ARN

Creating channel margin through mobility

The increasingly mobile workforce continues to place new strains on static Australian businesses
(Front L-R): Nada Alterisio (formerly of HP), Karl Sice (formerly of Winc), Nick Beaugeard (HubOne), Craig Sims (CCNA), Hafizah Osman (ARN), Luke Howard (Brother) - (Back L-R): Wayne Harper (Zebra), Cam Wayland (Channel Dynamics), Michael Dyson (Advanced Mobile IT), Nathan Grant (Fujitsu), Matt Wynn-Jones (Counterparts Technology), Damien Moriarty (Retriever), Damian Noonan (Tquila A/NZ)

(Front L-R): Nada Alterisio (formerly of HP), Karl Sice (formerly of Winc), Nick Beaugeard (HubOne), Craig Sims (CCNA), Hafizah Osman (ARN), Luke Howard (Brother) - (Back L-R): Wayne Harper (Zebra), Cam Wayland (Channel Dynamics), Michael Dyson (Advanced Mobile IT), Nathan Grant (Fujitsu), Matt Wynn-Jones (Counterparts Technology), Damien Moriarty (Retriever), Damian Noonan (Tquila A/NZ)

Conversations surrounding the mobility space are shifting, as people and subsequently businesses increase usage in Australia.

But locally, the channel still has a lot to learn, with customer conversations transitioning away from IT-led to business-led.

Collectively, partners are in agreement that there still is a requirement for leadership within the market, as a result of ongoing confusion in terms of where the industry is heading.

But where there is confusion, there is also opportunity.

With end-user expectations and conversations fluctuating, the channel is presented with new opportunities around creating effective go-to-market mobility strategies, as well as built in responses to a digitally dominated workspace.

Gone are the days of conversations around mobility being focused on Bring Your Own Device (BYOD). Today, conversations represent high-level discussions about extracting value and business outcomes from mobility.

“It’s not just about having a mobile office but the ability to streamline and add value to it,” Brother commercial market development channel manager Luke Howard said.

“Mobility conversations are now around data capture, getting it up into the cloud and into the back end where people can start to analyse the data to help them make business decisions.”

Within the mobility space, businesses are now also relying more on applications and newer technologies to facilitate operations for customers.

“An example of this is the digitisation of drivers’ licences,” Tquila Australia and New Zealand (A/NZ) director Damian Noonan added. “Customers now want to use an app that holds all their licence information so they don’t have to type it in but just scan it. Now, they also ask for artificial intelligence (AI) as a tool.”

According to Counterparts Technology managing director Matt Wynn-Jones, conversations around mobility have progressed, which are changing end-user processes for the better.

“We’re not talking about a PC or a 3D, or 2D device; it’s about the application and the technology,” he said. “What we’re talking about is the stuff that’s going on these things and how the dynamics change for our customers or our customer’s customers.”

Nick Beaugeard (HubOne) and Matt Wynn-Jones (Counterparts Technology)
Nick Beaugeard (HubOne) and Matt Wynn-Jones (Counterparts Technology)

Key challenges

Delving deeper into the mobility conversation, Fujitsu Australia NSW and ACT sales manager Nathan Grant observed that video has also become a huge driver of adoption across the market.

The result? The need for better network speeds. Yet this brings up a challenge around security.

“We have to go through and transform not only the customer’s environment but statutory laws and a whole range of other things to support this new technology,” Grant explained. “It is moving so quickly, the users are demanding these new features and it’s a real struggle for the enterprise to keep up.

“So, how do they, in this connected world where apps and data can be anywhere at any time, make sure that those regulatory issues are covered? Or that corporate data is protected? Or that the user still has a sense of self control?”

According to former Winc general manager A/NZ Karl Sice, most vendors in the mobility space are still being pushed to sell units, giving in to the pressure of driving revenue profits.

“This isn’t about the bits and pieces, it is about the outcomes,” he said. “End-users want business outcomes but some vendors are still stuck on revenue driving.

“The world has already changed and we need to embrace and take advantage of it. I think there are still some vendors out there that are still learning their lesson.”

In addition, Howard said vendors that focus on getting that silver bullet right are the ones that are delivering business value when pitching.

“Based on their assessment of the market, they’re the ones that are getting the traction,” he said. “If you’re in mobility and are looking at the data centre, then flash, cloud, as-a-service are all high-level topics that are getting lost in the wash.”

