Bitkom Research has released a survey of IT service provides in Germany – focused entirely on small to mid-sized IT service companies.
- More than half (52%) said they have lost orders this year due to COVID-19
- Only five percent said they consider themselves a “winner” during the pandemic.
- Only a third (34%) believe that their customers have pushed forward with digital transformation since the beginning of the crisis in Europe
Quoting the article:
The findings go against a widely-held view in the IT industry that the COVID-19 pandemic prompted a mass acceleration in the pace of digital transformation among customers as huge swathes of the population were forced to work remotely.
Industry icons including European distributor ALSO’s CEO said early on in the pandemic that COVID-19 would mean a surge of growth for the industry. Others have suggested that stronger channel partners will thrive during times of economic uncertainty.
First off, we care because not all the listeners to this podcast are in the US – thank you to my listeners indulging this American host – but also because I think this sentiment versus reality.
The analysts aren’t projecting wins, and neither am I. The sunny outlooks come from those who are invested in selling confidence. The pessimistic ones come from those living the reality.
This comes after the previous projections from Forrester.
This isn’t to be the IT channel grim reaper. This is about cautioning to ensure listeners are taking a data driven approach to their planning, and knowing that planning for the worst allows you to be resilient through the harder times. As reported from the Mid-Year Service Leadership report, the best performing companies are the ones who more aggressively cut expenses AND leaned into the solutions like cloud.
Source: Channel Partner Insight