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Artificial Intelligence has officially reached the “you can do anything with it” stage of technological hype. Judging just by AI vendor narratives, and by some of the media, it’s the golden key to productivity, efficiency, optimization and innovation. And if you add agents? They will think, write, negotiate, design, respond, validate automate, and probably brew your coffee and pick your tie, if you wear one. All you need to do is… well, everything else. And clients are trying, with 59% of organizations in Europe declaring they are using Agentic AI. 

Because while vendors keep promising moving mountains with a few lines of AI code, clients are still trying to figure out how to move their own data out of legacy systems and into AI. 

The Vendor: Here’s your AI, you can do anything with it! 

Two years into generative AI world, and still, you walk into any tech conference, and you can hear the same verse of a song we all know: “With (our) AI, you can/must/need/should/want to transform your business!”. 
And it does sound wonderful until you realize that behind the shiny demos and glossy ppt decks, there’s a subtle assumption that it is the client, who will have to make it happen. 

The vendor provides the vision; the client does the homework. 
And let’s not be fooled, it is not just a little homework. We’re talking about a full school year project, that, if you’ve ever done it, you’re dreading; from data preparation, to process standardization, to employee training, to infrastructure modernization. Let’s not forget we also need to build convincing business cases for the board. The same board that may also add to the noise with inflated expectations, like parents tricked by the school with a promise of great grades and a ticket to the best university, if only your child works hard enough. 

The Client: We’d love to, if only we had time… 

When you talk to most enterprises, you’ll probably hear a slightly different tone than that of vendors. Clients are not rejecting AI; they are overwhelmed and exhausted by it: 80% of clients in Europe say they manage to move beyond the PoC stage, but only half of those projects bring measurable outcomes. They’re juggling existing priorities often squeezed by budgets (even if AI spending seems to be relatively immune to budget cost, as we see in IDC research). And they are asked to lead AI transformation projects as if they had a spare team of data scientists and engineers hiding somewhere. 

And most painfully, vendors are often seen as teachers not that willing to help. As one manufacturing executive put it: “They come excited, but when asked for business cases or scenarios we can use, there’s silence”. 

That silence speaks volumes. Clients know that AI isn’t plug-and-play, it is much more complex and time-consuming.  You need to clean, prep, build, deploy, test and hope it scales. They understand that before you even dream of “autonomous decision making,” (though the sheer promise of autonomy can also scare some clients!) you need data consolidation, process standardization or cross-department alignment. Without that backbone connecting all stakeholders, no model will do magic. And oh, yes, change management, anyone? This needs to be planned and taken care of, too. Plus, once you have done all the work, you realize, this work continues: 49% of companies today focus also on making existing AI projects work better.  

But that’s rarely what the vendor pitch slides say. 

Only we are not at school anymore… 

Let’s agree, for many clients this feels like school all over again. Vendors show up as enthusiastic teachers, armed with the latest learning materials (“Look, a new LLM!” or “How about a fresh set of agents?”), and clients are expected to do the homework: research, structure, and present working examples at the next review. 

The difference? In school, a good teacher stays after class to help you understand the assignment. In AI world, too many vendors drop the textbook on a client’s desk, or a presentation into their mailbox, and head to the next classroom, I mean, to the next client… 

What is really needed is a different educational approach. Good teachers, like good business partners, guide, not grade. They adapt to the student’s (or client’s) level, pace, and context. They explain the “why” before demanding the “how”. That’s what’s so painfully missing in much of today’s vendor-client dynamic: tutorship instead of lectures. 

The missing link between a vision presented and the value expected  

The truth is, you cannot “do AI” without doing groundwork, in that sense, homework is needed. You are as good at math as the number of math problems you solved. And sure enough, that groundwork is not glamorous. 
And this much needed AI readiness isn’t about another platform or toolset; it’s about structure, sense, and support. The real hard work happens behind the scenes: making data talk to each other, mapping or streamlining processes, and, most importantly, preparing people to trust and use new systems. It’s less about technology as such, and much more about maturity: operational, organizational, and yes, managerial. 

To achieve that, what companies need most are partners who understand their business language as well as their data models. As one CIO put it: “We need partners, but we must drive the strategy, not follow vendors”. 

And that’s precisely where the conversation must change. We, or the market, desperately need to shift from unrealistic ambition – AI for all! to very realistic accountability – AI that fits. 

Going forward less pitching, more partnering, please… 

For vendors, this gap should be more than a talking point – it’s a wake-up call. The distance between what’s promised and what’s practical keeps growing, and clients are losing patience and hope. We’ve all heard the same speeches about collaboration, co-innovation and customer-centricity and yet too often, the market still gets more promise than substance. 

Clients aren’t lazy students skipping their homework. They’re professionals keeping production lines running, supply chains stable, and customers satisfied and all while being told they’re not “AI-ready” enough.  

If vendors want to stay relevant, they need to move from selling solutions to solving problems. That means stepping off the stage, where they are fighting with competitors and into the trenches to fight for clients, learning the nuances of each industry and individual organization’s needs. It also means realizing that success isn’t measured in the number of features added, dashboards set up or models deployed, but in business outcomes that actually matter. 

This may sound like a cliché but still true: at the end of the day, clients don’t buy AI (or any other technology for that matter); they buy results.  

