Yes, you read that right. As technology becomes increasingly accessible to consumers, many businesses are feeling the pressure to differentiate themselves among their competitors and provide added value beyond simply selling products. Amid this landscape shift, Channel partners find themselves right at the centre of this paradigm shift; facing the difficult challenge of remaining competitive and profitable in an industry where traditional solutions are becoming commoditised.

With organisations depending more on secure, reliable connections between multiple sites, hybrid workers, and customers than ever before, the demand for high-performance connectivity is at an all-time high. The rapid rise of SD-WAN has played a key role here, providing unparalleled freedom and flexibility when it comes to choosing carriers and ISPs with which to interconnect customer sites, while providing full control and visibility through a single pane of glass, and the ability to utilise Public Cloud resources, as needed. With these numerous advantages, the uptake across organisations who are keen to optimise their overall agility and operational resilience is unsurprising.

At EXPO.e, we've been deeply involved in connectivity for a long time now. Ever since we first launched our self-owned network back in 2002, we've been committed to providing secure, high-performance connectivity to organisations all over the UK - whether they're well-established global leaders, ambitious start-ups, or critical members of the public sector - and have always been keen to work with Carrier Partners who share this mission.

For a number of years now, Public Cloud solutions have been widely used by technology providers across our Channel Partner ecosystem. It's not hard to see why. The unparalleled flexibility, scalability, and agility offered by Public Cloud makes it a highly attractive platform from which to deliver critical, always-on services to customers and end users, while retaining full control of costs and minimising the need to invest in and maintain on-premises infrastructure.

Onboarding has always been a challenge for organisations, whether they're start-ups or international corporations. There are numerous factors to consider, from practical ones - like gathering payroll information, setting up phones and laptops, and arranging access to office space - to more subtle ones, like ensuring new joiners are able to bond with their teams and are comfortable in their new working environment.

Throughout 2020 and the first half of 2021, Microsoft Teams has become omnipresent in our professional - and for many of us, personal - lives. But with the opening up of our offices coming progressively closer, and hybrid working now having established itself as most organisations' preferred working model for the 'new norm', we must consider how we can accommodate the needs of both office and remote workers, ensuring they can maintain the same quality of omnichannel interaction, communication, and collaboration that has been cultivated throughout the pandemic.

Organisations of all sizes, across all industries, have had short- and long-term digital transformation processes in place for some time now. With cumbersome legacy systems continuing to show their limitations and ongoing drives for new efficiencies and cost savings, the path to the Cloud is simply a logical one, helping organisations develop the flexibility, scalability, and operational resilience required to navigate the shifting digital landscape.

There's no doubt that Software-Defined WAN (SD-WAN) is changing the way we think about connectivity, but at the same time, it's important that we as technology providers do not become overly fixated on the hype and retain our focus on delivering ideal customer outcomes. This means developing a keen understanding of SD-WAN's capabilities and how it fits into your customers' wider digital transformation strategies.

Throughout these unprecedented times, many Resellers and Systems Integrators have been forced to furlough team members or reduce headcount, creating leaner operations in order to weather the economic downturn. But as we now approach an economic return and ramp up our trading levels, these resourcing gaps can limit the services that resellers can take to market.

Over the years, many organisations have developed their partner networks by engaging with multiple suppliers for specific services, utilising flexible transactional relationships to access services on an as-needed basis. The immediate advantages here are clear: organisations can broaden their capabilities and enhance their infrastructure while minimising the resulting burden on internal teams, allowing them to focus their expertise on business growth activities.

To say the past year has been a challenging one would be an understatement. COVID-19 has forced organisations to adapt to remote working and reconsider the way we connect and collaborate with colleagues and deliver services to our customers and end users. With sales dropping 30% in Q2 of 2020[1], the picture certainly seemed bleak, but looking back on the past years' challenges and innovations, what lessons can be learned, and what new opportunities are waiting for us as we consider the eventual return to the office?

Let's consider the year as a whole and find out…