What got the channel talking in 2016?
The biggest stories of the year
The birth of Dell EMC
Although Dell's mammoth acquisition of EMC was announced at the end of 2015, it closed in September of this year, rounding off a period of intense speculation about what the future holds, and beginning a new one of negotiation with partners about what its new-look channel will be like. Rivals of both firms - such as HPE and Pure Storage - took potshots at the merger throughout the year, claiming the duo will be distracted during the integration.
The Dell EMC Partner Programme will come into force in February, and the partner tiers will be Gold (lowest level), Platinum, Titanium and top-level Titanium Black. Since merging, Michael Dell and his team have gone to great lengths to prove their commitment to the channel, spending a lot of time since at channel events, working with partners on the new-look channel.
Brexit
Prior to the June referendum, many channel firms made it clear they were pro-Remain, with the likes of Microsoft, UKFast and Cisco coming out as anti-Brexit. When the unexpected result was announced, immediate panic set in as projects were placed on hold amid uncertainty. Although the level of panic declined in the weeks afterwards, so did the value of the pound against the US dollar, resulting in US vendor prices hikes across the board from the likes of Microsoft, HPE, Lenovo and VMware.
2016 marked just the beginning of Brexit, with the process to leave the EU expected to take years.
Channel administrations
This year saw two well-known industry firms - Steljes and Outsourcery - enter administration. The distributor closed its doors after 30 years back in May, claiming it no longer had enough profit to operate after moving from a value to a volume model with its biggest vendor SMART. The firm went out of business owing 124 unsecured creditors almost £7m, according to its administrator, which failed to find a buyer for the firm as a going concern.
Just weeks after Steljes, Outsourcery went into administration after reaching an agreement to sell to GCI Network Solutions.
Distribution consolidation
The long-running industry trend of distie consolidation continued in full force in 2016. In February, Ingram announced Chinese aviation and shipping conglomerate HNA for about $6bn (£4.7bn), in a process which was later struck with a number of delays thanks to various regulatory approvals.
Then in September, Tech Data announced plans to snap up Avnet's Technology Solutions business for $2.6bn. Hot on the heels of the US giants' M&A action, Irish-owned Exertis nailed a deal to buy Hammer, and later on snapped up Medium as well.
Movers and shakers
Much like any other year, senior channel execs continued to move about in 2016. Cindy Rose was appointed Microsoft UK CEO, joining from Vodafone. Her predecessor Michel van der Bel was bumped up to an EMEA role at the giant, and a similar rejig was felt at HPE, when Andy Isherwood moved up to run EMEA, allowing Marc Waters to take the UK reins. Among the disties, Denise Bryant left Arrow, and Brent McCarty quit his UK role at Ingram to go to the US. And resellers were not left out of the employment merry-go-round: Scott Haddow left Trustmarque after it was snapped up by Capita, and Emma de Sousa decided to stay put at Insight after initially announcing plans to move to Outsourcery, prior to its administration and consequent sale to GCI.
Reseller mergers
It wasn't just the disties getting in on the M&A action this year, with UK resellers also partial to snapping up one another. Trustmarque found a new home in Capita in the summer, alongside fellow acquisitions Updata and Pervasive. Chess swallowed Lanway in June, claiming that the move will maximise its talent and experience; and to round off the year, CSI grabbed APSU, and Daisy made a move on Alternative Networks.
The skills gap
The lack of available talent in the IT space is not new in the UK and is certainly not exclusive to 2016. However, back in February, one recruiter said the trend hit a worrying peak, branding it "bonkers". Marc Sumner, boss of channel recruiter Robertson Sumner, told CRN that the number of channel vacancies for the month was at an all-time high.
Following that, the UK's decision to leave the EU left many in the industry worried about how they will access crucial talent from the continent once Brexit happens. UK leaders of tech giants such as Microsoft and HP had a meeting with government at the end of year about Brexit, and concern about skills was top of agenda.
Unclouding
The rise of cloud computing has been happening for years, and continued to make its mark on the channel this year, with vendors and resellers further aligning themselves to the technology. However, towards the end of the year, some outspoken critics of the technology raised their heads above the parapet to highlight concerns among some customers that they actually end up paying more for cloud tech than they would if they bought hardware outright. The so-called cloud sceptics spoke out, but some felt they had to do so anonymously for fear of being branded behind the times (see p13 for more details).