiasm for mobile deployments has far outpaced mobile security and C-level executives need to ask three critical questions – how is mass-market mobility creating enterprise value? What is the best balance of freedom and control? What package of policies and technologies delivers the mass-market mobility sweet spot?
Wayland echoed the same sentiments. He said mass-market mobile devices flooding most enterprises are not designed with security and manageability in mind.
“That comes down to the security fear that goes with mobility because when CEOs think about all these devices in their organisations and people using data, they can’t control them or lock them down,” he said. “They think that if they can see it, they can control it and therefore, they’re compliant.”
F5 Networks A/NZ systems engineering manager, Martyn Young, addressed the issue of “contextual security”.
“It’s about who needs to get to what from where and which applications, and that can vary based on the same user accessing it from
“[It’s about] asking the business questions, and understanding what mobility can do for the business, not just selling a piece of kit”
Peter Stein (Datacom) Basil Reilly (Logicalis), Nick Beaugeard (HubOne) James Reilly (Skywire), Wayne Harper (Zebra),
Carry, Protect & ConnectTargus support a mobile work lifestyle via products, software and services to protect, carry, safeguard privacy, increase productivity and provide the connectivity required for mobile working and ABW (Activity Based Working) environments.
www.targus.com/auAU Freecall: 1800 641 645 | NZ: 0800 633 222 | [email protected]
| OCTOBER 2016 | arnnet.com.au
50 ROUNDTABLE/MOBILITY
the different platforms. So there’s the bridging of the consumption side that’s driven by the user behaviour and business policy. And that’s where security is wrapped around it.”
Young acknowledged that as applications reside anywhere for anyone, they’re not all sitting in the data centre but in the cloud. As such, he said the shift in security has moved from the perimeter to surrounding the application where it resides in addition to the user itself.
“Some applications are managed by cloud providers, some are managed by the organisation, some are managed by third parties and Software-as-a-Service, some are still residents in data centres or private cloud iterations as well.
“So, there needs to be knowledge around where the application is and how to put security around that application regardless of where it resides,” he said.
Channel opportunities The evolution of business today for partners is the fact that it’s no longer solely about box dropping or having a professional service, but making sure there’s an ongoing relationship with the client to help them evolve and drive their goals.
HubOne CEO and founder, Nick Beaugeard, said the
mobility space is huge opportunity for the industry. He mentioned that it allows the channel to take a thought leadership position into an area where traditionally, it would just be responding to a requirement.
“It’s one of those unique places where rather than just help your client with technology, you can help them with strategy, or business process. It’s more of a solution-based sell because they’ve got a problem in their business and partners can help them solve it. And that’s a good place to be.”
SkyWire chief technology officer, James Reilly, added that failing mobile strategies within a company are opportunities. He spoke about supply chain, transport and logistics operators as the verticals that would benefit the most.
“They are the ones that are probably ripe for the picking at the moment because they’ve understood the value of portable technology and their mobility strategy now is not about the terminal in the store, it’s about that interaction with the customer.”
Reilly suggested tapping into mobility-as-a-service within the early market.
“Where we’re making money is in the early market,” he said.” As soon as mobility gets into the mainstream the telcos take over and wrap it up with everything and there’s no
“You can’t do everything on a mobile phone today. It doesn’t
cut the mustard; it doesn’t solve all problems”
Defining mobility
The role of the mobile worker is
changing, fundamentally altering
the dynamics of the different
environments that they are working
in. While the traditional definition
of mobility is working anywhere
and having access to what a
person needs from everywhere,
Zebra Technologies Asia-Pacific
chief technology officer, Wayne
Harper, said there’s more to it
than just that.
Harper defined mobility as a tool
that gives customers and resellers the
right information needed to do their
business effectively in addition to
providing flexibility for the workforce.
“If you take a desktop and try to put
it down to a mobile phone, it’s not
going to give somebody true mobile
work. It’s about understanding what is
required for the enterprise to do their
businesses and how that mobile work
supports it,” he said.
Martyn Young (F5), Karl Sice (Staples) Chris Hagios (Airloom), Cam Wayland (Channel Dynamics)
WITH A GREATER VANTAGE POINT, A GREATER ADVANTAGE.
©2016 ZIH Corp and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Zebra and the stylized Zebra head are trademarks of ZIH Corp, registered in many jurisdictions worldwide.
