Tag: Context

According to a new CONTEXT report, small resellers are raking in the dough from cybersecurity sales to SMBs.

The market watcher says small resellers (SMRs) mainly deal with small, medium and home office customers.

CONTEXT claims that in France, and to a lesser extent, the UK and Italy, SMRs have cashed in on booming demand from an SMB market boosted by more investment and the need for custom-made solutions.

It says the year-on-year revenue sales performance of France shows how hot the market is, with figures for Week 52 of 2023 revealing the country is the top dog in cybersecurity sales through distribution.

Across Europe, cloud security revenue sales as of Week 52 shot up by four per cent year-on-year. Read more…

IT distribution outfits expect to see decent growth as the year winds up, but there are signs that negative economic conditions will have an impact going into 2023.

Beancounters at Context have added up some numbers and divided them by their shoe size and concluded that the industry faces economic headwinds, including high inflation, exchange rate fluctuations and the cost of living crisis.

Context said that the channel is still feeling optimistic and expects there should be 3.7 percent year-on-year growth in 2022.

The numbers are better than had been expected when Context looked at prospects for this year back at the start of 2021, when it predicted 3.2 percent growth. The analyst firm is expecting a strong finish to the year, but has then talked of market conditions “softening” moving into 2023. Read more…

IT market researcher Context thinks that revenue growth for European IT distributors in 2022 will be 3.7 percent against the previous year.

Context claims the data is “even more significant” after two years of high growth during the pandemic and a miserable IMF GDP forecast which recently downgraded global growth from 4.4 percent to 3.2 percent for 2022.

Excluding telecoms, Context predicts 5.8 percent growth in Q4 2022, followed by a softening in successive quarters brought about by the recession and reduced backlogs.

The analyst firm explained its forecast is based on strengthening infrastructure and software and services, driven by business demand across servers, networking and storage. Read more…

Happy man portrait

Context’s latest ChannelWatch survey claims that resellers and distributors are generally happy with their lot.

The market watcher says that resellers and distributors were satisfied with the range of services on offer, including billing, pre-sales, product availability, customer portals, supply chain and configuration services, and financial and field support.

The only areas where there was a hint that more work could be done was around “lead generation to help secure new customers”, where the scores have failed to increase over the past three years.

Distribution has been vocal about its determination to invest in support and services, with much ploughing investment into developing cloud marketplaces over the past couple of years. Read more…

Beancounters at Context think that mobile computing devices sales should pick up soon  with supply problems expected to ease in the second half of the year.

Context expects continued improvement in supply as the industry moves deeper into the second half of 2022.

Context senior analyst Marie-Christine Pygott said that some products that have been in transit for many months are outdated by the time they arrive. Russia’s war in Ukraine and additional COVID lockdowns in Asia have added to supply chain headaches and costs. Read more…

The print channel is starting to wake up as the pandemic and its lockdowns wind down according to market watcher Context.

The print channel was hammered as offices closed or skeleton-staffed, now things appear to have been picking up.

According to market watcher Context, revenue sales through the distribution of business printers across Europe were higher than consumer device sales last month.

Laser single function (SFP) printers were driving those sales, with the performance of inkjet hindered slightly by the shortages that have swashed around that market in recent months. Price increases have also bled into entry-level business and consumer printer prices, and that has also seen revenue improvements year on year. Read more…

Beancounters at Context are predicting a long term improvement in the print channel after revenue sales through distribution of business printers across Europe were higher than consumer device sales last month.

Laser single function (SFP) printers were driving those sales, with the performance of inkjet hindered slightly by the shortages that have swashed around that market in recent months. Price increases have also bled into entry-level business and consumer printer prices, and that has also seen revenue improvements year on year

SMEs have been buying mid-to high-level products to support office reopening, which has had a positive impact on comparisons with last year’s revenue figures.

Context Analsyst Antonio Talia said that while volume sales for both business and consumer printers were lower over this period compared to a year ago, business volumes fell at a slower rate. Read more…

The latest Context figures show the enterprise server market slumped by 15 percent in the fourth quarter of 2021 and declined 4.4 percent across the year.

The IT market intelligence company said the decline was driven by “product supply issues and the reintroduction of stricter Covid-19 measures and resulting business uncertainty”, as well as long-term trends like “migration to hybrid cloud infrastructure and the increasing software-centric datacentre”. Read more…

The market for educational laptops is still growing, even if the rest of the sector is showing signs of slowing.

Beancounters at market analysis outfit Context said that the rate of shipment growth is slowing down in the UK.

But in Western Europe sales of educational laptops being sold through distribution increased year on year by 38 percent, indicating that demand from educational buyers remained high.

Context senior analyst Marie-Christine Pygott said: “The rise in sales of notebooks targeted at education was lower than in previous quarters, during which a number of significant institutional deals were completed,” said, senior analyst at Context. “Despite this slower growth, the volume sold to commercial channels was still up by 53 percent and that to retailers and consumer retailers by 20 percent.” Read more…

Distributors did rather well last year and it is predicted that the momentum will keep going this year, according to beancounters at Context.

The analyst house noted that week three of 2021 saw distribution bringing in revenues of €1.8 billion for the second week in a row.

Last week, Context forecast that the channel would enjoy year-on-year growth of between six to 12 percent this quarter. The firm has charted some concerns about shortages, but overall the sense of optimism across the distribution channel has continued to be high as the first few weeks of 2021 have progressed.

The UK has been a bit more sluggish, although marginally behind the position it was in back in the first few weeks of 2019. The government’s move to get more laptops into the hands of schools has driven down prices, which has had a hit on revenues, given that is the most in-demand technology at the moment. Read more…