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Cutting through the noise for Canadian VARs and MSPs

  1. AI thinks, automation acts: Rewst founder Aharon Chernin on building the automated MSP

    -16 H

    AI thinks, automation acts: Rewst founder Aharon Chernin on building the automated MSP

    Aharon Chernin, founder and CEO of Rewst Aharon Chernin has been building technology specifically for MSPs for more than twenty-five years – including founding Perch Security, which ConnectWise acquired in 2020. His next venture was Rewst, a workflow automation platform purpose-built for managed service providers, now serving over 1,500 MSPs. The founding insight: automation was the foundational promise of managed services, and the tools had never lived up to it. In this conversation, Chernin draws the distinction that frames everything else: there’s a difference between an MSP that does automation and an automated MSP. One is a project. The other is a culture. Success, he argues, is one hundred percent cultural – the person who writes the cheque and the engineer who builds the workflows both have to want it, or it stalls every time. We dig into where AI fits in the MSP operational stack, and why treating AI and automation as interchangeable leads to bad decisions. The Chernin framing: AI thinks, automation acts. Without a connected execution layer like Rewst’s RoboRewsty AI Workflow Builder, AI can only advise. We also get into the governance model – approval gates, trust levels, and the balance between cyber risk and business risk – and the MCP Server architecture enabling genuinely agent-driven MSP operations. Chernin shares numbers from three Canadian MSPs on the platform – Resolved IT, Ideological Systems, and Yardstick – and walks through how to calculate the real economics of automation investment beyond simple time savings. He closes with a practical roadmap for any MSP owner who wants to get serious in the next six months: get out of firefighting mode, find your automation champion, start small, and do not wait for perfection. Read Full Transcript Robert Dutt: Hello and welcome to In The Channel from ChannelBuzz.ca, bringing news and information to the Canadian IT channel community for the last sixteen years. I’m Robert Dutt, editor of ChannelBuzz.ca, and your host for the show. If you’ve been following the conversation around AI and MSPs over the last year or two, you’ve probably noticed that a lot of it is pretty fuzzy. AI is going to transform your business. AI is the future of service delivery. AI this, AI that – but not a lot of specificity about what it actually means for the way an MSP runs its operations day to day. My guest today has been building technology specifically for MSPs for more than twenty-five years. He founded Perch Security, which was acquired by ConnectWise back in 2020, and then turned around and founded Rewst, a workflow automation platform built from the ground up for managed service providers. Rewst now has over 1,500 MSPs on the platform, which means he has a pretty clear view of where the channel actually stands on automation – not where vendors wish it stood, but where it actually is. We talk about the difference between an MSP that does automation and an automated MSP, and why that distinction matters more than any specific tool. We get into why AI and automation are not the same thing, and why confusing them leads MSPs to make bad decisions. And we look at what the operational stack of an MSP actually starts to look like as AI moves from advising on workflows to generating and executing them. Aharon Chernin is the founder and CEO of Rewst, and he’s been thinking about this a lot longer than most. Let’s get right into it. My chat with Aharon Chernin. Aharon, thanks for taking the time. I appreciate it. Aharon Chernin: Nice being here. Robert Dutt: Rewst isn’t your first time building specifically for the MSP market. You come out of Perch Security, acquired by ConnectWise. What did your time inside ConnectWise’s world teach you, and was Rewst a direct response to something specific you saw from there, or from the community there? Aharon Chernin: I was actually only at ConnectWise a couple of months. Really, the Rewst idea came from working with MSPs for years while I was doing Perch. I was learning more and more about how MSPs operated. I saw the tools they were using, the problems they were having. And, mind you, this is the era circa 2017-18, and they’re using tools called PSAs – professional services automation – that didn’t really automate anything. It had me scratching my head: what’s going on here? But then I just continued moving forward because I had security stuff going on. And then there were RMM tools called Automate, and I was trying to figure out what these things actually automated. It was just endpoint stuff, right? But there’s so much more than just an endpoint. And then I saw a bunch of single-point solutions – software products out there doing a single automation, not even calling it an automation, just calling it a software product. So once I had the opportunity after Perch, I went and started investigating what were these quirks in the market I was seeing, because automation is much, much bigger than what the market actually thought it was. Robert Dutt: Well, and it’s for so long been one of the key premises of managed services – the idea of automate everything you can towards success. So it’s interesting to hear those observations. You’ve got the platform now with 1,500 or more MSPs on it – you probably have a better view of the real state of automation adoption in the channel than almost anyone out there. How would you honestly characterize it today? Is this a story of meaningful progress from the scenario you saw back in your Perch days, or is it still pretty early for many MSPs? Aharon Chernin: It’s still the beginning. We only have 1,500 MSPs. And how many MSPs are there – depending on who you talk to, 60, 80,000. We only have 1,500 of them. So in my mind, these are all early adopters in automation. But when it comes to what adoption actually looks like in an MSP that successfully automates, it’s cultural – 100%. If you look at cybersecurity – Perch was a cybersecurity company – you’d be looking for the correct size MSP that focused on security to resell through. But when it comes to automation, every size MSP needs to automate – small and big. And we’re actually seeing that. We see really, really small MSPs automate and really, really big MSPs automate. And we’ve also seen both those sizes fail. The number one reason they succeed is culture. The buyer – the buyer could be the CEO of the MSP, or a director of managed services, whoever can write a cheque – that person has to want to automate. And the engineer who’s actually going to do the automation, they have to want to do it too. If the buyer wants to automate but the engineer doesn’t, it’s not going to work. If the engineer wants to automate but the buyer doesn’t, it’s not going to work. And that cultural thing extends further than just the want. The CEO of the MSP should be running around saying, “I want to be an automated MSP,” and excited about it. If they’re not excited about it, they’re going to be a part-time automation MSP. The way I like to say it is: you’re either an automated MSP, or you’re an MSP that does automation. Robert Dutt: What do you find helps flip the switch from one to the other? What is it that gets those teams that are either misaligned or not aligned at all to get things lined up and moving in the right direction? Aharon Chernin: It’s really an open line of communication between the buyer and the person implementing. Because if the buyer has an automation idea – just one, a single simple basic thing that would save the company time or help improve service delivery reliability – and that engineer performs that small automation, and they talk to each other, and the engineer says, “Yes, it’s running. Yes, it runs fifty times a day. We’ve saved eight hours today running this automation” – and that actually gets back to the person who writes the cheque – there is alignment. The tide has turned. Suddenly the MSP says, “How do I dedicate more people to helping automate this business?” It’s a matter of getting that first win and getting it in place. Robert Dutt: There’s a lot of talk, obviously, about AI. And Canadian MSPs are being sold a lot of things that blur the line between AI and automation. You’ve talked about that distinction – the idea that AI thinks and automation acts. Can you expand on that? Because I think getting that framing right can help change how MSPs make decisions and think about how they’re structuring things internally. Aharon Chernin: AI can’t touch anything by itself. This goes back to: AI thinks, automation does. Take ChatGPT, for example. ChatGPT is not an AI. ChatGPT is a tool on top of AI. The AI is GPT. The tool is Chat. So just having AI gives you a lot of answers to a lot of questions, but nothing gets done. You need the tool on top of the AI. I can’t think of an easier way to define it than that. There are an infinite number of possibilities of what you can do with a tool that leverages AI. Robert Dutt: So you guys have RoboRewsty now. You’re moving from AI that guides building workflows to AI that generates those workflows. That sounds incremental, but to your point on thinking versus doing, I suspect it’s more significant than that. What actually changes for an MSP team when anyone in the org can describe a workflow in language that’s natural to them and have it built for them, rather than having to go back to that one person who knows how to build out the automation? Aharon Chernin: AI is easier to understand than even that. We need to think of it as just another employee. Now, depending on how much the business trusts that employee is how much governance we’re going to put around that employee. If there is one hundred percent trust, it gets free will and can run freely. If there is zero to ten percent trust, every step of the way needs to be gated by a person.

