IT Trends through the Lens of Buyer Personas

CompTIA Research Roundup

Tim HerbertSeth RobinsonCarolyn April

A Look at Trends through the Lens of Buyer Personas

Copyright (c) 2014 CompTIA Properties, LLC. All Rights Reserved. www.comptia.org

The Buyer-First Approach to Trends Discussions

Trends

Customer Trends

Customer

www.comptia.org

#1Mr. Blue

#3Mr. Purple

#2Ms. Orange

#4Ms. Green

#5Mr. Red

Copyright (c) 2014 CompTIA Properties, LLC. All Rights Reserved.www.comptia.org

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Buzzword Watch

- Wearables- 3-D printing- Internet of Things- OpenStack- Smart building technologies- Sensorization- Software defined networking- Machine learning- In-memory computing- Telemedicine- Object-based storage- Biometrics- WeChat- NoSQL

- Zombie refrigerators- Zero-trust security- Bit pay- Neuromorphic computing- Quantum computing- Flexible displays- iBeacon- Commercial drones- Uber-fication of services- WiGig- WiMann- DuckDuckGo

Early / Niche Gaining Traction On Its Way

- Phablets- Mobile device payments- Gamification- MOOCs- Social business applications- Big data / Small data- Business oriented consumer

tech- Personal clouds- Content marketing- All SSD- Adaptive learning- Interactive digital signage

Source: CompTIA

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Mr. Blue Customer Profile

- CEO of a mid-size regional retail chain; 300 employees, 10 locations

- Reasonably tech savvy

#1Mr. Blue

- What keeps him awake at night? The many threats to the traditional retail model (e.g. showrooming)

- Budget constraints always tight in the retail sector, however, Mr. Blue is willing to spend for innovative solutions

- Potential blind spot: security, data safeguards, business continuity


Every Business, a Digital Business? Retail Sector Study

13%

35%

0.48

NET Unimportant

Importance of Technology to Retailers

NET Important

Neutral

Very Important

Important


Reality Check: Transitions Take Time

Very high

volumes

Moder- a

tely high

volumes

Mid-le

vel v

olumes

Low vo

lumes

22%

33% 34%

11%

Self-Reported Print Volume Assessment

98% of end users report printing at least once per quarter during the past year

Managed Print


Making the Case for Becoming More Data Savvy

8 in 10 executives agree to the statement (NET):

"If we could harness all of our data, we'd be a much stronger business”

1

2

3

4

5

Wasted time that could be spent in other areas of the business

Internal confusion over priorities

Inefficient or slow decision-making / Lack of agility

Inability to effectively assess staff performance

Lost sales

Top 5 Consequences of Ineffectively Managing/Using Data

2nd Annual

Big Data


Addressing Data Strategy Gaps

16%

56%

28%

High degree of data silosModerate degree of silosLittle or no silos

Silos Reduce Data Utility BC/DR Planning Shortfalls

25%

44%

31%

12%

35%

54%

Small Firms Medium Firms

Comprehensive Plan/System

in Place

Partial Plan/System

in Place

No or Limited Plan/System

in Place

2nd Annual

Big Data


Ms. Orange Profile

#2Ms. Orange

- CIO of a mid-size financial services firm; 150 employees; 25 percent of staff remote

- What keeps her awake at night? Balancing the need to maintain stability with IT systems that handle sensitive data with the desire to transition to next gen technology.

- Has money to spend, but due to risk averse nature, proceeds methodically and engages in extreme due diligence.

- With many high-priced employees, always looking for tools to improve staff productivity.


Cloud Wars Intensify2014

Outlook

Public cloud space shaping around 3 major players

Private cloud has lots of traction


Multi-cloud architectures prevalent

Public Cloud Provider #1 Public Cloud

Provider #2

Private Cloud

On-premise System

Company ABC

32%

29%

57%

5th Annual Cloud


Use and Utility of Communications Tools

Implementation and Plans for Communications Tools

Deployed to all employees

Deployed to segments

Plan to deploy over next year

No plans to deploy

Email 79% 14% 30% 29%

Analog telephone system 43% 23% 24% 34%

VoIP telephone system 28% 32% 17% 22%

Instant messaging 51% 27% 11% 8%

Mobile devices 35% 50% 16% 16%

Collaboration platform 34% 38% 11% 8%

Web conferencing 31% 43% 8% 7%

Video conferencing 26% 42% 10% 9%

Social enterprise tools 17% 27% 9% 9%

BPA and Comms


Mr. Purple Profile

#3Mr. Purple

- “IT guy” of a small 30-person non-profit association; 26 years old

- Wears many hats in role

- What keeps him awake at night? Nothing. He’s a millennial : )- His CEO just wants “IT to work.” Little interest in the details.

