CloudRoute’s David Byrd on Why Vendor Certifications Are Still Cool

We’ve heard a lot of talk in the channel lately about the changing role of vendor certifications. Where a few years ago achieving a gold or platinum standard with a manufacturer was an expected goal, many of today’s channel partners are questioning the worth of such traditional structures.

But David Byrd, CMO and VP of Operations at CloudRoute, has a different take. CloudRoute is a Microsoft cloud solutions provider located in Cleveland, Ohio, that helps small and midsize businesses (SMBs) evolve from on-premise platforms to the cloud or to move from previous generations of software to more collaborative, mobility-oriented applications. The company announced this week that it has achieved the Gold Small and Midmarket Cloud Solutions competency with Microsoft (MSFT).

Byrd believes in the value of vendor-specific certifications, specifically for smaller partners. The obvious benefit is that partners can use the certifications to promote confidence and trust within their customer base. CloudRoute understands these products and has the resources to support them, and certifications serve as proof to end users of product knowledge.

On the other end of the spectrum, certifications are key to also getting the most out of CloudeRoute’s relationship with Microsoft. By demonstrating a commitment to Microsoft, it receives increased support and resources. For smaller VARs and service providers, such vendor support can be vital.

“It improves the relationship between Microsoft and CloudRoute. That’s also important as we look at product updates, new product announcements and new marketing programs.” The benefits of substantial vendor support extend throughout CloudRoute’s business model. Since the company sells to both end users and through their own channel, they can pass on financial benefits both in terms of better pricing for customers and better commissions for their own partners, Byrd says, many of which are smaller VARs with fewer than 10 employees.

Byrd points out that the painful reality is that it’s difficult for smaller VARs to establish a significant relationship with a vendor like Microsoft. The better-situated CloudRoute is with Microsoft, the better it’s able to extend many of the incentive programs it gets from Microsoft to their own channel.

“Our relationship with Microsoft is key to being able to make those things happen.”

Amid growing concerns over the skills gap in IT, Byrd says certifications can be a powerful internal tool, as well as a strong selling point. “That small VAR can look at certifications as a selling tool, a career development tool and, to some extent a recruiting tool.” Investing time and money in employee certifications helps employees develop while simultaneously best positioning VARs to acquire new capabilities and continue to expand their business—a tricky thing to pull off in today’s IT ecosystem.

And Byrd should know. One of CloudRoute’s biggest challenges has been acquiring the expertise needed to be a leader in supporting Microsoft cloud-based solutions such as Office 365 and Azure. If you’re going to bill yourself as a tier one support for a product line, you’d better know it inside and out.

“We’ve had to acquire the expertise in all of these product areas so that we can answer questions and support our customer base through installation and so forth. Acquiring that level of talent has definitely been a focus of the company and has taken a tremendous amount of time and energy,” he says. “We’re happy with the team we’ve put together, but that was certainly a struggle.”

That level of expertise is critical to CloudRoute’s strategy for differentiation. “All of us that are reselling Microsoft products are selling the same products. There isn’t a difference between the Office 365 suite that I sell, or one of my competitors who’s offering the same product, or even Microsoft.”

The primary value CloudRoute says it brings to its customers is exceptional professional services, ongoing support and advisement that take its offering beyond just deployment and integration of particular solutions. Ensuring technicians have the highest levels of certification is essentially an investment in what the company sees as setting them above their competitors.

And to those questioning if the heyday of certifications is behind us, Byrd says the types of partners CloudRoute has been seeing more of are evidence to the contrary.

“What we’ve been seeing in the last six to nine months is that we’re beginning to add a number of partners that don’t have a strong IT history. They’ve been considered experts in selling other kinds of software, and they are finding it very useful to add the Microsoft products to their product offering without having to gain the necessary expertise to support their customer base.”

He cites the telecommunications, finance and legal sectors as specific examples where CloudRoute is finding new channel partners. Traditional telecom agents are starting to resell these types of cloud-based IT products, and vertical-specific software suppliers in the legal and financial spheres are realizing the benefits to being able to offer fully integrated suites.

“They would not have traditionally had expertise with SharePoint and Skype for Business and Azure. They have expertise in legal databases and accounting software and so forth.” Partnering with these new providers not only helps them expand their own offerings, but extends CloudRoute’s reach into new verticals.

We’re often eager in tech to move on to the “next new thing,” whether it be in service offerings, business models or channel programs. Maybe certifications aren’t hip, but for CloudRoute, they’re what pave the road to success for small channel partners.