New research from IT Europa into the managed services channel reveals some interesting differences between channel organisations and their clients in the factors both driving and inhibiting the growth of managed services as a supply model. A new report to be published next week, “The future of Managed Services in EMEA – a channel perspective,” is based on a comprehensive channel survey, sponsored by Webroot. It reveals that while channel organisations see such factors as recurring revenue streams, scalability and customer retention as the main drivers, for their clients it is factors such as reducing costs and capital expenditure as well as greater flexibility that make this business model more attractive.

The research also highlights a need for reassurance and guidance, even among the largest suppliers:

Channels need to know how to charge for services: with falling prices for hosting and cloud services, the MSPs need to differentiate. One of the issues that came out of the study is that they have concerns over rising competition. However, on the client side, there is a rising need for expertise and skills in making it all work, particularly when linking in to legacy systems, so there is a clear role for MSPs to use any vertical market expertise they have to provide an essential service, and charge for it
Clearer propositions are needed: delivery models should offer the flexibility and scalability that the study shows customers expect and which MSPs are glad to provide; but they may need explaining better; the industry is so new, and growing so fast it has yet to get its marketing message straight
MSPs need all the help they can get, in marketing, tools, integration and to use all the available skills and resources. MSPs told the study that they have real concerns in finding the right partners, particularly among vendors, citing quality of support and quality of product as the two main things they regard as important or very important, especially by smaller MSPs
Many of the people in the study had concerns over enterprise mobility; mainly because of the scale of involvement, pace of change and the integration issues. There are just not that many people around who have done it to the scale that is coming.
The future of Managed Services in EMEA – a channel perspective report is available free of charge to channel organisations via the IT Europa web-site at: www.iteuropa.com/?q=future-managed-services-emea-channel-perspective. Those attending the Managed Services & Hosting Summit 2014 will have the opportunity to learn more about the findings and other issues facing Managed Service Providers, Systems Integrators, VARs and their suppliers as they evolve new business models and relationships to address the customer challenges and opportunities of the 'post-product' era. A strong line-up of speakers at the Summit is headed by Tiffani Bova, VP and Distinguished Analyst at Gartner Research, who will provide the opening keynote. Tiffani's presentation will examine how both technology changes (cloud, consumption and managed services) and new customer demands are forcing technology providers and the broader channel ecosystem to re-examine their sales models.

The sponsors supporting the event now include platinum sponsors: AVG, Datto, GFI Max, Kaseya, NaviSite; gold sponsors Asigra, Avnet, Claranet, CommVault, Dot Hill, Drop Box, GCI, Modern Office, Qlogic, Seagate, Virtual Instruments, Webroot; silver sponsors AppRiver, Aurora Kendrick James, Autotask, CompTIA, eG Innovations, Huawei, Opengear, Riverbed, SolidFire, Techgate, Tintri and Zycko.

The Managed Services & Hosting Summit 2014, which is organised by IT Europa and Angel Business Communications, will take place at The Pullman St Pancras Hotel, London, on 25 September 2014. Resellers and integrators wishing to attend the convention can find further information at: www.mshsummit.com