If you are connecting technology investment to cost savings when interacting with prospects or customers, you’re not only overlooking opportunities, but you’re seriously devaluing your role as a technology advisor. That’s just one of the interesting nuggets from the soon-to-be-released “2026-27 Telarus Tech Trends Report,” the fourth annual such report from the technology solutions distributor.
On stage at the recent Telarus Partner Summit held last week in Dallas, Telarus CMEO Jennifer Dimas and R “Ray” Wang, Founder and Principal Analyst Constellation Research, provided partners with a preview of the report’s findings, which exposed some encouraging opportunities for tech advisors along with some caveats.
Despite the flood of advice that has emanated from pundits, panelists and the pages of ChannelVision during the past several years suggesting advisors and MSPs focus on business outcomes, more than half (54%) of the TAs surveyed for the “Telarus Tech Trends Report” still believe their biggest value to buyers is cost savings. In actuality, “buyers value execution from advisors most,” said Telarus researchers.
R “Ray” Wang, Founder and Principal Analyst at Constellation Research, and Telaurs CMEO Jennifer Dimas on stage at TelarusPS26
Specifically, the roles of project management (48%), vendor vetting (48%) and integration planning (43%) all were cited at significantly higher rates than cost savings (26%) when enterprise and mid-market IT buyers were asked to consider the values delivered by an advisor.
“Advisors’ ability to manage complexity and bring the right team of experts to the table is their superpower,” said the report.
When factoring in the top business priorities of IT buyers, a clear picture emerges of the outcomes advisors should be discussing with and delivering to their clients. More than anything, IT buyers are looking for innovation from new technologies (21%) along with a simplification and consolidation of their tech stacks (20%). Both these responses nearly doubled the priority of cost savings (11%) and even were ahead of revenue growth (14%). In other words, IT buyers are placing priority on technologies and advisors that can help navigate complexity in order to more quickly realize innovation.
Such sentiments also were prevalent in recent research from KPMG and IDC, which asked enterprise IT decision makers to consider their future investments in managed services. In addition to the need for cost efficiencies, the need to access new technologies, gain faster speed to market and accelerate innovation were the top four goals for investing in managed services in general.
“Instead of only building tech in house, they are turning to managed services as a way to benefit from new technologies more quickly,” said Ron Walker, global head of managed services for KPMG International. In many ways, managed services are seen by enterprises as an “AI accelerator” and bedrock for digital transformation, said Walker, rather than a way to reduce headcount or cut costs.
In terms of expected managed services investment during the next two to three years, managing the complexity of AI was far and away the top category out of 19 functional areas, show KPMG/IDC surveys. AI management is expected to leapfrog IT infrastructure management, which is the top area of spending among respondents today.
The desire to manage complexity also can be seen in how buyers are prioritizing convergence. “Customers no longer buy cloud, infrastructure, cybersecurity, or CX in silos – instead, they want a single, integrated strategy to drive innovation and simplify complexity – with AI as an enabler across all of it,” said the Telarus study. Advisors who grew 20%+ revenue last year were two times more likely to report that more than half of their revenue comes from multi-solution deals, showed the findings.
Loyalty Discounted
Some potentially troubling news, depending on your perspective and market position, is that vendor loyalty appears to be eroding, as full 84% of IT buyers surveyed by Redpoint Insights for Telarus said they are open to switching vendors at renewal. What’s driving the disloyalty? For starters, a full 87% of buyers reported rising renewal costs during the past 12 months, while one in three (29%) claimed to regret a major technology purchase in the past 24 months due to changing business needs, unmet expectations, higher than expected costs and vendor overpromising.
This would seem to be a challenge for vendors but a huge opportunity for advisors, except for the fact that a surprisingly mere 14% of advisors reported renewal strategy as a top area in which they bring value to their customers.
“Advisors who treat every renewal cycle as a new solution audit will gain a competitive advantage and expand cross-sell/up-sell revenue opportunities,” the report continued.
The undeniably good news is that 84% of organizations expect technology budgets to increase moving forward, up from the 77% that said the same thing in last year’s survey. At the same time, nearly seven out of 10 (68%) of IT buyers rely on technology advisors, pointing to the large opportunities for advisory firms that are able to help business find the right balance between innovation at speed and simplification in this era of AI explosion.
