Informatica channel and alliances lead on how channel consolidation is impacting the Australian ecosystem

Jacob Ven der Eyk speaks with CRN Australia exclusively about this “disruptive” trend.

Channel consolidation within the Australian ecosystem is causing frustration for vendors and customers, this is according to Jacob Ven der Eyk, senior director, channel and alliances APAC at Informatica.

Speaking to CRN Australia exclusively, Ven der Eyk explained how channel consolidation is changing the industry.

He said over the last four years, he has had six of his channel partners get bought by bigger companies, which he has labelled as “disruptive”.

"It was really exciting for them, frustrating for us, because we've invested go-to-market initiatives. They've got the people are going up and they get gobbled up,” Ven der Eyk said.

“That gobble up then puts a delay on deal velocity, deal progression, not everybody is happy with the new owners. The whole skills shortage issue is a spin off where people leave. That creates gaps then obviously in the channel, it’s disruptive.”

While the partners are “still in the family”, Ven der Eyk noted that some plans are thrown out the window once a partner is bought by a bigger company.

“But it does mean that some of the initiatives that we were driving around particular solutions for market segmentation wither and die. Because suddenly, then the larger organisation that deal size is different to what they're looking for,” he explained.

When his organisation is impacted, Ven den Eyk explains he needs to realign his strategy due to how partners and global system integrators (GSI) interact within the industry.

“It's a realignment, because the go to market strategy and the nature of how they engage changes,” he said.

Ven den Eyk noted the different ways a partner and a GSI build relationships in the industry.

“They're all very good at building those relations but they build them differently. The relationship of the partner at Deloitte, Capgemini or Accenture is different to the CEO or an MD or CEO of a channel partner, the dynamics are different,” he said.

The change in partnerships

Covid has changed the way customers do business with partners and vendors. Ven der Eyk said what was once multi-year modernisation and transformation programs turned into short-term deals.

As more channel consolidation occurs, it shifts the way IT projects are managed.

“It is making it harder, the customers are frustrated by it to be honest,” he said.

“What that means is the dynamics of the team size and the revenue to the partner changed dramatically, and a lot more customers saying we want to have more ownership of the solution going forward.”

Ven der Eyk noted these days IT projects are a blended team of in-house and partners.

“In the past, a lot of big, mid-sized to large enterprise, they would derisk their projects by outsourcing all the partners,” he said. “Whereas now with the shorter projects, the customer wants you to own more of that.”

As customers are moving away from pure partner to a mix of in-house and partner, is the biggest dynamic change Ven der Eyk is seeing.

He said this is good for the channel, because it is the nature of the business.

“They're more custom doing smaller project. It's had more of an impact on the GSIs to be honest, because they like to do the bigger projects, the higher staffing in the longer run time,” Ven der Eyk explained.

"It's also a reflection on the fact that we're now talking about cloud technology, not talking about the old on prem type. The dynamic tendencies of cloud and the flexibility of cloud means that time to value is much shorter than it used to be.”

Ven der Eyk said this is when the nimble channel partners can take advantage of this.

"That's the value for them and they see that and embrace that. I think they'll grow quite nicely,” he ended.