Partners Consider The Opportunities At 1Comm 2015
ScanSource’s 1Comm 2015 Partner Conference helped partners explore new verticals, adjacent markets, and new service offerings. Rich Long, president of both ScanSource Catalyst, U.S. and Canada, and ScanSource Communications, U.S. and Canada, that joined together for the conference May 19 to 21 in Greenville, SC, says one of the goals of the conference was to help the IT channel focus on opportunities in the marketplace.
Long says a new feature of the annual conference, “Rapid Fire Flight Rounds” — named for the flight of craft beer served during the sessions — paired vendors who presented joint solutions for ScanSource Communications and Catalyst wireless and networking partners to consider. Long explains, “We know for a fact there are people leaving opportunities on the table, it’s hard to look beyond the ordinary to look at adjacent opportunities.” The pairings that included Aruba/Polycom, Avaya/Plantronics, Cisco/Jabra, and ShoreTel/SpectraLink, not only challenged partners to consider expanding their offerings, but also to learn new markets that use the solutions they sell. Partners were also invited to learn more about new solutions at the 1Comm expo as well as through presentations from Avaya, Polycom, and Cisco in the general session.
End-User Perspectives
Long reports one of the most well received features of the conference was the CIO panel. The aim of the panel was to illustrate opportunities for ScanSource partners in various industries.CIOs from the Greenville Hospital System, Greenville County Schools, BMW, and Milliken discussed procurement processes and opportunities in their markets. Panelists discussed healthcare’s and education’s increasingly mobile environments, as well as their regulations and compliance challenges. BMW America provided insights on how IT decisions affect an international company, and Milliken, an established global textile company, adopts new IT trends.
International Expansion
Partners attending 1Comm also learned details of two recent acquisitions in the communications space that mean potential benefits for them. ScanSource acquired European-based Imago and Brazilian-based Network1in the past year. Announcements at the conference included the news of ScanSource Global Coverage, a global program (with Avaya and Polycom as pilots) to enable and support business opportunities and deals for resellers internationally.Long explains, “We added about 500 people and introduced a new category of global capabilities. It will be easier for resellers to take part in international deals.”
New Service Offerings
The conference also showcased new service offerings, showing practical use cases of how each might help a ScanSource partner’s business. The offerings are:
- Amplify, a program based on Avaya IP office, enabling resellers to try complementary or add-on products at discounted rates or at no charge.
- Omni+, a Web-based device-agnostic customer tool that allows customers to design and quote projects.
- Flexability, a new financing offer for customers that want to move to a managed service model. This service will enable resellers to bill any product, service, or solution on one invoice.
- Polycom 24x7, post-sale technical support expanding to 24 hours per day, 7 days per week.
- Cisco Total Coverage, an offering that enables resellers to access support from Cisco TelePresence experts that can provide extensive technical expertise and insight.
- Plantronics Device-as-a-Service, a plan that provides a way for attaching headsets to solutions with a budget-friendly program.
- Jabra Advantage on Demand, a financing offer for resellers, enabling their end users to pay for the solution on a monthly basis as long as Jabra headsets are a component of the solution.
- Smart Leads,a program that leverages detailed market intelligence to help resellers receive more targeted leads that match end user pain and budget to the resellers’ strengths and capabilities, shortening the sales cycle and maximizing the sales conversion rate.
For more information on 1Comm, visit http://www.scansource.com/en/pages/1comm2015