Q2 Tech Distributors Update: Intelisys, Ingram Micro, TD Synnex, Telarus, TBI, More
Two industry-shaking deals impacted the technology services distribution market last quarter.
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Sandler Partners made a splashy personnel move last quarter.
Justin Marano earned a promotion to chief revenue officer. Marano came to Sandler two-and-a-half years ago, to replicate his success driving sales on the eastern side of the country. He told Channel Futures that Sandler significantly improved its East Coast business during his tenure.
In addition, Sandler signed an agreement with the MSP community ASCII Group, positioning the distributor as a go-to source for those MSPs carrier needs.
Learn about Marano’s hiring and the ASCII partnership
D&H Distributing‘s new unit helps partners and their customers navigate hybrid environments.
The Modern Solutions Business Unit features flexible delivery and financing models. It provides a single team that offer “bespoke solutions, services and go-to-market support.”
Executives said the unit will come in handy as MSPs, MSSPs and VARs deliver increasing levels of cloud-based and as-a-service technolgy.
View coverage of the company’s Mid-Atlantic Thread Event.
Bridgepointe Technologies expanded and deepened its team last quarter.
The San Mateo, California-based IT strategy firm made multiple high-profile hires. That included former Intelisys integration leader Carol Beering and former Evolve IP exec Scott Kinka.
In addition, Bridgepointe continued to hand out “partner” status to its top-performing agencies, giving those people equity in the company.
Bridgepointe doesn’t neatly fit into the category of a distributor but serves as an intermediary for a number suppliers and agencies.
Read Channel Futures’ article featuring Scott Kinka, in which he described Bridgepointe’s vision and goals.
Cloud marketplace distributor Pax8 landed new funding last quarter, making that announcement at the Channel Partners Conference & Expo.
Pax8 announced a $185 million funding round from SoftBank Vision Fund 2. The investment firm now holds more than $100 billion in capital across a variety of industries.
Pax8 executives state that their company is now worth $1.7 billion.
Kelly Teal wrote the juicy story about Pax8.
Technology services distributor TBI launched a partner incentive program.
The Chicago-based firm in the spring unveiled its Partner GEM Awards (PGA), which reward partners for the business they conducted with TBI the year prior. The benefits include graduated MDF and travel perks.
TBI went on to name Renodis as the PGA’s first diamond partner.
Read more about the program and Renodis.
Arrow Electronics appointed a new chief executive.
Sean Kerins, a 15-year member of the company, moved from chief operating officer to president and CEO. He took over for Michael Long, who started a position as executive chairman of the Arrow board of directors.
Arrow sits 104th in the Fortune 500.
Claudia Adrien wrote about Arrow’s promotion.
The TSD community saw a massive domino fall amid continued consolidation.
Chicago-based Avant announced its acquisition of Arizona-based PlanetOne. PlanetOne, which by all accounts was highly sought after by other TSDs and traditional distributors, brings a highly reputed back office and southwestern footprint to Avant. Industry observers described the companies as a cultural fit with very little overlap.
Check out the initial news story and a Q&A with Avant leadership.
Barely more than a month after Avant announced its acquisition of PlanetOne, Telarus announced a deal of its own.
Utah-based Telarus purchased Florida firm TCG. The deal brought a unique partner base to Telarus and bolstered TCG’s tools. Telarus executives stated that their firm is now the largest TSB in the industry based on new monthly bookings and revenue.
Telarus also hired Tim Basa as its senior vice president of sales and launched a new tool.
Read the breaking news story and reactions from partners.
Exclusive Networks is making cybersecurity a central foundation of its post-IPO plans.
CEO Jasper Trolle detailed the distributor’s recent expansion numbers as well as its ambitions for 2022.
The company added more than 1,250 new resellers (an increase of 7%) last year. It also signed 22 new vendors.
Read Christine Horton’s article about Exclusive Networks.
