Eight channel execs look back on the defining channel moment of the decade

Channel veterans from companies including Computacenter, XMA, Stone and QBS opine on the game-changing moments the industry experienced in the 2010s

Neil Murphy, group managing director, Bytes Technology Group

What was the defining channel moment of the decade?

I wouldn't say there has been any single defining moment but rather a realisation that IT, in all its forms and guises, has become as necessary and important in every workplace as a phone in a call centre or a forklift in a warehouse. Not only that, it is now much less of a discretionary item and is on the agenda at every client's board meeting.

How did it impact the channel?

This realisation has caused the channel to mature and become much more professional. It has adopted much of this new technology itself as it "eats its own dogfood".

As an example, we have bought worker licences from Thoughtonomy with a view to introducing AI into our more process-oriented departments. So the channel has matured - it's highly professional and its people reflect this new paradigm.

What effect did it have on your business?

At Bytes this past decade, we have enjoyed considerable growth in all sectors of the market and the business is now about five times bigger than it was back in 2010.

We have a better-educated workforce, we have more efficient systems, processes and capabilities. We have adopted all of the professional standards associated with running complex businesses and that investment is creating further momentum and strategic thinking.

It underpins our ongoing mantra that as long as we keep out customers satisfied, they will keep coming back. Ultimately we are a customer-centric business that is now much more agile and quick to respond to changing market conditions. It's been an amazingly good ten years and I can't wait to get cracking in January.

Eight channel execs look back on the defining channel moment of the decade

Channel veterans from companies including Computacenter, XMA, Stone and QBS opine on the game-changing moments the industry experienced in the 2010s

Simon Harbridge, CEO, Stone Group

What was the defining channel moment of the decade?

Data. I can't remember exactly what the statistic is off the top of my head, but it's something like 99 per cent of the data created worldwide has been created in the last two years.

That's only going to grow exponentially over the next three or four years and I think that that whole cloud datacentre capacity to manage that tidal wave of data has changed the world dramatically.

How did it impact the channel?

You see the top 100 resellers growing by 13 per cent; that data transformation has driven all of that demand for all of the top resellers, because of the need for pure compute power.

Once 5G is up and running and with the Internet of Things coming online and things like autonomous vehicles, that demand simply to be able to process all of that data quicker and quicker is going to take another exponential leap forward.

It's just a phenomenal change on a worldwide scale and you see that demand for compute to handle the way the world is transforming in the growth of the top 100 resellers.

Data analytics is changing how businesses operate substantially for the first time in 50 years.

What effect did it have on your business?

That tidal wave of data has certainly driven demand for pure, basic computing power - whether that's in the datacentre or it's still on-premise. It's driven a whole demand for servers and storage and software-defined storage and those types of products.

Eight channel execs look back on the defining channel moment of the decade

Channel veterans from companies including Computacenter, XMA, Stone and QBS opine on the game-changing moments the industry experienced in the 2010s

Andy Wright, commercial director, XMA

What was the defining channel moment of the decade?

In my view it's not a single event or moment, but what has happened over a period of time.

Customers have become more complex in their needs and wanting more and more to integrate solutions from a number of sources which, as the channel has grown its service and technology offerings, has naturally meant that the customers are looking to the channel to help them do this.

This has also been driven by customers driving more of their IT development from line-of-business rather than out of the IT department. Ideas come from the business, execution of the infrastructure is run by IT.

How did it impact the channel? I think it makes - and has made - the channel stronger. Where we are adding value, that value has increased and this differentiates us all from each other and the vendors.

What effect did it have on your business?

All positive impacts. The changing customer needs means we have to evolve in terms of how we drive the health of the business, how we invest in and retain the right people and the right skills sets.

Eight channel execs look back on the defining channel moment of the decade

Channel veterans from companies including Computacenter, XMA, Stone and QBS opine on the game-changing moments the industry experienced in the 2010s

Margaret Totten, co-founder and CEO, Akari Solutions

What was the defining channel moment of the decade?

Since 2014 when Satya Nadella took over the helm at Microsoft, there has been a massive shift in partner-to-partner plays, company acquisitions and strategic partnership that has created an openness in how channel partners now work.

This created a domino effect on how we help people work, with a shift away from siloed workspaces and people being stuck in one place, one job. Now with innovations like teams, chatbots, automated intelligence and the movement towards empowering the employee by not locking them into that set place of work, or working with a set group of tools, there is an open collaboration that has culminated into something cohesive and tangible.

Acquisitions like Microsoft buying GitHub and the new strategic partnerships between companies like Microsoft and NTT and Microsoft and Citrix which would have been unheard of a few years ago has shown just how far the channel has come in the last decade and how transparent and collaborative the ecosystem has become.

