MARKET REPORT Purchasing
50% Worldwide line of business functions will fund
50% of their total technology purchases in
2018 - Customer Insights & Analysis
Purchasers of the future
There is no denying that Channel Partners have to cater for many different types of technology purchaser
in 2019. Comms and IT decisions aren’t necessarily made in the boardroom and it is important for partners to
quickly figure out who has influence, who will make the decision and of course who holds the cheque book. In
this feature we take a look at how purchasing decisions are made and how partners must adjust accordingly
As SMB champions, the
Channel is looking at
very dierent purchasers
in 2019. Once the
preserve of the IT department,
decisions are now being made,
or inuenced, by dierent areas
from within businesses. Buyers
have never had so much access
to information and are making
more informed decisions, key
execs also expect to be able to
purchase technology for their
specic part of the business too.
Craig omas, Marketing
Director, Abzorb commented
about the changes over the last
ve years.
“e change in the last ve
years has been very much a
dual pronged approach between
inuencers and decision makers.
Understanding the business
need rather than selling purely
on technology is critical. To
understand that business need
you may well have to speak
to multiple departments who
are inuencers in the purchase
decision, not just the nal
decision maker. is trend is
only set to increase as more
businesses employ a dedicated
IT department or CIO.
Outsourcing is another key
trend and we are increasingly
seeing, in small and medium
size organisations that we have
to work closely with, outsourced
IT companies.
Furthermore, accreditation
and following best practice
is becoming critical in many
sectors and not just within the
public sector as was the case ve
years ago.”
Paul Burn, Purchasing
Director, Nimans added “I
don’t think the fundamentals of
purchasing has ever changed; it
comes down to the person who
holds the purse strings being the
ultimate decision maker. But in
a UC deployment what we are
nding now is that there’s much
more proof of concept going
on – so there are more doors
resellers have to go through
especially with IT. Ultimately
the guy that signs the cheque
is the one that’s always done
so. at person needs to be
onboard. But the buying cycle
is still the buying cycle. Have
they got the budget, have they
got a need and what is the
timeframe?”
Burn continued, “First of
all, there is no set rule. Some
businesses have dedicated IT
departments and a CIO in
place, whilst others have often
the CEO or FD making the
purchasing decision.
What we do see is
particular verticals following
particular guidelines. Often, in
traditional industries such as
manufacturing, logistics and
transport with maybe 50-250
seats, the decision-making and
specifying process is still very
much focused on the CEO,
or the nance and operations
departments. Newer sectors that
are always in a technical upshift
such as media, recruitment,
retail and technology usually
have specialist departments
whatever their size.”
Terry Pattinson, Director
at Enable Network Services,
commented “What we’re seeing
is that buying decisions are
being pushed in two competing
directions. On one hand,
because of the central and
critical nature of IT services,
our customers’ are making ever
more technical decisions that
have signicant impact on their
business. On the other hand,
they are having to be strategic
with regards to these decisions
and are evaluating numerous
value dimensions (such as
cost, vendor support, technical
performance).
is is requiring our >
38 | Comms Business Magazine | August 2019 www.commsbusiness.co.uk
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