When Axispoint CEO Dan DiSano talks about transforming his company in order to capitalize on value opportunities in the fast changing IT industry, it sounds familiar to Kelly Ireland.

Ireland, CEO of Washington-based CB Technologies Inc., also brought her firm through a major transformation in order to emphasize services and value, and she hasn't looked back.

"We look at solving client issues rather than just transactions," Ireland said after DiSano's presentation oat the Channel Company's Best of Breed Conference in Orlando, Fla. Tuesday. "It's very value-added."

DiSano, and MIT Sloan School of Management MBA and former venture capital executive, told conference attendees that since separating Axispoint's infrastructure business from its software and apps development business early this year, the company has had a front-row seat to the disruption and innovation burning through the market.

The more nimble and consultative approach means Axispoint decides for itself what business it wants to pursue, and which opportunities aren't in its wheelhouse. It can answer important, but challenging customer questions, like, "How can you help us grow? How do we get to the next level? How do we disrupt our industry?" DiSano said.

"It doesn't mean you have to focus on only one product," DiSano said. "But you have to focus on your core, and be able to say no."

Focus, and the ability to focus on the right things is vitally important to solution providers as they transition to a services-based business model. Still, many executives focus on the wrong things, DiSano said.

"In business, we often focus on objectives," he said. "There's nothing wrong with that, but it's not a strategy. It's not going to help you change. Focus on change. How are you going to meet the customers' needs, and how are you going to meet the customers' customers' needs?"

Axispoint has focused on a series of industry verticals, including financial services, health care, music and music publishing, but has fine-tuned its offerings to make them applicable across those industries.

The strategy has also helped Axispoint prepare for what DiSano calls the "ubiquitous connectivity" coming in the next several years. With clear strategic objectives and a well-honed strategy to meet those objectives, DiSano said the market looks like "a world of pure imagination."

Cost cutting and IT are still important, but that's not how next-generation solution providers are going to grow their businesses, DiSano said. He just wishes Axispoint had made the change sooner.

"Yes, I wish we had done it sooner," he said. "But partners were involved. GE Capital was our bank. When you say we want to split in two, it doesn't happen overnight."