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The Channel is Aging With 40% To Retire by 2024: Study

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The channel is aging and that 40 percent of channel owners plan on retiring by 2024, reveals a Forrester study.

Channel guru Jay McBain, who recently joined Forrester as a channel analyst, at the Channel Partners Evolution pre-conference spoke about the changing demographics of the channel.

He said that while millennials will be more dominant in the channel space, the industry is finding it difficult to attract them. Why is this new digital-savvy generation not seeing the channel as a prime opportunity?

“You want to go work in technology? You can go work for a hotel (AirBNB). You can go work for a car company. You can go work for a peanut butter company. It doesn’t matter who you work for. Technology is part of your job,” he said.

Today the channel can be roughly divided into two parts: traditional service providers and resellers, and an emerging channel which consists of digital agencies consultants and highly specialized shops. However, in just a few years from now, that first group may not exist.

McBain said that the channel will wear a very different look seven years from now, calling it the growing “shadow channel.” This shadow channel includes five types of businesses: SaaS ecosystem consultants; Industry-based professional firms; Independent software vendors(ISVs); Born-in-the-cloud firms; Members of the start-up community.

According to Bain, partners need to manage three objectives: they should analyze their internal capabilities; they must work on the capabilities they lack using either organic growth, partnering or M&A; and they need to expand their sales and marketing.

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