2015 Musings, 2016 Predictions
By The Business Solutions Network
It’s tough to not do a recap or predictions article around the New Year when you’re in the media. Frankly, they’re a lot of fun since it’s an opportunity to let your voice be heard and get bold. I didn’t plan on writing one this year but then I work up today feeling rather introspective, dwelling on the past year and looking forward to the new one.
Generally speaking, I think 2015 was a good year for most in the IT channel. Perhaps it’s coincidence, but the majority of solutions providers I interviewed this month were really positive about how their year went. Many experienced growth and expect to see that trend continue in 2016. I should add that these successful solutions providers either own very unique niches in the markets they serve or have been working on building their recurring revenue. While it might be unrealistic to tell every reader to grab a unique niche from which to do business, I do think many can work harder at building recurring revenue and getting more into things like managed services.
In 2015, we also saw the continuation of some markets maturing, with consolidation being the predominant indicator. The data collection market is a perfect example. However, even in the retail and restaurant IT world, we’re seeing VARs retiring, selling their businesses, and/or merging with other VARs. I don’t think 2016 will be different in that regard.
As far as technology trends are concerned, it appears as if history is repeating itself a bit as the Internet of Things is suffering a similar fate to what RFID did a decade ago. The business case certainly exists, but many in that industry have talked to me about slow adoption to the point of calling IoT the most over-hyped topic of 2015. One of the struggles with RFID was the cost of tags compared with a tried and true bar code. In the case of IoT, the delay in adoption comes down to a few things, which I think will improve in 2016. First, there still aren’t enough real-world deployments to help spread the message of the power of IoT. There are really cool implementations out there, but not enough to make IoT top of mind. At the same time, many integrators aren’t hip to IoT enough to convince themselves or customers that IoT is a worthy endeavor. Finally, IoT deployments have a few fairly complex moving parts and it takes a very knowledgeable integrator to bring them all together. While these integrators do exist today, not enough are out there doing these deployments. With time and the witnessing of IoT success, things will change and the technology will spread.
Lastly, as I sit here trying to make predictions for 2016, a thought came to mind. The IT industry is ever changing at a slow constant pace. Very seldom can we look back and say, “that one new technology or trend came too quickly for us to respond so we missed out.” Instead, more often than not we can look back and say “we saw the warning signs for months if not years, but for whatever reason we didn’t adjust.” Consider that for 2016. Change won’t come overnight; it’s happening right now as you read this. The changes you need to make in response, need to be happening now as well. Even if they’re small adjustments to your business, don’t wait until it’s too late.