Episode 70: Microsoft’s Toby Richards on Digital Transformation and Evolving Channel Dynamics

Venture capitalist Marc Andreessen famously said software is eating the world. Perhaps, but it’s more like software is reshaping the world. Software, delivered via the cloud, is increasingly making the world more digitally defined. Each technology generation is giving us a greater ability to shape and reshape our business infrastructures with greater ease and speed. Digital transformation and evolving go-to-market models are also changing the nature of the channel, which is no longer just about reselling product. It’s about service delivery, completeness of solutions, and customer experience. Through this evolution, vendors’ go-to-market strategies will shift from traditional resellers to marketplaces for automated sales, independent software vendors for complementary applications that complete solutions, and professional service organizations for the expertise and support to create superior customer experiences. Toby Richards, general manager of partner GTM and programs at Microsoft’s One Commercial Partner organization, joins POD2112 to discuss how digital transformation is reshaping channel strategies, relationships, and go-to-market models. Despite the many challenges ahead of the channel, Richards and Microsoft see tremendous opportunities for partners that can meet the market’s evolving needs based on virtual systems and better outcomes.