“I believe it’s a necessity for partners”
Jack Watson, Managing Director, Bytes Software Services
Does Bytes have a hyperscaler marketplace strategy?
Yes, our cloud marketplace strategy is designed to leverage the high potential growth predicted within hyperscaler marketplaces. It’s attractive to customers who have pre-approved cloud budgets to source a wide array of software and cybersecurity products. I believe it’s a necessity for partners in their role of discovery to new technology acquisition.
Could you quantify how important a route to market this currently is for Bytes?
I think it sits comfortably in the top five opportunities for incremental growth for Bytes. There are some obvious ties between marketplace, the rise in cloud committed spend as well as the traditional challenges of procuring and managing tail-end spend in software. Add to this the potential for facilitating global transactions and the key role we have as a channel partner representing our vendor partners.
Which of the hyperscalers do you feel is currently the easiest to deal with?
I think AWS have an early advantage here, but Microsoft certainly have some wheels on them when they get going. We will be right there in partnership with both as well as continuing to explore the opportunities with others. There are some easy wins available for hyperscalers to win confidence in the channel such as reducing the time it takes to reward partners with fees and improving the support around accurate partner billing and API integrations.
There is plenty of apprehension in the channel about the rise of cloud marketplaces. Do you share this anxiety?
I think there is some legitimate concern around the risks of disintermediation of channel partners as well as the challenges of supporting sustainable partner profitability for the valuable role they provide. There is some added complexity for partners to consider when trying to make the customer experience as seamless as possible. I’m not anxious about it. A partner’s customer intimacy and status as a trusted advisor still carries great importance.
What top tips would you have for hyperscalers who are serious about growing their partner-led marketplace sales?
Go bigger with fewer partners. Listen and act on their feedback. Don’t confuse customer choice with inequitable channel incentive programmes that don’t reward partners who invest heavily in generating these sales opportunities. I think hyperscalers who invest more in their strategic partners will get some very high returns. I would like to see marketplaces programmatically built with a channel-first mindset.
