The great software schism
ONE OF THE GREAT DISCONNECTS BETWEEN them to customers. As a result, there is no quar-
the channel and software vendors terly goal to hit for the channel executives, so the
is the strategic role that application whole application development aspect of their
development plays in the profit channel partners business is pretty much lost on
ability of the most successful I T them. And worse yet, for those solution provider
services companies in the MICHAEL VIZARD partners that have not delved into
channel. the services opportunities that can
Any time you talk to channel exec- be driven by an application devel-
utives at major vendors, the subject opment practice, there is little aid
of application development almost coming from vendors in the way
never comes up. This is because of helping to educate the solution
for the most part they perceive this provider about the opportunity.
activity to be somebody else’s job Of course, creating an application
within their company. development practice is not easy. Not
The problem is that when you only do you have to master arcane
go talk to the people responsible for technology that is in a constant state
application development, their entire focus is on of flux, you also have to invest in many talented
ISVs building commercial applications. They put artisans who are not only expensive but also have
little or no focus on the type of developers who well-earned reputations for being overly finicky.
work in the channel. If vendors really want to help improve the
When it comes to increasing profitability, a profitability of partners, the first thing they
recent survey by e Week’s Channel Insider and have to do is create channel programs centered
Crimson Consulting found that 38 percent of on taking as much mystery out of the appli-
solution providers surveyed identified applica- cation development process as possible. Sec-
tion development ondly, they must make a real effort to connect
Vendors should take as a driver for the subset of their software developers who
growth, while 34 work on corporate applications and introduce
as much mystery percent identified them to the rest of their partner community.
application inte- Many solution providers don’t have the ability
out of development gration as a driver to create their own development team, so the
as possible. for growth. These ability to partner with specialists in this area reas ranked No. 1 should prove invaluable.
and 2, respectively, Some companies in recent years have expressed
in terms of growth areas. Ironically, while just noble intentions in trying to identify the oppor-
about every major vendor is preaching the need tunity that application development presents to
for solution providers to focus more on driving solution providers, but on a practical level, little to
profits by adding their own value rather than nothing has come of it. We can only hope that the
relying on the vendor for increased product vendor community finally bridges this schism in
margins, none has any real application devel- its approaches to working with developers and the
opment programs targeted at the channel. rest of the solution provider community. ´
Much of that has to do with the simple fact
that application development isn’t really about Michael Vizard is editorial director of Ziff Davis
selling more products. Solution providers that Enterprise. He can be reached at michael.vizard@
buy development tools are not going to resell
ziffdavisenterprise.com.
