Category: Research Reports

Agilitas Partner Choices Report – ‘Blurred lines between suppliers’

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Channel Leaders confident in the industry’s ability to build collaborative partnerships

Agilitas launches its ‘Blurred lines between suppliers’ Report

Leading global channel services provider, Agilitas IT Solutions, has today announced the launch of its ‘Blurred lines between suppliers’ report. This guide is the first instalment in its Channel Trends Report series, which continues to provide actionable, free-to-view market insights.

The report, which explores the findings of the latest research commissioned by Agilitas, discusses the importance of building strong alliances, partnering for innovation and customer experience, as well as meeting ongoing sustainability targets.

A key takeaway from the report is how Channel partnerships have become less transactional, with responsiveness, flexibility and strategic enablement high on the agendas of those across the sector. The Technology Channel is largely transitioning into a service-based industry, therefore the potential benefits of these partnerships depend on who businesses choose to partner with.

It has been encouraging to see that Technology Channel decision-makers have shown optimism for the future, with partnerships being a key component of successful operations, allowing companies to expand their market reach, strengthen their relationships with customers and increase their visibility.

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Through Agilitas’ annual research, it was identified that partnering for growth, improved customer experience and sustainability will become more prominent over the next 12 months

Another area highlighted was the importance of delivering a good customer experience, with 85% of the Channel businesses surveyed agreeing this was a high priority. Looking deeper at the data revealed that 42% of respondents are currently using third-party support to help enhance their customer experience, with a further 29% stating that they will implement this in the next 12 months.

It’s no secret that sustainability continues to be prominent metrics in business development across the Channel, with sustainability partnerships playing a crucial role in helping businesses address social or environmental problems. More often than not, these partnerships are not just focused on reducing a company’s carbon footprint, but launching new sustainability initiatives to meet long-term goals.

Respondents remain confident in the Channel’s ability to build collaborative partnerships that balance profit with social consciousness, with an average result of 7.7 (around 80%). In addition to this, when looking at the results by business type, it was promising to see that over 66% of MSPs and VARs are very confident in the Channel’s ability to balance profit and purpose when building partnerships.

“The Technology Channel has made significant strides in choosing the right partners, selecting those whose values not only align but also offer longevity,” said Sara Wilkes, Chief Operating Officer at Agilitas.

“Confidence has remained high but did vary across companies of different sizes, meaning partnering with like-minded organisations has never been more important for teams to leverage each other’s strengths, expertise and resources to accelerate innovation and development.

“Aligning the correct people and analysing services to tailor offerings to each customer is key, accelerating growth for all parties now and in the future, and the research results highlight that the industry is already making progress.”

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Unlocking AI – Comms Business May 2024

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New possibilities are emerging as artificial intelligence becomes more advanced. Comms Business finds out what this means for channel companies and their customers.

“Our research found  out that it was the larger channel businesses looking to prioritise AI over the next 12 months, with half of the businesses with over 500 employees rating it a top priority, compared to just 23 per cent of those with under 100 employees.”

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Agilitas Releases 2024 Channel Trends Report

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Channel Leaders Reveal They Are More Confident Than Ever In Their Company’s Success

New research released today by leading global Channel services provider, Agilitas IT Solutions​, reveals that confidence in the future of the Technology Channel has reached its peak amongst UK industry decision-makers, with the overall confidence score reaching 7.9 out of a possible 10.

With optimism the highest it’s been in five years, Channel leaders are focusing on the areas that matter, including embracing innovation, enhancing the customer experience, and attracting and retaining the right talent. It’s promising to see that these factors remain top of mind, in line with the introduction of a Total Experience strategy to achieve consistency across their organisation and create a better experience for stakeholders.

Like many industries, AI is transforming the ways that Channel companies improve their operational efficiencies, with 82% of respondents stating that AI would positively impact their business. However, when it comes to leveraging AI, it fell much lower down the priority list as only 74% stated that they were already adopting AI in their own business strategies.

With this in mind, Agilitas asked respondents how confident they were in their organisation’s ability to balance company culture with emerging technologies. Despite the inevitable nervousness within the workforce, Channel leaders ranked their confidence at 7.8 out of a possible 10. Interestingly, 96% of CEOs surveyed were confident, with 48% scoring a maximum of 10 out of 10. However, this fell significantly at other employee levels, with only 46% of junior managers sharing the same level of optimism.

Disconnects between CEOs and their workforce were noted across a number of factors, including delivering a superior customer experience and Channel companies’ ability to achieve a positive workplace culture. This disconnect can stem from communication gaps, differing perspectives on company goals and lack of transparency, which re-emphasises the importance of having a clear company strategy and values that employees can relate to.

The Channel has been focusing on driving its sustainability efforts for many years, but the question remains, is progress going fast enough to meet changing consumer expectations and ambitious Net Zero goals? Whilst over 77% of companies stated that sustainability will be a focus for the next 12 months, less than 1 in 5 are calculating their full carbon footprint across scopes 1,2 and 3.

“It is becoming increasingly difficult for Channel companies to prioritise their efforts, with increasing pressures related to emerging technologies, resilient company cultures, sustainability initiatives and the customer experience. Despite this, it’s promising to see many Channel leaders starting to put their strategies into action, and keep pace with the market changes. Our 2024 Channel Trends report aims to help businesses identify the biggest gains, what strategies are being prioritised, and most importantly, whether enough is being done to prosper,” commented John Hayes-Warren, CEO of Agilitas.

