GTDC North America Summit Is A Competitive Differentiator In Disty ‘Orchestrator Of IT Ecosystem’ Era: Channel Chiefs

'The distributors are really the only entity within the IT ecosystem that have the ability to provide and support multivendor solutions,’ says GTDC CEO Frank Vitagliano. 'The distributors touch everybody in the ecosystem- the vendors upstream, the partners and the customers downstream.'

Arctic Wolf Vice President of Global Channel Strategy Bob Skelley sees the Global Technology Distribution Council (GTDC) North America Summit on Feb. 19-20 at The Seabird Resort in Oceanside, Calif., as a “must attend” annual gathering to fuel revenue and profit gains for his company and its partners.

“I come out of this event each year with several new ideas that drive more efficiencies, more success in the channel together with our partners and more profitability for Arctic Wolf, our partners and our distributors,” said Skelley.

“This is the only event where I can get in front of all the top IT distribution executives in one place with tons of one-on-one time, where I can talk about what our needs and gaps are and how distributors can go fill those gaps for us,” he said. “I replace 10 separate trips by going to this one event because of the amount of people I can see and the networking that I’m able to do. If you have a distribution strategy you need to have at least a couple of people at this event.”

Skelley is one of several hundred channel movers and shakers that look to the event as a chance to collaborate with the top distributors in the world to drive sales growth, refine sales strategies, and to hammer out 2025 go-to-market sales plans.

GTDC – which is hosting the summit- is the global trade association for the top technology distributors, which account for $170 billion in technology sales.

The annual event features an always-eagerly anticipated panel of the top distribution CEOs- Ingram Micro CEO Paul Bay, TD Synnex CEO Patrick Zammit, Arrow Electronics CEO Sean Kerins and D&H Distributing Co-President Dan Schwab- sharing their views on the latest and great distribution developments including cloud platforms and AI opportunities.

Also popular at the annual gathering are a distribution chief financial officer (CFO) panel that provides critical cost efficiencies insights for channel chiefs and a 2025 technology outlook keynote address by IDC President Crowford Del Prete and a 2025 economic outlook keynote address from economist and former director of the Congressional Budget Office Douglas Holtz-Eakin.

GTDC CEO Frank Vitagliano – a 30-year plus channel veteran and former channel chief for IBM, Juniper Networks and Dell Technologies – said the annual event is key to understanding the investments and strategies distributors are implementing to drive the full breadth and depth of the IT ecosystem.

Distributors As The ‘Touch Point’ For Everything Happening In IT

“The distributors are really the only entity within the IT ecosystem that have the ability to provide and support multivendor solutions,” he said. “The distributors touch everybody in the ecosystem- the vendors upstream, the partners and the customers downstream. They are orchestrators and touch point for everything that’s happening in IT.”

The orchestration differentiator with the advent of AI is key to driving incremental sales for both vendors and partners, said Vitagliano.

Also fueling the AI era incremental sales are the huge investments in new emerging platforms from the distributors. “These platforms are enabling distributors to provide incredible levels of AI supported data that will ultimately drive sales activity and leads for vendors and partners,” said Vitagliano.

Vitagliano sees the new emerging platforms as a huge leap forward for the industry. “For partners these platforms are significantly reducing business complexity, streamlining the whole business process into a single platform,” he said. “What differentiates these distribution platforms is they are multi-vendor which is absolutely critical.”

Distributors are also making dramatic investments in services to drive new AI opportunities for partners, said Vitaglano. “The distributors are providing the training, resources and support to show partners how to operate in the AI era,” he said.

Skelley and other channel chiefs said they see distributor’s focus on acting as orchestrators of the IT ecosystem paying big dividends for their companies.

Distributors As Orchestrators Of The IT Ecosystem

“The view of distributors as the orchestrators of the IT ecosystem is spot on,” said Skelley. “The distributors sit on the database of all the channel partners, what they sell, who they are selling to, what brands they cover and what brands they don’t, what gaps they have in their portfolio. As they get more sophisticated in mining that data and utilizing that data they are able to help us drive ecosystem sales plays. Distribution is figuring out how to harness the data and help us all connect the dots.”

Skelley said he sees Ingram Micro’s AI-based Xvantage platform as key to driving big sales efficiencies. In fact, he estimated that back-office order processing and change management processes at Ingram Micro that used to take one-and-a-half hours to three hours now take less than 15 minutes with Xvantage.

