Shifting license reselling to strategic services is driving new relationships between partner and distributor

The channel market is ripe with opportunities this financial year, intensified by the overwhelming desire to embrace AI for more innovative, agile, productive, and ultimately profitable businesses. More pragmatically, those same IT leaders also recognise the need to ensure resiliency amid an increasingly sophisticated cybersecurity landscape. Meanwhile, at the most foundational level, Windows 10 is going out of service. This sparks a flurry of hardware refreshes to maximise the potential of Windows 11.

All of this underpins why IT services spending in Australia is expected to increase by 7.2% in 2025, according to Gartner.

With this growing demand comes an opportunity for the channel to evolve, move up the stack, and embrace services. Traditional license margins are shrinking, and the days of relying primarily on license reselling for profitability are rapidly coming to an end. Those who can transform their business and become an MSP will find enthusiasm for their services.

The flipside to that opportunity, however, is that channel partners have to grapple with the unprecedented complexity in their customers’ environments. Keeping pace with innovation while managing a skills shortage can be incredibly difficult to deliver to the technical and strategic objectives of their clients.

Further compounding this challenge is the rising cost and often low ROI of hiring specialised resources in-house. For smaller partners in particular, bringing on AI architects, cybersecurity experts, or other niche specialists represents a significant financial commitment that may not deliver immediate returns.

There’s a gap in the market; partners need access to deep technical expertise and a strategic support that complements their strengths. This reality is prompting channel partners to look beyond traditional tech stacks and seek added expertise from their distributors.

The expertise imperative

This shift towards expertise-driven partnerships reflects a fundamental change in how the channel operates. As technology becomes more sophisticated and the pace of innovation accelerates, channel partners are discovering that success depends not just on having access to products but on having the knowledge and support to implement them effectively.

More critically, as licensing margins continue to compress, partners must differentiate themselves through expertise and strategic value delivery rather than competing on price alone.

Stephen Swavley, Director at Navigatum articulates this perfectly. “What is important to us is having a partner that we can lean on when we have technical issues that need to be escalated,” he says. “That relationship we have with Crayon gives us the ability to reach out and get the problem solved, and this is crucial for our success.”

Crayon has made significant investments in building its expertise to support channel partners. The company’s commitment extends far beyond quick licensing sales to focus on delivering long-term value through strategic and technical guidance. Thanks to those investments, partners can plug into Crayon’s deep bench of experts on-demand, rather than needing to build capabilities in-house.

The Technology Advisory Group, for instance, boasts a team of over 100 in-house specialists who provide direct access to expertise in areas like cloud, security, and AI. It is this ability to go beyond that has been core to Navigatum’s ability to deliver on its promises to the market.

“We’ve invested heavily in building our expertise, so our partners don’t have to,” explains Rhonda Robati, Executive Vice President for Crayon APAC. “Our goal is to take the complexity out of modern IT. Whether it’s cloud architecture, cybersecurity, cost optimisation, or AI adoption, our team is here to help partners move from selling software to delivering strategic value.”

The true test of any partnership comes during critical moments. “A good example of that is when my lead engineer was on holiday and one of our major clients had a significant Azure issue,” shares Swavley.

“It was on a Saturday morning, and everybody was out doing things. I sent an e-mail to Crayon and told them that the guy who would normally fix the issue wasn’t available. Within two hours. They had a solution for us.”

A different approach to channel partnership

Tristan Ellett, Director at Bigfish Technology, echoes these sentiments, highlighting how Crayon’s approach differs from traditional distributor models.

“A lot of vendors you work with, you feel like they’re just trying to sell to you. They just want you to go and buy their newest stack. What we’ve found is that Crayon really goes out to understand us and put us in conversations in partnership with other vendors,” says Ellett. “As a result, we’re actually having a value-adding conversation that goes beyond recommending that we take the latest product to market.”

As partners like Navigatum and Bigfish Technology demonstrate, when distributors invest in building genuine expertise and making it accessible to their channel partners, the result is stronger, more sustainable business relationships that drive real outcomes for end customers.

Learn more about the value Crayon brings to the channel here.