Amazon Consulting Launches New Exclusive Channel Research from 5th Annual State of Partnering Study

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., March 15, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Amazon Consulting, a leading partnering services firm dedicated to helping companies elevate the impact of partnering, today announced the release of it newest exclusive channel research from its 5th Annual State of Partnering Study. For five years, Amazon Consulting's State of Partnering study has offered the most comprehensive insights about the global IT vendor community's priorities, challenges and spending plans.  Amazon Consulting will host a free webinar to unveil these research findings on Thursday, March 17th at 9 a.m. PST.

"This research analyzes partner growth and management best practices from recruitment through enablement and performance management," said Amazon Consulting CEO Diane Krakora. "This year, a record-breaking 100 vendors participated in the study. The preliminary results show a trend on several important issues: growth through service providers and MSPs as strategic channel segments, increasing partner sales competency, engaging in deeper business planning, and increasing ease of doing business."

When looking at their top challenges for 2010, the leading issue for vendors is recruiting the right partners to provide coverage and capabilities in target markets. "This response aligns with the ongoing process we've seen from the vendor community of focusing on quality versus quantity of partners," said Vice President of Amazon Consulting Beth Vanni. "There's an intense need right now for vendors to really understand and direct the business model evolution of their leading partners. The intent to increase business planning and provide high-touch local sales, service and technical support really came through in this year's study results.

Service providers/carriers and MSPs jumped ahead in this year's study results as highly strategic partner segments. They have been growing in importance among the vendor community for the last several years, especially with the recent trend in cloud service delivery. The study showed that most vendors do not want to deliver direct cloud services but would rather sell technology to services providers to build their own annuity cloud services.

The ongoing challenge of becoming easier to do business with remained near the top of both the 2010 challenges list and the 2011 priority list for vendors. In fact, more than a third of respondents indicated this was their top priority again for 2011. "This is an issue most larger vendors cannot solve completely in a year or two," added Krakora.  "It matches up with the vendors' desire to more closely engage with top partners, keep them engaged, and reduce their cost of doing business.

"We weren't surprised to see the focus on increasing sales competency remain consistent in our research over the last several years as well," added Vanni. "In last year's study, it emerged for the first time as the #1 vendor priority, which we think had a lot to do with the economy and the need to bolster top-line sales. But, when it appeared this year as the #1 channel enablement priority again it seems clear that vendors have more work to do in this area."

The company's full research on this topic includes an Executive Brief of findings, a detailed research report and the webinar featuring a panel discussion of the findings on March 17th at 9:00 a.m. PST. To register for the webinar click here. To access the executive brief of this study click here. The research reports are available exclusively to subscribers of Amazon Consulting's annual market intelligence subscription service called PartnerG2.

PartnerG2

Amazon Consulting offers market research studies through a comprehensive annual market intelligence subscription program called PartnerG2. Fueling channel management professionals with valuable research, analysis, thought leadership tools and expert advice to guide partnering success, PartnerG2 offers unlimited users under a corporate subscription, quarterly studies based on industry hot topics, a complete library of thought leadership materials and 4-hours of complementary consulting services. Channel industry analyst and speaker Beth Vanni is the Vice President of Market Intelligence for Amazon's Partner G2 program and can be followed at http://amazonconsultingblog.wordpress.com/ or http://twitter.com/bvanni.

About Amazon Consulting

Amazon Consulting, LLC is a partnering development firm based in Silicon Valley, California, wholly dedicated to helping companies elevate the impact of partnering.  We achieve this by effectively designing, implementing and automating channel and alliance models. We offer services ranging from channel models and program development plans to partnering operations and program execution. PartnerPath® provides our clients a best-in-class partner portal and program automation system. For more information please visit us at www.amazonconsulting.com.

SOURCE Amazon Consulting