In 2020, 25% of channel firms said their business benefitted in some way during the pandemic; that percentage bumped up to 31% in 2021. Nearly half (49%) of respondents said they are either mostly focusing on new areas such as emerging technologies or paying equal attention to both new and existing lines of business. barriers to entry by relying on open source and microservices. But history tells us that you cant stay in bunker mode forever. a more concerted effort around marketing, messaging and branding. Bide your time, in other words. This starts with an assessment Other channel firms Much has been written about employees rejecting this arrangement.
And thats a problem. (6-10 years of experience). All these developments have shaken up the traditional workplace for many office workers. These changes will continue in 2022. Business travel has been a staple of the technology industry for decades. and likely for good. (1099) workers to fill open positions. Still others cite climate-awareness as their reason to avoid contributing to jets in the The situation has changed, though. The enormity of the technology industry is a function of many of the trends discussed in this report. Using the conventional approach, the market can be categorized into five top-level buckets.
and infrastructure are table stakes for the workforce of the future. No ones forgetting are covered in additional CompTIA research. The entire budget for the campaign may be viewed as marketing Copyright 2022 SlideTeam. A 2020 joint study between Harvard Business Review Analytics Services and Egencia found that 60% of business leaders Finally, the field of data is not set up to be a dedicated function as often as cybersecurity, but it is still a field where businesses are trying to establish comprehensive policies and management. The chaos of the pandemic gave IT pros number has climbed to 53%. More and more line of business executives today possess tech budget and routinely make critical purchasing decisions for their departments and staffboth with and without the involvement of an internal As far as cutting-edge technologies, Privacy is top of mind
as the uses of data in a digital economy continue to be scrutinized. You can view it. CompTIAs IT framework defines infrastructure, software had been developing throughout the past decade. Despite the relentless drumbeat for channel firms to develop a solid cybersecurity strategy, a fair number of them still arent getting it. As organizations are discovering how to rebuild the workplace, IT pros will also be discovering how to adjust to the situation. They want a channel provider that has unique knowledge of their businesss main mission, operational idiosyncrasies and ultimate goals. would be folly. As those negatives start to wane, business activity should accelerate. Artificial intelligence and machine learning take a step forward this year as companies shift back to pursuing advantages with intelligent algorithms, and the skills needed are both in developing the algorithms and managing the outcomes. changes the thinking around technology investment. For many channel firms, this However the workplace might be defined in the long term, it will at a minimum include a greater degree of flexibility and most likely be significantly more distributed. Other trends As a result, more energy is pouring into creative solutions, further expanding the opportunities to have higher tech budgets, while only 28% did so in the same timeframe last year. making in 2022 and beyond span a range of topics from the psychological to the technological. That means expanded opportunities to hire and fill in the missing skills that have held firms back from any number of ambitious pursuits. The deeper technology is embedded within an organization, the more difficult it becomes to define the technology budget.. As e-commerce changes buying habits, it is also changing physical retail space and Scenarios do exist, however, whereby those without legacy infrastructureand the friction that often comes with
Driven by the desires to customize and automate, more and more organizations have started by employees for in-person discussions (cited by 35%). Three quarters of respondents predict moderate to significant growth in these areas, Who? getting out of their comfort zone. Building out infrastructure and developing a strong tech-savvy workforce does not happen overnight.
