June 30, 2009

Channel Speak: Our Role in the IT Industry

There is a lot going on in the Channel right now.  We've been trying to organize this group of successful entrepreneurs for a couple of years and only in the last three months have we observed a genuine effort to collaborate.  It's well worth the wait; I believe we're the next great example of small business surviving and thriving in difficult times.

The idea of individuals coming together for the benefit of their community is nothing new.  In ancient times, the Babylonians practiced cooperative farming.  Thousands of years ago, the Chinese developed a cooperative ‘savings and loan'.  In 1997, a USDA survey reported that 3,791 farmer cooperatives generated a net business volume of $106 billion, equal to their record high set in 1996.  And that is an astounding statistic when you consider the plight of the farmers in the 1970s.  Small businesses in the IT industry learn from these examples and are organizing to reap the benefits of a cooperative Channel effort.

Truthfully, we are responding to our common foe -- the pressures we face in the IT marketplace.  We have created a Channel Network; the unofficial name for our loose affiliation of independent system builders and integrators.  We count as members several dozen companies who vote twice a month on two questions and, in a relatively short time, we have built a consensus.  We have established our group priorities; they are Volume Purchasing, a Service Network, and Channel Marketing.  We have organized committees to pursue these objectives.  Achieving these objectives will lower our costs, increase our service coverage, and increase awareness of the Channel brand.  We must be doing something right; the media has noticed our progress and (out of curiosity or of genuine interest) some have begun to write about it.  We are beginning to accept that we are more than a line item on a vendor's sales forecast; part of the Channel's role in the IT industry is to represent the value of Small Business - to the vendor community as well as our customers.

I think it's important for everyone involved to understand that ‘better pricing' is not the lone objective of this collaboration.  We strive for more than better pricing; we want to build better businesses and build better lives.  You see, most of us began as typical start-ups with a credit card and a bag of memory.  We were scrambling for money and doing everything by ourselves.  When we could sustain a positive cash flow, we hired people to help us work.  These people - these employees grew up, got married, moved from their apartments into homes and began to have families.  The money generated by our small businesses fueled the financial growth of these families and stimulated the economy in their communities.  Dozens and hundreds of these companies exist in every town and city in America.  These small businesses are the bedrock of the American Dream.  And In the IT industry, the Channel is doing what it can to preserve that dream, and we must survive - and thrive - to get it done.

Mankind has cooperated since the beginning of time to accomplish that which we could not accomplish as individuals.  Initially, it was a matter of survival.  Then we discovered that it's also good business.  I believe that, in the Channel's case, it is a little of both.  Our efforts to collaborate are real and the payoff will be realized in higher profits and, perhaps, industry impact.  It's not often in our lives that we have a chance to make a difference, and Channel companies can make a difference now.

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