Behemoth distributor Ingram Micro has been engaging in a digital makeover.
Christine Horton wrote that Ingram set out to revamp its ecosystem using artifical intelligence and machine learning. The company in late 2021 launched a FLexible Subscription Engine to aid partners in recurring revenue creation. Ingram Micro also launched an organization dedicated to digital solutions. More recently, the distributor has hired a chief data officer.
In other news, Ingram Micro hosted its first in-person Trust X Alliance event in three years. Three hundred fifty people, including vendors and partners, attended the conference, where Ingram teased its new Xvantage platform.
Explore Edward Gately’s coverage of the Ingram Micro Trust X Alliance Event.
Upstack‘s announcement of its partnership with Lumen sent a ripple through the TSD community.
Although the New York-based firm had already publicly signed direct agreements with suppliers (and most agencies possess some sort of direct contract), agents have historically relied on TSDs to meet Lumen’s volume requirements. Following its purchase of multiple channel partners that sell Lumen, Upstack chose to make itself, rather than the TSDs, the back office provider for the supplier.
Read about the initial news and the reaction from partners.
TD Synnex‘s three partner communities have grown in membership and sales.
Fifty firms have joined the programs in the CommunitySolv umbrella. Moreover, CommunitySolv’s U.S. sales grew by $120 million in the second quarter.
CommunitySolv features TechSelect, Varnex and Stellr.
In other news, the distributor said goodbye to vice president of vendor marketing Heather Murray, who moved on to a job at AvePoint.
Read Edward Gately’s coverage of the TechSelect event.
AppSmart, the B2B marketplace division of AppDirect, expanded its catalogue of tools and vendors.
First, the San Francisco-based company unveiled Experience 360, a set of tools and services executives say will allow partners to function more autonomously. Whether partners use this suite, which includs self-service quoting, depends on the complexity of their deals.
“We still have the entire team to do assisted sales for them, [but] they’re used to operating on platforms, whether as a consumer or in business,” AppSmart’s Renée Bergeron told Channel Futures. “They like having the ability to go quote at their fingertips without having to talk to someone.”
AppSmart also added an Aryaka SKU to its marketplace. This, executives said, was AppSmart’s first network provider to join the marketplace.
Read about the self-service tools and Aryaka partnership.
ScanSource saw growth in its communications and cloud segment, which includes Intelisys.
The unit grew grew 17% year-over-year in net sales. Net sales for Intelisys grew 18.2% year-over-year.
Moreover, ScanSource executives said convergence continues to increase between hardware-focused VARs and service-focused agents. For example, ScanSource president John Eldh said one of ScanSource’s VAR’s latest wins involved both hardware and cloud communications.
Read our analysis of ScanSource’s earnings.
ScanSource saw growth in its communications and cloud segment, which includes Intelisys.
The unit grew grew 17% year-over-year in net sales. Net sales for Intelisys grew 18.2% year-over-year.
Moreover, ScanSource executives said convergence continues to increase between hardware-focused VARs and service-focused agents. For example, ScanSource president John Eldh said one of ScanSource’s VAR’s latest wins involved both hardware and cloud communications.
Read our analysis of ScanSource’s earnings.
The world’s top tech distributors are competing to win the loyalty of their vendors and sales partners.
Distribution continues to play a big role in both the technology resale and technology advisory channels. However, these sales enablement companies are bulking up to stay relevant with their partners.
Take for instance, Avant and Telarus, which both made acquisitions last quarter. Those deals have a resulted in a narrowing of the technology services distributor (TSD) market, where several large national players wield deep pockets and are looking to continue the consolidation.
In the traditional IT distribution world, companies are reporting sales growth while trying to pivot to get a piece of the cloud services market. To that end, D&H Distributing rolled out a new unit geared toward hybrid solutions.
Go through the 14 images above to see news impacting some of the top tech distributors in the channel.
Channel Futures published previous quarterly disti/TSD roundup in April.
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