Another challenge that was addressed is partners competing with the telecommunications resellers to make their mark in the channel.

Zebra Technologies Asia Pacific CTO and senior technology director Wayne Harper, said partners are facing strains within mobility as a result of the three largest telcos in Australia using tech funds to run through and refund things at below the lowest price that the channel sells it.

“We can’t stop that, we legally cannot stop that,” he said. “But because of this, half of the telco traditional resellers will die and half of the IT traditional resellers will die and those that survive, will form a new breed.”

Taking the conversation a step further, CCNA director Craig Sims acknowledged such a trend in the industry, meaning that partners must become a trusted advisor to stay afloat in this industry.

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“We need to understand the use case, how it’s going to be delivered and wrap a set of services around it so we’ve operationalised it to deliver the business value, and not just because we’re bringing to market a device,” he said.

Furthermore, HubOne founder and CEO Nick Beaugeard, said telco players shouldn’t be much of a concern for the channel and that it should be focusing on unique ways to market to stand apart from these players.

“There comes a point where you have to just stop and let the market do what the market does,” he said. “That’s where things like partner level IP becomes incredibly important because you deliver that overall package. No one can undercut you because no one can deliver your skew.”

Driving productivity

From a customer standpoint, Harper observed that a lot of the workforce still refers to portability instead of mobility.

“The difference between both is that mobility, instead of just taking your desktop application and using it, brings in additional information and data together,” he said.

Channel Dynamics director and co-founder, Cam Wayland said the conversation about portability versus mobility isn’t valid unless it is driven by productivity.

“It’s about the efficiency of what you can get out of it because you’ve got the device there,” he said. “It enables a rep to be able to do things right then in front of the customer while the customer is ready to buy. It’s a game changer for productivity.

“And so, while the corporate refresh might cost X dollars, if you can accelerate your sales cycle or anything else that’s to do with that, it pays for itself; the numbers stack up relatively quickly.”

Echoing Wayland’s observations, former HP mobility market development manager Nada Alterisio said productivity is driving mobility conversations across Australia, meaning the channel can strike up conversations around adding more value.

“The IT cost is irrelevant if you can help them with their ROIs,” Alterisio added. “The conversation around the total cost of ownership, while that is important and opens the door to a discussion, it’s just a tick in the box.

“The additional functionality around mobility services is where the channel can help add value in.”

Making a mobility strategy

Retriever Communications solutions consultant Damian Moriarty said businesses are moving beyond the stage of BYOD, instead reaching a level of maturity around building effective mobility strategies.

Michael Dyson (Advanced Mobile IT), Wayne Harper (Zebra) and Cam Wayland (Channel Dynamics)
Michael Dyson (Advanced Mobile IT), Wayne Harper (Zebra) and Cam Wayland (Channel Dynamics)

“Trends of BYOD that really took off earlier fell away in a lot of industries because they saw the implications of that,” Moriarty said. “That’s showing a level of maturity. But what’s really important?

“Security is an interesting point because securing these systems has moved beyond the device level restriction to something that’s a bit more broader. Because of that, solutions and the remedies for the security issues are far more complex and require a lot more understanding of how to manage your data and securing your data.

“There’s talk of context-based security, context-based access to data, which is far more challenging to implement than a simple remote access VPN.”

According to Advanced Mobile IT general manager Michael Dyson, the issue extends beyond the application level.

“The application level is interesting, but one of the challenges that we’re seeing is that so many organisations that are deploying field devices are using them for multiple purposes,” Dyson added.

“It needs to be applied over three levels. There needs to be the application level certainly, but it needs to be at a device level and also at the networking level. It needs to be controlled so that the devices — regionally supplied, or head office supplied devices — are all talking through a router that’s controlled under one network layer of software.

“And you need all of them because you don’t know who’s going to be on your network.”

Market opportunities

These challenges address that the channel is seeking help for education, especially for resellers when it comes to the changes that are rapidly shaping the mobility space and redefining mobility options.

“The most telling part of the IT reseller community, at the moment, is the change that’s upon us is just moving so fast that over the next two years what you did today is just going to be out of date in the next two years,” Harper said.

“You need to be thinking about how you’re redesigning and reinvesting at the moment around solution technology.”

