Exclusive Q&A with Intelisys President John DeLozier: Joining ScanSource ‘My Dream Job’

… So it’s a pretty, pretty awesome relationship. And I also want to comment on John Eldh. As our global chief revenue officer, this obviously happened because of him. And when John Eldh and Mike Baur both got together to decide who they wanted to bring in as the new president of Intelisys, both of them independently came up with my name, which is both humbling, and exciting.

CF:  You have this firsthand VAR experience and this experience working with agents from the supplier side. Did it seem to you like that they really wanted someone with those two perspectives? Or someone with a supplier perspective?

JD: It was definitely the former. It’s kind of a weird thing. John Eldh says I have one foot in the old world and one foot in the new world. I have been around long enough to know what it was like to do businesses a VAR – you know, suppliers meeting us where we were in the channel and getting out of our way and letting us do our thing. I understand them. I’ve worked with them for many, many years. And then in the new world, from an agency perspective, it’s more opex-related, more SaaS-related for the last five or six years.

So I think they wanted both. And that’s the thing about ScanSource and Intelisys. We are going to meet partners where they are. We have the experience with both. I’m never going to use the word master agency, by the way – but formerly that’s what it was known as – and it is the largest and brightest [master agency].

CF: As someone who does have this unique background on these business models, is there a word you want to use instead of “master agency”? For example, I keep saying “services distributor.”

JD: We’re working on some branding right now. But I will tell you; when I think of our company, I think of us as technology orchestrators. That’s really what we are we. It’s technology orchestration delivered. And for us, whether it’s hardware or software or connectivity or services, it doesn’t matter. We have the experience and the ability to orchestrate that for our partners and deliver it.

CF: What was it like making this transition from 8×8? I know you’ve worked with [new 8×8 channel chief] Bobby Hall for a number of years. What’s it like leaving 8×8’s channel organization in his hands?

JD: I had a great, great run, and a great relationship with not only 8×8 but all of my former employers. I’ve just put that in the rearview mirror. And I’m so excited about what we’re going to do here. I think Bobby will do a great job.

CF: Moving forward, what are some of your short-term and long-term goals for Intelisys and ScanSource?

JD: This orchestration we’re talking about is critically important. A couple of things. The first thing is: obviously, I’ve been here six days. I’m really just figuring out where to park and how to get through the office and meet everybody. But the overall things are very simple. We want to meet partners where they are, period. I don’t care if they decide to go to market as a VAR, if they decide to go to market as an agent. Maybe they’re an MSP. Maybe they’re a system integrator; it doesn’t matter. We’ve got the span of control. We’ve got the “arm,” if you will, in all geographies globally, to meet those partners where they are. So that is the first thing. We’re going to put together freshened up loyalty program for our partners that not only rewards the behavior that we want to see, but [also rewards them for] some of the newer technologies, depending on what they’ve sold or haven’t sold. So you’ll see something like that happen.

And the last thing – and you can imagine me saying this – is that suppliers are as important as our partners. So we want to treat them that way…