Zebra gives you the big picture. Zebra gives you the big picture. Real-time information is key in today’s data-centric world. And Zebra’s intelligent, enterprise-level solutions provide you with instant connectivity and unrivaled visibility. See the vision at ZEBRA.com/visibility
| OCTOBER 2016 | arnnet.com.au
52 ROUNDTABLE/MOBILITY
money for people like me. Where I’m making my money is in the early market before the products and solutions cross the chasm. You need the smarts to do it.”
Reilly added that the channel has plenty of potential in the analytics space.
“What if you could do things with the edge data that you’re capturing from using devices? Doing stuff with data should be what drives the strategy around mobility. You want to get to the point where you can use real-time data.”
According to Airloom founder and CEO, Chris Hagios, translating mobility from a consumer level to an enterprise level presents partners with an opportunity to help improve user experience.
“The real opportunity lies in helping customers build out a strategy and executing to deliver this consumer experience but with all the governance that the enterprise organisations require. This solution should span across multi-vendors and multi-technologies and again, focus on end user experience,” he said.
Turner picked out the professional services, finance divisions, tertiary institutions and government departments as verticals to benefit the most from mobility.
“IT departments in these verticals are only just in their first roll out of this sort of work, maybe if they’re highly
experienced their second. There’s a massive opportunity there because they’re looking for help.”
Wayland said partners and vendors need to
communicate mobility related issues. “We’ve come across vendors that would develop a whole
range of different offerings that partners didn’t know about,” he added. “The key thing is for partners to assess mobility offerings from key vendors and work towards software or as-a-service offerings.
“So, some partners have to have a reassess of some of their vendors of what they’re actually doing and develop the skills around it.”
Niche play Beaugeard stressed the importance of niche play, through picking an industry and specialising in it which allows partners to own and hold it on their own.
“When you’re a small player, niche is always good,” he said. “You can’t be a master at everything. It’s finding an industry you can be successful in, but also start to build subject matter expertise in the vertical.
“And that means when I go and have a conversation with a client, they’re not necessarily buying the technology from me, they’re now buying my industry expertise. There aren’t a lot of people who do that.”
According to Hagios, in the mobility niche, the services and the SLA integration skills is where vendors and some of their other mobile partners make their dollars.
“As customers are transitioning to cloud, the value proposition changes significantly,” he added.
“It’s about their services and what they do in that integration.
“But there’s risk with that because you’re dealing with the vendor before their product has gone mainstream. You’re the guinea pig but they’ll use your knowledge and your ability to help them out and then when they go mainstream, someone else might benefit.”
This roundtable was sponsored by
F5 Networks, Targus, and Zebra
Technologies. Photos by Maria Stefina.
“It’s one of those unique places where rather than just help your client
with technology, you can help them with strategy, or business process”
Millennials are changing the workforce
Airloom chief technology officer, Adrian Noblett,
said millennials are driving a lot of change in
enterprise because of the consumerisation
of IT. With the younger generation in the
workforce demanding they be able to bring their
devices into the workforce, it changes the way
organisations operate.
“They’re used to being able to pick up
a device and use data and interact with an
application and get work done,” he said. “Now,
if enterprises aren’t bringing those ways of
working into the traditional workforce, that’s
not going to fundamentally change the way that
your employees are doing business, and the
efficiencies that are then driven out of the new
ways of working.”Adrian Noblett (Airloom)
| OCTOBER 2016 | arnnet.com.au
54 PARTNER ROUND-UP
Customers in focus for resellers close to the coastResellers along the coast of New South Wales operate close to the big city yet experience the ways of regional life, creating opportunities and challenges along the way - Leon Spencer reports.
Bill FergusonOWNER – ITRONICS COMPUTER SPECIALISTS“Our main focus is servicing the
people of South West Rocks and the
Macleay Valley, which predominately
consist of retired folk. We provide
all aspects of IT sales and service,
including hardware, software,
networking, and servicing.
“We also provide services to SMB
customers, as well providing remote
support, planning, consulting, and
backup services. We are looking
at configuring a Seniors Computer
Course, which we would like to conduct
with local and remote customers via
remote access online meetings.
“The aged population really
needs something like this, which I
think would be very successful and
beneficial for our customer base.
“Working in a regional area has
been very rewarding and has allowed
our business to grow quite quickly.
We don’t have the competition that
you find in the metropolitan areas,
which makes it easier to be known,
and word of mouth in these areas is
crucial. This also reduces our costs
on advertising, as it is no longer
required, avoiding the large costs
required in a metropolitan area.
“I find providing service in a regional
area rewarding, as you gain a more
one-on-one personal rapport with
your customers, very much like those
you might gain in your immediate
local area within a metro area.
