THE RISE OF SHADOW CHANNELS - 5 New Competitive Threats for IT and Telecom Partners

I have written extensively this year about the changes happening in the traditional IT and telecom channels. Here are some of the major industry trends that have accelerated these changes:

• 30% decline in the number of traditional channel partners since recession of 2008
• 40% of partner owner/principals plan to retire in the next 8 years
• 75% of technical professional services will be delivered by millennials at that time
• 72% of all customer technology decisions led by Lines of Business (growing to 90%)

We know that millennials are not joining leadership/ownership roles within traditional channel companies in sufficient numbers. Business models based on managed services, client/server management, hardware sales, and break-fix do not seem to be enticing the next generation.

Channel margins have been challenged for over a decade, with eroding hardware, software and services resell opportunities. Further, increased competition and more efficient tools and processes has commoditized the delivery of IT and telecom. There is also a degree of consumerization that threatens traditional cash cows with the rise of Apple, Google and the like.

Millennials are joining the broader technology industry and other industries that are radically transforming themselves into tech companies. Read the annual reports of the Fortune 500 and you would think that they are all technology companies.

The changes in how companies make technology decisions, led by the lines of business, used to be called “shadow IT” or “rogue IT”, but today is the new normal. This change in the customer buying journey has been heavily influenced and accelerated by several “shadow channels”.

Who are these shadow channels?

The shadow channel is a broad and diverse group of companies from all backgrounds who engage, influence, recommend and even resell technology to lines of business. It is useful to break them into categories:

1. SaaS ecosystem consultants and integration partners
2. Independent Software Vendors (ISVs)
3. Industry-based professional services firms
4.  “Born in the Cloud” IT and telecom firms
5.  Start-ups looking to disrupt traditional industries

Let’s take a closer look…

1.  SaaS ecosystem consultants and integration partners

The growth of the software-as-a-service industry since early in 2000 has been staggering. Major, multi-billion dollar revenue streams are still growing north of 30% - 15 years later.

We are now seeing clear winners in each of the line of business categories. For example, 10 years ago there were over 300 CRM solutions competing in a very fragmented market. Salesforce has now secured almost 1/5 of all CRM opportunity and competes in a more narrow, established market between on-premises and cloud offerings.

Other winners include companies like Marketo, Netsuite, Workday and many others. All of these winners have built impressive ecosystems around their products where all boats are rising – and quickly. For example, Salesforce has over 1,000 partners globally that drive over $20B in revenue. That is estimated to be $4.14 for every $1 a customer spends on the CRM license (according to IDC). Similar numbers are seen across all LOB ecosystems.

This is primarily consulting and integration revenue. The Salesforce ISV and customized developer partnerships drive billions of more dollars of value. In fact, Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce, outlined a $290B ecosystem opportunity value over the next 5 years for those that want to compete.

According to Goldman Sachs research, the SaaS economy drives $106B in revenue this year, growing by 30% CAGR for the foreseeable future. With the opportunity of $5 for every SaaS dollar, we are looking at a half-trillion dollar opportunity that hasn’t yet been realized. I personally don’t believe the number is that high, but anything multiplied by $106B is significant.


2.  Independent Software Vendors (ISVs)


Keeping on the Salesforce example, the ISV ecosystem is called AppExchange and it has 3,000 apps, generating 4 million downloads, $20B in ISV revenue (including a sizable chunk that Salesforce takes off the top in a revenue share). An impressive 75% of their customers use Apps in addition to the core software.

There are several unicorns (companies worth over $1B in market value) that are completely reliant on these SaaS ecosystems. Adding tools, workflow, customized and specialized industry solutions, and other value adds is a very lucrative environment for entrepreneurs. The investment community of venture capitalists are also eager to back companies in these ecosystems with hundreds of dedicated funds.

The shadow competition comes in the form of free services. In the rush to grab share, many ISVs (and the investment community behind them) measure recurring revenue on the software and tend to give away or look negatively upon one-time, project based services.

3.  Industry-based professional services firms


Every company is being forced to become a technology company. Whether it is a car company with Tesla sneaking up, transportation company with Uber, hospitality company with AirBNB, or any other of the 27 industries, technological disruption is threatening traditional companies with extinction.

This means that every ancillary service or consulting company supporting these industries is being forced into technology as well.

CompTIA did an excellent piece of research in late 2015 focused on the professional services vertical. Looking specifically at accounting, legal and marketing firms they drew a couple of important conclusions:

1. These verticals are huge, rivaling the size of the IT and Telecom Channel in terms of number of firms. The best estimate for IT firms in North America is 160,000 while legal has 190,000, accounting has 133,160 and marketing has 105,180.
2. More than just size, these companies are rapidly converging into the broader IT and Telecom space. For example, 51% of accounting firms resell software today, with 33% more considering it. The numbers are similar for offering IT compliance, consulting, advisory and assessments.

By the year 2020, more than 80% of accounting and marketing firms will be indistinguishable from traditional IT channel partners. Legal is slightly lower at 55%, but still heading the same direction.

Now think about every company, in every industry becoming a competitor for these technology dollars that lines of business are increasingly spending. This casts a huge shadow and is very tough to compete with.

4.  “Born in the Cloud” IT and telecom firms


Much has been written about born in the cloud – and most of it turned out to be wrong.

Don’t get me wrong, there are many successful companies that have been started in the cloud era, with business models purpose-built for this environment, and finding success as brokers, integrators and building trust within lines of business. I spoke at an Ingram Cloud event earlier in the year with 1,300 of these eager folks in attendance.

The great influx of millennial, born-in-the-cloud VARs and MSPs hasn’t materialized as predicted however. The technology industry is struggling to stay in the top 10 of most desired industries for college grads.

Technology is so intertwined with business today that younger people look to themselves as sales, marketing, HR, operations or finance leaders and that technology is an obvious and ubiquitous part of their job role.

With all that said, born in the cloud is still a formidable shadow channel as the skill level is high, business model optimized and energy level high.

