Channel

Sherweb’s 2021 Channel Forecast

Roselande François, head of business development, Sherweb
Author: Roselande François, head of business development and strategic partnerships, Sherweb

Unlike actual weather forecasts, when it comes to channel predictions, we like it cloudy! Keeping with the dad jokes, 2020 brought its share of pressures and atmospheric changes. It’s now clear as the sky is blue that the motto of 2021 will be ‘adapt or perish.’ If you focus on the right market trends and industry shifts, though, you’ll be able to not only weather the next storm, but truly thrive and grow.

We put together a summary of the trends we’ve seen with our partners and the channel at large, and they probably won’t come as a shock. Still, their importance can’t be brushed aside, and if the past few months are anything to go by, their presence will only keep increasing.

Here’s what we think 2021 will be all about.

Cybersecurity

Do you spell it ‘cyber security’ or ‘cybersecurity’? No matter your preference, the important thing is everyone’s talking about it—and with good reason.

Hackers now attack 2,244 times a day on average. The average time to identify a breach in 2019 was 206 days (roughly the time between Christmas and summer vacation). The average lifecycle of a breach was 314 days. On average, only 5% of companies’ folders are properly protected. Additionally, 68% of business leaders feel their cybersecurity risks are increasing.

Cybersecurity is an area where threats shapeshift at a breakneck speed. Globally, cyberattacks are now the fastest growing category of crime. Financial losses from cybercrime exceed the total losses incurred from the global trade of all illegal drugs. If you’re not devoting enough attention to risk management today, you’re already lagging behind the criminals—with potentially devastating results. Not to mention the often liquidating penalties you could be facing for non-compliance with various data protection laws.

The prediction here is pretty straightforward, then. Cybersecurity will remain a top concern for MSPs and SMBs and will only increase in importance in 2021 and beyond. The general shift towards work-from-home will continue to create more potential security vulnerabilities. A challenge, for sure, but also an immense opportunity for growth-hungry MSPs!

Business transformation

There will always be paradigm shifts forcing your clients to have a different outlook on how they do things. The productivity and competitiveness of your clients’ business should always be a top priority for you, and the concept of business transformation goes hand-in-hand with this. If 2020 taught us anything, it’s that we should always have a plan for the unexpected, difficult as that may seem.

Working from home was exploded by COVID-19. Tools that may once have been a small part of your business transformation goals (VoIP services, for example) are now an absolute necessity. Moving workloads to the cloud has become more urgent for many SMBs.

MSPs will be forced to undergo business transformation or make it happen for their clients. Examples of this might include making a switch from break-fix to managed services to better manage cash flow and service delivery. One way to make this happen is by positioning yourself as a strategic consultant. Existing MSPs can also use this tactic to show lasting value for their clients, and of course, speed up their business transformation.

Sherweb is underlining the importance of this shift with our MBA for MSPs curriculum. This is a fast-track, tuition-free business planning workshop offering actionable insights and growth strategies to MSPs wishing to gain full visibility over their business and fortify their position against future disruptions.

We’re also continuously enhancing our partner program and the resources we make available for our partners, such as various marketing tools and a dedicated partner success team along with experienced subject matter experts.

Smart automation

The winds of change are blowing! More and more MSPs incorporate automation tools to help make their lives easier, and this trend will continue in 2021. It’s no surprise, as automating critical processes can alleviate common time-consuming headaches and allow you to focus on what really matters: growing your business and thriving in an ever-changing climate. What used to take hours can now be achieved in minutes, creating workflows that are more streamlined and efficient.

The usual suspects here are billing, technical support and marketing. Sherweb’s been hyper-focused on simplifying business processes for partners—we offer a centralized partner portal to manage all your business from one place, including a powerful suite of billing integrations to reclaim some of your precious time.

We’re also launching APIs—application programming interfaces that give our partners the flexibility to integrate workflows across the tools they’re already using. You can connect your systems with Sherweb and say goodbye to manual data reconciliation and copying and pasting between windows, applications or accounts. This results not only in significant time savings, but also in improved accuracy and lower costs.

How Sherweb is tackling these trends

Everybody says they add value. With Sherweb, however, the proof is in the pudding. Among other things, our partners say they appreciate the following about our value-added services:

  • Our portfolio of hand-picked, vetted solutions and products with functionalities that align with industry trends for 2021 and beyond, with a quality-over-quantity approach
  • Our educational initiatives including Accelerate, Knowledge Network and the soon-to-launch Partner University, all respecting the mindset that continuous development is a cornerstone of business prosperity
  • Our compassion and understanding in the face of unforeseen disruptions and uncertainty; we’re human and we never forget that you’re human, too

Join our partner network and take on 2021 with a team of experts that genuinely want to see you succeed!


Author Roselande François is head of business development and strategic partnerships, Sherweb. Read more guest blogs from Sherweb here.