TD Synnex Unveils Meta Partnership Based On Quest 3, Meta For Work
‘Meta has traditionally been a consumer-focused brand. They’ve been dabbling in enterprise B2B. But now they realize the channel is critical to their success. They need partners who understand how this works. We’ve been working for a long time to launch this on our StreamOne platform. TD Synnex will pull the parts together to deploy solutions in a seamless way to partners,’ says Dylan Leach, senior vice president of product marketing for TD Synnex’s New Age Electronics division.
TD Synnex, the world’s largest IT distributor, Wednesday unveiled an enhanced distribution agreement with Meta, formerly known as Facebook.
The distribution agreement, along with the introduction of the Meta Quest 3 mixed reality headset and related software, was unveiled during the TD Synnex Inspire 2023 conference, held this week in Greenville, S.C.
Under the agreement, TD Synnex will be the exclusive North America distributor of Meta’s new suite of business products aimed at providing collaboration, training, creativity, and design capabilities powered by the Metaverse.
TD Synnex has supported Meta for years via its traditional retail partners, said Dylan Leach, senior vice president of product marketing for the Freemont, Calif. and Clearwater, Fla.-based distributor’s New Age Electronics division.
“However, this is our first focus on Meta enterprise solutions,” Leach told CRN. “Meta has been dabbling in B2B (business-to-business) for some time, but is now looking to do more. This is a focus on B2B on the commercial side. Meta has had enterprise relationships with such solution providers as CDW and Insight Enterprises, but not a full-scale solution.”
For TD Synnex, the enhanced partnership with Meta is based on that company’s recently Quest 3 mixed reality VR (virtual reality) headset, along with Meta for Work portfolio, which includes the Meta Quest for Business software. The distributor is also including an extended warranty for the Quest 3 headsets, an extended service plan for businesses, and the Shared Mode features that lets presenters and educators to send content seamlessly across multiple headsets. The technologies are all powered by Meta’s Metaverse.
TD Synnex’s value-add comes from adding the kind of scale that makes Meta Quest 3 and Meta for Work ready for scalable business applications, Leach said.
“Meta has traditionally been a consumer-focused brand,” he said. “They’ve been dabbling in enterprise B2B. But now they realize the channel is critical to their success. They need partners who understand how this works. We’ve been working for a long time to launch this on our StreamOne platform. TD Synnex will pull the parts together to deploy solutions in a seamless way to partners.”
Augmented reality and virtual reality remains an emerging technology for SHI International, but is an area where a lot of larger customers are trying various use cases, said Adam Reiser, senior director of end user computing for the Somerset, N.J.-based solution provider.
However, Reiser told CRN, it is an area where the new Meta for Work and Meta Quest 3, along with support from TD Synnex, can become a growth opportunity.
“Customers have been testing [Meta’s] Oculus for Business for a couple of years,” he said. “But Meta for Work is new. The employment and management is different. Oculus for Business was not able to be deployed at scale. Meta for Work adds the security needed to scale deployment.”
Reiser said that SHI expects it and its customers to be able to start demonstrating the Meta Quest 3 soon. “It has been rumored for a while,” he said.
TD Synnex is one of SHI’s three largest distributors, and the one it counts on for Oculus and now for Meta for Work, Reiser said.
“TD Synnex brings scale to Meta for Work,” he said. “It has distribution centers throughout the U.S., and can bring technologies like this to market quickly. TD Synnex really helps Meta’s business to scale and quickly deploy.”
Reiser said his customers see several key use cases for Meta for Work and Meta Quest 3.
The first is collaboration, he said. “In hybrid work environments, businesses can bring virtual workers into a virtual world with a face-to-face experience,” he said.
The second, training, will be the most common use case, Reiser said. “We see this not only for physical labor, but also for management training,” he said. “And in the medical field, we see it being used for things like research and surgical training.”
The third is design, Reiser said. “Field workers, for example t hose building oil rigs, can see the designs in real time,” he said.