5.  Start-ups looking to disrupt traditional industries


It is difficult to measure startups, as many countries don’t keep track. The best estimate from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor is there are about 613 million people trying to start about 396 million businesses. About one third will be launched, so you can assume 133 million new firm births per year, with just shy of 2 million of those being technology startups.

Forbes reported 50,000 companies get Angel funding in the US, with 4,000 of those moving on to secure venture capital funding per year.

These are big numbers – but safe to say that innovation and entrepreneurship is as hot as ever. Each of these companies have a new idea or, what they think, is a better way to do things.

The shadow channel effect is that traditional service-based opportunities could be automated, replaced or deemed redundant in the future. The traditional channel is not immune to the reported 47% of jobs that could be replaced by artificial intelligence, machines and robotics in the near future.

Summary


It is hard to predict the impact of each of these shadow channels against the future technology opportunity. We do know that competition for traditional partners is shifting from the business across the street to a myriad of influencers on end customers.

The good news is that the pie is also growing. The technology industry is expected to grow by 5.1% this year and is looking positive for years to come. The skills and resources to take advantage of this pie look much different than they did even 3 years ago.

The shadow channel is currently the wild west - the equivalent of where the traditional channel was maturity-wise in the early 1990’s. They are putting customer businesses at risk everyday by playing fast and loose with customer data, financial and even HR data. Proprietary information is flying everywhere across public clouds by smaller startups with little control or regard for the ramifications (or regulations).

The traditional channel has an opportunity to play a crucial role. Through strategic partnerships of their own, mergers, acquisitions, hiring/adopting the right skills, as well as business model changes, they can ensure that maturity is injected back into the system. Things like business continuity, security and compliance are critical requirements of  the LOBs – and very few in the shadow channels can execute at this point.

Initial Review of iPhone 7 Plus

Well, the 24 hour mark has hit since picking up my iPhone 7 Plus 128GB in flat black. Here are my initial thoughts.

Verdict:  Ho-hum

The acquisition process was more painful than normal. I faithfully stayed up to 3AM EST on preorder day and placed order for Michelle's Rose Gold 7 Plus as well as my own in fancy Jet Black Plus. Because the order went through at 3 minutes after 3:00am, the Jet Black was already showing late October for delivery.

Tip to Apple: After screwing up supply planning on the new Gold color a few years back, perhaps you should be more bullish on your customer's quest to get new colors. How about an early order window for all free trade-in contracts to test what the color/feature mix would be?

I was able to change over the order a few days later to a flat black version and secure delivery on the first day at 9:00am, September 16, 2016. Michelle was still out of luck on the Rose Gold into October.

The first major snag came on restore of new phone. After waiting almost an hour in the Apple Store for process to be complete, it failed at 1% with the following unhelpful message:

I decided to try again with an older backup - same thing, after 1 hour it failed at 1% remaining. I updated the phone to iOS 10.0.1 and tried again to no avail.  As a last resort, I followed the bare-metal restore to factory settings via the DFU Mode - also to no avail.

So, I was defeated. Started a new phone and downloaded hundreds of apps and tuned to what I remembered on my old phone. Next time I will back up to iTunes AND iCloud the night before. I lost my health history which seems to be the biggest issue.

After a long day (and night) - it was time to start Saturday fresh with a new phone.

First up: mow the grass while listening to music on headphones. I plugged the the new Lightning dongle adapter and Skull Candy headphones. Everything worked as advertised however I couldn't make out any improvement of digital over analog sound. There was an adverse effect - in 90 minutes of listening, it burned up 30% of my battery. I checked the battery monitor and "Music" was the culprit.

In the analog days, I could listen for hours and barely dent the battery. Does the new digital port have a big weakness?

Side bar: I applaud Apple for getting rid of the analog headphone jack. As an IBM/Lenovo guy for 17 years selling PCs, I do think it takes courage to take away the floppy, CD-ROM, serial and parallel ports, and now the last remaining analog remnant on their products. This was something that the Wintel industry would never do as they were focused on making enterprise clients happy - the consumer was always an afterthought.

Second up: Play with the family on the neighbors slide. This gave me a good chance to put the dual cameras to use. The 2X optical zoom and some of the advanced effects are a real leap forward. The ability to emulate some of the advanced DSLR portrait effects is really cool. Having 2 cameras working independently and having software stitch together the results will change the game for photography moving forward. Watch this space for incredible artistry.

Third up: Go see a Weird Al Yankovic concert and test out low-light settings. Because of the music battery fiasco early in the day, I did have to find a charger for the car ride over to Schenectady however. The video camera worked "at par" with previous phones in this environment. I was hoping for better focusability so the artist wasn't a white-out when a spotlight was on - but I wasn't able to take advantage of the 2 cameras here.

Other observations:

- They are obviously doing the big refresh on the 10 year anniversary with the iPhone 8. This seemed like more of a "S" release. I will call this my iPhone 6SS.

- I like the water resistance to IP67. Not as good as Samsung, but a big step forward for reliability and those occasional rain/boating accidents.

- Because the lower button is now digital and not a physical mechanism, the taptic feedback was cool. Took a number of times to get used to it. Also, to hard reset the phone, you need to hold down Power and Lower Volume buttons instead.

- iOS 10 is a linear improvement over previous versions. I am excited about the Siri integration within apps as well as mapping integrations with 3rd parties. The new Home app is a future win once the cost of IoT devices comes down. I refuse to be a wide early adopter of plastic devices that cost $300 a piece. Homekit is the much-needed industry standard for millions of devices that are coming to market - not an open standard by any means, but at least a popular one.

- Performance wise, I can't tell any difference on the new A10 chipset. Partially because these are not processing devices, the network is the bottleneck. I do like the dual stereo speakers and volume which is much higher than previous.

Conclusion: This is a linear bump to the product line - more of a "S" product than a new model. I will call this my iPhone 6SS Plus until the iPhone 8 comes out with things like wireless charging, edge to edge OLED screens, and more.

