A new report by Channel Insider that covers the $450 billion marketplace of solutions providers suggests many solutions providers remain unfazed if not optimistic of the immediate future despite being in the midst of a great global recession.
According to CI “shifts in business technology consumption and new delivery systems are forcing the rapid evolution of the technology solutions sales and services model.” The greatest projected increase is 38% in Software as a Services (SaaS).
The report advises services companies to resist conventional wisdom that they should cut back on marketing and ramp up sales imprint with existing customers, and instead perceive the current crisis as a transformational period wherein struggling businesses will be forced to adopt new technologies and business models to push ahead to a brighter future.
I have witnessed this firsthand in the social media space where cutbacks in advertising spend on conventional print, television, radio, and banner ads have shifted budgets towards direct engagement models across blogs, forums, and social networks like Facebook and Twitter.
I believe that technological advances in mobile and digital will continue to collapse advertising, marketing, PR and customer service departments into one another as consumers increasingly demand two-way dialogue with brands, and the companies that prepare for the future by listening to their customers will be the ones best equipped to become market leaders in years to come.
Picture from Geek and Poke under their Creative Commons License.