We all need less hype and more help 

The promise of (well executed) AI is real. But so is the fatigue with AI at this point. It’s time to close the gap between “you can do anything” and ” but you need to do everything yourself”. 

If vendors truly want clients to embrace AI, they must act less like teachers assigning homework – think Bismarck-style education, and more like tutors walking beside their students – think Socrates before he drank a hemlock infusion. It’s this moment, when we realize, unlike at school, there’s no final exam in business, only continuous learning. 

And I would bet those who help their clients learn with them, not for them, will be the ones still standing when the hype cycle fades. 

You will hear more about AI and agents in IDC EMEA’s FutureScape Predictions webcast this December. You can register here,  

You may also be interested in a webcast Ewa is presenting on AI Sovereignty. You can register for that one here.  

For an overall look at AI in EMEA, you can download this eBook.  

To learn more about how International Data Corporation (IDC) can support your technology market data needs, please contact us.

Ewa Zborowska - Research Director, AI, Europe - IDC

Analyst Profile
Ewa Zborowska is an experienced technology professional with 25 years of expertise in the European IT industry. Since 2003, she has been a member of the IDC team, based in Warsaw, researching IT services markets. In 2018, she joined the European team with a specific emphasis on cloud and AI. Ewa is currently the lead analyst for IDC’s European Artificial Intelligence Innovations and Strategies CIS.

Across the technology ecosystem, a persistent, and increasingly problematic, obsession with top-line revenue continues to dominate the conversation. It’s a legacy mindset, rooted in traditional channel models where volume, rebates, and resell margins defined success. But in today’s world of cloud platforms, marketplaces, SaaS solutions, and interconnected services, that mindset is not just outdated — it’s actively distorting how vendors engage with partners. 
 
The reality is simple: value drives profit margin. Revenue is secondary. 
 
Smart partners already know this. They prioritize profitability, customer outcomes, and solution relevance. They understand that a $20 million partner business with 10% profit margin is far more sustainable than a $100 million partner business scraping by on 1% profit margin. Yet many vendors continue to celebrate inflated revenue optics, often without empathy or understanding of the complex financial mechanics that underpin those numbers. 

The danger of revenue aggregation 

In an ecosystem model, a single customer spend of $X might touch: 

  • A services-led partner or MSP
  • A cloud marketplace
  • An ISV
  • A distributor
  • A hyperscaler platform
  • A subcontractor or specialist integrator 

Each entity may report revenue from that same transaction. The result? Massive inflation of ecosystem revenue totals — with no deduplication. The same dollar is counted multiple times across the ecosystem. It’s a mirage of scale that masks the real question: who is delivering value, and who is capturing margin? 
 
Those who glamourize big numbers through aggregation — without acknowledging the complexity of transaction flows, margin splits, and service overlays — risk misleading the market. Worse, they risk misguiding their own partner strategies. In an increasingly AI-, cloud-, and marketplace-centric landscape, understanding how revenue is earned, shared, and sustained is far more important than how much is reported. 

Who are partners really working for? 

Revenue matters – especially to vendors. A partner that drives increased consumption and revenue from a customer is doing exactly what vendors want. And that’s fine – as long as it’s in the best interests of the customer. 
 
But every partner must strike a balance. Are they working for the benefit of the vendors in their portfolio, or for the customers they serve? That’s a tightrope. And not everyone has the balance right. 
 
Partners who prioritize vendor incentives over customer outcomes risk losing trust, relevance, and long-term opportunity. The most successful partners are those who align vendor goals with customer value, not the other way around. 

What vendors should do differently 

Vendors must evolve how they measure and support partner success. That means: 

  • Moving beyond transactional metrics to focus on customer success, lifecycle engagement, and solution impact 
  • Recognizing services-led and IP-driven partners as strategic influencers, not just resellers 
  • Understanding profit margin mechanics across the ecosystem — and designing programs that reward value creation, not just volume 
  • Avoiding one-size-fits-all partner models that fail to reflect the diversity of partner roles in AI, cloud, and vertical solutions 

What partners should do differently 

Partners must also rethink how they define success and where they focus their energy. That means: 

  • Prioritizing profitability over volume — chasing real profit margin, not just top-line growth 
  • Investing in services, integration, and vertical expertise to stay relevant in complex solution environments 
  • Building trust with customers by aligning technology choices to business outcomes, not vendor incentives 
  • Understanding their role in the ecosystem — not just as resellers, but as orchestrators of value across multiple partners and entities 

The partners who thrive in this environment are those who: 

  • Lead with customer success and lifecycle engagement 
  • Build vertical-specific solutions with real-world impact 
  • Understand how to navigate and influence multi-vendor, multi-platform ecosystems 
  • Know when to say no — to deals, incentives, or programs that don’t serve their long-term strategy 

IDC’s ecosystem lens 

IDC’s ecosystem research focuses on value creation, margin capture, and strategic influence. We analyze how partners orchestrate outcomes, how they align with customer buying journeys, and how they evolve their business models to stay relevant. You can find more information here.  

Stuart and Andreas recently presented a webcast, The New Partner Playbook: Ecosystem-Led Growth in EMEA, which you can find here.  

