Unleash The Power Of Data And Turbocharge Growth 

For businesses across the tech ecosystem, harnessing the power of data represents both a major challenge and a significant opportunity. On the one hand, tech companies have never had so much data at their fingertips, putting them in a fantastic position to gain valuable customer insights, respond with agility to changing circumstances and seize growth opportunities. On the other, the very fact of having this wealth of information at their disposal can present businesses with a headache. Amid the deluge of data from multiple sources, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. Identifying actionable, genuine insights is tricky.

Data And The IT Channel

Companies operating in the IT channel are no exception. The data dilemma is genuine within this niche but a vital part of the tech landscape, which is responsible for driving and scaling the adoption of the latest products and solutions from the world’s leading software vendors. A recent survey by Westcon-Comstor lifted the lid on the scale of the problem. In collaboration with research firm Coleman Parkes, we interviewed more than 500 decision makers from IT channel companies such as value-added resellers, managed service providers and systems integrators.

The research, the findings of which are showcased in our Bridging the Gap report, focused on nine countries including three in Africa: Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa. We combined a traditional survey with qualitative, in-depth interviews of channel partners.

The results are striking.

As JP Smith, Vice President of Sales for East & West Africa at Kenya’s Dimension Data (now rebranded to NTT Data) told us, “Data is crucial for making calculated business decisions – only if you know how to use it.”

Challenge And Opportunity: The Data Paradox

Handling multiple diverse data types emerged as channel companies’ biggest practical challenge about data, and many acknowledged the need to bolster their internal capabilities to address gaps in how they utilise and apply data for lifecycle selling. Across the IT channel, companies need to become more sophisticated in their use of data to maximise cross-sell and upsell opportunities and drive the adoption of new products and solutions.

The deepest challenge, and paradoxically the greatest opportunity, lies in the role played by data in efforts by channel partners to transform their business by transitioning away from one-time hardware sales to recurring revenue models based on software, services, and subscriptions.

Removing Obstacles

All (100 per cent) Africa-based respondents see data as important in their journey to an everything-as-a-service (XaaS) future, compared to an average global figure of 97 per cent. At the same time, access to the right data is the biggest obstacle facing partners in Africa and globally in their pursuit of recurring revenues, with 54 per cent of Africa-based respondents highlighting this as an issue. At 65 per cent, the Kenya figure was higher than in any other geographic market globally. Across Africa, demand is strongest for data that can identify and enable market growth opportunities.

What Is Their Investment Appetite?

Encouragingly, almost all Africa-based respondents (99 per cent) identified data capabilities as a key investment priority for the coming year, compared to a global average of 95 per cent. This illustrates the commitment on the continent to ramping up data capabilities and a recognition of data’s potential, despite the day-to-day challenges that exist. In Kenya, 58 per cent of the decision-makers we surveyed said their business already has an in-house data and analytics function. This is lower than the global average of 70 per cent and the figures for Nigeria and South Africa (73 per cent and 71 per cent respectively), but shows that a decent proportion of these tech-focused businesses have a solid foundation on which to build their data capabilities in future.

To emphasise the growing importance of data within the African IT channel, two-thirds of those surveyed across the three African markets (66 per cent) strongly agreed that the future of technology distribution – the role played by Westcon-Comstor within the IT channel – lies in the provision of meaningful customer and market insights (global average: 59 per cent).

Embedding A Data-Driven Approach

Our research clearly shows that while partners see data as central to their transition to recurring revenue models, many are grappling with practical challenges around access to data and data utilisation. Application of data and attitudes to it vary across different geographic markets within Africa and further afield, but one universal theme is that channel companies want to enhance their data capabilities and embed a truly data-driven approach as they aim to unlock growth opportunities.

What’s The Bigger Picture?

Looking beyond the IT channel towards the wider tech and business scene in Kenya and across Africa, there is a lot at stake here too. Given the vital role played by channel companies in bringing new technologies across cybersecurity, networking, and the cloud to a wider audience, and driving innovation in the process, I would argue that enabling the channel to unleash the full potential of data can have a wider positive impact on our economy and society. It is therefore incumbent on those across the IT channel ecosystem, including technology distributors including Westcon-Comstor, to equip these companies with the data and analytics they need to seize new growth opportunities and complete their journey to a subscription, software, and services-based future.

This article was written by Vincent Entonu, Managing Director, Westcon-Comstor Africa