“Freight can be an issue outside
of a metropolitan area, but in most
cases we are serviced from Brisbane
or Sydney overnight. The other issue
you can face in a regional area is
time on the road if you are servicing
a lot of country customers.”
T he New South Wales
coastline clings to
the Pacific Ocean for
2,137km, from Tweed Heads, at
the Queensland border, to well
beyond Eden, which lies north of
the Victorian frontier.
Like most of Australia’s states
and territories, much of the NSW
population hugs the state’s coastal
region. With this large population
come businesses, and a healthy
need for IT services all the way
up and down the coast.
But outside the metropolitan
areas, businesses that prioritise
customer service, taking
time to talk to customers,
understand needs, and carefully
explain solutions, can receive
rich dividends for such an
attentive focus.
“We don’t have the competition that you find in the metropolitan areas”
arnnet.com.au | OCTOBER 2016 |
PARTNER ROUND-UP 55
Ben LuckCTO – CRYSTAL TEC“In Byron Bay, we provide managed services to small, large and enterprise sized businesses based in the Northern Rivers region of NSW and south-east Queensland (QLD). At present, our focus is on extending our business reach in QLD.
“We also want to improve our monitoring and reporting efficiencies, and offer services and support to help businesses adapt to converging technologies.
“Among the main challenges we face in our part of the market is selling proactive solutions to regional businesses. Such businesses are often risk averse and wary of making an investment in what they really need, in terms of new technologies and services that would create more efficiencies or greater market opportunities for them.
“Regional clients tend to expect a very personal level of service that a larger, metro client would not. This is important in maintaining the business relationship in the regional context, although it often results in clients preferring a dedicated IT engineer to work with.
“This conflicting goal poses a challenge in growing an IT business, as it puts a strain on human resources and can make account management more delicate.”
Paul MeyerOWNER – INTERBIT COMPUTING“It’s difficult to get more people to
walk through the door, so my current
focus is on three new services.
Firstly, the team is finalising a
computer backup service targeting
small businesses; second, we are
looking at on-line retailing; finally,
we are expanding our remote
support platform.
“The two main differences between
a regional shop such as mine and
one in the city are logistics and rent.
I have ample off street parking, away
from the main street, and my rent
is low in comparison. That makes it
easier for me to be competitive on
price and provide easy accessibility
to customers with transport.
“My customer base is largely ‘Mum
and Dad’ computer users. Generally,
their knowledge of computers is basic,
so they need good advice delivered
in language and terms they can
understand. As home users, they
do not have a lot of money and are
particularly sensitive to prices.
“In Fairy Meadow, my customers
are more leisurely and don’t mind
sharing ‘war stories’ on my time and
not paying for it.
“I also receive more feedback
and positive satisfaction from my
customers in a week, than I think
I would in 40 years of corporate
IT. People appreciate what we
do – they value the service and are
willing to say so.”
Michael JanosOWNER AND FRANCHISEE – COMPUTER TROUBLESHOOTERS“Being in contact with the other
80 [Computer Troubleshooters]
franchisees provides an insight into
the differences between working in
the regions and metropolitan centres.
“For the business clients to use
the best business-level solutions is
a hard sell, and we tend to have to
provide the best solution we can at
a lower cost. I get quite a lot of work
originating from large managed
service providers when they cannot
perform something remotely.
“Most of the metro franchisees
tend to prefer business customers
and discourage residential
customers. Here in Nowra, we don’t
have that luxury and the majority of
my clients are residential or small
office/home office (SOHO).
“However, this isn’t a problem,
as most country people are very
friendly and trusting and a pleasure
to work with. The danger, of course,
is that if you are dishonest or inept,
everybody knows.
“The other thing about working
on the coast is that you get a large
range of clients. My richest client is
a billionaire and, at the other end, a
lot of my clients can barely survive
from week-to-week.
“As for planning, the only way I
can grow is to reduce the distance
I travel. This mainly involves
concentrating my marketing
activities on my local area and
raising prices on customers further
from my home base.
“Other than that, my focus is on
selling customers services where I
can make ongoing commissions. I
am trying to develop a contract that
would be attractive to residential
clients as well as SOHOs.”
“It’s difficult to get more people to walk through the door”
“Regional clients tend to expect a very personal level of service that a larger, metro client would not”
| OCTOBER 2016 | arnnet.com.au
56 SECRET RESELLER
How will Dell EMC impact resellers?
ARN’s partners inside the industry lift the lid on the real world of the channel.
Dell’s relationship with the channel
is still struggling.
But in some ways, this is simply
revisiting Dell’s past. What we need
to know as resellers is what will
happen in the future.
As a word of warning to any
vendor, the term “business as usual”
simply doesn’t cut it when appeasing
the channel – our businesses are
based around vendor technologies.
While I appreciate a deal of this
magnitude cannot be completed
overnight, and that teething issues
will naturally arise, isn’t it time for
more clarity with regards to how the
deal will play out locally?
Resellers have a list of questions
that they need answering, such as…
1) How are account managers
being compensated?
2) Who owns the account – Dell or
EMC staff?
3) When will we have a clear channel
strategy for the future?
In fairness, the Dell EMC confusion
is not the first time the channel has
been left out in the cold – the same
happened during the HP and Compaq
merger in 2002, and that went badly
wrong in the eyes of the customer.
When the rubber hits the road,
EMC has a much stronger channel
pedigree than Dell and it would
be a relief to see its go-to-market
strategy win out in the end.
But of course Dell bought EMC,
not the other way around, which
means the market will have to wait
to see what aspects of each vendor
will come through in the combined
channel strategy.
For partners wanting to submit their
views anonymously, please get in touch
st y t t e d o t e ea o d o t e c a
I n case you’ve been living under
a rock the size of Ayers, the
biggest technology deal in
history closed last month.
Bringing together two titans
of industry in Dell and EMC,
understandably, resellers remain
nervous as to how such a merger
will play out in the channel.
The obvious aspect is the
coming together of two gigantic
multinationals, forming a tech
behemoth that stands to be as
predictable as a toddler with a new toy.
Clearly, the channel is the toy and
at this stage, resellers don’t know
whether this toy will be played with
gently or chewed to bits.
Generally, EMC has been a
channel friendly vendor with strong
enterprise roots. Yes, a focus on
larger accounts means that some
partners simply don’t get on the
radar, but the company has a great
depth of knowledge in its sales and
technical staff across Australia.
But history shows that Dell has
a chequered past with its resellers.
It’s common knowledge that
Michael Dell pursued a direct strategy
for many years, with partners forever
‘Getting Dell’d’ by his insistence
on his own direct sales channels
competing against resellers in deals.
To Dell’s credit, change is
happening locally, but many partners
still remember being burnt on
deals, either through registrations
or engagement.
From personal dealings, Dell has
always deployed a straightforward
type of salesperson – forever on the
phone but lacking in deep technical
knowledge of the products.
This approach makes it harder to
train my sales team given the lack of
support on a day-to-day basis, and
the reality for most resellers is that
“The term “business as usual” simply
doesn’t cut it in terms of
appeasing the channel”
| OCTOBER 2016 | arnnet.com.au
58 THE HOT LIST
InfrontAllan KingMANAGING DIRECTOR
NUMBER OF STAFF: 47
AGE OF COMPANY:
18 YEARS
> PRODUCTS/SOLUTIONS IT BRINGS TO MARKET: Infront
is the hybrid cloud
company. Infront’s
offerings are unique in
the market, having been
developed from the
ground up over three
years to support our
customer’s journey to
hybrid cloud. Our Insight
consultants are leading
business transformation
using experience and
IP developed over
the past three years.
Our Unity reference
architecture is
engineered for
customer success,
integrating technologies
to deliver hybrid
cloud outcomes
without compromising
on security,
governance or control.
Our Prime managed
service was established
as a “cloud centre
of excellence” to
provide the skills and
support necessary
to help customers
close the innovations
gap that exists
between business
expectation and
current IT capability.
> BUSINESS DIFFERENTIATOR: Infront has always
embraced disruption
from a position of the
pragmatic enthusiast.
We work very hard to
ensure that everything
we build and every
service we offer
exceeds expectation.
As a company, we
spent more than 12
months working with
our customers to
better understand
their experiences
and perceptions of
cloud. This customer
development cycle was
instrumental in helping
us transform from a
data centre specialist
into the hybrid
cloud company.
> FUTURE PLANS: We have always been
proud of the strategic
relationships with our
customers. As they
make the move to hybrid
cloud, we will continue
to work on their behalf
to help abstract the
complexities of cloud by
engineering outcomes
without comprise. We
will work to ensure
we stay ahead of the
curve by always asking
“what’s next” and
ensure that IT closes
the innovation gap.
