There’s a reoccurring channel issue that seems to resurface every 2-3 years, among a flurry of channel editorial and industry pundit sound-offs. The issue is the age-old challenge of solution providers attracting and retaining technical staffing to adequately understand, embrace and add customer value to the industry’s then-current emerging or in-demand technologies.

Every time this issue resurfaces, it reminds me of the movie “Groundhog Day” – the same problem, another day, with the vendor community looking at the same solutions to try to tackle the issue for their technologies or products themselves. A veritable “I’ve Got You Babe” recording over and over. It seems as if everyone has forgotten the market dynamics that created the cyclical dearth of talent at the solution provider level the last time. And, more importantly, forgotten who’s really best positioned in the channel “food chain” to help create a sustainable solution.

Let’s think about it. When a technology is new and emerging, typically it has little market traction, and solution providers are hesitant to invest in training and staffing until there is measurable market demand ….. that is, unless they’re real innovators and have market vision beyond most of their traditional competitors. In these early stages of product adoption, the best and most knowledgeable technical talent will be cultivated and held closely by the vendor(s) themselves. This resource is absolutely invaluable to creating those refenceable customers which will sustain and grow the success of the product for the vendor. Ironically enough, many vendors still expect their cultivated partner community to “see the vision” of the market opportunity and invest in technical resources to help the vendor go seize that market. Hmmmm, so if I’m a regional solution provider of “average” size and maturity I’m usually under-capitalized and very cautious about where I invest my scant sales and technical resources in advance of a known market opportunity. And, if I have to compete with the vendor to recruit and pay expensive, sought-after engineering talent it’s a shaky value proposition to my business. Further, I’m still probably going to have to do the pre-selling and prospecting work myself (which is not typically where my talent lies), then drop in the technical resource (SE, architect, etc.) to help me with the proof-of-concept, demo or prototype. So, unless the technical talent is by happenstance really good at pre-sales work, that resource could sit on my bench until I can qualify a good opportunity for them. Hmmmm….

Now, what about the other scenario? The technology is market-proven, mature and in relatively hot demand. Let’s also assume in this scenario that there is a relatively broad set of channel and influencer/alliance partners promoting the technology (Oracle database and web infrastructure software licenses might be an apt example). So, the laws of Darwin kick in. Those solution providers who have invested in their competency and staffing depth on this technology will likely have the kind of market differentiation, and therefore sales success, to command the best talent -- the best quality and quantity of technical talent with proficiency and tangible market success with the products. If you’re not one of these market leaders, and/or if you haven’t created some proprietary solution on top of this mature technology, you’re not sitting too pretty. So, you cultivate the technical talent you need, but are in constant risk of losing them to the vendor directly or, more likely, to another solution provider who can pay them more or give them more robust projects on which to deploy their skills. The diametrically opposed challenge for many solution providers in this mature-product scenario is that there is readily available talent to be had regionally, but outside of traditional recruiting methods of advertising, they may not know the best sources to find mature talent. And, if they recruit someone locally from another solution provider they exacerbate the local competitive situation.

So, what’s the solution? Well, I’m pretty sure with every cycle of major emerging technologies (Linux, Java, Storage Area Networking, VoIP) the leading vendors have tried to prime the pump by getting the channel to invest themselves with their own programs, to no avail. And, unless several leading (and often competing!) vendors decide to band together in a consortium fashion to help the indirect channel invest, no one vendor (unless you’re Microsoft, maybe) can solve this problem in isolation. I also don’t think there’s any one talent search/job clearing house service or dot-com organization who’s really catered to the “masses” of solution providers to solve the problem……. although I could very well be wrong here, as it’s hard to keep up with the myriad of specialized job sites available these days.

So, my theory here? There exists a prime culprit right in the middle of the solution provider community who sees it all. Who knows who’s understaffed and failing and who’s got the best talent. Who sees the solution providers who have the right kinds of customer relationships and engagement models as well as those who haven’t differentiated and continue to complain about decreasing product resale margins. Who am I describing? Well, our friends in commercial and technical wholesaling --- the big 2-tier distributors!

Now before you scoff, think about it. The technical (and yes some commercial)distributors are increasingly involved in train the trainer sales and technical curriculum programs. They’re increasingly building systems and match-making programs to bring VARs together with SI’s and ISVs. And, if there’s anyone who knows which SP’s are thriving transactionally and financially, it’s the disti’s. Their focus here is usually driven by a manufacturer’s goal of helping traditional VARs to bring a “complete solution” to market. But, more tactically, several of the biggest commercial distributors (especially those that manage a closed-source vendor channel model, i.e., Sun, IBM, etc.) have made it job #1 to ensure that their customers have ready access to supplemental technical talent(either strategically for long-term hiring investment and/or opportunistically for a given isolated project.) Some examples of this are Ingram Micro’s Services Network (IMSN), Arrow’s recently announced Tango Collaborative Services and Engineer Exchange offering and Avnet’s own Professional Services practice which subs out resources to supplement the SP’s own bench strength. I think the Tango Collaborative Services offering at Arrow and Ingram’s IMSN programs and on-line tools are great examples of the “middleman” stepping up to the challenge of keeping the technical “life line” alive and forcing SP’s to share talent to each other’s benefit.

So, what’ the new technical talent shortage focused on this time? 802.11 wireless? SOA software middleware? Are the distributors really able to fill the gap on a sustained basis? Do you think I’m pessimistic? Crazy? I hear the Sonny and Cher music wafting faintly in the distance. “I’ve got you babe, I’ve got you babe…..” Send me your thoughts at bvanni@amazonconsulting.com.