7 Changes Solution Providers Must Confront

Partners Are No Longer Working With Just The IT Department  

By 2016, 80 percent of new IT investments are expected to go through line-of-business executives, which Bibby said makes it more essential than ever that solution providers understand the particular verticals they play in.

In particular, Bibby expects the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) and Chief Information Officer (CIO) to play a much greater role in IT decisions.

Today's CMO knows a lot more about big data, analytics and social media, Bibby said, while CIOs are now being evaluated on business performance and innovation rather than just controlling costs.

Partners today are leveraged less for server, network and database installations, Bibby said, and more for optimizing business outcomes.