Channel and the Economy, Who is Winning?

As the great recession took hold, a number of firms reduced investment in the channel.  Many did not dump partners all together, rather they reduced budgets in channel "overhead".  Which translates to channel  focused employees and programs.  The prevalent notion was; "our relationship with the channel is fine, we don't need anything but direct quota types.  They can drive sales and in their spare time do channel stuff."

There was a resulting increase in complaints for resellers who could not get questions answered, quotes generated, MDF, or they never heard from vendors unless there was an active deal.  Pipelines suffered for many channel oriented firms, just the economy or did the reduced proactive effort by vendors contribute?

Major channel players followed this script, WebSense for one.  They keep giving the team a haircut until little was left to be proactive.  Recently WebSense has begun to hire a new team, is that a good sign in the economy?  WebSense is not the only company to go through this process, one company that shall remain nameless, decided to layoff their channel leader saying they hoped to share her expertise with other small companies within their investors portfolio.  The executive speaking to the press said they just did not need anyone full time.  Good Luck with that!

Has the approach changed?  Are there more channel employees at the vendors?  Are they more optimistic?  How does the spending level compare with 2 years ago?

I am headed to a major network security trade show this week, RSA, to get a sense of the mood toward the channel and the mood of the channel.  I will be blogging from the show as I learn anything interesting.

The Wavelength Analytics team is at it again with an updated look at the high tech job situation.  They have expanded their work to include Boston as well as the Bay Area.  Take a look at the latest blog.