There is a systemic failure in the industry to understand how technology delivered as-a-service is impacting channel partners. A parallax describes how an object appears different when viewed from two separate lines of sight. Within the context of XaaS, a Partner Parallax occurs when technology vendors fail to see XaaS transformation from a partner’s point of view. As a result, the most critical domains of partner transformation often go unrecognized.
Vendors with a legacy business model are under tremendous pressure to transform to meet the growing customer demands of delivering their solutions as-a-service. Without fully realizing it, these same vendors are asking their partners to make a Triple Shift— learn a new engagement model, learn a new business model, and learn new ways to add value. Because they struggle to visualize this massive change from their partner’s perspective, they develop artificial blind spots within these three domains. This paper will outline a framework to correct the Partner Parallax.