Better storytelling and more collaboration: What's something the channel wants more of in 2024?

CRN canvassed five channel companies to hear what the channel needs more of next year

Channel companies want more authenticity, challenging the norm, using data to predict opportunities, better storytelling, and more collaboration from the channel next year.

2023 has been the year of dreary layoffs and the emergence of GenAI, which are both believed to continue in 2024.

While these two topics are on opposite ends of the spectrum, there are a lot of moving parts in between that are yet to have their day in the sun.

To find out what channel organisations want to see in the spotlight next year, CRN asked partners, distributors and vendors for their thoughts.

Richard Eglon, CMO, Nebula Global Services

"Authenticity. For real and impactful change to succeed it needs an environment of trust and innovation to prosper.

"In order to deliver this, companies need to be much more authentic and transparent across their partner ecosystems.

"Those collaborations that are built on these values will be the ones that will shine over the coming 12-18 months as we see the birth of new marketplaces where the rules of engagement will be more community led."

Better storytelling and more collaboration: What's something the channel wants more of in 2024?

CRN canvassed five channel companies to hear what the channel needs more of next year

Hayley Roberts, CEO, Distology

"I would love to see more openness to learning and challenging the norm.

"The channel is changing and we need to embrace this and roll with it rather than fight against it.

"Marketplaces are not going away but they will settle to where they have the best use. There is a place for all of us given the right mindset."

Better storytelling and more collaboration: What's something the channel wants more of in 2024?

CRN canvassed five channel companies to hear what the channel needs more of next year

Rob Mackle, MD, EMEA, Assured Data Protection

"In 2024, the channel will use data to help it more effectively serve the needs of its customers.

"Something we expect to see more of in the channel in 2024 is the use of data to predict the future of the channel, and the needs of its customers. Data is a great resource to analyse the past and present, but importantly the future: whilst there are no certainties, analysts and the channel are pretty good at understanding where the market is going and what customers want next.

"AI is a big driver and will continue to advance to better predict the future and what success looks like.

"Channel partners and providers learn from their own experiences and customer behaviour to influence decisions from an internal perspective. Website, mobile, digital interactions, are all valuable sources of data.

"The channel as a whole has an unlimited source of data to help channel businesses predict and understand trends, opportunities and threats. The ability to proactively anticipate customers' needs by understanding where they are today, what information or interaction they need next, and what stands in the way will give the channel all they need to have the best chance of success."

Better storytelling and more collaboration: What's something the channel wants more of in 2024?

CRN canvassed five channel companies to hear what the channel needs more of next year

Chris Gabriel, chief strategy officer, Sapphire

"The challenge for us is being able to tell that transformational story that customers can understand, translate into their business, and can adopt.

"I think where the channel needs to improve is marketing and storytelling.

"Marketeers need to step up and become genuine storytellers."

Better storytelling and more collaboration: What's something the channel wants more of in 2024?

CRN canvassed five channel companies to hear what the channel needs more of next year

John Taylor, VP of European alliances, CrowdStrike

"I want to see more collaboration.

"Sometimes people forget there's an end user that needs a problem solved.

"I think companies like ours, and partner organisations need to not view partners as necessarily competitors.

"At our recent and first ever European partner symposium, I started to see collaboration.

"‘I provide a managed service. I do this around advisory. I resell, I implement.'

"And there's not one partner out there that can do everything for a customer. But there is a puzzle that can be fixed by joining some of those partners together.

"And sometimes we lose sight of the fact that the customer has a problem to solve. And most of them are competing with each other or we assume that they're competing with each other.

"What I'd like to see more of is collaboration around the channel, and making sure that we get problem solved for the customers.

"At the end of the day, the problem is, there's an adversary and that adversary is trying to do something we don't want them to do. And we have to fix that problem. And that problem sometimes needs a working party or a collaboration of partners in order to do it."