The EBSG Blog

Are Some Vendors From Mars And The Best Resellers From Venus?

As many followers of these posts may already know, I have a background that spans both sides of the Vendor-Reseller divide. And believe me, it can be a very broad divide at times.

Having lived life from both sides of the fence and currently with one foot in each camp, it never ceases to both amuse and to frustrate me - in almost equal measure - when I come across a potential "Vendor Partner" who wants access to increased sales revenue via resellers but who simply doesn't get the fact that effective "Reseller Development" is in many ways directly analogous to effective "Packaged Software Development" in that it requires not only focus, knowledge & commitment but also an initial investment of time, effort and - invariably - money to get to the point where you have a viable and committed reseller on board and producing ongoing business for you.

Every vendor on the planet understands that they have to invest time and money - on software development - to get their packaged applications to the point that they are actually available for sale, so why don't they get that it takes a similar investment of time and money beyond that - on sales development - to actually sell them?

Oh, that's right, good products sell themselves .... right?

Well, many of the vendors that I come across and to whom I extend my organizations services as a Value Added Reseller have some absolutely excellent products available for sale, which - for some mysterious reason - simply aren't selling or aren't selling as well as they should.

Many of those vendors are very receptive to my approach and accept that they need assistance with their sales and marketing efforts - even if only to more effectively reach new geographical markets - but others respond to me by saying something like "bring us a deal and then we'll talk".

What makes me smile when I hear that is that I know those very same vendors -almost within the same breath - will bemoan the fact that they have engaged with a large numbers of resellers in the past who produce very little in the way of ongoing new business and that they are therefore very wary of investing time and money in engaging with and supporting the efforts of any new reseller until they can actually demonstrate capability and bring them a deal.

But hold on a second ... isn't that exactly the kind of "flawed vendor thinking" that breeds large numbers of resellers who write very little in the way of new business beyond that very first deal?

Doesn't that approach actually encourage the opportunistic dealmakers out there to simply wait until they find a potential deal, take it to whichever vendor has a solution that best fits the bill, sign themselves up as a reseller, do that one deal, make a little money and then move on to the next "opportunity" with no commitment or intention whatsoever of promoting that same vendor solution anywhere else ... unless of course an opportunity so to do falls right into their laps?

As far as I'm concerned, any vendor adopting that approach is merely filling the channel up with what they themselves don't actually want and what I call the "One Deal Reseller".

Unfortunately, our industry appears to have spawned a large number of vendors who are simply not even on the same planet, let alone on the same page, as precisely the kind of reseller that they actually need and should be engaging with.

"Bring me a deal and then we'll talk"... Sure. Next.

Is The Lotusphere Product Showcase Still Relevant?

For a US-based IBM-Lotus Business Partner, that's at least a $15,000.00 question this year, and for those coming from further afield it could easily be a $30,000.00 question or more.

For me, the answer unfortunately has become a resounding NO, even though the thought of not exhibiting still wrankles somewhat. But the economics of exhibiting at the Product Showcase simply don't make sense today.

Attendances at the event have been declining for many years while the costs of attending have been steadily rising. Attendee's at the conference have increasingly been regarding the Product Showcase merely as a place to gather "trinkets" to take home for the kids and I know of at least 5 different vendors who came home with less than 250 new "contacts" and way less than 50 that could in any way be regarded as genuine sales "leads".

That comes out at $300 per lead for a US Business Partner and $600 per lead for say, a European Business Partner. It simply doesn't make sense at that level of return!!!

If I had to spend $600.00 for every sales lead I generate I'd go out of business really quickly for sure. I'd be better off simply buying an iPod for every genuine sales lead and an iPad for every qualified prospect that I generate. [Note: I said "qualified" prospect].

Hey ... That could be the basis for our next social media campaign. I may just have to work up some T's & C's for that one!!!

Why EBSG Is NOT Going To Exhibit At The Lotusphere 2012, Product Showcase

Lotusphere's the biggest event of the year for the IBM-Lotus community, right?

Yeah, that's undoubtedly still true. And this year all conference attendee's are going to be bombarded with messages from IBM about the Social Media Revolution and about how organizations are going to have to adopt a Social Business Strategy if they wish to do anything more that just survive in this Post-PC World that is defining the early years of what is - after all - now the 21st Century.

But is IBM really "eating its own dog food"?

My personal view is that it most certainly is not and that it is becoming increasingly guilty of a "do as we recommend, not as we do" approach.

