Threat or opportunity? Tracking the rise of the shadow channel
What does the proliferation of alternative breeds of partners, such as accountancies, marketing agencies and ISVs, mean for the traditional IT channel? CRN Essential's Shadow Channel report has the answers
With every company now said to be a technology firm, it's natural that every B2B provider wants to be a technology provider too.
The last decade has seen a proliferation of ‘non-traditional' or ‘alternative' IT partners, from accountancy firms, digital marketing agencies and legal firms to ISVs and cloud software providers.
According to analyst Forrester, the number of ISVs has boomed from 10,000 to 175,000 since 2009, while 81 per cent of US certified public accountants (CPAs) and 78 per cent of digital agencies include technology in their portfolio.
Unlike traditional IT solution providers, these new breeds of IT suppliers have grown up in the ‘shadow IT' world, selling cloud software to the CMOs, CFOs, HR chiefs and other line-of-business (LoB) managers who are now responsible for the majority of technology spend.
A decade ago, the IT department controlled the vast majority of the IT budget. Today, this figure has shrunk to 35 per cent, according to Forrester, with the CMO alone now spending more on technology than the CIO does, by rival market watcher Gartner's reckoning. Shadow IT has grown to now be regarded as the new normal.
Often, however, it is the professional services firms and specialist ISVs that already had the ear of these new breeds of buyer - rather than traditional resellers and MSPs - that have made hay in this burgeoning, high-margin, ‘shadow channel' world.
Multiple analysts have pinpointed this dynamic as one of the biggest challenges - and opportunities - facing traditional partners whose IT infrastructure stomping ground is commoditising.
CRN's Essential's Shadow Channel Report examines to what extent this trend is on the radar of CRN's audience of resellers, MSPs and consultancies, whether they see it as a threat or opportunity, and what, if anything, they are - and should - be doing in response.
To this end, we have spoken to the analysts tracking this trend and conducted quantitative and qualitative research of our own, surveying our database and interviewing several leading UK channel figures.
The full report is available exclusively to CRN Essential subscribers here.
An abbreviated, free version of the report can be viewed here.
Also available on CRN Essential in 2019:
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2019 Cybersecurity Provider Report (or for related news article see here)
DaaS Adoption Report (or for related news article see here)
2019 Staff and Salaries Report (or for related news article see here)