3DG, CDW, Zoom Win Big in Avant Partner Awards

AVANT SPECIAL FORCES SUMMIT — Tech services distributor (TSD) Avant is honoring suppliers and advisors for their sales performance in the last year.

Avant partners, vendors and employees have gathered in Phoenix this week for the TSD's annual conference. The company on Tuesday revealed a lengthy list of award winners, predominantly based on calendar year 2023 sales performance. Avant also shared its top vendors based on NPS ratings from advisor partners.

Avant as a TSD forms a bridge between software and service providers (vendors/suppliers) and customer-facing firms that consult on and source different technologies for businesses. Avant calls these partners trusted advisors, and provides them marketing, training, sales and back office resources.

Avant president Drew Lydecker shared on the keynote stage that the 50 top-selling trusted advisors in Avant's base on average have sold 3.8 lines of technology. That's a 300% increase from the average TA's 1.2, Lydecker said.

Avant's Drew Lydecker

"Some of you in this room might be an expert at one or two things, but don't forget the entire ecosystem that we have behind us. You don't need to be an expert at specific categories. Think about it; there are 1,100 AI companies today. Nobody is an expert. You just have to be an expert at making sure you're selling who you are. Showing your winning tribe. Bringing the energy and being relentless in your pursuit to make sure they know every aspect of your business," Lydecker said.

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Top Avant Trusted Advisors

Texas-based 3DG Partners is well-known in the channel for an enterprise retail deal it landed with Comcast Business. Channel Futures recently wrote about 3DG expanding its capabilities in cloud and international markets.

That business and others have helped land 3DG in the top spot for Avant advisor partners. Next came longtime Avant partner Opex Technologies, which recently launched an AI advisory practice.

Bluewave Technology Group was the third overall TA for the year. Bluewave is among three "national" TAs – meaning companies that have taken a private equity investment and acquired multiple agencies – that scored an award with Avant. Upstack and Amplix also earned hardware.

Related:What Is a Technology Advisor? Understanding the Role, Scope and Size of the TA Model

Top Avant Strategic Partners

While Avant is known for working with companies that sell in a pure agent model, many of its partners are larger channel partners that have established an agent/advisor model for certain technologies. Many of these companies are value-added resellers (VARs) or system integrators (SIs). CEO Ian Kieninger said on Tuesday that the presence of these nontraditional "strategic partners" is growing.

"There are 10 times more VARs in this room than we've ever had before," said Kieninger, referring to the crowd at the Avant Special Forces Summit in Phoenix.

CDW, a firm boasting deep ties to Avant, cleaned up in nearly all tech categories, except for cloud and colocation.

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Top Selling Avant Vendors

The five largest suppliers in the Avant portfolio ranked by sales performance show a mix of technologies. Unified-communications and contact-center-as-a-service provider Zoom, for whom Avant is the global partner of the year, came in first for the TSD. Kieninger said that Zoom is driving 30% of its channel and it intends to reach 50% by the end of next year.

Next came data center and colocation giant Equinix, in second place. Tech advisors play an often overshadowed role in the colocation market as they compete for mindshare with hyperscalers, enterprise customers and global channel partners for data center space.

CCaaS provider Genesys landed in fourth, backing up the excitement Avant and other TSDs have expressed around the large deals TAs are seeing in the contact center.

Connectivity providers Comcast Business (third) and Lumen Technologies (fifth) managed to crack the top five. Avant executives have noted that the TSD's investment in technologies like cybersecurity, CX and AI will not come at the expense of its connectivity business.

Top-Rated Avant Vendors

Avant last year rolled out net promoter scores for suppliers in its portfolio. The scores stem from post-sale surveys advisors fill out after the vendor they sourced for a customer implements a product.

Secure access service edge (SASE) provider Cato Networks triumphed in both its respective technology category and in the overall vendor portfolio with an NPS score of 93. Managed security service provider (MSSP) eSentire finished just behind with 92.

Mike Kane, Dialpad's senior vice president of global partner sales, earned channel chief of the year.