Steering a business towards success requires one to focus on a vision, spur innovation, and maintain a level of efficiency to drive profitable growth. Mr. Tony Tsao is one prime example of the above sentence.
The founder of Global Channel Resources (GCR) translated a foundling idea into reality and steered his business towards success. The former retired CEO of D-LINK Corporation registered and founded the company back in 2013 in Singapore, however, the idea behind the inception of GCR stretches as far back as 2008.
The Spark that Ignited Fire
Back in 2008, Tsao noticed the rise and fall of the industry and was quick to realize the revolution that was being brought-forward by device management, cloud computing, sharing and management of content and IoT products.
At that time, although there were some applications provided from the cloud, there were very few adopters and primarily the inclination was towards internet giants like Google. Smaller independent software vendors (ISVs) boasting fewer marketing resources and channel connections had a hard time sustaining their business. Wearable devices and devices for a smart home from medium-sized vendors only connected to their respective cloud platforms without sharing data with one another.
Meanwhile, business IT users started to consider the computing and IT services as a utility and shift their IT spending from CAPEX to OPEX as well as digital transformation for their company. Savvy network integrators and system integrators were on the lookout for solutions that can address these clients’ IT needs and the power of big data in the new cloud era. Thus, there was a visible market gap not well served in the traditional IT channels. This prompted Tsao to realize that “a natural, flexible cloud service delivery platform can provide answers and fill this gap.” And thus was born the idea of what later on was called Global Channel Resources (GCR).
The Present Day Scenario
“We are first of its kind IoT services delivery platform that offers more than 500 solutions that cut across multiple industries,” Tsao mentioned.
Some of the focused segments for the company include logistics, manufacturing, hospitality, education, and retail. The solutions range from simple IT and Non-IT asset tracking and inventory management, interactive display and smart learning, networking and IT solutions, business functional digital tools, smart factory management, too many business transformation tools which enable the company to either reduce its costs, improve its operational efficiencies, or increase revenue.
GCR contributes significantly to the IoT ecosystem by providing a platform for Technology and Integration Partners to work closely with each other to implement these solutions. Speaking about the potential impact of the company, Tsao stated “With the advent of 5G we foresee, the next frontier of IoT driving innovation across industries results in an impact in business performance. Enterprises will require to adopt IoT solutions under the 5G regime. In such a scenario, the role of GCR becomes even more significant.” Most recently, the company received the ‘Most Innovative Services Platform’ at the 2019 World Education Summit. GCR has also ranked among the ’10 Most Recommended IoT Solution providers in 2019′ by CIO Insider Magazine. In the past, GCR received the Editor’s Choice Award 2017 from National Computrade News (NCN).
Besides providing the necessary know-how on IoT to CIOs, CTOs, and CXOs, GCR identifies the right technology partner (ISV) and integration partner (SI) to deliver the solution. The company believes the solutions that it offers must deliver on the following key attributes:
- Improve productivity or efficiency
- Reduce operational costs
- Improve operational revenue to the company
“Building an eco-ring is paramount in the IoT era and the team is tasked to continue to enhance the services GCR can bring to their partners.”
Ensuring Success through Experience
Tony Tsao, the Chairman, and CEO of GCR has been the pioneering figure who has shouldered the responsibilities of the company and led it towards great heights alongside his team of experts. The MBA holder from the Illinois Institute of Technology was the CEO of D-LINK Corporation and is leveraging the experience attained therein to bring-forward the right results herein at GCR.
One of the key learnings according to Tony during his tenure at D-LINK was the importance of localization. Even more so considering IoT is all about localization, local delivery, local support, local experience, and local implementation. Keeping this in mind, the company has chosen strategic countries to build its bases before expanding on a large scale across other regions.
Fighting Against the Challenges
GCR boasts its presence across 7 countries, namely Singapore, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Australia, Taiwan, and China. In these areas, the company has about 500 integration partners and 700 technology partners. Moreover, the recruitment process is in full force as the company starts putting more solutions in different segments as well as recruiting integration partners in different segments as well. The integration partners include qualified system integrators (SIs), managed service providers (MSPs), and Internet service providers (ISPs) to provide the first-line services to business end-users.
GCR is all set to serve the global integration partners with an innovative business model. Yet, many of the system integrators and resellers, although they have joined and registered in GCR’s CPSP (Channel Partner Service Portal) platform, they are not active enough. But they still order products from the distributors, not knowing the effectiveness and efficiency of choosing GCR. As such, the company plans to put in a lot of effort into promoting GCR’s CPSP and spreading awareness about its benefits, values.
Future Outlook
“The future is very bright for GCR but we have to be very agile and fast track minded,” asserts Tsao. There are a few large accounts that GCR is working with their integration and technology partners together. By the end of the year, GCR wants to be recognized as the Preferred IoT Marketplace for its Technology and Integration Partners. The company is also working with large telcos and OEMs on how they can leverage on GCR’s system to increase their ARPU.