Nautical Adventures of the McBain Family

As a family, we love the cruising lifestyle.

Charting new ground across the North East and seeing new sights every time. Here is a visual of thousands of miles of waters and ports seen to date.

(CLICK TO MAKE LARGER)

More detailed trip plans are here:

http://www.jaymcbain.com/2015/07/the-bayliner-chronicles-1000-miles-in-2.html


And the backstory of how the nautical adventure life started:

http://www.jaymcbain.com/2014/12/my-nautical-story-adventure-on-high-seas.html

ChannelEyes Provides An Extra Set Of "Eyes" On Your Channel

OPTYX is a predictive analytics platform developed by the team at ChannelEyes that is 100% dedicated to indirect channel sales teams. It helps vendors by watching their partners, people and opportunities and providing real-time sales intelligence to drive more revenue. By analyzing millions of data points, both internally and externally, it calculates the impact that channels have on winning opportunities and the lift that partner interactions have.

It alerts channel sales people with the things they need to know, and prioritize when they need to action. Talking to the right partners at the right time about the right things can generate up to 10% lift in channel revenue.

By watching every opportunity in real-time, OPTYX generates a rolling confidence score based on 65 unique attributes. These scores are constantly changing and it understands what timely actions are needed to ensure success. Out of the box, it achieves over 90% accuracy on forecasting at an overall channel level.

It also watches each channel sales territory and builds stack-ranked lists of hard to measure KPI's. Answering the age-old question:

"Have you ever wondered if you have a great salesperson in a bad territory or a weak one in a good territory?"

By knowing the likelihood of winning every deal, OPTYX produces unique "save and fumble" reports by salesperson. Looking at their activity level, it can ascertain their efficiency level and understand the lift (or lack thereof) that they drive in their territories.

The team at ChannelEyes knows that partners have an out-sized impact on sales success. OPTYX provides automated sales intelligence and workflow to capture up to 10% more in channel revenue.

It is the first predictive analytics software platform that is 100% dedicated to indirect channel sales. It works hand-in-hand with Salesforce and is an easy 5 minute install via the Appexchange.

Robin Williams committed suicide 2 years ago - what if Michael Phelps did too?

The news about Robin Williams was so shocking at the time. How could someone so full of life and who created so much happiness in others be depressed?

The good news, is that it became one of the turning points in our understanding and compassion for mental health issues. Beyond the laughter, that will be his greatest and most enduring gift to humanity.

There are some startling facts about suicide:

• 10th leading cause of death in the U.S.
• 42,773 Americans die each year
• Over 1 million attempt suicide each year - that is a large city.
• White males account for 70% of all suicides
• Guns are used 50% of the time, suffocation 27% and poisoning 16%

Most people didn't think about this morbid anniversary because we are preoccupied with the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio.  

Perhaps this graphic would remind us that it can happen to anyone, anytime:

Be good to each other - and watch out for your family, friends and neighbors.

- Jay

An Open Letter to CompTIA

As the time counts down on another successful ChannelCon, I wanted to document some thoughts before I return back to the grind.

First and foremost, the event this year in Fort Lauderdale was fantastic, the CompTIA staff is amazing, and the get-together feels like a family reunion (even comes complete with some crazy uncles and aunts!).

Two years ago, Todd Thibodeaux, CEO of CompTIA said two things that I personally found startling about the channel:

• 40% of partners are going to retire in the next 10 years
• 75% of the channel will be made up of millennials at the end of those 10 years.

These are both coming true, and probably faster than predicted.

Herein lies the challenge for the traditional IT and Telecom channel, and CompTIA in particular. 

Millennials are not joining leadership/ownership roles within “our” channel. They are, however, joining the broader technology industry and other industries that are radically transforming themselves into tech companies.

Todd mentioned in this year’s keynote that Technology was struggling to stay in the Top 10 of desirable industries. With the surge of AI, virtual reality, robotics, IoT, mobility, self driving cars, Pokemon and other cool stuff – this seems perplexing.

When Marc Andreeson predicted that “software will eat the world” 5 years ago, we felt that the channel would lead the charge on driving this change with their customers. With deep skills in security, infrastructure, compliance, and a host of other important things, the IT industry would enjoy a renaissance of sorts.

Well, the opposite has happened.

IT departments have steadily lost power, and the CIO has relinquished purchasing control to the line of business executives. In fact, Gartner reports that 72% of all technology spend is now being led out of LOBs – much of the time without IT influence. In only a few years, this will be 90%.

This was once called “shadow IT” or “rogue IT”, but today is the new normal. Much to the surprise of CompTIA, and the channel industry as a whole, this change in customer behavior has also spawned the “shadow channel”.

The shadow channel is predominantly made up of “born in the cloud” millennials that have built successful businesses inside the ecosystems of SaaS companies. For example, Salesforce has 695 partners that drive over $20B in services – none of them present at ChannelCon.

In fact, NONE of the Top 100 SaaS companies in the world had a booth at ChannelCon 2016.

Dreamforce, an annual conference in San Francisco (run by Salesforce) is now the largest software tradeshow in the world. With over 150,000 attendees, you can see the new shadow channel in action – consultants, integrators, and other experts at serving the LOB customer, solving customer pain points and delivering real business outcomes.

As much as we try to convince ourselves differently, things like security, backup, disaster recovery, remote management and the plethora of other business critical solutions the channel faithfully delivers, do not drive business outcomes in the same way. Hence, the disconnect.

While the traditional channel has shrunk by more than 30%, the shadow channel has exploded in numbers over the same time period.

Not only did none of the Top 100 SaaS companies have a booth at ChannelCon, their partners were not in attendance either. CompTIA needs to immerse into their ecosystems to understand where (and if) it can provide value. Where do they go to learn? How do they certify their people? What do they read? Who do they follow? How do they run their businesses?

THIS is the channel of 2024, where 75% of the participants will be millennials. By then, we won't be calling it shadow channel any longer - it will be the new normal. Does CompTIA represent and lead this new channel or stay with whatever is left of the traditional one?

