TD Synnex Launching ‘White-Label’ Services For AI

To help partners on their AI journey, TD Synnex is launching new “white-label” services for AI, including professional and implementation services, as services remain the No. 1 area for driving profit, says Reyna Thompson, TD Synnex’s new North America president.

IT distribution giant TD Synnex is dedicating an increasing number of resources aimed at helping its channel partners move beyond learning about AI to quickly getting to monetizing it.

That’s the word from Reyna Thompson, North American president for the distributor, who used her keynote at this week’s XChange Best of Breed 2024 conference in Atlanta, hosted by CRN parent The Channel Company, to highlight some of the ways the distributor is looking to make it easier for partners to take advantage of AI.

TD Synnex has three operating principles that have been in place for years, including a focus on innovation, operational excellence and collaboration, Thompson said.

“We know that we don’t win alone, we win together in collaboration with you,” she said.

TD Synnex’s focus on innovation shows in its investment in bringing AI and GenAI to the channel, Thompson said.

“TD Synnex has been investing in AI for years, developing our specializations, our tools and our programs,” she said. “Last year we launched Destination AI, which was the start of how we monetize AI. We recently announced AI accelerators [which are] focused on making sure that we are supporting partners at any point in the journey from starting and developing an AI practice.”

The distributor has a strong focus on innovation with an eye on monetizing AI, Thompson said.

“We are launching an AI Infrastructure Business Unit because we know that we need to really build out all things AI in one central point so it's easier to consume from service, ISV relationship and software perspectives,” she said. “It’s not just about the software. It’s also about the hardware, the infrastructure, the networking that drives AI.”

In TD Synnex’s "Third Annual Direction of Technology Report” based on a survey of over 1,000 technology channel partners from over 60 countries, which was released last week, partners made it clear they are not looking only for education on AI, Thompson said.

“We keep hearing from partners, ‘Don’t just educate me on AI. I don’t need to know that AI is important. We know. Help me monetize. Show me where the money is,’” she said. “And I was very surprised. A lot of partners that responded have found a route to making money, to monetize that. So I think it’s a great opportunity to share best practices so we can learn from one another as we continue to enable you on this journey.”

Calhoun McKinney, senior director of TD Synnex’s advanced solutions, go-to-market strategy and enablement, who was on stage with Thompson, said the report also highlighted the fact that AI isn’t necessarily displacing a lot of foundational technologies that partners offer, including security, data center, storage and cloud.

“Instead, it’s transforming them, and it’s making them even more powerful and increasing their demand,” McKinney said.

TD Synnex is also launching new flexible financing models to ensure solution providers can consume AI however is best for them, she said.

McKinney said TD Synnex has a theme around flexible financing to help partners stay competitive and meet their customer demands, especially in the face of market volatility.

“TD Synnex Capital has launched a lot of new programs in the last year, a lot of new offerings,” she said. “You’re going to continue to see that from us in 2025 when we work not only with resellers but also with vendors to create those really custom offerings.”

It was interesting to hear Thompson talk about flexible financing, particularly as AI is becoming a more important part of the IT landscape, said Mark Galyardt, president of Xioss, an Atlanta-based solution provider.

Xioss in the past dealt with its Fortune 100 customers using Net 30 terms, but now they are insisting on terms as high as Net 120, Galyardt told CRN.

“We’re not banks, and it’s very hard to offer that,” he said. “TD Synnex specifically pointed out that it’s building flexible financing options. I haven’t seen them yet, but that has to be a good thing for us.”

AI so far has not been proven to be all that consumable for the SMB space, but it is a huge opportunity for the millions of SMB solution providers around the world, Galyardt said.

“Solution providers have to find a bucket with a high enough value to the end-user customers they want to target or have a relationship with,” he said. “On the other hand, the solution provider needs to know how to enable it. They need to have the right cost and financing if that’s needed to execute the deal, but also the implementation services and the services side, which TD Synnex also touched on. So I was very impressed with the overall conversation because they didn’t just bullet-point things. They were like, ‘If you’re a solution provider, think of solutions.’ They connected the dots.”

Another place where TD Synnex is innovating is in its public sector business where it recently collapsed three disparate public sector groups that had different menu items into a single menu of services for partners and customers, said Eddie Franklin, senior vice president of the distributor’s public sector business, on stage with Thompson and McKinney.

“Now we’ve got a much broader palette for vendors and customers to work from,” Franklin said. “That’s a big move that we made this year, and I think you’ll see the difference in the services that we're making available.”

TD Synnex made several other moves this year aimed at making it easier for channel partners to do more with the public sector, Franklin said. These included starting the Federal Agency Specialist Team group to build a shared service was focused on penetrating federal government agencies, regionalized the company’s subject matter experts and business development assets to provide local procurement information, and came up with a way to bring market intelligence to partners to help them collaborate with each other and with vendors, he said.

Monetizing AI in the public sector will be a big focus for TD Synnex in 2025 because that will be one of the first areas where AI will become adopted, Franklin said.

“This is where you have a scalable, repeatable solution, and you have an end-user community that is not trying to cover up their successes, but they want to share their successes with others when they can solve a problem,” he said.

Franklin cited judicial process, the managing of which is a common issue for any state or local government.

“They have common problems when we can solve those problems inside the judicial process around crime scene investigations, courts, incarceration, the full spectrum of judicial process,” he said. “If we can put AI to work and solve problems there and allow people to access that data, put that data to work, and see tangible results, we think that’s a win.”