    35 min
  2. The Buzz: Salesforce launches FDE Partner Network, Cisco reinstates compute deal registration, and CloudCapsule debuts Manage module

    -18 H

    The Buzz: Salesforce launches FDE Partner Network, Cisco reinstates compute deal registration, and CloudCapsule debuts Manage module

    Today’s headline news for Canadian IT solution providers: Salesforce launches FDE Partner Network: Salesforce is dedicating 50 million dollars to its new Forward Deployed Engineering Partner Network, providing partners with the same training and direct product team access as internal staff. According to Nick Johnston, senior vice president of partner sales, the program is designed to help partners build and monetize their own agentic AI practices on the Agentforce platform. For Canadian MSPs and consultants, the initiative presents an opportunity to transition from selling software licenses to delivering higher-margin advisory and managed services. Cisco reinstates compute deal registration: Reversing a decision from late February, Cisco has officially reinstated its compute deal registration differential. The initial elimination, driven by rising memory prices, effectively removed roughly eight points of margin on server deals, causing friction within the channel. In a communication to partners, Cisco’s Tim Coogan confirmed the discount restoration, though the tightened seven-day quote protection window remains. The move restores critical profitability and margin predictability for Canadian partners navigating ongoing supply chain volatility. CloudCapsule debuts Manage module: CloudCapsule, a security platform launched by former Pax8 leaders and MSP owner Nick Ross, has introduced its Manage module. The solution extends Microsoft 365 security management into a unified workflow, bringing assessment, remediation, and reporting into a single pane of glass. For Canadian MSPs struggling with fragmented toolsets, the platform reduces administrative overhead and automates the reporting process, providing tangible proof of security outcomes to justify recurring revenue. Read Full Transcript Welcome to The Buzz from ChannelBuzz.ca, I’m Robert Dutt, today is Wednesday, April 22, 2026, and here’s what’s happening in the channel today. Salesforce has launched a new Forward Deployed Engineering Partner Network for Agentforce, backing the initiative with a 50 million dollar investment in agent-building incentives. According to Nick Johnston, senior vice president of partner sales, the software vendor is committing to provide channel partners with the same training, tools, and direct product team access that its internal staff receives. The program is designed to help partners build their own agentic AI practices and push beyond basic implementation. For Canadian MSPs and consulting partners, the initiative signals a continued shift away from selling software seats toward delivering measurable business outcomes. As AI deployments become more complex, partners who can demonstrate real-world results will be positioned to capture higher-margin advisory and managed services revenue. Cisco has officially reinstated its compute deal registration differential, reversing a controversial decision made in late February. The networking giant had originally eliminated the discount in response to rising memory prices and supply chain volatility. According to partners, that move effectively erased roughly eight points of margin on server deals, causing friction and prompting some to look at competing infrastructure vendors. In a recent communication, Cisco senior vice president of global partner sales Tim Coogan confirmed the discount restoration for registered compute hardware deals, though the tightened seven-day quote protection window remains in place. For Canadian IT solution providers, the reversal is a necessary correction that restores critical margin predictability, allowing partners to confidently quote hardware projects in an unpredictable supply chain environment. A new security platform built by former Pax8 leaders and an experienced MSP owner is making its official debut this week at the Kaseya event. CloudCapsule, led by CEO Nick Ross, is launching its Manage module, which is designed to help managed service providers assess, remediate, and demonstrate security outcomes within a single workflow. The solution extends Microsoft 365 security management into a unified system, addressing the ongoing problem of fragmented tools and manual reporting. For Canadian MSPs, operational consolidation is becoming increasingly essential. Proving the value of security services to clients is a persistent challenge, and a platform that automates the reporting process can help reduce administrative overhead while providing tangible proof of security posture improvements to justify recurring revenue. Later today on In The Channel, we have a conversation with Rewst founder Aharon Chernin. We will be talking about building the automated MSP, and how AI thinks while automation acts. It is a deep dive into where the service delivery model is headed. And if you haven’t heard it yet, make sure you check out yesterday’s episode featuring Jennifer Roy, CEO of Nucleus Networks. We had a great discussion on maintaining culture while scaling a national presence, and what private equity really looks like from inside a Canadian MSP. That’s how we’re seeing the headlines today. I’m Robert Dutt for ChannelBuzz.ca, thanks for listening.