Action needs to be taken – and fast.

The shadow channel is currently the wild west - the equivalent of where our channel was maturity-wise in the early 1990’s. They are putting customer businesses at risk everyday by playing fast and loose with customer data, financial and even HR data. Proprietary information is flying everywhere across public clouds by smaller startups with little control or regard for the ramifications (or regulations).

The traditional channel has the opportunity to play the adult in the room. It may not be sexy to talk about business continuity, security or compliance with LOBs – but someone needs to do it. If the IT department is losing power, the channel needs to step up to protect these customers. Mistakes in these areas can cause business-ending catastrophes or even put executives in jail.

CompTIA, its members, staff and Board all need to take stock. Software is eating its world too. Larger hardware and software companies are busy making a pivot for survival (perhaps why they weren’t exhibiting this time around) and the association needs to as well.

These LOB focused SaaS companies – as well as their partners and ecosystems – are the future of IT, at least for the next decade. How does CompTIA help train them? How does it speak for them in Washington? How does it design communities and councils to attract them? How does it deliver relevant research and events?


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CompTIA Responds to Open Letter Via Podcast

Yes, I am a social media-aholic. The first step is admitting it.

I have tracked my social usage for about 6 years now. Looking at friends/followers is one of those metrics:

• Facebook has doubled over that time 
• Linkedin has gone up 3X 
• Twitter is up 14X 

The other 10 social networks are around the 500-1000 range with slow growth. Some social sites have come and gone as relevant (Tumblr, Vine, etc) while some are staples on the front screen of my phone.

Building a Channel Partner for the Year 2020

Steve Jobs and Warren Buffett made a quote by Wayne Gretzky go viral in recent years: “I skate to where the puck is going to be, not to where it has been.” It was sage advice that Wayne’s father (Walter) gave him growing up – and landed him in the Hall of Fame with dozens of records that may never be beaten.

If you are one of the nearly 600,000 VARs, agents, solution providers or MSPs in the IT & Telecom channels worldwide – it is advice that is now more important than ever.

I have written extensively in the last couple of months about disruptions in the channel caused by the cloud and changing customer buying models. The most popular of these blogs were: 

1. Here is why the traditional IT & Telecom channel is shrinking at an alarming rate – and what to do about it

2. Where are all of these so-called “Born in the Cloud” Partners Anyway?

3. The End Of The IT Channel As We Know It. (And the start of something amazing!)

There are changes happening in the industry that require action. The good news is that they are playing out over the next 5 years - giving time to properly plan, build a strategy and execute.

As correctly predicted by Marc Andreeson in the Wall Street Journal 5 years ago, software is indeed eating the world. Every industry has been transformed, including the buying journey itself. The center of gravity for buying decisions has fundamentally shifted to cloud software and into the business units. 

5 years ago, about 80% of technology decisions were researched and made in the IT department, today it is only 28%. In fact, Gartner predicts that it could be as high as 90% of decisions made outside of IT by 2020.

This radical shift in buying process has already had a couple of major impacts on the channel:

1. By the year 2020, the spending on IT cloud environments will surpass the total spending on enterprise IT infrastructure according to IDC. Cloud infrastructure is growing by 13.1% compounded while traditional is shrinking by 1.4% per year.

2. New channels, many powered by millennials, are growing at an exponential pace. These new partners are joining ecosystems built around SaaS software companies (Salesforce, Marketo, Workday, etc.), lines of business (sales, marketing, HR, etc.), solutions (CRM, HCM, EPM, ERP, etc.), industries, sectors, geographies and even customer segments.

Back to hockey – where is the puck going to be?

With 72% of decisions now made by lines of business professionals, and growing the 90% by 2020, the obvious answer is verticals. It is actually more complex than that – I made up a term called “vectors” to highlight the intersection between industry and LOB, including other factors such as segment, sector, solution and geography.

Today, these vectors are implementing 15 different categories of solution. From largest to smallest, these are:  Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), Human Capital Management (HCM), Content Management, Analytics and BI, Collaboration, Supply Chain Management (SCM), Procurement, eCommerce, Treasury and Risk Management (TRM), Enterprise Performance Management (EPM), Project & Portfolio Management, IT Service Management (ITSM), and Sales Performance Management (SPM).

Perhaps more important than size is looking at the growth rate over the next few years. Some of the smaller solution areas have the most explosive growth – TPM, EPM, SPM, eCommerce and ITSM all have CAGR’s of 4% according to Apps Run The World.

Another major area is to look at the fastest growing industries. Healthcare, Life Sciences, Hospitality, Professional Services, Insurance, Media, and Education are the hottest sectors (in order) all with over 2% CAGR until 2020.

Once a channel partner lands on vector(s) that they will build skills and capacity for, the hard work begins. Deciding what vendors and distributors to partner with, understanding the ecosystem of where customers congregate, learn and engage, and building relationships in new, and sometimes uncomfortable places.

Get ready for new competition

Every potential customer is being forced to become a technology company. Whether it is a car company with Tesla sneaking up, transportation company with Uber, hospitality company with AirBNB, or any other of the 27 industries, technological disruption is threatening traditional companies with extinction. 

This means that every ancillary service or consulting company supporting these industries is being forced into technology as well.

CompTIA did an excellent piece of research in late 2015 focused on the professional services vertical. Looking specifically at accounting, legal and marketing firms they drew a couple of important conclusions:

1. These verticals are huge, rivaling the size of the IT and Telecom Channel in terms of number of firms. The best estimate for IT firms in North America is 160,000 while legal has 190,000, accounting has 133,160 and marketing has 105,180.

2. More than just size, these companies are rapidly converging into the broader IT and Telecom space. For example, 51% of accounting firms resell software today, with 33% more considering it. The numbers are similar for offering IT compliance, consulting, advisory and assessments. By the year 2020, more than 80% of accounting and marketing firms will be indistinguishable from traditional IT channel partners. Legal is slightly lower at 55%, but still heading the same direction.