Alterisio also said the broader channel has a role to play in this as the market opportunity for mobility is massive.

“In the data centre space, you’ve got everything moving to cloud and the network space it’s highly contested at the moment,” Alterisio added. “So partners can now go out with a device and together with that, offer an application or product set.”

Wynn-Jones called for more collaboration within the channel.

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“Collaboration is the single fastest growing area for channel businesses that intend to survive,” he said. “We can all be service specialists, but we can’t be all things to everyone.”

Because businesses that have the capacity to make products within the IoT space, they can then partner with other specialists within the Australian market.

“The reality is there are days when you’ll be the prime and I’ll be the prime, there’s days when you’ll be my partner and I’ll be your partner and there’s days when we’ll compete,” Dyson added. “That’s the life that
we now live. And we all need to be grownups and accept this.”

Wayland also said the real opportunity is within services and deployment of the software, not the software licenses themselves.

“The bigger opportunity for the channel is that the vendor knows which partners have what skills that supplement what the vendor is trying to do,” he said. “As well as at the next level down, which is to facilitate an online forum where partners can go in and ask questions about the deployment for their customers.”

Building business cases around mobility

From a partner perspective, Sims said the biggest potential to build business cases around mobility is around employee retention.

“There is a statistic somewhere that says something like 21 per cent of millennials won’t work for a company if they don’t have their choice or have a strong influence on the technology they’re using,” he said.

“It’s a very large number. So that means enabling them to work from home, etc. It is domestic cost for a business to bring on new employees because these are their requirements.”

That brought up the conversation of mobility predominantly being sold to a younger generation and workforce.

According to Noonan, mobility is now around delivering what the individual wants, resulting in the push for non-traditional tech players and retailers entering the mobility sphere.

“Now we’re starting to see millennials starting to come up through the managerial ranks and have positions and responsibility and they are of a totally different view of how they use and consume technology,” he said.

“We’ve now got to deliver something the individual wants, whether that’s a six-inch computer by a vendor or whether it’s something from Dolce & Gabbana. I think we’re going to see the major brands of accessories actually delivering technology out to the end user.”

Nathan Grant (Fujitsu) and Luke Howard (Brother)
Nathan Grant (Fujitsu) and Luke Howard (Brother)

For Moriarty, an ageing workforce, skills degradation and a booming mobile-ready workforce means the industry needs to engage both the younger and older generations in mobility enhancements and technology for a true transfer of skills.

“Some companies take their more experienced guys, put them in the office and then attach assisted or augmented reality to them and then have their junior guys on site,” he added. “The problem with that is you’re not truly engaging that person.

“So for the younger workforce, it’s about taking the knowledge and information from the older generation and using things like augmented reality, not only for the service but to deliver the training and user education.”

Future process

Beaugeard said the assisted reality, virtual reality and augmented reality spaces are areas widely expected to disrupt the mobility sphere.

With HubOne recently delivering its first training via virtual reality, he said that its uptake is already changing operations for businesses.

“If you have a device and geo location knows where you are, you can technically walk down the street and hold it around it will tell you where your leads are in the street as an overlay,” he added. “That’s in this innovation cycle; who knows where it will be in 12 months.

“As a society, we now trust technology to run our banking, our healthcare, our insurance and we’re letting it do more, which is not something we would have done.”

In addition, Sice said businesses have already started to incorporate virtual reality and augmented reality into operations with industries such as aviation and mining.

“These industries are no longer carrying physical manuals with them,” he explained. “They’re using mobile devices that are doing the job. They use data manuals, video feeds that show live footage, and technology that does markings and moving it forward.

“It’s actually the next thing — the combination of voice, vision and scanning – would change assisted reality in virtual reality to augmented reality.”

According to Grant, there is a process of consumer adoption occurring in terms of the acceptance of these technologies, which is then driving the investment in areas that have been previously unaffordable like satellite technologies, like end-to-end networks and other technologies that provide an always on experience.

“Personally I want the orb that’s floating around with me everywhere that’s got my Internet and everything, but I don’t think that’s coming for a while,” he added. “I think we’re going to come to an online world in the next five to ten years and issues around application conductivity aren’t going to be the challenge.”

This roundtable was sponsored by Brother, HP and Zebra Technologies. Photos by Maria Stefina.