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Softcat: Customers want innovation and resilience
Channel player’s latest annual insights into customer priorities underlines the need for the channel to recognise the budgetary challenges most users are under
Customers are investing in resilience, innovation and tools that will drive efficiency, according to insights from Softcat.
The channel player has shared findings from its annual Business tech report, highlighting the challenges and growth opportunities identified by the business leaders it quizzes.
The sense of trying to do more with less, innovating without huge budgets, is a theme that resonates through the report and echoes sentiments customers have been sharing over the past couple of years as economic conditions proved challenging.
But there are clear opportunities for those channel partners that not only understand the constraints customers are working under, but also where they are prepared to invest.
Softcat found that digital transformation efforts were continuing, and users also recognised the need for resiliency and were keen to secure data.
Security remained the top technology priority, but there was a doubling of the number of respondents that have adopted artificial intelligence (AI) in the past year. Generative AI (GenAI) was seen by many as a route to improving productivity, enhancing customer experience and generating data analytics.
“The pace of change over the past year has been remarkable,” said Richard Wyn Griffith, chief commercial officer at Softcat. “Looking ahead, consolidating platforms, services and technologies will provide a full view of everything from assets and users to connectivity and security. In addition, building a data-driven culture will make it easier to take advantage of ever-smarter technologies while complying with evolving regulations. But real change comes from understanding which technologies will best meet each organisation’s unique needs and having the agility to evolve when they do.”
AI adoption
As well as security and AI, there was continued interest from customers in hybrid cloud platforms, with customers keen to get themselves into a position to adopt tools like AI.
For the first time, the topic of observability also made it onto the list of areas where users were keen to invest. The networking and security segment has benefitted from vendor and partner education throughout 2024.
Softcat’s report pointed out the adoption of SaaS, cloud and hybrid working had all contributed to a rising need to get a clear handle on what was happening across the IT estate.
Other areas that were interesting customers included digital workspace, with a third of respondents looking at improving the employee experience and using tools such as Microsoft’s Copilot to give employees a better digital experience.
When it came to narrowing down the strategic goals the tech teams were being asked to prioritise, cost control came out top. There were also signs that many were also taking a hard look at technology sourcing and procurement to make sure they could upgrade existing options in the most efficient way.
As some industry observers had feared, there appears to be increasing fatigue among customers on the issue of the circular economy. Softcat found the share of secondary materials consumed had decreased from 9.1% in 2018 to 7.2% in 2023.
A portion (19%) of those quizzed by Softcat continued to recognise that sustainability needed to be a top priority, a number that will cause some disappointment across those in the channel community that have been pushing awareness of carbon-neutral and remanufacturing.
