Resellers’ and partners’ path to growth is being blocked by the significant skills shortage in the UK technology industry.
That is the verdict from Tech Data’s Director of Enterprise Software and Cloud, Simon Bennett, who pointed to the skills shortage in IT as one of the reasons it has expanded its Microsoft Cloud Service Provider (CSP) offering, to include Click to Run and Assessment and Migration services for Windows Virtual Desktop.
Bennett said that the COVID-19 crisis has exacerbated the need for more IT professionals adding that Tech Data “only build a solution when we see a market demand.”
“Unfortunately, one of the problems in the cloud space is skills, talent, and technical capability. A lot of smaller SMB resellers in the UK need these services because they don’t have the skills in house to develop solutions for the partners as the market evolves.”
“This demand for remote working, for example, didn’t exist to the same extent before COVID-19 and there was still that cultural need to be in an office. Business partners are now in a situation, unless we’re talking about a goliath in the industry, where they don’t have the skills or the resources to make all the investments needed to work remotely.
Then, as technology changes, these businesses might need to hire somebody for Microsoft Dynamics but won’t want to invest in that because they can’t see a return straightaway. The whole premise of everything we’re doing on Cloud is to build scalable, repeatable solutions for the reseller without worrying about extra charges.”
The latest additions to Tech Data’s Microsoft CSP offering come with no extra charge with Bennett adding that the solution is designed to grow alongside its partners.
“From a partner point of view, we want to help them, help their end users realise the potential of the technology we offer, because half the problem is that people don’t adopt the full functionality of what’s available” continued Bennett,
“It’s only when people look at what’s available within Teams that they are blown away because of the whole linkage piece with the other parts of the office suite”
“Our view is that our solution will help resellers scale their practice. One of the best things we can do is bring vendor solutions together, and package them all, based on what we think the market wants which is what this Windows Virtual Desktop example is.”
