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Welcome to the MSP Radio newsletter, catching you up on some stories you might have missed!
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Where we stand now
From Tuesday, May 27th's episode: Gartner out with their device shipment projections – the pandemic will result in a 14 percent decline in PC, tablet, and phone sales this year. Shipments of notebooks, tablets, and Chromebooks will decline slower than the PC market in 2020. Additionally, phone lifetimes should extend from 2.5 years in 2018 to 2.7 years in 2020.
Analyst organization Context, meanwhile, indicates that enterprise hardware sales revenues have widened from 1 percent year on year in January to 11 percent in March and 17 percent in April. Servers were hit worst, as well as large format displays and disk arrays. Services, meanwhile, grew four percent in April, while software revenues were, which were up 10 percent year on year in January, are up only four percent year on year in April.
And in final data points on the trends, Channel E2E is reporting on data from MSPCFO, which is reporting that 74% of MSPCFO’s clients saw revenue either grow or decline by less than 2%,and 54% actually saw recurring revenue increase in April 2020 vs the monthly average of January through March. Also in that data was big hits to project and product.
Why do we care?
I’m going to start with the MSPCFO data – my inclination as an analyst is to observe that I don’t believe the MSPCFO customer base would be representative of tech services in general. If you’re engaged with MSPCFO, you’re likely not at the lower half of the market. That said, we know the impact is inconsistent between the very large trend and how it plays out in both specific industries, regions, and specific businesses.
Project data down, equipment sales down, all pointing to tightening of budgets and delays of expenditures. That’s smart business management from customers, and the same recommendation I’ve given to services companies here. Expect more of that.
The data is backing up the advice – expect choppy waters ahead, reforecast your business, and plan accordingly.
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Let's Get Topic(al): From SMB Online Conference
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Let’s break down how the trends of the day work. This online discussion will be interactive, as we’ll answer questions from the audience and discuss how to leverage news and information to be effective.
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GDPR 2 years later
From Thursday, May 28th's episode: Two years ago, the EU rolled out GDPR, and a number of pieces are coming out to analyze the law and its impact.
So far, from May 2018 to March 2020, only 231 fines or sanctions were levied compared to 144,376 privacy complaints. Ireland and Luxembourg are the two European authorities dealing with cases involving big tech like Amazon, Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, PayPal, Instagram, Microsoft, and Google, and so far have only issued one fine… against Ireland’s state child care agency.
Those same big companies have invested heavily in compliance, with organizations like Microsoft adopting GDPR as the global standard.
Why do we care?
I’m expecting iteration on these privacy laws. I’m disappointed to see the enforcement be such a problem for the Europeans, as enforcement, and the subsequent court battles and refinement are actually part of the process to create solid regulations. If the agencies implementing are not enforcing, that’s a negative in my view.
California’s laws differentiate on size where the European ones don’t – I do think there is a need to differentiate based on size, as there is both the ability to implement but also the damage capable. Privacy implications grow dramatically with scale, so the larger the data set, the larger the privacy implications.
Weigh in. Technologists need to.
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The C-Level is the problem
From Friday, May 29th's episode: A new study from MobileIron surveyed business leaders across Europe and the US… and turns out, the biggest security risks at companies are the people in charge.
C-level executives are the second most likely group to be targeted by attackers, the most likely to fall for those attacks… and also the most likely to forget their password, request access for unsupported devices, and try to turn off security features. They also make up a full third of the cost of password resets.
PC Matic also looked at the security situation, and this study focused on the virtual workforce and work from home. Some useful insights.
Only 39% of employees were issued a device for work from home purposes. Beyond that, 93% said their employers did not provide them with antivirus for their personal device that was being used for work purposes.
Why do we care?
Right now, if I was a technology services provider, I would be offering a package to home users and work from home users that included the tool kit and basics of patching, backup, and the like. I’d include no support hours on home computers, but just the basic toolkit and enforcement of policy. I’d also be working with the companies and blocking access from non secured computers.
Or I’d get businesses to issue work-from home gear.
The data about C-level executives is alarming and sad. This shows lack of buy in at the top on security. Focus your education efforts here, because you’re not going to make a difference if you can’t get corporate buy in.
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