Gauging the State of the Solution Provider

Strong growth, particularly in the small and midsize business (SMB) space, is driving a significant uptick in demand for IT services, according to a new global survey of 1,300 solution providers conducted by Decision Tree Labs on behalf of Autotask, a provider of professional services automation software. As a result, the majority of solution providers across the channel are looking to hire additional IT professionals. The downside, however, is that the survey makes it clear that most solution providers are not getting the most out of potential billable hours. The Autotask report notes that 60 percent of solution providers want 80 percent of the time the technicians work to generate billable hours, but only 18 percent achieve that goal. For a variety of reasons, the total number of customer renewals has fallen year over year, even as communications between solution providers and their customers improve. The reasons for that could range from customers going out of business to a desire on the part of solution providers to focus on more profitable customers. As is the case with the rest of the IT industry, security, cloud computing, mobile computing and data management are driving most of the demand for increased IT services. The major challenge right now appears to be finding the people with the right skills to service that demand. Here are key takeways from the Autotask study.