ENTERPRISE TECHNOLOGY
Navigating the future of channel partnerships
Volker Lafrenz , CEO for Infor Latam , shares his insights on the ever-changing landscape of channel partnerships . He dives into the vital role channel partners play in expanding market reach , discusses the challenges they face in keeping up with rapid technological advancements , and elaborates on Infor Latam ’ s unique approach to training and upskilling their partners .
Volker Lafrenz , CEO for Infor Latam
hHow do you see the role of channel partners evolving in the next few years ? It ’ s a very important role because I would say the next three maybe five years will see everyone going to the cloud .
Channel partners are very often detailed specialists in a specific area . To give you an example , we have a very large channel partner who is working in the warehousing sector and specifically for distribution
It wouldn ’ t be possible for our own salesforce to cover the whole market so that ’ s why I ’ m a big fan of channel partners .
( logistics ) companies . Most of their employees have worked in these warehouses so they have a very deep detailed business understanding of this sector .
It wouldn ’ t be possible for our own salesforce to cover the whole market so that ’ s why I ’ m a big fan of channel partners .
What are the current challenges in channel partnerships ?
I believe the challenge is keeping up to date with all the newest technology , especially for the smaller companies . Take , for example , AI and process automation . We ’ re helping channel partners to adopt and implement these technologies , but it takes a while because the cycle of innovation is going faster and faster . Although there is a trend to have more new partners , you need a long-term strategy and the partners themselves need to have enough resources to keep up to speed .
Three or four years ago , our cloud solutions were ready and available . However , the channel partners weren ’ t really excelling in explaining all the business benefits to the customers . So , they often sold an on-Prem solution to a company because this is what they ’ ve done for the last 20 to 40 years . It took us a while to understand that we needed to help them to explain the value proposition and the benefits of going into the cloud direction .
Inside Infor , we see a channel partner as part of the family . It ’ s about working
INTELLIGENT TECH CHANNELS LATAM 19