Nick Verykios - CEO, Distribution Central addresses Kiwi resellers in Auckland
Digital transformation, and all it encompasses, is fast becoming the key strategic thrust for business leaders across New Zealand, leading to growing opportunities for the local channel.
Whether it be Gartner’s “algorithmic business”, IDC’s “DX economy” or Forrester’s “digital roadmap”, the big three analyst firms, in unison with the wider market, are united in one overriding belief - that digital will dominate the enterprise landscape for 2016.
As such, Kiwi resellers are well placed to take advantage of the concerted effort to integrate various digital initiatives across the business, as industries fight to close the digital gap.
“2016 is the year Kiwi partners can help their customers with their digital transformation strategy,” says Nick Verykios, CEO, Distribution Central.
In speaking exclusively to Reseller News, Verykios - fresh from reporting 28 per cent year-on-year growth in 2015 - believes that as digital begins to dominate, the partner power play becomes clearer.
“Design it, own it, supply it and manage it,” advises Verykios, emphasising the importance of taking ownership of digital strategies. “Don’t outsource it. Own it yourself.
“There are distributors and other channel service organisations that have transformed their business to assist you on this journey so you can own it yourself.”
As digitalisation moves from an innovative trend to a core competency, enterprises are looking for partners capable of making sense and exploiting platform effects through all aspects of business.
Unsurprisingly, Gartner’s 2016 CIO Agenda Survey data shows that digitalisation is intensifying.
In the next five years, CIOs expect digital revenues to grow from 16 percent to 37 percent while similarly, public-sector CIOs predict a rise from 42 percent to 77 percent in digital processes.
“Every vertical is important because every vertical needs their resellers servicing it to help them participate in their own digital transformation,” Verykios adds.
“Digital transformation is not tailored specifically for any vertical, that’s why the market has Air B&B, Uber, Amazon etc across very different sectors and industries.”
Power Play
In New Zealand, Verykios believes digital transformation to be a team sport, insisting that Distribution Central plans to further enable its partners to deepen digital servicing at a local level.
“Our key goal in 2016 is to enable our customers in New Zealand to transcend into the world of digital transformation,” he adds.
“But this includes their already proven process of solving their customers problems, just now in a more contemporary manner.”
But Verykios - who addressed Kiwi partners at the distributor’s End of Year Partner event in Auckland in December - warns that resellers must "stick to their guns and keep the faith", as change continues to heighten across the channel.
“If you lose faith in the process that has served you well, you are believing the hype and you will struggle,” he warns.
“Your processes must remain in tact and that’s your role as the organisation that solves your customers problem as they relate to technology.
“And technology will be used more and more to solve more problems and create more revenue generating opportunities.”
Looking ahead, Verykios believes intrusion prevention and hyper converged infrastructure will be key technologies in 2016, including “everything Flash” and a greater focus on data analytics.
“But the real stuff,” he qualifies, “not the generating and collecting of big data but the analysis of the data relative to the specific and unique customer problem that needs to be solved.”
Backing up such claims, Verykios recently signed off on a local distribution agreement with cloud analytics provider Sumo Logic, bolstering its partner program throughout Australia and New Zealand.
“Data analytics is increasingly vital for businesses as they move away from just storing data, and focus on refining and drawing insights and business outcomes from it,” he adds.
“With Sumo Logic we can offer our partners a leading data analytics solution to address their customers' business requirements.”
For Verykios, this partnership is part of a larger strategy focused on developing a strong Sumo Logic channel community within the region and will include a partner program aimed at building key partners with access to partner pricing and training programs.
In addition to a strong analytics push, Verykios believes resellers also need to recognise that New Zealand is already a Managed Services Provider channel, and has matured away from the traditional SI and box mover mentality.
“Transforming into an MSP or a CloudSP, or both, is the key channel play,” he adds. “Everything else is not material at this stage if that hasn’t been fully appreciated.”
