Led by CompTIA Market Research, learn the top trends in traditional IT services and telecom convergence, drivers behind IT channel’s entrance into telecom, and how IT channel and telecom channel and providers are partnering together.

1. 20-Minute Channel Byte
Copyright (c) 2014 CompTIA Properties, LLC. All Rights Reserved. | CompTIA.org
Convergence:
Telecom Moving
into Mainstream
IT Channel

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On Tap For Today
 Trends in traditional IT
services and telecom
convergence
 Drivers behind IT
channel’s entrance into
telecom
 Partnering trends
between IT channel,
telecom channel and
providers
2

3. IT & TELECOM: NO LONGER
SEPARATE SILOES
3

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IT and Telecom Blending to Serve Myriad Vertical Industries
IT
Industry
$2T
Healthcare
Telecom
Industry
$1.6T
Retail
Finance
ManufacturingGovernment
Legal
Source: IDC

5. Customer Needs Growing More Complex
Increasingly, customers are seeking providers that have mastered a blend of skills
 All things cloud
 Mobility integration, integrating
mobile devices with the corporate
network
 Unified communications, integrating
services such as instant messaging,
presence, IP telephony and others.
 Telepresence technology, marrying
phone systems with video capabilities

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As Are Their Strategic Business Priorities for Next 12 Months
16%
34%
37%
42%
50%
52%
56%
Managing competitive threats
Improving operational efficiency
Innovating more effectively
Improving data analytics for
better/faster decisions
Reaching new customer segments
Improving staff
productivity/capabilities
Reducing costs/overhead
Source: CompTIA’s 3rd Annual Trends in Managed Services study
Base: 400 businesses (end user)

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Driving Factors in Entering Telecom Services Market
8%
15%
24%
28%
29%
40%
41%
46%
Recruited by telecom master/sub
agents
Add on to cloud business efforts
To increase revenue/profits
Competitive threats from telecom
channel
IT distributors added telecom to
portfolio
To win new business
Desire to add new business line
Desire to offer voice services
Source: CompTIA IT-Telecom Convergence Research

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From the Channel Viewpoint: Convergence
Where should traditional telecom
services fit into an IT channel firm’s
portfolio?
56%
34%
6%
2%
Characterization of telecom and IT
channel relationship over last 2 years
Staying
same
Converging significantly
Converging
somewhat
66%
32%
2%
Core component
Opportunistic
element
Not a component 2% D/K
Source: CompTIA IT-Telecom Convergence Research

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Unified Communications Driving Telecom Solutions
Primary Telecom
Offerings by VARs
Today
 Broadband/Wi-Fi
access
 Conferencing &
collaboration
solutions
 WAN services
 IP/PBX

10. TO PARTNER OR NOT TO PARTNER
10

11. Partnering a Way to Help Bridge Skills Gaps
With both VARs and agents needing to fill holes in their capacity to deliver cloud
services, they are left with the following choices…
Hiring or developing expertise
in-house.
Referring the business out to an
expert.
Partnering with seasoned
professionals to fill voids they
cannot otherwise address.

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Friend or Foe? Convergence Sparks Both Viewpoints
1
2
3
4
5
IT VARs said they now view telecom services as a competitive play and a way to
differentiate their brand
4 in 10 IT channel firms are “highly concerned” about the telecom services
channel getting into traditional IT
One-fourth of telecom agents (23%) said the roles of IT VARs and agents were
"converging significantly."
57% of channel firms worked with a cable company to offer telecom services
last year
Carriers and master agents are diversifying their partner base to include
traditional IT-oriented VARs and MSPs.
VARs and Telecom Agents and Convergence Trends
Source: CompTIA 2nd Annual Big Data Insights and Opportunities study

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What Are Your Options for Partnering?
Partnering discussions held with the
following company types in last year
52% Telecom master agents
51% Telecom sub-agents
47% Telecom carriers
26% Cable company operators
26% IT distributors
Source: CompTIA IT-Telecom Convergence Research

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Who Ended Up Moving from Talking to Partnering?
Breakdown of Partners IT Firms
Worked with in Last Year
57% Cable Operators
51% Telecom carriers
34% Telecom master agents/subs
20% A/V specialists
Source: CompTIA IT-Telecom Convergence Research
68% of IT channel firms working with telecom carriers in the last year did so
exclusively, while 32% also partnered with telecom agents.

15. CHALLENGES AND BEST PRACTICES
15

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Challenges to Entering Telecom Services Market
10%
30%
30%
37%
38%
40%
45%
Don't understand agent model
(master or sub)
Customer preference for traditional
telecom provider
Deciding what to sell
Lack of sales experience
Competition from traditional telecom
agents
Lack of telecom-specific tech skills
Insufficient staffing
Source: CompTIA IT-Telecom Convergence Research

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Not Every Channel Firm is Diving into Telecom
Reasons NOT offering telecom services today
4%
9%
9%
17%
30%
61%
Do not understand revenue model
Learning curve too steep
Bad past experience
Insufficent resources
Diverts from core competency
Not our core competency
Source: CompTIA IT-Telecom Convergence Research
Among the IT channel firms
not involved in telecom
today, 26% said they plan
to pursue partnerships for
these services in next year,
while 35% said they had no
intention to partner and
17% said they would offer
telecom on their own.

18. Rank VARs Agents
1 Partner’s understanding of my
business model (49%)
Effective communication (73%)
2 Formal business planning with
partner (48%)
Partner’s pre-, post- and joint
sales support (54%)
3 Emerging techs and business
models (i.e. cloud) (48%)
Leads provided by partner (53%)
4 Government regulation and
compliance (46%)
Emerging technologies and
business models (49%)
What’s Critical to Making Things Work
Source: Channel Partners and CompTIA Agent-VAR Partnering Survey, January 2013
Success Factors and Priorities for Partnerships

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Five Key Ways to Mitigate Risk in Partnering
1 Establish rules of engagement
Decide who owns the customer relationship
Agree on a revenue formula and who gets paid for what
Understand each other’s business model
Formalize these partnerships and treat them as you would any
vendor or manufacturer agreement
2
3
4
5

20. Closing Thoughts: Scorecard on Offering Telecom
Gained net-new customers as a
result of having telecom services
Increased revenue with existing
customers due to telecom
services
Trained internal staff on technical
and sales skills associated with
telecom
1
2
3
4
6
5
Won a deal purely based
on telecom services
availability
Did NOT gain any new
revenue because of
telecom services
Lost business to a telecom
agent
Source: CompTIA IT-Telecom Convergence Research

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Carolyn April
capril@comptia.org
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