Norman Newell, Chief Commercial Officer at Renaissance, and Alicia Shepherd, Regional Community Manager for the UK and Ireland at GTIA, join host Michael Conway, MD at Renaissance for a mid-year review of the Irish IT channel in 2026.

What's changed for MSPs and ITSPs on the island of Ireland?

In this episode we cover NIS2 and DORA compliance driving real purchasing decisions across the channel, why AI investment in 2025 distracted managed service providers from core priorities without delivering provable results, the pace of mergers and acquisitions among Irish MSPs and what buyers and sellers are learning, how end clients are pushing MSPs from operational support to board-level business advisory, technical resource scarcity and the demand for turnkey solutions, cyber insurance requirements pushing security standards back up through the supply chain, and the upcoming GTIA chapter launch in Ireland.

Whether you run a 10-person partner business or lead a vendor channel team, this conversation covers the ground that matters heading into the second half of the year.

Share this episode with a colleague, and if you have thoughts or suggestions for future episodes, get in touch with anybody on the Renaissance team.

Connect with Michael: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelconwayrenaissance/

Connect with Noman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/normannewell/

Connect with Alicia: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aliciashepherd/

Follow Renaissance: https://www.linkedin.com/company/renaissanceire/

Follow GTIA: https://www.linkedin.com/company/gtiaofficial/

Michael Conway, Director of Renaissance, introduces Change in' the Channel, a fortnightly podcast covering the commercial and operational realities of the Irish and UK technology channel.

Why this podcast? There's plenty of vendor marketing content and global channel media, but very little that focuses on the Irish and UK market, and even less that comes from the people involved in it day to day. This podcast sits at the intersection of two kinds of change: the structural shifts reshaping the technology partner ecosystem (cloud marketplaces, consumption models, partner programmes, regulation, compliance) and the operational work of adapting a business while it's still running.

Renaissance sits between vendors and partners, taking technologies to market across Ireland and the UK. That position gives us conversations with both sides of the channel, and this podcast brings those conversations to you.

Built for MSP owners, vendor channel teams, resellers, system integrators, VARs, distributors, and anyone building or running a business in the technology partner ecosystem on the island of Ireland and in the UK.

What to expect: commercially grounded, candid and useful conversations. No corporate talking points. No slide decks. One guest per episode, 30 to 40 minutes, released fortnightly.

Available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, YouTube and every major podcast platform. Subscribe, share with a colleague, and connect with Michael on LinkedIn.