Peter Radizeski is Founder and President of RAD-INFO INC. He is an accomplished blogalyst, speaker, author and consultant. He has helped many service providers with sales training, marketing, channel development and business strategy. He is a trusted source of knowledge about the telecom sector. His honest and direct approach make him a refreshing speaker.

Look for his innovative ideas and analysis of current technology on his blogs.

Meet him at one of the many conferences he attends and speaks at.

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Well it Finally Happened!

In recent weeks, I have been writing (here and here) about the soon to happen collision of VAD and Master Agency? Well it happened on Friday night.

ScanSource is a $3.2 Billion dollar distributor of hardware and software. (A much smaller Ingram or Tech Data which bring in $30-40B in revenue annually). In 2013, ScanSource partnered with Intelisys at the same time that Tech Data partnered with Microcorp. Friday ScanSource decided to buy Intelisys for at least $83.6 Million dollars plus earn out.

“Under the agreement, the all-cash transaction includes an initial purchase price of approximately $83.6 million (in cash), plus earn-out payments based on earnings before interest expense, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) over the next four years. Intelisys has demonstrated double-digit growth of net revenues and EBITDA, which is projected to continue during the four-year earn-out period. For the first full year after closing, Intelisys’ net revenues, which reflect gross commissions less payments to sub-agents, are estimated to total over $34 million with a 45% to 50% estimated EBITDA margin.” [source]

According to the SEC Filing, “The total earn-out payments are estimated to be in the range of $100 million to $150 million, depending on the performance of the business.” At $17M, that is a long payout for ScanSource – about 10 years!!!

“Founded in 1994 and based in Petaluma, California, Intelisys operates in the United States and has approximately 120 employees, more than 130 supplier partners, and over 2,400 sales partners.” Those 120 employees are all staying on (at least during the earn out period).

For ScanSource this is their pivot to MRR (monthly recurring revenue). As box sales have slowed – and ScanSource had to lower its financial estimates for the year – the VAD had to figure out how to get MRR going. It was already working with Intelisys – and at $100M+ in commissions it was a number that the Street wouldn’t blink about. Hence, the deal.

Also, hence the M&A in the VAR-MSP-Master AGent space. Inorganic growth is faster than organic. Everyone wants to beef up. (Insert Olympic steroid jokes here.) These worlds are colliding. More VADs will buy into MRR. More MSPs and VARs will have to shift to MRR.

Will partners start drifting to one VAD over another due to these mergers? Does TD or Ingram lose box sales to ScanSource over this? Not likely. Most partners – agents or VARs – have multiple suppliers for fear of having too many eggs in one basket. It is for that reason we see the rather large numbers of partners under a master or VAD. If you can hold a pen…. but only a small percentage actually get a monthly commission check.

UPDATE:

Joe Panettieri has some details on Channele2e HERE and HERE and THERE.

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    Mergers Culture and Brands

    There have been a lot of mergers in telecom in the last few years (and more coming). What is it like when the ink dries on the letter of intent? What do the business executives have to think about to merge companies together in order to make a new organization that can function. Culture is paramount. Then there is the whole Brand to deal with. JP Laqueur, the Principal & Chief Connector of Brand Foundations in NYC, stops by the podcast to discuss it. Give it a listen.

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    If you can’t see the podcast player, you can listen over at Soundcloud.

    If you want more on this topic from JP Laqueur, read him on Linkedin HERE.

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    Apex Technology Services
    Sponsored by Apex Technology Services, a leading IT Services company

    Blabbing About SD-WAN

    There is a platform for public video conferencing called Blab.im. Up to four speakers can join a Blab on video (or just audio) to discuss a topic. Today was the second Blab that I have organized around SD-WAN. You can listen to the replay (about 44 minutes).

    I want to thank Velocloud, Edgewater Networks and Ecessa for joining the Blab to discuss SD-WAN and the channel.

    One question I asked was how would a channel partner get his/her feet wet in SD-WAN.

