Services for channel partners
Our approach
c85’s strategy is to deliver collaborative, non-threatening channel enablement. We are a pure-play services consultancy that does not sell any product. We never quote on product opportunities (despite receiving regular enquiries for Symantec licences, for example) and always refers these to our channel partners.
c85 provides practical, hands-on support to help resellers win and service business opportunities. We are typically engaged to provide niche and wraparound services where resellers do not have the expertise available in house.
We engage with partners at all levels, with a dedicated partner management team to manage day-to-day relationships and resources. Our quality control is second-to-none, we provide a low-risk option with strong experience in areas that matter, and we are commercially flexible.
Example services
- Bid support: Help with beefing up partner proposals, both technically and commercially.
- Health checks: Low-cost initial investigations in areas like storage, backup, security and virtualisation to help pull through large value partner business.
- Implementations and upgrades: Enabling technologies that have been supplied by partners, to maximise customer benefit and satisfaction.
- Managed services: Managed storage, managed backup and managed security services that partners can sell under their own brand to bring in annuity revenue.
- Project management: Specialist on-site governance and co-ordination to ensure the partner’s project is delivered successfully.
- Technology investment advice: Assistance to end users in building an internal business case to win budget for investment in the partner’s products and services they require.
- Interim management: Short-term, non-threatening engagements under the partner’s brand, with clearly-defined exit plans, designed to address short-term operational problems and to provide knowledge transfer.
- Skills enablement: Training, knowledge transfer and interim cover for the partner’s own technical team.
- Rapid response: Agility to rapidly provide specialist staff to help rescue projects that are in urgent difficulty.
Creative commercial assistance for channel partners
c85 regularly explores creative ways of helping resellers win and service new business.
Beside producing white-labelled packed service propositions and sales collateral to help channel partners attach services to licence sales, c85 staff take time out with sales and telesales teams, tutoring and sitting alongside them to provide advice as they have developed more solutions-led sales propositions.
In another partner engagement, we put 25 of our own consultants through police security clearance in order to support that partner’s provision of hardware and software to the police service.
Drawing upon our heritage and knowledge of the financial services market from our time as Company-i, we have provided solutions architects to support a number of channel partner engagements with high-profile international banks.
In one case, a reseller’s bid to renew its contract with a major international news organisation was in danger of rejection because it was not solutions led. Partnering with c85, the reseller’s supply chain skills were augmented with c85 services that helped secure a £1.5m deal.