    3 min
  3. Jennifer Roy on culture, scale, and what PE really looks like from inside a Canadian MSP

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    Jennifer Roy on culture, scale, and what PE really looks like from inside a Canadian MSP

    Jennifer Roy, CEO of Nucleus Networks Jennifer Roy knew she was underqualified for her first job in managed services. She applied anyway — and she’d tell you that discomfort is kind of the point. Now CEO of Nucleus Networks, the Vancouver-based MSP that now operates across Victoria, Prince George, Calgary, and Toronto, Roy joined the company as COO in 2021 and stepped into the top job in January 2024, taking over from founder-era CEO Martin DesRosiers. Nucleus was recently named to the CRN MSP 500 Pioneer 250 — the SMB-focused tier of CRN’s annual managed services ranking — and Roy was named CEO of the Year by The Channel Company. In this episode of In The Channel, Roy talks about what a non-technical leader brings to an MSP that a technical founder sometimes can’t, including a willingness to ask basic questions and a genuine orientation toward service over infrastructure. “We’re delivering customer service,” she says. “We’re just doing it through technology.” She gets into the practicalities of scaling across Canadian markets. What breaks when you grow beyond your home city, how vertical specialization in architecture and construction, legal, and mining shapes hiring and delivery, and what it means to maintain culture at 80-plus employees across five cities. Roy is also one of the more honest voices you’ll hear on what life inside a PE-backed platform actually looks like. Nucleus is part of Lyra Technology Group, the Evergreen Services Group portfolio of MSPs. She’s specific about what that relationship delivers — a six-hour cross-portfolio hire, proprietary tooling shared from a sister company, a peer network that can produce a Linux specialist or boots on the ground in Australia on short notice — and honest about what it took to get comfortable operating within that structure. On AI, she’s practical rather than promotional: automated client reporting built around her own communication style, a shadow AI mitigation campaign that turned a risk conversation into a client engagement opportunity. It’s a wide-ranging conversation, and a genuinely candid one. Read Full Transcript Robert Dutt: Hello and welcome to In the Channel from ChannelBuzz.ca, bringing news and information to the Canadian IT channel community for the last 16 years. I’m Robert Dutt, editor of ChannelBuzz.ca and your host for the show. My guest today is Jennifer Roy, CEO of Nucleus Networks, a managed service provider based in Vancouver that now operates across five Canadian cities. Nucleus was recently named to the CRN MSP 500 Pioneer 250 list, and Jennifer herself was named CEO of the Year by The Channel Company in 2024. What I find really interesting about Jennifer’s story is that she didn’t come up through IT. She had no technical background when she took her first MSP job about 15 years ago. She worked her way from service manager to COO to CEO, and along the way built her reputation for people-first leadership and culture building in an industry that doesn’t always prioritize those things. We’re going to talk about what it actually looks like to scale a Canadian MSP nationally, how she thinks about hiring and culture when one wrong person can undo years of work, what it’s like operating inside a PE-backed platform like Lyra Technology Group while keeping your own identity, and where she sees AI fitting into the MSP business model right now. Let’s get right into it. My chat with Jennifer Roy. Robert Dutt: Jennifer, thanks for taking the time. I appreciate it. Jennifer Roy: Thank you so much for having me. Robert Dutt: You’ve talked openly about the fact that when you got your first job in the MSP world, you didn’t know what most of the acronyms in the job description meant — and that’s something I can relate to. I don’t know if you remember or know Nick Tidd, who led 3Com Canada and has gone through a variety of channel roles. But when I was a young reporter, he took me aside and said, “The thing you have to watch for in this industry is the TLAs.” I didn’t bite on that, and it was a great joke at the time. But anyway, the point being — you didn’t come in as a technician. What made you apply anyway? What do you think being a non-technical leader brings to an MSP that someone who has that technical background might not? Jennifer Roy: Great question. When I started in this industry — and I’m going to age myself here — close to 15 years ago, I was working in a quasi-government job and I had gone on maternity leave. I had come back from having my daughter and realized that I was underutilized and really bored. It just wasn’t a fast enough pace for me to feel fulfilled every day. So I had gone to my manager, who was also a good friend of mine, and said to her, “I think it’s time. I’m going to start looking, and I want you to know — I want to be really upfront and clear — that you’re going to lose me likely sooner than later because I’m going to start looking for a new role.” She was so incredibly supportive and said to me, “I’ve got this tech company that’s looking for a service manager. They’re looking for someone to come in and help with their operations. Is it maybe something you want to explore?” I said, “Well, send me the job description and I’ll take a look.” I looked at the job description and I didn’t know any of the acronyms. I didn’t know what ITIL was. I didn’t know what a SAN was. I didn’t know VPN. I didn’t know any of these things. I said to her, “I’m vastly underqualified for this position.” She said, “I know the consultant that’s helping them hire — I think you should at least have a conversation.” I thought, “Okay, what’s the worst that’s going to happen? I apply for this job and don’t get it?” So I applied, and it happened to be the legend Chris Jay’s MSP. They interviewed me — I met with Todd Kane and Chris Jay throughout the process, had a couple of interviews. Really, what they were looking for was somebody who wasn’t going to think from a technical perspective, but look at things from a client perspective and a coaching and leadership perspective — which were tools I had. So I took a leap of faith, and they also took a leap of faith and hired me to run their service desk. I think it was a very unique experience, something I didn’t think I was capable of doing. But I’ve always been a big believer that growth happens when you’re uncomfortable. So I made myself really uncomfortable taking a position I was massively underqualified for — and then 15 years later, this is where I’m at. The piece that I think I offer that’s different than technical leaders is I always look at things from that client perspective. My CTO is really great at finding unique technical solutions. But my first question is always: how does that impact our people? Not just our clients, but our team. Is it going to be a positive benefit for them? So I think that’s what I bring that’s different. Robert Dutt: You joined Nucleus as COO in late 2021 and took over as CEO from Martin DesRosiers in 2024. He’d been in the chair for a decade and built a lot of what Nucleus is. What was it like stepping into that? What did you want to keep, and where did it feel like you needed to put your own stamp on things? Jennifer Roy: Big shoes to fill for sure. I was hired in late 2021 as Chief Operating Officer — operations has been my background forever, so it was a really comfortable position to come in and kind of become Martin’s right hand. I looked at all of Nucleus’s operations. Nucleus had done an incredible job of building their brand and their business, but coming in with a fresh perspective, I was able to optimize a lot of their KPIs and processes and procedures. I had a lot of fun restructuring operations when I first joined. In January of 2024, when Martin asked me to take over as CEO as he elevated up to our parent company, I was definitely nervous. One, I had never been a CEO before. Two, I was stepping into these huge shoes. And then also — the elephant in the room — I’m a woman CEO of an MSP and there’s not a lot of us. So I was also mindful of the fact that I had to live up to that standard as well. Some of the things Martin had done for the last decade I kept, because don’t change what’s not broken. But I also wanted to put my stamp on things. I used that opportunity to make changes that we probably should have made but had stayed comfortable on. I’ll use a really simple example: we were a Microsoft shop, but we used Slack as our main messaging platform. I said, “Why do we have two? This doesn’t make sense.” Everyone was really comfortable with Slack and loved it, but it was a good way for me to say, “With new leadership comes new changes. We’re a Microsoft shop — we need to eat our own dog food. We’re getting rid of Slack.” So I made some small changes, and that really wasn’t just to put my own stamp on things — the timing just made sense. New leadership, some changes we probably should have done a long time ago. I also did a reorg and changed the reporting structure, moved some leaders into different roles I thought they were better suited for. I moved our Director of Client Success into a VP of Operations role because I didn’t backfill my COO position — I just elevated him and put him into a role he can now grow into. Robert Dutt: Let’s talk expansion. Nucleus started in Vancouver and now has offices in Victoria, Prince George, Calgary, and Toronto. For MSP owners listening who are thinking about expanding beyond their home market — what did you learn about scaling a company across cities, and what broke along the way that you had to fix? Jennifer Roy: Scaling across cities is challenging. Anyone who has done it with ease, I would love to learn from. It is hard to get penetration in a market you are not curr

