Monday Morning Impact – April 29

Gartner Anticipates Slight IT Spending Growth for 2019

Worldwide IT spending is projected to total $3.79 trillion in 2019, an increase of 1.1 percent from 2018, according to the latest forecast by Gartner, Inc.

“Currency headwinds fueled by the strengthening U.S. dollar have caused us to revise our 2019 IT spending forecast down from the previous quarter,” said John-David Lovelock, research vice president at Gartner. “Through the remainder of 2019, the U.S. dollar is expected to trend stronger, while enduring tremendous volatility due to uncertain economic and political environments and trade wars.”

Gartner expects the data center systems segment to experience the largest decline in 2019 with a decrease of 2.8 percent. This is mainly due to expected lower average selling prices in the server market driven by adjustments in the pattern of expected component costs.

The shift of enterprise IT spending from traditional (noncloud) offerings to new, cloud-based alternatives is continuing to drive growth in the enterprise software market. In 2019, the market is forecast to reach $427 billion, up 7.1 percent from $399 billion in 2018. The largest cloud shift has so far occurred in application software. However, Gartner expects increased growth for the infrastructure software segment in the near-term, particularly in integration platform as a service (iPaaS) and application platform as a service (aPaaS).

“In 2019, technology product managers will have to get more strategic with their portfolio mix by balancing products and services that will post growth in 2019 with those larger markets that will trend flat to down,” said Lovelock. “Successful product managers in 2020 will have had a long-term view to the changes made in 2019.”

More detailed analysis on the outlook for the IT industry is available in the complimentary webinar “IT Spending Forecast, 1Q19 Update: AI — Use it, Build it or Sell it.” The most recent IT spending forecast research is available to Gartner clients in “Gartner Market Databook, 1Q19 Update.”

Channel Impact^®
The Gartner quarterly IT spending forecast delivers a research perspective on IT spending across the hardware, software, IT services and telecommunications segments with an eye towards greater understanding of market opportunities and challenges.

New Study: Partners Extending Service Offerings to Meet Market Demands

According to a new report, sellers of IT solutions are expanding their list of offerings, with the average seller expected to expand from four service offerings to six by 2020.

This is according to a 2019 Cloud Channel survey conducted by Avant Communications, a Chicago-based master agent and technology distributor that has designed a series of offerings to support IT decision-making. This year’s survey was developed in partnership with 8×8, Channel Partners, Flexential, Masergy, Oracle Communications, and others.

The survey assessed 187 channel sellers with offerings across the following service categories: Data Networks excluding SD-WAN, Voice Network Services, UCaaS or CCaaS Unified Communications, SD-WAN, Colocation, IaaS, SECaaS, Office Productivity, SaaS. Managed IoT and 5G joined this year’s list as disruptive technologies to watch. Avant compared year-over-year data to identify shared attributes and strategies among top-selling cloud partners in the channel community.

“Avant’s growing network of Trusted Advisors benefits from keeping our pulse on the competitive landscape for IT services and digital transformation,” said president and co-founder Drew Lydecker. “We present the 2019 Cloud Channel Survey to the broader community as a barometer to help everyone measure themselves against the most successful partners in the industry.”

Among the key findings, cloud-centric sellers accounted for 41 percent of voice/data network sales, outperforming sellers that primarily focus on voice/data networks. In addition, partners with the highest number of successful deals and those that are the most bullish for the future growth of the industry are very different from the rest of the pack in key attributes, including being more responsive, providing more training to sales staff, offering a broader portfolio and hosting more of their own events.

The top four services that Channel Partners expect to sell in two years are Data Networks (39 percent), UCaaS (67 percent), SD-WAN (61 percent) and Security as a Service (45 percent) — with 5G and Managed IOT emerging as areas to watch for in the future.

“As enterprises are adapting to navigate the accelerating pace of change in IT, the best channel sales professionals are evaluating — and re-evaluating — their formulas for success,” said CEO Ian Kieninger. “That drive is what separates the leaders from the laggards.”

Channel Impact^®
The insights in the survey can serve as a roadmap to channel partners as they work to elevate their role as trusted advisors.

ScanSource Launches New Incentives and Resources

ScanSource has announced the launch of “FastLane,” a comprehensive new partner program.

Participating partners can take advantage of enablement tools and resources to help them grow their business and reach new markets, including solutions-focused on-demand videos and podcasts. In addition, FastLane offers opportunities for partners to give back to their communities through participation in joint corporate social responsibility efforts stemming from ScanSource’s longstanding relationships with community organizations.

“As a trusted advisor, it is our job to help our partners deliver solutions that can help their customers meet business outcomes,” said Tony Sorrentino, ScanSource’s president of North America sales. “With such rapid change in the channel, it’s more important than ever to provide a seamless customer experience for our partners, whether it’s through the solutions they buy, the programs they participate in, or the events they attend.”

Monthly, quarterly and year-long prizes will be awarded, featuring auto-related giveaways, participation in VIP events and quarterly business strategy summits, and a Winners’ Circle celebration trip.

Channel Impact^®
ScanSource is attempting to create a more engaging relationship with its partners by providing the tools, time, resources and opportunities that will accelerate their growth and profitability.