If you have any further questions, drop them in the form here.  

 

Stuart Wilson - Senior Research Director, EMEA Partnering Ecosystems - IDC

Analyst Profile
Stuart Wilson is senior research director for IDC’s Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMEA) Partnering Ecosystems program. With over two decades of global experience, Stuart focuses on the rise of complex, connected ecosystems and how platform models are reshaping routes to market and partner engagement frameworks.

Andreas Storz - Senior Research Manager, EMEA Partnering Ecosystems - IDC

Analyst Profile
Andreas Storz is senior research manager for IDC’s Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMEA) Partnering Ecosystems program. Based in the US, Andreas focuses on the evolution of go-to-market models, new digital value chains and the wider impact on partner ecosystems, exploring how current and future trends will impact the vendor, distributor, and partner landscape.

Beyond revenue: why telecom’s future depends on profitability, not just revenue

On 24 September 2025, I moderated a panel at Connected Britain titled “Monetising Your Network for a Better Tomorrow” — or, as Carlos Bock aptly put it, “Monetising Your Network for a Better Today.” The panel brought together influential voices from across the telecom ecosystem — Ronan Kelly (Managing Director, AllPoints Fibre), Stefan Stanislawski (CEO, Lightning Fibre), Carlos Bock (Executive Chairman, F&W Networks), Will Rhodes (Carrier Managed Service Consultant, Ciena), and Dan Bloch (Senior VP Global Solution, Calix) — to tackle one of the industry’s most urgent challenges: how to unlock new value in a market that’s saturated, commoditised, and fiercely competitive.

The answer, it turns out, isn’t about chasing revenue growth. It’s about profitability.

From ARPU to AMPU: a necessary shift in focus

For more than a decade, telecom operators have measured success by one metric above all others: average revenue per user (ARPU). But as competition intensifies and price wars continue to drive down returns, ARPU alone tells an incomplete story. Carlos Bock noted, customers today are getting a “Ferrari for the price of a Honda.” Ultra-fast, highly reliable connectivity is priced like a commodity — and operators have been complicit in that race to the bottom.

It’s time to shift the industry’s focus from ARPU to AMPU (Average Margin Per User). Understanding what customers pay is no longer enough — telcos must grasp what each user contributes to profitability. During the panel, Ronan Kelly posed a simple yet revealing question: “Who here knows their AMPU?” Out of more than 200 attendees, only two raised their hands. This striking moment underscored a critical gap — most operators lack visibility into per-user margin data, even though it’s essential for informed strategic decisions.

Ultimately, telcos are valued not by the size of their top-line revenue, but by their EBITDA margin — the efficiency with which they generate earnings, as measured by metrics like Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) and EBITDA multiples.

Beyond connectivity: monetisation through value creation

Connectivity will always be the bedrock of telecom. But as bandwidth becomes abundant and undifferentiated, telcos must move beyond selling “pipes” and start selling outcomes.

That means evolving from a product-centric mindset — faster speeds, bigger data packages — to a customer-centric value proposition that focuses on enterprises language and outcomes e.g., visibility, reliability, security, and predictability.

Monetisation isn’t just about launching new services; it’s also about repackaging and optimising what already exists. Whether that’s offering connectivity-as-a-service, bundling security capabilities, or embedding network insights into enterprise workflows, the goal is the same: deliver differentiated value that customers are willing to pay a premium for.

One example came from Stefan Stanislawski, highlighted how telcos can unlock profitability by embedding themselves in their communities. By supporting initiatives like the Heathfield Agricultural Show and enabling smart farming through real-time data transmission, remote monitoring, and IoT connectivity, Lightning Fibre is not just selling broadband — it’s solving real challenges for rural customers. This approach transforms the telco from a utility provider into a trusted local brand. As Stefan put it, “We want to build a community, we want to build a local brand, we want to connect to our customers in these rural areas, understand their challenges, and solve their problems.”

AI as a catalyst for profit growth

Emerging technologies — especially AI, GenAI and Agentic AI — will be the defining factor separating the winners from the laggards.

Ronan Kelly captured this shift bluntly: “there are two types of telcos — those that leverage AI, and those that don’t. The latter, are on a path to bankruptcy.” The industry is already bifurcating into two camps: those integrating AI deeply into operations and customer offerings, and those resisting it. The former will see margins expand, the latter risk irrelevance.

But AI adoption isn’t just a technology challenge — it’s a people challenge. Ronan highlighted the fear many employees feel about AI changing their roles (and how they feel as if they were cheating), Ronan linked this to the early days of Excel: “Did the person who switched from paper to spreadsheets feel like they were cheating?”

AI and automation have real impact on operational efficiency (driving down costs) and revenue enablement (enhancing targeting, personalising offerings, and uncovering new revenue streams). Operators that use AI to intelligently segment customers, tailor marketing, and optimise service delivery will achieve higher margins and stronger competitive positioning.

Dan Bloch added that AI’s real power lies in precision — enabling targeted marketing, customer segmentation, and focused sales strategies. Instead of casting a wide net, “Telcos can use AI to deliver the right message to the right customer at the right time, driving both relevance and profitability.“

Profit through partnerships and ecosystems

The B2B telecom ecosystem is undergoing significant disruption. Hyperscalers, system integrators, multicloud providers, and other non-traditional players are increasingly offering communication services — often with greater agility and deeper enterprise integration. This shift is intensifying competition and pressuring telcos in their core markets.