- Well versed in Google Docs, DropBox, Apps and related consumer tech.

- Experiences sticker shock with traditional IT vendor offerings.

- IT management approach lacks structure- Ad hoc use of a break/fix services firm (found through Yelp)


Time to Rebrand the ‘Trusted Advisor’

Lower tier use of tech

Mid-tier use of tech

Upper tier use of tech

Cutting edge use of tech

11%

53%

27%

7%

7%

42%

37%

13%

2%

33%

43%

22%

Gen Y Gen X Baby Boomer

Younger, tech-savvy workers tend to vet own IT and seek to collaborate with tech suppliers.

Generat-ional Issues

Study


10%

52%

39%

Early on Learning

Curve/Too Soon to Tell

Skilled Expert

Competent and Getting

Better

Channel Self-Assessment is High

And yet...

Just 3 in 10 end user organizations today say they are using managed services in some fashion.

What gives?

Managed Services: Hit or Miss? Managed Services Trends


Incentives for staff to further engage with business execs

Maintain dual approach for business and IT execs to meet both needs

Hire new sales reps with experience in vertical industries

Focus less on HW/SW specs and more on total solutions

Redesign marketing collateral with more of an end-user focus

Use of social media to target non-IT executives

Sales training to enable reps to sell to non-IT executives

19%

23%

25%

32%

34%

36%

40%

34% of channel firms plan MAJOR change to their sales operations in the coming year

4th State of Channel

Sales Strategy Overhaul


Ms. Green Profile

#4Ms. Green

- CTO of a regional hospital group with 3,000 employees

- What keeps her awake at night? Reducing IT expenditures on routine maintenance to focus more on innovation.

- Keeping up with the pace of change

- Sophisticated with technology in some areas; lagging in others

- Technology skills gaps among existing staff and finding workers with certain types of expertise a challenge


New Platforms and Ecosystems Emerging

Managing suggestions from end users

Rapid pace of innovation in mobility

Enforcing mobility policy among end users

Supporting devices remotely

Supporting multiple OS

Balancing the needs of end users and IT

Integrating mobile devices

19%

36%

39%

39%

39%

40%

42%

3rd Annual

Mobility


Software’s Appetite is Not Satisfied

SDN market projected to reach $3.6B

in revenue by 2019 Cloud APIs

increasingly important in multi-cloud

environments

AllSeen, Thread, and Open

Interconnect Consortium driving IoT standards

2014 Outlook


Reinvesting in Technical Expertise

Social media expertise

Inside sales staff

Marketing staff

Consultative sales staff

Project managers

Security expertise

Network engineers

Cloud expertise

Application developers

Technicians or IT support/service

9%

12%

15%

19%

23%

28%

29%

33%

39%

48%

52%

48%

Types of Jobs Being Filled

U.S. IT Firms with Openings

Yes

No

2Q Biz Con


Mr. Red Profile

#5Mr. Red

- CMO of a small 75-person niche manufacturer

- What keeps him awake at night? Legacy IT infrastructure, making business agility difficult

- CMO tires of getting ‘no’ from Director of IT satisfied with status quo

- Has budget and willing to spend for speed of implementation (tired of waiting); little awareness of IT solution providers, MSPs, etc.

- Flexibility and a great user experience top purchase considerations

- Mobility and social solutions are areas of interest


Managing competitive threats

Improving operational efficiency

Innovating more effectively

Improving data analytics for better/faster decisions

Reaching new customer segments

Improving staff productivity/capabilities

Reducing costs/overhead

16%

34%

37%

42%

50%

52%

56%

Strategic Business Priorities Managed Services Trends


Finding mobile application developers

Maintaining mobile & Internet offerings

Optimizing business applications

Users not familiar with company policy

Mobility skill level of IT staff

Determining cost/ROI of mobile solutions

Making systems accessible securely

Mobility skill level of general staff

16%

20%

29%

30%

31%

33%

36%

45%

Mobility Challenges Spark Opportunity 3rd Mobility Trends


Convergence Opens Doors

2%

32%

66%

Not a component Opportunistic Core

Where should traditional telecom services fit into an IT channel firm’s portfolio?

Convergence Driven by Customer Needs

All things cloud

Mobility integration

Unified communications

Phone/video integration capabilities

IT-Telecom Trends


IT Trends through the Lens of Buyer Personas

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