    35 min
  4. The Buzz: Everpure revamps partner program, Copado launches AI agents, and Acer invests in Plugable

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    The Buzz: Everpure revamps partner program, Copado launches AI agents, and Acer invests in Plugable

    Today’s headline news for Canadian IT solution providers: Everpure, formerly Pure Storage, has launched a new global partner program that replaces volume tiers with an outcomes-led model focused on service delivery and recurring revenue for MSPs. Copado has introduced Agentia, an AI-driven platform for Salesforce DevOps that uses context-aware agents to automate testing and compliance workflows. Acer Gadget has completed a strategic investment in Plugable Technologies to expand its reach into the AI-peripheral and workspace connectivity markets. Read Full Transcript Welcome to The Buzz from ChannelBuzz.ca, I’m Robert Dutt, today is Tuesday, April 21, 2026, and here’s what’s happening in the channel today. Everpure, the company formerly known as Pure Storage, has unveiled a comprehensive overhaul of its global partner program. Moving away from traditional tiering based strictly on volume, the new framework focuses on an outcomes-led model designed to reward partners for service delivery and recurring revenue growth. Key features include a simplified incentive structure and enhanced technical support for managed service providers. According to Everpure, the change is intended to align more closely with how modern customers consume storage-as-a-service. For Canadian MSPs, this shift represents a significant opportunity to move beyond hardware resale. By prioritizing service outcomes over box-pushing, partners can leverage Everpure’s consumption-based models to build more predictable margin into their cloud and hybrid storage offerings. The update also includes new competency-based tracks that allow smaller, specialized firms to access benefits previously reserved for high-volume resellers. Copado has officially launched Agentia, a new platform designed to integrate context-aware AI agents into Salesforce DevOps workflows. The tool is positioned by the company as a way to automate complex testing, documentation, and compliance tasks that typically require manual intervention. Copado claims that Agentia can understand the specific business logic of a Salesforce environment, allowing it to provide more accurate suggestions than general-purpose AI models. This launch is particularly relevant for Canadian solution providers managing large-scale Salesforce deployments. As talent shortages in specialized DevOps roles continue, the ability to automate routine oversight through AI agents could allow MSPs to scale their operations without a linear increase in headcount. By reducing the time required for quality assurance and release management, providers may be able to increase their project velocity while maintaining high standards for security and compliance. Acer Gadget has announced a strategic investment in Plugable Technologies, a leading provider of USB and Thunderbolt peripherals. The investment is intended to accelerate the expansion of Acer’s peripheral portfolio, with a specific focus on AI-enabled docking stations and productivity tools. While Plugable will continue to operate as an independent brand, the two companies noted in a statement that they will collaborate on product development and global supply chain logistics. This deal signals a consolidation in the workspace technology sector. MSPs can expect to see a broader range of high-performance connectivity solutions that are increasingly integrated with Acer’s hardware ecosystem. As the hybrid work model evolves, the demand for sophisticated peripheral hardware remains high, and this partnership likely ensures better availability and integrated support for partners providing end-to-end hardware solutions to their clients. And for those of you who have been around the Canadian channel scene for a while, it’s worth mentioning that Plugable’s CEO is none other than Lynn Smurthwaite-Murphy. Later today on In The Channel, I am joined by Jennifer Roy of Nucleus Networks to discuss the evolving landscape of channel leadership and the importance of mentorship in tech. And if you haven’t heard it yet, be sure to check out my conversation from yesterday with Ben Yerushalmi of OutSystems, where we took a deep dive into the impact of low-code platforms on modern application development. That’s how we’re seeing the headlines today. I’m Robert Dutt for ChannelBuzz.ca, thanks for listening.

    4 min
  5. OutSystems’ Ben Yerushalmi on Elevate, agentic AI, and why partner work is moving to the front end

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    OutSystems’ Ben Yerushalmi on Elevate, agentic AI, and why partner work is moving to the front end

