Interview: TD SYNNEX’s Stephen Ennis On How Services Are Reshaping The Channel
TD SYNNEX’s Stephen Ennis says that the IT services market is entering a defining moment — and partners who move now can claim their share of a rapidly expanding European services opportunity.
In this interview, Stephen explains what’s fuelling the rise of services, the challenges partners face, and how TD SYNNEX is helping partners evolve into outcome-driven, services-led businesses.
What’s driving the growth of services in the IT channel? What opportunities are out there for partners?
The European IT services market is expanding rapidly, driven by cloud, AI, automation, and security. Industry forecasts suggest that the European market could approach around US $570 billion by 2030, with growth in managed and outcome-led services outpacing traditional hardware. For partners, shifting from product-led to outcome-led solutions unlocks higher margins, stickier customer relationships, and recurring revenue. TD SYNNEX helps partners bridge skills gaps, simplify delivery, and launch white-label services under their brand—accelerating time to market without heavy upfront investment.
Partners who position their IT solutions around business outcomes (and not just technology) can differentiate, expand margins, and build longer-term strategic relationships. In fact, this is an imperative for partners who want to stay relevant.
Services like lifecycle management, partner-delivered IP, and packaged offerings are growing 150–200% faster than hardware alone. Customers don’t just want tools; they want outcomes. They expect improvements in efficiency, reduced risk, faster innovation, and better user experiences.
And finally, we’re also seeing an accelerated shift toward as-a-service models. Pay-per-use and consumption style models for Services are on the rise, with an increasing demand from customers for this flexible model.
What challenges do partners face when building a services practice?
Partners face several hurdles. In the current climate, talent and skills is often the number one consideration – finding, and retaining key technical talent is a constant head-ache for partners. Technologies like AI, cloud, cybersecurity, and automation evolve quickly, and partners need deep technical expertise to stay competitive. Building and retaining those capabilities isn’t simple.
On top of that, launching complementary services without heavy upfront investment is tough. Innovation needs to be balanced with cost control, and new services must integrate seamlessly with existing portfolios. Technical complexity — from API integration to data migration — adds more pressure, especially for partners who lack vendor-specific knowledge.
Many businesses are shifting to recurring revenue. Moving from one-off sales to subscription-based engagement requires changes in sales strategy, billing, and customer lifecycle management.
How does TD SYNNEX help partners scale their services business?
We focus on removing barriers to growth; including some of those already mentioned. Addressing skills gaps, simplifying technical complexity, and eliminating the need for heavy upfront investment — allowing partners to enter the market faster and scale sustainably.
Our vendor ecosystem is a huge advantage. It helps partners xpand their portfolios, enhance expertise, reach new markets, and accelerate deal cycles. We also offer scalable, outcome-focused service portfolio so partners can transition from one-off transactions to recurring value streams without needing to build everything themselves.
Whether a partner is launching a new services practice or growing an established one, TD SYNNEX provides a comprehensive portfolio spanning hybrid cloud, data, AI, networking, security, and more — aligned with where the market is headed.
What types of services does TD SYNNEX offer to partners?
We deliver a complete portfolio of services that support every stage of the technology lifecycle.
Pre-deployment — Prepare & Enable
- Technical Training and Certification: Technical training and certifications for partners and customers to close skills gaps and accelerate growth. Authorised training, aligned to vendor certification, provides the necessary skills while also demonstrating capability and competence to the partner’s customers.
- Financing Solutions: Flexible options that remove purchasing barriers, speed up deals, and improve cash flow.
Deployment — Deliver & Integrate
- Configuration & Integration Services: Expert implementation, configuration, and rollout support.
- Professional Services: Project-based assessments, migrations, consulting, and integrations that help partners solve customer challenges immediately.
Post-deployment — Manage & Optimise
- Support Services: Direct access to vendor-certified experts who can help diagnose and resolve technical issues, keeping your customers’ systems performing at their best.
- Managed Services: 24/7 technical support, SOC operations, and managed services across cloud, security, applications, and networks — creating steady recurring revenue.
Circular IT Services: Secure, sustainable asset recovery to unlock value and meet environmental goals.
Together, these offerings enhance partner differentiation, reduce risk, and help partners scale confidently.
Importantly, this portfolio is available to partners to complement their capabilities – at TD SYNNEX our role is to enable partners success by stepping in and supporting the partner where they have gaps, be that in capability, competence or capacity.
What’s the value of white-labelled services for partners?
White-label services are important for partners. They let partners deliver enterprise-grade services under their own brand — instantly expanding capacity and capability without the cost or risk of building in-house teams.
Partners gain access to deep technical expertise across Europe, accelerating time-to-market and enabling them to deliver measurable customer outcomes. TD SYNNEX supports everything from design and consultancy to assessments, deployment, and flexible engagement models. This helps partners strengthen customer relationships, compete in complex opportunities, and expand their services footprint with minimal investment.
What practical steps can a partner take now?
TD SYNNEX’s services portfolio is ready to launch. Partner can rapidly start by selecting two or three attachable offers (for example, SOC‑as‑a‑Service, configuration/integration, and circular IT asset recovery) and package them around clear business outcomes with a simple commercial model.
Enable sales to add a services line to every active quote and leverage TD SYNNEX’s delivery to bridge capability and capacity gaps. To accelerate deal cycles, offer financing to reduce upfront costs and include circular IT services to unlock cash‑back from recovered assets and support refresh programs—creating quick wins and recurring value.
Why are services such a strategic focus for TD SYNNEX?
Customer expectations have changed dramatically. Businesses now demand integrated, proactive, outcome-driven services that reduce downtime, enhance performance, and accelerate innovation. Services aren’t an add-on anymore — they’re central to IT budgets.
We’re seeing a market shift from reactive support to proactive, strategic engagement. Success is measured not by what technology was delivered, but by the results it creates.
TD SYNNEX is committed to helping partners lead in this new landscape. We remove complexity, reduce risk, and give partners a single source for both products and services. Everything we offer is built around partner success and aligned with the two-tier channel model.
With our support, partners can grow faster, differentiate smarter, and build long-term customer loyalty — positioning themselves as true strategic advisors.
Ready to transform your business with high-margin services? Contact your TD SYNNEX representative today to schedule a personalised consultation and discover how you can launch your first attachable service offer within 30 days.
Visit https://hub.tdsynnex.com/advancedsolutions/services/ to get started.