Now think about every company in every industry becoming a competitor for these technology dollars that lines of business are increasingly spending.

The opportunity for channel partners in the future lies in the complexity of vectors. The permutations and combinations are somewhat endless and carving out new niches will be the new normal. Each partner must decide on “how” to get to the puck. It could be through skill and capacity development, partnering, mergers, acquisitions, or a successful mix of them all.

Technology reached a tipping point this week in America

This brutal week in America had a number of technology stories buried underneath that mark a significant shift going forward.

The first was the prevalence of live video, particularly by the victims themselves. Over the past few years, we have seen interesting things with cell phone footage and dash cams - but it has all been recorded and transferred after the fact. We are now living in realtime, and this changes everything from who owns the news (Facebook) to how we can handle it psychologically. 

The second technology story was the killing of the Dallas police sniper by a bomb carrying robot. This is the first time an American citizen was killed in this way. We have become desensitized to the daily drone killing overseas, but this marks a potential shift in how domestic terrorism will be handled by authorities (think about Orlando and if they could have infiltrated with robots immediately). This isn't Terminator as these robots and drones are human controlled, but changes the game all the same. 

Third, is the power of social media in either starting or stopping another civil war (I can't decide which). We are learning that developing advanced data science around social sentiment will be critical in predicting potential danger zones (think Minority Report). 

Finally, in order to protect ALL citizens, we need to invest in research of a non-lethal, 100% effective device that immediately incapacitates a person. Similar to a stun gun from Star Trek. Tasers are not 100% effective and guns are lethal - we need something in the middle.

Jay McBain Driving a Ferrari in Albany - June 2016

My wonderful wife, Michelle, purchased a very cool birthday present for my 44th birthday on June 24, 2016.

From Motorsportlab.com she surprised me with 3 laps of either a Ferarri 430 or a Lamborghini!

I chose the Ferrari because it was the better car - and because of my life dream to own a Ferrari - more on that story here.

So here it is - 2 videos - showing the action from all angles including inside the car, dashcam and from afar. All in all, it was a really cool way to spend a Saturday afternoon in Albany, NY.

From INSIDE:



From OUTSIDE:



Highly recommend these guys:

Link:  http://www.motorsportlab.com

The Bayliner Chronicles - Cruising thousands of miles across the Northeastern United States

Michelle and I traded in a 40 foot Carver over the winter of 2014/15 and purchased a 2008 Bayliner 245 Ciera so that we could explore the Northeast United States without breaking the bank on gas and repairs.

More backstory on our nautical life, including the boats owned prior, can be found here.

After a couple of cold winters in New York, thoughts quickly changed to trip planning. With a trailerable boat, the world was now our oyster - so to speak.

Here are some of the journey's thus far...

Major Trips:

1. Jersey Shore via Manasquan River

MAY 27-28, 2016

A 206 mile drive south of Albany put us at the Manasquan River Club in Brick, NJ, where we could launch, keep the truck and dock for a few days while we explored the Jersey Shore.

We were able to jump out of the inlet and get a taste of the open Atlantic for awhile, and then jump back inside for a nice 25 mile cruise down the shore to Seaside Heights where we tied up at a Moose Lodge.

A nice walk over to the ocean side beach and then down the Boardwalk to see the home turf of Snooki and friends. On May 29th we trailered the boat to Sesame Place in Langhome, PA.

2. Washington, DC for July 4th Fireworks

JULY 1-5, 2016



The longest drive yet with boat in tow - a 360 mile drive south of Albany will put us at the Franklin Street Boat Ramp in Cambridge, Maryland. 

Fun fact: Jay-Z called Cambridge home before pursuing a music career.

We start the 5 day trip from Cambridge, into Chesapeake Bay down to the Potomac River and then back up to the Nation's Capital. On the way, we will spend the first night at Bayside Marina in Colonial Beach, Virginia making for about 100 miles of cruising.

On July 2, we head up the remaining 76 miles of the Potomac to Washington, DC and stay at the Washington Marina, just steps from the Thomas Jefferson Memorial and the Washington Monument. We hang out to watch the fireworks on July 4th and do some navigating around the DC area (by foot and boat).

On July 5, we make the full 176 mile journey back to Cambridge and then the drive back to Albany.

Day Trips:

1. The Hudson River

2. Saratoga Lake

Major Trips:

1. Hudson River to NYC and then Long Island (and back through Harlem River)

MAY 8-10 & JULY 26-27, 2015


A short 90 mile drive south of Albany put us in Newburgh, New York and the start of a 250 mile nautical journey taking us through Manhattan, the Statue of Liberty, East River and the Long Island Sound to Northport.

We had a great dinner at Water's Edge Restaurant spent the night right beside Citi Field, the home of the Mets as well as Northport in Long Island.

In July we headed back on almost the same route to see friends Melissa Kerkau and Myra Jensen and stay 2 nights at the 79th St. Boat Basin.

Great to see family and friends along the way!

2. Thousand Islands and Lake Ontario (and back to Oneida Lake)

MAY 22-24, 2015

A 140 mile drive west of Albany put us in Oneida Lake, New York and the start of a 275 mile journey taking us through the Erie Canal, Oswego Canal, Lake Ontario, St. Lawrence Seaway and then the Thousand Islands.

We had a wonderful time exploring Boldt Castle on Heart Island as well as the little towns along the way. With nights in Oswego and Clayton, it was a beautiful journey through two countries.

3. Boston, Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard (and back to New Bedford)

JULY 3-6, 2015

A 200 mile drive southeast of Albany put us in New Bedford, MA, and the start of a 300 mile journey taking us through Buzzards Bay, Cape Cod, Boston Harbor, the Atlantic Ocean, Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard. We were joined by a great crew - my dad Jim McBain and Audrey Jackson.