The result is a fragmented landscape where traditional telcos can no longer rely solely on infrastructure ownership or legacy relationships. Instead, they must rethink their role in the value chain — moving from isolated service providers to collaborative ecosystem partners. Sustainable monetisation will depend on telcos’ ability to co-create value with these emerging players, rather than compete against them in a zero-sum game.

Will Rhodes stressed that “no single operator can capture the full value chain alone. Sustainable monetisation will depend on ecosystem collaboration — where each player understands its value contribution and shares in the resulting margins.”

Whether it’s partnering with cloud hyperscalers for edge services, security vendors for managed offerings, or local organisations to build community-focused solutions, the future of telecom monetisation will be built on shared value creation rather than isolated competition.

What “good” looks like 

In this new era, successful telecom operators will:

  • Know their profitability at a granular level, including per-user margins.
  • Shift from network providers to value enablers, delivering capabilities and outcomes rather than just connectivity.
  • Use AI strategically to boost both efficiency and revenue.
  • Build ecosystems that expand value creation and customer relevance.

The operators that fail to evolve will continue competing on price — and in doing so, erode the very margins they need to survive.

Final thoughts

Telecom’s future growth story isn’t about adding more zeros to the revenue line. It’s about building a business that’s profitable, resilient, and indispensable. That requires a mindset shift — from chasing scale to maximising value, from ARPU to AMPU, and from selling bandwidth to selling outcomes.

To close the session, I asked each panellist to leave the audience with one word that captures their vision for the future of telecom:

  • Carlos → Optimise
  • Stefan → Relationship
  • Dan → Personalise
  • Ronan → Differentiate
  • Will → Partner

As the Connected Britain panel made clear, the telcos that embrace this transformation will not only monetise their networks for a better tomorrow — they’ll secure their profitability today.

AI in EMEA 2025, a recent eBook, features a section on telco. You can download it here.

For more information on AI, join our 2026 tech predictions webcast on Dec 3rd. The Agentic Business Future: Driving Resilience, Sovereignty, and Innovation in EMEA, IDC’s Tech Predictions for 2026 and Beyond.

Masarra Mohamad - Senior Research Analyst, European 5G Enterprise Strategies - IDC

Analyst Profile
Masarra Mohamed is a senior research analyst specializing in analysing the connectivity and communications services markets, focusing on the changing networking requirements, trends, and competitive dynamics that support enterprises in their digital transformation. She explores how enterprise network strategies evolve to enable cloud, AI, and security.

In today’s crowded tech market, features don’t sell. Value does. And yet, far too many sales teams are still stuck pushing product specs while their competitors walk away with the contracts. 

The truth? If your team can’t lead with business value, you’re already behind. 

High-performance sales teams are not created by chance. It’s not about having the loudest pitch or the biggest pipeline. It’s about building teams that can step into the boardroom as trusted advisors. Teams who can link your technology to measurable outcomes that your clients can’t ignore. 

And here’s the catch: most organisations think they’re doing this. Almost none are. 

What Does “Business Value” Really Mean in Sales? 

So, what does it really take to transform a standard sales team into a high-performing one? One that consistently sells business value as an outcome? 

In today’s technology landscape, having an innovative product is just the starting point. What truly sets successful tech vendors apart is their ability to demonstrate clear, measurable business value and return on investment (ROI) to their customers. 

To get there, marketing, sales, and sales enablement leadership must work together to build strong messaging, market insights, and client success stories that can be leveraged in customer interactions. Leading the discussion on what the company can do for the customer and then quantifying the value of that partnership, builds trust and sets a high-performance benchmark. 

How to Equip Sales Teams to Lead with Value 

Not all enterprises can align every salesperson to a consistent value message for each product or service. Salespeople bring a range of individual styles into their relationships, but what unites them is the focus on building trust and instilling confidence in their solutions.  

Despite this need, many organisations lack the experience to develop value-based messaging, collateral, and enablement programs that bring this confidence to life. Creating alignment across teams requires structure, expertise, and the right insights. 

How IDC Helps Sales Teams Sell on Business Value 

At IDC, we work with technology vendors worldwide to strengthen their ability to sell based on business value and tangible outcomes. Our analysts and consultants deliver market insights, benchmarks, and customer validation that empower marketing, sales, and enablement leaders to align around proven value delivery. 

Through tailored sales enablement workshops, value-based messaging frameworks, and analyst-led collateral, IDC equips teams to engage customers with confidence and demonstrate measurable ROI. Get in touch to learn more. 

 

Nathan Budd - Senior Director, Custom Solutions - IDC

Analyst Profile
Nathan Budd is a consulting director, working across strategic, market intelligence and go-to-market solutions. With experience across a spectrum of ICT projects and clients, he delivers a breadth of knowledge and insight to the IDC European consulting team. Over the years, Nathan has worked with CEOs, industry forums, executives and sales teams, to define market strategy, positioning and sources of revenue growth. He is an experienced speaker, project lead and facilitator, bringing energy and perspective, while maintaining the connect between strategic-level thinking and grass-roots action.

