When was the last time your channels team reconsidered its product demonstration policy? Fact is, talking about solutions and their benefits as a theory with is one thing. Showing that they work in the field is another matter entirely. And as channel managers, you need to help your partners manage this process more effectively.

That’s the basis for a new solutions demonstration programs that’s being piloted by the enterprise mobility solutions channels team at Motorola. This blog I wrote for TechTarget details what’s entailed, and what Motorola hopes to achieve.

So, this program is only in pilot, but it suggest that some of the larger vendors out there — those developing so-called partner ecosystems to help push solutions using their products — might want to rethink how they allocate demonstration equipment. People want to use these things, in context, and I think that is probably especially true of mobile solutions.

Alternatively, it suggests channel management program teams need to get smarter about solution center buildouts on a regional basis.

VAR. Reseller. ISV. Systems integrator. Consultant.

You may be familiar with these high-tech partner labels, but channel managers must get ready to become comfortable with an entirely different set of technology solutions influencers.

The transformation of Microsoft’s partner program into a beast called the Microsoft Partner Network (come on they have 640,000 partners, the program IS a beast) is a harbinger of things to come across the channel. Not tomorrow, necessarily, but over the next 12 to 18 months as businesses come out of their shells and start investing in technology again.

When I spoke with Allison Watson, Microsoft corporate vice president, Worldwide Partner Group, before the company’s partner gathering earlier this month, she said Microsoft has been segmenting its partner types even moreso than it has done in the past based on changes in the way that customers buy or acquire technology. If a 20-something is only familiar with free applications, then Microsoft better figure out how to get inside his or her head. Stat.

As an example, Web design firms and developers are of keen interest, especially as Web sites and Web 2.0 applications increasingly become the front door to businesses. Of course, hosting companies are another focus, because of the influence they hold in small and midsize businesses who are considering cloud-based software options. Here’s some detail on Microsoft’s new effort with hosting providers. Routes to market surrounding home media continue to be evaluated.

Julie Bennani, general manager of the Microsoft worldwide partner program, figures there are 9 or 10 major business models that technology companies now must consider as routes to market, especially as the industry moves to what Microsoft calls “software plus services” and the rest of the world calls software as a service. You think 640,000 partners is a lot, the company could grow up to 1 million by pulling in these next-generation influencers, Bennani figures.

Who knows who these partners are? Your guess is as good as theirs, but you can believe the Microsoft is very busy finding out.

Of course, supporting all these partners will be a tricky matter indeed.

That’s why you’ll see more money being spent on tools and resources that address two major areas:

1. Embracing social media and social networks to communicate. Watson estimates that Microsoft has about 3,500 followers and the company is looking closely at how social networks can accelerate and improve customer support. (Here’s a separate blog I did for my Business Brains platform that discusses Microsoft’s plans.)
2. Business development resources for partners transitioning from an old model to a new model. Let’s face it, it’s easy to stick with what works until it doesn’t work anymore. Problem is that is happening rather quickly. An example of something that could help soften the blow is the Profitability Modeler, a Microsoft tool that helps partners estimate three-year profit and loss impacts for moving into new business areas. A similar resource is an updated Practice Builder and Services Ready Initiative.

Fundamentally speaking, most execs think they have two choices when they take on a new job: They can either embrace and extend a winning strategy or they can choose to make their own mark. I personally don’t think those choices are mutually exclusive. One of the most disciplined, intelligent paths an incoming leader can take is to stick with something that is working.

This seems to be the intention of Meaghan Kelly, the months-old vice president of SMB Channel Sales and Strategy for Hewlett-Packard. As I know very well from my past life as an editor at Computer Reseller News, there are thousands of solution providers out there with an opinion about HP’s SMB intentions, and there are at least hundreds who would express that opinion very loudly if things were changed simply for the sake of change. You’ll hear more about the company’s specific new plans this (HP has a briefing planned that several of my friends in the channel media will cover, but that info is confidential for another couple of days). Suffice to say that what you hear will seem familiar. That’s because even though Kelly is actually very new to HP (she joined the company very recently after 16 years of experience with Quantum, Veritas and Motorola), you’ll see her emphasize these three themes:

1. Increasing HP’s coverage to market through distributors and high-growth resellers that can add profitable growth.
2. Growing HP’s depth of market share with high-growth resellers across all its product categories, which is another familiar mantra. HP absolutely will attempt to drive the point home for both customers and VARs that standardizing across a series of IT products from the same manufacturer rather than buying piecemeal from best-of-breed players is the most cost-effective way to go, especially for customer support.
3. Driving more market visibility for its SMB partners, especially in what she sees as several recession-proof sectors including healthcare, the legal profession (warning, stay away from real estate lawyers!), and discrete and wholesale manufacturing.

