PARTNER PROGRAM
continued
within the designated period. For many, this will become a significant barrier to entry, which may exclude them from entering the Program altogether.”
Nobody Likes Change These changes may be tough to swallow from the perspective of an MSP. Adding another link in the chain can be seen as a negative, but being pretty much forced to do it can be seen as rubbing salt in the wounds. But the other side of this coin, as Neagle points out, is an opportunity to take advantage of the flexible costs depending on what the MSP wants to prioritise. “Working with a CSP can offer customers reduced licensing costs and access to Microsoft licensing expertise. CSPs support user-based, consumption-based, and device-based licensing options, allowing businesses to be flexible and scale usage up or down depending on how their needs change. “CSPs can also help customers automate license management to ensure seats are aligned with actual headcount, helping to optimise costs.”
Christian Nagele
inforcer.com
Young would go further, adding “the shift to an indirect CSP relationship has become a strategic decision rather than a forced downgrade. “With Microsoft introducing stricter authorisation requirements, including operational capability assessments and higher revenue thresholds, a significant number of UK partners no longer meet the bar. “The opportunity with a CSP is clear: UK indirect providers offer a robust operational backbone that handles compliance, security scoring, billing, provisioning and support frameworks. This frees partners to focus entirely on service delivery and customer success: the areas where they can really differentiate.”
Standing Out That point of differentiation is where resellers need to focus, according to Daniele Selvi, Head of Microsoft Strategy for France, Italy and Spain at Sharp DX, who described the changes as “a great moment for resellers to rethink their long-term identity. “Instead of focusing only on transactional resale, this is a chance to evaluate where we are the real value, whether that is specialisation managed services, AI adoption or industry-specific expertise. “Basically, the CSP model is actually pushing everyone to mature, differentiate and build repetitive services. This period is an opportunity for resellers to modernise their offering and maybe reposition for more sustainable growth rather than a more volume-based dependency.” The idea that these changes are an opportunity for resellers to look at the way they go to market was echoed by Oliver Harvey-Jones, Cloud Director UK&I at Arrow ECS, who said, “The current market environment presents an
Daniele Selvi
sharp.co.uk
CLOUD RESELLER NEWS
32
Powered by FlippingBook