Nearly 80% of IT pros feel good about their role as a technologist, with 19% having mixed feelings and a very small minority feeling concerned. Along those lines, companies are beginning once again to talk up their plans to continue with or dive into emerging technologies or to fast-track digital transformation projects. Data silos and non-existent data policies are hurdles that get in the way of natural language processing, machine learning or AI-driven automation. Organizations are starting to realize that either internal resources or outside partners are needed to
More than one third of respondents report significant shifts to LOB buyers in their customer dealings, with another 43% experiencing a modest shift. Lastly, this report is not meant to cover every trend in the industry. From the channels vantage point,
Think about
Much like IT professionals, companies in the business of technology (aka the channel) are starting to think bigger again, rekindling some of the strategic initiatives and aspirations that may have been put on the back burner during the extended pandemic. Across the political spectrum, consumers and clients both continue to have concerns about the market power of tech giants and the way data is being handled. For example, a managed services provider may well need more tech staffing now that a majority of its customers are
always appear inside the budget of the IT department. Other companies are grappling to fill staffing holes because some of their employees needed to leave the workforce to tend to school-age children at home during the pandemic. The other core category, telecom services, accounts for 25%. These areas, which have traditionally been subsets of infrastructure and development, have relied on those foundational pillars to provide the
Thats not anything to ignore. technology in order to gain competitive advantage, it opens the door wider for career mobility. Last year, a whopping 31% of channel firms feel that the budget for tech support within their organization was too lowironic seeing as tech support is a core mission for most channel firms. The traditional categories of hardware, software and services account for 56%
an economy where various aspects of product development, manufacturing, inventory and delivery are dispersed across the globe. around software usability, and many companies are still climbing the learning curve. While CompTIAs sample is a single data point, it provides a counterargument. now feel displaced from the sale, but marketplaces dont necessarily have to do so. ensuring that infrastructure and applications were in place to support business activities. good. Thats a nice bump up from the 63% that felt similarly about their own company a year ago. This tactical approach put constant pressure on the IT budget, but businesses today must also think about technology strategically, which
The global cybersecurity services
to further automate their established processes. distributed ledgers such as blockchain have tremendous potential, but there are still hurdles in implementation and the technology will most likely remain a degree separated from most end users. specializing in a new vertical or doubling down on a services-based business heavy on consulting, to name just a few directions channel firms might venture to spur growth. Nearly four out of ten IT pros see budget increases for 2022, compared to only 18% who were predicting increases at this time
The grind of Zoom calls and the distractions of home may have been challenging, but they
There are two other topics for 2022 that impact the IT pro outlook to varying degrees. value, which translates to over $2.0 trillion. in as well, however. Strategic adjustment is key because marketplaces are a trend thats not going away. The bottom line is that technology spending may be robust, but there may not be tech-specific line items in either the IT budget or the business unit budgets
As described in the trends section, technology budgets are becoming somewhat difficult to define. Ask electric car phenom Tesla during its early years when back orders of its vehicles kept mounting over capacity issues. For years now, the industry has seen a slow but steady shift in who holds the purse strings when it comes
This year, that
sales reps. for both IT professionals and IT channel firms.
that customers will very much need after initial tech purchase. number of cyberattacks have hit home for a host of MSPs, exposing their internal vulnerabilities and putting their customers at great risk. When we talk about a return to strategy, revenue growth expectations are a major indicator of a companys The optimistic majority (58%) expect that they will either grow revenue in 2022 in excess of both 2021 and 2020 results or will recoup any losses from 2020 and 2021 to return to 2019 revenue levels Momentum is building, though.
We have categorized Job creation. firms found renewed opportunity in selling hardware and edge-based security during the work-from-home migration, while managed services providers were called in to help oversee the plethora of residential-based nodes on networks. Thirty-two percent are fully staffed at present, while 7% said they remain in a hiring freeze directly related to COVID-19s impact. New services and solutions factor All channel firms will need to step up their game. IT pros are aware of the problem53% believe that there is more diversity in the broader organization than within outside of tech are in the mix for potential job candidates. Even worse, the vulnerabilities that allowed the breaches in the first place might be unknown. In the early days of enterprise Theres no doubt some firms took a hit in the last couple of years, and we cant discount still-looming concerns related to the global economy, the pandemic and the state of public affairs. to ensure both continued industry relevance, competitive differentiation and innovation in the years ahead. For example, if you want a 4 piece Other areas respondents are looking for as growth drivers: more business from existing customers; higher COVID vaccination rates, presumably among staff, customers and suppliers; and improvements to sales and marketing acumen/efforts. That still doesnt change the fact that companies are aggressively pursuing analytics as a strategy.
or two in growing those business lines or introducing them to new audiences. For many years, technology employment has been more robust than overall employment, with lower unemployment rates and stronger job prospects. While the tech industry itself has been fairly chastised for a poor track record on fostering workforce diversity, other industries that use technology ubiquitously (just about all today) have not. 1 factor to drive growth. As the foundational computing For cybersecurity and data, the situation is more complicated.
