From a global perspective, one that includes Africa, customers have changed the way they operate and this has triggered a change in the ICT services industry. Today, the customer is more tech-savvy and more focused on how the technology on offer will drive or impact specific business outcomes, than technical 'bells and whistles', according to regional executives from US-based multinational SD-WAN company Riverbed Technology.

Influences like the cloud, Internet of Things (IoT), mobility and data analytics are expected to fuel growth of ICT services on the continent, specifically within key regions including Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa.

Frost & Sullivan has identified innovation, service diversification, M&A activity as well as network sharing among some of the reasons for expected high growth within Kenya's ICT market in 2017. The East African country's economy is expected to grow by 6%, according to the World Bank.

In June 2016 the Nigerian Telecommunications (Services) Sector Report for Q1 2016 revealed 5% growth, up from 3.49% growth in the first quarter of 2015.

According to an ITWeb report South Africa's ICT market, including telecoms services, grew about 5% overall in 2016, but the IDC expects the market to decline to 4.3% growth in 2017-2018

The Internet of Things is expected grow, with the IDC Worldwide Internet of Things Forecast 2015 – 2022 predicting growth of up to US$11 billion for MEA, and an increase in spend of up to US$2 billion in South Africa alone.

Clearly, service providers will have to be alert to opportunities within a changing market.

Speaking on behalf of Riverbed Technology, a company that continues to make inroads into Africa, Senior Vice President Global Channel Karl Meulema and Vice President Channel Sales, EMEA Giovanni Di Filippo say a key trend is that the person driving IT decision making within the customer is no longer the head of IT – it is more a business-wide discussion with the necessary budget sourced from the business side.

"The business side of the house drives applications, drives business outcomes and so the IT side of the house more and more needs to be following that as a lead. And that means the whole industry needs to change the way it is positioning itself ... much more away from selling products and features and focusing on why would the customer care, and more on what is the business outcome that you are driving, impacting," said Meulema.

If there is no obvious connection between what IT proposes and a clear business outcome, there is no funding and this is a challenge to service providers say the Riverbed Technology executives.

Moreover, with the advent of 'anything as a service', business leaders today are not entirely reliant upon their IT units to be able to access and apply infrastructure. This is a game-changer for the ICT services and supply market because 'anything as a service' has emerged as a major facilitator and catalyst for new businesses.

"It means that anybody can now create a new business and business model without having to do massive investments to catch up with the established leaders," Meulema continues. "Disruption is everywhere and disruption is constant."

He acknowledges that this means the market has become even more competitive and says the ability to harvest investments is becoming shorter.

Riverbed's partnership-centric game plan

From their discussions with their partners in Africa, particularly with its sole distributor in South Africa First Distribution, Both Meulema and Di Filippo believe the issue of timing is really the only thing that may be different between Africa's ICT services space and global counterparts.

They also believe that Africa is in catchup mode and this is not necessarily a bad thing because it offers the opportunity to leapfrog in certain instances and grow quicker.

According to Meulema and Di Filippo conversations about Africa's ICT services market is being dominated by the issues of hybrid cloud, managed services and digital transformation, as the emphasis by decision makers remains on agility, flexibility and a change from opex to capex models, says Di Filippo.

In 2016 the company focus was to help partners expand across three key areas: building an embedded solution and services program, driving joint engagement, and accelerating repeatable revenue.

As part of its game plan for the Africa channel the company will continue with the process it started two years ago to be more selective about its partner portfolio and scale down, but at the same time intensify relationships.

Riverbed Technology has adopted a two-tier partnership structure and has to date reduced its portfolio to 100 global partners (including Kenya, Nigeria and Zimbabwe), with an average of five partners per region internationally, which, combined, generates 80% of its business.

Meulema and Di Filippo say the company is not closing its doors to new partners but will focus more acutely on more intensive engagement with existing partners and specifically on the ability to identify and help pursue clear business opportunities earlier than before.

Going forward the company will prioritise what they have called joint engagement, or pooling expertise and experience to assist in creating and investing in opportunities – which is also linked to an incentive scheme.

It will also emphasise embedded solutions or the value its technology offers as part of end-to-end solutions.