My guess is that many channel managers and sales leaders are tempted to change course right now because of the economy. Maybe a better tack to take would be to look at what has been working and invest more time there?

We’ll see what else HP has to say later this week.

Hewlett-Packard is a bellwether company in many respects, so if your job touches any facet of channel management, you’d better be studying its overhaul of the PartnerOne program last week closely.

There are three pretty profound things I’d like to highlight.

1. First, the company is ditching the Gold, Platinum and other precious metals-inspired tiering conventions that many of us have become accustomed to over the years. Instead, a VAR can be an HP Business Partner, an HP Preferred Partner (better) or an HP Elite Partner (best). The rationale is that customers understand these terms better, and HP will use these titles more copiously in its end-user marketing.
2. Second, these titles will apply across the entire company, which is kind of neat for VARs who may be big in one HP line, but smaller in others and who now may be inspired to sell a more complete representation of the HP product line.
3. And third, any extra special consideration in terms of pricing and marketing support that a solution provider might receive is predicated on that VAR’s investment in total solutions skills. As an example, one of the first “Elite” designations that HP will roll out this year will center on Virtualization.

It would be impossible to cover every change in this blog, so I’ll direct you to this separate link for the complete press kit and more information.

Thanks to Tom LaRocca, vice president of marketing and strategy for the Solution Partners Organization – Americas, HP, for helping me out with a briefing about the changes.

So, here’s my initial reaction to all this.

Simpler is better. If a company as big as HP can actually succeed with enforcing a more or less single program across all of its product divisions, I say, BRAVO! One of the complaints I hear most often from VARs is how difficult it is to get simple answers from their so-called vendor partners. From a competitive standpoint, if your company makes a point product, the power of HP’s approach could become a threat since it makes it more compelling for a VAR to sell products from other HP divisions rather than having to negotiate a partner relationship with another company.

Solutions are where it’s at. With this latest move, both HP and Cisco Systems (through its Industry Solutions Partner Network) now have substantial energy behind what I’ll call real solutions. That is, integrated hardware and software that can’t simply be plucked off the shelf and that require both technology skills and business savvy for a VAR or reseller to represent. For far too long, product certifications and check-off lists have outweighed true knowledge in the real world. HP’s recognition of solutions specializations is welcome.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned in 19 years of cover the IT channel, it’s that change takes time.

By no means will the spirit of HP’s PartnerOne changes become habit with this simple announcement. But as the business world dons a new attitude about technology, so too must the companies that sell it — across the IT channel. As your own partners grapple with the HP policy changes, you’d be foolish not to use this as a time to initiate meaningful dialog about your own program. I’ve helped several different high-tech vendors gather this sort of feedback since leaving my post at CRN a year ago to help validate changes they were considering. Remember, perception equals reality, so now is as good a time as any to find out just what the perception is about your own program.

Blogs by their nature are about a moment in time. So I won’t bore you all with a lot of historical background about our company. If you don’t know me, I’ve been covering this thing called the high-tech “channel” for more than 18 years now. Since leaving my post as editor of one of the industry’s top trade news organizations, I dove right into some great projects for my now-employer SWOT Management Group (SWOTmg). You’ll hear more about those in future posts, I’m sure. The bottom line is that I figure I have a lot to offer in terms of helping improve communications and messaging between high-tech vendors and their channel partners.

I’m actually between trips right now, holed up at my mother’s place in Hawaii after attending Cisco’s latest worldwide partner summit in a consulting and research capacity. Here’s a blog post I wrote for Tech Target about that trip.

On Sunday, I’m headed to Orlando, Fla., with SWOTmg founder and managing partner Bill Brandt to chat up some great VARs at the annual 1NService Interchange event.

This is one of my favorite conferences every year, because most of the attendees are CEOs and sales and technical managers from some pretty terrific regional integrators, all of whom work together through 1NService to extend their reach. I’ll be moderating a roundtable about the evolution of channel programs, plus I’ll be running a set of interviews and a panel about the role of Collaboration within the high-tech channel. Look for updates LIVE from Orlando early next week. I’m sure some of the discussion will also be the foundation for future blog posts. If you plan to be there, look us up! You can e-mail me directly at hclancy@swotmg.com.

What you can expect out of Connected are ramblings about events I’m covering, and things we’ve learned through various SWOTmg projects. I love sharing feedback from VARs and resellers, so your comments are encouraged. I’ll be back soon with our first updates from the 1NService event.