Zeroing In On More Data Center Revenue

By Monty Reagan

Space? Power? Bandwidth? How much do you need, Mr. Customer, for your data center configuration?”

Sounds easy enough, but to craft the right data center solution for your client, a lot more thought and consideration is required. With the ever-changing technological landscape, decision makers must ensure they are leveraging the latest technology advancements, scaling resources, adding revenue streams and increasing productivity all while ensuring their data and business operations are protected and secure.

By understanding the client first, channel providers can further ensure they are creating business value across all of these key areas and are in turn maximizing their own revenue streams. This article will explore the discovery phase required to craft an optimal data center solution.

To dig in, the first step is to comprehensively qualify the client. Understand all aspects of the customers business, so you can ensure your ultimate solution offers the assurance and security the customer needs to reliably house their business-critical applications and data.

Im stating the obvious here, but its important: learning the basics whether the client is a public or privately held company, management structure, number of employees and office locations will lay the groundwork for the rest of your IT needs analysis.

Another key is to drill down into how the firm generates its revenue. This will help you to ensure your solution from the very beginning is maximizing the bottom line and enabling the customer to change and grow as their business evolves.

Investigation  A Deeper Look Into IT

Reviewing all characteristics of your clients IT department will help you gain a clearer understanding of how the organization functions. This process will also help you identify potential challenges, plan for growth and even be ready for the unexpected.

Painting the Big Picture

Once you have identified these areas, take a look at which of the infrastructure components are considered to be mission-critical and what happens if any one area is not operational. Downtime affects businesses in different ways, and the impact can be devastating on many levels operations, sales, support and customer retention. Fully knowing how downtime affects the business is key to designing a solution that quickly and reliably protects the customer when needed.

Dont forget to also assess future needs and requirements. The rapid ebb and flow of business these days requires companies to have the flexibility to easily change configurations, along with quickly planning for growth and expansion. For example, if your client has a large IT project planned later in the year, this can mean they will need additional floor and cabinet space. It may also mean that expanding into cloud computing resources could be a solution to their growth needs. Mapping this out early in the design process can save valuable time and money in the long run.

We all know that every client is unique and different. By taking the time to understand an organization fully at the beginning of the sales process rather than leading with your set of services you can ensure you are creating value from the onset.

Zeroing In on More Data Center Revenue

Channel providers, in their quest to increase revenue for their bottom line and value-add for their clients, are faced with the challenge of how best to approach their clients business issues and technical needs. By initiating a detailed investigation with thoughtful questions at the onset about the clients business and organizational structure, agents and resellers can more aptly design a solution that solves issues and ultimately creates more value. Moving forward with the best approach and most optimal product mix from the start is key and will ultimately save time and resources in the long run.

As discussed, incorporating colocation and ancillary services into your overall solution can achieve both goals more revenue for you and more value for your client. But there are additional areas to explore when qualifying a client for a data center solution. This will help you more quickly identify the right solution set, solve business challenges and maximize value for your client.

Emerging opportunities for the channel do not consist of just simple efforts to identify products. Knowing all aspects of your clients business landscape will help you create a cohesive, robust client solution that solves business problems. When you position yourself as a business partner, not just a vendor, it results in a partnership that benefits both parties including an increase in the revenue stream to you and your company and the added benefit of the customer becoming a long-term client, to boot.

Monty Reagan is vice president of channel sales for

ViaWest .