Nerdiocon Day 3 - Keynote Highlights

Day 3 and the final official day of the Nerdio conference for 2024.  There really isnt any other event like this one (to my knowledge) and everyone involved should take huge credit for its organisation.  The day was stacked with keynotes as well as a number of informative breakout sessions. 

Jay McBain - Chief Analyst - Canalys 

State of the channel: Industry Outlook, Trends & Opportunities 

Jay’s understand of what is happening in both ours and the wider market is impressive and really helps organisations like ours to navigate the noise and confusion that often surrounds us.

The outlook for our industry (the managed service market) is a positive one.

• The worlds global economy is $105 Trillion.
• Our space makes up about $4.7 Trillion of that figure
• $500 Billion of that number is managed services.
• We operate in the fastest growing industry which will soon surpass $5Trillon.
• 75% of the worlds economy is indirect, we all primarily buy goods and services via a partner or indirect channel.
• In our space, 73.1% of IT purchases are made through the channel.
• $1 in every $10 and organisation spends is on a managed contract

Whilst the outlook is generally seen as bright, we are facing a number of macro-economic challenges:-

• High Inflation
• Unstable Geopolitical landscape
• Climate Change
• Energy Security
• Cyber Attacks

Despite these challenges, 66% of us think that 2024 will be a growth year which led into the crux of the keynote.

5 Trends to watch out for in 2024.

• 1) The majority of buyers will be a millennial
  • They are digital first
  • 75% of these buyers don’t want to speak to a sales person
  • Subscription friendly
  • Demand integration
  • Trust 7 partners to support them.
• 2) 2024 is the year of the platform
  • Most valued companies currently are platform companies
  • Cloud marketplaces are growing rapidly
  • Everyone is building market places to serve the 73.1% of buyers coming through the channel.
  • Its about multipliers, not margins. For every $1 spent with Microsoft, service providers make $7.63, in AWS's case its $6.40. 

• 3) Economics of Resell has changed
  • The compensation model is shifting from reward at point of sale, to reward at point of value.
  • There are 28 moments before the point of sale; each representing value
  • As a result we are seeing richer, more complex partner programmes to ensure partner ecosystems are aligned correctly
  • Partners that specialise and zero in on an area are highly valued
  • The focus is on creating clients for life

• 4) End of the Cookie
  • The world of 3^rd party data is over.
  • Google has made the commitment to stop tracking you. Meaning that the billions of dollars associated with 3^rd party data will shift to 2^nd party data.
  • This is good for those organisations that create good content, e-books, podcast, leadership papers as those 28 moments of a new customer journey will rely on the buyer coming to us; and not the other way round.
• 5) Gen AI is a huge opportunity
  • People are wary of hype cycles having lived through IOT, Metaverse etc
  • AI presents huge growth opportunities, 59.3% CAGR, getting to a $158 billion industry by 2028
  • 85% of the worlds data is on prem, at the edge. It will be a few years before a material change happens to business models. No one is yet dumping their existing business models and going all in on AI. They are focussing on where the requirements are today – AVD, Managed services and security.
    

Its hard to not feel encouraged by the statistics that Jay presented in the keynote and there was continuity from some of the statistics presented last year which was valuable. 

Giovanni Sanguily - CEO & Founder, Glasshive 

Revolutionise the client experience with AI and Rich-Media Communication

Glasshive presented their sales and marketing platform which aims to simplify the sales, marketing and communication processes of an organisation.

Client experience is a subject close to my heart. I have always been client facing and above everything else, client experience isnt about how well you solve a problem, its usually about how they feel before, during and after that process. Communication is key in this process and Glasshive aim to make this process easier for MSPs.

A few standout numbers.

• 74% of B2B buyers are likely to buy on customer experience alone during the sales and marketing process.
• 80% of B2B buyers said that the quality of the customer experience is just as, if not more important than the quality of the goods and services.
• 49% of customers will leave as a result of poor experience
• 76% of customers expect a connected journey between Marketing to Sales, Sales to Service.

Greg Jones, Vice President of Business Development, EMEA, Kaseya

The IT Complete Vision 

We use a number of Datto / Kaseya products as part of our delivery stack, so it was helpful to get Greg's outlook. 

The main things I took away from this session which I think most partners can relate to. 

1) Most partners suffer from vendor fatigue.  Too many vendor relationships to manage (on average 17).  Thats 17 portals, 17 personal relationships, 17 technologies to stay on top of. 

One of the knock on effects of this is that end user customers only end up utilising 30% of the features and functions that they are paying for (something which we've been actively trying to address with products such as M365 Business Premium which has a number of features that add value to clients. 

Kaseya, through their internal development and acquisition strategy, are clearly trying to make life easier for partners by providing them with a complete suite of solutions provided via a single source. 

Erwin Visser - General Manager of Cloud Service Provider Strategy and GTM, Microsoft 

Everest 

Despite having nothing to do with the technologies we're here to learn about.  Erwin delivered an inspiring, raw and emotional keynote talking us through his journey to the summit of everest.  

Inspiring story and I have incredible admiration for anyone that takes on a challenge like this.  For those that dont know, I have had a lifelong fascination with this alluring mountain so I was genuinely interested in his story.  Erwin is just the 31st dutchman to reach the top of everest, is part of just a rare group of 30% of people to summit the mountain on the first attempt and achieved it in the year which had the highest fatality rate on the mountain. 

Whilst not a tech session.  As someone that is involved in running a business, the main takeaway for me is that you need to enjoy the journey as much as you enjoy getting to the summit and achieve a balance between the two.   In every walk of life, personal and professional, we set goals for ourselves and just focus on the objective.  This was an important reminder to enjoy the journey. 

Thank you Erwin for sharing your story.