Techaisle Blog

2024 will focus on metrics, not manuals, resulting in the rise of customer-centric channel strategies. The year will also center around data, not dials, and the imperative of winning in the new era of AI, partner collaboration, and ecosystem commerce. The partners will be compelled to move from silos to symphony by orchestrating the ecosystem to meet customer demands for AI and as-a-service. The Techaisle channel survey shows that the partner community members are searching for a roadmap to success. That roadmap will vary across partner models, as will the opportunities and requirements for suppliers. This shift will be driven by the rise of AI and ROI, which have made prioritizing metrics that align with business outcomes essential. Once again, vendor disintermediation will be real. The reseller channel will be under pressure as it explores different business models, product mixes, and strenuous demands for new skills and service capabilities. Techaisle partner predictions rely on extensive research with over 5000 partners leveraging a panel of over 300K partners. Here are the top 2024 top 10 channel partner predictions.

In 2021, we predicted that AI would permeate small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) and midmarket firms, not as an independent solution but as an integral feature within other products. As SMBs fully comprehend the inherent nature of AI, they will increasingly seek AI-powered solutions to prescribe actions that mitigate risks and enhance decision-making, business agility, and innovation proactively.

We also predicted that AI technology would evolve so rapidly that by the time SMBs become comfortable with data-driven decision-making, AI would be executing decisions that might be beyond the comprehension of business executives. The challenge with AI would shift from trusting data over intuition to trusting AI when insights into its decision-making process are not readily available in the cloud applications used by SMBs and midmarket firms. We expect this trend to continue into 2024.

After surveying over 3000 SMBs and midmarket firms, Techaisle has announced its top 10 SMB and midmarket predictions for 2024. There is intense market pressure on SMB and midmarket executives to deliver tangible progress towards – and benefits from – application innovation and digital business. At least some of this results from a worldwide fascination with Generative AI and its anticipated potential to transform nearly any function it might apply to. Gen-AI offers significant potential for SMBs and midmarket firms to enhance their operations and drive innovation. By leveraging this technology effectively, these businesses can improve efficiency, productivity, and customer satisfaction.

In 2024, SMBs and Midmarket business and technology leaders will maintain a practical perspective as they move into the digital future powered by AI. SMBs will invest in AI-infused, AI-embedded, tailor-made technology solutions to streamline operations and expand their customer base. To improve manageability, reduce complexity, and limit sprawl, pragmatism will overtake progressiveness. Technology choice and deployment complexity will create purchase inertia, empowering SMBs to seek suppliers capable of supporting a roadmap from the current state to a future-ready organization. SMBs will look for proof points in AI solutions that deliver tangible benefits within their environment. SMBs will adjust their own pricing strategies and implement cost-control measures. Labor shortages will prompt them to invest in employee training and retention initiatives to ensure smooth operations and efficiency. Additionally, SMBs will opt for proactive supply chain management and diversification strategies to minimize disruptions and exploit growth opportunities.

Here are Techaisle’s top 10 SMB and Midmarket predictions for 2024.

The early years of this decade were a period of significant change and challenge for businesses across all sectors. Traditional market definitions and sales strategies have become obsolete, and the IT channel has faced unique difficulties. Amidst changing business models, declining product margins, and the necessity to establish profitable service practices, channel members have had to devise strategies to adapt to shifts in customer base, buying and selling models, and solution composition.

These changes have put immense pressure on the channel, prompting the exploration of new business models, product mixes, and configurations of marketing, selling, and partner relationships. Despite these challenges, it remains the age of the partner, a theme echoed at Cisco’s Partner Summit. According to Techaisle’s global partner survey, 87% of SMBs and midmarket customers and 69% of enterprise sales involve one or more partners. Cisco leads the way, with 90% of its revenue from partners. This underscores the enduring importance of partnerships in the IT channel.

Techaisle’s end-customer survey reveals that 76% of businesses work with partners who are responsive to business points and provide helpful advice. The partner’s most significant opportunity is meeting buyer needs, which requires IT suppliers to plot a path that is attuned to the partners’ buyers. This is what Cisco is addressing.

Cisco, a pioneer in this transformation, unveiled a suite of products, programs, platforms, and tools at the Cisco Partner Summit 2023. This strategic development of solutions aims to bolster its partners, reinforcing Cisco’s commitment to retain its leadership in AI, observability, and security.

The launch of Cisco Validated Designs (CVDs) for AI, the growth of Cisco’s Full Stack Observability Platform, and the debut of new security suites underscore Cisco’s dedication to technological supremacy. More importantly, these initiatives emphasize Cisco’s commitment to empowering its partners and customers as they navigate the dynamic business landscape.

Techaisle’s landmark survey of 2,115 channel partners, representing a cross-section of the partner community, shows diverse concerns reflected in the business issues data stemming from a fundamental change in how the IT channel engages with customers. Like the IT function, the channel has typically served clients as a problem-solving option, able to plug a defined technology gap with a functioning system. However, as “business infrastructure” became indistinguishable from “digital infrastructure,” the definition of what IT needs to deliver has morphed. IT is now expected to support the business in ways that deliver tangible business benefits. The buyer community increasingly insists on outcome-focused project definitions, and procurement departments have started using shared-risk approaches, rather than traditional RFP-style responses to static requirements, to optimize the impact and value of systems that deliver new business functionality.