Cross posted to https://blogs.partner.microsoft.com/mpn-canada/join-us-hosting-days-2016/

As the summer draws to a close and kids return to school I have time to pause and reflect on what’s occurring in our industry. The rate of change and innovation continues at a furious pace and I don’t see any signs of it slowing down. Just as the kids are back in school, I encourage you to take a moment to consider what your plan is to ensure you are staying educated on everything going on in the industry.

As technology innovation continues, this provides new capabilities to customers but can also cause concern as customers try to understand how these new options may help their business. Customers are increasingly “outsourcing” IT functions in an effort to focus their energy on the “core” of their business and reduce expenses on the “context” part of the business and in doing so are driving demand for Managed Services.

From my observations, the biggest challenge I see from our partners is around prioritizing which new area to move into. In the same way I see customers focusing on “core” and less on “context” I encourage partners to do the same - identify what you are really good at, and build your service offerings in that area. If you aren’t really good, then look to partner with another partner to be able to deliver the types of solutions your customer is interested in.

As a partner in the IT field you are poised to take advantage of more and more services being offering in the Cloud. This provides a great deal of democratization as now the cloud vendors are taking on the capital risk and providing new service opportunities for you the partner.

Join me at Hosting Days in the following cities to continue the discussion: