ROB SPEE , SVP PARTNER ECOSYSTEMS , BEYONDTRUST
Q & A
EDITOR ’ S
WHILE 2024 WAS A YEAR OF CHALLENGE , 2025 PROMISES TO BE A YEAR OF ADAPTATION . WHAT ARE THE OPPORTUNITIES , CHALLENGES , TRANSFORMATIONS , LIKELY TO IMPACT CHANNEL PARTNERS IN 2025 ?
While 2023 presented a year of opportunity for channels and alliances , 2024 has offered a year of challenges . Successfully merging channels and alliances into an orchestrated partner ecosystem is not an easy task . Now mix in this year ’ s latest challenges : high interest rates , higher inflation , massive technology layoffs , and market uncertainty slowing down sales cycles and growth . It has not been an easy year for sales or partner ecosystem leaders .
Economic pressures are driving large scale layoff announcements from many
As the Middle East ’ s IT landscape evolves , success for channel organisations in 2025 will hinge on focus , agility , willingness to embrace transformation . By specialising in high-demand areas like cybersecurity , AI , and cloud management , while evolving into strategic MSPs , partners can secure their role as indispensable advisors . Executives from BeyondTrust , SolarWinds , Pure Storage share their predictions .
ROB SPEE , SVP PARTNER ECOSYSTEMS , BEYONDTRUST
technology companies , cutting across all functional areas . Facing longer sales cycles and declining sales , some companies will pull back from their partner ecosystem strategy and revert to the old transactional channel model . Some will shrink or even disband their entire partner team .
These actions are a big mistake because they ignore the fundamental changes in buyer behaviour that necessitate a partner ecosystem strategy to survive . What is not changing in 2025 is the technology buyer behaviour of having dozens of points of contact along the buyer journey . Those points of contact are very often with the partner community .
Buyers will increasingly depend on implementing multiple vendors ’ products to solve their business problems . This requires tight technology alliance integrations and fully enabled service delivery partners . The companies who shrinking away from an ecosystem strategy will find themselves in an even worse financial condition .
Forward-thinking leaders understand that partner ecosystems and ecosystemled strategies are essential to innovation , growth , and resilience . These leaders will stand firm on their commitment to the success of their partner ecosystem and reap the rewards . But it will not be easy . Just like the move from perpetual to SaaS , converting from a transactional channel to an ecosystem strategy requires companies to swallow the fish .
INTELLIGENT TECH CHANNELS 53