AI dominated the spotlight at the TD SYNNEX Inspire conference held this week in Greenville, South Carolina, where attendees heard from new leadership taking the reins at the distributor. They detailed their vision to help partners capitalize on all emerging opportunities by providing expertise, playbooks, and additional services; launching new cyber resilience and AI infrastructure business units; and the upcoming appointment of a new communities leader. The overarching theme: TD SYNNEX does not want partners to miss out on new business due to lack of skill or resources.
“We see ourselves as a critical partner and we are focused on two things for our partners,” said CEO Patrick Zammit, who took over in September from Rich Hume, who is retiring. “One, the experience. We want to be the easiest distributor to do business with. We want to make sure that we help you transform. …We know that operational excellence is very important for you. And so we are going to continue to evolve, invest in our systems and our processes to make sure that we deliver to you the right value. And then even more important is growth. We are all in business to grow. This market is constantly offering new opportunities for growth. And this is the second of the value proposition we want to bring to you.”
He added, “We are going to consistently try to innovate so that when you go in front of your customers, the end users, you have been enabled by us and you are in a position to win the deals.” As a result, he said, “Services is going to be an area where we want to do much more and where we are going to accelerate going forward.”
Zammit said the distributor will be focusing on four areas to improve their value proposition to partners: more data-driven lead generation, creation of digital services, seamless self-service, and automated transactions. “The idea is to automate as much as possible the exchange of data between our two companies. You want to have access to your data on your mobile, on your PC, very easily. It’s a huge area of investment for us, and hopefully you will see the benefits very soon.”
Finally, Zammit stressed that the distributor wants to work with partners on their own unique growth strategy. “You are all different. You play in different segments, you focus on different verticals, you have different capabilities. And so again, what is very important for us going forward is to have this discussion on where’s the market going? What are your strengths? Where do you want to play? How can we help you move to the part of the markets where you see your future? And so at the end, come up with a very customized personalized plan for you to succeed and to make it happen.”
Focus On Partners
Incoming President of North America Reyna Thompson (pictured above), who followed Zammit on stage, continued that theme. “Our focus is going to be meeting partners where they are and whatever IT journey that they’re taking. It’s not just about advanced solutions. It’s not just about a particular partner size or a particular vertical.” She stressed, “It’s being able to make visible our capability and our value add and allow them to consume it as they see fit.”
Thompson, who joined the distributor in 1993 and most recently headed up TD SYNNEX’s North America Advanced Solutions business unit focused on cloud, security, data/AI and data center solutions, is taking over from Peter Larocque, who plans to transition to an advisory role after 41 years at TD SYNNEX. Thompson assured partners there would be business continuity in the transition. “Peter and I have been working alongside each other for a very long time. So I don’t think that there’s going to be any disruption from a vendor standpoint or a partner standpoint. But what I’m hoping for as we go into the next year is that we’ll be able to drive forward a very clear value in brand messaging for the North American business,” says Thompson.
Monetizing AI
From TD SYNNEX leadership to the slate of big-time vendors speaking from the main stage—Lenovo, Nvidia, Intel, HP, Microsoft, Palo Alto Networks, Verizon, AWS, Snapdragon (Qualcomm), Dell—the topic of how the channel can monetize AI was pervasive and multifaceted. Some likened the inflection point in the industry to “AI’s iPhone moment” and stressed a sense of urgency to not get left behind.
Jim Lee, vice president, America’s Global Partner Solutions and Sales for Microsoft, framed the moment this way: “Every industry is going to be rebooted and transformed through AI.”
One immediate opportunity several speakers stressed is the end of support for Windows 10 next year, which will trigger a move to Windows 11 PCs—a wedge to sell AI-enabled devices and get a foothold in the AI market. “We are on the precipice of the largest PC refresh in history; it’s a massive opportunity,” said Pete Trizzino, president of North America Sales at Dell Technologies. “Not every use case [for AI] requires data centers… the time is now to bring AI-enabled PCs to your customers.”
He concluded, Trizzino: “We are all in the right industry at the right time.”
New AI Practice Accelerator
To help MSP partners get up to speed on AI use cases and opportunities, TD SYNNEX announced the launch of its Destination AI Practice Accelerator in North America to fast-track AI go-to-market efforts and monetization for partners.
“The challenge right now is there are a lot of the market’s moving very fast,” Thompson told MSP Success in a conversation during the event. “There are a lot of buzzwords out there. Vendors and partners are trying to understand what’s the next big that’s going to pay off. So I feel that the opportunity for us is to mask some of that complexity, demystify some of those trends.”
She continued, “We’ve heard from so many partners, ‘Stop educating us on ai. Don’t tell me that AI is important. Show us where the path to revenue is. Show us how to monetize AI. Give us a playbook that we can actually take to market. And that’s been our focus. … We’ve got over 50 sales plays that do exactly that, very specifically demonstrate areas that can be solutioned, where we can solve pain points, where there are proof of concepts, where we’ve actually sold something. And you’re going to see more of that.”
Community Impact
TD SYNNEX opened and closed the Inspire event on an emotional note. Before the opening keynote, leaders acknowledged partners, vendors, and colleagues impacted by Hurricanes Helene and Milton. Greenville got power restored just days before Inspire started. Mayor of Greenville Knox White came to the stage and thanked TD SYNNEX for its financial contributions to help with the cleanup efforts and assist those who were impacted.
Closing out the event was a tribute to Larocque, who in addition to leading North America initiated and drove TD SYNNEX Share The Magic, which to date has raised more than $25 million to fund programs that transform the lives of families across North America.
