Jay McBain

It was 11 years ago this week that Michael Dell penned the infamous memo declaring that Dell’s crown jewel (direct channel business) was a revolution, not a religion. The very thing that anchored its messaging and competitive advantage over the first 15 years was not an absolute. Back then, it was a lesson in customer […]

  Over the past few decades, sales and marketing leaders have been transforming themselves into predictable, data-driven business units. The CRM stage started in the 1990s and accelerated quickly a decade later with lower-priced cloud offerings. The marketing automation stage began to grow exponentially around 2008 and has reached critical mass in its first decade. […]

PartnerWorld kicked off in Las Vegas yesterday and, for the first time, colocated with IBM’s Think main event. The 1,000-plus partners who packed the MGM Grand Arena heard some great messaging around simplified programs, reduced contractual requirements, and a direct sales team who was finally getting channel religion delivered through its paychecks. In the hallways […]

1. Private equity will continue its sweep of the channel software space, creating some unicorns along the way With blockbuster mergers on the channel partner-facing side like Autotask-Datto and on the vendor-facing side such as Relayware-Zift, we are seeing a new trend where point solutions across different categories are combining to create a more holistic, […]

There has been an explosion of software vendors in the past 10 years. In fact, it has been the fastest-growing segment of the technology industry and a big driver of digital transformation across all 27 industries. (Check out Andrew Bartels Global Market Outlook report here). The low barriers of entry (e.g., technical and cost) the […]

As Yogi Berra said, “It’s déjà vu all over again.” Office Depot announced the $1 billion acquisition of CompuCom yesterday, which is a strong pivot into IT services for the 31-year-old retailer. The deal adds 11,500 employees — including 6,000 licensed technicians — and a database of millions of end clients to Office Depot’s 1,400 […]

The shift in technology buying trends favoring line-of-business (LOB) leaders is having a significant impact on traditional partnering, reselling, and value-added services. With business buyers now leading or influencing 65% of new technology projects, partner business models that we built around product sales are struggling to stay relevant. Business leaders do not have the patience […]

[begin sarcasm]   The head of indirect channels for an organization is the best job an individual could hope for! Traveling the world to glorious destinations, hosting parties and galas for partners, spending millions of dollars in marketing funds, and striving to drive more boondoggles than last year — all while not being held accountable […]

I have spent my entire career in the channel. With 75% of world trade flowing through indirect channels according to the World Trade Organization, I’m always interested in seeing how businesses organize, manage, and execute their partner and alliance programs. We know that B2B marketers have been working to break down silos for years to […]