> KEY MESSAGE TO THE CHANNEL IN 2016: Customers need to
transform the way IT
is built, consumed
and managed.
The Hot List
This regular column looks at partners on the upward move - these are the companies to watch. Each month, ARN looks at some of the companies that have risen to prominence already or are progressing beyond their start-up origins. Hafizah Osman asks business leaders to file reports on their companies.
FreshdeskSreelesh PillaiGENERAL MANAGER
NUMBER OF STAFF: 500 – 1000 AGE OF COMPANY: SIX YEARS
> PRODUCTS/SOLUTIONS IT BRINGS TO MARKET: Freshdesk is a provider of cloud-based customer engagement software, which allows organisations to support customers through email, phone, websites, forums, and social media. Freshdesk’s products are widely used by teams and companies of all sizes, from SMB to enterprise.
> BUSINESS DIFFERENTIATOR: We focus on building cloud-based, simple solutions. Our solutions are intuitive and easy to use, while offering affordable pricing. That’s what makes Freshdesk different from other products on the market.
> FUTURE PLANS: We’ve recently expanded our product offering beyond customer support with the launch of Freshsales, a CRM for high-velocity sales teams, as we work to improve the entire customer journey. Our goal is to not just change the way businesses do customer service anymore; we are in it to change the way they do business.
> KEY MESSAGE TO THE CHANNEL IN 2016: We recognise the paradigm shift from traditional on-premise software to cloud products, and more companies are choosing a partner-first strategy today than ever before. There are plenty of options for partners, but it is important to stay focused by selecting a maximum of five best-of-breed products and staying committed to growing each line of business, as well as building deep expertise and investing in relationships with vendors, customers and other partners.
arnnet.com.au | OCTOBER 2016 |
THE HOT LIST 59
OretaSachin VermaMANAGING DIRECTOR
NUMBER OF STAFF:
20
AGE OF COMPANY:
THREE YEARS
> PRODUCTS/SOLUTIONS IT BRINGS TO MARKET: We
provide cost effective
value add cloud
services, leveraging
a mix of public and
private cloud services,
enhanced with an
orchestration layer
to deliver a complete
and robust cloud
service. We want to be
the partner of choice
for organisations,
empowering them to
accelerate innovation,
expand their market
reach, and drive down
IT costs.
> BUSINESS DIFFERENTIATOR: Our key differentiators
are skill and product
neutrality. We are not
tethered to specific
manufacturers or
vendors, allowing us
to focus on identifying
the best solution for
customer situations.
We work with a global
network of strategic
partners so that our
customers can be
confident that our
recommendations
are unbiased and in
their best interest.
We regularly review
our partnerships
and alliances so that
we can provide our
customers with an
end-to-end service;
and with the latest and
best as part of the IT
investment.
> FUTURE PLANS: We are a Melbourne-
based company with
customers throughout
Victoria and South
Australia. Over the
next 18 months, we
are looking to expand
our operations into
New South Wales and
Queensland. From a
services point of view,
we will be looking to
exploit the nexus of
cloud and IoT.
> KEY MESSAGE TO THE CHANNEL IN 2016: Expertise and talent is
the top challenge for
cloud adoption, while
focusing on the right
expertise to make the
required difference will
be key.
Evolve IT AustraliaNick MoranMANAGING DIRECTOR
NUMBER OF STAFF: 28
AGE OF COMPANY: 23
YEARS
> PRODUCTS/SOLUTIONS IT BRINGS TO MARKET: Evolve IT Australia
has sustained growth
across every area of
the business in 2016.
Our Melbourne-based
team has expanded
significantly and whilst
our managed services
continues to grow and is
considered our “business
as usual”, it’s our
strategic VCIO, cloud and
project offerings to the
100-400 seat market that
remains key to acquiring
net new business and
success. As a result, this
year alone we have grown
our overall revenue by 24
per cent and continue to
expand our private and
public cloud offerings
increasing revenue by
226 per cent.
services opportunities
from those partners
looking to get out or
partner with a long term
strategy in mind.
KEY MESSAGE TO THE CHANNEL IN 2016: I expect the channel will
continue to accommodate
new MSP players via
acquisition, with emerging
players continuing to
enter from non-traditional
partners such as telcos,
copier/managed print
as well as professional
services organisations
such as accountants and
insurance companies.
This means that only
the IT providers who can
truly create IP offerings
and differentiate
themselves in the
marketplace will grow
and succeed long-term.
