Customer Demographics

Average customer size and channel firm size typically correlate, CompTIA found, with larger channel businesses doing business with enterprise customers more often than they do business with SMBs.

Nearly a quarter of channel firms reported selling primarily to a non-IT business executive. CompTIA said those purchases were likely along the lines of software-as-a-service and mobility rather than traditional IT products such as servers and storage.

Nearly a third of solution providers expect a significant change in the types of customers they do business with in the coming year, compared with just 3 percent of MSPs.

Compared to MSPs, conventional solution providers are more than three times as likely to sell to CIOs or IT staff, according to CompTIA.