Tech Data

And if you're listening to the show and you don't know TD Cynics, they are one of the big distributors.

They are actually a combination of what used to be Tech Data and Cynics.

And they merged probably about 10 years ago, I think it was.

Maybe not that long ago, but they are fantastic.

And I'll, I'll explain what I mean by that and why I think it's new enough to be kinda interesting to me.

So TD SYNNEX is formed out of the merger between Tech Data and SYNNEX.

That's about five years ago at this point.

I've been around long enough that I remember, um, writing about Tech Data, like, you know, p- pre-COVID and so on.

And, um, they used to make a real point of telling me that, um, "Please don't refer to us as a distributor anymore.

We're not a distributor.

So he's seen this from both sides.

He now serves as senior advisor at Tech Data, APJ.

Welcome to the podcast, Rajesh.

Thank you so much.

Then also be running another project behind the scenes that's delivering even more value, but most people are never even going to know.

It's such an interesting way to do.

Even within Tech Data, we have something called the AI game plan, which is a tool which is available for our partners, essentially to take it across to their end customers.

It helps them to do the evaluation of But it also gives them a visibility in terms of what is going to be the roadmap of this particular customer over the next couple of years.

That's a great question because one of the benefits with a two-tier channel, which a lot of companies do in the IT space, is the fact that it's extremely scalable.

You have a couple of... large distributors like ADI, Wesco, Ingram, Tech Data, and then they sell to resellers.

And so they keep the inventory, give the credit to the resellers, the resellers call out to the end customers and sell the product.

So that's all and fine if you have a defined market and a large market presence in the brand.

And when I say contacts, For example, Dan Lasher, he has been a contact of mine since probably 2006, 2007.

He is the CISO and the head of worldwide architecture for Tech Data.

Tech Data is probably now well over $60 billion in size.

I could still pick up the phone and call him right now and get him on the phone.

But