Tag: Landscape and Disruption Trends and Challenges to 2022

Days of vendors bossing distributors about are nearly gone

hqdefaultResearch from the Global Technology Distribution Council (GTDC) suggests that the days of vendors telling distributors what to do are nearly over.

In its latest Landscape and Disruption Trends and Challenges to 2022 report, the council notes that there are greater levels of collaboration between vendors and their channel partners and many want to increase that in the future.

GTDC in EMEA general manager Peter van den Berg said that the distributor knows the vendors and works on solutions and knows how to glue them together. Distributors are in the middle with knowledge and can handle the education and training.

The GTDC research found that the majority of vendors, 60 percent, saw more of their business going through two-tier distribution in the next three to five years, with value-added players getting the bulk of that business.

Not only do vendors expect more business to go through distribution but there is an expectation that more of their product and service portfolios will also go via that level of the channel.

Performance rather than cost is one of the key considerations for those choosing to work with a distributor, and those that want to remain market leaders will need to invest in making sure they can help vendors tap into growth areas.

Distributors needed to provide digital skills and maintain speed and flexibility.

Despite all of the hype about AI, the next big thing to hit the channel is going to be IoT and distribution needs to be in a position to help integrate solutions for the SME market, the report said.

The data that distributors gain working with vendors and resellers is also going to become a useful tool with the need for more analysis of that information to not only improve the business but share back with vendors.