    SD-WAN consists a number of features, such as packet-shaping, QoS, load balancing, WAN optimization, WAN bonding, application acceleration, monitoring, analytics, IP-VPN and more. Not every vendors offers ever feature (a la UCaaS); and not every customer will need or want all features. These features do identify a pain point that SD-WAN can solve.

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    The Distributor Side of Things

    A recent discussion on LinkedIn around my blog about what Master Agencies call themselves has been ongoing. It even continued with live comments at the CompTIA event in Fort Lauderdale.

    Both sides will need to adapt. Most of the servers being bought now are being bought by the likes of Amazon, Rackspace, Facebook and Microsoft. They are not buying through Ingram or Tech Data. That affects their business in yet to be seen ways.

    Tech Data’s business model is predicated on two things: logistics of demand and co-marketing dollars. TD and Ingram (and their siblings) live on razor thin margins for hardware. They are pure distribution logistics for hardware and software licensing that is in demand. In a purely cloud world, those warehouses scattered around the globe may have to be refurbished into data centers to house SAAS gear. If they can even pivot that way.

    Just to showcase the difference in mindset between a true VAD like Ingram and a amaster agency that calls itself a VAD, look at this article: UCC Solutions: What’s Trending in 2016? by Ingram Micro. To Ingram, Logitech ConferenceCam Connect, Sennheiser Presence UC headset, Jabra EVOLVE and Plantronics Voyager 5200 UC. Is that what is trending in UC&C? Or is that what hardware is selling (or more likely being promoted)?

    For years, we have waited to see if Insight or D&H or SYNNEX would buy a master agency in order to ramp up the shift to MRR. It hasn’t happened yet.

    Now that ADTRAN is pushing its hardware-as-a-service model, VADs have to consider what that means to their meager margins, sooner rather than later.

    The other shift that will affect the VADs is the shift to SD-WAN. This means white box CPE in place of routers, switches, IADs, etc. The SD-WAN appliance will be just hardware with the software control coming from the SD-WAN provider. That may affect distribution of CPE too. Does the MSO or CLEC drop ship CPE from TD or Ingram?

    In the Faces of July gallery on CP, the number of companies that I have never heard of reached a new high. Someone mentioned at CompTIA that 600 new vendors entered the market. At the same time that the number of channel partners is actually shrinking.

    I look around the room at these conferences and see mostly gray hair and bald heads. There are not a large number of folks under 30 in the crowds. Consider the number of mergers in the partner space as older partners ramp out or look to retire.

    One joke about telecom is no one got here on purpose. Our sector isn’t recruiting on college campuses or advertising the joys of channel partner life. This is a heavily sales dependent business. How many people go to college wanting to be in sales?

    A lot of different pieces are on the table. It will be interesting to see how this puzzle is put together.

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    Apex Technology Services
    Sponsored by Apex Technology Services, a leading IT Services company

    Security is the Ugly Word

    I have a client suffering in a DDoS attack for a week. This is not an unusual situation. I am working to provide a DDoS Mitigation solution.

    Hacks and Ransonware are becoming common. The Enterprise CIO knows this. Security keeps him up at night. Finding the skill set for cyber-security is difficult. Finding the budget is even harder.

    You would think that budget for security would be easy, but it isn’t. The risk assessment is that they would rather risk the game of cat and mouse cyber-warfare.

    At ChannelCon security is prevalent. So many vendors, so few partners jumping on that bandwagon. To sell it, you have to understand it – and the risks, the benefits and more.

    You also have to pick a vendor or 2.That is a time commitment and a learning curve.

    At some point, someone will sell a multi-vendor solution of managed security; deliver it well; and become known for it.

    It isn’t going to be a SKU off a VAD that someone just picks out of 5 quotes. Too many moving parts. Too many things that can go wrong that will ruin your relationship with the client.

    It is just easier to keep trucking down your own road than to learn new services and how to sell them.

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