COMMENT
Time to celebrate The year has ended on a high with the inaugural Stockies celebrating the best of the channel, a year that has been quieter than the past few, with resellers able to concentrate on what they do best – selling.
As another year draws to a close, it has been a busy one in the channel. Mercifully, there hasn’t been a global pandemic, supply chain crisis, or surprise war that pushes prices up this year to mess up everybody’s plans. It has been, almost, normal. This means that resellers have been able to concentrate on selling. That’s not to say things have been easy – they haven’t. The economy may have avoided going into recession, but only just and competition remains fierce in many sectors. Of course, this does also provide opportunities to resellers that think creatively and provide solutions that create value for their customers. And there are plenty of businesses in the channel that do just that, and we celebrated the best of them in late November at the first Stock in the Channel Awards – better known as the Stockies – that recognised the best products, vendors and distributors in the channel. What is great about the Stockies is that it is different to all the other awards ceremonies out there as the winners were decided by empirical data from Stock in the Channel over the past year, rather than the subjective judgment of judges selecting from a limited number of companies that had applied for an award – which can mean that the best in a category are missed. It also means that the winners really deserve their awards. You can see more from the Stockies After-
Awards Party – including pictures from the night – on p26 as well as more on all the winners in a special section on p51. At this time of year, many people tend to reflect on the previous 12 months, and we have asked a range of thought leaders from across the channel to give us their thoughts on how 2023 has been for them, the trends in the sector among customers, the new technologies that are disrupting the market and what 2024 might bring. Read more on p44. Elsewhere in this issue, we also have a feature on network security. The challenges to networks continue to grow, especially with more businesses operating in the cloud, which means that resellers have a crucial role in helping customers to ensure that they have the right solutions to keep their business safe, as the results of a cyberattack can be devastating. Read more on p38. On a personal note, I would like to thank all the readers of News in the Channel over the course of the year. Your support is always appreciated. We will be back, better than ever, in 2024. As ever, it is great to hear from people – if you have any topics that you want us to cover, or you want to get involved in editorial or send through an op-ed please drop me a line at dan@newsinthechannel.com. I wish you all a happy Christmas and a peaceful and prosperous New Year.
Dan Parton
CALLING ALL BRANDS
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