    Benjamin Yerushalmi, senior vice president of partners and alliances at OutSystems OutSystems launched its redesigned Elevate partner program in late February – a ground-up rethink that moves away from volume-based incentives toward a point-based earned level model weighted toward AI credentials and delivery outcomes. To walk through what changed and why, I spoke with Benjamin Yerushalmi, OutSystems’ senior vice president of partners and alliances and a three-time CRN Channel Chief, who came to OutSystems from Automation Anywhere and before that spent seven years at Salesforce building global alliance teams. That arc across three major technology waves gives him an interesting vantage point on what actually gets partners to invest – and how the pitch changes when you’re not working for a juggernaut. The most substantive part of the conversation is about where the services work is moving. Ben describes a clear shift toward front-end advisory – design, architecture, change management, understanding how AI agents will function alongside people – and away from pure back-end implementation. Partners are also doing more objection handling earlier in the cycle, including making the case against what Ben calls “vibe coding tools.” His line: you’re using a vibe coding tool, you’re gonna get vibe code. We also got into the Elevate mechanics: the Elite Delivery Partner credential (earned per individual, not per organization, which changes the calculus for smaller shops), how OutSystems is weighting points toward Agent Workbench and ODC to drive partner behavior toward newer AI products, and Ben’s framing of the competitive landscape as convergence and coexistence rather than zero-sum competition with Microsoft, ServiceNow, and Salesforce. OutSystems is an enterprise play, and not every shop in our audience is landing these deals. But the conversation about where partner economics are heading in the agentic AI era applies well beyond any single vendor’s program. Read Full Transcript Robert Dutt: Hello and welcome to In The Channel from ChannelBuzz.ca, bringing news and information to the Canadian IT channel community for the last 16 years. I’m Robert Dutt, editor of ChannelBuzz.ca, and your host for the show. My guest today is Benjamin Yerushalmi, senior vice president of partners and alliances at OutSystems, the enterprise low-code and AI development platform. Ben is a three-time CRN channel chief who spent the last decade-plus building partner ecosystems at Salesforce, Automation Anywhere, and now OutSystems – three companies that each represent a different wave of technology transformation, from cloud CRM to intelligent automation to what’s now being called the agentic AI era. OutSystems recently launched Elevate, a ground-up redesign of its partner program that shifts the incentive model away from volume and toward outcomes, customer satisfaction, and AI credentials. Now, OutSystems may not be a name that’s top of mind for a lot of solution providers in our audience, but the conversation we had touches on questions that are very much in play for every partner right now. What does an agentic AI engagement actually look like from a services standpoint? How is the work shifting from implementation to advisory? And what do you do when a customer asks why they shouldn’t just use a vibe coding tool instead? Let’s get right into it. My chat with Ben Yerushalmi. Robert Dutt: Ben, thanks for taking the time. I appreciate it. Ben Yerushalmi: Thank you for having me. Robert Dutt: The last time we spoke, you were at Automation Anywhere – it was their event in Austin a couple years ago. Before that, you were with Salesforce, now OutSystems. Three very different platforms, but in all of them you’ve been building or revamping a partner ecosystem around a technology wave. What’s the thread that connects those experiences for you? What have you learned about what actually works when you’re asking partners to bet on something, especially when it’s early innings of that particular wave? Ben Yerushalmi: Great question. It’s interesting, because three very different experiences. When you’re with a company like Salesforce, Salesforce is a juggernaut in a lot of respects. There are a lot of partners who are very invested in your success. They’ve got big business units, big practices, and there’s a clear ROI. Salesforce is creating a lot of demand in the market. When you’re with a mid-sized software company like Automation Anywhere or OutSystems, the challenge is still the same – you have to present them with a reasonable business case for investing in your technology and then going to market with you. Because you don’t have a shiny blue cloud on your business card, I think it’s a much bigger challenge. You have to do things like build a partner program that’s designed for growth, build a partner program with clear benefits to the partners about how they’re going to lean in, why they’re going to lean in, how they’re going to engage with your brand. It is a slightly different challenge – or a vastly different challenge. And when you’re with the smaller companies, the need to move fast is so urgent, especially where we are right now in this market with AI impacting everything we do. Messaging is changing, the go-to-market models are changing, the expectations of our customers are changing. Building a program that can be flexible, fast-moving, and built for growth is just super critical. Robert Dutt: OutSystems has been around for 25 years now, but Elevate feels like a pretty significant rethink of how you engage partners. I suspect your previous answer may have covered some of the territory, but what was broken – or not working well enough – about the old model that made you say, “All right, fresh sheet of paper, let’s do something new here”? Ben Yerushalmi: Look, nothing was broken. We had a functioning partner program that evolved over time, and none of the iterations it evolved through looked like the market we’re in today. We really needed to take a step back and strategically look at the program, think about what needed to be built in that could move at the pace of the market and give the ecosystem the things it was going to need to grow. For example, if you look at the old program – big emphasis on new logos, big emphasis on partners that had the implementation skills. Both super important, but only a fraction of how our partner ecosystem adds value to our brand, to our customers, and in the things they do to drive outcomes. We really had to reposition the program. First, pivot everything toward AI – everything from how we measure financial impact, to how we reward training and enablement, to how we measure CSAT and outcomes. Everything had to shift to AI. We also had to acknowledge all of the different ways that partners add value. Not just sourcing new logos, but co-sell, resell, managed service, MSP, ISV – and not just new logo acquisition, but growth in our existing accounts. Partners source business in our existing accounts. Partners are the best set of people to go in – especially when they apply their AI expertise, their industry expertise – and really grow our footprint at those accounts and truly drive outcomes and value for our customers. We had to acknowledge that. We also had to think about what we could build into the program to incent our ecosystem to be thinking about industries, to be thinking about agentic solutions, and to drive that behavior. Robert Dutt: One of the things that jumps out about Elevate is the shift toward earned levels based on outcomes and customer sat rather than just volume. That’s a trend we’re seeing across the industry. But it does raise the question: does that model inherently favor larger partners who can invest in multiple certifications and have that CSAT infrastructure, or is there a path for smaller partners as well? Ben Yerushalmi: There is. We have a number of examples of smaller-scale partners that have achieved some of the higher levels in the program. We also have examples of smaller partners who are on path to achieve Elite Delivery Partner status – because it’s not one credential per person. One person can have multiple credentials across the different disciplines. It doesn’t necessarily favor large partners. Now, when we launch Global Strategic – which would be a tier sitting above Platinum – that may, just because of sheer scale, favor larger partners. That said, our company is going to run on the strength of our Silver partners, our Gold partners. It truly takes partners across all of those levels to build a healthy go-to-market. I’m not terribly concerned about where smaller partners are going to find their place in the program. The other thing – and I’ve gotten a lot of questions about this – the Premier level in the old program basically maps to Gold in the new program. Platinum is effectively the level above that for partners to strive for. Robert Dutt: You’ve weighted agentic AI credentials pretty heavily in the point system, for obvious reasons. How are you credentialing something that’s that new and that quickly evolving? What does an agentic AI competency look like for a partner today versus what you expect it to look like a year from now? Ben Yerushalmi: You tell me what the market’s going to look like a year from now. What we’re doing right now is putting emphasis on our AI-built components. For example, Agent Workbench is going to carry a higher number of points in the program than O11. ODC is going to have a higher number of points than O11. As we continue to release additional AI-built products, we’ll continue that over-weighting. It’s simple – it’s trying to encourage a behavior. Staying at pace with the market is a massive challenge. One of the things we need to make sure is that as fa

    31 min
  6. The Buzz: Fleet goes 100 percent channel, Scale Computing revamps partner program, and N-able’s AI advice

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    The Buzz: Fleet goes 100 percent channel, Scale Computing revamps partner program, and N-able’s AI advice

