IDC Hardware Channels Consulting engagements are designed to help organizations whose managers are challenged with the following questions:

• How can I work with channel and alliance partners to increase market share, revenue growth, and profits?
• How do I identify emerging channels that are suitable for my products and services?
• How do I manage multiple channels and integrate them to best meet the needs of my customers?
• How can I help the channel sell to small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs)?
• How can I help my partners build new business models, including peer-to-peer communities, that will lead to our mutual success?

IDC Consulting leverages our global research community, drawing on the research and insight of more than 1,000 worldwide analysts in more than 110 countries to deliver objective, actionable insights to ensure your company's success and market position. IDC Consulting clients benefit from our team's years of technology, industry, market, and business experience as well as our approach to problem solving and project management.

Our in-depth consulting and analysis help you:

• Create winning, realistic, and credible business plans to increase market share
• Accelerate speed to market
• Identify winning partnering and alliances strategies
• Evaluate and successfully enter new markets
• Forecast demand accurately
• Assess and position against the competition
• Discover and build intelligence on prospective partners that can make a difference
• Deploy resources for maximum return
• Communicate to customers and prospects the financial benefits and business value of IT and services investments
• Analyze "build versus buy" issues and develop appropriate cost/benefit metrics

ChannelBuilder is a worldwide research framework developed by IDC Consulting that provides the optimal mapping of consulting services to fit vendor needs for channel information, including:

• Competitive assessment
• Channel assessment
• Development of market models
• Tailoring of vendor messaging for the channel

Channel Acceptance Measurement

IDC Channels Consulting measures channel acceptance by assessing the interest and intentions of channel partners in adding new products or services to their business portfolios. Through the analysis of primary research with the channel, IDC clearly defines what it will take to build and maintain channel partner product acceptance. To complement the channel research, IDC conducts end-user customer research to determine the value propositions and the key selling messages for specific products and services.

Market Model Development

Combining the expertise of IDC's product and channels analysts, IDC provides clients with custom market segmentations and forecasts. These market models serve as a basis for opportunity assessment, competitive positioning, and resource allocation.

White Papers Customized for the Channel

IDC Channels Consulting analysts have developed a special expertise in channels-focused white papers that examine the vendor's value proposition and how those products and services translate to successful business opportunities for the channel. IDC Guidelines are customized white papers that provide practical assistance to partners seeking to establish new business models.

Competitive Assessment

By conducting a detailed analysis of vendors' partnering strategies, terms and conditions, marketing services, discounts, field structure, and recruitment, IDC Channels Consulting helps vendors position their channel services. Competitive assessments are conducted in a wide range of technologies, including software, storage, personal computer, server, workstation, and networking.

Scope: A major hardware vendor recently approached IDC asking for assistance in building a set of sales tools to help promote a new marketing program and product set focused on SMBs. IDC conducted interviews with partners experienced in selling to SMBs to determine key customer pain points. IDC then worked closely with the client to develop a sales tool that helps partners to match customer pain points with the client's new product sets.

Benefit: The IDC-branded sales tool has been very well received by the channel, allowing partners to more easily penetrate into and sell to the SMB segment. The IDC sales tool has been translated into more than 15 languages.

Establishing Guidelines to Partner Profitability

Scope: A major solution provider asked IDC to provide guidelines for partner profitability based on interviews with its successful partners. To meet this objective, IDC conducted in-depth interviews with over 100 partners worldwide and prepared a series of seven white papers as well as training presentations for the firm's partners.

Benefit: These guides validate the market opportunity for the client's products based on IDC market data, demonstrate the partner business opportunity through profitability models and business practices learned from the successful resellers/system builders, and guide partners on how to build a success practice leveraging the resources of the sponsor and its ecosystem.

Improving the Value of Marketing Investment in Distribution

Scope: Concerned that its distribution funding was not being used appropriately, this major hardware vendor turned to IDC for help in improving the quality and quantity of the return on these dollars. Given this challenge, IDC conducted primary research interviews and surveys with commercial VARs and distributors. Upon presenting the findings to the vendor, IDC also presented strategic recommendations on how this vendor should proceed given the findings.

Benefit: Based on a review of the research findings and IDC recommendations, the vendor was able to overhaul and fine-tune its channel funding investment and program at large to dramatically improve the return on its distribution marketing investment.

Creating a Partner Community

Scope: A major distributor asked that IDC provide an independent assessment of its plans to sponsor a partner community. After providing its own evaluation of the distributor's plans, IDC then conducted in-depth interviews with a broad variety of reseller and alliance partners to determine their expectations for the partner community..

Benefit: This engagement methodology and IDC's strategic recommendations ultimately enabled the vendor to launch a pilot partner community program, recruiting as some of its first members the partners interviewed for the project.