06 Apr IDC Market Analysis Offers Key Considerations for TPM Suppliers

In our role of continuing to build our business for our partners and end-users, we constantly stay on top of industry trends to ensure we’re adapting. One of our key sources has been International Data Corporation (IDC) who are leading global IT Industry analysts with over 1200 analysts across the globe.

Recently they shared with us a presentation entitled “Market Analysis Perspective: Worldwide Software and Hardware Support and Deployment Services, 2021”. This presentation was delivered by two key analysts for the IT support services industry, Rob Brothers and Elaina Stergiades.

Here we review the key takeaways from this report to help our partners look at their own businesses and see how predicted trends may affect how they attack their target markets. This article will focus on the market analysis, competitive landscape and the buyer’s perspective. In our next article we will talk about IDC’s view of the future market and advice they have for technology support organizations.

Industry and Market Overview

CIOs are living in a rapidly changing world and they are doing everything they can to stay up with massive technology shifts. Here are four areas where a survey from IDC says they are focusing:

1.      Accelerated Digital Transformation (DX) Initiatives

2.      Future-Proof our businesses

3.      Build new business models

4.      Expand Strategic IT Investments

What the primary push here is that technology is not just a way to run the business, but the use of technology is actually becoming the business. The customer experience has become a key to success so that Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is critical to success. All of this is making the support of IT even more important to the CIOs and their counterparts in the executive suite.

Here’s an interesting chart from IDC that depicts what they’re seeing in the support market:

Our SmartDesk and built in TPM processes incorporate these capabilities into the products we deliver through our partners.

Competitive Landscape

Not many changes are noted in the major OEMs who continue to dominate the top 10 in market share (Cisco, Dell, IBM, Oracle, etc.). What’s interesting is that they are trying to enhance their offerings to sell more support which could affect the TPM market. However, other studies have shown that TPM continues to make inroads toward a bigger share of the overall market.

In terms of where the OEMs are investing in support, this slide from IDC summarizes what they’re seeing:

As deliverers of TPM services, we realize that while this pie of IT support expands from the OEMs as they offer more services, there is a similar increase available for us as we expand our offerings to the same customer base.

The Buyer’s Perspective 

Where the rubber hits the road for us is understanding the Buyer’s Perspective and we’ve talked to you about this before. IDC notes that IT directors are seeing great migrations to an almost fully digital world. But they still have to deal with legacy systems and maintain assets that are older but still useful. Where to turn for this maintenance is a big problem with global labor shortages, the effect of Covid, specialization, etc. They need people to fill the gaps and keep it going and TPM can be one very good option.

Security is becoming more of an issue with so many remote workers. Other risks such as End of Life and software bugs can be a real thorn in their sides.

IDC states that a survey of CIOs shows that only 9% of them felt like their data centers were operating without major problems. This type of pain cries out for vendors who can deliver risk averse, cost-effective solutions.

One more slide which capsulizes where the Buyers are at this time:

Along with you, our partners, we want to understand what’s happening in the IT world and find ways to fill holes for end-users. In this article we’ve taken a look at the market, the competitive landscape and how the buyers are experiencing the global economic and technology changes.

In the next article we’ll take a look at IDC’s future view of the market and implications for suppliers like Smart 3^rd Party and you.

Summary of Takeaways:

• CIOs are under extreme pressure as technology invades all aspects of running the business and offering new services.
• OEMs are trying to offer more support services to fill the gaps and these services also represent opportunities for companies like Smart 3^rd Party and our partners.
• We all need to understand how the Buyer’s perspective is changing and make sure our channel sales efforts reflect this understanding in how we engage with prospects.

Links/Resources:

International Data Corporation https://www.idc.com/

Smart 3^rd Party Support Process: https://smart3rdparty.wpenginepowered.com/process/