Yesterday was return to work, so today must be a slew of market outlook data.
Nine in 10 executives believe the channel maintains its relevance in the IT universe, CompTIA’s “International State of the Channel 2021” report finds. But they are split when asked about the health of the channel: 46% say it is holding steady in its current form, 44% say it’s rapidly changing. Respondents predict positive revenue potential over the next two years from a variety of services offerings with cybersecurity topping the list (cited by 69% of respondents). Other services expected to generate solid customer business include cloud services (68%), data analytics (68%), digital marketing services (66%) and emerging technologies (66%). Examined by region, channel partners have uniquely different views on the services that offer the greatest growth potential: emerging tech in Australia/New Zealand, cybersecurity in Benelux, data in Canada, digital marketing services in the UK and cloud services in the U.S.
The Channel Company, too, released survey data. 80% of channel partners expect sales growth in 2021. Cloud, remote management and collaboration, and security were the top technologies in that survey, and the survey also noted the continued labor shortage. Over half of providers added services in response to the pandemic. The survey headline reported 28% citing a stronger business…. And this commentator will note the 37% who reported a weaker, or much weaker, business.
Snow Software did a survey of IT leaders — 92 percent of IT leaders report their organizations were moving or had already moved to a hybrid work model. Top priorities instead – enabling competitive differentiation (57 percent), reducing or optimizing IT costs (55 percent), managing digital transformation initiatives (54 percent), and accelerating cloud adoption and migration (48 percent).
Why do we care?
Look, I think CompTIA’s cautious optimism is more realistic than the Channel Company’s botched headline. When 37% of companies are in a worse place than they were the year before, citing “stronger than ever” is missing the data interpretation mark.
It’s interesting to me that CompTIA and Snow Software both focus on opportunities in business management – differentiation, IT costs, analytics or digital transformation – and Channel Company focuses on cloud, remote management and security.
This is why an analyst matters. Who is interpreting the data matters too, not just what a survey says. Looking at the patterns of data across multiple sources, actual opportunity seems to be thematically in things that drive business outcomes.