IT Channel is an important industry to grow : Partners are the integral part for achieving business objectives of the Vendors.

S Mohini Ratna, Editor, VARINDIA

It is overwhelming to see that the world has almost overcome the COVID-19 pandemic. However, there is uncertainty again owing to heightened geopolitical tensions and global risks. There is severe economic stress in many parts of the world. Rising fuel, food, and fertilizers prices are impacting everyone. High in action and supply disruptions threaten to trigger a global recession.

India has witnessed many innovations and has accelerated a lot of planned digitization at a rate we never thought was possible. The brick-and-mortar businesses navigate the digital world and learn to migrate and operate online, corporates are fully geared towards digital transformation forming a new world.

The size of the Indian IT market including eCommerce is 235 billion U.S. dollars. There is a need for an alliance mindset among the Corporates, partners and VARs to serve their customers across the country. It is vital to succeed in the fight which is going on between the on-line and Offline businesses.

For channel partners, a digital presence is becoming more important for capturing customers at the earliest stages of IT sales cycles and in many cases well before they have engaged physically with an IT supplier. But channel partners are also competing with a host of digital “influencers” – consultants, agents, advisors, vendors and even other end users- who are playing a more significant role in guiding customers’ IT buying decisions. Partners play a critical role in delivering managed services and the last mile delivery. 

Behind every success of the corporate, the role of Partners and VARs play a commanding role. I would say right partnerships are required. OEMs have started pushing sales through their websites, on-line platforms and brand showrooms, with an intention to cut down the intermediaries. 

Going forward, we are going to witness huge disruption in the technology distribution landscape, as the hardware and software business requirements are different. There has been a radical shift in channel sales and marketing towards online and virtual models, with over 80% of channel partners increasing digital sales, and almost two thirds growing their digital marketing activities. 

The metaverse is considered the next evolution of the internet, whereas the multiverse is a collection of different and separate digital spaces with unique traits and characteristics. The Indian channel is recognised as an important industry and ready to create the Partnerverse.

With various reasons for shifting the global economy, demand for cloud services remains strong. Cloud computing has grown into a vast and complex ecosystem of technologies, products, and services, giving rise to a multi-billion dollar economy where many cloud providers compete for an ever-expanding cloud market share. There is a massive scope for expansion.

We are witnessing a huge market shift in the Cloud service provider marketplaces, which is a rapidly growing route to market for IT vendors. This brings a huge opportunity for the partners. AWS, Azure and Google have always played a dominating role in the industry. The top cloud vendors are accelerating their partnerships with a variety of software companies to demonstrate a differentiated value proposition. Partners are the integral part for achieving long term business objectives of the Vendors. We are witnessing how IT distribution is ever evolving, trying to maintain relevance with existing vendors, making bets on new technologies, and attracting new partner types. Going forward, leading distributors continue to invest in marketplaces, ISV incubator programs, and changing their revenue and incentive models to adapt to a shifting landscape. The next 12 to 24 months will see accelerated change in distribution. 

With the opportunity to capture valuable data on customer adoption, use and renewals, partners who unlock data insights for more effective sales and marketing activities will have an advantage over others. And with inflation, staff shortages and economic turbulence threatening channel profitability, the ability to automate manual sales processes should contribute to greater efficiency and cost savings, for both partners and customers.

Hybrid working has gone from a temporary accommodation to a mainstream workplace practice. If hybrid working becomes the permanent way of working, we must ask whether companies are ready for the massive changes this will have on HR processes, leadership practices for engaging in a global workforce, and the design of the office of the future.

Going forward, I see there are challenges to witness in 2023, an over-reliance on one hyperscale marketplace is also a risk for vendors, particularly when it is a dominant player like Amazon. As the volume of business through this channel increases, the need for vendors to maintain balance in their channels – between marketplaces and existing routes to market- will become more critical. 

There will be a shift in Big Tech strategies and audience fragmentation are some of the big challenges for brands to witness in 2023.