Channel partners see data both as a pesky problem and a cracking chance as they gear up to hop on the gravy train of recurring revenue models, a new study has revealed.
Number crunchers at distributor Westcon-Comstor chatted with over 500 senior decision-makers at partners across nine countries. A smashing 97 per cent reckon data is crucial as they toddle towards a future chock-a-block with everything-as-a-service (XaaS).
The correct data is hard to get, and it’s the biggest problem blocking partners from bagging those sweet recurring revenues. In the UK, 56 per cent of managers are tearing their hair out over it.
The hot ticket is data that can sniff out and kick-start market growth chances.
Wrestling with a mishmash of data types is giving partners the heebie-jeebies and a fair few are owning up that they need to pull their socks up and beef up their skills to tackle the hows and whys of using data for lifecycle selling.
UK-based ITGL sales operations, client success, and lifecycle manager Samuel Cordery, who was interviewed in the study, said that the biggest challenge with data is the sheer mountain of it and that it is often distributed at loggerheads with other data.
The survey says partners are eager to become more data-savvy to boost cross-sell and upsell opportunities and get punters excited about new kits and solutions.
Nearly all the UK’s respondents (94 per cent) have marked data capabilities as a must-spend for the next year, hot on the heels of a global average of 95 per cent. And 71 per cent are happy that they have an in-house data and analytics team as their ace in the hole, pretty much on par with the global average of 70 per cent.
More than half of those quizzed in the UK (53 per cent) are dead set that the future of distribution is all about serving up the goods on customer and market insights, versus a global average of 59 per cent.
Westcon-Comstor CMO and APAC executive VP Patrick Aronson said that while partners are betting on data as the linchpin of their switch to recurring revenue models, they’re up against it with real-world headaches around getting data and putting it to work.
“Application of data and attitudes to it vary across different geographic markets, but one universal theme is that partners want to enhance their data capabilities and embed a genuinely data-driven approach as they aim to unlock growth opportunities.
“It is incumbent on those across the channel ecosystem, including distributors, to equip partners with the data and analytics they need to seize new growth opportunities and complete their journey to a subscription, software and services-based future,” Aronson said.
