As a traditional reseller any decision to begin to build a cloud or SaaS based business is an important strategic and financial decision. Success will require leadership from the top of you organization and very clear guidance to those in the organization that will be required to execute the required plans and activities. Many of the things that your organization has historically done without question will need to cease. Activities that are new to everyone will have to be quickly mastered. You do not have unlimited strategic options. What you can realistically do with your cloud/SaaS business will be driven by the defining features of your organizations history.
Institutional features such as your historic corporate strategy regarding how you grow and what businesses you see yourself being in, historic organizational structures, historic attitudes toward marketing and investments in marketing, historic sales capabilities and sales force compensation strategies and models, and the historic role of technical skills and the people who have them in your organization are major constraints impacting what your company and its people can and can’t do in the next 24-36 months.
Transitions required
We know from observing successful businesses in the cloud and SaaS arena that there are several organizational structures and capabilities that are critical to success. Without some of these structures in place it is not possible, or at best very difficult to build a successful business. In subsequent installments we will outline the key changes in your business that are requires as you move from a transaction centric business to a business driven by recurring revenue. Four specific focus areas are worthy of specific note in future installments:
- Marketing
- Sales
- Finance
- Technology
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About Channelcorp
Margaret and Bruce Stuart founded Channelcorp in 1989. The firm is a global leader in the assistance of reseller, distributor and vendor clients. Channelcorp specializes in the business model transformation that is required in the face of the structural changes to recurring revenue driven business models in the worldwide IT business (www.channelcorp.com/services.php). Channelcorp publishes and sells four industry- leading books and 12 white papers (www.channelcorp.com/publications.php). This independent firm has delivered consulting and executive education to vendor, reseller and distribution clients in more then 40 emerging, developing and mature markets around the world. (www.channelcorp.com/workshops.php). More than 25,000 channel professionals from around the world subscribe to the newsletter Channelcorp intelligence (www.channelcorp.com/newsletter.php).
