In these challenging macro-economic times some companies are still thriving and growing. A robust technology partnership is a key ingredient to success for firms that want to stay strong and have a compelling offering for customers across EMEA, according to new evidence.
A global study has highlighted that Europe is a fertile environment for business transformation and demonstrated the myriad number of business opportunities that await official partners of a leading cloud services provider.
Labelled as the Partner Ecosystem Multiplier (PEM), Canalys interviewed Amazon Web Services partners across the US, Europe and Asia, globally to fully understand and calculate the financial impact of three years of partnerships with a cloud provider.
The study found that some businesses can make up to a six times financial return on top of selling raw cloud services.
The report identified that the global market for cloud infrastructure services was worth an estimated USD 250 billion in 2022. The authors recognised the need for end customers to lean on their technology providers to help facilitate and provide a growing range of digital services and expertise in order to realise the full benefits of the cloud.
Europe boasts second-highest value globally, presenting numerous opportunity to SMBs
Europe is gradually embracing the cloud and many businesses see vast opportunities to deliver new value to customers by leveraging a major cloud service provider and to generate revenue from incremental services and solutions. The end result for customers is more modern services, improved business efficiencies and often cut costs.
Partners who engage across all activities of their customers' technology lifecycles are better positioned to create a “spin” effect.
The findings demonstrated that partners who engage across all activities of their customers' technology lifecycles are better positioned to create a “spin” effect with customers, thus yielding further future opportunities.
One example is PA Consulting, a business that recognises the benefits are financial, technological, and social. They said that their partnership with AWS enables them to strengthen and broaden their services to clients and converge areas of expertise to create a more compelling offer. By working together, we drive commercial performance and accelerate growth for our joint clients.
Leading the way in cloud innovation
One profitable segment of the customers’ technology lifecycle is the Design stage, which allows customers to define or expand their cloud capabilities. Representing 26% of the revenue-generating opportunities for UK partners, the UK is leading the way in the Design stage in comparison to other EMEA markets; looking further afield to Germany and France, Build is the largest overall segment across much of EMEA.
It is clear that European partners are focused on generating long-term revenue from cloud solutions. All the companies sampled in Europe showed that they have a healthy return on investment for their collaboration with a cloud provider and that it is the partner who is the main financial beneficiary. This key finding indicates a high rate of innovation and value-add among European cloud providers’ partners. Many European businesses of all sizes are now shifting away from legacy IT systems.
Customers set to prioritise cybersecurity and modernisation
As customers become more digitally mature, they will increasingly place greater focus on key areas such as modernisation and cybersecurity as they look to maintain and improve their cloud infrastructure. With the Build and Adopt segments enabling customers to unlock greater value from their cloud investments - through customer training, change management and data analytics - emphasising the breadth of services available and enhancing customer success is key to the growth of these segments. While the Build segment is a means of generating recurring revenue through ongoing support solutions, currently within the Adopt segment far fewer European partners are delivering PEM generating Adopt services for their customers. This is a missed opportunity.
The widest range of customer solutions are reaping greatest benefits
As digital transformation and a cloud-first approach steadily and increasingly become inherent to much of the UK market’s overall business growth strategies, customers will need trusted partners to guide them from concept to delivery, necessitating a higher uptake in post-procurement services.
SMBs and less digitally-mature businesses are also likely to seek ongoing maintenance, monitoring, and supportive management from partners’ managed services. When it comes to long-term customer loyalty, the Managed Services segment of the lifecycle is absolutely crucial.
Customer obsession is more vital than ever in today’s challenging economic environment; businesses need to see tangible impact from working with their respective partners and cloud providers. It is evident that partners who lean into the most of AWS’s services and offer the widest, deepest range of solutions for their customers are reaping the greatest financial benefits. Therefore, AWS and its 100,000+ partners across the APN will continue to ensure they offer the most sophisticated digital solutions that truly enable their customers to thrive in their digital journeys.
For more information visit aws.amazon.com/resources/analyst-reports/Canalys/global-ar-report-ardm-partner-ecosystem-multiplier
