How Logicalis is tackling customer confusion and vendor influence

IT vendors often influence system integrators' and resellers' go-to-market through their partner programs, but Logicalis Australia is attempting to realign the goals of those partnerships. 

The system integrator and MSP is encouraging vendors to qualify for a three-tier program that qualifies vendors' suitability to meet customers’ needs, and provides vendors with a formal framework to work more strategically with Logicalis.

The program aims to address one of the most common challenges facing IT integrators and their customers – choosing from the overwhelming array of IT products on the market.

“A customer might say I’ve got 2,800 vendors, which one do I pick?" said Logicalis Australia CEO Anthony Woodward.

The vendor program aims to helps “qualify which vendors we feel would fit for different customer situations, and also how we’re going to engage with those vendors,” Woodward said. “It takes that decision making problem away from customers.”

While it’s not unusual for IT partners and vendors to establish strategic working frameworks, Woodward said that “to best of our knowledge nobody has really formalised it.”

The program helps Logicalis surface ESG and other values it is looking for alignment on with vendors. It also makes Logicalis accountable for maintaining promises made to partners, Woodward said.

Cendor's partner tier establishes "this is what we do together, this is what’s on the menu, and we follow that. That works a lot better than whoever speaks the loudest this month, which is the old-school way,” Woodward added.

The program also helps ensure everyone at Logicalis is on the same page about partnerships with  certain vendors.

Solving customers’ problems, not vendors’ problems

“What is really shows is the trend to business and outcome-focussed models," Woodward commented. "All service providers and integrators are having to move to that model, rather than having a product and attached services-led go-to-market. The reason is because there’s no one vendor that solves everything for every customer,” Woodward said.

“Customers expect we have a range of vendors we partner with, but that we’re always focused on solving their problem, not the vendors’ problem.”

“We have consulting capability that helps us engage with customers at point they are strategising. Having knowledge of all that our various vendors partners can bring to the table as we have that discussion is really powerful. That’s where we think the core differentiation is in the market.”

Logicalis CEO Anthony Woodward will take part in a panel discussion about opportunities for system integrators at this weeks’ CRN Pipeline conference on the Gold Coast.