News in the Channel - issue #24

REVIEW

Mark Wilkinson , regional vice president – ACCO UK & Ireland and vice president Derwent, ACCO

2024 has been another challenging year for the business products sector, though ACCO has had a respectable year, given a challenging environment. We have found strength in our category diversity, allowing us to whether changing market dynamics. We have seen, more widely, further industry consolidation in the business products space, as the marketplace has adapted to demand vs. supply. In terms of trends, we are starting to see more pressure to have genuinely sustainable product offerings and the relevant information and data to support customers in selling them. Having a sustainable offering is not just a nice to have but a clear demand from our partners and their customers and we have seen demand for sustainable products grow year on year. In addition, we see the conflict between office, home and hybrid working continuing to play out between employees and business leaders. So, while there is a strong need for home office supplies, meaning good value, relevant pack sizes and good design for home, we are also seeing demand for larger

pack sizes and corporate office solutions as companies revamp their office spaces to entice employee back to the office. The biggest challenges in 2024 have included supply chain disruptions as geopolitical disruption continues, with issues like the Red Sea causing significant cost increases in inbound freight. We have had to adapt our supply chains to be resilient to these tensions and pressures. Freight, currency and raw materials continue to be volatile. The economic outlook and wider business and consumer confidence continues to be a challenge. The recent budget has made planning for 2025 slightly more difficult and all companies with large numbers of blue collar workers will be wrestling with how to manage this challenge. I anticipate the trends of 2024 will carry on in 2025 including a stronger focus on eco- friendly products, relevant data and reporting requirements and need to share this with key customers and other stakeholders. With remote and hybrid work there will be ongoing demand for home and workplace products to reflect the needs of a multisite workplace.

Mark Wilkinson

accobrands.com

Chris Shaw , head of channel, AvePoint 2024 has been a significant year for

is the increasing reliance on partners to help manage data security and sprawl, especially as organisations utilise more SaaS applications and threat actors get more sophisticated. Customers are looking for comprehensive solutions that go beyond data backup to include ransomware detection, governance through automated policies and information lifecycle management. Technological advances have a significant impact and AvePoint is always evolving its solutions to meet the growing needs partners have like introducing new data resilience and governance updates. The trends we’ve seen in 2024, such as the increasing reliance on partners for data security and the demand for comprehensive digital collaboration solutions, are likely to continue into 2025. AvePoint will continue to invest in its channel business and innovate to meet the evolving needs of our customers.

AvePoint and the wider channel. AvePoint has continued to invest heavily in its channel business, which has resulted in 51% of our annual recurring revenue coming from the channel as of our last annual earnings. This growth reflects our commitment to empowering partners and delivering enterprise-grade cloud solutions to small and midsize businesses. We’re seeing more consolidation of platforms too and the traditional split between MSSP and MSP has become less and less. Our roadmap and evolution are gearing up and we’ll be releasing more and more security and management tools into Elements. That platform is going to grow to become invaluable for MSPs looking to streamline vendor sprawl while still expanding product and service offerings. One of the key trends we've observed

Chris Shaw

avepoint.com

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