We had a great time exploring Boston for 2 days including a game at Fenway Park and the July 4th fireworks at anchor!  The weather was cooperating so we took the outer Cape Cod route to Nantucket which worked well except for the last 20 miles of open water where we were battling big waves.

Staying at the Nantucket Boat Basin gave us excellent access to the town and we enjoyed walking up and down each street. It was an expensive night, but worth it because both nights in Boston were free.

The journey between Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard was calm as a small lake and the 28 miles flew right by. We found a nice town dock in Vineyard Haven (Tisbury) that was only $5 per hour and had an excellent beach to cool off.

The final leg back to New Bedford was also clear sailing and a very quick 23 miles.

4. Philadelphia & Baltimore, via the Delaware River, C&D Canal & Chesapeake Bay

SEPTEMBER 4-7, 2015

A 211 mile drive south of Albany puts us in New Jersey's capital city Trenton, and the start of a 300 mile journey taking us through Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the C&D Canal, and Baltimore, Maryland.

This was our first trip down the Delaware River. From what I read on the internet, the rocks up north are a concern and the tides can cause some interesting navigation. Not to mention the amount of commercial traffic that takes this route.

It was also our first time in Chesapeake Bay which I know is a boaters dream. Approaching Philly and Baltimore by water was an awesome experience. Baltimore has one of the nicest waterfronts I have ever seen.

When I bought my previous boat, the Carver Mariner, I navigated from south New Jersey up the Atlantic to New York City and then to Montreal and Toronto. This time we were on the inside route!

5. Whitehall, NY to Plattsburgh, NY on Lake Champlain

SEPTEMBER 19-20, 2015

A quick 80 mile drive north of Albany puts us in Whitehall, NY, on the northern end of the Champlain Canal and the gateway to Lake Champlain. Whitehall is steeped in history as during the late 17th century, the area was a staging ground for raids between English and French colonies. I visited once before on the Carver and remember the famous Skene Manor on the hill.

The voyage up Champlain is about 90 miles direct, with a few more miles planned for visiting the Vermont side of the lake.

It is "parent's weekend" at SUNY Plattsburgh where my daughter is attending her freshman year and we will spend one night at the Boat Basin.

Day Trips:

1. The Great Sacandaga Lake

JUNE & AUGUST 2015

A quick 52 mile drive west of Albany put us on the southeastern side of Great Sacandaga Lake.  The first thing we found was a sandy island with a bunch of boats beached and having a great time. We joined them and basked in the rays.

We then drove to the farthest point in the northeast part of the lake and then watched the sunset as we cruised back down and explored the built-up western region with numerous marinas. Lucky I had my Navionics running on my iPad as the sunken islands and shoals are not very well marked!

2. Saratoga Lake

JUNE, JULY, AUGUST 2015

A very quick 32 mile drive north of Albany put us on Saratoga Lake.  A favorite spot for locals because of its proximity and clean water, this lake offers a lot of options for kayakers, waterskiers and even small sailboats.

While it is shallow around the shore, the middle is wide open and has little worry about shoals or sunken islands of any kind.

We enjoyed spending time with our friends the Godgarts, who have a beautiful property on the southwest shore.

3. Hudson River

JUNE, JULY, AUGUST 2015


Our home body of water is the Hudson River - dividing Albany, NY and our home in Wynantskill.

We were members of the Albany Yacht Club (excellent group of people - highly recommended!) which is only a few miles down the road. With a trailerable boat, we decided to keep it on the trailer this year - but who knows what the future will bring!


So there it is, how to put a 1,700 miles on a boat in only one summer!

Stay tuned for our next adventures...

Here is why the traditional IT & Telecom channel is shrinking at an alarming rate - and what to do about it

We have hit a tipping point in the IT and telecom channel.

For years we have debated the impact of new technologies such as the cloud, mobility, and now IoT (Internet of Things). In addition, we looked at partner transformations and the evolving business models that were showing signs of success (such as managed services).

So much focus was put into these things that we lost sight of the end customer. Specifically, how the end customer makes technology decisions.

So here it is - 72% of all technology decisions are now being made by line-of-business professionals. Yes, VP's of sales, marketing, operations, finance, HR, manufacturing and other business units are leading the charge and the IT department has been mostly relegated to legacy infrastructure, support and, in many cases, reduced in size and strategic importance.

This is a radical change that almost no one predicted.

To put this number in perspective, it was only 2 years ago that it flipped over to 51%. In fact, Gartner is predicting that it will reach 90% by the year 2020. In a span of only 15 years, we have moved from 90% of technology decisions made by CIOs and IT departments down to only 10%.

Behind this revolution is software. Namely, cloud based SaaS (software as a service) companies that are disrupting every function, in every company across every industry. Companies such as Salesforce, Workday, NetSuite, Marketo, and dozens of other platforms have created new ecosystems that support tens of thousands of software startups and hundreds of thousands of non-traditional technology channel jobs.

Recent data shows that cloud implementations reduce IT resourcing by over 55% - including outsourced services that our channel has lived on since hardware and software licensing margins dried up.

Vendors and partners need to understand that having a vertical focus is today's equivalent of being a generalist. I explained it further in my look into what I called vectors. The new line-of-business (LOB) power centers are creating opportunities in very specific niches across 297 sub-industries, multiple sectors and segments, a plethora of technologies and different geographies.

Traditional IT providers that have verticalized are being beat by firms (or individuals) that focus on the 5 main vectors (LOB, sub-industry, segment, geography and technology). In many cases these aren’t “born in the cloud” companies, but industry or LOB focused consultants, service providers and independent contractors that have been forced into technology as the industries they serve have made that shift.

Real-world data is showing that cloud implementations are being won by ecosystem specialists as opposed to traditional IT and telecom partners. For example, Salesforce has 695 partners world-wide that are driving over $20B in consulting and integration services.

Using data and guidance from CompTIA and CRN, my best estimate is that the channel has shrunk by 36% since the 2008 recession. This is over 100,000 less partner companies in North America and 400,000 less world-wide. For those surviving, it is estimated by major distributors that a majority of their SMB partners are technically insolvent.

