Intel to drive channel services across APAC

Chip giant unveils extended services opportunities for resellers at the Intel Solutions Summit (ISS) in Bangkok.

Speaking at an ISS press briefing today, Steve Dallman, general manager of the Reseller Channel Organisation at Intel, said: “The channel has always done well as it has the one-to-one relationships with customers. We are coaching the channel to help them get into the services business. Being able to provide these services will mean the channel can make more money and the customers will benefit too.

“You can integrate a system, sell it to a customer and you feed your family once. With services you get a monthly fee and are able to feed your family everyday.”

Intel believes there are two main varieties of opportunity on the services side: Platform Extension Services and Hosted Tools.

“Platform Extension Services are around providing an upgrade service,” said Dallman. “We are also being to engage with partners out there who offer hosted services and then match make them to our channel partners.”

Navin Shenoy, general manager of Asia Pacific sales and marketing at Intel, said: “The channel needs to evolve and take advantage of new technology. The channel can drive services and the channel guys who just push boxes will not do well. The ones that do services on top will be the ones that do well.”

Shenoy said to gain traction in the SMB market centres around providing these firms with remote management, as many SMBs do not have sufficient internal IT resources.

“A channel partner who services those SMB customers can get in there and fix a problem before the bigger guys can even answer the phone. Channel partners are nimble enough,” added Shenoy.

Tom Rampone, general manager of the Channel Platforms Group at Intel, said the services opportunities will not be restricted to Intel’s larger channel partners.

“We are making our platforms more manageable and encouraging our customers to build services on the products. We are making the investment so smaller partners can get into the services side too,” he said.