Print.IT Reseller - issue 80

01732 759725 34 PREDICTIONS Jonathan Wagstaff, Business Intelligence Manager, Exertis Group Richard Roberts, VP UK & I and Northern Europe, Mitel Rob Elliss, EMEA Vice President for Sales, Thales COVID impact likely to continue to disrupt The office of the future will require a different technology approach Businesses will look to subscriptions-based offerings transformational shift online we’ve seen over the last year. Clearly the rush to supply devices was going to be a largely 2020 phenomenon, but we still expect the channel to benefit from supporting these societal and business changes long into 2021. Digital transformation and automation continue to be huge opportunities. These will be the key drivers alongside the growth of Edge solutions that will support the expected IoT systems, vehicles and devices dependent upon them. Unlike centralised cloud provision, Edge needs the channel to push out rather than pull back in, so to speak. Now, more than ever, channel businesses without strong digital and value-add capabilities will be at a model. The lessons we have learnt from the pandemic will have marked impact on office design and how office spaces are being used in the future. While some organisations are downsizing their offices or looking to rent multiple satellite office spaces outside of the city centre, others will focus on ways to attract employees back to the workplace. This will result in a boom in office collaboration hubs where a mix of smaller meeting rooms, social areas, and learning spaces encourages informal communication and channel growth. As such, providers will need to adapt their processes to meet the changing circumstances facing customers and grant a purchasing and payments/billing flexibility that can help the businesses they serve, survive. Positively, this switch will see two primary benefits. The first is that channel providers will experience more stable annuity revenues, meaning their top and bottom lines will be more robust should disadvantage. Like any industry we are at the mercy of macroeconomic trends, but a situation where vendors and customers struggle with complexity in the supply chain is going to be beneficial to those organisations who specialise in navigating such complexities. There’s an expectation that enterprise spending will pick up again in 2021 as postponed projects start to restart. We also expect the acceleration of digital transformation to continue; here the channel has a critical role. The largest organisations will likely be further down the road of cloud migration. However, small and medium-sized businesses are still going to need the channel, particularly in countries where cloud adoption is lagging. www.exertis.co.uk productivity. These changes will drive a shift in the technology employees use. During the pandemic we’ve seen a rise in productivity applications, virtual assistants and CRM software and this is likely to continue in 2021 and beyond. There will be a stronger focus on adopting cloud-based UC solutions that support a hybrid workforce, enabling employees to access everything from virtual assistants to in-depth analytics and video collaboration tools on the go. www.mitel.com we encounter further disruptions. The second is that providers will engage on a more regular basis with customers and start to gain increasing insights into how their solutions are being used in real-time, enabling greater decision- making around future product/service development. Ultimately, this approach will put the channel industry in a stronger position at the end of 2021. www.thalesgroup.com Even with the good news around vaccines developed in record times, the COVID-19 disruption will continue into the New Year. Gartner has spoken of a CIO reaction around respond, recover, renew. ‘Respond’ was about keeping essential functions operating (issuing WFH equipment), ‘recover’ is about stabilisation – which is where many businesses are now. What will be very interesting to see, will be the ‘renewal’ cycle where business models and IT will need to be adjusted to the new reality. This includes a solidifying of working from home practices, along with business’s networking/device/cloud requirements, and an examination of digital capabilities with the huge and Within just a few months, the pandemic has changed the face of modern working, triggering a shift to virtual collaboration that is likely to last long after the pandemic is gone. The rise of remote working and the financial pressures of the lockdowns have put tremendous pressure on IT departments to offer reliable and flexible solutions for teleworking, while keeping down costs. In this volatile market environment cloud has emerged as an essential strategy for enabling businesses to transition to a more agile working 2021 will see a dramatic rise in the channel offering subscription services in order to help businesses get through the tough COVID period. Aiming to reduce capital expenditure in light of reduced growth targets and profit margins, businesses will look for lower initial costs through subscriptions-based offerings, rather than the traditional up-front payment perpetual licences that have fuelled Jonathan Wagstaff Richard Roberts Rob Elliss