Take their approach to the organization of the Lotusphere 2012 event as a classic example. Where is the IBM sponsored pre-registration, social business site that they could have pushed up to generate more interest in the event? Where are the online forums where exhibitors and attendees can connect with IBM and/or the event organizers to have questions answered and/or issues dealt with? Why was there no mention at all of Lotusphere 2012 on IBM's website until a matter of days before registration for the event opened?

What kind of truly "social business" would keep a potential exhibitor waiting for more than two weeks for a response to a sales inquiry?

No, EBSG will NOT be exhibiting at Lotusphere this year. Instead, we will save the $20k or so that it would undoubtedly have cost us and put that money towards a far more direct, more social business-centric means of connecting with and supporting not only our own customers but the IBM-Lotus end user community as a whole.

AND, we will be encouraging the 20 or more international IBM-Lotus Vendor Partners who we represent here in the USA to do likewise. Even if only 10 follow our lead, 10 x $7.5k = Ouch!!!

This year, I think that we should actually focus on providing knowledge, insight and "rewards" to those, who like us, actually want to live the social business experience rather than just hear about it.

Lotusphere 2015? May not even be one at this rate!!!

Redefining the Role of the IBM-Lotus Value Added Reseller [VAR]

When I completed the relocation of my business from the UK to the USA in the summer of 2008 the US economic recession was really beginning to bite and as the "new kid on the block" I took some time out to speak with my industry colleagues "on this side of the pond" to try and figure out how best to establish a foothold here in the USA.

What very quickly became clear to me was that despite the fact that the USA is by far the largest single market for IBM-Lotus products and services on the planet, far too many within the US Notes-Domino Business Partner Community were really struggling to survive and many were either contemplating - or were already actively seeking - a future away from the IBM-Lotus technology set.

I have to admit. That really surprized me at a time when all that I could see was "a land of opportunity".

And then, I had what I regard as my first true business epiphany.

I had not only started my company, but had grown it successfully, within the far smaller and less buoyant business environment of the UK. Over there, especially since the turn of the century, you have to really fight for every single win, large and small. It occurred to me that serving my "business apprenticeship" over there meant that I was already completely acclimatized to the economic and market conditions that much of the US IBM-Lotus Business Partner community seemed to be experiencing for the very first time.

Indeed, it seemed to me that much of the US IBM-Lotus Business Partner community had actually either forgotten how - or had never had to learn how - to stand on their own two feet and actually sell their products and services in a competitive market without any real marketing assistance from IBM.

Well, I've always been a "glass half full" kinda guy so I decided to take advantage of the general malaise within the US Business Partner community and complement my own range of packaged Notes-Domino solutions with other best-of-breed, Notes-Domino packaged solutions from around the world and thereby broaden the overall solution portfolio that I could offer potential clients here in the US while the rest of the US IBM-Lotus Business Partner community "slept".

And guess what? There is still a buoyant market for IBM-Lotus packaged solutions, tools and utilities here in the USA ... if you're prepared to get out and actually SELL.

Today, the revenue we generate from the resale of best-of-breed products from "other" vendors by far outstrips the revenue that we generate from our own-brand solutions. Now that is due in part to the relative size of our Partner Product Portfolio when compared to our own-brand Smart Software Portfolio for sure but having one foot in the Independent Software Vendor [ISV] camp and one foot in the Value Added Reseller [VAR] camp has given us invaluable insight into how to genuinely optimize revenue generation as a Value Added Reseller.

I'm not going to give away any of our "secrets" wrt how we are actually redefining the role of the IBM-Lotus VAR here in this post but will say that the we have proven conclusively to ourselves within the last three years that there is still a healthy market for genuinely best-of-breed, IBM-Lotus packaged solutions, tools and utilities. Indeed, our methodology has been so successful that we recently embarked upon the process of scaling up the model that we first established here in the US to embrace the sponsorship of a truly global network of ISV's, VAR's and IBM-Lotus Technologists capable of delivering the broadest possible range of solutions and services for the IBM-Lotus technology set, from a single source, anywhere in the world outside of IBM.

And what's the glue that holds it all together? Well, the technology itself of course, but just as importantly, good old fashioned solution sales & marketing expertise!!!

So. Here's The Deal re. Lotusphere 2012

I was trying to button down our plans for Lotusphere 2012 recently, which for the first time in a long time doesn't clash with the Superbowl, when I happened to glance through the T's & C's associated with being an exhibitor at the Product Showcase and came across IBM's "one pedestal, one vendor" rule right there at the top of the list [well, the second clause actually].

Now, don't get me wrong, I understand why that rule's in place. IBM want to "encourage" more BP's to invest in there own pedestal within the Product Showcase rather than allowing them to share one with another BP or ISV and thereby save a bit on the cost of attending the show. IBM obviously regard that as being a lost revenue opportunity if they were to allow that.

