Grey hairs flagged as a top channel concern for 2017

One look around a channel conference is proof that the industry is failing to attract Millennials, CompTIA asserts as it express concerns around the ageing workforce

The advancing age of the channel's current vintage of leaders has been flagged up as a key issue for 2017 by trade body CompTIA.

CompTIA raised the concern as part of a wider report on the outlook of the IT industry for this year based on online interviews with 530 executives, including 122 in the UK.

Citing estimates, CompTIA said upwards of two-thirds of core IT products - representing an estimated $200bn-plus globally - flow through or are influenced by the indirect channel.

The existence of an "ageing" channel community will hasten the need to find fresh blood this year, CompTIA asserted as it picked out for key channel trends for the next 12 months.

"You would think that the channel, like other industries, would be teeming with young blood and next-generation entrepreneurs. It is not - at least not yet."

It claimed that 40 per cent of channel personnel will retire in the next decade, prompting it to question "where are their successors"?

"With nonstop news stories about the rise of the Millennials, you would think that the channel, like other industries, would be teeming with young blood and next-generation entrepreneurs. It is not - at least not yet," CompTIA stated in the report, which can be downloaded here.

"One look around a channel conference is all the proof you need of that. But with an estimated 40 per cent of the channel universe expected to retire over the next 10 years, the industry needs to look at ways to shepherd younger people in to fill the void."

CompTIA added: "Consolidation and a smaller channel may be inevitabilities in the 'as-a-service' world, but that need not discourage new entrants. In fact, many of today's 'born in the cloud' channel firms have been launched by members of younger generations. It's incumbent upon the ageing veterans to help ensure that continues."

"Digital agencies, marketing firms, accountants and other non-traditional partners are selling or recommending IT solutions, a development that has upended the traditional competitive landscape."

The assertion that the traditional channel will be "upended" by new faces such as accountants and marketing firms who have begun to recommend IT solutions forms another of CompTIA's 2017 channel predictions.

"No longer dominated by resellers of products, much of today's channel is shifting to a services focus and specialising across vertical industries and/or solutions niches. In the year ahead, more channel firms will be developing their own intellectual property too, whether that is a piece of custom code or a business process they replicate across customers," it said.

"And the players will keep changing: digital agencies, marketing firms, accountants and other non-traditional partners are selling or recommending IT solutions, a development that has upended the traditional competitive landscape."

No more spiffs

A third trend picked out by CompTIA is the need for vendors to retool their partner schemes to reflect the fact that partners are becoming more "finicky" about their tastes when it comes to partner programmes.

Traditional incentives such as spiffs, discounts and rebates have lost their shine, particularly among partners that have invested heavily in consulting work and services, the trade body argued.

"Indeed, while vendor-provided margin once accounted for a majority of their revenue, channel companies today credit their own sales and marketing activities for driving the bulk of sales. What does this mean for vendors? Time to revamp partner programmes," CompTIA said.

Finally, CompTIA predicted that partners will have more of a role to play in being cloud managers in 2017.

The channel is accustomed to acting as a liaison between end customers and vendors, but today that task "holds new meaning as customers navigate potential travails of the cloud world". CompTIA said.

"Case in point: many SMB clients provision cloud solutions on their own," it stated. "But when things go wrong with a specific SaaS application or uptime performance is spotty, for example, these self-procured cloud solutions can be a headache. And many SMBs have no idea whom to call, nor, frankly, the time or patience for finding out. That's where the channel, and in particular MSPs, are finding ways to provide value, solving a crisis for clients and managing vendor relationships. It's one way channel firms can cement relevancy in the era of cloud."