In partnership with leading research firm, Censuswide, Agilitas surveyed 250 respondents working in UK-headquartered Channel businesses, with an annual turnover of over £5 million. The report is designed to give Channel leaders insights into the current market trends, to aid their decision-making and strategies.

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Can the Channel make money from Generative AI

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In our latest research, 82% of Channel leaders felt that AI would be impactful over the next 12 months. We hosted a Q&A with our Chief Operating Officer, Sara Wilkes and her among others have share their thoughts on the future of AI.

What is generative AI?

Traditional AI relies on rules and programming to perform specific tasks, like asking Alexa for the weather forecast, or Netflix recommending the next box set you should watch. Generative AI on the other hand is all about new original content. Most people are familiar with Chat GPT and its ability to generate new human-like outputs in a matter of seconds. But almost anything that can be represented digitally can be produced using Generative AI – music, video, images. From generating countless interior design options for your living room to composing your own unique soundtracks in seconds, the possibilities with Gen AI seem endless.

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Where will customers use the technology?


Most customers will be using generative AI to some extent already. A lot of software solutions have generative AI functionality built in, for example Microsoft’s co-pilot can summarise documents, write emails or minute meetings. For creative teams, Gen AI is writing copy and editing imagery. Others may be using AI to assist with analysing data and finding trends. In Agilitas’ 2024 Channel Trends research, 37% of channel businesses that we surveyed are already using AI chatbots with a further 33% looking to utilise this technology in the next 12 months.

What use cases need to emerge to generate further adoption?

Gen AI is a rapidly developing technology and there are still a lot of unknowns that exist. Generative AI analyses patterns from large data sets but the outputs are still inconsistent, can be biased or in some case wrong. I heard this great story of Chat GPT creating a research report full of statistics and when the user asked Chat GPT what the reference was, it responded with “I made it up”. Therefore, there is still a lot of human interaction required to ensure the output from Gen AI is accurate.

Another major concern affecting adoption rates surrounds security of sensitive data and company IP. Until organisations can be confident that their data is secure, I think we will see cautious rates of adoption. There is also the financial barrier to adopting Gen AI. Even if companies take advantage of open-source models, significant investment is required to ensure they are secure and trained correctly.

How can the channel make money from Gen AI?

For those channel companies that don’t leap into Gen AI, there is still the potential to make money by using AI to improve productivity levels, therefore being able to use resources to focus on other key revenue-generating areas. However, the risk-reward for those companies wanting to explore AI opportunities further could be far greater. AI Consulting services, developing custom AI solutions, providing AI integration services and offering AI training are all going to be areas in demand over the coming years.

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Stand out with “total experience” with CRN

CRN and Agilitas explore how Channel leaders can stand out with “total experience”

Back in November, we had the pleasure of sponsoring the CRN On conference for the fifth consecutive year. This year’s theme was the ‘total experience’, something that our team at Agilitas have been pioneering over the past few months. Defined as an organisation’s ability to break silos and treat all experiences as interconnected, the total experience brings together diverse groups and teams, who may have previously worked in siloes, to collaborate, share knowledge and operate in a coordinated manner.

A total experience strategy can improve employee and customer confidence, satisfaction, loyalty, and advocacy over time. When implemented successfully, it also demonstrates and communicates a company’s core values and value proposition across all touchpoints.

To explore this concept further, CRN surveyed 121 IT leaders from a range of industries to understand their goals and challenges when it comes to their Channel partners and total experience. When looking at their biggest priorities, respondents stated that embracing innovation and transformation, customer experience and recruiting and retaining necessary talent were the most important. This highlights that many businesses recognise the opportunity to establish a total experience now and in the future.

Delving deeper, CRN asked respondents if they had yet implemented a total experience strategy, and only 13% answered “yes”, with 60% having not yet implemented a total experience and the rest unsure. This indicates that there are significant opportunities for Channel leaders to explore how this strategy will have a positive impact on all stakeholders. For those that had implemented a total experience strategy, 51% reported a broadly positive impact on their organisation. Examples include: improving internal systems, better customer journeys, investing in CRM tools and appointment of assigned product managers.

Adopting a total experience can be a daunting task for Channel businesses as it involves multiple touchpoints across the organisation, coordination from multiple teams, and the implementation of new technology. Taking a holistic approach, however, will be beneficial to organisations regardless of their industry or size, making it easier for employees to respond to customer needs to create a better experience all around.

 

 

CRN ON Report 2023
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Channel Trends Report 2023

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Sustainability, Customer Experience, Culture, Leadership, Purpose and Alliances all contribute to a business’ Total Experience and getting the balance wrong can be the difference between winning or losing in the marketplace.

 

Transformed from last year’s Channel Confidence Index, the 2023 Channel Trends Report delves into core aspects of Channel Businesses, from ESG and culture, to supply chain disruptions and future growth. With an increasing focus on customer experience and employee engagement, it has never been so clear to Channel firms that the adoption of total experience is the only way up.

With a rapidly changing landscape, we must gather as much information as efficiently as possible to build resilient strategies, that not only ensure the safety of our businesses, but enable them along with our people, customers, and investors to thrive.

When asking Technology Channel leaders how optimistic they were about the future success of their company in the next 12 months, they ranked 7.6 out of 10, which is down from 7.8 last year.

It can seem an overwhelming responsibility for Channel Leaders to dedicate resource to every area, but whilst businesses in the Technology Channel are understandably monitoring their bottom line, it’s important to remember that profit and purpose don’t need to be an “either-or”.

To download your free copy of the 2023 Channel Trends report, view here.

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