Personally, I believe that's just another example of some seriously flawed thinking on IBM's behalf.

Like many of you out there I have been attending Lotusphere [on and off] for nearly 15 years now and during the course of that time period I have seen attendances at the event first develop, then mature and then begin to decline.

I have no idea how well attended the event will be this year and how the overall attendance in 2012 will compare to the attendance figures of 2011, but what I am absolutely certain of is that attendance in 2012 will be significantly down from where it stood at the height of "Lotus-Mania".

So why isn't IBM doing something to genuinely encourage rather than restrict support from its Business Partner community? Especially it's international, ie. non US-based, business partners and ISV's.

I spoke with my current "Vendor Partners" and established that the average cost of attending Lotusphere last year for a European Business Partner came out at around $20,000.00 when all things were taken into consideration.

Nice if you can afford it. But too few can!!!

Come on IBM. Time to re-think your approach and give your Business Partners more incentive to support the event or the writing may start to appear on the wall.

 

All The Way From "What Is Lotus Notes?" To "Is Lotus Notes Dying?"

As an IBM Business Partner, I have been involved with the "IBM-Lotus" technology set for almost 15 years now and have seen the market interest in, perception of and demand for the Lotus brand in general and "Lotus Notes" in particular, change significantly during that time.

Back in the early to mid 90's when Lotus Notes was the "Hot New Technology" everyone seemed to want to learn about and get involved with it. I would spend a large part of my day simply answering the question "What Is Lotus Notes?" before signing up another happy customer.

Well, as it is with almost everything new in the techworld, those heady days of "Notes-mania" and stellar year-on-year growth in Lotus Notes license sales are long since gone. The size of the global Notes user base has followed the classic "product lifecycle curve" and now that we are well into the "maturity" phase - and some might even say, into it's "decline" - the user base is shrinking as competitors start to target what they obviously see as "low hanging fruit".

Today, I'm far more likely to spend my time answering "Why should we continue to use Lotus Notes?" or "Isn't Lotus Notes Dying?" rather than "What is Lotus Notes?".

For many, IBM still has not or will not answer either of the first two questions with a sufficient degree of clarity and its apparent lack of product promotion wrt Lotus Notes simply doesn't stimulate the asking of the third.

So, from a completely non-technical, common sense business perspective, here's what I say to my customers when they pose each of the above questions.

Why should we continue to use Lotus Notes? - i.) Because you already have it and it will cost you significantly more than you are being told to replace it completely, ii) Because it's a waste of money ripping and replacing something that works with just a different "flavor" of the same old thing. Let's face it, email is email!!!, iii) Because your IT people and all your highly paid "external advisors" are going to be pushing you to implement a "social business strategy" over the next 5 years, and of course that will require - according to them - investment in new social business technology and solutions etc .... But hey; Guess What You Already have in Lotus Notes???

Isn't Lotus Notes Dying? - Any product that has been around as long and that has been as widely deployed Lotus Notes is going to eventually see some decline in its user base when some migrate either to the latest and greatest "new thing" or simply to where they see the grass as being greener. Don't let ignorance of the facts cloud your perception!!! Lotus Notes continues to evolve at a rapid pace under IBM's governance and is a completely different product today from the one that you may remember and may even have discounted less than 3 years ago. Lotus Notes as you remember it is probably already dead but IBM's email, messaging and social business technology set is alive and well, indeed it is arguably leading the field.

What is Lotus Notes? [Today] - Today, Lotus Notes is simply the email client component of the IBM-Lotus Suite of Social Business & Collaboration software rather than being the name given to the entire collaboration suite as was originally the case. Fnd let's not forget that despite all it's apparent "haters" out there, Lotus Notes is still one of the most successful and most widely deployed email programs in the world today. It can still be found in ongoing operational use within many of the largest and most successful organizations in the world. It works. It is completely proven and everything else is just either spin, politics or blind personal preference.

However, of far greater significance than the specific email client that you use is the fact that Lotus Notes mail users - by definition - already have a significant portion of the server-end technology that they will require - and could elect to use - to transform their businesses into truly 21st Century Social Businesses. So. To all the non-IT CXO's out there. What's the bottom line?

Quite simply it's this. Be very sceptical when someone tells you that Lotus Notes is dying because that statement will typically be followed swiftly by a call to invest in something new and exciting [and expensive] .... possibly even completely unproven .... and doesn't do half as much as what you already have!!! Great idea ...huh.