A few weeks ago, I was in attendance at the 2022 TD SYNNEX TechSelect Spring Conference, a gathering of TechSelect community members, TD SYNNEX leadership and vendor experts. The event, held in beautiful Phoenix, Ariz., was designed to empower, enable and excite attendees to do more with the comprehensive suite of resources available to them as TechSelect members. It was the first in-person TechSelect in more than two years, marking a huge step forward in channel harmonization in 2022.

One of the benefits of being back at an in-person conference is the ability to roam from general sessions to breakout groups to hallway conversations to get a comprehensive understanding of industry trends and market solutions. As a member of the TD SYNNEX Corporate Communications team, I was also privileged to sit in on media interviews, behind-the-scenes conversations and customer interviews to get a well-rounded representation of what the IT channel is prioritizing and how we’re coming together to solve for end user challenges.

These conversations and agenda topics complement the many tangible and intangible benefits that our CommunitySolv communities, like TechSelect, provide. This is what I learned from a week of listening in on some of the brightest minds in our industry:

1. It’s Time to Boost Your Cybersecurity Stack

This next statement may sound hyperbolic, but I assure you it is not: Cybersecurity was mentioned at least once in every main stage session.

Security is a very ubiquitous, complex landscape, and it’s not a single solution. It is taking more vendors, products and solutions to ensure that you and your customers have mitigated your risk and built the most comprehensive cybersecurity stack available. Even security vendors are working with “competing” security vendors to ensure the channel is protected. Adding security to solutions and devices is a surefire way to build growth and build a strong reputation.

Take our session on new vendor acquisition — our primary goal is to cover as close to 100% of the channel line card as possible, however, many of the next-gen vendors, like complementary security vendors, are in their infancy. As a solutions aggregator, it becomes our job to educate and enable these prospective security vendors to understand the market opportunity of working in the channel. When we add new security vendors, the first thing we ensure is that they play well with already-established hardware and software vendors that we carry. The result is a global reach of end-to-end security performance when we work with our partners.

2. Find the Synergies in Next-Gen Technologies like Hybrid Cloud

TD SYNNEX communities are continuously evolving to meet the needs of our rapidly-evolving industry. We are regularly collaborating with our advisory council members and reviewing the benefits of membership so that ROI continues to soar for members. One of the outcomes of these reviews is to increase support for high-growth next-generation technologies like 5G, AR/VR, data analytics, IoT and, you guessed it, hybrid cloud.

Hybrid cloud adoption has been particularly affected by the digital disruption we’ve experienced over the past two years. More workloads are moving to remote environments, putting a strain on private cloud capacity and public cloud security. Hybrid cloud offers the best of both worlds, leading to heightened demand for implementation. Working with a solutions aggregator like TD SYNNEX ensures that we can pair the top cloud providers with the top hardware providers, and integrate and test them before resellers roll them out to their end users. Another advantage of hybrid cloud is the flexibility of pay-as-you-go consumption-based financing, which we’ll dive into later in this list.

These technologies, which were once buzzwords, are now a critical part of a tech stack. As TD SYNNEX executive Steve Jow put it: “Shiny objects are real now.” Starting from scratch or expanding your hybrid cloud practice doesn’t need to be as complex as it sounds. We have a proven Practice Builder methodology in place that is pre-configured, pre-tested and pre-validated so that partners can deploy Click to Run™ solutions in minutes, instead of days or weeks. Practice Builder has a huge suite of services to help build success, including training, certifications, consultation on tech gaps, sales and marketing.

3. Build Your Network to Build Your Bottom Line

There’s no secret formula. Members of TD SYNNEX communities are not only growing at a premium to the market, but they’re growing at a premium to non-community-member TD SYNNEX partners. There are many tangible and intangible benefits to being a community member that attribute to this, but events like TechSelect allow peers to connect. Imagine being a smaller partner that may not typically gain vendor attention for a lingering issue; being a community member grows an alliance with others to help fix that issue and grow profitably.

Peer-to-peer collaboration, especially over a dynamic, digital forum may be one of the most effective ways to discover results-driven answers to complex customer questions. No matter how niche your challenges may seem, there’s a good chance that another member of the IT channel has gone through something similar and can help you navigate your way to profitable revenue. It’s a major competitive advantage to connect with like-minded individuals and find ways to work together profitably with one another.

4. Discover Vertical Market Specialization

As we sit in the center of the IT ecosystem, it’s our job to inform channel partners about trends that we’re seeing and experiencing. One such trend is the demand for experts in specific vertical markets, rather than a generalist reseller. Modern-day value-add solutions aggregation extends beyond just going multi-vendor; now, we’re incorporating vertical market specialization to tailor solutions to specific use cases. Some examples of vertical markets where tech is thriving:

• Education: Public and private institutions of all levels are striving for a 1:1 device-to-student ratio, so the device opportunity is enormous. Many educational institutions are also incorporating VR and AR technology for more immersive learning experiences
• Healthcare: Hospitals, healthcare providers, pharmacies and beyond have increasing tech needs, especially when it comes to patient data privacy, so our reseller partners have regularly been growing their healthcare practice. We offer a Healthcare University and Healthcare Internship for resellers to get a hands-on look at solutions that are implemented into today’s healthcare vertical.
• Public Sector: Through a thorough combination of our GovSolv practice and our DLT organization, we have comprehensive coverage of the Public Sector. The way that governments do business and serve constituents must reflect the rapidly-changing advances of technology.
• Retail: The retail experience of 2022 needs to accommodate a hybrid role of in-person and e-commerce traffic. TD SYNNEX and our vendors have resources in the retail sector to keep partners up-to-date on consumer behaviors and trends.

5. Use Financing as a Sales Tool

Not many may think about creative financing as a means to get more deals over the line. In today’s landscape, flexible, consumption-based IT financing has become an ideal option to maximize IT budgets. The finance conversation has evolved to reduce complexity with unnecessary OPEX and CAPEX spend.

Our finance team looks for creative ways to say yes because when our friends win, we win. We are understanding the impact that the pandemic, long lead times and supply chain constraints have had on our partners’ business, so we’ve placed heavy investments in providing alternative financing options so that we can break down more barriers. During the more turbulent times, we are working to ensure that we’re still doubling down on partner success through flexible financing, partial billing to improve cash flow and partnerships to secure lines of credit.

Our TD SYNNEX Capital team was on hand at TechSelect to offer flexible financing options to partners in attendance.

Our CommunitySolv umbrella extends beyond TechSelect; our Varnex and Stellr communities each serve their distinct members of the IT channel. While they each serve their purpose, they’re all working toward a common goal: helping our channel partners develop solutions that make the world a better place to live, work and learn. Learn more to get involved.