A market that demands its own perspective

IDC today published the European Contact Center-as-a-Service (CCaaS) MarketScape, recognizing that Europe’s contact center landscape is shaped by unique regional dynamics, stringent regulatory frameworks, and a more measured approach to adopting new technologies. These characteristics make it essential to evaluate Europe as a distinct market rather than as an extension of global models. Success in this region depends on understanding trust, compliance, and local engagement at a much deeper level.

A market defined by diversity and regulation

The European CCaaS market is expanding rapidly, projected to grow from US$1.5 billion in 2024 to US$3.7 billion by 2029. Yet, it remains highly diverse and fragmented. Differences in regulation, business culture, and language shape how contact centers operate and adopt technology. For example, priorities such as pricing, professional services, and data residency vary widely across key markets, underscoring the importance of regional insight and tailored strategies over a one-size-fits-all approach.

Why a European MarketScape matters

The IDC European CCaaS MarketScape provides an in-depth assessment of how vendors address this diversity. It evaluates how effectively they align their strategies and offerings with Europe’s regulatory, cultural, and operational realities.

It also considers how vendors demonstrate thought leadership — not by simply leading with innovation, but by helping contact centers modernize responsibly. This includes educating customers on the value of digital transformation, offering support to overcome adoption barriers, and using partnerships to bridge linguistic and cultural gaps while building trust.

By capturing these nuances, the IDC European CCaaS MarketScape delivers a region-specific perspective that reflects the complexity, diversity, and maturity of Europe’s contact center ecosystem — and highlights the industry’s steady evolution toward AI-driven, compliant, and customer-centric operations.

IDC MarketScape: European Contact Center-as-a-Service Applications Software 2025 Vendor Assessment is available now.

If you have a question about anything, please fill in this form.

Oru Mohiuddin - Research Director - IDC

Analyst Profile
Oru Mohiuddin is a Research Director in the European Enterprise Communications and Collaboration team. Based in London, she is responsible for IDC’s coverage of Unified Communications and Collaboration in the region. Her work focuses on tracking the markets for premise-based and cloud solutions and new developments and trends, particularly in the light of changing work patterns impacting the traditional mode of enterprise communication. Prior to joining IDC, Oru worked for Euromonitor International, where she focused on Future of Work and technology in the SMB context. She also worked in New York and Bangladesh and speaks English and Bengali. Oru was awarded Chevening Scholarship by the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office to pursue her MSc in International Development from the University of Birmingham. In addition, Oru has a BA from Marymount Manhattan College in New York.

ROI Is the New Mandate: Events Are Back at the Center

B2B tech marketers are navigating tighter budgets and higher expectations in 2026. With ROI under the microscope, one strategy is emerging as both high-impact and measurable: events. IDC’s latest Sponsor Survey surfaces the data behind this shift, equipping marketing leaders with clarity on how and where to focus.

Events Deliver Real Value at Critical Stages

This isn’t a return to events as usual. It’s a reimagining based on measurable business outcomes.

According to IDC’s 2026 Sponsor Survey of 150 senior marketers across the US, UK, Germany, and Singapore:

  • 67% rank brand awareness as a top priority
  • 53% are focused on generating qualified leads
  • 90%+ say events deliver the most value in mid-to-late funnel stages

Hybrid Takes the Lead and the Budget

The format matters, and hybrid is winning.

When asked which formats they’ll prioritize in 2026:

  • 57% of marketers chose hybrid events as their top format
  • 58% expect their event budgets to increase next year

This reflects a push for flexible, scalable, and inclusive experiences that can drive personalized engagement at scale.

What Performance Looks Like in 2026

To prove impact, marketers are aligning event ROI with funnel-specific metrics:

Top success metrics:

  • Cost per opportunity (67%)
  • Lead quality and conversion (60%)
  • Deal influence in key accounts (43%)

Top challenges:

  • Complex execution (52%)
  • Delivering personalized experiences (42%)

Marketers aren’t just seeking impact,they need proof they can show upstream.

What Marketers Value Most in Event Partnerships

Marketers aren’t just choosing events; they’re choosing strategic ecosystems. The IDC survey reveals a strong alignment between what drives investment and what defines a valuable partner.

What drives investment in third-party events:

  • High-quality lead generation (67%)
  • Credibility through association with analysts or peers (63%)
  • Expansion into new accounts or buying centers (47%)

These motivators point to one thing: marketers want more than visibility; they want validation and velocity. Events must open doors, fast-track trust, and spark meaningful conversations.

What defines the right partner:

  • Price-to-value ratio (84%)
  • High-caliber audience (seniority, budget influence) (69%)
  • Personalization (66%)
  • Fast execution and support (54%)
  • Lead-to-pipeline conversion performance (53%)
  • Custom targeting options (51%)

It’s not just about format or reach. Marketers are choosing partners that combine content credibility with precision targeting. In a complex buying environment, relevance, not just scale, wins.

Together, these findings reflect a clear mandate: outcomes matter. From tailored audience experiences to measurable lead progression, marketers are investing where value is both visible and verifiable.

Insight-Led Content Is the Difference-Maker

The success of an event hinges on relevance. That’s why marketers are doubling down on partners who bring audience precision and analyst-backed content.

