Boom Time for Alliance Teams
Cloud spending has hit a record with world-wide spending reaching $34.6 billion on cloud services in the second quarter, up roughly 11% from the previous quarter and 30% from the same period last year, according to research firm Canalys. Software as a Service (SaaS) makes up the largest market segment, the fastest growing portion of cloud spend will continue to be Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), growing 24% year-over-year. This increase is driven by the need to arm businesses with not only the computing resources but also internet accessible cloud application services like collaboration and remote working tools, e-commerce, remote learning, and content streaming. This increase in demand and customer spend has driven a 22.6% increase in B2B digital ad spend with technology products and services being the largest industry at 29.6% of all B2B digital ad spending. This is up 37.2% accounting for $2.41bn in digital ad spend galvanized by the digital transformation accelerated by the pandemic.
This boom time in technology spending should be the tipping point for small/medium size IT Services providers to up their game and make strategic investments in their marketing & partner programs to yield greater return. Specifically, investing in Alliance & JBR teams to (a) drive awareness of their technology capabilities to get on shortlists for current opportunities and (b) develop innovative thinking to validate their partner value in helping clients meet the demands of the new normal and prepare for a digitally-centric post-Corvid world. A partner for the here and now and one that can strategically address performance gaps in core functional areas with progressive technologies to close the gaps to rest supply chains and other core business functions.
Immediately, small/medium size IT Services providers and professional services firms can take advantage of this new influx of technology spend driven by Cloud & SaaS investment. This means prioritizing alliances and partnership-marketing, to reinforce the breadth and depth of capabilities, with both leading technology providers — especially Cloud leaders like AWS, Microsoft and Google — as well as the more bespoke industry providers like Apptus and Guidewire. By aggressively building out alliance and global integrated services (GSI) market teams, developing differentiated positioning and showcasing partner-based solutions, IT Services providers will drive more engagements and in-direct deal flow.
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