Listening to the voice of IT resellers - the latest annual ChannelWatch Report


Listening to the voice of IT resellers - the latest annual ChannelWatch Report
it distribution

Listening to the voice of IT resellers - the latest annual ChannelWatch Report

Listening to the voice of IT resellers - the latest annual ChannelWatch Report


Each year CONTEXT listens to IT resellers to learn where they are and what they are looking for - where they are investing for growth, what they look for from distributors and vendors, and what they are doing to assure their future role in the IT industry. This is a vital, but difficult exercise given the diffuse nature of the channel.

The work of analysing these multiple voices is translated into our annual ChannelWatch report, a much-anticipated online survey providing detailed insight into reseller behaviour, opinions and attitudes. Offering a "bottom-up" view of evolving market trends and insight into the business issues experienced at the IT coal face, it's a must-read for suppliers and distributors looking to consolidate, optimise and improve their indirect selling strategies, and complements the highest quality sales and pricing data at every point in the supply chain.

The story so far
The big picture is that the IT distribution market in 2018 appears to be in relatively good health. All of the 13 countries covered in the study saw positive year-on-year (YoY) growth in the first half of 2018, with a combined YoY growth rate of 5.1%. This compares to the previous six months in which some countries including the UK and Turkey slipped into negative growth.

From a reseller perspective growth is dominated by services and more firms are looking to adoption of new technologies in categories like security software, 3D printing and Smart Home. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) also loomed large in the first half of the year for many players as the channel scrabbled to recalibrate internal operations to comply with the strict new EU legislation. However, it also offered opportunities for growth in a related category - security software.

That's not to say the IT channel isn't without its share of challenges, and resellers have been candid in their responses throughout the report. The main message for distributors is that their partners would like to see more support and training. This is especially true of smaller resellers who feel like their distributors are focusing perhaps a little too much on their larger clients.

More insight to come
This is just a very small snapshot of the insight and trends you can find in CONTEXT ChannelWatch 2018. Our interview sample of over 7,000 resellers covers the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Netherlands, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Russia, Turkey, and Australia/New Zealand.

New for this year is the addition of CONTEXT reseller metrics to complement and enhance the survey responses, in order to provide an even more accurate picture of what's going on. You'll also find insight into specific trends such as the emergence of etailers as distributors, granular detail into which cloud services are proving most popular, and vendor channel marketing programmes.

If you're looking to deepen your understanding of the IT market to aid decision-making and improve performance and growth, stay tuned as we launch the report in the weeks to come.


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