Arctic Wolf has also leveraged Ingram Micro’s data mining capabilities to drive an ecosystem meet in the channel sales plan with complimentary security providers email Mimecast and Zscaler. “That’s a one plus one plus one equals five strategy,” Skelley said. “It’s more compelling to the end customer because it has three different components of the ecosystem solution. It’s a force multiplier!”

Skelley credited Ingram with helping to drive new “channel partnerships” for vendors through networking events aimed at sharing “best practices and new idea to better serve the channel partner community.”

Rob Cato, vice president of North America Channels at Lenovo, said he sees the GTDC event as key to getting his arms around the rapidly changing IT ecosystem.

“With the ecosystem changing as rapidly as it has over the last two years, we look at distributors as the hub,” he said. “We have to have great distribution relationships in place. We need to leverage the platforms they are building out. Ultimately they are helping us get more information more quickly like price quotes, services information and collateral into the hands of our partners.”

The orchestrator of the IT ecosystem role of distributors is key with Lenovo driving solution provider-focused partnerships with Cisco and NetApp, said Cato. “That is all about meeting in the channel with the distributors who pull all of that together,” he said. “In today’s hybrid world distribution is critical. And that is exactly what Lenovo is focused on: creating a hybrid end to end solution for the partner and the customer across infrastructure and the modern workplace.”

CFO Panel Focuses On Financial Benefits Of Distribution

Cato said he is excited about the distribution CFO panel which strikes at the heart of the financial benefits of leveraging distribution. “We all get to bring our CFOs to the event which is a huge component of distribution,” he said. “That is a critical component in terms of cash management which is so critical to us and our partners.”

As far as the new platforms being introduced by the distributors, there is the opportunity to take “weeks down to days and days down to minutes” in terms of go-to-market efficiencies and improvements around time to quote, delivery and payment, said Cato.

On the AI front, Lenovo is working with distributors to identify up-and-coming AI ISVs to drive AI growth with partners, said Cato. “We’re working with the distributors to have them bring those ISVs into the portfolio as part of the ecosystem,” he said. “Many of them are startups. The distributors provide a huge value for us and our partners to leverage those AI capabilities.”

Cato said he sees 2025 as a critical year for Lenovo’s AI sales charge with the help of distributors. “AI is really going to start to ramp up in 2025,” he said. “We have a full set of (AI) solutions on the PC/client business and our infrastructure products and solutions have never been better. We’re bringing that all together with our partners and their services to bring these solutions to customers. I’ve been doing this 30 years. This is a wind-at-your-back-defining moment and inflection point that we can all take advantage of. Distribution is the hub where we are going to make all this happen.”

Chris Walton, senior director of global distribution strategy for Dell Technologies, said he sees the GTDC summit as an opportunity to “engage” with all of Dell’s distributors to gain “insights” into the ongoing evolution of the IT industry.

“It allows us to lean into all the benefits that our value-added distributors provide our partners as we move into the New Year with new energy, new focus and new purpose,” said Walton. “It’s a great opportunity to get it all with everything in one place…It’s a great event! I look forward to it every year.”

Walton, who worked closely with Vitagliano at Dell, said he sees the longtime channel leader as the “grandfather” of distribution. “It’s always a blast to get time with Frank and leverage his relationships,” he said.

Walton said he sees the CEO distributor panel and the solution provider panel as among his favorite sessions at the event. “It’s always great to get the perspective directly from the CEOs and also to hear from partners on what they are looking for from the vendors and the distributors to help support that,” he said. “It’s going to be eye opening.”

Dell continues to expand its distribution business, said Walton. “The scale, reach and support they provide is critical to the success of our partners,” he said.

Walton said he sees the distributor IT ecosystem reach as the “easy” button for its partners in areas such as AI cybersecurity and as a service. “The subject matter expertise and value add that the distributors provide to the partners is critical,” he said.

Vitagliano, for his part, says the distributors are poised to have a “profound impact” on the industry in the years ahead with their AI driven platforms. “With the addition of AI, the distributors are going to be able to provide their customers with a significant amount of information from 40 years of data as to propensity for buying, the opportunity to develop leads and ultimately to help drive incremental sales opportunities for their partners,” he said.