Looking at the vast majority of partners today they still sell one off project in east, west, north and south. Partners have gotten so comfortable doing what they have always done that they continue to do it because it seems like the sure thing to do.

However the world is rapidly changing and customer increasingly see through the cost of maintaining custom software. Customers typically sign off on traditional project, so they now own the bugs that are left in the custom software including the burden of fixing them. The software is also not improving with an ever changing industry requiring better and smarter ways of getting things done including new regulations and opportunities.

Customer get stuck back on older versions with costly upgrades or reimplementation’s as a consequence. This means the customer typically every 7 years or so will consider an upgrade, reimplementation or a new product. Any one of them require training, lots of time to consider the options, dedicated staff to manage or be part of managing the project, new hardware, roll out, many rounds of testing, headaches and money.

So why do customers and partners allow it?

Increasingly customers say no. That is not where we need to be. Customers wants to focus on their business just like partners should focus on delivering value to customers. In other words partners need to transform their business model and delivery or …

Today we are heading to the cloud. We are heading agile.

Partners should focus on their industry knowledge and create small or big apps to resolve customer issues so customers than can pick and select to add together one way or another. We are heading to a world that works like the great Danish and world famous toy called LEGO which is a acronym for the Danish words “Leg Godt” which means “Play Well”.

So what does this mean for the channel.

Partners that don’t have industry knowledge have an issue. My advise is get it or partner with someone who has it but no product knowledge.

Secondly change the way you deliver software. Look in to SCRUM or some Agile form of delivery. It is proven to work, but there is no half way of doing it. You either transform your entire organization to work with SCRUM or you don’t. Doing it half and than saying it doesn’t work is not an option. SCRUM only works if you practice it through out your company.

Things are changing. Are you?

PLAY WELL my friends.