Top 6 Findings From the 3rd Quarter Channel Futures MSP Study
Hiring and product supply challenges, and vendor-add trends were highlighted by our respondents.
November 24, 2021
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Six out of ten respondents (62%) added vendors to their portfolios in the third quarter of 2021. So clearly they either feel they have gaps in their offerings, or they’re looking for better solutions. This means that these providers are having success in a certain area, and are continuing to build out their stack to bolster growth.
Ninety-three percent of respondents that added vendors to their portfolios added them to supplement existing tools/technologies. Move to the next slide to see the further breakdown.
The most common sectors to add a vendor were managed security and cloud storage, which has remained fairly consistant throughout the year.
It’s worth noting that we added product supply this quarter, but that and hiring ended up being the two biggest challenges faced last quarter and back since the start of the surveys. Interesting movement on these two categories, especially in the sense of if you don’t have the supply, you can’t hire the people to execute the tools. Also important to note is that hiring is still the biggest challenge out of the two, given the recent addition of product supply.
Sixty-two percent of respondents in the third quarter saw an increase in recurring revenue compared to the third quarter of 2020. This ties back to the economic outlook a lot of providers have for the year, and coming year. It also seems as though sales forecasts and profit dipped a bit, but shops are still profitable.
One-half (50%) of respondents in the third quarter saw an increase in cloud-related sales compared to the third quarter of 2020.
One-half (51%) of respondents in the third quarter saw an increase in security solutions sales compared to the third quarter of 2020.
One-half (51%) of respondents in the third quarter saw an increase in security solutions sales compared to the third quarter of 2020.
Back in April, Channel Futures launched its first benchmark survey to get a pulse of the top trends and opportunities in the industry during the first quarter of 2021. Since then, we have released two subsequent quarterly surveys, giving us three quarters of data and insight into how the industry is shifting.
These surveys have allowed us to compare data, and have given us insight into the various aspects of how MSPs function and the challenges they face. So, as we continue into the fourth quarter, the end of an … interesting year … we’re interested to know how things have continued to shift.
But first, a look at quarter three of 2021. This survey included reported managed service providers, VAR solution providers, consultants, telecom service providers and cloud service providers, among others.
Here are a few key trends and opportunities that we discovered from our data:
Providers are continuing to add vendors to their portfolios.
Product supply and hiring are the two major challenges.
The most common sectors to add a vendor were managed security and cloud storage.
In the slideshow above, we further break down our important benchmark survey findings. What will we discover as we head into the fourth quarter and beyond?
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