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b'If an Information Technology (IT) solution provider doesn\\u2019t manage a few key\\xa0technology trends effectively (please read our\\xa0previous article "3 Macro Trends That Could Put Your IT Channel Partners Out of Business"), the significant opportunities they create may be dwarfed by the seven major risks associated with these changes, and could result in the partner\\u2019s going out of business. These seven risks barriers remain pretty much the same as they were during previous business cycle changes in the channel in reference to Channel Marketing Automation. This time round, the big difference, is that it\\u2019s getting much harder for a solution provider to fight this current wave of changes because complexity and specialization in the channel is driving a more permanent and far-reaching alteration in business models.\\n\\n\\n \\tLoss of Existing Clients\\xa0- Let\\u2019s start with a simple example of Office365. If you are a 150-person organization - like ZINFI - you\\u2019ll be familiar with the scenario. We needed IT support to make sure our Microsoft enterprise license could be deployed and supported globally with our IT staff. From time to time, our IT team reached out to our Microsoft reseller for support. However, as we made the migration to an Office365 infrastructure, the need for external support for this core productivity tool dropped to zero.Today, this has happened across most business applications like voice, video, or collaboration software. However, we have also added new applications like CRM, and as a channel marketing automation company, of course also make extensive use of our own SaaS-based marketing automation software.\\nNow if you take our example and apply to all 100-500 employee organizations where a significant proportion of IT support is outsourced, it becomes evident that the need for support is decreasing rapidly for traditional applications, but is growing for business process automation solutions. The CRM/ERP market continues to accelerate, but most solutions are SaaS based. In most cases, horizontal applications are moving to the cloud at a fast pace. It follows that what you sell through the channel and the capabilities of those who resell your product will have a profound impact on your channel partner\\u2019s ongoing ability to succeed in business.\\n\\n \\tLoss of Key Personnel\\xa0\\u2013 Let\\u2019s continue with our example of Office365. When customers stop buying a fully managed services offering from a provider and get it directly from their IT vendor, the first thing that happens is the channel partner lets its specialist technical staff (e.g. Microsoft Exchange technician) go, because there is no longer enough work to support that position. This changes the profitability dynamics of the channel partner. They are forced to make choices, such as whether to continue to support Exchange or move on to other things. While low-level tech support work like forgotten passwords or laptop crashes may remain available, the amount of revenue and profitability for such service tasks continues to shrink. And most importantly, the channel partner who was completely focused on providing services not only experiences shrinking opportunities, but sees no incentive to sell hardware or applications to organizations that have their own IT resources. The pace of this shift is accelerating.\\n \\tExcessive Optimism\\xa0- When a channel partner is caught between a rock and a hard place and beginning on a downward spiral, the most important thing for a partner\\xa0is to recognize the signs that a business is in difficulties and that something needs to change radically. Most partners who have ten employees or fewer have basically just two choices: shut down or sell/merge with a bigger solution provider. Yes, some can go through the transition of retraining existing staff, or hiring new ones; however, we repeatedly see that it is almost impossible for most partner organizations make this transition effectively due to current, day-to-day operational commitments that get in the way ...'