The panel, moderated by Craig Galbraith of Channel Futures, included: Renee Bergeron, COO, AppDirect; Drew Lydecker, President and Co-founder, AVANT Communications; Paul Constantine, EVP Supplier Services, ScanSource / Intelisys; Justin Marano, CRO, Sandler Partners; and Adam Edwards, CEO, Telarus.
Some notable quotes from the panelists:
"Ultimately, we believe in meeting the customers where they are, and that's super important for our advisors," Bergeron said. "Some customers want to contract and get invoiced by the brand-name providers, and we respect that, and we support those business models with our referral business, where we sell hundreds and hundreds of providers. But sometimes customers want the convenience of a single contract. They want the convenience of a single invoice, of a single support team, and very importantly, a single platform where they can access and service their technology subscription."
--Renee Bergeron, COO, AppDirect
"If you look at every category, everything is going through a change right now. Some of the biggest contracts in Telecom, for instance, are coming up. Some of the biggest MPLS deals are coming up. Everybody is looking to make a change in that connectivity, and that will be vital for this industry to continue to have the biggest seat at the table around those conversations for what's to come in the future…"What's been around a long time is cool again. Who would have thought aggregators would be one of the coolest things out there right now?"
--Drew Lydecker, President and Co-founder, AVANT Communications
"We've all moved tens of millions of dollars of bases that partners had direct to us because of the value that we bring. And these are sophisticated partners that have been around that see and understand the value of what the TSD provides, whether it's strength of contract, commission assurance, or not having to have a quota with that provider so the value is there.”
--Justin Marano, CRO, Sandler Partners
"We've tailored processes around Technology Advisor feedback. We've adapted some of our tools and some of our IT investments around what we've learned from them. And when you have that intimate relationship, it has really helped guide our ability to provide value to the rest of our TSD channel in a much more emphatic way.”
--Paul Constantine, EVP Supplier Services, ScanSource/Intelysis
“With the expansion of products and opportunity, what comes next is education and engineering---it's all about understanding what the supplier can do and fitting it with customer needs. This has become much more difficult over the last 5 years so while there’s opportunity to expand, it's also a more complex environment. The TSD is in a role where we must educate suppliers and create awareness among advisors who are very busy selling and need to learn about new products. We must figure out how to get them in front of or fit them with the right solution, while educating the customer on the model--there's a lot of learning taking place on multiple fronts.”
--Adam Edwards, CEO, Telarus
