COVID-19 and Customer-Centricity to Expedite Business Transformation in the Channel
Leading channel services provider, Agilitas, is proud to announce the launch of its ‘CONNECT to Transform’ guide, the third and final entry in the company’s latest series of ‘How-to’ reports. The reports are a central part of Agilitas’ channel insight campaign, ‘CONNECT - Voice of the Channel’, which was launched back in 2019.
The guide is based on the results of research commissioned by Agilitas and carried out in partnership with leading research firm Opinion Matters. The survey asked 250 channel leaders working in UK-headquartered businesses about their predictions for the future of the industry and the role that transformation will play in this.
The research revealed that 36.8% of respondents believe that a majority of the IT channel will experience a transformational shift in 2020, a view that’s only been compounded by the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. It is clear that COVID-19 has prompted several channel firms to introduce newer, more agile business models to help mitigate the effects of disruptive events in the future.
When asked what the main drivers for transformation within their business were, the two most popular responses pointed towards customer centricity as a leading trend. 44.8% of respondents recognised the need to remain relevant to customers’ needs and demands as a key driver for business transformation, while 41.6% cited customers becoming more digitally-enabled as the main reason. 32% identified that customer demands surrounding cost reductions could also have an effect on business transformation.
Customer-centricity emerged from the research as the prevailing trend, since delivering a high quality customer experience remains key to drive profit and gain competitive advantage. Of the overwhelming majority of respondents (81.2%) to have described their business as customer-centric, 34% described their business as fully committed to developing products and services in line with customer requirements on a regular basis; conversely, 22.4% stated they were customer-centric to some extent but not fully, although they were currently transitioning to a better customer-centric model. Among the respondents leaning towards a customer-centric model were managed service providers (44.4%), general technology solution providers (37.5%) and IT resellers (31.3%).
Shaun Lynn (CEO, Agilitas) comments: “Business is in a state of constant flux and COVID-19 has only expedited these changes. As we all know very well, change never comes easy, but neither can we allow trepidation or uncertainty to get in the way of advancing business transformation. Irrespective of the industry, companies need to transform and innovate if they want to thrive in the evolving business environment. Transformation should not be seen as a challenge but as an opportunity to engage modern employees and buyers alike, and deliver on their expectations of seamless, higher quality customer experience.”
To request your free copy of the full Connect to Transform report, please visit www.agilitas.co.uk/agilihub/initiatives/connect/
