For many this might seem like heresy - but it is something we at Node4 have believed in for a long time. We want to work with partners in long-term strategic relationships, where we engage in new business opportunities jointly and grow together.

We think there are a lot of partners, and customers for that matter, that are currently poorly served by vendors with confusing technology offerings complicated delivery or rigid commoditised solutions. For us at Node4 though, we don’t just want to be ‘another supplier’.

Node4’s aim is to attract the right kind of partner whose teams share the same commitment to its end-user customers as us in terms of providing high quality, flexible, fully supported solutions. For our team, that is passionate about the impact new technologies can have on a business, we want to see IT deliver genuine value at a reasonable price.

But from our side we strive to make sure Node4 is as easy as possible for partners to do business with, and the response we get from our partners shows how valuable this can be. There is definitely room for an IT vendor that talks in plain English to its customers and partners and provides genuine advice rather than simply recommending the most lucrative option for them.

The IT and channel industry gets a bad name sometimes and often it’s not difficult to see why. Enterprises often get a raw deal from vendors and partners that overpromise and under deliver. However, as Gartner has highlighted the channel is embarking on a major shift in terms of how vendors and partners work with each other.

We want to stay at the forefront of that shift and that is what the channel team at Node4 is completely focused on - doing ‘what we’ve always done’ is never good enough at Node4 and our approach to the channel is no different.