Channel's großen Käse roll eyes at vendors' performance under the spread sheets

Bulky channel outfits in EMEA are bringing home the bacon, according to peeps at Canalys.

Aggregated figures from eight publicly quoted suppliers in the region revealed an average year-on-year sales growth of eleven per cent in the first quarter of 2014 – more than double that of tech titans collective including HP and Apple.

Those channelites are Computacenter, Bechtle, Cancom, Proact, Systemax, Atea, Econocom and Insight, though the latter bucked the trend, reporting a revenue decline in the period.

Alastair Edwards, Canalys principal analyst, said the End-of-Windows XP factor kicked customers into action in the quarter as Microsoft called time on standard support.

"It [the PC refresh] has some life still in terms of the run rate business, it will be a multi-quarter impact and will drive business in Q2 and Q3," he told The Channel.

This was not the only issue boosting channel coffers; vendors such as HP, Dell and EMC have been handing customer accounts they traditionally serviced directly to partners to spread their reach and cut costs.

The tech titans in contrast collectively rustled up 4.4 per cent worth of sales growth in the period, including numbers from Apple, HP, Google, EMC, Cisco, Microsoft, Juniper, SAP and Samsung.

Trickling down the supply chain into the SME and mid-market, Canalys' research of 320 suppliers in its Candifero community revealed that more than a half grew by more than five per cent in Q1.

The move to managed services is helping to lift the turnover of channelites, as small and mid-sized businesses look to outsource their IT depts to a supplier.

Edwards said the findings suggested a raft of channel firms are building engagement with emerging vendors including application makers, cloudy providers, enterprise software and analytics developers.

"The channel is a very strong position. The trends in the industry are playing in their favour," said Edwards. ®