Working Together for Channel Success: Analysts discuss security, partner programmes, sustainability

Security

On the security front, Matthew Ball, chief analyst at Canalys, now part of Omdia, said spending on security was continuing, but partners had to work to unlock spending and needed to be able to deliver managed services, participate in platforms and cover off artificial intelligence (AI).

“Three things are certain in 2025. The first is that we’re in a sustained period of disruption. This is making planning more challenging than ever before. The second is that the gap between the cyber resilient and cyber vulnerable is widening, and that’s resulting in more damaging features than ever before. And the third is that a cyber security growth factor is emerging for partners, where platforms, AI and managed services are converging and creating major growth opportunities,” he said.

The majority of businesses continue to lack cyber resilience and risk high-profile breaches. The current issues at M&S are a reminder of that. The silver lining of such attacks and the increased frequency of breaches is that the topic of security is now firmly on boardroom agendas.

“Oganisations are taking it [security] very seriously, and for many, it’s becoming a board-level priority,” said Ball, indicating that the analyst firm was forecasting increased spending on security technology and services in 2025.

“Partners that can capitalise on this growing cyber scheme trifecta ... in terms of the convergence of platforms, AI and managed services, are going to be better able to capture that 11% growth that’s year on year, because these three pillars, as they converge, are creating larger deals via platforms, creating new growth opportunities with AI, and creating more intimate and longer customer engagements via managed services,” he added.

Ball stressed the importance of services and warned that those partners that were unable to provide managed services were missing out on the bulk of the market opportunity.

Partner programmes

Underpinning the relationships between vendors and the channel are the partner programmes designed to offer support and rewards for the delivery of products and services.

The task for vendors is to deliver solid programmes that encourage and drive growth, and that challenge continues to evolve, according to Rachel Brindley, senior director at Canalys.

“Partner programmes are changing to include the entire customer lifecycle,” she said. “The language of partnering is also changing. We’re moving from rewarding partners at the point of transaction, the traditional resellable, to rewarding across that entire lifecycle, with pre-sales and workshops being recognised as being a key part of driving that business.”

She said most partners had evolved their own propositions, delivering numerous technologies and advisory services to ensure they are able to meet the demands of customers.

“The vendor community is recognising this and looking at, how does it encompass, how does it help drive that growth through the partner ecosystem? And how do you really change programme rewards? And where do you see those different partners playing? That’s also changing the way programmes are structured, the different motions that we see across the partner programmes,” said Brindley.

Canalys has tracked increases in co-selling and co-marketing, and the subsequent vendor attempts to capture and reward those involved in that more complex sales process.

“We know that there are often seven partners on average in every deal. They’re co-partnering. Each one has a different role to play, and that also means for the vendors that ecosystem has grown and your partner programme now needs to encompass the strategic alliances, the go-to-market partnerships, the influencers, those that may never touch a transaction, that have been involved far earlier in that customer decision-making process,” she said.

Emerging partner programmes not only encompass a wide range of partners, including managed service providers (MSPs), global systems integrators (GSIs) and independent software vendors (ISVs), but are also able to capture the input of other players that influenced the buyer on their sales journey.

“We’re moving to recognising every stage that the partner plays, recognising the value they bring. That doesn’t have to be a financial metric. It could be offering training. How do you help your salesforce become able to support identity, AI sales? How can you help the partners to train to be consultative sellers? Every programme has to offer partners a path to profitability, they need to choose where they play in the programme, and it also needs to offer differentiation and choice across the different partners,” said Brindley.

“If you’re a partner coping with 30, 40 or 50 vendors, you really need the programme to be simple, the automation to be there, to be able to support that amount of partners in each deal,” she added. “Partner enablement is also absolutely critical within these programmes, the training support and being able to do it at scale, being able to give partners what they need to drive the business for you.”

Brindley concluded by pointing out that AI and automation were accelerating partner programme changes, and those responsible at vendors needed to be aware of the shifting landscape.

“The programme now needs to encompass GSIs, regional partners, traditional resellers, MSPs, CSPs [cloud solution providers], hyperscale marketplaces. That programme has to be all-encompassing. This programme transformation is rapid. AI is also driving a lot of that programme transformation, but we are in a very different market and move well beyond the transaction. We’re part of an entire customer lifecycle,” she said. 

Sustainability

Many channel firms remain committed to reducing carbon emissions, sharing their progress through reports and meeting scientifically backed benchmarks. As a result, there continues to be investment and activity around improving.

Ben Caddy, senior analyst covering economic sustainability research at Canalys, said recent moves by vendors to enable the channel to sell refurbished kit was an indication that circularity remained an issue that mattered to customers.

“That is all about recycling, repair, refurbishing and reducing the e-waste of our industry, both within the channel and within customers,” he said.

Caddy shared examples of sustainability initiatives coming from SCC, Computacenter, Ingram Micro and channel players in the Nordics to highlight what is happening at those levels of the channel. But vendors were also found to be making moves to increase the circularity options available.

“We’ve seen some examples from HP and Lenovo, really leaning into their certified refurbished range, which is their way of inspiring consumer confidence in the refurbished market,” he said.

The refurbished market is still a fairly new proposition, but the push by major vendors and demand from customers should see that change.

“There’s some scepticism of the refurbished market, but that is slowly fading, and the partners that are not yet in that market are gradually realising what a huge opportunity a circular economy is, both for their revenue and for their customers and their sustainability goals.

Although there has been some walking back by some firms from carbon reduction targets, and the mood music from the other side of the Atlantic is muted towards taking climate change action, Caddy said it continued to be an area that benefited the channel.

“Partners are seeing the opportunity. They are confident in it. They’re making commitments. They’re launching these new sites and making so many investments here. But also there’s a real opportunity that the partners are seeing from a revenue standpoint,” he added.

“We launched our global channel survey earlier this year, over 1,000 partners globally, and most of those partners offer some form of asset recovery service. Some will do it directly, some will partner with some of the vendors, but either way, the data shows that over half of the partners that are delivering those services expect some growth in that area, and almost a third expect strong growth above 10%, so circular services are really a growing area of focus,” he said.

“Customer demand is there, and it’s growing, in part due to regulation, but also due to customers having their own sustainability goals, which makes them more competitive and better companies to work with as well. Partners are really increasing their capability to be the ones who deliver refurbished kit to meet that growing demand,” he concluded.