Shaun Randhawa is the Commercial Director at Unizen Group Ltd. As part of ITProfiles' industry research into how changing buyer expectations are reshaping technology agency selection, we spoke with Shaun about risk, revenue generation, automation, specialization, transparency and how the relationship between internal teams and external agencies may evolve.
His perspective points to a buyer that is becoming more commercially and operationally demanding. Technical capability still matters, but buyers increasingly want evidence that an agency can reduce risk, improve performance and contribute to growth, while being clear about how the work is actually delivered.
Want the complete industry perspective? Shaun's insights are featured alongside those of other technology CEOs and agency leaders in ITProfiles' research on “80% of IT Agency Leaders Say Agencies Are Falling Behind, As Buyers Demand More Proof, Transparency and Results.”
Read the full ITProfiles research: 80% of IT Agency Leaders Say Agencies Are Falling Behind, As Buyers Demand More Proof, Transparency and Results
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ITProfiles: Think back to your conversations with clients over the past year. What's something buyers are asking for today that they rarely brought up just a few years ago?
Shaun Randhawa:
The need to bridge the information asymmetry.
Prospective clients increasingly want “detailed evidence and guarantees, not assurances.” They are asking how technology partnerships can reduce risk, support compliance and improve operational performance.
That changes the nature of the conversation. Buyers are not simply asking whether an agency can deliver a service; they want to understand what they are getting into and what evidence supports the agency's claims.
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ITProfiles: What's one trend you believe agencies are still underestimating, even though buyers are already paying attention to it?
Shaun Randhawa:
Agencies often focus heavily on the risks they can reduce and the operational efficiencies they can create. But buyers are also paying attention to their “propensity for revenue generation.”
Agencies can unlock new revenue-generating opportunities for clients, but Shaun believes there is not always a consistent focus on this throughout the buyer journey.
For him, the objective is ultimately to create partnerships that lead to more revenue-generating opportunities for clients, not simply more efficient operations.
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ITProfiles: Have you ever invested in a capability before clients actually started requesting it? What convinced you it was worth making that bet?
Shaun Randhawa:
Yes. Unizen has invested in automating key elements of its services, including IT operations and compliance management.
The reasoning was practical. These areas can be tedious for both agencies and clients, so the team looked internally at where the biggest time investments were and built business cases around those opportunities.
That approach allowed the organization to identify ways to grow the service or product offering before clients necessarily asked for those capabilities directly.
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ITProfiles: Sometimes agencies chase the loudest trends while missing quieter shifts that have a much bigger impact. What's one industry buzzword or trend you think gets too much attention, and what should agencies focus on instead?
Shaun Randhawa:
His answer is deliberately conflicted: “AI & Automation.”
AI may be the louder part of that conversation, but Shaun believes automation is the quieter shift with potentially greater practical impact. Effective automation requires a detailed understanding of both the current state and the target state of a client's processes.
His concern is that people are “working back to front” by assuming AI will fix everything without first understanding the underlying problem.
For agencies, that means the process analysis behind automation may be more important than simply adding AI to the solution.
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ITProfiles: Which statement feels closest to reality today?
Shaun Randhawa:
“Buyers care more about innovation than reliability.”
That position is notable because it places Shaun on the more innovation-focused side of the debate around what buyers value today.
But his other responses add an important qualification: innovation still needs to be connected to a real business problem and a measurable opportunity. Novelty alone does not explain why a buyer should invest.
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ITProfiles: Imagine you're advising a new agency launching today. What's one capability or mindset you'd build into the business from day one because you believe buyers will increasingly expect it?
Shaun Randhawa:
Start with the highest-impact problems faced by the clients the agency expects to serve.
His recommendation is to solve “a problem that they care about” and develop a solution the agency understands how to bridge. Once that problem is solved, new and previously unknown problems can emerge.
That creates an opportunity to develop deeper expertise around a particular problem journey. Shaun believes too many firms try to become generalists and one-stop shops. His advice is much more focused: “Focus on precision, and innovate with your clients, and build a positive feedback loop.”
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ITProfiles: Looking ahead to 2028, what's one thing you believe buyers will expect from agencies that still isn't considered standard practice today?
Shaun Randhawa:
“More transparency on the details of how services and products are delivered.”
He sees this becoming increasingly important as organizations adopt hybrid models that combine internal teams with outsourced services.
As businesses grow, some may bring capabilities in-house to reduce operating costs, while others may move expensive internal functions to external providers when outsourcing offers better economics.
For agencies, this means the value of an external relationship may increasingly need to be visible and defensible. Buyers will want to understand not just what an agency delivers, but why continuing to use that external capability makes commercial sense.
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ITProfiles: If agencies ignore the trend you've talked about today, what do you think the consequences will be over the next few years?
Shaun Randhawa:
He expects an increase in “sunk / inefficient costs” that could stifle the growth of otherwise healthy organizations.
Inefficient spending can reduce the budget available to scale the business, particularly when technology investments are not directed toward the areas where they can create the most value.
The agencies that understand this shift, in Shaun's view, will be better positioned to help clients funnel investment toward the right areas and maximize the value generated from that spending.
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Shaun's perspective ultimately points toward a more commercially accountable agency relationship.
Buyers want evidence that technology partnerships reduce risk, improve operations and support compliance, but they are also interested in what those partnerships can do for growth. At the same time, agencies need to understand the processes behind the problems they are solving rather than assuming that the latest technology will automatically produce the answer.
That makes the distinction between technology adoption and technology understanding increasingly important.
For buyers, the practical question is whether an agency can explain the problem, the evidence, the expected value and the delivery model clearly enough to justify the investment.
For agencies, the opportunity is to move beyond being a generalist provider and build deeper expertise around the problems their clients actually need solved.