The evolving world of high technology and the driving focus to a converged application-driven business environment has presented great challenges for solution providers and the clients they serve. What once was clearly defined as separate market segments, products and services is now a blurred line that requires solution providers to think differently as they prepare to take on the challenges of being more than what they are prepared to be.
To illustrate, consider a new unified communication (non vendor-specific) platform aimed at providing a client a technology solution that provides traditional voice functionality, email integration, video integration, remote access, server virtualization, and so on. In the past this would have been implemented as individual pieces by different providers engaged and managed by the client. Today’s all-in-a-box type vendor solutions, however, require the solution provider have the advance skills critical to providing the lifecycle services around it. No one can be the best at everything and clients understand this, but still expect it. So how does the solution provider help its client accelerate business using technology while minimizing risk?