    Today’s headline news for Canadian IT solution providers: Fleet launches inaugural partner program: Open-source device management vendor Fleet has announced its first partner program, officially moving to a 100 percent channel sales model. According to CEO Mike McNeil, every deal will now flow through a partner. The program includes reseller and services tracks, focusing on enabling partners to build recurring revenue around Fleet’s multi-OS platform. For Canadian MSPs, the move presents an opportunity to consolidate device management across Windows, Apple, and Linux environments. Scale Computing introduces Velocity Partner Program: Edge computing and virtualization provider Scale Computing has launched a competency-based Velocity Partner Program. The new model ties advancement to verified capabilities rather than sales volume, aiming to reduce operational friction and accelerate quote-to-close cycles. The company is positioning the program as a way for partners to increase autonomy and capture more professional services revenue. N-able CEO urges measured AI approach: N-able CEO John Pagliuca is advising MSPs to focus on internal efficiency before rushing to monetize artificial intelligence. Pagliuca outlined a three-step journey: efficiency first, safe deployment next, and monetization last. He noted that the revenue opportunity will come from helping SMBs implement AI securely, but MSPs must first master their own data governance and automation. Read Full Transcript Welcome to The Buzz from ChannelBuzz.ca, our brand spanking new daily podcast, giving you the latest headlines for the IT channel community every morning in five minutes or less. I’m Robert Dutt, today is Monday, April 20, 2026, and here’s what’s happening in the channel today. Fleet, the open-source device management platform, has officially launched its inaugural partner program, signaling a hard pivot to a 100 percent channel sales model. Founded in 2020 and born out of an open-source project at Facebook, Fleet’s technology enables organizations to manage and secure IT assets across MacOS, Windows, Linux, Android, and ChromeOS. According to CEO Mike McNeil, every sales deal will now flow exclusively through a partner. The new program features two distinct tracks: a reseller track for co-selling, and a services track geared specifically toward partners looking to build recurring revenue streams through implementation and managed services. For Canadian MSPs managing increasingly complex, mixed-device environments, Fleet offers an infrastructure-as-code approach to endpoint management that can help consolidate tool sprawl. The company is actively recruiting new partners and is reportedly offering financial incentives, including enhanced margins and deal protection, for solution providers who migrate customers away from established competitors like Jamf or Microsoft Intune. Edge computing and virtualization vendor Scale Computing has unveiled its new Velocity Partner Program, shifting decisively away from traditional volume-based tiers to a fully competency-based model. The company says this new structure is engineered to help partners navigate the evolving virtualization market by reducing operational friction and increasing partner autonomy. According to Scale Computing, advancement in the Velocity program is now tied strictly to verified capabilities, ensuring that technical expertise—rather than raw sales volume—drives partner economics. The framework is designed to accelerate quote-to-close cycles and reduce dependency on vendor resources. For Canadian solution providers, this represents a faster path to revenue and far better margin predictability, especially for regional partners who might be penalized by strict volume quotas. The program also focuses heavily on enabling partners to capture more of the total value of each opportunity, specifically by driving professional services revenue around deployments of the company’s SC Platform and edge orchestration solutions. N-able CEO John Pagliuca is advising the channel to take a highly measured approach to the artificial intelligence boom. In a recent interview, Pagliuca outlined a specific three-step journey for MSP AI adoption: efficiency first, safe deployment next, and monetization last. He noted that while the broader industry is rushing toward AI-driven revenue streams, MSPs must first focus on internal productivity gains and establishing data governance. According to N-able, the monetization opportunity will materialize as small and medium-sized businesses seek third-party help to navigate their own AI implementations and security challenges. For Canadian MSPs, this serves as a pragmatic reminder to prioritize internal automation and secure operational foundations before packaging artificial intelligence as a billable service. It echoes broader industry research suggesting that data governance remains a significant hurdle to AI adoption, reinforcing the need for partners to establish internal standards first. Later today on In The Channel, I sit down with OutSystems channel chief Benjamin Yerushalmi to talk about defining the channel for three different technology waves over the years, and why AI is moving more partner revenue opportunities earlier in engagements. And if you haven’t heard it yet, check out our chat with Alex Webb and Leanne Yeatman of F12.net on what they’ve learned from 20 years and 15-plus acquisitions, which dropped on Friday. That’s how we’re seeing the headlines today. I’m Robert Dutt for ChannelBuzz.ca, thanks for listening. Have a great day.

