5 Companies That Came To Win This Week

For the week ending Sept. 3 CRN takes a look at the companies that brought their ‘A’ game to the channel.

The Week Ending Sept. 3

Topping this week’s Came to Win list are Tech Data and Synnex for completing their blockbuster merger to create the IT industry’s biggest distributor.

Also making the list this week are Check Point Software Technologies for a strategic acquisition in the email security space, data lake technology startup Dremio for launching its first channel program with a focus on systems integration and consulting partners, distributor ScanSource for providing new resources that help partners expand the services they can offer customers, and solution provider Computer Design and Integration for its own smart acquisition.

Synnex And Tech Data Complete Blockbuster Merger, Create Industry’s Largest IT Distributor

Synnex and Tech Data made headlines this week when they completed their $7.2 billion merger that creates the IT industry’s largest distributor.

The newly created entity, called TD Synnex, has nearly $60 billion in annual revenue—enough to take over the No. 1 spot among distributors and push rival Ingram Micro to the No. 2 position.

TD Synnex has 1,500 vendors on its line card, 150,000 customers and 22,000 employees. Tech Data CEO Rich Hume is CEO of the new company.

The merger, unveiled in March, combines publicly traded Synnex, based in Fremont, Calif., with Clearwater, Fla.-based Tech Data, which was acquired by private equity firm Apollo Global Management in June 2020 for $5.4 billion.

In an interview with CRN, Hume said TD Synnex plans to invest in programs and innovations aimed at helping solution providers improve their business.

Check Point To Acquire Email Security Startup Avanan

Cybersecurity heavyweight Check Point Software Technologies made a savvy acquisition move this week, striking a deal to buy rising star Avanan in a move that will help Check Point deliver best-of-breed cloud email protection software and expand security to SaaS collaboration applications.

The reported $250 million to $300 million price tag makes the acquisition one of the biggest in Check Point’s history, even exceeding the company’s 2018 acquisition of Dome9 for a reported $175 million.

Check Point said combining the two companies’ technologies will provide the only unified tool on the market that can protect remote workforces from malicious files, URLs and phishing schemes across email, collaboration applications, the web, networks and endpoints.

Dremio Launches Inaugural Channel Program

Data lake technology developer Dremio wins applause for launching its inaugural partner program this week as the startup looks to ramp up its work with systems integration and consulting partners in the big data analytics space.

The new Dremio Partner Network, with a wide range of financial, support and training benefits, provides a formal infrastructure and a programmatic approach for engaging with the company’s different partner types, said Roger Frey, Dremio vice president of alliances and business development, who oversees the company’s channel efforts.

The new program also will serve as a vehicle for recruiting additional systems integrators and consultants as partners, particularly those with practices in data management and data analytics, Frey said in an interview with CRN.

Today about 20 percent of Dremio’s sales are done in conjunction with systems integrators, consultants and other strategic service provider partners. Frey said a major goal is to boost the volume of business done through the channel, including partners the company already works with and with new partners recruited through the program.

CDI Bets Big On Salesforce, ServiceNow With Candoris Acquisition

Turning back to the topic of savvy acquisitions, IT solution provider Computer Design and Integration (CDI) this week bought solution provider Candoris in a move that will greatly expand CDI’s digital transformation practice.

CDI is a ServiceNow partner and Candoris is a Salesforce partner. Being an elite-level partner with both ServiceNow and Salesforce is a rarity, according to CDI.

Given the major role that Salesforce and ServiceNow applications play in many corporate digital transformation initiatives, the combination greatly strengthens CDI’s role as a digital transformation services provider.

That’s on top of the fact that CDI and Candoris are both Dell Titanium-level partners, which also makes CDI a data center system powerhouse.

ScanSource Offers Partners New Customer Service, Financing Resources

Speaking of new and improved partner programs, distributor ScanSource took steps this week to make its partners more effective, including launching a billing and collections application for partners and offering a new set of services and resources to help them work with customers.

The news came at ScanSource’s Virtual Partner Conference 2021 this week.

The new Find Your Focus financing application aims to help partners with customer invoicing and collections by leaving more of the financing work to a new financial development team at the distributor. That frees up partners to spend more time to prospect new customer deals.

Also new is the ScanSource Services+ program that provides partners with services and resources—covering pre-sale to post-sale activities—that help partners more easily service their customers and expand into new areas. Partners can get assistance in such areas as systems planning and design, cloud migration and customer needs assessment.