Adding to these discouraging numbers is that 40% of surviving partner executives are planning exits (retirement or M&A) in the next 8 years. On the flip side, CompTIA predicted that 75% of the channel will be made up of millennials in the same time period.

Where do we go from here?

Most of us assumed that these millennials would be starting new businesses based on reseller, VAR, managed services, agent/sub-agent or solution provider type business models. We affectionately coined the term "Born in the Cloud".

The problem is, the number of born in the cloud partners being created is drastically lower than the hundreds of thousands being lost. After attending Ingram's massive Cloud event a few months ago, with 1,300 cloud partners, it was clear that these companies were, for the most part, transitioning into this world and not being born into it.

If you are looking to meet and recruit some of these “born in the cloud” partners, your best bet is to skip the over 150 channel centric tradeshows world-wide this year. They simply aren’t in attendance. You will have better luck attending Salesforce Dreamforce, a Marketo event, or specific industry LOB conferences.

While the IT and telecom channel numbers are declining, this new generation of SaaS platform partners are exploding. Before jumping feet-first into this new vector-based, millennial-led world, you will first need to understand how your company and products play with line of business executives:

• Do your products integrate seamlessly with the major SaaS ecosystems mentioned above? 
• Are they priced in a per-person, per-month recurring model that can be added to the rest of the stack?
• Are they packaged in a way that consultants and integration specialists can profit?
• Does your channel program have finders fees and technology integrations as an option? These new millennial vector specialists don't tend to resell product in the traditional sense.

The current cloud opportunity stands at $204B according to Gartner, growing by double digits for at least the next decade. Almost inexplicably, 67% of current channel firms are reporting that cloud demand has outstripped their capacity, whether that is technical capability or bandwidth, while a new generation of non-traditional partners are growing and profiting in this new world.

Here is a profile of one of these firms - Bluewolf. They were founded sixteen years ago, specialize in all things Salesforce, quickly grew to over 600 consultants and just sold to IBM for over $200M. They are not the largest Salesforce partner either - in fact, they barely crack the top 10. There are 694 other potential Bluewolfs in Salesforce' ecosystems alone. Now multiply that by dozens of other line-of-business specialized platforms and you start to get the idea of where the new value channels are being created.

Ready to dive in? Check out how to execute a Go To Market plan for these new markets and use Dandelions & Blowfish marketing tactics to achieve quick success.

Response to Orlando Mass Shooting

We all want to frame this tragedy in our own worldview - and then spend the next few weeks talking about political will, mental health, gun control, religion, better parenting and other useless rhetoric that won't stop the next mass shooting.

What if we talk about preventive technology instead? Unfortunately safety is going to mean giving up your personal freedoms when entering a public place - but that is the cost. No idea is too wild - airport style metal detectors on every public door? Personal digital location trackers? Approved, non-lethal stun guns for all? Body scanners as prevalent as street lights? Knockout gas dispensers with fire alarm type pull downs? 

I am not sure the right angle, but I do know that I am sick to my stomach.

Excited to be the opening keynote at Channel Visionaries 2016

Excited to be the opening keynote for the Channel Visionaries event in Santa Clara on June 2, 2016.  

http://www.channelvisionaries.com/channel-chief-series/day-1-agenda/

 

Channel Visionaries is the fasting growing community of senior technology channel executives looking to network at a dotted line and share best practices. Our community members gain a competitive advantage by collectively revolutionizing their channel ecosystems in order to adapt to a new era of radical channel transformation. 

In today’s business environment, companies are more dependent than ever on partners as their extended sales and support teams. Winning with partners is key to winning with customers, and this raises the stakes for effective channel management.

Join us at our world class series of content driven conferences spanning the globe from the Silicon Valley to Singapore. Leverage our online community portal between events to keep the conversation and collaboration flowing. If you're a channel leader, Channel Visionaries will give you the tools you need to elevate your personal brand and to keep on top of the latest industry trends so that you can be much more effective as a channel leader.

Channel Chief Conference Series

JUNE 2ND & 3RD, 2016 SANTA CLARA MARRIOTT, CA

In today’s business environment, companies are more dependent than ever on partners as their extended sales and support teams. Winning with partners is key to winning with customers, and this raises the stakes for effective channel management. Building and managing a channel ecosystem is critical to improving your company’s efficiency and effectiveness. At this conference, we’ll explore the latest strategies to consider for achieving amazing results in revenue acceleration and maximizing partner performance. It’s not enough to seek operational excellence from your partner efforts. You must seek a competitive advantage. Sadly, many companies are failing to achieve this type of success. By some estimates, as many as 70% of alliances fall short of expectations for both the channel partners and for the companies selling through those channels. But, how can you tell if you are one of these companies? Here are some of the telltale signs that a company’s channel management is under-performing:

• Poor alignment between how sales, product teams and the partner program define “best” partners
• Weak performance by significant numbers of top-tier partner
• Unclear ROI due to a lack of understanding of how partners deliver value
• Unsuccessful attempts to drive new partner behavior through existing partner relationships
• Passive execution that reacts to rather than fuels business outcomes

Often, the root cause of a company’s channel management problems is not its people or its positioning, but its approach. Your channel investments should focus on how you will win with partners in a competitive context.

Our agenda has a mix of current Channel Chiefs passionate about channel transformation and leaders of world class suppliers to the channel industry that consistently help channel organizations gain a competitive advantage in the Technology industry
.

NuoDB Offers Cloud Computing Across Different Platforms

No matter what type of device you are using or the platform that it is on, you will be able to use NuoDB to make sure that you are getting what you can out of the experience. When it comes to NuoDB, the company has made sure that they are offering the database opportunities to all of their clients so that they will be able to take advantage of different aspects of a professional cloud. It is something that has truly set them apart from their cloud competitors and has given them the chance to make a name for themselves in the industry.

