What do channel partners selling collaboration tools and services today need to know?

I think the key thing to know (is that) it's not about "to cloud or not to cloud." This isn't an off-the-shelf game, either. Every customer has its own journey and the hybrid world is where we are at. Partners need to understand in depth their clients' motivation -- from their business goals on down -- for every workload they are talking about, they need to be able to bring those different requirements into one single user experience. Without that, the collaboration strategy will fail.

Our clients are thinking about business return, so partners have to evolve their thoughts from selling just to IT or the CEO. Now, this market is a lot more focused on driving competitive advantage for your clients.