While this may come as a surprise to many, 2022 is coming to an end. Now, there are a few days left before the IT channel can sign off and enjoy ringing in the new year with their families. The editorial team at EDGE360, however, was able to catch two leading voices in the channel, Shawn Motley, Director for Cisco Product Business Management, and Ezequiel Rios, Manager for Cisco Product Business Management both at TD SYNNEX, for EDGE360’s IT Channel Year-in-Review 2022.
“Really, 2022 was a year of resiliency,” Motley began. “We faced very challenging situations over the last year; coming out of the pandemic, figuring out how to work in new hybrid environments, navigating supply chain issues.” Motley pointed to the success that his team at TD SYNNEX has had and the success of their partners against these trends. “I have every reason to expect that these trends of resilience will continue for the foreseeable future.”
“I agree with Shawn,” Rios added, “but I wanted to call out the unity that the two legacy companies that makeup TD SYNNEX [Tech Data and SYNNEX] have had.” Rios believes that the collaboration on display at events like Cisco Live, the Partner Summit, Ignite in Greenville, S.C., and others presented partners with many opportunities to work together to overcome the challenges faced over the last year.
“Diving deeper into what we saw in 2022, there was a tremendous shift from remote to hybrid solutions,” Motley said. “This created refresh or upgrade opportunities for partners in their network environments and created avenues for new technologies to be integrated into systems.” While the remote-to-hybrid pipeline was pursued earnestly, partners found that needs were changing and solutions were keeping pace.
“What we heard was that end-users needed increased server computing power to support additional data load, increased bandwidth requirements to support data demand, and added security to support users in the office, on the road, and at home. All this along with delivering a seamless work experience from anywhere on any device,” Motley added.
Rios agreed, saying, “It’s no surprise that remote work/hybrid work was a huge tech trend; however, we also saw a big trend of traditional VARs moving toward a Manage Service Provider (MSP) structure.” Rios explained this move as coming from customers’ desire for support with building and managing IT practices. “This led us to create pieces of training for our partners who are interested in going down that route to assist and support their customers better.”
“Our merger was a real challenge, but just as equally, it was an opportunity for us on both sides to nail down what we do best to support our partners,” Motley said. With their newly combined resources, Motley and Rios pointed to several examples of what TD SYNNEX was able to do in 2022. Among them were an enhanced EDGE Focus Tool application, an increased range and cadence of training options to cover changing channel needs, and the implementation of EDGE Accelerators, which help bolster business in several sectors. “Our partners will continue to see [TD SYNNEX] evolve and ultimately deliver creative ways to make Cisco simpler,” Motley said.
“Absolutely,” Rios said, “the market will continue to change in new and exciting ways. We know that is the case based on the last 10 years, even from the last year itself. But our team is committed to helping partners succeed no matter where they are in their Cisco journey.”
For more IT Channel Year-in-Review 2022 discussions, click here.
