The State of US SMB Managed Services Channel

The IT channel has reached an inflection point. Faced with an expanded buyer community and requirements for specialized skills to support different solutions, the channel is beginning to segment by focus area. Although the different specialties are starting from a common point today, Techaisle expects to see each develop unique characteristics over the next several years.

This report focuses on the US SMB managed services channel.

Table of Contents

• Executive Summary
• Prologue
• The business of the SMB channel
  • By the Numbers: The SMB channel
  • Time Allocations, and “the dog that didn’t bark”
  • Delivery models and target markets
    • The links between average sales cycle length and delivery model – and cloud positioning
  • Trends in specialized offerings
• Managed Services in the SMB channel
  • What is the current state of managed services in the channel?
  • Comfort level with – and profitability of – managed services
  • Key current and planned MSP offerings
    • Whither the VARs?
    • Increasing service granularity spurs demand (and opportunity) for specialists
    • Addressing SMB buyer preference for a single source
• The role of the vendor in the managed services channel
  • Common and unique areas
    • Best-of-breed vs. single vendor solutions
  • Important vendor partnership criteria
    • Key vendor contributions to channel business success
    • Supporting the managed services channel
    • Supporting the managed services value proposition
    • Marketing to the channel
• Working with the SMB managed services customer
  • Managed services in the context of IT and business imperatives
    • Managed services bridges a gap between IT requirement and IT capacity
  • Complexity and managed services: is the solution also part of the problem
• Summary observations
• About Techaisle

List of Figures

Figure 1. By the Numbers: The US SMB Channel in 2016
Figure 2. Time allocation across sales activities by channel businesses
Figure 3. Delivery models, target markets and growth expectations
Figure 4. Average length of SMB sales cycle by channel delivery model and by cloud business approach
Figure 5. Current and planned technology offerings, US SMB channel, 2016
Figure 6. Managed services deliver by channel business model, 2013 and 2016
Figure 7. SMB channel partner comfort levels with managed services by channel business model
Figure 8. Current and planned channel partner managed services offerings
Figure 9. MSP and VAR managed services offerings, current and planned
Figure 10. Demand for and supply of managed server services
Figure 11. Single-source vs. multiple source supply of managed services by e-size
Figure 12. Channel partner preferences: best-of-breed vs. single vendor solutions
Figure 13. Important vendor partnership criteria within the US SMB channel
Figure 14. Important vendor sales and marketing support offerings to the US SMB channel
Figure 15. Biggest challenges faced in offering managed services to SMBs
Figure 16. Key value propositions used by channel partners to sell managed services
Figure 17. Sources of information used by channel partners
Figure 18. Sources of information used by channel partners grouped by primary effect
Figure 19. Business dependency on technology
Figure 20. SMB IT staffing levels, 2010 and 2016
Figure 21. SMB perceptions of IT complexity
Figure 22. SMB Most complex IT solution areas

Price of Report: US$6500