Should We Just Call Master Agents Distributors?
…a completely new nomenclature.
Dalyn Wertz, executive director of Comcast Business’ indirect channel program and marketing, said many of these companies went by “value-added distributors” in the 1990s. And that term persists to this day. For example, Jenne similarly calls itself a “value-added technology solutions distributor and a cloud master agent,” and Intelisys operates under the umbrella of value-added distributor ScanSource.
Jay McBain, Forrester’s principal analyst of channel partnerships and alliances, also prefers the term “distributor.” But that comes with a caveat, as McBain has been predicting the legacy distribution model to decline in popularity. The distributors of the future won’t rely on linear supply chains and will make themselves more visible in the sales cycle with the platforms they build.
“I think the master agents are transforming into modern day distributors — not shipping atoms but shipping bits,” McBain said. “These are now ‘platform’ companies, which might be a better term to explain the telco/IT digital services they offer.”
McBain also noted that the larger technology industry has moved away from the term “master.”
Craig Schlagbaum, Comcast Business’ senior vice president and channel chief, said the term “services distributors” accurately describes master agents.
“We are calling agents mostly solution advisers, but ‘master’ and ‘agent’ are commercial terms associated with a transactional relationship. [Master agents] are distributors of services. The contractual relationship is why we use certain nomenclature,” Schlagbaum said.
Schlagbaum said the term “master distributor” has been around a long time with a strong legacy in the market, but market evolution is leading many organizations to look for the best way to articulate their value to partners and customers.
So Are They Distis?
What are the implications of placing a traditional telecom master agent in the same category as a “disti” such as Ingram Micro?
McMillan said the larger master agents don’t want all of the connotations of the term “distributor.” Richard Murray agreed.
“I never want to bill anybody, and I never want to have inventory,” he said.
Jamaal Savwoir, 8×8’s channel sales engineering team lead for North America, EMEA and Asia Pacific, said the big-name IT distributors still rely heavily on hardware. Although they promote cloud and Microsoft licenses, Savwoir said many of them still seem “kind of stuck.” In the meantime, the agents have been raking in cash through cloud-based, as-a-service offerings like UCaaS.
Legacy IT distributors are evolving, however. ScanSource CEO Mike Baur noted that COVID-19 has spurred more VARs to move to cloud services. Meantime, the Intelisys side of the company had already made a home for itself in the cloud.
“The agents were already there, because that was the motion they were participating in for years,” Baur told Channel Futures.
Avant CEO Ian Kieninger has called ScanSource’s 2016 acquisition of Intelisys a …
The industry should continue to use Master label and get on with business. The term has many definitions but “master” designates the agency as being highly qualified; a high level of expertise, just as a “master” craftsman i.e. welder, electrician, etc.
It is time for adult professionals to get back to business, quit being offended by whatever the term of the day is, and respect everyone as you yourself would want to be respected. Quit feeding into the drama and write an article on new services, new techniques on cold calling, or any topic to help grow our customer base.
Respectfully,
Davis Adams
This is a media generated NONTROVERSY… nobody cares about the verbiage but the person who wrote this column.
I have worked in this sector for 27 years and no a single person, company or agent has ever raised this topic or presented it as an issue.
This is a great example of media manipulation of a story.
Interesting debate, but it feels a bit like a “tempest in a teapot”. The primary task, it seems to me, is keeping our companies relevant as technology continues to move forward at an increasing pace and provide solutions that solve our clients’ business problems. Pick what you like….Master Agent, Technology Service Provider or whatever. Rebranding is a relevant management task…but a minor one in this case, in my opinion.