Over the past couple of decades, I’ve seen the storage industry boom into a gynormous (a word my 9-year-old loves) industry. While some storage vendors have grown by selling their products directly to companies, others have grown by selling their products via a network of channel partners or a combination of both. I believe that there are two key ingredients necessary for channel-friendly storage solutions: a user-friendly product and an easy-to-understand value proposition. So why should whether a product is channel friendly matter to customers like you?
Let’s look at the concept of user-friendliness first. Consider these statements on simplicity from two men of science separated by five centuries:
Leonardo da Vinci, Renaissance inventor, artist and scientist: “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”
Alan Perlis, computer scientist and recipient of the first Turing award: “Simplicity does not precede complexity, but follows it.”
In short, complexity should be the means to an end and simplicity the end goal in product design. And product simplicity, or user-friendliness, delivers real value to your organization – from the systems administrator to the CIO – by requiring less upfront time to install and integrate and being easier to manage on an ongoing basis.
Now let’s examine value propositions. Why should an easy-to-understand value proposition be as important to customers as it is the channel, particularly customers who can appreciate a complex story?
Generally speaking, a clear value proposition – such as a TCO based on hard, quantifiable numbers or an ROI of short duration – has two benefits for customers. First, it will be a lot easier to get buy in and sign off from superiors if you can easily explain what benefits a solution can provide your organization in the near term. (For an example of what I’m talking about, check out the Avere Systems savings calculator – once you input your numbers, it’s clear what our value proposition is.) And second, clarity allows you to make before and after comparisons and hold vendors accountable, something that isn’t easy to do with a vague or complicated value proposition.
So, the next time you hear a vendor’s products described as channel friendly, tune in. The very same attributes that make a product good for the channel make it good for you as well.
