Master Agent Featured Articles

The impact cloud computing has had on business is massive, particularly in the case of small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs). In fact, some are saying that the move toward cloud computing has forced the SMB channel into a desperately urgent position: either quickly change its model or die.

According to a recent post on The Download, Comcast (News - Alert) Business' weekly solutions provider blog, this says a lot about both the future of the industry and the role value-added resellers (VARs) and master agents will play in it if they are able to make the necessary changes in time.

Indeed, companies have been moving to make these changes for a while now, with several Comcast Business solutions providers having held national VAR recruitment events recently, which saw hundreds of VARs turn out. The providers were, of course, seeking ways to bring their solutions to customers, while adding recurring revenue network communications services to their offerings.

This has become something of a trend, according to Kara Sprague, a principal with management consulting firm McKinsey & Company (News - Alert), with hardware OEMs increasingly turning to service partners to access customers. Meanwhile, independent software vendors are using the SaaS (News - Alert) model for direct customer access — which means bad news for VARs, integrators and distributors, many of which are trying to become cloud service providers themselves.

Furthermore, while 80 percent of on-premises application sales to SMBs tend to run through the channel, only five to 15 percent of applications delivered via the cloud do so.

While this trend may seem irreversible, a master agent can help lend value to corporations. Indeed, an IT service provider and master agent can work together, with the latter party acting as a source of knowledge for the IT service provider and ensuring that solutions are a proper fit for the organization. Ultimately, a master agent works with the IT service provider to create a complete unified communications solution, benefitting both sides of the partnership.