    4 min
  7. What F12.net has learned from 20 years and 15+ acquisitions

    -5 J

    What F12.net has learned from 20 years and 15+ acquisitions

    Alex Webb, CEO of F12.net and Leanne Yeatman, chief of staff at F12.net F12.net has completed more than 15 acquisitions since founder and CEO Alex Webb and Chief of Staff Leanne Yeatman made their first deal in 2006. What started as a circumstantial opportunity evolved into a deliberate growth strategy that has taken the company from its Alberta roots to a national MSP with offices across Canada and over 500 employees. In this conversation, Webb and Yeatman open up about how they evaluate potential acquisitions – and why the criteria that matter most aren’t the ones on their website. Culture, resilience, and how distributed the workload is across the team all weigh more heavily than the financial table stakes. They also share hard-won lessons on integration, including why they stopped calling deals “mergers” and why leadership can’t outsource the transition work. The conversation takes a turn when Webb discusses F12’s recent private equity transition from Clairvest to Audax, putting him on the other side of the due diligence process he’s put sellers through for years. “Gives me a lot of empathy for what we put our sellers through,” he says. For MSP owners considering a sale, there’s practical advice throughout – from cleaning up your P&L and building leadership depth to understanding why recurring professional services isn’t managed services, and how that distinction affects your valuation when it surfaces in due diligence. Webb and Yeatman also weigh in on the AMTRA Solutions acquisition, a capability play that signals a shift in what acquirers are looking for beyond geographic expansion. Read Full Transcript Robert Dutt:  Hello and welcome to In the Channel from ChannelBuzz.ca, bringing news and information to the Canadian IT channel community for the last 16 years. I’m Robert Dutt, editor of ChannelBuzz.ca, and your host for the show. If you go to F12.net right now — one of Canada’s largest managed service providers — you’ll find something you don’t see on most MSP websites. A page that says “Looking to sell? Let’s talk!” And it’s not vague. It lists exactly what they’re looking for and exactly what a seller gets. That kind of openness tells you something. It tells you that for F12, M&A isn’t opportunistic. It’s a core part of how they’ve grown from an Alberta basement operation in 1994 to a national MSP with over 500 employees and more than 15 acquisitions under their belt. My guests today are Alex Webb, founder and CEO of F12.net, and Leanne Yeatman, Chief of Staff, who’s been deeply involved in the company’s acquisition strategy and adds some valuable perspective throughout our conversation. We cover the full picture here — how F12 decides what to buy and what to walk away from, what integration actually looks like after the deal closes, and what MSP owners on the other side of the table need to know if they’re thinking about selling someday. Alex also shares what it was like to recently go through a recapitalization of his own company, putting him on both sides of the M&A equation. Let’s get right into it. My chat with Alex Webb and Leanne Yeatman. Robert Dutt:  Alex, Leanne, thanks for joining us. Alex Webb: Thanks. Leanne Yeatman: Thank you for having us. Robert Dutt:  Not every MSP has a “looking to sell” page on their website — much less one that is as prescriptive as listing what you’re looking for and what a potential seller gets. Pretty deliberate signal. When did M&A go from something that happened at F12 — an opportunity that came along — to something that became a core part of how you grow and something that you approach intentionally? Alex Webb: Going back to the memory here — I would say that transition happened right around 2015. Prior to that, we did two acquisitions and they were more circumstantial, opportunistic, presented themselves more than us actually going out and seeking them out. But that shifted when we wanted to expand into a new region that we targeted. That region was Ontario. We were Alberta-based in 2014 and we had a plan to expand into two more provinces — Ontario being first, then BC being second. So I would say that was the date. Robert Dutt:  Your first acquisition was CPU Technologies, way back in 2006 — 20 years ago. What was that experience like, and how much of what you do now was shaped by what you learned, for the good and the bad, doing it for the first time? Alex Webb: I’ll actually let Leanne go first. She played a big role in that acquisition. Leanne Yeatman: Going back a long time in history — that was our first transaction. It was different in the sense that we had some outside influence. One of our partners at the time, Wayne Scrivens, played a big role in coaching and teaching us what to look for and how to go through that process. I would say it was foundational in that it sparked this desire to do it more and to recognize that this can be a huge part of our growth story. It’s not the only piece of the journey, of course, but it definitely was a foundational moment for us. And while no two transactions are the same, there are obviously similarities. The more you do it, the more you look back and remember the specific things that went well and the things that maybe didn’t go so well — that you would do differently if given another shot. I remember the details very clearly still to this day. What we learned in that early phase of the CPU acquisition was that when you don’t have the relationships, it’s very hard to convert clients, because they don’t trust you, they don’t know you, they don’t believe you. You have to work really hard to build that trust. That was the biggest education we had: that integration and converting clients was going to be way harder than we thought. Robert Dutt:  Obviously it didn’t scare you off, because you’ve done 15 or so acquisitions over those last 20 years. Is there a rhythm to it? Is it a “you’re always looking” kind of thing, or do you find it comes in waves? Alex Webb: I would say waves. We found it a little easier to have a few acquisitions brought in and do that integration work together, because you’re usually assembling teams, and it tends to work a little better than fully integrating one and then starting another. You can do a lot of things in tandem, because you’re generally ripping and tearing not only at their systems but at your own — learning as you go all of the inadequacies in your own systems that need to be redeveloped. That work has to happen while you’re doing integration. So we just found it a little easier to do them in waves. Robert Dutt:  The technology tradition of batching — it kind of makes sense from that regard too. Your website lists the criteria you look for: north of $5 million in revenue, low churn, a majority of managed services, healthy EBITDA. Those are the table stakes. What’s the stuff that’s not on the website? What makes you lean in on a company that maybe looks more marginal on paper but gives you a good vibe — or conversely, walk away from one that checks all the boxes but just leaves you with a “no” feeling? Alex Webb: Culture plays a big role. The depth in the organization — how distributed is the effort? Does it all sit on one or two people? Or, even if they’re smaller, have they found ways to distribute the workload across the team? The test of resiliency in the organization matters too. Sometimes longevity brings a certain amount of resilience to a team and a culture. Sometimes experience doing their own expansions or acquisitions brings some of that. That’s important, because when you go through integration, things change — and not just for one entity. A wise person in the industry once explained it to us as: there are two cultures, and both cultures change and become one going forward. The pressure integration puts on both teams is significant. So you really want to look for a team that’s going to be able to weather that storm — one that has a good amount of trust built up with their leadership and with each other. Robert Dutt:  How much of the decision comes down to the owner? Their personality, their readiness to move, what they want their life to look like after the acquisition? Alex Webb: That’s a big one. The motivation for why they want to do it is a key ingredient. We try to get to that early, because in M&A, some owners might feel like they can get a little more value out of the business if they portray that they’re staying — but it’s actually traumatic on the business when the alignment is wrong. So we work really hard up front to figure out what’s actually going on. And it’s okay if you want to transition out, or if you want to stay and we work a role around you. Those are very important ingredients for a successful integration outcome. Sometimes there’s indecision — do I want to be part of it or do I want to leave? We just help them with that. We make it okay either way. F12 is a good home for their people and their clients, so they don’t have to worry about that part. We can concentrate our efforts on the outcome the owner actually wants. Robert Dutt:  To Leanne’s point about two cultures becoming one — you close the deal, it’s Monday morning. I presume champagne pops, but that’s just my vision of how these things work. What does that first week actually look like for the employees and the clients of the company you just acquired? Alex Webb: If you’ve done it right, it doesn’t feel any different. I know that’s a bizarre answer, but I think that’s what people build up in their minds — that day one, a bunch of things are going to change. Balloons and fanfare. And really you just wake up Monday morning and, you know what, we need to collect some money, answer the phone, go to the client site. All of the things just keep happening. The only difference is

    38 min
  8. From bank and warehouse to ecosystem orchestrator: A conversation with Frank Vitagliano

    -6 J

    From bank and warehouse to ecosystem orchestrator: A conversation with Frank Vitagliano

