Techaisle Blog

Techaisle just released its latest channel partners trends research covering over 2000 partners. The first primary focus of Techaisle’s channel research focuses on issues that shape the actions of channel organizations: the strategic priorities of the executive team, revenue sources and changes, financial resources, and go-to-market considerations and investment priorities. Vendors who obtain a more profound understanding of the channel’s ‘inner workings’ are, Techaisle believes, better positioned to direct their own activities to address the most critical concerns of channel partners. In the post-pandemic macro-economic driven uncertainties, an unsettled supply chain, cloud-led transformation, ecosystem participation, and essentially undifferentiated vendor-partner programs, partners are seeking new vendor partner asks and newer engagement models.. 

Each year, Techaisle asks decision-makers in the channel to identify their top business issues and develops a ‘top 10’ ranking based on this information. This list serves as the industry standard for understanding the business issues that define actions, interests, and investments for the coming year.

The latest findings show that “managing uncertainty” is the top business issue cited by 45% of channel partners, up from 34% a year ago. “Driving growth,” identified by 43% of channel decision-makers as an essential priority for the next 12 months, is the #2 concern of channel executives – it was the top concern in 2022, 2021, and 2020.

Scanning the balance of the list, we see a central theme as per the survey of 2115 channel partners - issues relating to efficiency and control are becoming more important, while those relating to expansion are declining. Nearly half of the partners plan to focus on cross-selling/upselling to their existing customers over chasing new customer logos. Marketing is focusing on the “land” part of the sales process, and sales are increasing its focus on the “expand” part of “land and expand.”

Techaisle's channel partner research shows a top tier of four must-have vendor attributes to pursue new partner relationships and build on existing ones. These are 1/ease of doing business, 2/ technical support, 3/ competitive pricing, and 4/ well-designed partner programs/partner portals. Each of these elements is considered necessary by 40% or more of channel decision-makers.

Lenovo is addressing each of the attributes. For example, at the center of its partner program transformation under One Lenovo and Lenovo 360 (partner program framework) is its Lenovo Partner Hub, undergoing continuous enhancements since its introduction in 2020. Its most recent improvements integrate managed services to product sales. Partners love the enhanced partner portal because of its simplicity of layout, ability to serve contextual information quickly, easy navigation, and enabling partners to add services components in customer bids effortlessly. It is a one-stop-shop for everything services – training, marketing, and deliverables.

One of the most exciting insights available from Techaisle channel partner survey research and corresponding SMB and midmarket survey research is the extent of divergence between what customers value in their relationships with channel partners and how the channel presents its value to its customers. The extent to which the two sides do – and don’t – connect is again diverging, first noticed by Techaisle in 2012. Data shows that the channel is emphasizing benefits that have relatively minor effects on customer/channel relationships.

As seen in the data, quality of services provided by the partner and technical expertise are the most important reasons why customers embrace their channel suppliers, followed by industry knowledge and long-term relationships, understanding of business needs, deliver business outcomes, and pricing. On the other hand, “features and functionality,” “affordable price,” and “availability as a subscription service” are messages used by more than 50% of the channel, “ease of use,” “robust security,” and “industry/vertical-specific relevance” by about 40%, and “affordable maintenance and support,” “customizable to meet business needs” and “deliver business outcomes” by 30%-36% of channel members. Thus, the messaging by partners differs from what customers value.

Another interesting pair of findings from the channel survey compares customers’ most critical technology requirements with the positioning channel firms strive to attain within their customer bases.

Techaisle's Channel partner ecosystem research contains a wealth of information, a great value to partner management teams looking to validate their partner program investments' alignment with real-world conditions, preferences, and requirements. The research contains reliable insight drawn from over 2000 channel partners survey (leveraging network of 225K channel members) with channel decision-makers from firms representing five significant channel types businesses to reflect an outlook shaped by the pandemic and its impact on both the channel and its customers. There are six observations, though, that we believe will help readers to better grasp the implications of many of research findings and where changes are afoot in 2021.

1. Focus on efficiency and control

2. Hybrid everywhere

3. Data and systems of insight

4. Cloud and the transformation of business

5. Digital transformation as a key to growth/viability

6. Relationships defined by ecosystems, not discrete connections