The information technology industry is not only surviving after nearly two years of a global pandemic and the ongoing corporate disruptions but, by most reports, appears to be more strongly positioned moving into the future. IT is a driving force in the business community. SMBs and SMEs are relying more on the ITSP community and its support networks than ever before – employing the most comprehensive portfolio of products and services in history. IT distributors play a larger and evolving role in those types of engagements. From developing new and more innovative ways to help vendors, IT services providers, and other partners, distribution is empowering and orchestrating the IT channel to even greater heights today.

The world may be dealing with the health and social aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic for months, if not years to come. While grappling with those challenges, the business community’s reliance on mobility, cloud and cybersecurity solutions is at an all-time high, driving further demand for skilled technical support. By leveraging the strengths of their IT distributor partners, vendors, ITSPs and other channel organizations can quickly implement and scale these innovations across larger geographies and business ecosystems. Managing inventory and logistics remains a core expertise and a key value-add for the industry.

IT distribution continues to be the glue that empowers the technology industry and business community. A number of the industry’s most recognized thought leaders shared examples and highlighted some of the many reasons why in GTDC’s latest resource, Looking Beyond the Curve, A Distribution Industry Outlook Guide.

• “Distribution performs a vital aggregation, integration and dissemination function that spans hardware, software and services, both downstream and upstream.” Stuart Wilson, research director, European Partnering Ecosystem with IDC.
• “We’re all investing…to accommodate everything-as-a-service market growth and help provide transactional solutions for partners, including the respective licensing and types of products and applications.” Paul Bay, newly appointed CEO of Ingram Micro.
• “Digitalization means more than technology. It’s about giving people the tools and resources to generate new ideas and new opportunities, which is huge for distribution and our partners.” Tim Henneveld, CEO of TIM AG.

The positive technology adoption trends emerging from the pandemic were offset to a degree by global component availability − especially computing chips. As 2022 commences, distributors are easing potential supply chain woes by doing what they do best − orchestrating and optimizing the processes for ordering, storing and delivering products and services.

Bringing New Opportunities for Channel Partners

Distribution has always been a driver of innovation. Vendors and ITSPs look to distributors' insight, education, and support programs for leading-edge technologies, and the value of those types of services will rise proportionately to the complexity of the solutions. Since 99.7% of businesses are SMBs with relatively few internal IT resources, a large percentage of those organizations rely on ITSPs to lead new technology adoption.

Distributors augment those capabilities for their partners. With the increasing innovation and the ongoing personnel and resource limitations, these support programs are essential to the success of everyone in the IT ecosystem, including suppliers, providers, and end customers. Global IT distributors understand the needs of those communities and create scores of new programs every year to support the efforts of a multitude of different partners. The industry’s response to the pandemic is a perfect example. Many distributors rapidly pivoted their cloud and mobility teams to support ITSPs as they transitioned millions of business employees to remote work ecosystems. They utilize similar flexibility rolling out new technologies and models.

Industry executives predict that the need for those capabilities will escalate in 2022. As effects of the pandemic ease, including supply chain issues, business leaders will focus more effort building out long-term IT infrastructure programs. Innovation will be a big part of those plans. Distributors will serve as the ever-present orchestrators, helping vendors and ITSPs navigate the labyrinth of processes involved to successfully sell, implement and support the latest products, services, and models. In 2022, those programs will cover critical channel growth opportunities such as:

• XaaS, PaaS, IaaS
• Mobility
• 5G technologies
• Cybersecurity
• Business intelligence/analytics
• IoT
• Robotics/drones

Strengthening the Business Case for Distribution

Technology is one of the brightest spots in the market, and the Nasdaq 100, heavily laden with IT-related stocks, is the perfect example, rising more than 29% in 2021 (as of December 8^th). Since share prices typically indicate future earnings potential, the current year-end growth trends are a good sign for the industry, further validating the increasing value of high-tech solutions and services.

That news is even brighter for distribution. The leading stock market performers in the aforementioned hot tech sector − up more than 200% since September of 2019 – are publicly traded IT distributors. From large venture capitalist companies to smaller-scale buyers, the investment community’s support is the ultimate acknowledgment of the channel’s value. The collective stock valuation growth shows that people in the know, including large fund managers and smaller professional investors, as well as individuals, believe in the potential ROI opportunities in IT distribution.

Those investment trends are good signs for the industry in 2022 and beyond.

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