  • 91% say independent, analyst-led content is critical to event success
  • Trusted insight builds trust across every stage of engagement before, during, and after the event

Key takeaway: Price-to-value, audience quality, and credible content are top criteria when selecting event partners.

Navigate Your 2026 Strategy With Confidence

Events are no longer standalone experiences, they’re central pillars in a broader B2B growth strategy. When backed by trusted tech intelligence, the right formats, and analyst-led content, events can help your team hit every metric that matters.

Whether you’re optimizing your event calendar or rethinking your demand strategy, IDC’s insights are here to guide your next move.

🗓️ Explore the IDC 2026 Events Calendar
Discover the best opportunities to connect with your audience with data, formats, and partnerships that work.

In Europe’s markets, strategic messaging must prove ROI and stay aligned across strategy, sales, analysts, and country GTM teams. 

Strategic Messaging in Europe’s Markets 

As 2026 planning accelerates, high-performing GTM teams at tech vendors across Europe know that campaigns alone won’t secure growth. They’re stress-testing positioning – not only for internal alignment, but for resonance with buyer expectations, stakeholder dynamics, and budget scrutiny. 

The fundamentals of effective messaging remain constant across regions: clear strategy, ROI proof, and alignment across functions. In Europe, however, an added layer of complexity must be addressed: messaging needs to resonate across fragmented national markets, languages, and governance models while staying consistent for buyers. 

What We’re Seeing from Top-Performing GTM Teams in EMEA 

  1. Building from buyer economics, not brand preference

The strongest value narratives in 2026 are rooted in buyer economics. For European GTM teams, that means anchoring messaging in: 

  • Business outcomes tied to line-of-business KPIs 
  • Time-to-impact metrics that satisfy budget scrutiny 
  • Proof points that link product value to spend categories and investment decisions 

IDC research shows that messaging built around use-case ROI increases renewal likelihood by 3.5x. For GTM teams competing across Europe, this ROI narrative must be credible at headquarters and adaptable in local markets. 

  1. Aligning to who the buyer really is now

Your champion may still sit in IT or product, but the buying committee has expanded. In 2026, procurement, finance, RevOps, and CFOs will shape final evaluations – and their questions go beyond features and functions: 

  • How does this investment impact budget and efficiency? 
  • Where does it fit in the broader vendor stack? 
  • Does it align with compliance and operational resilience goals? 

For European GTM teams, these dynamics don’t change, but multi-country decision-making adds friction. ROI messaging must stay consistent across borders, so what a buyer hears in Paris matches what they hear in Munich or London. 

  1. Checking internal alignment before buyers do

Too often, what strategy wants to say, what sales are saying, and what analysts are reporting don’t fully align. That slows the buyer’s journey or stops it altogether. 

In Europe, the risk of misalignment is multiplied: 

  • A message crafted centrally may not translate effectively in country execution 
  • Analyst commentary may highlight ROI drivers in one market that don’t match what buyers hear locally 
  • Country-level adaptations risk drifting unless anchored in a shared ROI-based strategic framework 

Leading European GTM teams are addressing this by creating aligned narratives validated against external signals. That way, strategy, sales, analysts, and country teams reinforce each other rather than pulling apart. 

Why It Matters for Tech Vendors in Europe

In fragmented markets, the risk isn’t messaging that’s “wrong.” It’s messaging that’s slightly off – between strategy, sales, and analysts, or between headquarters and local GTM teams.

The strongest European GTM teams in 2026 will be those that:

  • Keep strategic alignment as their foundation
  • Prove ROI under budget scrutiny
  • Adapt to country-level nuance without losing consistency

IDC’s role as the Trusted Tech Intelligence provider is to help tech vendors validate and align these narratives — ensuring that what strategy defines, what sales delivers, and what analysts echo are all part of one coherent story across Europe.

Want a deeper checkpoint?

We recently published a new guide “5 Signals Your Messaging Won’t Win in 2026”.  This guide outlines the most common and often hidden signs of misalignment we’re seeing in enterprise GTM efforts right now, along with steps you can take to course-correct using IDC data.

If you have a question about anything, please fill in this form.

 

 

 

 

The IDC European Enterprise Communication and Collaboration Survey 2025 reveals increasing market segmentation in the UC space, as customers demand more choice and flexibility. This underlines the need for UC providers to evaluate their strategies and align more closely with evolving market trends. Below are the key findings from the European survey.

Businesses Demand Greater Choice and Flexibility

Most current UC offerings present binary, mutually exclusive choices that lock customers into a single platform. These options fail to address the full spectrum of business requirements, forcing organizations into trade-offs between critical capabilities such as transparency and control versus scalability and flexibility. As a result, many are unable to achieve their desired outcomes to the fullest extent.

A Resurgence of On-Premises Deployments

Cloud solutions provide scalability and eliminate upfront infrastructure costs, but some organizations are reverting to on-premises models to regain greater control and transparency over their IT environments. Regulatory constraints and geopolitical concerns — including the implications of the US Cloud Act — are driving this shift, particularly in sensitive verticals. However, this choice also involves trade-offs, with transparency and control being prioritized over flexibility. But it is not just reverting back to on-premises UCC – 60% across the board have stated that they will replace their existing solutions.

