As the industry faces all sorts of changes, who is really feeling the heat? It isn't the solution providers, it's the clients, leading solution provider executives said.

In their opening presentations at the 2014 Best of Breed Conference in Orlando, Fla., Dimension Data CEO Mark Slaga and Sovereign Systems Managing Partner George Barkley took the stage to talk about the big changes facing them today, from cloud, to security, to big data. However, what they both agreed on is that their clients are struggling the most with the shift. 

For solution providers, this change can be a huge opportunity, both executives said during separate presentations. However, for clients, they said that the changes are a matter of survival. As clients work to keep up with chaos around emerging technologies, vendor consolidation and more, they can turn to solution providers to help them deal with it all, Barkley said.

"We have a lot of optimism in all of this chaos. All of these new challenges, all these new business models that we are dealing with, I think customers are seeing chaos far greater. I think more than ever they need people like us to help navigate through all of this chaos," Barkley said.

The pressure on customers means that Dimension Data, for one, is ramping up its focus on the customer experience, Slaga said. While there is a lot of change happening in the industry, the experience a client has with a solution provider such as Dimension Data can be consistent, he said.

"There's never been a more important time for all of us to have a deeper relationship with our clients," Slaga said. "They're reaching out to all of us best-of-breed partners to look for that help, and we need to be ready to guide them," he continued.

However, Slaga said many solution providers go awry by simply setting out to "satisfy" their customers, jokingly asking the crowd when the last time they measured a vacation based on their "satisfaction." Instead, he said he tells his team to focus on building excitement, anticipation and loyalty with clients. He showed the audience of the BoB Conference a picture of ecstatic soccer fans (seen below), saying he hopes to emulate that emotion with Dimension Data clients.

"The picture I'm painting for Dimension Data of where we want to be with our clients is that one there," Slaga said.

For his business, Barkley said the key is to continue to invest in emerging technologies, such as cloud, as well as legacy technologies. He said that Sovereign Systems will continue to "double down on our legacy business," especially around flash storage and software-defined networking. At the same time, he said that the Norcross, Ga.-based company will continue to invest in cloud capabilities, services and its own intellectual property.

Whether they defined it as "change" or "chaos," both Slaga and Barkley agreed that solution providers are in a position to reap the benefits if they are able to build the right support for their customers.

"I don’t think even just a couple of years ago I would envision some of the change that we've seen. I can tell you it's been a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to the future," Barkley said.