The channel’s inflection point: What’s keeping decision-makers awake?

During June, Australian IT business operators and leaders raised concerns about managing their businesses, pointing to challenges with growth, market conditions, and resource allocation.

Throughout last month, ARN spoke with those in the local channel to find out what kept them up at night.

For TL Consulting CEO Stephen Marryatt, navigating supply chain complexities and staying focused amid the evolving security landscape are top priorities—challenges he believes many businesses are currently facing.

These concerns are particularly relevant as TL Consulting deepens its relationship with supply chain software vendor JFrog, a partner whose solutions the company has relied on for over a decade.

Marryatt sees the formalised partnership with JFrog, alongside an existing collaboration with GitHub, as a springboard for growth and innovation. However, he acknowledges that scaling effectively to meet this growth is a key focus area.

“With our work alongside JFrog, we’re entering a phase of significant expansion. Planning for that trajectory is front of mind—it’s exciting, but it also demands careful strategy,” he said.

In fact, Marryatt’s focus on managing growth after a ramp up of activity is similar to Dicker Data, with its COO, Vlad Mitnovetski, saying that the distributor has grown to the point where “it’s now become so strong”.

“We’ve always been incredibly agile and flexible in the way we go out to our partners,” he said. “What’s keeping me up at night is, how do I continue to grow and maintain and improve my service levels to my partners? This is probably the biggest thing — the growth pain.

“Running a smaller business, you’re a lot closer to the business. Running a large $3.4 billion machine becomes a little bit more difficult. So, I need to ensure that I have the right structure in place and right management layers.”

Additionally, Mitnovetski said Dicker Data is a particularly flat-structured organisation, which is generating a lot of internal pressure. At the same time, he reiterated that improving service levels is an important factor behind what he does.

“If I protect the culture and make sure that people love working for Dicker and staying at Dicker, that gives me that peace of mind that my service level is going to continue to be very, very strong,” he added.

Meanwhile, inTechnology Distribution CEO Mark Winter said his focus is on handling growth within its partner network by asking where additional value can be added into the equation.

“How can we actually help them in growing their business, which in turn helps us in growing out? Part of what we do with our channel partners is to actually sit down with them and … [ask them] where are your pain points? Where are the things that you lack?” he said.

“From what we hear, they’ve got a lot on, but they tend to lack the marketing. They tend to lack the go-to-market.”

Any worthwhile IT business needs to come to keep tabs on up-and-coming technologies. While it may be an obvious fact, it’s still important not to narrow down on a particular space and sector and never expect it to change.

This is a sentiment shared by global investment firm TH Global Capital – a business that advises on mid-market cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&A)  across IT services, technology, and business services.

The firm’s director and head of TMT Australia and New Zealand, Stefan Zervides, summed up the point by noting that five years ago, Salesforce was the hottest thing around. Now, he said the focus has shifted to ServiceNow.

“[Make] sure that you’re in the right space, you’re focusing on the right vertical within tech because it’s constantly evolving,” he said.

“That’s a key thing, just making sure that the space that you’re in is going to be there in the longer term and going to be important.”

Another constant is geopolitics. In March, Gartner vice president analyst Luke Ellery said this was a concern then, and is still true three months later, with investments being constrained as a result.

“If [partners are] having challenges meeting budgets and sales targets, that’s why,” he said. “A lot of companies are still keeping their money dry unless they’re already down a path of investment and they’re committed to it or they’re very bullish.”

Since March, global discussions have pivoted from tariffs to war in the Middle East, the G7, and global trade blocs.

“Who knows how it’s going to go if these things go one way or the other, but we are starting to see a shift between everyone selling to everyone to a bit more of these trading blocs, and that might be a concern,” Ellery said.

“Organisations are just thinking, ‘Well, how do I repivot my whole organisation to that?’ I’m seeing a lot more concern around cost and cost control.

“That would also be one of those risks that is a secondary order element; you’ve got the uncertainty, and then, as a result, you’ve got cost control to protect the organisation and enable them to be a bit more resilient to what’s happening.”

Vendor views

Speaking of pivoting, Commvault chief business development officer Alan Atkinson said within the context of the Australian channel, there is a pivot to service and solutions providers that is an “adjustment” for traditional resellers.

“There is a macro consolidation going on in the channel that I think is both an opportunity and a concern,” he said. “The rise of cloud and cloud marketplace as a lot of the growth is not on-premises, but is happening in the cloud.”

As for JFrog Asia Pacific senior vice president Sunny Rao, his anxieties revolve around whether he’s investing enough time into partners and customers.

This, he said, is the drive behind the software supply chain platform vendor’s hiring attempts at the moment, because he feels that there needs to be even more resources for its support.

“They want more of us, and it’s my duty to give it to them,” he said. “So, getting the right talent, maintaining the culture, and being so true to JFrog’s culture that we come in to serve our customers; we are here to support them.

“We’re here to answer to their needs and help them grow and maintain that culture. Those are the two most important things for me: getting the right talent and maintaining the culture.”