IDC predictions for 2013

Singapore and Hong Kong, December 4, 2012 – The small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) segment and the tier 2 cities will be the two areas the IT vendor community and local governments focus on to drive growth in 2013.

And with the increasing focus on the SME segment; the channel outreach will become more relevant than ever before.

Suchitra Narayan, Senior Research Manager, IDC Asia/Pacific says, “2013 will be an exciting growth phase in the era of channel transformation. The role of the ISV in the ecosystem will change dramatically. Cloud and Enterprise Mobility will throw a spanner in the works as will Big Data. Social Media will see clarity and channel enablement will become ever so relevant. “

Drawing from the latest IDC research and internal brainstorming sessions amongst IDC’s analysts regionally and globally, the following are the top 10 Channel predictions for 2013 that IDC believes will have the biggest commercial impact on the region.

Prediction 1: ISVs get a turbo boost in market relevance

2013 will see the ISV community as the rising star in the channel ecosystem, driven by the business transformation in various industries, the new technology impact as well as the change to the fundamental ecosystem of the ISV. Organizations will seek process related solutions that are built and developed by both the traditional ISV as well as the non-IT centric organizations, which have process knowledge and capability.

Prediction 2: Partner programs for ISVs will evolve

Partner programs exclusive to the ISV community will evolve. The vendors will seek a formal relationship with the ISV community and increase their commitment via creative means such as research funds that the latter will be able to tap into.

Prediction 3: Vendors will empower channels to move upstream

The ICT vendor organizations have significantly changed their offerings and competitive landscape from two years ago. At the same time, the four pillars of technology–cloud, social media, mobility and social media–have introduced new business models and processes. As such the channels need to move quickly to adapt to these changes; 2013 will see the vendors enabling the channels and working with them to execute business plan rollouts

Prediction 4: Virtual distributors, real solutions, real opportunities

Distributors will start to add value upstream and downstream and seek to explore alternative streams of revenue to credit, logistics and financing. The aggregation of virtual and physical assets into “value bundles” will see more maturity in 2013.

Prediction 5: Telco’s will seek channels to open enterprise doors

As Telcos look to share a part of the Enterprise Mobility pie; they will need to seek out the relationships with this market segment. A natural step in this evolution will be for Telcos to seek the relationships with the SIs and VARs who currently hold the key to the enterprise gateway.

Prediction 6: The value in volume

The VAR community will be empowered by the service providers and distributors to offer “in-a-box” solutions into the market delivered on the cloud. While the concept of SMB-in-a-box has been spoken of for years; 2013 will be the simplification of this model with features including analytics, processes and vertical solution being delivered as a cloud-based solution.

Prediction 7: Vendors align big data best practices with SIs

The Big Data appliance vendors have focused on building out their capabilities in the Big Data space, as well as structuring new and innovative business models for consumption for example, on–premise and in the cloud. Vendors have directly owned and managed the relationships and implementations through the first phase of rollouts of these systems. They will seek to scale out in 2013. Incorporating their learning and best practices into the SIs will enable them to take their Appliances mainstream.

Prediction 8: Freemium social tools will enable P2P

Social Media has been a difficult platform for vendors and the channel community. They have struggled to find a happy medium and fine balance between connectivity, communication and collaboration. Freemium tools will start to be the focus for better enabling the peer to peer networking among the channel community.

Prediction 9: The next wave of the channel marketing concierge

Channel marketing teams will start to focus on their core capabilities of enabling the channel to reap higher rewards. We will see marketing material, and access to information and presentations become more seamless as organizations either built out their own concierge services or outsource marketing concierge services to niche companies who offer this as a service.

Prediction 10: The battle for talent intensifies

2013 will see the battle for talent intensify. This is an observation that cuts across different groups in the ICT area, one of which is the channel community. As a result we will see more creative partnering and P2P solutions as well as subcontracting cropping up as a standard means to approach market needs.

About IDC’s Predictions

IDC’s annual Predictions in APEJ draws upon the latest IDC research and a worldwide brainstorming exercise among IDC’s 1000+ analysts. This was followed by an extensive regional review to weigh in on key industry events, user trends, vendor strategies and economic measures that promises to uniquely define the technology trends that would impact and drive the market in APEJ for 2013. Across the globe, following the release of IDC’s global top ten predictions, IDC’s geographic, technology and industry teams will be releasing their own specific predictions in the coming months.

About IDC

International Data Corporation (IDC) is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets. IDC helps IT professionals, business executives, and the investment community make fact-based decisions on technology purchases and business strategy. More than 1,000 IDC analysts provide global, regional, and local expertise on technology and industry opportunities and trends in over 110 countries. For more than 48 years, IDC has provided strategic insights to help our clients achieve their key business objectives. IDC is a subsidiary of IDG, the world’s leading technology media, research, and events company. You can learn more about IDC by visiting www.idc.com