FEATURE VALUE-ADDED DISTRIBUTION
Charbel Zreiby, Channel Director, EMEA East at Veeam
“ The role of distribution is being fundamentally redefined by the rise of AI, cyber risk and the growing importance of trusted data,” said Charbel Zreiby, Channel Director, EMEA East at Veeam.“ Organisations are no longer simply buying products. They’ re investing in business outcomes that depend on resilient, secure and well-governed data foundations.”
As enterprises embrace AI, they are discovering that successful deployment depends as much on trusted data, governance and resilience as it does on AI models themselves. That places distributors in a position to help partners develop expertise that extends well beyond product knowledge.
“ They provide the enablement, education and technical support needed to help partners guide customers through increasingly complex data, security and compliance requirements,” Zreiby said.“ Distributors have become essential enablers of trust.”
Expertise becomes the differentiator As technology portfolios become more sophisticated, partners increasingly require technical capabilities that many cannot economically build themselves.“ For years, distribution was measured on how fast and how far you could move a box,” said Scott Goree, SVP of Channel and Alliances at Delinea.“ That reach
Scott Goree, SVP of Channel and Alliances at Delinea still matters, but it’ s the baseline now, not the differentiator.”
Instead, distributors are investing heavily in pre-sales engineering, solution architects, demonstration environments and technical consulting.
“ The leaders are investing heavily in presales engineering, putting technical expertise on deals early rather than after the fact, and building real intimacy with the customer’ s problem, not just the transaction,” Goree explained.“ They’ re also bringing partners into that process, coaching them along the way rather than handing them a product list.”
That collaborative approach is becoming increasingly valuable in cybersecurity, where customers often require guidance throughout evaluation, deployment and ongoing operations.
Maurice Raad, EMEA Partner Manager at Trellix
“ If you had asked this question ten years ago, I would have talked about reach, inventory and fulfilment,” said Maurice Raad, EMEA Partner Manager at Trellix.“ Those things are still important, but today they are simply expected.”
“ What has really changed is that distributors are now expected to help partners grow their business, not just transact with vendors.”
The subscription economy changes everything Perhaps no development has reshaped
The shift to cloud and subscription services has transformed the channel from a transaction-focused model to one centred on long-term customer success.
distribution more profoundly than the industry’ s shift towards cloud and subscription consumption models.
Perpetual licences generated revenue at the point of sale. Subscription services require continuous customer engagement through onboarding, adoption, renewals and expansion.
“ Cloud and AI have fundamentally shifted distribution from one-time transactions to recurring customer engagement,” Kabel said.“ Revenue is increasingly driven by subscriptions, managed services, cloud consumption, AI workloads and customer success.”
That creates more predictable longterm revenue but also demands entirely new capabilities.
“ The shift to cloud and subscription services has transformed the channel from a transaction-focused model to one centred on long-term customer success,” said Zreiby.“ Revenue is increasingly tied to adoption, renewals and ongoing value creation rather than a single point of sale.”
AI is further accelerating the distributor’ s evolution from product supplier to ecosystem builder.
“ AI is raising the bar for everyone in the channel,” Nair said.“ Customers aren’ t looking for AI products in isolation. They’ re looking for complete solutions that combine infrastructure, cloud, data, software, security and services.”
He believes distributors have a unique role in helping partners build sustainable AI practices rather than simply reselling AI technologies.
“ As a technology ecosystem orchestrator, Redington plays a critical role in bringing those capabilities together. We help our
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