In a CONTEXT survey of MEA resellers, commissioned by Redington to coincide with the Redington Reimagine Channel Forum, the IT Channel is clearly demonstrating its readiness for the next stage of digital transformation.
In performing this research, CONTEXT was looking for evidence of three elements which will enable resellers to respond positively to the opportunities being presented at the Forum:
– state of readiness measured in positive outlook, prior investment and a focus on the future
– development of local skills and talents measured in the level of investment in training and development of proprietary intellectual property
– strategic mindset measured in breadth of focus on long as well as short-term issues.
Readiness – key indicators place MEA resellers in a similar place to their European counterparts – 80% of resellers have already sold cloud services, 65% for more than two years. 47% of those who have been selling for more than three years, are able to deploy more than 10 cloud services.
Nevertheless only 13% of the resellers who have been selling cloud for less than three years offer more than 10 cloud services – it is vital to increase the number of cloud solutions offered in order to provide multi-vendor complex cloud solutions.
Development of local skills and talents – MEA resellers are investing in training and vendor certification, with the benchmark being more than 2% of turnover (20% of respondents), while there is an equal distribution of lower levels of investment.
- 17% of respondents spend 0.25% of turnover, with 16% at 0.5%
- The highest band is 1% with 25% of respondents
- 13% spend 2%
The 10% of resellers spending 0% of their turnover, and 33% spending less than 1% will find it hard to meet the requirements of vendors to support the next wave of digital transformation. The challenge to these resellers is to reassess their investment priorities and work with vendors and distribution partners on increasing the level of training.
Strategic mindset – 64% of resellers are being asked sometimes or often to provide sustainable options to end customers. 71% of resellers consider that carbon tracking will become essential within 3 years. CONTEXT prediction for the Middle East Channel is that B2B and B2C customers will be the drivers of green standards adoption, and IT Company employees will push for compliance. Vendors will drive new processes for circularity and recycling of products. Leading edge resellers will capture this important wave of transformation.
“The response of MEA resellers compares favourably with similar surveys we have conducted in Europe, and indicate a high degree of readiness for the next wave of digital transformation. It was particularly notable how prepared MEA resellers are to invest in AI (53%), second only to cybersecurity (56%) – an indication of the rapid response to changes in the IT landscape,” commented Adam Simon, Global Managing Director of CONTEXT. Simon will present the results of the survey in a session at Redington Reimagine hosted by Viswanathan Pallasena, CEO of Redington Middle East & Africa.
230 resellers responded to the research conducted in June 2023 – (1-9 employees 10%, 10-99 employees 43%, 100-249 employees 19%, >250 employees 28%). 75% were from UAE and the remaining responses came from 13 different ME countries.
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