With 2020 around the corner, the EDGE360 team is reaching out to IT channel leaders about trends and transitions that will impact the entire ecosystem – from manufacturer, to distributor, to VAR, and end user. In this series, industry leaders share their reflections on 2019 and predictions for the coming year.
In this podcast, we talk with Dan Forbes, senior director of Cisco field sales for Westcon-Comstor, a SYNNEX company. Forbes saw many transitions throughout 2019 as Cisco solidified its role in the software business and focused on services and an annuity business model. This focus, Forbes tells us, is also driving the focus on customer experience (CX) throughout the organization.
CX is an area that, as a Cisco distributor, Comstor has had a strong foothold in over the years. In 2019, as Cisco was building out its own CX organization, Comstor continued to offer enablement programs to partners to train, certify, and move them along the Cisco partner ecosystem to build stronger Cisco practices. “In 2019, we saw these programs take strong hold in the marketplace. We’ve had a number of partners go through the programs, and we’ve found that partners who work with us are accelerating their growth with Cisco faster than the market in general.”
Outside of the Cisco relationship, Forbes also points to the rise of 5G in 2019, as America is determined to become the first country to build a mass-market 5G network. This network will power the mobile data connections in the United States, up to nine percent by 2022. Along the way, Forbes predicts an ongoing focus on the technologies that will be enabled by 5G, which will also impact opportunities for VARs looking to provide solutions to federal and commercial organizations.
The transitions won’t stop there. With the rise of the digital economy, Forbes believes the next step for partners is to help the end user digitally transform their business and understand the role that data will play in future outcomes. Data will be at the core of all future transitions, helping businesses make decisions faster and demonstrating value to them at a more rapid pace. VARs who are going to keep pace with these transitions will need to focus on how to enable their customers to embrace a true digital transformation. To listen to more 2020 predictions from Dan Forbes, click here to listen to the full podcast:
