COMMENT
That was the year that was This year has been another that has sent unexpected challenges for businesses in the channel – but as ever, they have risen to it.
about our commentators’ perspective on the year on page 30. Speaking of cloud technology, while it is now well established, there are still many businesses that have yet to transition to it, especially SMEs. This is something that resellers can play a core role in for their customers and guide them through every step of the process. See more on p12. Something else that has returned this year is the in-person event. After two years of virtual meetings, many people have taken the opportunity to get back to face-to-face interaction in 2022, and we review two recent events, Ingram Micro’s Festival of Technology and Network Group’s Annual Exhibition, Gala and Awards on pages 40 and 36 respectively. Elsewhere in the issue, we investigate IT security – something that has become more difficult for many IT heads following the pandemic and the rise of home and hybrid working in the past three years. But resellers can help them to ensure that their business critical information stays safe. See page 16 for the full feature. So, what will 2023 bring? Experience tells us that it is difficult to predict – although that is something we will be asking businesses to do in our next issue, which will be out in early January. I hope you enjoy the issue. As always, if there are any topics you would like to see covered in the coming issues, or you wanted to get involved in editorial or advertising, please contact me at dan@newsinthechannel.com
As the nights draw in and the shops are stuffed with Christmas products, another year draws quickly to a close, so it is a good time to reflect on the past 12 months. As with 2020 and 2021, this year has been like few others and presented challenges to businesses in the channel and their customers that couldn’t have been predicted. January somehow seems a very long time ago – after all, the country was still under strict COVID social distancing restrictions back then and there was much uncertainty about the future. But as restrictions were gradually lifted, and the country returned to something like normal, so did trading conditions. This gave rise to some much-needed optimism in the channel and some confidence that many businesses could focus again on growing sales and profits and get back to pre-pandemic levels, especially as it was made clear by the government that lockdowns were a thing of the past. It wasn’t to last and, yet again, something unexpected changed the complexion of the year and the economic outlook: Russia invaded Ukraine, which sent fuel prices rocketing, along with inflation, and caused businesses in the channel to adapt again. That said, many businesses in the channel have enjoyed a successful year, with several customer trends ensuring healthy sales, such as the continued growth of hybrid working and the adoption of cloud technology. You can read more
Dan Parton
www.newsinthechannel.co.uk
00 03
Powered by FlippingBook