TD Synnex Destination AI to Drive New Solution Sales

TD Synnex has made some big investments over the years around high-growth technologies such as data, IoT, security, cloud and AI. With IDC projecting AI spend to hit $153 billion this year (27% growth), the distributor decided to create Destination AI, a program it designed to help its partners develop and sell full AI solutions.

Destination AI will serve as an aggregate of all TD Synnex’s AI-related products, services, certifications and resources. It’s designed for MSPs, MSSPs, VARs and traditional resellers to gain a better understanding of the market, the technologies and potential customer. The distributor has developed new resources for accelerating market strategies; pre-validated, deployment-ready solutions; focused education, training and demos; and dedicated subject-matter experts to support partners through the sales cycle. The distributor will also incorporate its Practice Builder consultative methodology to help partners identify adjacent areas and sell into them.

TD Synnex’s Lisa McGarvey

“We have different types of resellers, MSPs and MSSPs that need our enablement and help to deliver the solutions, understand the end-users and their business priorities, the verticals and the different personas. You’re not just selling into IT; you’re selling into a line of business,” said Lisa McGarvey, vice president of data, AI and IoT solutions at TD Synnex. “With AI, they really do need that consultative approach.”

TD Synnex Destination AI Takes Aggregate Approach

The distributor recently added about 20 new ISVs – and related vendor account managers – to its line card, which now features about 40 AI-related vendors. TD Synnex also created new sales plays, catalogs and enablement around emerging solutions like computer vision, AI infrastructure, machine learning operations (ML Ops) and analytics.

Robotic process automation is one of the more popular AI-related solutions TD Synnex is selling to its partners, who are deploying it to automate just about any manual process across all industries. It’s a good solution for partners to start with, McGarvey said. Computer vision – enabling computers to understand objects and people – is another hot one, she said. It enables countless applications across many industries and drags a variety of hardware with it. McGarvey’s also been seeing an uptick in machine learning solutions. Her team is now building a sales play around generative AI with a focus on four areas partners typically see a lot of action in: customer ops, marketing and sales, R&D and software engineering.

New Opportunities for MSPs

TD Synnex’s enterprise partners are building the most AI-related solutions, McGarvey said. That will change as end-user clients find more practical needs for the technology and turn to MSPs and other providers for guidance.

“Clients have to start with the foundational aspect of collecting data and potentially using IoT, using sensors and other endpoint devices to collect data,” she said. “That’s a natural move to modernize the data and create a more integrated data experience within the organization.”

Another factor that could drive more AI business for MSPs will be protecting clients against shadow AI, or the use of AI products that aren’t sanctioned by an IT department.

“What could happen when your employees are putting meeting notes or code in the ChatGPT and ChatGPT ends up owning it?” McGarvey said. “There’s a huge opportunity for us to help our clients manage putting structure and control around those types of security issues.”