About 84% of computer systems design locations have fewer than 10 people.
49,000 of the 58,000 computer systems design locations are under 10 staff. 9,200 have 10 or more, and 460 have 250 or more.
Enquirer Consulting Group
Buyer Map: The US Partner Groups Arrow ECS Sells Into
Prepared for Nertila Bregaj | Arrow ECS | October 2026
As of Oct 5, 2026. Counts: 2023 federal count of business locations
Your role, as your profile describes it, is growing Arrow's cloud and AI platforms with MSPs, telecoms, distributors and digital service providers across North America. Arrow ECS lists the partner types it supports in the IT channel on its own site. This page sizes those partner groups in the United States from a public federal count of business locations, split by how many people work at each one. It counts locations, not companies, and it says nothing about which of them already buy through Arrow.
Locations with 10 or more staff
34,000
Across the five groups below, out of 148,000 locations in all, 2023.
Locations in the five groups
148,000
US business locations of every size. Most have fewer than 10 people.
With 250 or more staff
1,700
The large sites across the five groups.
Telecom locations
59,000
About 41% are wireless carrier locations, which can include stores.
The groups Arrow ECS names
Arrow ECS's IT channel page and your own role description name these partner types. Five can be sized from the federal count; three are named and not numbered.
| Group | Where it is named | Industry code (our match) | US locations | 10+ staff | 250+ staff |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Managed service providers | IT channel page and your role | 541513 | 6,400 | 1,400 | 63 |
| Value-added resellers and regional system integrators | IT channel page | 541512 | 58,000 | 9,200 | 460 |
| Telco providers | IT channel page and your role | 517311, 517312, 517911, 517919 | 59,000 | 15,000 | 520 |
| Cloud and digital service providers | IT channel page and your role | 518210 | 19,000 | 5,900 | 530 |
| IT distributors | Your role | 423430 | 6,700 | 2,200 | 130 |
| Vendors | IT channel page | None | No federal count | ||
| Global system integrators | IT channel page | None | No federal count | ||
| Industrial IT providers | IT channel page | None | No federal count |
By size of location
US business locations in each group by the number of people working there, mid-March 2023.
| Group | Under 10 | 10 to 49 | 50 to 249 | 250 or more | All |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Managed service providers | 5,000 | 990 | 310 | 63 | 6,400 |
| Value-added resellers and regional system integrators | 49,000 | 6,700 | 2,100 | 460 | 58,000 |
| Telco providers | 43,000 | 12,000 | 2,300 | 520 | 59,000 |
| Cloud and digital service providers | 13,000 | 3,700 | 1,600 | 530 | 19,000 |
| IT distributors | 4,500 | 1,500 | 590 | 130 | 6,700 |
What the counts show
Telecom is mostly wireless and wired carrier locations.
Of the 59,000 telecom locations, 24,000 are wireless carriers and 29,000 are wired carriers. Both counts can include retail stores and local offices. Telecom resellers are a smaller group, 3,700 locations.
Hosting and data providers skew larger than the integrators.
5,900 of the 19,000 data processing and hosting locations have 10 or more people, about 32%. For computer systems design it is about 16%.
Denominators, definitions and sources
- Counts are establishments in the federal annual count of business establishments by industry, 2023, national file, all legal forms. An establishment is one physical location with paid employees at some point in the year. Staff is paid employees at the location in the mid-March 2023 pay period.
- Industry codes: 541513 computer facilities management services, 541512 computer systems design services, 517311 wired telecommunications carriers, 517312 wireless telecommunications carriers except satellite, 517911 telecommunications resellers, 517919 all other telecommunications, 518210 data processing, hosting and related services, 423430 computer and software merchant wholesalers. Satellite carriers are left out. Other computer related services, 541519, is a further 13,000 locations where some MSPs also file; it is not in the totals above.
- 423430 counts every computer and software wholesaler location, likely including Arrow's own and its peers', and many hardware resellers file there too.
- Two telecom rows withhold the count of locations with 1,000 or more staff. In each it is the row total minus the published size groups, which is 1 location, and that is how it is counted here.
- Only the United States is counted. Your role covers North America, and Canada is not in this file.
- Groups are as listed on arrow.com/globalecs/na under How we support the IT channel, and in your LinkedIn role description, both read on Oct 5, 2026. Figures over 100 are rounded on purpose.
The named version of this page, the actual companies inside a row, is built one row at a time. Reply on the thread, or write to my colleague Matthew, who is your point of contact from here: matthew@enquirerai.com.
Enquirer Consulting Group | enquirerconsulting.com