Ask Steve

Wireless, cellular, mobility are hot topics in 2008 and will continue to be hot beyond. Have you ever seen anyone on Star Trek (or virtually any other futuristic science fiction show) pick up a landline desk phone? I think not. Working, frolicking, and socializing using mobile devices is the way of the future. Now, let’s say you’re a channel partner without a mobility play and you want to get into the wireless scene. With which service provider should you partner? That’s this months Ask Steve topic.

Troy from Redmond, WA: I’m a small Nortel partner in the Seattle suburbs. I’m looking for a wireless service provider as a partner? Any recommendations? AT&T, Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile, Sprint, none of the above?

Troy, the good news -- you’re doing the right thing by reaching out to the service providers and learning about their partner offerings. Service providers know the value of the enterprise mobility market -- a U.S. market worth $54.8 billion in 2008. They are refining their offerings, fixing pricing inconsistencies, honing their market messaging and buffering their channels.

Troy, the bad news -- The wireless service providers and vendors including AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Sprint, Alltel, T-Mobile, Motorola and RIM are a long way from empowering and supporting their indirect channel partners.

There is hope for a productive and construction channel relationship with the wireless service providers, but the solution requires a strong focus and commitment from the service providers and vendors, as well as the willingness of the indirect channel to invest in its future.

Let’s start with the cold, hard facts: Today’s most pressing needs of the wireless indirect channel are least addressed by wireless service providers and vendors. Nineteen percent of all wireless channel partners believe their service provider and vendors are effective at helping them battle their number-one business challenge: finding and training qualified sales staff. Similarly, 44% of wireless channel partners believe business development is their critical business issue, but only 25% believe their service provider and vendor partners are effective at helping them address this issue (see Exhibit 1). The service providers and vendors have ignored the indirect channel partners for so long that the partners have almost lost hope in their leadership. Frankly, these expressions of frustration from wireless channel partners are astonishing. Nowhere else in the technology sector would a service provider or vendor tolerate such abysmal scores from its indirect sales channels.