Channel partners will continue to account for the majority of small and midsize enterprise IT spending in 2026, underscoring their central role in advising, deploying, supporting, and managing technology environments for small and midsize businesses.
That’s the big takeaway from a new Omdia market report.
Matthew Ball, chief analyst for enterprise and channel at Omdia — a Channel Dive sister company — predicts that partner-delivered SME IT spending will grow 5.8% this year. In total, 79% of SME IT spend will flow to, through and with partners. That’s significantly higher than the market average of 66.7%, which is being pulled toward direct engagement models by hyperscalers’ data center capital expenditures, Ball noted.
The good news for partners comes even as Omdia forecasts SME IT spending to rise more slowly than that of the broader market — 6.7% compared to 10.2% percent. Even so, Ball wrote, “the outlook marks a cyclical improvement, driven by infrastructure modernization, including cloud migration and network refresh, as well as cybersecurity and IT support via managed services.”
The numbers match the growth rate from 2025, representing the strongest SME expansion since the 2021 post-pandemic peak of 8.1% and signaling a continued recovery in technology and IT services demand, Ball added.
To that end, Omdia expects SME IT spending to reach $2.38 trillion, or 39.2% of the total addressable IT market in 2026. The opportunities for partners, then, are significant.
The data indicate that SMEs’ reliance on the channel remains consistent worldwide. There’s really no disparity in terms of where best to target. For example, in the Asia Pacific region, partners account for 81% of SME IT spending. In EMEA, the figure rises to 82%, while Latin America shows the greatest partner dependence at 86%. In North America, where vendor-direct engagement is more prevalent, 73% of SME IT spend is delivered through partners, according to the research.
Medium-sized firms with 100-499 employees make up the largest share of SME IT spending in the report. Although these organizations comprise just 1% of SMEs, they account for 42% of SME IT spend and their share will grow 7.7% in 2026, Ball projects. Small businesses with 10–99 employees will contribute 38% of spending, while micro businesses (1-9 employees) account for the remaining 19%.
Overall, Omdia calculated that total partner-delivered SME IT spending will reach $1.87 trillion in 2026. For partners curious where to focus, here’s where the biggest investment chunks will go, and their concomitant growth rates, according to Omdia:
- Telecommunications services: $841 billion, rising 3.3%.
- IT services: $514 billion, increasing 8.2%.
- Technology, which includes client devices, imaging and printing, infrastructure, components and peripherals, cybersecurity, unified communications, and software: $518 billion, up 7.7%.
- Unified Communications: $48 billion, jumping 3.7% Nearly 9 in 10 SMEs buy UC platforms through partners, Ball added.
Omdia pointed to several areas of long-term, partner-led growth within the SME segment, including:
- Managed services: $251 billion, increasing 9.7%.
- Cloud infrastructure services: $232 billion, rising 22.3%.
- Cloud application software: $262 billion, up 22.1%.
- Cybersecurity: $38 billion, growing 7.9% .
Cybersecurity stands out as one of the most partner-dependent categories in the SME market, with more than 93% of spending here delivered by partners, Ball said.
Artificial intelligence, too, continues to shape SME IT investment.
Canalys reports that more than half of SMEs now use AI tools. It’s a sign that AI has moved into mainstream adoption among smaller organizations, out of the initial phases focused on marketing, sales and customer support, Ball wrote.
AI-centric partners will next be tasked with helping SMEs use AI in analytics, cybersecurity, and regulatory compliance, he added.
