Monday Morning Impact – April 24

Kaseya Identifies Top MSP Priorities

Kaseya, a Miami-based provider of IT management and security software, has released its 2023 MSP Benchmark Report demonstrating that automation, cybersecurity, and integration are at the top of the list when it comes to managed service provider priorities.

About 90% of respondents specified automation as a crucial technology for their business because it improves efficiency, allows them to take on more clients and generates more revenue by automating common processes like endpoint management, monitoring, patching, ticket resolution and even cybersecurity. More than half of the executive (64%) and technician (54%) respondents picked automation, including auto-remediation of tickets, as their top RMM feature.

In year-over-year comparison, there is a 15% jump in respondents who chose cybersecurity as the top IT challenge their clients expect to face this year. About 65% of respondents said most, or all, of their clients have asked for cybersecurity advice.

The top five services that respondents intend to offer in 2023 fall under the cybersecurity umbrella, covering identity and access management, security awareness training and Dark Web monitoring. With cybercrime exploding, the percentage of respondents who back up their customers’ SaaS applications, such as Microsoft 365, Google Workspace or Salesforce, increased to 83% from 78% in 2022. About one-third, 32% of the respondents, evaluate their threat landscape monthly and 35% evaluate quarterly, while only 11% do so annually, and a mere 1% never do so. Technician respondents said that enhanced security services recorded the most growth in the last 12 months; executives reported it as second place. (For executives, subscription-based managed services took the top spot, with business continuity and disaster recovery (BCDR) service featured among the top four service categories.)

Meanwhile, 90% of respondents agree that integration between core applications is critical to their business. Lack of integration between solutions continues to hinder daily operations and productivity. In the survey, 39% of respondents reported that the biggest obstacle to business growth is the inability of technicians to maximize software usage. About 63% of executives surveyed said that integration enabled them to take on more clients and expand their business, with 54% saying fewer technicians were needed to manage the workload. Almost half, 49% of the executives, also said integration helped them cut costs.

The primary challenges anticipated by MSPs include customer acquisition as the MSP space intensifies, and dealing with advanced and sophisticated security threats. Supply chain issues are leveling off – the percentage of respondents who said supply chain impact is significant dropped from 35% to 28% in 2023.

Kaseya’s 2023 MSP Benchmark Report is based on a survey of more than 1,000 managed services providers (MSPs) from the Americas, Europe, Middle East, Africa and the APAC region. Of the respondents, executives comprised 37% of the pool while technicians made up the remaining 63%.

Channel Impact^®
The report drives home the importance of automation and integration while cybersecurity continues to be a pressing issue.

Global PC shipments suffered a drop of 33% in Q1 2023

The first quarter of 2023 saw total shipments of desktops and notebooks decline 33% to 54 million units, representing the fourth consecutive quarter of double-digit annual declines, according to Canalys, a Singapore-based market researcher. Notebook shipments suffered a large decline, falling 34% year-on-year to 41.8 million units. Desktop shipments performed slightly better, undergoing a 28% decline to 12.1 million units.

Canalys expects Q1 2023 to represent the largest shipment decline for the worldwide PC market this year, with recovery to begin in the second half of this year and gather momentum in 2024.

“Most of the issues that plagued the industry in the second half of last year have extended into the start of 2023,” said Ishan Dutt, Senior Analyst at Canalys. “Channel partners have indicated that their inventory levels have been reducing but remain high in absolute terms. 39% of partners surveyed by Canalys in January 2023 reported having more than five weeks of PC inventory, with 18% reporting nine weeks or more. Meanwhile, demand across all customer segments remains dampened, with more pressure arising from further interest rate increases in the US, Europe, and other markets, where reducing inflation is a top priority. Consumers and businesses will remain cautious about outlays on new PCs in the short term, with significant market recovery only expected to kick in during the fourth quarter of 2023.”

Lenovo, with a market share of 24%, topped the market for shipments of desktops and notebooks but suffered a large annual decline of 30%, down 12.7 million units. HP claimed second place, undergoing a less dramatic drop of 24% to 12.0 million units of shipments. Third-placed Dell posted shipments of 9.5 million units, down 31% and falling below the 10.0-million-unit mark for the first time since Q1 2018. Apple faced the largest decline among the top five vendors, with total shipments of Macs dropping 46% to 4 million units.

Channel Impact^®
While the near-term opportunity appears weak, channel partners will see relief in the form of a much larger post-Covid installed base, the transition to Windows 11, and both refresh and new demand from digital education in 2024 and beyond.

Comcast Business Expands Networking Portfolio for SMBs

Comcast Business has announced the expansion of its global SD-WAN portfolio with the addition of two new solutions tailored for businesses with standalone locations. Key features include intelligent traffic steering, and direct connections to cloud services, enhanced application performance and resiliency, advanced security capabilities, access to a 24×7 Security Operations Center (SOC), and simplified installation.

These solutions target companies that lack IT budgets or a corporate network but need to support single locations with cloud connectivity using public Internet services.

“Comcast Business’ global SD-WAN solutions are a central component of our secure network solutions strategy,” said Shena Seneca Tharnish, Vice President, Cybersecurity Products, Comcast Business. “With the addition of capabilities that support standalone sites, we are more prepared than ever to partner with businesses of all sizes to tailor solutions that meet their unique needs.”

Channel Impact^®
The SD-WAN solutions are intended to enable small and medium businesses, with either a single location or multiple standalone locations, to securely connect and manage their network, applications, and users, leveraging SaaS applications and cloud services.