Tech Data managing director Matt Child tells Mobile News his thoughts on what might happen this year, including more consolidation, quitters and Brexit
We’ll see more consolidation. Some vendors will withdraw, we’ll see some big plays in the operator space and ‘media giants’ such as Sky coming to market to offer consumers rich, immersive content on the go which is good news for everyone.
Brexit will continue to be a hot topic and we all need to prepare for what that may bring – the truth is that we just don’t know so its heads down, don’t get distracted and plan for all scenarios.
In distribution, the need to not only meet but also predict and drive the changing needs of the market is not a PowerPoint exercise or the ‘bolt on’ of a remote service. This ‘window dressing’ has seen many a good business struggle in recent history and its ‘money where your mouth is’ time.
You need to know that you’re spending in the correct areas which is why deep customer relationships are vital to securing the future. This enables us to prioritise accordingly in key areas such as buy back, trade in, residual values, financing, ‘As a Service’ and general working capital relief schemes – these will all be really important.
It’s also going to be vital to match the needs of the wide variety of customers that many of us service on the high street and in specific B2B verticals to the existing and future products that we see roadmapped; and turn these products into propositions that meet and satisfy real needs, rather than solving problems that don’t exist
The industry needs to ensure that what’s brought to market makes people’s lives better, richer and more effective in many different ways – and that they can understand the proposition easily and feel the benefits immediately. If we adopt this, the predictions on IoT, wearbles, VR and connected homes becoming mainstream have a fighting chance of becoming reality in 2017.