How did it impact the channel? So although not a big bang defining moment, it has definitely been a gradual shift towards a new way of the channel working together and how new and emerging technologies can complement existing tech.

This has definitely paved the way for the smaller tech startups to make their place in the channel and it has allowed the channel to lean on others in a very different way, with a partner now commonly working with Microsoft, Citrix, Salesforce and Adobe in a very seamless way.

The competition is still there but it has taken a different form, in that channel partners now see the benefit of complementing technologies and how important the user experience is.

What effect did it have on your business?

As a small startup focusing on accessibility, change and intelligent automation, it would have been far harder for us to have made the impact we have made in the channel, or with customers, if we didn't have such a strong and collaborative framework of partners to lean on and learn from.

Eight channel execs look back on the defining channel moment of the decade

Channel veterans from companies including Computacenter, XMA, Stone and QBS opine on the game-changing moments the industry experienced in the 2010s

Bill McGloin, chief technologist, Computacenter

What was the defining channel moment of the decade?

The defining moment in the channel would be consolidation and mergers and acquisitions that went on in the last 10 years, particularly the Dell and EMC merger.

How did it impact the channel?

I think that made a fundamental difference to the channel and kind of lead the way for some of the acquisitions that came along behind it.

I think that was a bit of unease in the channel initially, because of Dell being a direct vendor and EMC traditionally having a very strong channel. It took about 18 months to two years to settle down, but, ultimately, it's come out very well.

What effect did it have on your business?

It has had a very positive impact on the business, allowing us to almost provide end-to-end solutions with one vendor's technology.

Eight channel execs look back on the defining channel moment of the decade

Channel veterans from companies including Computacenter, XMA, Stone and QBS opine on the game-changing moments the industry experienced in the 2010s

Dave Stevinson, CEO, QBS Software

What was the defining channel moment of the decade?

The shift from hardware to software. There has been a relentless and significant increase in demand from major enterprises for specific software applications from a plethora of tier two and three software publishers. The "tin" plays less and less of an important part and the software is the critical value. The two major trends of cloud and digital transformation have facilitated that shift.

How did it impact the channel?

The channel by its very nature is incredibly agile and entrepreneurial. The larger distributors have a strong software offering with the tier-one brands and a few of the tier two brands. Focused software distributors like ourselves have had to pivot, build systems to deliver software electronically, charge on a monthly recurring revenue and bill for consumption.

What effect did it have on your business?

We have seen our company grow by a factor of 12 in this decade, with a CAGR of 24.8 per cent, and were ranked as number 24 in the CRN top 25 UK distributors as the only software specialist. We now represent over 9,300 software publishers and have 4,000 active resellers. As a business, we now have to deal with large renewals and recurring billing business with revenues that are becoming more and more predictable as time goes on.

Eight channel execs look back on the defining channel moment of the decade

Channel veterans from companies including Computacenter, XMA, Stone and QBS opine on the game-changing moments the industry experienced in the 2010s

Paul Stringfellow, technical director, Gardner Systems

What was the defining channel moment of the decade? Microsoft Office 365. The move to cloud is perhaps the biggest channel-impacting move of the last 10 years. It is the obvious answer and this is because it has greatly changed how the channel operates.

How did it impact the channel?

Office 365 has not removed opportunity but has changed it greatly and has changed the makeup of the channel and the relationship that Microsoft has with it.

What effect did it have on your business?

At our level, as a partner, it has completely changed our business model and the type of services we provide. Ten years ago we were very much a supplier of infrastructure - core datacentre solutions, servers, software, storage and peripheral services around this.

The emergence of Office365 as a specific service - rather than the general term ‘cloud' - has wiped out large swathes of our traditional business, the idea of deploying email and storage repositories on-site are now the exception rather than the rule.

This has meant a new set of skills being developed, changes in business models, remuneration and incentives and a change in the kind of turnover and profitable profile a business like ours should expect.

Eight channel execs look back on the defining channel moment of the decade

Channel veterans from companies including Computacenter, XMA, Stone and QBS opine on the game-changing moments the industry experienced in the 2010s

Roger Harry, founder, Circle IT

What was the defining channel moment of the decade?

Microsoft and the way they have transformed themselves to an annuity business and forced all to follow if you want value in your business.

How did it impact the channel?

With near all prospects and customers going this way, the whole Azure and ‘as a service' conversations have shaped what we do and how we do it and forcing lots of us to cannibalise our businesses.

What effect did it have on your business?

We've adopted a tier 1 Cloud Solution Provider status - but who knows for how long as Microsoft decide who plays in this space and change things rapidly. We continue to grow this practice and offer more and more clients a cloud or Azure-first option.