Winning the Direct Buyer, Small to Large

Author: Beth Schultz, VP of Research and Principal Analyst

Why company size shapes whether, and how, buyers go direct—and what platform providers must do about it

Communications buyers today face more choices, and more complexity, than at any point in the past decade. Platform providers, technology services distributors (TSDs), managed services providers (MSPs), carriers, and a growing roster of AI specialists all are competing for the same purchase decisions. At the same time, AI is rewriting the scorecard buyers use to evaluate platform providers and their partners: In Metrigy’s Buying Strategies for Communications Services study, conducted in August 2026 with 202 companies in Europe and North America, 50.7% of companies say the rise of AI changes their vendor selection requirements.

Through it all, the platform provider has become the primary relationship for most buyers—62.3% buy workplace collaboration services and 55.6% buy contact center services directly, often through the provider’s website rather than a salesperson. How companies buy, however, depends heavily on their size. Small and midsize companies drive direct buying, while larger companies more often bring partners into the deal, either in place of the platform provider or alongside it; among contact center buyers, for example, companies that buy from both a platform provider and a partner have a median of 773 employees, compared with 188 for those that buy direct.

Direct buyers reward providers that integrate applications, price competitively, and bring AI expertise to the table, and over the next two years they expect providers to take on more integration, solution design, and product explanation. This report examines how direct buyers purchase, what they value, how they expect platform-provider roles to evolve, and how company size shapes each of these, closing with recommendations for platform providers that want to optimize their direct-buyer strategies.

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Direct Buying Leads, but Size Matters
  • Momentum Is Building
  • The Website Is the Primary Storefront
  • Salespeople Still Matter—for Different Reasons
• Top Value Drivers
• Platform-Provider Roles: Today and in Two Years
  • The Role Today
  • The Role in Two Years
• Buyer Size Shapes the Direct Strategy
• Conclusion & Recommendations
• Working With Metrigy