    Frank Vitagliano, CEO of the Global Technology Distribution Council Every few years, someone announces the end of distribution. Direct sales was going to kill it. Then e-commerce. Then cloud. Then hyperscaler marketplaces. And yet here we are. Frank Vitagliano is CEO of the Global Technology Distribution Council, the industry consortium representing 21 of the world’s leading technology distributors, collectively responsible for more than $180 billion in annual IT sales. He spent more than 30 years in the channel as a vendor executive at IBM, Juniper Networks, and Dell – where he served as VP of Global Distribution Sales and Strategy – and as president and CEO of solution provider Computex Technology Solutions, before taking the helm at GTDC in 2019. In this episode, Vitagliano talks about why distribution keeps enduring through waves of disruption that should, on paper, have displaced it. His framing: distribution has evolved from what he calls “bank and warehouse” into the orchestrator of the IT ecosystem – the entity that connects vendors, solution providers, and end users in ways that no single vendor or hyperscaler marketplace can replicate on its own. He also gets into what distribution’s digital platform investments actually change – including GTDC’s recent research showing that 86% of suppliers are using or evaluating digital platforms – and why Vitagliano believes AI-enabled opportunity identification is “the game changer” that will define distribution’s next chapter. Vitagliano also draws on his vendor-side experience to explain what he wasn’t getting from distribution at Dell, and why platforms and data are finally closing that gap. This episode pairs with our solo essay on why reports of distribution’s demise have always been overstated. Read Full Transcript Robert Dutt: Hello and welcome to In The Channel from ChannelBuzz.ca, bringing news and information to the Canadian IT channel for the last 16 years. I’m Robert Dutt, editor of ChannelBuzz.ca and your host for the show. If you caught my recent solo episode on why reports of distribution’s demise have always been overstated, you know this is a topic I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. Distribution has survived every wave of disruption the IT industry has thrown at it – direct sales, e-commerce, cloud, marketplaces – and it keeps evolving. I want to explore that further, and I couldn’t think of a better person to do that than my guest today. Frank Vitagliano is CEO of the Global Technology Distribution Council, the industry consortium representing 21 of the world’s leading technology distributors, collectively responsible for more than $180 billion in annual IT sales. Frank has been in the channel for more than 30 years, holding senior executive roles at IBM, Juniper Networks, and Dell, where he served as VP of Global Distribution Sales and Strategy. He’s also been on the solution provider side as president and CEO of Computex Technology Solutions. He’s a member of the IT Industry Hall of Fame, and he’s one of the few people who’s seen distribution from every angle – vendor, solution provider, and the advocacy side. We talk about why distribution keeps enduring, what it actually does that’s harder to replicate than it looks from the outside, how digital platforms are fundamentally changing the distributor’s role, and what the next chapter looks like. Let’s get right into it. My chat with Frank Vitagliano. [Music] Robert Dutt: Frank, thanks so much for taking the time. It’s nice to catch up with you. Frank Vitagliano: Hi, Rob. Good to see you again. Robert Dutt: I guess to throw it open – you’ve changed roles since last we spoke, and I know you’re well-established at GTDC now, but because it’s an industry organization for distribution, can you tell us a little bit about the mandate of GTDC and what you guys are focused on over there? Frank Vitagliano: Absolutely. So GTDC has been around for quite some time. It stands for Global Technology Distribution Council – it kind of doesn’t exactly roll off your tongue – and it was established more than 20 years ago by some of the major distributors. Initially, the idea was to educate the financial community on the role and value of IT distributors, and this was before they were all public companies. There were a lot of questions about what do they do, how do they do it, why are they needed. For the first five or six years, GTDC focused on educating that group. After most of them went public, it wasn’t really necessary, because companies certainly did a better job of talking to the financial community themselves through earnings calls. So we pivoted to focusing on the supplier community and educating them on the role and value of distribution. You might think, why does the supplier community need to be educated on distribution? A couple of reasons. One, as you know, Rob, every day there are more players coming into the space, particularly in the cybersecurity area. You can’t count the number of cybersecurity vendors out there, and typically they’re all started by and run by very smart technical folks who really don’t know that much about taking a product to market. So that’s one reason. And the second group that continually needs a refresher is the broader vendor community, because most vendors rotate their people through a number of jobs. You start in direct sales, then you move to channel, and you don’t really understand distribution because it tends to be the least well understood aspect of channels. A lot of people view it as a cost element rather than a value driver. We’ve got about 21 members globally representing more than $180 billion of IT sales annually, so all of the major distributors are part of GTDC. We run three big conferences a year – one in Europe, one in Asia, one in North America. We do a lot with research and content – we had a particularly good year last year and released four strong papers on topics important to the vendor community. I do a podcast series every three weeks with members of the ecosystem. And we have global relationships with major data companies – IDC in North America, Context and Nielsen IQ GFK in Europe – where we collect POS data from distributors weekly and compile it into reports that the vendor community uses to track market share and pricing. So those are the major aspects of who we are and what we do. Robert Dutt: You sit in an interesting place. You’ve done the vendor side with Dell, IBM, Juniper. You ran a solution provider business at Computex. And now you lead the organization that represents and promotes the world’s largest distributors. Pretty rare trifecta. I’m curious how each of those vantage points shaped the way you think about distribution’s role today. Frank Vitagliano: That’s an excellent question, and it was actually one I had to answer when I first took the role at GTDC, because most of the folks previously involved in running the organization had worked in distribution, and I never have. But I had the advantage of working extraordinarily closely with distributors over the years. Back in my IBM days – and this is way in the way-back machine – I was involved in the early days of authorizing distributors to sell IBM PCs. It goes back that far. I understood early on the value they provided in getting a vendor’s product to market. Back then, you could argue it was a bank and a warehouse, which is how a lot of people still think about distribution. But it continued to evolve from a bank and a warehouse to a support mechanism that included pre-sale, post-sale, and solution support, to where it is today – a completely digitized route to market that I think orchestrates the IT ecosystem, because distribution sits right in the middle of it. Upstream is the vendor community, which I view as partners with distribution, and downstream are the customers, the solution providers. The second thing you mentioned is that I spent a couple of years running a solution provider, so I was a customer of distribution, not just a partner. It’s really something to have that perspective, because I thought I knew a lot about what distribution did, but I learned a lot more as a customer. And the last thing I’ll mention is that I have watched distribution evolve over the last 40 years – from a bank and a warehouse to what they are today. It’s incredible what they’ve been able to do to keep pace with technological changes and changes in how people buy technology. And they’ve continued to do it while maintaining the core function that a lot of people still consider critically important: help me get my product to market. That evolution has made me genuinely passionate about what they do and how they’ve done it. And it’s continuing now as they evolve into this new digital world with platforms and AI. Robert Dutt: In the time that I’ve covered the channel space, there’s always been a case being made for “well, this is finally the end of distribution” – it was direct sales, e-commerce, cloud, marketplaces, and yet here we are. You’ve touched on the nature of distribution’s evolution. What was the key through-line in that? What is it that distribution was able to do that allowed it to adapt through those waves of change? Frank Vitagliano: I think it’s one thing primarily. They listened very well to their customers – the solution providers – in terms of what they needed, and they listened and collaborated very well with the suppliers. At the end of the day, that’s the most important aspect of what they’ve been able to do. As the technology shifted – from hardware to services to SaaS, to the changing business models in terms of how products are delivered – they’ve been able to watch the evolution, watch the requirements, and adapt. The platforms that are now being built started pr

    46 min
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