technologyreseller.co.uk 23 VIEW FROM THE CHANNEL TR: What do you see as the biggest challenges facing channel businesses today? KA: Resellers are being forced to keep pace with an ever evolving mix of onpremise, public, hybrid and multi-cloud IT infrastructures for their clients. Hyperscalers Amazon, Microsoft and Google continue to dominate the cloud market, accounting for approximately two thirds of global cloud revenues (excluding China), and are growing at a faster rate than smaller cloud providers. So, it’s no real surprise that vendors are increasingly focussing their efforts on public cloud technologies from these three big players. Many VARs and MSPs aren’t in a position to do anything other than offer clients public cloud solutions. Not only are most not able to instigate a private cloud offer of their own, but the growing emphasis by vendors on public cloud is compounding the situation. From NPD and solution development to leasing and consumption models, everything is becoming more and more geared towards public cloud. The channel is being forced in one direction – towards the hyperscalers – and that can’t be healthy for competition. TR: Could vendors and distributors do more to help you overcome these challenges? And if so, what? KA: With the global cloud market expected to be worth nearly $600 billion this year, concentrating on the hyperscalers leaves a huge share of the global cloud industry at risk of being ignored. Vendors need to be more aligned with VARs and MSPs who are seeking to carve out niches for their businesses in increasingly difficult industry conditions, helping them to maintain specialisms, relevance and credibility in the market by developing other competitive cloud solutions. Ofcom is currently probing into the hyperscalers as it assesses competition in the UK cloud market, looking into features that limit innovation, bar entry and hamper growth in cloud services. We’re looking forward to seeing the impact of their recommendations on the channel. TR: Are customers become more demanding, and if so, in what ways? KA: It’s part of business (and human nature) to want more for less, and that demand drives continued innovation and healthy competition – and that’s how it should be. The problem is the growing disconnect between customer expectations and the bigger picture. We don’t live in a world where the laws of supply and demand remain unaffected by other forces, so growing uptake of IT solutions doesn’t automatically drive down prices. In the real world, everything is costing more: materials, transport, skilled labour, energy – you name it, prices have gone up, making it more costly across the entire IT industry to deliver solutions. It’s a mounting challenge for the channel to manage customer expectations and ensure margins aren’t eroded away entirely in the fight to win deals and increase market share. TR: If you could change one aspect of your job, what would it be and why? KA: People make companies, and I’m hugely proud of the talented team we’ve built at Creative. But as we grow it’s becoming harder for me to spend as much time with everyone as I would like. One of the benefits of having been in the industry for many years is that I’ve amassed a wealth of knowledge and experience to share. I’m also proud to have honed my mentoring skills to help individuals become the best they can be. Leadership is both a privilege and a responsibility, and I’d love to be able to spend more quality time with each and every individual. www.creative-itc.com www.creative-itc.com/partner-with-us/ to maintain team culture and wellbeing while working apart and, while the new work-life balance is welcomed, demands on employers have evolved hugely. The new wave of people entering our industry have greater opportunities and expectations of their jobs, salaries, lifestyles and employers than ever before. With more opportunities than people, they’re in the driving seat, often enjoying a choice of job offers, jumping ship if they’re not happy and seizing higher salaries with every move. Salary has always been a broad measure of skill and experience. Now, rising expectations of entry and mid-level candidates are narrowing traditional salary bands, making recruitment and selection harder than ever. It’s increasingly difficult for channel businesses to pan for gold among the rocks. It’s a widespread issue across the channel and certainly not sustainable. It’s not an easy nut to crack, and rather than us battling against each other, upping bids to snap up the latest individual, we need to work together to find a solution. TR: How have you changed/are you changing business operations to exploit new opportunities? KA: Growing customer demand for IT systems that are easier and cheaper to manage is fuelling the growth of MSPs. At Creative, we’re expanding our portfolio of award-winning managed services by developing further solutions tailored to meet the evolving needs of clients in the AEC industry and other sectors. We also recognised the market opportunity to set up our channel division, opening up new income streams for our business while supporting other IT companies on their own growth journeys. The programme makes it easier and quicker for our partners to deliver new services for their clients, opening up fresh conversations and previously unexploited revenue opportunities for them. Our partners can access new managed solutions, additional technical support, our cloud expertise and global service capabilities so that we all enjoy the mutual benefits of growing revenues and relationships.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NDUxNDM=