One of the most vexing things channel partners and channel executives regularly deal with is the barrage of technology alliances that get made by IT vendors. Nine times out of ten there’s no actual mechanism in place that would allow the vendors that have formed an alliance to “meet” in the channel.
To provide IT vendors with a mechanism through which IT vendors can more effectively collaborate with one another, Workspan has unfurled a cloud application dubbed The WorkSpan Network. The idea is to leverage the cloud to provide a purpose-built platform for recording joint sales opportunities, generate reports, and provide collaboration tools, says WorkSpan CEO Mayank Bawa.
“Most of these relationships die within the first year,” says Bawa.
Bawa says he got the idea for The Workspan Network after a stint at Aster Data, a provider of database capable of processing data in parallel that was later acquired by Teradata.
The WorkSpan Network can be used across any number of vertical industries. But Bawa says the IT industry is at the top of the list in terms of targeted customers. The Workspan Network is already being used by Intel, SAP, CenturyLink, Infosys, and Lenovo.
The IT industry generates hundreds of alliance announcements a week; most of which never amount to anything because channel managers have no way engage with whatever program is being created.
As a result, many of these alliances wind up be classified as “Barney” agreements in the sense that two vendors have announced that they like each other, but there’s nothing approaching a meaningful relationship.
It’s not clear to what degree The WorkSpan Network will be able to overcome what amounts to a massive amount of inertia in the IT vendor community. But at the very least the channel can take some comfort in the notion that at least some vendors are trying to set a better example.
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