Beyond Security: More TD Synnex Partners Expanding Portfolios with High-Growth Tech

The partners that haven’t yet embraced high-growth technologies are “really are hungry for what we're offering, and whether it be our enablement offerings or our security offerings, those are the partners who really want to sit down with us and that we're here to help,” said TD Synnex’s Calhoun McKinney.

“One is knowing where to start and what to start with,” she said. “And so that's where our Partner of the Future assessments really help. These MSPs or even non-MSP partners come in and understand, 'OK, where are you in the journey? What capabilities do you need to grow in? Where do you already have strengths that we think you should play to?' And then we really come up with that custom enablement journey for them, whether that be leveraging our High-Growth Technology Center of Excellence or these particular pillars, 'we've got a number of different routes you can go down, here are the ones that we would recommend for you specifically.'”

High-growth technologies are all registering double-digit or higher growth, McKinney said.

“From a data standpoint, that's really where you get into not getting lost in Al, really making sure that you're harnessing all that you can out of that, and then by deploying these cloud-intelligent applications, you're able to analyze, manage and deliver better business outcomes for their customers,” she said. “And then lastly, from an infrastructure standpoint, I think that's where MSPs are really best-positioned. We have a lot of conversations around making sure that you're not just getting to the software piece or the applications piece, but making sure you're also including where they're storing that, how are they powering it and really addressing the modern infrastructure part of the sale as well. And then, of course, we are Beyond Security, so making sure that all of that's done responsibly and in a secure way.”

Practice Builder is one of the pillars of TD Synnex’s new High-Growth Technology Center of Excellence, McKinney said.

“Practice Builder is really where we can take you and say, 'Hey, you've got a great go-to-market strategy when it comes to security, for example; however, we think that you're missing out on the cloud opportunity,” she said. “And so we're going to recommend that you go and participate in our Cloud Practice Builder. That's where you can spend a really invested amount of time transforming parts of your business and stepping through with everything from, 'Hey, here's the vocabulary that's important for this part of the market,' all the way to, 'Hey, here's how we would consult you on how to design, how you set all this up internally, and what sellers we need to empower to be able to speak to this as well.' So it’s a very impressive offering from the Practice Builder group."

TD Synnex has faced numerous challenges in recent years that tested its resilience and tenacity, said Jessica McDowell, TD Synnex’s senior vice president of business development and security strategy. 

“We experienced a number of vendor acquisitions that forced us to cover gaps by finding new opportunities and new value propositions,” she said. “We also had to deal with the impact of the pandemic, which caused us to pivot on nearly every aspect of the business, from logistics and operations, to sales and marketing, to customer service and support. And of course, we can't forget the Great Resignation, which affected our workforce and our talent pool, and really forced us to rethink our culture and how we engage with our coworkers.”

But the biggest and most rewarding challenge was the merger of Tech Data and Synnex, McDowell said.

“Now, this was the largest technology merger in history, creating a $57 billion company with over 23,000 co-workers and 150,000 customers worldwide,” she said. “But it was also a long and complex road of harmonization between two companies with different histories, different cultures, systems and processes. We had to integrate everything. We had to integrate our portfolios and our platforms, our teams and our values, and we had to deliver a single elevated value back to you, our customers. It was not easy, but we did it. And we're still working every day to perfect the experience that we provide to you.”

At Beyond Security, TD Synnex introduced its new MSP Evolve program, an aggregation of its resources and tools designed to accelerate business growth by addressing MSPs’ latest needs. The program will initially be available for North American MSPs.

Ed Morales, TD Synnex’s global vice president of security and high-growth business development, said the distribution giant realized that not every MSP is created equally. That’s one reason that led to the creation of MSP Evolve.

“We have to do an assessment because you have different types of MSPs that have engaged,” he said. “You have the infrastructure guys who are moving into cloud, those who are hybrid cloud moving into different disciplines of security and analytics. And so it's a matter of being able to understand their customer base and mapping the technologies back. That's one reason why we created MSP Evolve.

"One of the things that we've always heard, and I think this applies to anything, especially a company as big as we are, is, 'I didn't know you could do that.' We're trying to eliminate that by providing this program in a way that they can see everything we offer. And once they see that, they are astounded that they have access. It doesn't mean there are no program fees. There's no requirement. You just have to be a partner of TD Synnex and you get access to this whole portfolio of services from basic logistics all the way up to delivery mechanisms from our StreamOne Cloud Platform, to enhanced enablement like Destination AI or Practice Builder. So they have access to that whole value-add to help them up their game. One of the great comments that I got from a partner was, 'What you guys do is you help us punch above our weight class because we empower the partner to be able to do more than what they could do on their own.' And I think that's in essence what we try to do at scale.”

Read more from Ed Morales in the upcoming May 27th edition of the Gately Report.

Meredith Payne, TD Synnex’s senior director of cloud, talked about the massive opportunities ahead for partners in cloud.

According to IDC, the cloud market will total $678.8 billion this year. And 70% of organizations expect their cloud spending to increase, according to Flexera. Furthermore, cloud will be considered a business necessity by 2028.

Organizations want to increase their cloud consumption, but they also want to be smarter in how they’re consuming cloud, Payne said.