A New Era of Choice in Deployment Models

As customer demand for flexibility increases, the market is seeing greater segmentation and a shift away from traditional “either/or” approaches. Deployment models no longer need to be substitutes for one another. Instead, they can coexist, with each bringing unique, often irreplaceable value. Applications can now be decoupled from the underlying infrastructure, offering a wider range of hosting options across environments. This represents a market inflection point, where customers have more choice and flexibility to adopt solutions that best meet their needs.

Hybrid Deployments Are Becoming the Standard

Two-thirds of European businesses are already using multiple UC solutions across different deployment models to meet diverse requirements. While this hybrid approach enables organizations to capture the strengths of various models, it also introduces challenges — including higher maintenance costs, operational complexity, and integration issues. In the context of AI-driven automation, this creates opportunities for innovation to simplify hybrid environments and reduce complexity.

Strategic Implications for UC Providers

No single vendor can cover all requirements alone. A clear understanding of customer priorities, combined with close ecosystem collaboration, will be critical as the market continues to evolve. IDC’s European UCC research provides the insights needed to help providers align strategies with shifting customer needs.

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As cloud marketplaces continue to grow in scale and influence, they are reshaping how software is bought, sold, and delivered. For independent software vendors (ISVs), cloud platforms, and partners, marketplaces offer a streamlined route to customers, accelerated procurement, and new monetization models. But as this ecosystem matures, a subtle but important issue is emerging: the potential for revenue double-counting across the value chain.

The marketplace revenue flow

In a typical cloud marketplace transaction, a customer may purchase a SaaS or PaaS solution from an ISV via a private offer. That offer might be created by a distributor and fulfilled by a partner, while the ISV itself runs its solution on the same cloud platform that hosts the marketplace. Each party in this chain—partner, distributor, ISV, and cloud provider—may record the full transaction value as revenue or gross merchandise value (GMV), depending on their role and reporting model.

Where overlap occurs

The potential for double-counting arises when the same infrastructure spend is captured in multiple places. For example, an ISV may purchase infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) from a cloud provider to run its application. That same ISV may then sell its solution via the cloud marketplace, where the customer pays for the full SaaS offering—including the embedded IaaS costs. In this scenario, the cloud provider may record both the ISV’s IaaS consumption and the customer’s SaaS purchase as separate revenue streams, even though they are economically linked to the same infrastructure usage.

Estimating the impact

Our latest estimates suggest that up to 10–20% of reported marketplace revenue could be subject to some form of double-counting. This is particularly relevant in complex enterprise deals involving multiple intermediaries and multi-year commitments. The risk of overlap is higher in marketplaces with mature ISV ecosystems and transactional depth, where infrastructure and software are tightly coupled.

Implications for the ecosystem

This dynamic doesn’t imply wrongdoing—each party is legitimately recognizing revenue based on their role in the transaction. However, it does raise questions about how we measure the true size and growth of the cloud economy. Without careful deduplication and end-user-level spend tracking, there is a risk of overstating total IT spend, partner influence, and marketplace adoption.

Why it’s hard to fix

The challenge lies in the complexity of the ecosystem. Each participant has different incentives, reporting standards, and visibility into the transaction flow. Cloud providers may report gross marketplace volume, ISVs may report full contract value, and partners may claim influence or attach credit. Without a standardized framework for revenue attribution, it’s difficult to isolate and remove duplication.

A subtle signal

This isn’t a crisis—but it is a signal. As marketplaces become a larger share of enterprise IT procurement, the need for transparency and consistency will grow. For ISVs and cloud platforms alike, understanding where and how revenue is recognized can help avoid misaligned incentives and ensure sustainable growth. It’s something to be aware of as the ecosystem continues to evolve.

IDC’s EMEA Partnering Ecosystems team helps technology vendors, platforms, and ISVs navigate the evolving dynamics of cloud marketplaces and partner ecosystems.

Through continuous engagement with the ecosystem and proprietary survey data, we provide grounded, real-world insights into how value flows, where overlaps occur, and what it means for your go-to-market strategy. Whether you’re refining partner models, optimizing marketplace presence, or simply seeking clarity in a complex landscape, we can help. Get in touch to access the intelligence you need to make smarter, faster, and more efficient ecosystem decisions. For more information on the research, click here.

Listen to Stuart and Andreas’ webcast “The New Partner Playbook: Ecosystem-Led Growth in EMEA” register here.

If you have a question on this or anything related to partnering, please drop it here.

Stuart Wilson - Senior Research Director, EMEA Partnering Ecosystems - IDC

Analyst Profile
Stuart Wilson is senior research director for IDC’s Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMEA) Partnering Ecosystems program. With over two decades of global experience, Stuart focuses on the rise of complex, connected ecosystems and how platform models are reshaping routes to market and partner engagement frameworks.

Given all the geopolitical and economic upheavals so far seen in 2025, concerns about U.S. tech dominance, and fear of services from (non-European) IT providers being withdrawn as a result of government executive orders, the big question we keep hearing in Europe is “What is Plan B”?

I can answer that.

Firstly though, it should be noted that Europe’s interest in digital sovereignty has always been high. Now, as geopolitical tensions escalate and regulatory uncertainty deepens, many organisations on the continent see this as a strategic imperative.