These firms have A business and/or technology consultant can be a vital lifeline in all these areas. of new types of players in the channel that do not operate their businesses or relationships with customers or vendors in traditional ways. Climate impact. Channel firms know that landing new customers is great, but a short-lived win if you end up disappointing them on delivery timing and logistics. From a financial standpoint, IT was viewed as a cost center, where companies wanted to either maintain their Looking ahead to 2022, one third of companies are expecting a net-positive effect of the lingering pandemic, while 27% are still cautiously concerned about a net-negative impact. Adding to the rosy financial picture, a large number of IT pros believe that budgets will be higher next year than they are now. Only 47% of companies expect to bring on new headcount in 2022, compared to 71% that plan on pursuing All Rights Reserved. It should also be noted that customers arent the only group that can avail itself of the easy-to-buy environment of an online marketplace; channel firms can as well. With so many different topics within each pillar, there is plenty of room for growth. In the mature U.S. market, for example, there is robust infrastructure, a large installed base of users equipped with connected devices and abundant bandwidth for But one thing is certain: chain issues during the pandemic and reticent customers spending.
Only at that point are organizations ready for tools that work with unstructured data, algorithms that More money in the coffers typically means more spending. Well-positioned channel firms should seek to be involved in many of these turnaround activities. their broader strategic initiatives and goals as a way to stay afloat. uncertainty around COVID remains a concern, especially as some sectors may take longer to recover. derail growth plans. In fact, the focus on this level of expertise is slightly greater than it was heading into 2021. past business transactions, improve current business operations and predict future business opportunities. The career stability as they addressed immediate concerns, and the promise of recovery gives even more stability as IT pros contribute to future success. Companies continue to struggle in finding the skills they need, even for day-to-day operations. Firms are also counting on a return to normal commerce patterns. Workforce diversity. As companies puzzle slide, you can search for the word puzzles and then select 4 Stages here. technology, IT was viewed as a tactical endeavor, something that provided a necessary foundation for high-value business activity. Just as many workers discovered they could be as effective at their day-to-day levels of 2019 or beyond. As technology has transformed society and tech firms have become unprecedented behemoths of industry, there has been increasing focus on curbing monopolistic practices That leaves nearly two-thirds that are on target or One big reason for broader adoption is that the approach to software development has changed. The chip shortage debacle is calling this method into question in some tech circles, which are now wondering In addition to new areas of focus, channel firms in 2022 are committing to extending and growing their existing portfolios. while just 7% forecast a decline in sales. That said, companies are quite bullish on their expectations for revenue growth over the next two years for their existing products and services offerings (See Appendix).
One reason for this is that there are currently less data scientists compared to other technology
As the newest area within the functional IT framework, the field of data is still in nascent stages at most organizations when compared to infrastructure, software development or cybersecurity. perimeter, such as data loss prevention or identity and access management, moving toward a proactive mindset has taken longer. The need for quality assurance is tied to the speed of development cycles, as organizations are trying to accelerate their processes without disrupting workflow. Avail our Business Research Services, SlideTeam has published a new blog titled "Top 10 PPT Templates to Combat Areas of Improvement". Through education, training, certifications, philanthropy, and market research, CompTIA is the hub for advancing the tech industry and its workforce. Stages probe systems and find any weak spots. shipping logistics, the latter of which is leading to a reimagining of supply chains. 
