News in the Channel - issue #38

COMMENT

Brace position Uncertain times around the world are raising the prospect of a rise in prices for many goods and services – but businesses in the channel have weathered events like this before and will do so again if they must.

We’ve been here before: geopolitical events outside of our control threatening to make goods cost more and threaten profit margins for businesses in the channel. Since the USA and Israel launched its mission against Iran, oil prices have spiked. If the conflict continues for any length of time, prices could stay high, which would impact on the cost of a whole range of goods – and affect manufacturers, distributors and resellers in the channel, as well as customers. Now, there are a lot of ‘coulds’ out there – we don’t know with any certainty what will happen in the coming days, let alone weeks. But for those in the channel, this isn’t new territory. When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, oil prices spiked, and the cost of many things went up. Even events such as the Ever Given container ship getting stuck in the Suez Canal for six days in 2021 had an effect that took months to unravel. The prospect of rising costs adds to pricing worries already present in the channel. The cost of RAM has rocketed in recent months, in part due to demand from data centres, and this is impacting on businesses in the channel. Check out p28 for more on this. While times are uncertain, resellers have proven time and again they are resilient to these sorts of economic shocks and

will be so again this time. A focus on providing value for money and return of investment will likely be key – as will technologies that can provide efficiencies for customers. One technology that can provide efficiencies for businesses are AI PCs. Manufacturers have launched a range of AI-enabled PCs recently and interest in them is growing from customers as they appreciate the benefits that they can bring – and that they are designed for the demands of today and tomorrow. Read more on p32. But with an increasing reliance on devices

Dan Parton

and cloud computing, it means that the security and consistency of power supplies is paramount. A power outage even for a short period of time

can have a big impact on a business, which means that uninterruptable power supplies are becoming more business critical. Read more on p38. As ever, I hope you enjoy this issue. News in the Channel is for everyone in the channel, so if you have a topic you wish to see covered in a future issue – or you have a news story or thought leadership piece you would like to submit for consideration for publication – please drop me a line at dan@newsinthechannel.com. n

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