Top 10 Technology Advisor Stories of 2024: ScanSource Advisory, CX Layoffs

Drama and intrigue encircled the technology advisor (agent) market in 2024 amid the space's continued rise to prominence.

A couple years ago, industry insiders remarked that the advisor channel was in the "first inning" of its transformation, with private-equity (PE) firms buying agencies, and tech services distributors (TSDs) consolidating. Now investors and operators are weighing the initial fruits of their labors. As things currently stand, we may be looking at a mixed bag. While some firms report robust organic growth, Channel Futures is aware of a PE-backed superagency that unsuccessfully sought a buyer in 2024. However, investment theses differ widely in the space, and national tech advisors (TAs) continue to learn what IT decision-makers are demanding.

In the meantime, TAs of all sizes are seeing opportunity to land new customers and expand with existing customers. While some partners have stayed focused on connectivity, many have entered new tech categories, like customer experience (CX), cybersecurity and cloud. Moreover, AI use cases have emerged, but TAs tend to frame AI as a component of CX.

The TA model continues to grow in popularity with IT and telecom vendors. TSDs report that dozens of vendors are knocking on the door each month, putting increased pressure on them to vet and onboard new suppliers effectively and quickly. Moreover, some TSDs are diverging in their approach, talking more openly about their financial programs. And the question has been raised about whether it is appropriate for a TSD to sell to an end user.

Related:Top 20 Channel Stories of 2024: Broadcom-VMware Saga, Tech Layoffs, Murder, Outages

In the slideshow above, we count down, from 10 to one, the top channel stories impacting technology advisors in 2024. While many of the articles in our countdown are among those that brought the most traffic to our website in 2024, we recognize others for the overall impact they have had on the channel.