News in the Channel - issue #13

REVIEW OF 2023

Neil Langridge , marketing and alliances director, e92plus Cybersecurity has been growing strongly in 2023 – and that’s meant growth for e92plus and our partners, but also a rise in the threats and challenges for customers of every size. It’s a budget line that is difficult to shrink when belts are tightened, as

constraints of their own engineers’ capacity. The need for expertise and consultancy to be able to leverage vendor integration (native, API or just data sharing) and consolidate the technology stack without losing key functionality is of huge value to customers. This has meant an associated major trend of the increasing convergence of VAR, MSP/ MSSP and CSP. There’s certainly confidence in the channel moving into 2024, due to the growth in the market size and the value that collectively we can bring to customers having to balance constrained budgets, limited internal resource and skills and an evolving threat landscape. Increasing compliance – with NIS2 and DORA due in 2024 – will add additional layers of complexity and administration, but that certainly further increases the value that channel partners, supported by VADs and vendors, can bring to the customers to define and deliver their cybersecurity strategy.

cybersecurity is core to every IT project from cloud to IoT to enabling a remote workforce, meaning we’ve seen solid performance in cyber fundamentals that businesses of all size need. Alongside that, growing investment in new areas of digitalisation such as IoT/OT and continued migration to cloud services has given rise to new, disruptive technologies and new revenue opportunities. For channel partners, there’s regular discussion of the opportunities around services and the rise of the MSP. However, the opportunity is not just delivery, and we’re seeing partners leveraging vendor managed services to be able to scale without the

Neil Langridge

e92plus.com

Fredrik Hörnkvist , co-founder, Boom Collaboration 2023 has been a really good year for Boom and we have experienced substantial growth

quality requirements are crucial. In our sector with workplace collaboration technology top of mind, the interplay between returning to the office, adopting remote work, and embracing hybrid models has been a profound influence this year. Balancing productivity with employee engagement and happiness are paramount and certainly influence decision making. We are highly confident in the channel's role as we venture into 2024. We see a significant impact in educating and supporting the evolving landscape of workplace technology, education, healthcare and many other sectors embracing video collaboration technologies. The channel remains key in navigating these transformations.

through our ongoing strategic market expansion. Our customers/partners have taken advantage of the growing market for collaboration and elevated their video conferencing capabilities by strategically adding Boom solutions to their portfolio. In terms of trends, AI has been the prevailing buzzword throughout the year, but customer demands have remained consistent. There is a continued need for robust video capabilities, excellent audio quality, simplicity and ease of use, all while avoiding being locked down to a specific collaboration platform provider. This has been key to Boom’s platform agnostic approach. Regardless of the industry, essential

Fredril Hörnkvist

boomcollaboration.com

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