Gartner: 8 Top Business Technology Trends for Channel Partners

Gartner Tiffani Bova

1. Technology Budget: 40 percent of corporate IT budgets are moving out from under CIOs and the IT department. There are new buying centers — chief marketing officers, business unit leaders, etc. — that are driving IT purchases both on-premises and in the cloud.

2. Shift in Focus: The new nexus of forces involves social, mobile, cloud and information.

3. Services: Yup, channel partners will need to develop and wrap their own services around the technology they sell.

4. Business Skills: If you’re selling to a chief marketing officer you need a whole new set of business skills to understand their needs, and position appropriately.

5. Software Development: Channel partners are going to need integration and custom software development.

6. Born in the Cloud: These new channel partners are your new competition. They are motivated by software development and professional services. “These born in the cloud partners are challenging the market in ways I’ve never seen,” she said. “These guys are really starting to disrupt the ecosystem.”

6a. The Channel Will Survive: Not one of her key points, but Bova offered this quip: “Us [the channel], cockroaches and Cher always survive.”

7. Hybrid IT: Whether it’s a small or large business, the model will be hybrid — on premises, private and public cloud. “You need to find a balance for your customers and your business.”

8. Channel Play for Cloud: Start to learn about Cloud Services Brokerages (CSB), reseller and builder models.