As part of our EDGE360 2020 Year in Review, we are synching up with leaders at SYNNEX Comstor to reflect on this unprecedented year, and the lessons learned. Barry Landis recently noted that 2020 was the “Year of the Pivot,” and Dan Forbes highlighted how 2020 made us question all the preconceptions of remote working, and in this latest interview with Jay Denton, we explore the true meaning behind the leap year that spurred an IT transformation.
Jay Denton, Senior Vice President and General Manager of SYNNEX Comstor North America, explained that 2020 was not only a calendar Leap Year but also a year where industries leaped forward in other areas. “We saw a leap forward that otherwise would have taken many more years, for the proliferation and adoption of remote work capabilities,” Denton shared. “The rate of consumption of remote and mobility-based tools and services has shifted the curve beyond what it otherwise may have been. That presents so much opportunity for all of us, and I am excited to see the Cisco partner community grow even more, as we see an expansion of as-a-service offerings with more products and services available in alternative consumption models.”
Denton pointed out that while not every aspect of every business can be done in a remote work scenario, “The health crisis in the U.S. and Canada contributed to the acceleration of trends in collaboration and security, in particular.” In fact, in some cases, this IT transformation that would mobilize the workforce was projected to take a decade or longer to come to fruition. While certain industries have been ahead of the curve in embracing cloud technologies, others were still lagging. Denton noted that “the ability to purchase and provision tools without as much on-premise equipment” was of great advantage to those that needed to quickly pivot their businesses and “software and services offered in a subscription model, accelerated the deployment of what otherwise may have been more lengthy and capital-intensive projects.”.
As a distributor in the IT channel, this move to help partners support their customers meant that SYNNEX Comstor needed to “double down” on what it does best: demonstrating value to the Cisco partner community. “SYNNEX Comstor really showed up for our customers (and still is) in the areas of practice stability and acceleration,” Denton told us. “We doubled down on our investment and engagements to help Cisco resellers maximize their profitability when positioning and selling Cisco solutions. Customer experience is a huge part of this, as we guide our customers down the shortest, quickest path to adoption and implementation of the processes and tools they need to take full advantage of the opportunities and rewards available to them from Cisco programs,” he explained.
This commitment that SYNNEX Comstor demonstrated, while many things were in flux in 2020, is just one of the reasons why the company was named both Global and Americas Distributor of the Year for Cisco. Denton shared that this was a “culmination of two years in a row of out-sized growth in distribution, compared to the competition.” He noted that the company posted “double-digit gains in the important two-tier space, and saw growth in every one of Cisco’s architectures, and each segment, with the exception of Enterprise.” That type of growth is unique in the Cisco distribution community, according to Denton.
Denton also pointed to the “unwavering commitment and investment” in the company’s EDGE program. Earlier in 2020, Cisco recognized the SYNNEX Comstor team as the Cisco Marketing Velocity Innovator for its EDGE Focus Tool, and each quarter the company sees continued growth and acceleration from SYNNEX Comstor partners that participate in the EDGE progression programs. Denton told us that SYNNEX Comstor continues to tune and evolve the programs so that “we remain a destination for two-tier resellers who recognize the value of a partnership with a distributor intent on guiding them toward maximum profitability in their Cisco practice.”
In a year that was full of change and requiring many organizations to take a “leap” towards an IT transformation, Denton pointed out that stability has been one of the defining factors of SYNNEX Comstor in 2020. “We are staying in lockstep with our customers during their IT transformation journey towards growth and profitability,” he explained. “Customers know that the time and energy they spend working with our teams have an outstanding return-on-investment and this is reflected in their business metrics. I’d also point to the overall strength of SYNNEX as the parent organization and the very solid financial footing we have. This translates to our ability to support our customers’ financial requirements, which has been more important in the tough times we’ve seen over the past few quarters.”
Stay tuned to EDGE360 as we continue to reflect on 2020 in December and highlight predictions in the New Year.
