IDC’s Prediction #6 for 2010:

“There will be a blurring of lines between how enterprises and small-to-medium size businesses approach technology spending. SMBs will start to rely less on factors like vendor marketing and brand when making core technology purchases. This will, in turn, cause IT vendors to move away from the traditional "soft brand pitch" to SMBs, said Mabrucco. This shift in SMB behavior reflects a growing understanding of IT on business performance, he said.”

Over the last year I have repeatedly expressed my belief that smaller IT service providers and consultancies need to shift away from “managed services” as strictly a hardware/software offering and begin to provide services managing opex/capex budgets, contracts, and third-party vendor negotiations. Perhaps they already do – we’re sometimes lagging a bit up here in Montana.