The company’s channel partners have delivered over 120 new customers which means that, collectively, around 60% of all their customers are now using Advanced products.
Advanced’s Channel Sales Director, Dean McGlone, has said that the Cloud, and arrival of the Generation Z cohort in the workforce have helped drive its channel sales. He explained: “The Cloud has now reached a tipping point, with adoption of Cloud-based Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and finance applications experiencing a significant growth period. What’s more, we have seen the Cloud push out older, more traditional technology formats as Generation Z workers enter employment.
“These workers – who were born after the mid-1990s – have been familiar with the internet and technology since a young age and have had social media available virtually all through their adolescence. As digital natives, they are tipped to be the innovators in the workplace, who have an emotional connection to adopting innovation, a technical first mindset and prepared to challenge the technical status quo. They will expect modern technology, flexible working and a digital environment which employers are already now forced to accommodate. Our channel partners are therefore tapping into this opportunity.”
Kamarin Computers is one partner that has been seizing the opportunity. It is seeing more of its customers, which are predominantly mid-size organisations, move to the Cloud with many reporting that their Generation Z employees are influencing procurement decisions.
“Cloud technology has been around for some time,” commented George Smith, Managing Director at Kamarin Computers. “However, it’s the more established organisations – which are used to on-premise solutions – that have been slower to adopt it compared to start-ups and younger companies that have been Cloud-first from day one.
“Now, as Generation Z enters the workforce, we are seeing these established organisations ask questions around the Cloud because their employees expect them to be using it across all functions. These younger workers are starting to become part of management teams or play an important role in the IT decision making process.
“What’s more, there are now functional, feature-rich and flexible solutions available to mid-size businesses that meet their unique requirements – along with plenty of success stories to reference. They know the benefits, but importantly now have the price point and accessibility to use them. Advanced’s Business Cloud Essentials solution, for example, ticks all business functionality requirements.”
While licence and core on-premise applications currently account for over 50% of Advanced’s overall channel sales, this figure will decrease if the trend seen over the last 12 months continues. In fact, Advanced predicts the Cloud will become the primary choice for new customers within two years.
Dean adds: “As more Generation Z workers enter the workplace, we expect UK businesses to swing to the Cloud even faster – and it’s an opportunity the rest of the IT channel can’t afford to be complacent about. If they are, then they risk being left behind. To meet these demands we are investing in supporting our partners with an even greater focus on delivering our expanding suite of Cloud applications. This supports the original vision of TruePartner, which is to help resellers of ERP software accelerate their customers’ transformation to the Cloud.”