Pace of change and need for scale drives software in communcations The pace of change in IT and Telecoms is accelerating fast. Standing still is not an option and constant innovation is needed to keep pace with evolving and ever more challenging customer demands. These were some of the key messages coming out of this year’s COMMS VISION CONVENTION (below) staged at Gleneagles, Scotland from 9-11 November 2016.
But challenges bring with them opportunities and according to Hans Peter Bech, founder and managing partner of TBK Consult, one of the great opportunities for Comms resellers, particularly those already providing value added services, is software - the world's fastest growing and most profitable industry.
"Software is creeping into everything and the industry has low barriers to entry," he stated. However the industry is also extremely competitive and he advised against trying to compete in terms of just product leadership. “Market leaders take it all” he said. “If you are going to focus on product leadership in software you have to go global.”
He also warned that, with the trend towards lower cost distribution of software via the cloud, in the future, there may not be a great margin in the software alone – the profits will need to be made in providing the services that go around it. The opportunity here for comms resellers lies in exploiting their market knowledge and proximity to the customer. "Software is situational, its value lies in its context and the volume of services resellers can deliver, such as consultancy and operational excellence, creating customer intimacy."
The trends in software development and the opportunities it provides for resellers, ISVs and Managed Service Providers will be a major theme at the European Software & Solution Summit 2017 which will be staged in London next March, For further details visit www.eusss.com