A burger, fries and shake combo or a BLT sandwich are perennial hot combinations for the food service industry, but what hot combos can resellers offer their customers?

In today’s market, some technologies like VoIP, unified communications, virtualization and cloud computing are very hot. Large organizations have been migrating to these solutions for some time. The SMB market, however, is the sweet spot for resellers and until now has lagged behind. Fortunately, the time is right to introduce SMBs to the full suite of cloud technologies. A good strategy would be to introduce them as technology combos of complementary and cost- effective bundles. This approach provides a better solution for the end user and higher revenues for the reseller. It is also simpler for the novice buyer to understand than the complexity of implementing several integrated customer premises solutions.

For example, communications-as-a-service technology is now at a stage that is attractive to both SMBs and enterprises. CaaS applications can be combined with other cloud services beyond VoIP and UC including familiar software-as-a-service applications like hosted Exchange, CRM, ERM, SharePoint and financial business processes. A reseller simply needs to review their customer base and determine which CaaS/SaaS (News - Alert) components would be the best fit. 

A common thread for most cloud services is that they offer the same basic business advantages, including lower startup costs, shorter implementation times, automatic business continuity/DR, plus allowing the organization to stay focused on their core competency.

Of special interest to resellers is that many cloud service providers have programs for channel partners. This makes it very easy to enter this market quickly and with a minimum investment – similar benefits to what end users can expect.

So where to look for ideas? A good place may be a site that I often visit particularly to conduct some of the research for this column – www.tmcnet.com. For cloud services this is the best research site on the planet. Select items such as Cloud Communications from the channel list on the left-hand side of the home page. For more ideas click the blue box TMCnetCHANNELS and don’t forget to attend ITEXPO (News - Alert) West 2011, Sept. 13-15 in Austin, Texas.