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THE CHANNEL MANAGER’S
PLAYBOOK
What’s happening, in short, is that technology ob-
jectives are becoming more business focused. At least
that is the way things are viewed by 57 percent of busi-
ness units and 48 percent of IT professionals surveyed
by the channel association. Traditionally, IT has been
viewed mostly as operational, where IT is responsible
for keeping business systems up and running. “IT has
always played a support role – the ultimate objective
has always been to support the needs of the business,”
CompTIA researchers explain. But the view of enter-
prise technology is changing in the cloud/mobile era
to a more strategic role. “Rather than simply enabling
goals that the business has already chosen, technology
is tightly integrated with the goals.” In other words, says
CompTIA, the proper use of technology is often required
to aggressively move business goals forward.
In turn, non-IT departments are increasingly involved
in IT planning and purchasing processes.
According to business unit respondents, that in-
cludes 59 percent of finance departments, 47 percent
of marketing departments and 45 percent of both sales
and human resource departments that play a critical
role in technology procurement. What’s more, final deci-
sions on technologies are more frequently being made
by the CEO, says CompTIA, even at large enterprises.
“Smaller technology investments may not rise
to this level of executive approval,” says the Digital
Organization study. “As business systems grow more
complex, though, they will require greater invest-
ment and affect many departments.”
What’s more, a good chunk of business professionals
now see responsibilities once left to IT departments as
being shared responsibilities. For instance, 69 percent of
business professional now say that “understanding techni-
cal details behind business systems” is solely a business
unit responsibility (22 percent) or a shared responsibil-
ity (47 percent). A full 79 percent believe “ensuring that
workforce has the tools they need” is either a business unit
(27 percent) or shared responsibility (52 percent).
“The business side of the organization is helping define
what this dual role should look like,” say CompTIA research-
ers. “Even if business units are not taking over technology
decisions en masse, their growing influence in the process
means that their view of the IT function should be given se-
rious consideration.”
That’s not to suggest solution providers should be
looking to sidestep IT or run the risk of marginalizing its
role. While it’s true business professionals are more aware
of technological capabilities than their predecessors of
decades past, IT still remains in the proverbial driver’s
seat for most companies – a sentiment expressed by 70
percent of the combined IT and business professionals sur-
veyed. It may even be necessary to reconsider how much
of what’s considered “rogue IT” can truly be described as
business users completely “going rogue.”
It’s often assumed that rogue IT budgets exists pri-
marily as a workaround of IT departments that might
move too slowly, fail to grasp strategic needs or simply
function as the “department of no.” While this surely
occurs in some cases, “business units tend to view IT as
a valuable partner rather than a hindrance,” says Comp-
TIA, as just more than half (52 percent) agree there is
Business Education
Technology solution providers have some work to do to
get their messages to business executives who increasingly
control a chunk of companies’ technology budgets. “The IT
channel is not yet playing a major role in educating business
units about available technology,” warns CompTIA in a study
on the emergence of digital organizations.
As might be expected, the primary source of technology
information for business executives is their own personal
research. Internal IT departments also rank high, further
suggesting the influence IT has over spending even when not
directly in control of budgets. Third-party firms, meanwhile,
fall below both business events and technology events as
a source of information, with mid-sized firms (41 percent)
using third-party technology firms for information most often,
compared to 32 percent of large businesses and 27 percent
of small businesses.
Among all firms that look to third-party solution providers
for their tech research, 40 percent utilize firms with an existing
relationship, 26 percent look to new firms and 34 percent use
a combination of the two.
Technology Information Sources for
Business Units
Personal research
53%
Internal IT department
51%
Business events
47%
Technology events
41%
Peers
38%
Third-party firms
34%
Source: CompTIA
Source: ITU
Distribution of Mobile Broadband
Subscriptions, 2015
22%
14%
4%
5%
5%
50%
The Americas (765m)
Europe
(490m)
CIS (490m)
Africa (162m)
Arab States (155m)
Asia & Pacific
(1726m)
Source: CompTIA
Division of Responsibilities in Digital Organizations
Business
Unit Responsibility
Shared Responsibility IT Responsibility
Understanding technical details behind business systems
Ensuring that workforce has the tools they need
Creating business insights from corporate data
Keeping data secure and confidential
Meeting business objectives with technology
Seeking out new forms of technology
31%
47%
22%
22%
52%
27%
22%
47%
32%
43%
39%
19%
22%
55%
23%
41%
42%
17%