UK VARs look on bright side

A new day: the UK channel is expecting a bright future

The UK channel is the second-most optimistic in EMEA behind the Netherlands, according to a recent survey.

Figures from CA’s annual Channel Index survey, which questioned 928 of its partners across EMEA, including 103 partners in the UK and Ireland, revealed the UK was the second-most optimistic country, with 81 per cent of respondents forecasting a positive 2010. The Nether­lands led with 91 per cent.

In total, 66 per cent of respondents expected the economy to improve in 2010, with 11 per cent predicting a further deterioration and just one per cent expecting it to get ‘much worse’.

The same survey in 2009 saw just one per cent predicting an economic improvement, with 79 per cent believing it would worsen.

CA’s figures are backed up by a recent ChannelWeb poll, which revealed that 54 per cent of respondents expect 2010 to be a ‘great’ year, 26 per cent predicting the second half will be better than the first and 13 per cent feeling it will be the same as 2009. Only eight per cent of respondents feel 2010 will be worse than 2009.

Jose Carvalho, senior vice president of EMEA channel sales at CA, said: “The Index reveals a new optimism throughout the channel. Companies are looking to the future after a difficult time.

“Improvements are ex­pected in both the economy and IT spending, in particular around virtualisation and cloud computing.”

Mike Gammie, IT services development manager at CA partner Misco, agreed that 2010 appeared to be a more positive year.

“We are seeing a positive growth in our business and are feeling very optimistic and bullish,” he said.

Alex Tatham, sales and marketing director at distributor Westcoast, also agreed. “We had a solid January, and February got off to a strong start,” he said.