Monday Morning Impact – February 20

NPD Group: US B2B Tech Reseller Sales Rose in 2022

According to The NPD Group, a Port Washington, NY-based market researcher, sales revenue growth continued in the U.S. B2B technology reseller channel in 2022, rising 10%, year over year, following 12% growth in 2021. As a comparison, consumer technology sales in the retail channel declined 8% in 2022, after 9% growth in 2021.

While both hardware and software sales experienced strong gains, NPD’s Reseller Tracking Service data, which tracks sales from the top national solution providers and B2B e-commerce sites, reveals software revenue growth doubled that of hardware, up 14% and 7%, respectively.

In 2022, hardware sales made up 63% of channel revenue, down from 65% the previous year, as software and cloud services gained share. The top two categories based on revenue gains year over year were security software and business applications software. Despite cooling sales in hardware categories, such as USB cameras and PC headsets and microphones, which saw strong demand during the pandemic, monitors had the third-largest revenue increase in 2022.

According to NPD’s Vertical Reseller Tracking data, the manufacturing sector had the largest year-over-year revenue gain in 2022, adding nearly $800 million in sales. Last year’s growth leader – the educational services sector – struggled to maintain momentum in 2022, resulting in a 3% decline, year over year.

“2022 was a year of strong revenue growth for the channel but we started to see some softening in the last quarter,” said Mike Crosby, executive director and B2B technology industry analyst for NPD. “In 2023, we expect overall B2B budgets will be lower, resulting in a 2% revenue decline year over year, despite growth in software and cloud services revenue. IT hardware categories will be most impacted in the near-term, but a change in momentum is anticipated for 2024 and 2025 driven by device upgrade and refresh cycles. The channel will also return to growth in 2024, with sales expected to increase by 6%, followed by an additional 7% rise in 2025.”

Channel Impact^®
The data point to areas where sales may be brisk for the channel.

Aryaka Networks Launches Elite Seller Program

Aryaka, a San Mateo, California-based SASE and SD-WAN company, has announced the launch of “Throttle,” an elite seller program within the Aryaka Accelerate Global Partner program. Participation is by nomination and is only open to five top partners at each of Aryaka’s technology services distributors (TSDs).

The initiative provides marketing, customer service and business development resources, including strategic account mapping and intelligence, and in-market and customer-facing sales and engineering tools; marketing audits and consultation, market development funding; lead generation; and various sales incentives.

“We designed the Aryaka Accelerate Global Partner Program to redefine and simplify our channel partnerships with easy-to-sell solutions and a frictionless sales process,” said Craig Patterson, Aryaka’s Channel Chief and Senior Vice President of Global Channels. “Throttle takes our global partner program to a new level by targeting marketing, sales, and support resources to a small group of hand-picked, high-fit partners. By investing in partnerships with top performers, we expect to accelerate our mutual success.”

Throttle partners are required to actively advocate for Aryaka solutions, complete extensive training-and-certification, and meet monthly qualified opportunity goals and quarterly sales targets.

Channel Impact^®
The invitation-only partner program is designed to deliver exceptional business development, marketing support, qualified leads, and other incentives in exchange for partner loyalty and proactive sales.

Juniper Networks Rolls Out New Partner Programs for 2023

Juniper Networks has announced the next evolution of its Partner Advantage Program. The Sunnyvale, California-based network company is introducing a number of new elements, particularly new design, sales, and marketing tools for the managed services space.

“The changes we’ve made to the program for 2023 are built with a partner-first mentality, to make sure we’re delivering the strategy, investments and tools needed to grow their businesses,” said Gordon Mackintosh, Group Vice President of Global Channel & Virtual Sales at Juniper Networks. “We believe that the combination of our best-in-class partner programs combined with the most innovative products in the market gives us the strongest offering for partners in the industry.”

This year, the company is adding additional support for its Elite Plus partners, including new ROI modeling, simplified MOU processes and new rewards to help drive growth.

The Juniper Champions program will expand to include global partners, marketing partners and Juniper distributors.

The Diversity+ Partner Program supports certified diverse partner businesses, growing to 44 partners in a 6-month period, and expanding in 2023. “With resources like the new Velocity Pricing Tool, Partner Business Center, and Advantage Insights, our partners will be able to act faster, close deals quicker and compete at a higher level in 2023,” said Helda Lopes, Vice President of Global Partner Programs & Sales Acceleration. “Our emphasis on partner success and our willingness to invest in them through new solutions and programs has been key to our growth. Juniper’s roster of distribution partners increased by 18% in 2022, and we only expect that trend to continue in 2023.”

New tools have also been added to better support the overall program.

Channel Impact^®
The new program structure is intended to help partners build and sustain their Juniper practice, enabling partners to extend their success through a Networking as a Service (NaaS) model.