Despite challenging macro factors, partners are ‘growing the business significantly’, says Telarus

August 05, 2022, 02:32 pm EDT

Solutions providers are faced with a global pandemic, geopolitical issues, a tight labor market and now inflation. Still, the deal rate has increased by 25 percent in 2021.

Solution providers currently face the stress of selling barriers. Up? Companies of all sizes need technology more than ever and rely on their trusted partners to digitally transform and automate their businesses.

“There’s inflation, there’s a recession, geopolitical challenges and the tightest labor market we’ve ever seen… [but] I say the attitude is good because in 2010 “Not only did you sell through the financial crisis in 2008 and you sold through the recent pandemic, but you grew your business exponentially,” Dan Foster, Telarus’ chief revenue officer, told an audience of solutions providers at the company’s partner meeting in Salt Lake City on Wednesday.

In the year In 2021, deal volume increased 25 percent, and the diversity of those deals, including customer experience projects, cloud and global optimization projects, has never been greater, Foster said. Additionally, in 2021, Telarus partners beat out global systems vendors in technology stack sales, including Deloitte, Accenture and KPMG.

[Related: Telarus To Partners: ‘Where There Is Complexity, There Is Margin’]

“Many solution providers have noticed that their goals have changed and they’ve adapted their businesses accordingly,” Foster said. “You’re no longer just a technology consultant, you’re being asked to be a business consultant and focused on revenue generation, productivity and HR costs,” he said.

Focusing on the customer experience is the “true north” that separates the competitor from the winner, Foster added.

“Even with [economic] A downturn, we haven’t really felt it because a lot of what’s going on with businesses is the result of what they were doing when they came back from the pandemic. A1 BizCom, Inc., a San Antonio solutions provider and Telarus partner. Director and President Ruben Pina said their 6-12 month plan is now coming to fruition.

Solution providers need to help themselves when customers come to them with business problems, Pina said, when failures or customers make cost-cutting decisions.

“If there’s an economic downturn that starts to hit the bottom line of businesses, they want to know how to do things more efficiently with the technology we sell,” he said. “We just have to get that budget to help them make the best use of it.”

Macro trends and the Covid-19 pandemic have changed shopping behaviours. These factors have significantly increased demand for security and cloud solutions, which has been good for the channel, Telarus CEO and co-founder Adam Edwards told CRN.

“We saw the downturn in 2008 and 2009 as a big event. I think any change is good for us. Anything that accelerates these trends is good for us,” he said.

Another silver lining? The recession and resulting tight labor markets help identify unemployed people who want to start their own channel business. Telarus in 2010. In 2008, it didn’t have the resources to help those startups, but it does today, Edwards added. “Declining or changing the VAR business model is something we can help them with now and help them through the difficult transition,” he said.

The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated a shift in technology that presents incredible opportunities for the channel, Edwards says, “the reason people are talking about technology is always good for us.”