But…

Geopolitical risk has typically been a low-ranking market driver for those seeking sovereign solutions in Europe. Sure, IDC’s 2025 Worldwide Digital Sovereignty Survey shows that this has climbed up the rankings, now attracting more than a quarter of responses compared to last year when it was slightly less and even coming bottom of the list of drivers as it has done so in the years prior to 2024.

What’s more revealing is that Europe now has a new top sovereign cloud market driver: protection against extra-territorial data requests.This reflects growing anxiety over foreign access to sensitive data and a clear signal that sovereignty is no longer just about compliance and control, but has a greater focus on autonomy.

The European provider’s response: “Plan B”

In what can be regarded as a largely unprecedented move, Europe’s service providers have reacted swiftly and have taken a proactive approach, joining forces to offer what they consider to be the “alternative” (and many also promote the idea of services, platforms and providers that can be labelled as “Made In Europe”).

Some examples here include EuroStack, which calls for a Europe-led digital supply chain spanning chips, cloud, AI and digital governance; virt8ra (pronounced virtoora), which is billed as Europe’s first sovereign edge cloud; and the EU-funded Sovereign European Cloud API (SECA) which is available to all European cloud providers for cloud infrastructure management.

These initiatives reflect a broader push to reclaim digital autonomy and reduce dependency on non-European tech giants.

The global cloud providers’ response: committed to Europe

The global cloud providers have not been standing still. And of course, none of them are about to walk away from their highly successful business operations in Europe.

In recent months, several big name providers, such as Google and Microsoft, have enhanced their sovereign offerings to emphasize how sovereignty and U.S. big tech can work provided the right controls and partnerships are in place.

And clearly, just as the global cloud providers are not planning to abandon Europe, Europe is not planning to abandon them.

For instance, despite all the media hype earlier this year around German authorities “ditching” Microsoft in favour of their own home-grown solutions (in June 2025, the German state of Schleswig-Holstein rolled out the OpenTalk videoconferencing solution, developed by Berlin-based Heinlein Support, across all state agencies), partnerships with U.S. providers continue to be announced.

These include the German Federal Office for Information Security’s (BSI) strategic cooperation agreement with AWS in the run-up to the launch of the AWS European Sovereign Cloud in Germany later this year.

Separately, the BSI has also teamed-up with Google Cloud to support the development and deployment of secure and sovereign cloud solutions for government agencies, including the German military that will use an air-gapped version of Google distributed cloud.

IDC’s response: Techxit? What techxit?

Despite their increased interest in sovereign solutions due to all the geopolitical turmoil, just 4% of European organisations say they plan to stop using cloud services and platforms from global public cloud vendors and only partner with local cloud providers.Thus, reports of ‘techxit’ – the prospect of U.S. providers being forced out of Europe for whatever reason – are greatly exaggerated.

Instead, the dominant strategy is staying “glocal”: combining global innovation with local control by using both global and local providers, and many organisations in Europe say they will continue to depend on global cloud vendors.

What’s more, the idea of a full-scale “techxit” remains impractical, given the deep integration of global technologies in European IT environments.

Of course, it would be naïve to think that buyer expectations have remained unchanged in 2025 – far from it.  The expanded interest in digital sovereignty in Europe is expected to account for a decrease in organisations using sovereign cloud from not only global providers but also their local counterparts, with managed providers seeing a slight increase. The changes here are not huge but significant enough for all providers to take not.

What all providers need to consider

To succeed in this evolving landscape, cloud providers must:

  • Offer verifiable protections against extra-territorial data access
  • Prioritize network sovereignty, including data in transit
  • Invest in AI governance and compliance-first infrastructure
  • Build regional partnerships to meet local expectations
  • Embrace open standards to support interoperability and avoid vendor lock-in

So what is “Plan B”?

IDC has long maintained that a trusted ecosystem of partners is needed for sovereignty to work at scale, and we believe this should include a combination of using global and local providers.

For the global cloud players that means looking for the right regional and in-country partners to help boost local credibility and to deliver local services, local expertise and leverage local knowledge.

For the local service providers, it means partnering with global players to help deliver innovation and scalability.

And then the global SaaS providers need to be able to work across both to develop and deliver customized offerings within sovereign frameworks.

Europe’s vision for digital sovereignty is not about isolation — it’s about balance. The goal is to level the playing field, reduce dependency, and ensure that the continent can compete globally while retaining control locally.

Ultimately it’s about the sovereign aspect of digital self-determination and survivability and self-sufficiency. The latest geopolitical uncertainties indicate a recalibration of Europe’s cloud market, not a rejection of global providers.

So what’s Plan B? Our advice to organisations in Europe seeking sovereign solutions is to stick to Plan A.

For more information and to see what Rahiel is covering, look here: Digital Sovereignty. 

Got a specific question? Drop it in here.

Rahiel Nasir - Research Director, European Cloud Practice, Lead Analyst, Digital Sovereignty - IDC

Analyst Profile
Rahiel Nasir is responsible for leading and contributing to IDC's European cloud and cloud data management research programs, as well as supporting associated consulting projects. In addition, he leads IDC's worldwide Digital Sovereignty research program. Nasir has been watching technology markets and writing about them throughout his professional life.