Technologies to bet on
When asked which solutions will do well over the next  12 months, a large number of respondents believe that security will be the most important technology vertical for growth. Nearly 40 percent identified data security as the domain that will see high demand, followed by storage solutions (16 percent), virtualization (16 percent) and mobility solutions (14 percent).
“Enterprises, and even SMB companies, which have cut back on other IT investments, are still investing in IT security. There is a lot of awareness about security threats, and this is a good time for a reseller to venture into IT security,” feels Arun Gupta, CEO of Darts IT Networks.
Sachin Rao, CEO of Dreamquest Infotech, says that they are “planning to tailor solutions and services around storage backup and de-duplication. Virtualization too will be in demand because it offers cost savings, and Dreamquest has already started offering solutions in this space.”
Ashok of Futurenet is betting on mobility solutions to do well. This is “due to increased sales force automation among companies. We have built a few offerings in this space, and are seeing increasing interest from customers.”
A non-traditional technology segment that is seeing interest among IT solutions providers is the security surveillance space. Around 10 percent of respondents believe that surveillance solutions will be in great demand, and they are tying up with vendors to provide such solutions. “Surveillance solutions are in demand, and we are venturing into providing solutions in this space,” says Barai.
Focus on managed services
The survey suggests that partners are increasingly realizing the importance of managed services.
The most popular service among partners is managed security services (MSS), with nearly 64 percent of respondents saying that they plan to enter the MSS space over the next 12 months.
“We believe MSS can help us really ramp up our security business. We are in the process of building the infrastructure to provide MSS, and plan to roll out the services in three months,” says Khatri of Microclinic.
Adds Khimani of Microlink, “Security, both IT as well as physical, is becoming critical for organizations, hence MSS is an area of interest for us because we would be able to manage everything sitting remotely.”
RIMS is also catching up, with 60 percent of the respondents saying that they are seriously thinking about getting into the RIMS space. “We have just started our NOC and are extremely bullish about the prospects for RIMS. With this infrastructure in place we will gradually build a stack of other managed services to offer to customers,” says Biren Salarka, MD, Acma Computers.
Even the relatively new concept of SaaS is finding many takers among partners. Nearly 47 percent said that they plan to offer SaaS. “We have acquired a software development company, and will soon be taking five of its products as a SaaS offering within the next six months,” says Shanbhag.
Jaspal Singh, CEO of SparX Technologies adds, “We have partnered with SaaS providers like Googleapps and Jamcracker, and have already sold to a few clients. The response so far is positive because customers understand the cost-benefits that the new software delivery model brings.”
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