If you are tired of the ubiquitous descriptor “business transformation,” you aren’t alone. Count me among the word-weary for one. Don’t get me wrong: As a researcher for CompTIA, I’ve seen the trends and know that business transformation remains one of the most salient topics in the industry today, with particular importance to the IT channel’s future. The term itself, however, is a bit flawed.
Here’s Why
The word “transformation” implies an endgame, a metamorphosis, from one type of entity to another. Once you get there, you’re done. The reality is not that cut and dried. Business transformation is — or should be — more of an ongoing journey, one of tweaking, tinkering and resetting processes, aligning capabilities to business goals and constant review. Transformation is not an endpoint.
Many channel firms fail to recognize this. Despite the fact that nearly 8-in-10 U.S. channel firms in CompTIA’s recent State of the Channel study say they have engaged in some transformative activity to date — whether it’s moving from transactional product sales to recurring revenue, embracing a new cloud portfolio or something else — the majority stop short in their efforts. For example, they add a single cloud service to their portfolio or put one or two clients on a pay-as-you-go contract. Having made these small moves, they then deem themselves a business transformed. Fact is they are still generating the majority of their revenue from the legacy portion of their business. In two years or more, if nothing else forward-thinking is undertaken, this channel firm is going to look remarkably similar to what it did before taking those small steps toward change.
I’m not alone in seeing the trend: Read the recent ChannelTrends piece, where Brian Sherman uses his weekly column to spell out why business transformation is essential to success, and why follow through is just as important as change itself.
Successful Transformation Means Commitment to Change
CompTIA’s just-released 2015 IT Industry Outlook identifies a number of trends at play in the channel for the upcoming year and beyond. Steady margin erosion on product sales, new competitor types, shifts in IT procurement and delivery models, and customer choice and clout are all forces in play. Each goes hand-in-hand with the broader concept of business transformation. It’s a term, for better or worse, that isn’t going away.
Looking ahead, channel firms need to view business transformation for the never-ending journey that it is. Adding a single managed service to your offerings, for example, is the first step of many to becoming a firm that sells deep into the digital services space and achieves relevance for the future. Successful transformation is the commitment to making continual adjustments and improvements rather than eyeing a finish line that doesn’t really exist.
To read more on channel trends and other industry forecasts, find the full report among all the research on our Insight & Tools page.
Carolyn April is CompTIA’s senior director for industry analysis.
