SYNNEX: About 75% Expect to Sell More Managed Services

The TD SYNNEX Technology Ecosystem Benchmark Report, conducted in partnership with technology market analyst firm Canalys, is based on an industry survey of mid-market partners with up to 1,000 employees.

The report shows that companies have fully embraced the managed services trend, with almost three-quarters of respondents forecasting revenue growth in this area.

The following conclusions were drawn from the survey of companies in Europe. Anticipating and meeting end-user technology expectations, effectively managing the business operations of the technology ecosystem, and facilitating the interaction, development, and enablement of the technology ecosystem are the key issues European companies are facing.

Business challenges

In the face of these challenges, 82% of European partners expect to grow this financial year. In fact, 43% of them cited security, servers, and storage as their main revenue drivers. On the other hand, 40% said that the aforementioned technologies are the most profitable, led by security.

The survey also shows what percentage of partners indicate this increase by type of services:

• 74% Managed services.
• 65% Professional Services.
• 50% Consumer-based XaaS.
• 44% Packaged services.
• 38% Product Lifecycle Services.

In fact, more than half (63%) of European partners expect hardware distribution to be key to their business forecasts. In addition, more than a third of respondents also indicate that the sale of intellectual property, which now represents 4% of the business, will soon become an important part of their business plans over the next two years.

On this point, Rachel Brindley, senior director of channels at Canalys, said: “Partners are actively developing their services businesses. We are seeing that they want to invest in the technology ecosystem”.

SYNNEX ESG

IT business leaders are aware that they need to increase their skills in sustainability and ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) factors. Of these, 43% of partners plan to provide sustainability reporting in the next 24 months.

Patrick Zammit, President of Europe and Asia-Pacific-Japan at TD SYNNEX, commented: “We are very encouraged to see that European technology leaders are including ESG factors in their plans. It is also an important priority for TD SYNNEX. We are proud to have signed up to the Science Based Targets initiative, in which we are committed to achieving zero carbon emissions, and to have created a strategy for diversity, equity, and inclusion.”

Collaboration as a strategy

79% of respondents consider the involvement of ecosystem partners to be very important for future growth. In fact, European partners see collaboration as a priority growth strategy.

Andy Gass, the chief digital officer at TD SYNNEX, stressed the importance of “Delivering value to end customers means evolving business skills that align with more efficient and effective practices for procuring, configuring, provisioning, securing, managing and servicing those technologies. In an environment of rapid and continuous technological change, European IT companies need to bring solutions to market faster. Ecosystem collaboration accelerates that time to market, reduces costs, and minimizes technology skills gaps.”