The digital transformation challenge

In the era of digital transformation, technology is now being viewed by many organisations as integral to their very business model and the key to their survival, not just an enabler.

This CRN/Channelnomics Europe whitepaper, commissioned by Red Hat, looks at how well equipped the IT channel is to help end users on their digital transformation journeys.

The research questioned more than 140 resellers, MSPs and consultancies in the UK, France and Germany to assess what digital transformation-fuelled changes they have made to their businesses in the last 12 months, where they are suffering digital transformation skills shortages, and where they are seeing the most digital transformation demand.

Among the key findings were:

Digital transformation is still a work in progress for the channel:

■ Only 22 per cent of partners say they are currently fully equipped to help customers with digital transformation projects.

Digital transformation requires partners to step outside their comfort zone and begin offering consultancy services to the business leader:

■ Roughly half of partners see the CEO/MD as the person most frequently responsible for the adoption of digital transformation, compared with less than a third for the CTO.

■ Consultancy forms one of the two main areas partners have invested in over the last 12 months in order to meet digital transformation demand, alongside cloud.

There is a digital transformation skills gap in the channel:

■ More than one in three partners (35 per cent) cited lack of in-house knowledge and skills as their biggest concern in terms of supporting customers on their digital transformation journey.

■ Thirty-seven per cent are suffering a digital transformation skills shortage around IoT, more than any other area, followed by analytics, security and cloud.

■ Some 57 per cent indicated they had experienced difficulties resourcing their business in areas such as cloud and IoT.

End users are generally ready to adopt digital transformation, if they haven't done so already:

■ A quarter of partners said most of their customers are making investments in digital.

In the whitepaper, Frank Basinski, director, partner programs and enablement EMEA at Red Hat, said: "Is the channel ready for digital transformation; are customers even ready? One thing is for certain: digital transformation projects require partners to significantly raise the bar in terms of state-of-the-art technology skills, but also add

a whole new dimension of skills requirements in the area of business consultancy and vertical credibility.

"Only with this combination in place will partners be able to elevate themselves above the saturated market of legacy IT product and services."

Highlights