With all of the hundreds, heck, thousands, of cloud vendors that have launched in the past few years, as a partner it’s hard to decide which products to lead with, which programs will help you grow your business, and where to put your efforts.

I’d never claim to have a handle on which programs best fit each channel partner out there and which products are best for certain customers; however, when I come across an interesting company, I am happy to share.

Several months ago I had the pleasure of meeting the team at independenceIT and learned a little more about their program, their products, and their value proposition.

Way back in 2009, I wrote a blog post about Differentiating your Partner Program depending upon the types of partners you want to attract. When I asked independenceIT about their ideal partners, I expected to hear what I’ve heard time and time again: “oh, well anyone who sells cloud of course”. Instead, I was impressed to hear that Seth M. Bostock, Executive Vice President of Business Development and Strategy, is thinking very deliberately about the types of partners independenceIT is looking to recruit and enable. The ideal qualities he mentioned include:

• A forward thinking organization that has embraced reoccurring revenue
• An organization focused on selling, in other words, have sales people focused on solving their customers’ pain points
• An organization that is willing to invest in their future and company/employee development

Like it or not, the channel model is changing and solution providers and vendors are shifting their relationships. independenceIT recognizes this shift and is enabling partners to leverage the cloud beyond commoditized services, as discussed in a Channelnomics piece by Larry Walsh and demonstrated in the AIR Technology press release. The position taken by independenceIT is one that allows a small or midsize business to think and act like a Fortune 500 company. Instead of remaining constant while recurring revenue rolls in, AIR Technology Services is leveraging the cloud to extend its existing IT products and services, and to prepare for the mobility needs of its customers and customer prospects down the road—even while many of its customers are still unsure of their mobile needs.  AIR has recognized that cloud computing doesn’t need to compete with traditional IT and can be utilized in a way that expands the value they provide to customers.

The bottom line? If you’re in the cloud there is something to be said for developing a true channel strategy. If you’re a partner looking to provide a cloud platform, check out independenceIT or let us know of other companies we should check out!

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