Aussie channel under pressure as stress reigns supreme during May

Everyone has felt overwhelmed at some point in their careers, but in May, these feelings were especially widespread across the Australian IT channel.

Throughout the month, ARN spoke with several IT decision-makers in the local channel to find out what’s keeping them up at night.

The stresses associated with business was a clear running theme, shared by both partners and vendors alike.

Speaking to ARN, DXC Technology head of security for Australia and New Zealand (A/NZ) and head of cyber security for Asia Pacific Japan (APJ) and the Middle East and Africa (MEA) Kylie Watson said what’s getting her down is the level of stress facing workers when it comes to AI.

“I’m a sociologist as well as a cyber technologist, so I worry about the people and the pressure on the people,” she said.

“I worry about decision making under pressure with AI and cyber threats in AI and I’m concerned about the human element of it and being able to keep up.”

It should be no surprise to see that AI was mentioned once again after sentiments about the technology were also shared in March and April.

AC3 head of ServiceNow Andrew Homewood shared these sentiments, telling ARN at ServiceNow’s Knowledge 2025 conference in Las Vegas that he’s facing the pressure when trying to decide on the right way forward in the market.

“There’s a lot of things that we can be doing. So, choices; How do you prioritise all those things you want to do all at once?” he said.

If partners don’t handle their stress correctly, this can result in burnout. According to Science and Technology Australia vice president Lila Landowski, who spoke at the Gartner Security and Risk Management Summit on 4 March, sophisticated behaviours under periods of stress can be replaced with more primitive responses like aggression and defensiveness.

This includes dilating blood vessels for muscle movement, widening airways to increase oxygen intake and even suppressing pain.

“Interestingly, the body reacts the same way to modern-day stresses, such as traffic, arguments, or cyber security threats, even though they aren’t life-threatening.”

By experiencing these stress responses multiple times a day, Landowski added that it can significantly affect an individual’s ability to make decisions and interact with others.

Vendor views

As for ServiceNow’s A/NZ senior director for alliance and channels ecosystem Matt Bolton, his stresses are on the tried-and-true woe of a lack of access to talent.

Talking to ARN also at Knowledge 2024, he said this issue is being felt across both partners and customers.

“We are bringing out so much innovation in the platform. How can our partners understand and adopt it and how can our customers understand and adopt that capability quickly?” he said.

“You can only do that when you have talented individuals that can turn the platform into a business outcome for a customer.

“Can I keep fuelling our ecosystem in Australia and New Zealand with people that are employed by our partners to make that final difference? That’s one of the inhibitors to our growth if we don’t get that right.”

Additionally, Qualtrics vice president of Asia Pacific (APAC) partner sales Zoe Nicholson said her worries were focused on keeping up with the level of speed required in the market. Although success is always appreciated, this need for speed comes without necessarily desiring for an always positive outcome.

“It’s recognising and failing fast on things that aren’t progressing as we want and rethinking that and getting back to it again not [perfectly],” she said.

“For me, it’s recognising that and not sitting on things too long so we do move at speed and with accuracy.”

Sasha Karen travelled to Knowledge 2025 as a guest of ServiceNow.