TD SYNNEX is making significant investment in services, building on the success of Tech-as-a-Service and TD SYNNEX Renew and launching new offerings to help partners do more for their customers. We spoke to Mark Glasspool, services director at TD SYNNEX, about the plans.
The Tech-as-a-Service and TD SYNNEX Renew offerings have had a high profile over the last few months. Customers always want to get the best possible value from their IT budgets and as they have become more familiar with the ‘as-a-service’ model, they’ve become more receptive to the idea of paying for solutions and for services on a subscription basis.
Similarly, and the idea of trading-in devices has become more appealing and with every device sent for recycling or refurbishment, this has the added bonus of contributing to customers’ efforts to be more sustainable. (You can read more about this in an earlier article here).
More to come
But there is more to TD SYNNEX’s services offering than these two fast-growing programmes – and much more to come, as Mark Glasspool, services director at TD SYNNEX, UK and Ireland, told us.
Our existing services are probably our best kept secret
‘We have had a thriving services business for the last three or four years, but the focus has been mainly on Tech-as-a-Service and TD SYNNEX Renew. We’ve seen a significant uplift in the number of partners using those services and some of the investment we are now making will aim to enhance and build on that success. But we will also be investing in new offerings.’
TD SYNNEX has been providing services such as pre-delivery configuration and own-label and white-label delivery for some time. But they have never really been promoted and they were not all that easy to access.
‘Our existing services are probably our best kept secret’, said Mark Glasspool. ‘We have always offered config’ services, for example, but we’ve been largely reactive. We’ve now updated and simplified those services, invested in resource and streamlined processes, so we can work more closely with resellers on opportunities. We’ve now got the capacity to grow that business significantly and that’s going to be a fantastic opportunity for our partners’.
Increased capacity
Services already available include pre-shipment configuration, virtual warehousing, bill-and-hold (supply chain management), and third-party logistics (3PL). Those in prospect include managed print, and this is already in a pilot phase and should be available soon. There will also be installation, repair, and even retail merchandising services, all of which are slated for launch by the end of the year.
Even our largest partners can see the advantage of working with TD SYNNEX for certain services
While resellers may offer some of these services themselves, there is a need for much more capacity in the channel – and that’s not a gap that can easily be filled by the reseller community on its own, said Mark Glasspool.
‘While some resellers will undoubtedly have service offerings of their own, many do not, and most won’t be able to offer the range of services that TD SYNNEX can offer or operate them as widely and efficiently as we can. It is absolutely about having the investment, systems, resources, and the ability to be the aggregator of suppliers to deliver those services. Even our largest partners can see the advantage of working with TD SYNNEX for certain services. It is just much easier and smoother for them to hand that responsibility over to us.’
Configuration is a good example of a service that it makes sense for a reseller to use – and this can be the case even when the partner does have in-house capability.
‘Some of our customers have capacity for configuration on a certain scale, but many don’t have any. In either case, where those partners are buying the products from TD SYNNEX, it makes sense for us to support them at competitive levels – both in terms of scale and pricing. There are multiple benefits in doing that. It takes the workload off their own team and gives them added capability and capacity, and it’s also more sustainable, as the products don’t need to be shipped to the partner first.’
Technical accreditation
Another important aspect of the configuration and build service in particular – and one most resellers would be pressed to match themselves – is the level of technical accreditation that TD SYNNEX can achieve within its assembly centre. It holds several high level vendor accreditations. It is, for example, the only Level-6 certified CTO centre for Cisco in the UK, so it is completely unrivalled in the market.
As well as the simple, streamlined service that TD SYNNEX can offer, it can also deal with much more complex configurations
This clearly demonstrates that, as well as the simple, streamlined service that TD SYNNEX can offer, it can also deal with much more complex configurations. This broad capability is something TD SYNNEX plans to offer across the range of service offerings it is now bringing together, so that it can meet the widest-possible spectrum of requirements – either on behalf of or in the name of the reseller partner.
It’s also worth noting that where additional pre-sales design or consultancy is required on more complex projects or installations, the services team (for Tech-as-a-Service, TD SYNNEX Renew and logistics-focused services) will work hand-in-glove with the professional services team within TD SYNNEX Advanced Solutions, to meet the full requirement. This is another aspect of the service offering that would be a challenge for any partner to replicate.
Positive response
Both reseller and vendor partners have responded positively to the investment that TD SYNNEX is making in services, said Mark Glasspool. ‘Many more have become involved in Tech-as-a-Service and TD SYNNEX Renew and once they start getting engaged on the wider services proposition and what else we might be able to provide – such as configuration or installation – you very quickly get into a conversation about how all of those elements can come together. We’re now even talking about how we might offer additional value incentives alongside products and solutions, such as asset tagging, for example.’
There is a strong commitment from the top of the organisation to making services an important part of TD SYNNEX’s business for the long-term
The investment will continue in 2022 when the plan will be to ramp-up the services business considerably. There is a strong commitment from the top of the organisation to making services an important part of TD SYNNEX’s business for the long-term.
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