NuoDB is a take on the new cloud database opportunities that are provided for cloud users around the globe. It is something that can be easily accessed no matter where you are at as long as you have wi-fi. Included with the NuoDB is the ability to make sure that you are secure. The products are all compatible with different coding languages and even different types of cloud that you may want to input into the cloud. There are many major cloud companies that use the capabilities that NuoDB has and the company feels that you should be able to take advantage of what NuoDB has to offer everyone.

Cloud computing has seen a huge surge in the past five years and that is something that has been able to happen thanks to an increase of different technological advances that are now available. In the past, people had to rely on things like flash drives and external hard drives to save their information. These devices would get filled up quickly and they would not have the amount of storage that is necessary to make sure that they are getting everything that they need on them. It was a bad situation and something that truly changed the way that people were able to do different things.

Thanks to advanced technology and more options that were coming available for different people, the cloud was born. This was something that made it much easier for people to access the data that they needed. Cloud computing is easy to handle because people were able to get all of the data that they needed. If you're going to a business meeting, you no longer need to bring along your laptop and three different jump drives. You just need to make sure that the information is on the cloud and you can access it from a desktop computer, your laptop or even someone else's device.

The idea behind the cloud is to make life easier for people but it also comes with something that many people are also benefitting from. The security of the cloud is something that most people are able to enjoy because they know that their data will be protected from different things. Most cloud companies, like NuoDB, have special security measures in place to help save the data in the event that there is a virus or something else happens. Most have several failsafe methods and backup options for people to be able to enjoy feeling safe with their opportunities.

Anyone is now able to use the cloud. As long as you have an Internet connection, you can access the cloud on any device. Products like NuoDB have made it possible to access your data whether you are using a tablet, a computer or even a cell phone. This is something that has made it easier for people to get what they can out of different things and with the opportunities that are used within the different types of computing.

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ChannelEyes CEO Recognized Again as a Top 20 Channel Visionary

ChannelPro-SMB, the premier source of business and technology insights for I.T. channel partners serving the small and midsize business market, has announced its second annual list of 20/20 Visionaries for 2016.

ChannelPro 20/20 Visionaries - Jay McBain

TROY, N.Y. - May 13, 2016 -  The ChannelPro 20/20 Visionaries are comprised of 20 influential, go-to authorities in managed services, cloud computing, and partner support and education from the vendor, analyst, and consulting communities, as well as 20 of the most far-sighted resellers, MSPs, and community leaders from the SMB partner community. These are the IT professionals who not only serve their SMB clients with top solutions and services, but move the industry forward with innovative ideas, a commitment to continual improvement, and a willingness to share what they know to help others succeed in the market.

Jay McBain represents ChannelEyes who continue to drive thought leadership in the global channel community by introducing forward-looking software to help vendors communicate, engage and drive more revenue with their valued partners. After success with Social and Mobile products, ChannelEyes recently introduced OPTYX - a Predictive Analytics platform that assists Channel Account Managers with the complicated task of managing a territory, prioritizing activities, and improving interactions with alliances and partners.

"We are proud to reveal this year's class of smart, insightful thinkers," said Cecilia Galvin, executive editor, ChannelPro-SMB. "Many of the honorees, such as McBain, who made the grade in 2016 did so last year as well, but there are some new faces too. What they all have in common is a deep understanding of the channel and how to thrive in it."

OPTYX is a predictive alerting, scoring and prioritization solution that helps channel organizations increase indirect sales by optimizing partner interactions based on data science. Designed as a workflow tool that runs seamlessly with Salesforce and other CRM systems, it automatically and intelligently processes internal and external data signals to help channel sales account managers work smarter, close more deals faster and continuously grow revenue.

Jay McBain - ChannelEyes

To develop the 20/20 Visionaries for 2016, the editors of ChannelPro-SMB turned an eye to the channel players and channel pros they have spoken with, listened to, and sat with face to face over the past year to compile a broad list of possible honorees. After much debate, the list of this year's visionaries emerged. Each year this process will be reprised, with honorees selected from many worthy channel candidates.

A complete list of the ChannelPro 20/20 Visionaries for 2016 appears in the May print edition of ChannelPro-SMB as well as on the ChannelPro Network website at http://www.channelpronetwork.com/article/introducing-2016-channelpro-2020-visionaries



About ChannelEyes Corporation:

Founded in 2011, ChannelEyes is a global software company that is reinventing how vendors drive partner sales and indirect channel and alliances growth. The SaaS platform includes ChannelCandy, the world's largest mobile-first product for partners, as well as OPTYX, the first indirect sales workflow product to help sellers with predictive analytics and leverage big data science to drive more sales. ChannelEyes has received numerous accolades for its technology including being named a Cool Vendor by Gartner and one of the fastest growing companies in New York's Capital Region by the Business Review. Learn more at: http://channeleyes.com/ and follow us on Twitter (twitter.com/ChannelEyes) and Facebook (facebook.com/ChannelEyes).


About the ChannelPro Network:

The ChannelPro SMB 20/20 Visionaries is part of the ChannelPro Network. Our network includes websites, events, awards programs, research, and the monthly magazine ChannelPro-SMB. The ChannelPro Network provides targeted business and technology information for IT channel partners who serve small and midsize businesses. The network delivers expert opinion, analysis, news, product reviews, and advice vital to a channel partner's business success. No other media company focuses on the small and midsize marketplace like The ChannelPro Network. ChannelProNetwork.com

Channel Focus (Baptie) Webinar - 5 Future Channel Trends You Should Be Planning for Today

The pace of change in the indirect sales world has been mind-numbing over the past few years. There are new business models and partner types popping up seemingly every day - driven by technology, economic challenges and customer behavior.

Combine this with an unprecedented demographic shift coming in the next few years, and the job role of the Channel Professional will radically shift - both inside the organization and out.

We will explore what this demographic shift means, as well as predict what Channel Management will look like when there are more vendors in the world than partners.

Here is the full 45 minute webinar:




If you don't have the time, here are just the slides:

Future IT Channel and Alliances Trends from Jay McBain