Channel Partners Europe: Top Vendors, Partners and Disties Gather for Day 2
The focus was on market trends and opportunities for MSPs on the second day of the top EMEA event.
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Founder of Next-Gen Sales Training, Fiona Challis, kicked off the say with an interactive session designed to help MSPs see the value of differentiation.
“Even five years ago, it would have been okay to have your own little geographical patch that you were selling into. And it was okay to be the same as everybody else. But in today’s market, it’s not enough to be the same as everybody else. In fact, if you want to win in the race to recurring revenue, you have got to differentiate your business,” she told attendees.
IDC’s Stuart Wilson gave extensive insight into the channel trends that MSPs should be aware of. He explored the rise of partner IP, as well as the impact of mergers and acquisitions on the European channel. He also delved into how vendors and partners are adapting to customers’ sustainability and social impact goals.
Wilson described the COVID-19 pandemic as “the calm before the storm,” with more challenges awaiting MSPs.
“Now, we’re looking at resiliency, not just through the lens of Covid. We’re thinking about the geopolitical situation. We’re thinking about inflation. We’re thinking about supply chain. We’re thinking about exchange rates.
“There’s a whole range of other factors to consider, and it may well be that because technology spending was so robust in the last couple of years, we’ve been insulated from some of the potential impact on our business. Whereas now, moving forward, it’s much more important to be aware of all these issues, and think about ‘how do we build a resilient business model?’”
More MSPs today have spotted the potential of offering cybersecurity services. At this session, founder & CEO of SE Labs Simon Edwards was joined by VMware’s Chad Skipper, Martin Lee from Cisco Talos and Avast’s Luis Corrons. They discussed the sophistication of modern cyberattacks and the current heightened threat landscape.
“The threat actors are advancing incredibly fast,” said Skipper. “That sometimes outpaces the technology. We’re vendors and we’re fighting it every single day, trying to understand the advancements of the threat actors.” However he noted “there’s no silver bullet.”
The session also addressed the shift in customer demand, suppliers every channel organization should be evaluating for future growth and services they need to invest in for greater ROI.
In the last session of the afternoon, three distribution leaders discussed a gamut of challenges and opportunities. From online marketplaces to the cloud, they debated the challenges and opportunities facing the industry.
The guest speakers were Managing Director of Westcoast Alex Tatham, Vice President of Westcon-Comstor, Russell Blackburn, and Louka Loucas, senior channel manager at AVANT.
Tatham was bullish about the future of distribution. He said the headwinds distribution faces are nothing new, and the industry has always been able to adapt and thrive.
“I’ve been in distribution for 25 years and that has been said to me for 25 years. The fastest growing business in the UK is distributors who [are] doing more and more. Somehow, they seem to be adapting to those challenges. I think you’ll find the distributors are extremely adaptable to whatever situation is required.
“The cloud was going to ‘kill off distribution’ three or four years ago,” he continued. “Well, the fastest growing cloud providers in the country are distributors in the cloud space and managing marketplaces. So I don’t see this disintermediation. I see the distribution doing much more on behalf of their resellers, and particularly as resellers change to become MSPs.”
In the last session of the afternoon, three distribution leaders discussed a gamut of challenges and opportunities. From online marketplaces to the cloud, they debated the challenges and opportunities facing the industry.
The guest speakers were Managing Director of Westcoast Alex Tatham, Vice President of Westcon-Comstor, Russell Blackburn, and Louka Loucas, senior channel manager at AVANT.
Tatham was bullish about the future of distribution. He said the headwinds distribution faces are nothing new, and the industry has always been able to adapt and thrive.
“I’ve been in distribution for 25 years and that has been said to me for 25 years. The fastest growing business in the UK is distributors who [are] doing more and more. Somehow, they seem to be adapting to those challenges. I think you’ll find the distributors are extremely adaptable to whatever situation is required.
“The cloud was going to ‘kill off distribution’ three or four years ago,” he continued. “Well, the fastest growing cloud providers in the country are distributors in the cloud space and managing marketplaces. So I don’t see this disintermediation. I see the distribution doing much more on behalf of their resellers, and particularly as resellers change to become MSPs.”
Day two of Channel Partners Europe in London was filled with panel debates, expert analysis, interactive sessions and peer-to-peer networking. It also highlighted the obstacles and opportunities for MSPs and real-world examples of those thriving in the current landscape.
Among many panel sessions, leading distributors debated the big issues affecting their industry. Elsewhere, IDC provided an overview of the market trends and cyber experts explored the infosec opportunity for MSPs.
Maximity’s Tracy Pound (pictured above) played host. She reminded partners that their role is to solve their customers’ pain points “in the most efficient way that we can using technology.”
Click on the slideshow above to see highlights from day two.
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