“They want to optimize their cloud spend, and ultimately they just want to make sure that they're having more control over the cloud resources within their environments,” she said. “So how do you take advantage of that? The first thing that we would say is selling to every type of cloud. We're going to continue to see a focus on specialization and specialization is a really good thing. But also expansion is a good thing and we want to make sure that we are supporting you as you expand and support each of these cloud environments. If you take a look at the market

opportunity within the United States and Canada alone, you'll see it's still quite large. So if you're focusing just within one type of cloud or even two, you're potentially leaving opportunity on the table. So we want to support you in that.”

Go beyond the cloud and sell the full solution, Payne said. That includes services, complementary vendors, cybersecurity, data/AI, and connectivity and UCC.

“TD Synnex is here to help and we do that in a number of different ways,” she said. “First, we help by accelerating your success. We noticed that success looks different for everyone and we're able to adapt to get to where you want to go. Think about this. Maybe you've got higher revenue targets or perhaps you are looking to expand into these other portfolio opportunities, or maybe you just want to get some time back in the day to spend with your loved ones or yourself?”

TD Synnex can help, with specialized teams, deep channel experience and expertise, and an “unmatched” cloud portfolio, Payne said.

Lisa McGarvey, TD Synnex’s vice president of data, AI and IoT solutions, verticals and alliances, said the distribution giant’s Cybersecurity and AI Practice Builder can help channel partners pursue more opportunities with cybersecurity and AI.

“That really looks at the channel partners’ business today, what they're doing around security, and then looking at adjacencies for AI, how can they participate and play in AI, and start talking to their customers about the opportunities there if they're already selling into security,” she said. “We also have assessments that we're building out around cybersecurity and AI … for them to look at opportunities with their end customers to progress deals with their customers. We also have our Cyber Range, and we are today using security and AI to look at threat detection. So we're using it internally as well.”

TD Synnex is also providing education on the good and bad of AI, how it’s helping both cyber defenders and threat actors, McGarvey said.

“We hear a lot from partners that they want to understand how they get started, how they start engaging in AI, what they need to do,” she said. “And that's really what our Practice Builder is set up to do, to really sit down with them, have a conversation about what they're selling today and where they want to go, and really consulting with them to say, 'OK, if you're selling this type of security, here's an opportunity for you to sell.' And we can look at it by technology. We can look at it by vendor. We can look at it by horizontal or vertical, and really help them understand the additional opportunity as to what they're selling today, so they can leverage the skills that they have today and then expand into AI. So we try to make it easy for them to do that.”

There are a lot that partners can take with them after Beyond Security in terms of AI, McGarvey said.

“I want them to understand that there is not a one-size-fits-all, and we understand that we're looking at and we understand their business challenges, and we're here to help them get to where they need to be,” she said. “And because there's not that one-size-fits-all, we're going to meet them where they are in their maturity model. Ultimately, we want to get them to digital AI transformation and move up that scale. But we want to be able to have the right consultative approach to understand where they are today and where they want to go. So that's around things like leveraging our consultants, leveraging our Practice Builder. And then once we have those conversations, really helping to prescribe things within our Center of Excellence and our Destination AI that they can leverage to be successful, whether it's sales plays or Practice Builder, or assessments or services, having that consultative approach to help them get to where they need to be.”

Lisa McGarvey, TD Synnex’s vice president of data, AI and IoT solutions, verticals and alliances, said the distribution giant’s Cybersecurity and AI Practice Builder can help channel partners pursue more opportunities with cybersecurity and AI.

“That really looks at the channel partners’ business today, what they're doing around security, and then looking at adjacencies for AI, how can they participate and play in AI, and start talking to their customers about the opportunities there if they're already selling into security,” she said. “We also have assessments that we're building out around cybersecurity and AI … for them to look at opportunities with their end customers to progress deals with their customers. We also have our Cyber Range, and we are today using security and AI to look at threat detection. So we're using it internally as well.”

TD Synnex is also providing education on the good and bad of AI, how it’s helping both cyber defenders and threat actors, McGarvey said.

“We hear a lot from partners that they want to understand how they get started, how they start engaging in AI, what they need to do,” she said. “And that's really what our Practice Builder is set up to do, to really sit down with them, have a conversation about what they're selling today and where they want to go, and really consulting with them to say, 'OK, if you're selling this type of security, here's an opportunity for you to sell.' And we can look at it by technology. We can look at it by vendor. We can look at it by horizontal or vertical, and really help them understand the additional opportunity as to what they're selling today, so they can leverage the skills that they have today and then expand into AI. So we try to make it easy for them to do that.”

There are a lot that partners can take with them after Beyond Security in terms of AI, McGarvey said.

“I want them to understand that there is not a one-size-fits-all, and we understand that we're looking at and we understand their business challenges, and we're here to help them get to where they need to be,” she said. “And because there's not that one-size-fits-all, we're going to meet them where they are in their maturity model. Ultimately, we want to get them to digital AI transformation and move up that scale. But we want to be able to have the right consultative approach to understand where they are today and where they want to go. So that's around things like leveraging our consultants, leveraging our Practice Builder. And then once we have those conversations, really helping to prescribe things within our Center of Excellence and our Destination AI that they can leverage to be successful, whether it's sales plays or Practice Builder, or assessments or services, having that consultative approach to help them get to where they need to be.”