04 Dec How well will you manage this year of abundance, or not?
It looks like this could be a year of opportunity for Microsoft partners. What with a new, huge revision cycle that includes Windows 8, Office 2013, Exchange 2013, SharePoint 2013, the new Surface tablet, and Lync, there’s a lot to crow about.
I can’t remember a year in which Microsoft has unleashed such a barrage of new and/or updated technologies. Some might argue that this onslaught is a wee bit too much to thrust upon the market all at once. Time will tell, but for the moment we think this spells opportunity, as change often does in IT, for those partners that have positioned themselves to take advantage of this bounty.
Revision cycles are when corporate clients take the time to re-evaluate their technology configuration. Given the volume and variety of what Microsoft is introducing, corporate clients are going to need, more than ever, their IT services partners to help them figure out what’s right for their business. For corporate executives it’s the logical time to consider on-premise or off-premise cloud options for example, or to further their move into mobility, or to consider the new applications made more viable with these new technologies.
For the partner community, particularly for those IT services companies that specialize in vertical and technology niches, as we’ve long preached, you’re going to be in high demand. But only if you’re able to demonstrate that you and you alone, have the requisite expertise to sift through this abundance, identify the best options, and then help your clients translate and implement the right solutions.
On the flip side, this era of abundance may also be the death knell era for the generalist IT services companies that think that they can do it all. We may well see a year in which the stronger, well-positioned IT services companies prosper, and the less well-endowed falter and die. It could be a shake-out year.