|
|
The Advanced Channels Workshop is the definitive executive education program
on channels and channel strategy in the computer hardware, software and telecommunications industry. The Advanced Channels Workshop has been designed to assist teams of industry managers and individual channel professionals in a wide variety of functional areas: Senior Management, Product Development, Product Marketing, Corporate Marketing, Channel Marketing, Channel Development, Channel Management, Sales Management, Financial Management and Distribution Management. The program will remove two years from attendees’ learning curves in two days. The public and in-house versions of the program have thousands of alumni around the world.
The workshop is unique in the industry. It is designed to be the premiere executive education experience for all employees who have direct or indirect contact with their organization’s channel partners or channel strategy.
The Advanced Channels Workshop is structured as answers to the critical
questions that vendor management must answer in creating or improving
their channel strategy.
Module 1 – What are the target markets? focuses
on what vendor management must know about target markets, channel segmentation,
push strategies, pull strategies, distribution intensity and channel
coverage models.
Module 2 – What are the product needs for completion? focuses on the critical issue of the creation of complete products
and the requirement of vendors to create products that are channel-ready.
The module examines a number of case studies where vendors increased
the channel readiness of their products in order to increase the performance
of their channel strategy.
Module 3 – What channel functionality is required? examines the channel development function within vendors. The module
explores channel functionality and its components, the modification
of channel systems, issues surrounding channel expansion and the difficult
decisions regarding channel contraction.
Module 4 – What species of channel partner is required? relates the functionality that vendors need and the species of channel
partners that are available in the market to provide the required functionality.
Outlined in the module are the following species of channel partner:
distributors, volume resellers, value resellers, hybrid resellers, system
integrators, agents and consultants.
Module 5 – What business propositions are required? outlines the important new thinking and strategy in the area of
channel marketing and channel marketing programs. The business proposition,
what it is and how vendors build the business proposition is analyzed
in detail. The module concludes with an analysis of the “prospectus
approach” to new channel partner recruitment.
Module 6 – What is needed to manage the channel relationship? examines channel management as a “boundary spanning role”
and then focuses on an analysis of the best channel professionals, channel
conflict, changes in channel management and measuring
channel management.
Module 7 – What has to happen in the vendor to align
all of the functions? is an examination of the vendor’s
channel organization as an open system. The module introduces the Total
Channels Concept, provides insights into the functions/inputs/outputs
of the suborganizations in the channel system and examines impediments
to making the channel system work.
Module 8 – Are service channels different? focuses on the growing IT service market and where and when vendors
can use channel partners to resell and manufacture services. The question
of whether or not service channels are different than product channels
is addressed.
Module 9 – What about electronic channels? is focused first on quantifying electronic channels, and then on an
analysis of the impact of electronic channels on conventional (bricks
and mortar) channels
of distribution.
Module 10 – Are global channels different? discusses the relevant differences when a vendor goes to create
channels outside of North America (or their home region). The section
also examines the impact of the Asian currency crisis on the Asian channel
system and draws conclusions that can be used in other geographies.
Module 11 – Channels of the future or channels of
the past? challenges vendor management to ask themselves whether
or not they are building channels for the future or simply making do
with channels from the past.
| Day One |
|
Day Two |
| What are the target markets?
What are the product needs
for completion?
What channel functionality
is required?
What species of channel partner is required?
What business propositions
are required?
What is needed to manage the channel relationship?
|
|
What has to happen in the reseller
to align all of
the functions?
Are service channels different?
What about
electronic channels?
Are global channels different?
Channels of the future . . . or channels of the past? |
|
|
|
A comprehensive set of workshop materials is provided as well as The Channels Handbook.
TOP
|
|
|
