Will Amazon Disrupt the Channel?

Amazon has been selling Comcast services for a while. Now they added Frontier residential services to the page. What’s next?

Like Tech Data’s TD Mobility, Amazon already offers cellular plans from many cellcos as well as a wide selection of devices. In fact, because of its e-commerce platform, Amazon is a huge step better than TD Mobility, but it is customer facing, cutting out the partner. And it is doing that again now with consumer Internet and Voice.

If this works, it is just a matter of time till Amazon is selling to small business both cable and telco bundles. SD-WAN for partners looks more and more like a life saver.

Anything that can be transacted will be replaced by either Amazon, another website platform or AI (artificial intelligence). Machines are eating jobs!

If you are not adding Value, you will be replaced. In his book, Linchpin, Seth Godin talks about Genius and Art. Channel Partners have been doing their Art: helping businesses with their technology solutions for years. It takes Genius – and we all have Genius to share.

What does adding Value mean? It varies greatly from customer to customer and vendor to vendor.

One way is to provide advice. Another way is to be on top of technology and introduce clients to new technology like cloud and SD-WAN. It might be technical knowledge or business acumen. But you have to have something because automation is going to wipe out jobs.

Now Amazon Lightsail was announced VPS starting at $5 per month. They are going to crush the hosting business too, I guess.

Tags: agents, amazon, cable, channel partners, hosting, SDN, seth, telco, value, WAN
Related tags: adding value, amazon, business, technology, genius, customer