> BUSINESS DIFFERENTIATOR: We
have continued to work
hard to differentiate
ourselves in the small and
mid-markets and we now
have 68 per cent of our
overall revenue recurring
monthly, which provides
the perfect platform to
leverage off and invest in
our people and processes.
> FUTURE PLANS: As
we head towards 2017,
Evolve IT Australia
continues to be full
steam ahead. Client
satisfaction is our no.1
goal as we look to create
more value around
automation and client
self-service tools. From
a business acquisition
standpoint, we will
continue to seek out
small MSP and cloud
“This year alone we have grown our overall revenue by 24 per cent”
| OCTOBER 2016 | arnnet.com.au
60 CHANNEL COACHING
T he modern sales environment
is constantly changing.
The growing power of
the customer has meant that
businesses accustomed to closing
a deal, selling services and walking
away, now have to prove how they
can add real value.
“Smarter buyers requires
smarter selling,” Miller Heiman
Group advisory partner, Rob
Hartnett, said. “There is more
discipline to selling today and
everyone should be taking a more
scientific approach to it.”
According to Hartnett, partners
can improve sales strategy by
examining four key areas of
business to create a cross functional
framework, designed to guide selling
processes and adapt to the modern
sales environment.
1 Sales EnablementIn describing sales enablement,
Hartnett said partners must
incorporate integrated content,
training and coaching services for
salespeople and frontline managers
along the entire customer lifecycle.
“A sales enablement process
will continue to become more
important as buyers become
more sophisticated and also
harder to connect with directly,”
he said. “We are finding
marketing having a stronger
role to play not only in lead
generation, but throughout the
buying and selling process to
ensure your brand and message
resonates continually.”
Top 4 modern sales techniques for partnersIn this newly created column, Holly Morgan, examines ways partners can enable growth through new strategies and approaches, reminding the channel to work on all areas of the business to enable ongoing transformation.
Hartnett advises partners to
learn everything about the customer
and various customer situations,
insisting “you are never done. Sales
transformation isn’t an event.”
3 Talent Acquisition and ongoing Management
For Harnett, “innate talent” is not
necessarily taught. Rather, it is
recurring patterns of thoughts,
feelings and behaviours.
“When you think about
talent, you have to have a deep
understanding of what drives their
performance,” he explained. “Then,
you replicate it. That is how you
‘develop’ top talent.
“I believe talent, plus skills that
can be developed, times the culture
in which a person works, equals
performance. When you think about
what drives performance in your
people, it’s partly what they were
born to do and partly the skills
they acquire, their training and the
culture in which they operate.”
4 Business AcumenIn today’s business climate,
by the time a sales executive meets
with the C-level team, they must
have a deep understanding of their
“social style”.
“Simply getting to top executives
– those who make the final decisions
– just doesn’t cut it anymore,”
Hartnett added. “Knowing what they
respond to and most importantly
how they make decisions, means
you can crack that code and selling
instantly becomes easier.
“In the end, it’s not about your
style. It’s about theirs. Don’t get
trapped by your way of doing things.
Provide the same content, but
deliver in a way that is tailored to
the customer.”
2 Sales TransformationAs customer expectations
heighten, the buying process has
become lengthy and more complex
in the modern era. Hartnett said
partners can only add value by offering
perspective during the sales process.
“Sales has evolved a great deal,”
he added. “It used to be you showed
up, threw all of your products and
solutions on the table and asked,
‘What do you want to buy?’ Today,
that approach isn’t good enough.
You have to add value during the
sales process, not just when the
contract is signed. That is how you
differentiate yourself in the market.”
“In the end, it’s not about your style. It’s about theirs”
Rob Hartnett
| OCTOBER 2016 | arnnet.com.au
62 COMMUNITY/ARN ICT INDUSTRY AWARDS 2016
arnnet.com.au | OCTOBER 2016 |
ARN ICT INDUSTRY AWARDS 2016/COMMUNITY 63
ARN ICT Industry Awards 2016The channel came together to toast the top-performing players within Australia, at the 10th ARN ICT Industry Awards in Sydney.Photos by Maria Stefina and Yulia Photography.
| OCTOBER 2016 | arnnet.com.au
64 COMMUNITY/WIICTA ALUMNAE Q3
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WIICTA ALUMNAE Q3The inaugural WIICTA Alumnae Q3 breakfast, held at the Establishment in Sydney, brought together WIICTA award winners and finalists to facilitate a mentoring-style program to support women working in the technology sector. Key messages and conversations revolved around the importance of integrity, careering planning and coping with disappointment.Photos by Maria Stefina
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