Research and analysis

A November to remember and figures on the services sector

Warming up in November

Storage, networking and mobile are all looking up for respondents this month. It's notable that mobile devices were highlighted for much better growth than hand-held devices, and hopes for server sales are ahead of desktop PCs.

However, expectations for storage sales in November are down on October. French resellers seem to be the unhappiest of the bunch, forecasting only 13 per cent growth in November overall.

Pooh-pooh to packages

Despite enthusiasm from a number of vendors, the channel continues to be indifferent - if not downright hostile - towards the idea of buying packaged support offerings. The general idea, for both vendors with their own support offerings and third-party specialists, has been to package support contracts and sell them through the channel.

In the UK, 53 per cent of resellers were against the idea, but in Germany the figure was higher, at 67 per cent.

Growing pains

Resellers seem to be less positive about growth in the services sector this year. Of those questioned, French and UK resellers were the least optimistic. Overall, only 12 per cent expected to grow their services business in the next 12 months, compared with 21 per cent for the same period last year.

Service not included

A pretty interesting split here - a significant number of reseller respondents rely heavily on services, but for 15 per cent, services make up only between a tenth and a fifth of their business.

The numbers reinforce anecdotal evidence that resellers tend to go to extremes; at one end, those who rely a great deal on hardware sales, and at the other, a large number that lean on service and support as margin-makers. There has not been a change, year on year.

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