SWC's Ric Opal On Bringing Digital Transformation To The Midmarket

So that’s where you get the expertise on your end, such as the data analysts, the data scientists, and the trusted advisor of IT?

You have to be the trusted advisor to the business. I think as a partner, you’ve got to start asking questions that, maybe, are hard to ask that you've always wanted to ask. To kind of take a phrase … "There can be no guessing anymore." I can't guess what their need is; I have to ask. So, if somebody said to me, "I want to put all this stuff in Azure," I think the relevant question …. might be "Why?" A better one would be, "OK, how does it align [with] your corporate strategy? Why are you doing that? What is that going to give you? And, that’s not a question that most partners are comfortable asking."