D&H Distributing Unveils Advanced Solutions Plus Unit To Focus On The Enterprise, ‘A Pivotal Evolution’ For Its Business
“You will look back, and say, ‘This is the moment in time that D&H went from the SMB, midmarket guy to be the full enterprise-class distributor,’” D&H Distributing Co-President Dan Schwab tells CRN.
D&H Distributing is unveiling Advanced Solutions Plus, a new business unit that will focus on providing enterprise technology at scale, while still holding on to the warmth and personality that has made the distributor beloved by resellers.
“It’s really rebranding, and it basically reflects our transformation into a full-service, enterprise-grade partner for advanced technologies,” D&H Co-President Dan Schwab (pictured) told CRN. “It is a pivotal evolution in our business. You will look back and say, ‘This is the moment in time that D&H went from the SMB, midmarket guy to be the full enterprise-class distributor.”
Advanced Solutions Plus is backed by multimillion-dollar investments in sales coverage, technical resources, digital platforms and new experience centers at the company’s Harrisburg, Pa.-headquarters that are built to show off and enable partner growth in key areas like cybersecurity, data center modernization and AI.
Schwab said that its change to focus on the enterprise reflects both the state of the market for technology products as well as the evolution of its partners, as many of D&H’s top partners have grown alongside the distributor and now serve those top customers.
Privately held and employee-owned, D&H itself has grown 27 percent year over year as of the end of its fiscal year April 30 with revenue reaching $7 billion. The company’s midmarket business is up 30 percent, while revenue from midmarket and enterprise now represents 36 percent, or $2.52 billion, of its revenue.
“I would have said three or five years ago, I don’t know how D&H could ever compete there. Like, you’re walking into the lion’s den trying to compete there. What we found out is, as we’ve grown two things, we’ve helped a lot of our midmarket partners move up to enterprise. We’ve really trained them and helped build their business. In addition, what happened is as we started to call on some of those partners, or they sought us out, we were shocked that our service levels ran circles around [other distributors].”
He named examples of businesses that grew from $30 million in revenue to $200 million in revenue over the years, all while using D&H as their differentiator, with the distributor’s teams visiting partner’s shops and meeting twice a month to review ongoing business as well as helping partners find profitability in the program of the vendor they are working with.
“When D&H talks to the partner, our secret sauce is we’re doing that from a solution sales standpoint,” he said. “We’re not just selling them Dell. We’re selling them security products from SonicWall and Cisco. We’re selling them the total solution. And we’re able to evangelize why we think these two together makes sense. Why the margin profile with this vendor makes sense. Or there’s a new program that’s out that you weren’t aware of, that if you grow your business with this vendor, you can get another 4 percent. So we spent a lot of time talking to them about those softer things that lead to the profitability, that lead to certifications and trainings that the other guys, literally, that’s not their focus anymore.”
There are also larger solution providers who are looking to D&H to provide more hands-on and consultative work than he said larger distributors are capable of. He said D&H recently won a VAR with an annual revenue of $400 million that was told it needed to submit a ticket with its previous large distributor in order to speak with a person.
“If they want a quote, we get back to them within eight to 10 minutes,” Schwab said, noting that 71 percent of D&H’s calls are outbound.
Michael Haley, co-founder of Alpharetta, Ga.-based Edge Computing, a longtime D&H partner, said he once called Schwab’s cellphone to leave a message on a weekend, expecting a callback on Monday and instead found himself talking with Schwab himself.
“I’ve always told people at D&H [that] what I like most about them is they answer on the first ring, or they text you before the phone goes to voicemail, saying, ‘I can’t take the call’ or ‘I’m in a meeting,’” he told CRN. “They are a fun company with whom to do business, and it starts at the leadership level. I’m not kidding, from Dan and [Co-President] Michael [Schwab] down to our inside sales rep or the woman who handles events.”
One of the bigger issues faced by the channel is the mounting complexity of the solutions that partners put together for the market. Whether it is installing security across a network or to meet the demands of AI, the only answer is education and enablement.
D&H launched Go Big AI for its partners in 2024 and has now trained 5,380 partners in AI sales enablement and driving AI solutions to market. In addition, D&H offers partners free marketing, deal registration with the vendor, as well as free presale and post-sale technical support,
“So if you’re doing a bill of materials, if you want to create a test environment, a sandbox, if you’re on-site and you’re having technical issues with a deployment, we have people that will help you resolve that,” Schwab said.
He said in preparation for the Advanced Solutions Plus rollout, D&H has hired and trained 32 people—with half again as many more set to be on-boarded—just to prepare for the company’s pivot into enterprise.
“Everyone talks about it cavalierly when you’re selling AI,” he said. “It is the most complex sale to get an end user to share their most important data. Every end user is different. So how are you figuring out how to unleash the power of their data to reduce costs, scale their business, whatever it happens to be?”
As D&H moves up the stack in IT products, it has won over Dell Technologies, which has added D&H to the distributors selling its market-leading line of servers. Dell Senior Vice President of North American Channel Gregg Ambulos said the company is relying on D&H’s tight relationship with partners as it drives more AI products into the market.
“AI touches every corner of our business. D&H’s partners are increasingly adopting AI-enabled solutions to stay competitive, and we’re equipping our distributors with the tools and resources to meet these demands,” he told CRN. “By aligning these efforts with our broader AI strategy, we’re confident we can drive growth while addressing evolving customer needs.”
David Miketinac, vice president of strategic initiatives at Waltham, Mass.-based Cambridge Computer Services—No. 233 on CRN’s 2025 Solution Provider 500 and five-time winner of Nvidia Partner of the Year—said the company has numerous Ph.D.’s among its engineering staff.
“Why would a capable technical partner look to D&H? To help scale it up. We need them both in the current place we’re at for the things that distributors do, and then where we want to go as we expand. Distribution is the perfect recipe for us,” he told CRN. “Absolutely, we plan on leaning on D&H’s technical resources to help us scale the business.”
Miketinac spent 25 years working at Dell Technologies with several roles that focused on distribution. He said Cambridge Computer Services—which won Dell’s 2025 North American Partner of the Year—has been working with D&H for the last two years with ownership from both companies meeting and doing business frequently.
“They believed in us as a partner,” he said. “And in turn, our business has grown together, and I think they’re looking for technical partners to help them expand their business. It’s a very good marriage of technical partners and distributors that are looking to grow, that are flexible and wanting to do business right.”